SFGAm 8/21 - Oh how I've missed you

[DejaVuGurl1203]

My first visit since Memorial Day - rather interesting day to say the least. We had a late head start, and when we were about 20 minutes from the park, Jason realized he left our season passes at home. Great. I figured it would not be a big deal, we'd have to pay for parking and we'd get a refund at guest services, and hopefully our new passes would be free. Well, unlike a few years ago when I lost my pass once, replacing the pass the first time is not free anymore. $10 for each pass.

We got into the not-so-crowded park and headed towards BTR, but stopped at King Chaos first. I could have lost my phone on the ride had I not grabbed it out of my pocket as it was coming out. The first few spins honestly made me feel sick, which was a first for me, but it was a good ride nonetheless. After that we walked right onto the back row of BTR, my first coaster in a few months! Ahhhhh, it felt good to be back. But it also made my head ache a little bit. After getting off, we decided to ride Whirligig. We decided to ride V2 also since it has been a while. Umm, I definitely wasn't paying attention to the ride before we got on, because I was totally expecting the holding break. Guess not. I've been a bit out of the loop lately.

Next was the great American Eagle. We waited about 3 trains for the front row, and boy was I glad we went on when we did because there was a somewhat big line behind us. It was a good ride, unlike last time, in which the lap bar totally got stuck under my belly fat and made the ride very uncomfortable. That didn't happen this time, thankfully. After that we rode Viper, which was a one train wait for the front row!

Then, we went on Bull, which was about a 2-3 train wait and went in the back row like always. After that we decided to go out to the car to get our towels and leave a few things in the car, and headed into Hurricane Harbor. When we reached the SWT entrance, it started drizzling for a little bit. Once we were ready, we went in the wave pool for a little bit, which felt nice. Next, Tornado, which is always an amazing slide to go on in my opinion. Better than the Typhoon Terror at Magic Waters. Then we each rode a body slide, I chose the purple one. As soon as we get up to ride the other body slide, they closed them for the day. Next was Typhoon, Vortex, and then Baracuda. Then we went into Castaway Creek, which was cold, and then the wave pool again for a little bit which felt almost like a hot tub after coming out of Castaway Creek. I wanted to ride some of the other slides but then decided not to. As we were leaving Hurricane Harbor, it started to drizzle again.

After we got some lunch, and Wendy's got part of my order wrong, we headed back in and it had started to rain again. We decided to ride Rue Le Dodge, which had a VERY slow ride operator. Fun ride though, although at one point some guy hit my car in the side and I hurt my hand, and he said sorry, but it wasn't a big deal. It was still raining when we got off, so we went into the Cyber Cafe for a little bit and went on the computers. When we noticed that the rain had stopped for a little while, we made a run for a ride, which ended up being BTR. This time on it also made my head ache and made me a little dizzy. I wanted to ride again but not with the way it made me feel. I figured we should go and see if Whizzer is open, but first we stopped at SUF. Once we were walking up the queue, we noticed people leaving the line and figured oh crap it's down. Someone told us that it got stuck, so we left the line. Headed by Whizzer and noticed that no one was in the station at all, and I was disappointed because I really wanted to ride it.

We then rode Viper in row 3, which is always a fun ride when the track is wet. Last coaster of the day was Raging Bull, which again was a 3 train wait and an awesome ride. The last ride of the day ended up being Orbit, which was rather interesting. The ride op was telling people to sing a song and he would make the ride go faster if they sounded good enough, lol.

It was only about 7:45 when we left. The park doesn't really have the same affect on me anymore... I don't know. I need something new and exciting.

Bull - 2
BTR - 2
Viper - 2
Rue Le Dodge - 1
King Chaos - 1
American Eagle (R) - 1
Orbit - 1
Whirligig - 1
Wave Pool - 2
Castaway Creek - 1
Tornado - 1
Typhoon - 1
Vortex - 1
Baracuda - 1
Body slide - 1

[onyxhotel08]

Duh our last awesome additions were in 2003 and 2005!

[CoasterNick3157]

Yeah don't expect anything great with this economy unless we are Magic Mountain.

Is it me or is it that when a coaster breaks down it takes like 30 to a hour to start back up. It seems longer to get the ride back up.

[Ilovthevu']

^I don't think it's usually that long. Whizzer was probably down because of rain. However, I was at another park, and for the mouse coaster that ride takes forever to start back up because they need to check every brake area in the ride. For the Dark Knight, you go up the lifthill, and when you going around those corners, there are a lot of brakes in that area. They just aren't on, but when the ride was down at actually 2 other parks (that I seen), they need to stop the trains in those areas to make sure the ride is functioning right.

If you (DejaVugurl1203) are a coaster credit type of person, I just don't think that these people are going to last long with being a "coaster enthusiast". What happens when you can't get to other parks around, but you just want to rack up the number of rides? To me, (in any hobby I think), I personally believe that you need to be passionate about your particualarly hobby for it to continue a long time from now. If you like collecting baseball cards, or stamps you need to collect them for yourselfs. Sure, you may want to show them off to a couple people, but I believe that if you really care about those subjects, it's more what you are into.

To me, riding kiddie coasters that you don't believe will be enjoyable is going to burn out people. It's like why am I doing this, and no one really cares anymore.

[DejaVuGurl1203]

Huh, what are you talking about? How did this come up? Because of my comments at the end of the TR? I think what I meant was yeah, I need to get out to other parks but I simply can't. I really wish I could. My dad hasn't had a job since 2004, my boyfriend hasn't had a job in 2 years, and I've never been hired. Another problem is my boyfriend doesn't enjoy the park so much anymore, he's kind of sick of it and wants to go to other parks too. I still try to enjoy the park but he doesn't help very much. Although, he does still like the water park a lot, that's his favorite part of the park. It's also not been the same since they removed Deja Vu, of course. But I understand why they decided to remove it.

Of course, I have been to a few other parks, but not in a while. I've been to Cedar Point a few times, and certainly wish to return. I've been to the ol' Geauga Lake, Indiana Beach, SFSTL, Magic Springs, and of course Kiddieland and Santa's Village when I was younger. Maybe next year I will get lucky and be able to go to a park or two.

[BP317]

Ilovethevu your over analyzing the comment. The last non-mouse coaster SFGAm was 7 years ago. That should explain everything.

Park Opening - Tidal Wave (tallest/fastest coaster in the world): 2 years
Tidal Wave - Demon: 2 years
Demon - Eagle (tallest/fastest coaster in the world): 1 year
Eagle - ZForce: 4 years
ZForce - Shockwave (tallest/fastest coaster in the world): 3 years
Shockwave - Rolling Thunder: 1 year
Rolling Thunder - Iron Wolf: 1 year
Iron Wolf - Batman (first inverted looping coaster): 2 years
Batman - Viper: 2 years
Viper - Giant Drop: 2 years
Giant Drop - Raging Bull: 2 years
Raging Bull - V2/DejaVu: 2 years
V2/DejaVu - SUF: 2 years

Soon to be 7 years since SUF opened and they havent had a major coaster since then (TDK to most people was not something they are going to queue again for).

SFGAm has a history of cutting edge major coasters. Yes they have done a lot inbetween but Its easy to see why people in the area would be expecting a major new thrill ride by now.