In the fall of 2000 rumors started circulating around the internet Six Flags was going to be putting in two new shuttle coasters in the same year at Great America, one coaster a clone of the popular Superman impulse coaster at Six Flags Ohio, the other a next generation type of super boomerang coaster. Zoning was filed and approved by the Village of Gurnee for two separate new coasters both around 180 feet tall. That winter a picture surfaced on the net that confirmed this news and sent the coaster community into a frenzy.
Soon after a formal announcement was made, Six Flags announced Great America would be having a "record breaking, history making" 2001 season with the addition of two new cutting edge coasters: Vertical Velocity and DéjàVu.
Vertical construction did not start on either ride until March and it had become clear that neither was going to open with the park. V2 opened Memorial weekend (though unfortunately did not make it the full season and was closed all of Fright Fest, due to technical difficulties) while Vu was still surrounded by construction equipment and a crane.
The summer dragged on, and drama started surrounding the huge new green & blue coaster that filled the spot that Skywhirl once stood. The months were passing and it had yet to operate, missing the summer season. Vekoma was unable to get the ride to operate correctly and was deemed unsuitable to finish project. Fed up with the delays, Six Flags filed a lawsuit against Vekoma for breech of contract and quickly hired Premier (http://premier-rides.com) to take over the project. Six Flags had promised the public 2 new coasters in 2001 and they planned to deliver that, and in October 2001 unleashed the new super boomerang coasters to the public in Socal/Chicago/Atlanta. All three coasters suffered from major technical issues, design flaws, and downtime. To make matters even worse for Six Flags, V2 had some sort of major power related issue and closed for the rest of the season before Fright Fest even started, and Magic Mountain's other new coaster X, which was supposed to be open for summer 2001 and part of their "Xtreme Park" promotion, was having even more problems and did not open until 2002, meaning the only new coaster at the "Xtreme Park" for summer 2001 that was open was Goliath Jr, which was really just a rebuilt kiddie coaster that was removed from the park years earlier. You can imagine what nice letters people must have been sending to the guest relations office at Magic Mountain from people who bought season passes fully expecting 2 new extreme coasters, and getting a front row seat to seeing them sit there all summer plagued by technical problems and not opening for the public. And yes: Magic Mountain opened Goliath in 2000, DéjàVu in 2001, and X in 2002. Although this was just one of many reasons, you can see how the company went spiraling into an endless black hole of debt.
Anyway, the rides official opening month of October 2001 was about as disastrous as one could be. The restraint system was modified from the original design which led to much longer load times than anticipated in addition to the fact that it was a shuttle coaster that only ran 1 train. The ride opened late almost every, if not every day due to technical problems or weather related problems (explained later). I remember going in October 2001 all excited to finally get to ride, and due to all the technical problems and low capacity leading to a massive queue that never moved it was unfeasible to actually get on. When I was in line after watching a miscatch and several "tries" the line was cleared and I had to wait until 2002 for my first ride. Also at this time there was a wall that comedically blocked the County Fair entrance from Hometown Square, meaning you had to walk all the way through Southwest Territory to get to DéjàVu. I've heard some horror stories from the "running of the bulls" in fall of 2001 to get to the ride and very few of those people actually being able to make it . Unfortunately for Six Flags, their nightmare scenario with this ride was about to become a DéjàVu experience for years to come.
A friend and I got there very early for opening day 02, determined to make it to Vu early enough to get on before a massive queue formed. The parking lot gates opened and, much to our surprise (not really), the first ride posted on "the following rides may not be operating today" board was read..drumroll please...DEJAVU. So naturally we went to Batman first and of course it turned out DéjàVu actually did open that morning and they put it on the sign as a precaution. By the time we made it over there the queue was well over three hours and much like the previous year was suffering from chronic breakdowns and major capacity limiting events. We enjoyed watching it cycle when it did, but decided to put off riding it until the next day to avoid the queue. Of course the next day rolls around and right before I got to ride it, it vallied. Congratulations 2002 DéjàVu on making it one day before valleying and being closed for several weeks after that. After that incident was when they built that wooden deck inbetween the loop and boomerang to evacuate people if that ever happened again (which ironically it never did in that spot again).
So after being closed for weeks and taking the train off with a crane it re-opened and I finally got my first ride on it sometime in late May/early June. I remember this day very well, I was riding Shockwave and at the top of the lift saw a train cycling on DejaVu and right after I got off of Shockwave booked it to Vu. It had not opened yet but about 30 minutes later it opened and I got on row 5A was my first ride. Certainly not an ideal seat, but I was happy to finally get on it, and the ride did not disappoint.
