SFGAm Opening Day - May 3rd 2003

[CoasterDave316]

Six Flags Great America Opening Day - May 3rd Trip ReportGot to the park around 8:30 after stopping for breakfast at Burger King. We figured we would just wait in the car for the parking lot to open and eat. Once Security let the people standing on the hill by, my brother got out of the car and ran to the entrance. I told him he could, since I rode it so many times during Media Day I didn't care if I rode it first thing in the morning. But with him gone, I had to sit in the car all by my lonesome until the parking lot opened. And what a wait it was, everyone was honking there horns. Some people were being creative and even making songs with the horns. I chuckled a bit when I heard that, but it got old quick lol.Around 9:00 they finally opened the gates to the parking lot, then we had to sit by the parking booths until around 9:10 while Security put the cones up behind the parking booths. Once I finally got to the parking lot I parked first row and saw a huge crowd of people. So I figured I would never get on the first train. Nobody was at the side entrance on the right though lol, so I went over there and was first in line at the gates. When they opened the gates I was first into the park but got stopped by the metal detector because of my belt. I made sure I had nothing on me made of metal before going into the park so after the metal detector I was just starting to run to Superman when security stopped me. After they mentioned the belt, I couldn't believe it lol. I wore it all last season and never got stopped.After getting through Security, I ran as fast as I could to Superman and was probably the 20th person there. My brother was the first. Waited there for the opening, after it opened it took about 10 minutes to get through the queue just to get to the ride. Back and forth we went up to the ride. I had thoughts of the South Park Line Ride episode. When we finally got up to the station almost everyone went up the side to the front row line, most of them thinking it was the regular line. I noticed this right away after asking how it was going to be setup during media day and ran up the steps and noticed that there were only 3 people in line for Row 8. I was the 4th and out on the first train of the day in the backrow, which is what I wanted to anyhow. My brother on the other hand didn't have such good luck. He was the first to the front row line, but some people came up the exit and got to ride in the first ride. He got pissed off and decided just to ride 2nd row.The ride was great, after riding it during Media Day so many times.(Did I mention that enough already lol) I wasn't as excited as the whole train was to be on the ride lol. Very fun ride, but felt a tad slower than my media day rides. Im assuming since it was early on in the day. My brother loved the ride however and couldn't believe the Pretzel loop even though I had told him about it for the past 4 days lol.We had this plan that after Superman we would go right to Bull and be the only ones over there since everyone would be at Superman, well this plan didn't work and we are going to need a new game plan for the season. Bull had a pretty long line so we went to Viper instead. Rode row 2.1 and had a great ride, it was nice to be back on Viper getting that airtime that I missed for so long. How old is this coaster again? Because its not showing any signs of aging at all!After Viper, we realized that the park was very crowded and not like the last 2 opening days we have been too. We tried to find where there wasn't a line, so we headed back to Eagle and found that Eagle Blue was the only side running. Which didn't surprise me since thats the way it was last year until noon. The line was in the station which was great, we just sat anywhere because we just wanted to get on. Eagle Blue really provides some nice airtime this year going backwards on those two hills..thats if your lap bar doesn't come down and staple you at the bottom of the first drop. The helix was sooo smooth, I really wish they would just retrack everything. Trims were on though, I can't wait to catch it when the trims are off this year.Next we went to Iron Wolf and found another short line, only about 15 minutes. Sat in row 7, once again we just wanted to get on. I don't know whats up with Iron Wolf in the begining of the year, but it always feels rough towards the begining. I guess its just one of those coasters you have to grow to love each season. It was nice seeing good old blue in the parking lot though.After this we couldn't find anymore short lines so we basically walked around the park riding flat rides, we rode Sky Trek Tower and got a nice view of Superman. The pics I took of it will be added to the Superman gallery later today. Then we went to the Hometown "Slow and not" Fun Machine. I really don't know what they did to this ride, and I don't want to know. It takes half the ride for this thing just to get up to speed, and when it does it sounds like its going to fall apart. If anything in the park needs to be replaced its this thing.After that we were told about a girl getting CPR in the station of Raging Bull by a guy I know. We went over there to see what was going on and found that they had the whole area by Chubasco shutdown