Well, I thought that I would post my first TR in quite a while on any message board. Please mind any mistakes as I am pretty rusty at this.
Sunday, June 22, 2003The weather was beautiful and the skies were pretty clear. My girlfriend and I decided only a couple of days before to head up to SFGAM on this particular Sunday. This was my first trip to Great America for this season and it came with its share of ups and downs.The day began off with the park being relatively empty. However as the afternoon arrived, so did the crowds. This caused difficulties with our plans for the day. I will give a ride by ride description with my rating as well.
Viper- 3 rides- NO wait- This ride was a walk-on for a good part of the morning. We got our first ride in the backseat with MAJOR ejector air! The airtime was abundant over almost every hill. We also grabbed a ride in the front seat and second to back seats. Viper is running smooth and fantastic this year. It seems almost wilder than ever. Kudos to Six Flags for taking excellent care of one of at least one of their woodies. (10/10)
Raging Bull- 1 Ride- 12 minute wait- We were going to ride this first but technical problems kept the ride from opening right at ten. We rode 3rd to back row. The first drop is amazing as ever, but the trims were on heavy. Almost completely dissovled the speed as we crawled over the last half of the course. What happened to this ride since it's opening year (99)?? (8/10)
Demon- 3 rides- NO wait- Another walk on for the morning, we also got front and back seat rides. This is another coaster that has aged well. It rode smoothly. The corkscrew turned out to be a bit rough though (Ouch! My ears!) (9/10)
Iron Wolf- 1 Ride- 20 min wait- What happened? We had an incredibly rough ride. I remember when it used to be smooth. It now feels as if the trains just shuffle over the course. Gave me a headache. (4/10)It was at this time that we decided to grab some lunch. Rode the railroad to the front and ate our own packed lunch at the car. After a short bathroom break, we reentered the park and headed over to Superman.
Superman Ultimate Flight- 1 ride- 1hr. 15 min wait- WOW! What can I say about this ride that hasn't been said already! The pretzel loop is intense, and the flying feeling is unsurpassed. Throughly enjoyed my first ride on this. (10/10)From here the crowds started to barrel in....
American Eagle-2 rides (1 backwards, 1 forwards), both 20 min waits - The backwards experience is still cool, plus the forwards seemed a bit more intense. AE seems to be running much better this year than in recent years. The trims were only being used lightly in the helix. SF really needs to consider retracking the first drop though it didn't ruin our rides. (8.5/10)
Whizzer- 1 ride, 25 min wait, This was the longest line that I have waited for this in quite a while. We rode in the back, and the Whizzer is exactly as I remembered it. The same smooth ride through the woods. It is even better with your gf sitting with you! (8/10)Because of the lengthy lines, we decided to catch dinner at the nearby Burger King a bit early. I will try to shorten this by just giving the summary of our evening rides....
Batman:The Ride- 1 ride, 50 min. wait- Still as intense as ever (9/10)
Viper - 1 ride, 20 min wait (10/10)
Orbit- 1 ride, 6 min wait (9/10)
Superman: Ultimate Flight - 1 ride, 1 hr. 10 min. wait with one 15 minute breakdown.
Rides still not open:Ice Mountain SplashDeja "breakdown" Vu
Rides that had breakdowns during the evening: Viper, Raging Bull, SUF, Whizzer.
Other notes:- The lines turned out to be horrendous partially due to the terrible stacking that occurred on most of the coasters. The ride ops didn't really seem very enthusiastic today.- SF really needs to do something about the line jumping problems and about the constant smoking in line. We saw too many line jumpers in the Batman queue. When someone attempted to notify an employee about it, they (the employee) did nothing
. I won't even say anything about the countless numbers of people whom were smoking in almost every ride line
.Overall, it was a great day with some major frustrations. I look forward to returning this Saturday, July 5th for ACE Superhero Saturday (yes, I am an ACE member). Plus, I also hope to get a TR written for my vacation next week to PKI, at which I will ride my 80th coaster.Thanks for reading my little "novel"
. Please let me know what you think.Overall ranking for this day at SFGAM: (7.5/10)
