Havent written a trip report in a several years, and I dont think I've done any here, so bear with me if it gets somewhat random.
Weather: Upper 80's with high humidity, and sunny for most of the day, with clouds late.
Well, after purchasing a $44.99 season pass online back in Jan, the time had come to get it processed before SFGAm opens for the season. So around 4:30am, I pick up a friend(Jim) and hit the road. 3 hours after leaving we hit Indy, which means we are in Waffle House territory (or in IN, Waffle&Steak), of couse a stop there is obligitory and after a quick and, as usual, spectacular meal we are back on the road for the remainder of the trip and we roll into SFKK's parking lot at about 11:15 local time, and after paying a moderate $5 parking fee I procede to find a spot right next to the main gate.
I had my voucher in hand but Jim needed his Season Pass still, and a warning here, online the price said $54.99 with no indication that the price would be any different at the gate, however at the gate the price is $64.99, but at that point there was not much that could be done, so he goes up to a ticket booth and clearly states he wants a Season Pass and is promptly sold a one day ticket, immediately afterwards an extremely apologetic lady pops out of the ticket booth and guides him to Guest Relations where the problem is quickly solved with more apologies. So with admittance in had we head for the main gate and quickly get into the park, and with a quick pass though the me_al detectors, my waist pack must be searched, and they were very cool about it, making small talk while searching the bag, asking how my day is going so far and what not. So far so good from a Customer Relations standpoint, already asking myself if I'm really in a Six Flags park, Kentucky Kingdom no less.
After that we go straight to season pass processing where there is a moderate yet very fast moving line due to efficient operations inside. Impressed with the speed I got my pass, we head out into the park and I realize I left my phone in the car, after a quick trip out to the car and another polite convo with another security guard checking my back I'm ready to start my day.
Off we head into the park though the front half, where we encounter the usual early day long lines in that section of the park, so we head directly to the Damn Bridge, cross said bridge and get in line for the Ferris Wheel, being a fan of ferris wheels, got that out of the way and took plenty of pics(will be online sooner or later), after our Wheel ride we headed towards Chang and it's awesome paint job (or lack thereof as it was peeling badly and was more bare metal than paint), as we get closer we notice the back half of the ride from the incline loop to the final brakes was in the process of being repainted, blue supports and a vibrant yellow track, but it is running, so we get in line which is to the bottom of the steps. It's running one train as train #2 is still in winter maintenance, but it's going somewhat efficiently and we are on in 10-15 mins or so, board the back row and take our ride. It was running a bit faster and more intense than I remember, but it was running with 100% nylon road wheels instead of the usual back 3 cars having a poly blend(in the summer they put the poly plend wheels on to reduce the speed and forces some to keep it tolerable).
After that we head over to the next coaster in line being Terror to the Second Power, a New Dimention in Fear, also known as T2. It is running 2 trains with walk on conditions. So we choose front row with a one train wait. After about 90 seconds of needless brutality we head on to the next coaster being Thunder Run. Thunder Run was running one train as that's all it has, we queue up for the front row and about 15 mins later we are riding, and it was running really smooth and fast, with a heaping helping of Ejector Airtime over the first 3 hills, and the ocasional pop here and there during the rest of the ride. Also worth noting is they now play the soundtrack for the ride in the station consisting of Banjo music with a narrator telling of running moonshine though the hills of kentucky. After all it is Kentucky.
After that we decide to head back to Twisted Twins, which we find walk on conditions with only the Teal side running (Stella I believe), but as we are about to board, one of the ride op procedes to vomit and fall over, which delayed our ride by about 25 mins, as the had to call the EMT, and after a checkup they eventually walk him off and clean up his protein spill. One amusing thing, as the EMT was walking up the exit steps (where the sick op was) he asks "So, how are you feeling?", afterall it is Kentucky.
Anyways, he seemed fine, I'll assume it was likely heat exhaustion or similar, but with that out of the way, we ride front seat and are provided a pretty smooth and decently running ride. Impressed and not wanting to press our luck or our thighs, we decide one ride is enough and move on.
After this we have basically completed that half of the park and we procede to the Damn Bridge and cross back to the other side where crowds have subsided and dispursed around the park.