including Giant Drop, and weren't letting anyone near Bull. I didn't really know what was going on at that time, but I knew it wasn't good. With Bull, Deja Vu, and V2 being down and all the other rides having long lines, I needed a break. So we decided to go to McDonalds for lunch. I called my mom to tell her that something had happened on Raging Bull and that if they end up showing anything on the news about it that it wasn't me and that me and my brother were alright. Because you never know how vauge the news can be.When we got back, I got my front row parking spot back. Nobody took it lol so I was happy about that. Went into the park and noticed everything still had long lines so we decided to finally wait for one since there wasn't nothing else to do. We figured we would wait for Batman since that line always moves quick. So we took the train over by Iron Wolf. On our way to Batman we decided to take a spin on Spacleys since it was the only coaster without a line lol. (Also was somebody saying they were the webmaster of SFGAmWorld.com today by Spacleys? I did not say this but somebody I know heard somebody saying that by Spacleys. VERY ODD.) After a nice little ride, pulling the whole, im scared of this intense ride act and checking out our funny on ride photos. We continued our jorney back to Batman. While on the way we noticed that the fake dummys have been pulled off V2. Me and my brother were thinking about going over there and asking if they needed real dummies to take there spaces. lol.When we got over to Batman they were entering the line next to the little food place. (forget the name) I haven't entered the Batman line there in a few years. The wait was around 45 minutes and the line moved quick just as we planned. Got on Row 8 and had a great ride, very fast and intense as always. Its another coaster that always makes you ask, "This thing is how old?!". They had a bunch of wheel covers on the side of the break run. Perhaps we will finally see both trains run with wheel covers on them this year?After Batman we went on the new looking East River Crawler, this things running better than ever and looks the best I have ever seen it look.Wandered around a little more, while on Batman's lift we saw both V2 and Raging Bull testings so we had to decide where to go. We decided to go to Raging Bull, waited about 20 minutes there. At one point a security guard came up and told everyone, that the ride would not be opening again today..about 5 minutes later it ended up opening lol. We knew he was bullshitting us, so we stayed and even met up with a group of enthusiasts that I had seen during last blast a media day. Talked to them during the wait for them to open the ride.When they opened it back up, we had about a 10 minute wait for the back row. This was the best ride I have ever had on Bull! Not only were the trims on light but the train seemed like it was going alot faster!Im getting a little tired of typing so im going to sum up the rest of the day:-We rode Demon and waited about 15 minutes-Whizzer and waited about 10 minutes-Rode the train again to over by Eagle and waited about 20 minutes to ride Eagle Red-Rode Fiddlers Fling-Rode Batman again after waiting about 20 minutes-Rode Trailblazer-Rode Viper after a 10 minute waitThen we headed back to Superman around 7:30. Around then News helicopters were starting to fly around. So I started to think of what might have happened to that girl on Raging Bull today. I could only think of the worse, but was hoping for the best. We waited about 45 minutes for Superman, this line moves just as quick as Batman's pretty much. No real capacity problems that I noticed. Had a great ride, much faster than the ride in the morning. And god I love that pretzel loop! Got in the car probably around 8:30 and went to Burger King. My brother noticed that WGN was set up right there taking video of the SFGAm Sign. Right then I told him to call our parents and see if they saw anything on the news about it. He called and she informed us that the 11 year old girl died. Saddened by this we walked into Burger King and ran into the guy who orginally told us about it. We talked about how it is a shame that you go to a amusement park hoping to have fun and end up losing somebody. Its really a shame and I feel for that family.

[Blinkcoaster]

thats very cool I got the second train of the day in the seventh row first. Before the ride opened I was standing by the piller of SUF.

[CoasterDave316]

I was right under that grey thing that goes over the entrance of the line, we had to be right by each other.

[3Sfgam]

i got the 4th train i could have had #2 but i waited so i could get the back row. i got 4 rides on superman and the pretzal loop gets better and better everytime and thank you coaster dude your media day report made me want to ride the back row and it just rules back there. i love being slamed into my seat by the pretzal loop.

[SwissCoaster]

If I understand your trip report correctly, you (CoasterDude316) were on the first train (last row, first seat) on May 3rd? Yes?

[CoasterDave316]

I was in the last row, first train in one of the middle seats I think.

[SwissCoaster]

What a coincidence!! I sat right next to you.

[CoasterDave316]

Really? I was wearing a black Raging Bull sweatshirt.