The rest of 2002 the ride continued to be plagued with downtime and delayed openings, usually sitting all day being worked on by the maintenance team and opening around 4 or 5pm. It was still the new coaster so huge lines formed even when the coaster was closed, a typical day in 2002 there would normally be a group of people who waited outside the entrance all day and then anytime the train moved in the station, even if only an inch or two, the line outside the entrance would immediately back up past the Farmers Market sometimes to American Eagle. This is how a lot of us that run the site met and got to know each other from sitting outside Vu's entrance during times like these. Actually the reason we still have DéjàVu on the sites banner is a tribute to how many great memories the ride gave us (and how it was Dave's favorite coaster in the park and refuses to take it off ). In 2002 the park extended the season into the first weekend of November and it was freezing cold...the reflection pond froze over, yet somehow Vu managed to operate really well that weekend with minimal to no downtime despite it normally hating cold weather. We all were very happy to see it finally operating consistently and were optimistic heading into 2003 that it was becoming a more sustainable and reliable ride. Right?
Wrong! Opening day 2003 came around and naturally we all went to SUF when the park opened. We were all standing outside the gates and naturally pumped to try out the worlds newest B&M flyer, we also had heard to the rumors that Vu might be closed for awhile. Of course DEJAVU was on the "may not be operating today" sign like always but it was to our surprise when walking by the ride there was no train in the station. It turned out there would be no train in the station until July. Vu went under a major refurbishment to make it more reliable: new catch cars, heavily rehabbed train, new programming, the works. It tested for weeks over and over again while the park was open, with water dummies, without water dummies, then finally re-opened July 26 if I remember correctly. My friend and I went there first thing in the morning and instead of seeing the normal "THIS RIDE WILL NOT OPEN TODAY" sign we were greeted with a sign that said "THIS RIDE OPENS AT NOON." We sat there and waited, and around 12:30pm were in 1A for that first train. It actually operated decently for the rest of the 2003 season, it had the occasional miscatch and periods of short delays, but nothing major.
Also that fall due to budgetary constraint they scheduled DéjàVu to open at 11AM every day, which was great for us that got there early because we could do SUF (which was still in it's first year at that time) first thing then work our away around and by the time we got to Vu we would be first in line and it would start cycling and we could get first ride on that 1A also. I can't remember if it was 03 or 04 but it did valley in the middle of the boomerang one morning, but they pushed it back through the station before the park opened so nobody was able to notice and the ride re-opened the next day.
I don't have many lasting memories from Vu in 2004, I remember opening day at rope drop going to Demon first and riding it about 40x to start off then and getting on a few other rides before lining up for Vu and getting on the first train of the season there also with a bunch of other people from the site (Dave, Galvan, Kyle, Zak, Corey, etc). It was its normal self that year having many delayed openings, its occasional bad days where it would miscatch four times in a day, randomly closing for a week at a time, etc.
2005 rolled around and this was my first year as a ride operator at SFGAm (had worked there a bit the year before working the carnival games) and I had known a lot of the staff from operations from previous encounters, including the lead at DéjàVu and the person doing the placing. After some begging and pleading I ended up working Vu that year with a lot of great people and other enthusiasts and it became one of those rare ideal situations. Our ride crew meshed very well together and we had the non enthusiasts booking it also, that year when the ride worked for a full hour we would average well over 400/hr, which Magic Mountain could never touch, even though they check the seatbelts and shoulder harnesses at the same time while we checked them seperately.
The ride operated extremely well the first half of 2005, was getting decent capacity all considering and having next to zero downtime. It was looking like finally Vu was having stable operation and would be sustainable for a long time. Unfortunately when ACE rolled into town they cursed it, and it ran like total sh*t for the rest of the year. It's an ongoing joke, as it ran very well up until literally the first day of Coaster Con it had a very long delayed opening and just performed very poorly the rest of the season with chronic delayed openings, downtime, and evacuations. Vekoma engineers were brought in in August and spent a few days observing the operation and reprogrammed the ride. They told us that we were by far the fastest loading GIB they had ever seen, and while that was very flattering, not long after they re-programmed it and left the ride had some sort of major malfunction and closed for the rest of the season (including all of Fright Fest). So much for Vekoma. Maybe they just got mad that we didn't let them ride because they were too tall so they broke it?
2006 the ride did not open with the park while repairs were still being made. One memory that has stuck with me was when I was at Viper doing my evaluations to be a lead, and the manager sent me over to Vu to do my cycles to get re-certified (the park was open to the public but the ride was cycling with water dummies). I got to the ride and noticed there was an error message on the screen and called maintenance over, to which they replied "We can't figure it out, we're going to dinner." So...I went back to Viper and finished out the night . The ride opened Memorial weekend that year, I remember that day vividly as we had big crowds due to HH also opening that day and a few minutes after the ride opened (it opened at like 2pm) it already had a nearly full queue, then a rainstorm came through after we did a couple cycles and closed the ride again . I wasn't at Vu a ton in 06, but I remember whenever i'd go to Vu that year it would mispark a lot. There were days when a maintenance guy would sit there and wait for it to mispark, unlock the catch car, we would push the train a foot or so, then relock the catch car, bring up the floor, and continue operating like normal. For some reason that happened a lot more in 2006 than normal, most likely due to poor programming. During Fright Fest that year we kept a tally of the "normal cycle to mispark ratio" and it was pretty even, needless to say our counts were not very high then.
