So hey, got back from my trip. Silverwood was on the agenda so here it is.
Silverwood is a AMAZING park. And its funny how Silverwood can get the Green Lawn Ornament ride to run flawless and smooth but Six Flags couldn't get the thing running for s**t.
Cool sign
This was really fun, although the load/un loading sucked.
The first Corkscrew coaster ever that used to be at Knotts.
Great ride, I think there are only 2 of these left in existence.
The catches were SO MUCH smoother then they were at SFGAm.
Timber Terror was a great ride with buzz bars and airtime on every hill.
Best coaster of the north-west....Tremors.
Oh yeah....this was good too
For all the fan boys...
The seats are now A, B, C, and D
The line for Aftershock was never over 5 mins....yet Tremors and Timber Terror were 45mins
Tremors is great. 4 tunnels and twists and air time hills everywhere.
yeah right...
GIBs just dominate any skyline at any park.
The two girls in the back have a fun airtime filled ride.
The natural terrain of the park is really nice.
Oh yeah I was enjoying my self on Tremors that I forgot this was here.
yep...there a great coaster in this pic. And Aftershock in the background.
Fun ride.
I wanted to keep riding Tremors but I decided to take a lap on this.
2nd best coaster of the north-west
It was either ride Aftershock 2 more times or Tremors....went with Tremors
The park even played some of the old closing and Yukon music in the park just like Great America. The really REALLY felt like going through Marriott's Great America.
tp41190 wrote:And its funny how Silverwood can get the Green Lawn Ornament ride to run flawless and smooth but Six Flags couldn't get the thing running for s**t.
Don't forget that SFGAm's De Ja Vu was the first built. A "prototype" Actually. Magic Mountain has no problems either.
"I've been told that some part of every wish will be heard but lately I lost sight of the truth in those words."
Is the Ride More Reliable at Silverwood than SFGAm?
And its funny how Silverwood can get the Green Lawn Ornament ride to run flawless and smooth but Six Flags couldn't get the thing running for s**t.
Im glad these things are running really well on the west coast, ive been to SFMM 7x and STILL have never seen DejaVu break down. (Actually last time I was there it was giving an error every cycle when it was on the 2nd tower, but the operator is allowed to clear it by pressing OK there whereas at SFGAm the ride had to go down so no downtimes). Vu looks excellent at Silverwood, too bad its so far out of the way from my upcoming trip (or ANY trip).
I don't know what the big deal is about making a trip to Silverwood.
It takes FOREVER to drive there and there are NO airports around the area to get a direct flight. If you are just planning on going to get a Dejavu ride...go to SFMM. I mean yes, its a nice park. But unless you are planning on doing a trip like I did it is not worth it.
Day 1- Driving from 7am-4pm then 7pm-2am Day 2- Driving from 8am-6pm (with a 2 hour stop) then 7pm to 6am!
That's A LOT of driving! And its not worth it unless you plan on going to Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton....even that will take at least 9 days with most of the days driving right through the night then only sleeping for 4 hours a day.
Is the Ride More Reliable at Silverwood than SFGAm?
And its funny how Silverwood can get the Green Lawn Ornament ride to run flawless and smooth but Six Flags couldn't get the thing running for s**t.
Im glad these things are running really well on the west coast, ive been to SFMM 7x and STILL have never seen DejaVu break down. (Actually last time I was there it was giving an error every cycle when it was on the 2nd tower, but the operator is allowed to clear it by pressing OK there whereas at SFGAm the ride had to go down so no downtimes). Vu looks excellent at Silverwood, too bad its so far out of the way from my upcoming trip (or ANY trip).
What was the error it was giving at SFMM? Was it a retraction, and they were ignoring it? At SFMM, how many times do you go on it during a day? Are you just going on it once, and it's not broken down everytime you are visiting the park? Sometimes, people go on rides, than they see it works, walk other ways (don't visit the attraction again), and think that it's automatically working. The easiest ride to describe it is the Vekoma Flying Dutchman coasters.
Last time I went to Kings Island, Firehawk had no problems. I only went on it once, so I have no idea how it did the rest of the day. However, the year before I went on Firehawk, and one of the trains was having problems, and thus they were only running one station, and one train. Also, years previous at Six Flags America, Batwing had problems in the station along with me seeing GL X-Flight problems. So, if I were any theme park, I wouldn't buy a flying coaster made by Vekoma.
Superman I have seen it have it's problems to, but I wouldn't say as bad. For Superman, people had to change rows because the train wasn't lifting. Maybe, the motor that lifts the riders from one position to another isn't working too well. Superman is usually the only coaster with broken seats on any roller coaster we have. It constantly has broken seats.
Waiting in a 5 minute line for Aftershock doesn't tell me enough about reliability of the ride. Deja Vu could easily go a hour without a breakdown.
How many trains was this Tremors running?
For the Skydiver, I know that Lakemont Park, and Silverwood have one. However, Tinsley's Amusements used to have one, and they went to the IL State Fair before. Now, they don't bring it. They could still have it, but just don't bring it. Some other carnival has it, but I forgot the name. They are still around even though not many are at amusement parks.