So we cross said bridge and we ride the Rainbow, which runs OK, but it is a Huss Rainbow and they are becoming few and far between, so riding any Rainbow is a good thing. After that I notice the Enterprise is making disturbing noises and we pass on riding it, though I did notice they shortened the cycle greatly, it used to stay vertical for a good minute, now it runs just like Orbit gets vertical then immediately starts heading downward. After passing on that we hit the Simulator which was the Funtastic world of Hanna Barbara, which was pretty fun, dont think I'd ever ridden it before, and it is rather dated, but still a decent story line and whatnot.
After that we browse the exit store see nothing of interest, exept for a $9.99 SFKK T-Shirt, if it was just Six Flags I would have bought one, but with the words Kentucky Kingdom on the front, I passed. Hopefully SFGAm has a similar, less embarassing to wear shirt. After that we rode the Himilaya which is a relatively standard Reverchon or Eddy Meyer Himilaya with freshly repainted scenery. The ride op was doing quite alot of spieling, mostly scream if you want to go faster, but it was running as it's usual self that it's sort of known for, a good 5-7 min cycle, though it didnt go backwards, not sure if it ever did or not, memory is hazy, but it definately didnt this day.
After that it was on to the Freshly repainted Hellevator which was running at 4/5 capacity and sported a <5 min line. From there we headed to the Huss Pirat which resides at the end of a long dead end path right next to the park's former front gate, which is nothing more than concrete blocks and razor wire now. After that it was Mouse Time, and we rode Roadrunner Express, one ride was enough, though I noticed on the sign for the ride Wile E Coyte was strapped to a rocket chasing after the roadrunner, however it was not an ACME made rocket, and as we all know no matter how many times he falls off that huge cliff, Wile E Coyte is fiercely loyal to the ACME brand. Someone should probably let SFKK know that. (Roadrunner express at SFFT sports a similar sign exept the rocket clearly has the ACME moniker on it, so it's all good)
After that we rode Tidal Waves a few times (as we all know PGA's Tidal Wave loop and random other track was put on Greezed Lightning to replace some parts that needed replacing, making it officially Tidal Waves instead of Tidal Wave for the Old School SFGAm'ers). Rode it thrice and moved on.
Not exactly sure what we did after that, as the heat was getting to me, I know we ended up eating Ice Cream, riding the wheel again, along with second rides on Chang, T2 and Thunder Run).
At this point now it was 6pm, aka closing time, and around 6:30 we hit the road, and got home around 11:30pm due to multiple stops for lunch, a money making ciggerette scheme of mine, many bathroom stops (ice cream at SFKK must have gone south), but it was definately a fun trip.
Other random Notes:
-All employees we came across were exceedingly polite which was a refreshing change.
-All the bothrooms had a full time dedicated attendant, so now I can use a bathroom there without feeling dirty, though I do feel kind of bad for the bathroom attendants as you can only do so much cleaning in a bathroom before you have to stand outside and do nothing at all til something needs attention again, also it's gotta be demoralizing to wake up every morning and know the only thing you will do all day is clean the shitter, so Kudos to them, as it is a job that needs to be done, even if SF went overkill on that idea.
-Park was exceedingly clean with lots of sweepers around the park.
-There was definately a character presense in the park, but not like I had heard, they seemed to be in the front half of the park the most, but I saw many stopping for photo ops (both Park photos and people taking personal photos)
-Every single ride in the park was open exept the pink side of Twisted Twins(Lola I believe), they even went to the extreme of having maintaince tear apart the breakdance all day to get it going and they opened it with about an hour left in the day, if that isnt some sort of dedication I dont know what is.
-Though I didnt get one, and didnt know where to obtain one, I saw thrown in some bushes a poster sized park map, seemed to be Citigraph produced (SFGAm poster maps up til and including 1993)
, if SFKK has those, I can only assume SFGAm will do the same.
I guess that's it, I will rate this SFKK visit as Relatively Inoffensive (the highest mark SFKK can possibly get). And I hope I see what I saw there happening at SFGAm, and I hope it lasts all season long. And I hope you all have enjoyed reading this.