The day started out fine. I left a little later than usual, to time myself with the 9:15 - 9:20 opening of the parking lot gates. I got to the park at about 9:15 and waited about 5 minutes for the gates to open. Then, I went into the park after the Nation Anthem. On the way to Superman, I noticed a 'Line Now Forming' sign, with items about not allowing carry-on items during the ride and such.
The following will be brief as possible:SupermanOf course, the 'money seat' is in Row 8. I noticed on my second time around that people tend to go for Row 1 or the front rows. I couldn't notice during the ride without my glasses on, but going out of the Exit and later on Condor, I noticed grass or perhaps 'mock' Green Kryptonite at the bottom of the pretzel loop(hugging the ground).BatmanThis time, Row 1 is my Row of choice. Nothing special to say, except that B:TR is still one of the best rides in the park.Viper x 2Got in a few rides on Viper today. It's always fun when you ride behind someone's who's riding for the first time. Nothing special to say here either, except Viper still delivers.Demon x 6Got in a 4-ride mini marathon in towards the beginning of the day. My last ride of the day was on Demon at 2:25 pm.
The time of 2:25 pm will come to mean something later in this TR. I rode in the front car during one of my rides, and that's where I got the most 'headbanging' effect.American Eagle: Blue x 3I read on here that only Blue runs during the weekdays. Still, AE:Blue still packs in some great airtime.Whizzer x 2It's great to see people still enjoy Whizzer, especially the young kids.Flats:Rue Le DodgeCondorSide Notes:One of the Demon ride-ops actually remembered me when I came back later in the day(for the 2:25 pm ride). He suggested that I might as well take a nap during my mini-marathon, and it did not seem like a bad idea. The Whizzer ride-ops were great as well.Deja Vu is still SBNO with no train. I saw two gentlemen working on the canopies at Deja Vu; whether setting them up or taking them down, I don't know.
On my way back from American Eagle, the crew doubled to four workers, but all they seemed to be doing was talking amongst themselves. The canopies were still there at that time.There seemed to be a little flirting going on between Bugs Bunny and a few girls. Bugs was trying to chase them, but the girls managed to get away. Of course, it was nice to see Bugs not give up and try chasing them again.Overall, the park crew/ride-ops were great. However, during my last 2 visits to the park, I've noticed that it's hard to crack a smile out of the Ticket-person at the front gates. All in all, not a bad day at SFGAm.Oh, that thing about 2:25 pm. Actually, it all starts at 2:30 pm.
Let the terrential downpour begin. I have never been at SFGAm during a downpour like this, and boy, is it a great sight to see. Almost immediately, all rides were shutting down until further notice. I managed to get under the roof at the Sweet Shop. As people passed by, it was fun to watch the boys and girls 'slip-slide' head first into the ground or 'row' across in the puddles. Most people were running for shelter, while others decided to take the 'splash' effect. I waited for about 30 minutes under the Sweet Shop, until I could make a clean break without too much downpour out of the park.
The roadways weren't that much more fun, as in Chicago, drivers seem to be more 'crazy' when conditions are adverse. Photos and videos of this 'splish-splash' at SFGAm and other Kodak moments to come soon.
Last edited by chiatrain on May 26th, 2005, 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Oh wow. I would like to be at GAm when it is even raining. It would be nice to see the park clear out. It looks like you got a piece of what got us here. There are trees/powerlines down and winds gusting over 70 MPH. Then it rained for an hour. How crowded would you say it was?
There were some Physics groups at SFGAm today, and several school groups. It was definitely more crowded than my last visit(Tuesday, 5.20). Most of the crowd was made up of middle school and high school/college kids, with some families in the mix. All the rides seemed to be working fine, although Raging Bull and Vertical Velocity had some trouble in the morning, but was working fine until the downpour. I was hoping to get in a night flight on S:UF(or get in extra rides while the school groups gradually cleared out) but that never materialized. Even though there was a downpour, most of the crowd decided to wait out the storm in shelter or play in the puddles. The lines for most coasters were reasonable, even for S:UF. I don't know if the rides opened up afterwards when I left at 3:30.
There were canopies up at Deja Vu today, but I never noticed them before this Season. I'm not sure if those workers were actually putting up the canopies, or fixing something else in the queue line.
I was there May 2001 during a downpour and let me tell you it clears out. I remeber this day because it disgusts me. It was a partly cloudy day when the day started at about 11. It was of course V2s opening week. I waited 1 hour and 30 minutes to ride v2 for the first time. Then the downpour occured between 3 and 3 30. At about 4 it was still drizzleing and we were walking twards the front to leave, and we see V2 running from a distance. When we got closer we realized that it was only about a 10 minute wait, just down the stairs. Disgusted we got 2 quick rides on it before we had to leave. A 1 hour and 20 minutes differnece in 4 hours, tell me a bigger one then that .
I would have stayed and waited for the park to clear out, but I decided to join the few who decided to leave. I believe one reason that most of the park did not clear out in today's downpour is that many of them were in school groups who had nowhere to go except to find shelter or puddles.
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