How was your experience more in depth on the Sky Diver? My guess for them going away is because of slow loading, 2 trailers (Many carnival rides are usually 1 truck except for rides like KMG Afterburner, Top Scan, and Flying Bobs rides), and maybe it takes a lot of hours to put up. I have never been on. The Zipper might be slower loading, but it doesn't take much time to put up, and it's not 2 trucks.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Aftershock should not be behind Tremors & Timber Terror. That 5 minutes could be a day thing or maybe people aren't as obsessed with GIB as Gurnee fans were.
Everyone around the area knows silverwood for the water park and the wooden coasters. People will ride Aftershock at open and close and that's it. Also people from around the area have NEVER seen a coaster as intimidating as Aftershock before. Many of the people where scared to go on it.
tp41190 wrote:I don't know what the big deal is about making a trip to Silverwood.
I don't know if I will ever get to Silverwood, but the big deal to me is to see exactly how they fixed the problems they had at Six Flags Great America. What's different with the loading, and unloading? Is it any faster with that or not? Do you feel like a canned sardine if they don't have a grouper there? Did they fix the line so you don't need a grouper, and thus not feel like a canned sardine?
I guess the thing is that Magic Mountain's never was at Six Flags Great America. I visited Magic Mountain, and the time I went that ride was down because the train was in rehab. This was during non-peak season.
Anyway, yeah Magic Mountain has a whole lot more rides to go on, and it would be a better choice if you are not so interested in what's different with the ride. However, it sounds like Magic Mountain line is going to be a lot longer than this one.
For us, Deja Vu put Silverwood on the map. I'm sure most of us never heard of that park before in our life.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Ilovthevu' wrote:For us, Deja Vu put Silverwood on the map. I'm sure most of us never heard of that park before in our life.
...maybe for SFGAm fanboys. EVERY other enthusiast knew about Silverwood way back with the opening of Timber Terror and Tremors in the 90s. And with the Mitch Hawker poll Silverwood was always on the map (most people go there for the wooden coasters and really don't care about Aftershock).
Tremors is what got Silverwood popular with enthusiasts, Aftershock just re-enforced its collection with a good/rare kind of steel coaster.
I don't know if I will ever get to Silverwood, but the big deal to me is to see exactly how they fixed the problems they had at Six Flags Great America. What's different with the loading, and unloading? Is it any faster with that or not? Do you feel like a canned sardine if they don't have a grouper there?
From what ive seen in videos it loads the same way as it did at SFGAm though slower for the most part, though thats hard to say because like any ride at any park the ride crews are hit or miss (it loads slower than when I was running it at SFGAm, we'll leave it at that ). Though SFMM doesnt even check the orange seatbelt physically they just do a quick glance then tell everyone to pull down the harness, and they still manage to load it slower than SFGAm (though the ride ops move decently they only have 2 people checking the whole train which really slows it down).
The lines for Deja only 5 minutes? What Aftershock not as popular as the woodies?
I would assume as TP said people are freaked out it by there and would rather watch than ride, this is the case at quite a few parks that are out in the middle of nowhere.
What was the error it was giving at SFMM? Was it a retraction, and they were ignoring it?
No a retraction is a problem that cant be cleared and finish the cycle...I dont know what the error was (couldnt read the panelview) but it was definitley giving them one every cycle because I waited for the back row and the trouble alarm went off every time the train was on the second tower, the ride operator would check what the error was, press OK and the ride would continue operating as normal.
In 2008, the opening year of Aftershock, the ride cycles were at 4:30 on average. This included Load, ride time, unload and the next load. This year the new management slowed the people running the ride and even cut the crew down due to staffing issues. The cycle time had increased due to these changes. I had also seen one a few occasions seat belts that were not buckled on seats that contained riders. Kind of scary that the park is running a ride that is understaffed. It's bad for the whole industry when someone gets hurt.
As for the loading: There is a grouper who will only let the correct amount of people in the station. Then the ride attendants will go through and physically check each seat belt before letting you lower your harness. When the harnesses are lowered they come through and make a second check of everything then let the train go. There used to be four people to do this, but the times I was at the park last year they had three, sometimes only two to check everything.
Zerowest, you seem pretty knowledgeable about the inner workings of Silverwood. Do you know if Jeff Hammersley still works there? He's a carpenter, came from Holiday World, used to be a lead at CCI.
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
...maybe for SFGAm fanboys. EVERY other enthusiast knew about Silverwood way back with the opening of Timber Terror and Tremors in the 90s. And with the Mitch Hawker poll Silverwood was always on the map (most people go there for the wooden coasters and really don't care about Aftershock).
). Though SFMM doesnt even check the orange seatbelt physically they just do a quick glance then tell everyone to pull down the harness, and they still manage to load it slower than SFGAm (though the ride ops move decently they only have 2 people checking the whole train which really slows it down).