In 2007, once again, the ride once again was being heavily rehabbed and reprogrammed and was not ready on the parks opening weekend. In total the ride opened on the parks opening day three out of seven years it was there. It did not open until Memorial weekend, and this set Mark Shapiro off. The general understanding that it was his dictation when he visited the park in 07 and it was still SBNO that it would be it's last year at the park. Once it opened it operated pretty consistently and ran all summer and fall without any major downtime. That summer there were some visitors from Idaho taking a look at things and it had become pretty clear what was happening. When the park closed in 2007 they still had not announced the ride was closing, but everyone knew it by that point. They gave ACE some special ride time at the end of the night and had all of the ride operators in the park go ride it after the park closed. Even though it was the park executives worst nightmare we had all grown a bit attached to seeing the dominating green & blue structure in the middle of the park. I never got used to not seeing it there, every time in 08 i'd look in that direction there was a huge void. It was a sad sight to see it operate for the last time, but I can certainly understand why they wanted it out.
Miscatch A miscatch was when the train would get to a tower portion of the ride and for some reason the catch car did not catch the train. In order for the brakes to release, the sensor on the back of the train (the yellow thing above my head in the picture of me on SFMM's Vu) needed to pass by one of the proximity switches near the top of the tower. So in order to prevent the ride from valleying, if it did not catch naturally the brakes would not open, and the train would go full speed into the closed brakes. Very loud, scares the crap out of people if your not used to it . This could happen for a variety of reasons the main one being the timing is off between the train and the rides PLC. Lets say if it was very cold out, the wheels would be cold if the ride sat for a long time causing it to go slower. Or if it's cold and the train is empty it would go slower causing the timing to be off. Or if it's blazing hot/humid out the train would go much faster causing the timing to be off. This is why you would sometimes see two cars blocked off in the station running empty to avoid overspeeding, and also why there were big industrial heating units on the station roof over the wheels to keep them warm when it was cold.
Limit Switch You may have noticed if your sitting in the front car that there are little red boxes visible going up the second tower with pins sticking out of them that are there to prevent the catch car from going past a certain point. You'll also notice that the restraints were modified from their original design with extra padding on the side and middle. Original design
Revised design
These were to keep people from sticking their arms up to the side or through the middle, as if you stick them up there high enough (or 6'4 with a good wingspan ) it is possible to whack the limit switch pin in that case you would immediately e-stop the ride and get stuck on the tower.
Ghetto Paint For whatever reason sometime in 2002 the rides paint job became extremely messed up. As Tim Black's wife bluntly put it it looked like ghetto camoflauge. Whats even funnier is the touch up paint that was a lighter shade of blue became powder-like and could be wiped off and you could write things in it with your finger. The supports got a full repaint in 2005.
Heres a few more pics, some are posted to our facebook page:
SFGAm gave out these large souvineer maps when you entered the parking lot for the companies 45th anniversary in 2006. Look how much has changed in just 5 years. No more DéjàVu (Buccaneer Battle), no more Bugs Bunny National Park (Go Karts), no more Splashwater Falls or Great America Raceway, no more "The Wall" (ropes course), no more Turbo Bungee (flowers), no more County Fair games (Pass Processing center this year/Magiquest last year).
Eagles old queue, now Wiggles World, with Vu in the background
Me at DéjàVu the night before it closed for good in October 2007
The night before it closed for good in October 2007
Me waiting in the station for back row (8B) in 2006
Taken in 2006 by Lundy (Director_Guy)
About to ride row 1B in 2006
Yashek (TK)
On DéjàVu at Magic Mountain in 2009
DéjàVu and Splashwater Falls removal from Sky Trek Tower in March 2008
Track and supports being prepped for shipping to Idaho March 2008
Honestly, Vu wouldn't have been half as fun if were always open and running properly. The excitement I felt when I got on my very rare rides on Vu couldn't have compared to just "hopping on Vu" when I pass it. I sure do miss tha-
Wait a minute. I can ride it whenever I want, it's only 30 minutes from here!
Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking, isn't thinking of.
Dave(the founder of this site), had the knack to ride this coaster probably more than anyone on this forum. He knew it was unreliable but knew the secret to get on it everytime he visited the park.
I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
w00dland wrote:That last part is about 100% true. I wouldn't have met the majority of the people here if it weren't for the giant Green and Blue lawn ornament.
Let's not forget the epic '05 season with the best crew ever. Nothing better than upping capacity by filling those extra B seats with enthusiasts.
^This. I knew a lot of people on the site already but this thing definitely introduced me to quite a few more. I remember the first time I met up with Dan we rode it 30+ times on Mother's Day.
Such great great memories on that ride. I miss it terribly .
Quick Question....Do you think Six Flags would have kept our precious Vu coaster if Mark Shapiro didn't come in as CEO? To me, it seemed like they finally got the ride to run right in 07. Every time I visited the park that season it was running.
I have been a lurker on this site for a long time, mainly because this site was getting on my nerves. But this thread (the original post, at least) made me want to log on for the first time in more than a year and a half just because I want to thank you for posting it! Seriously, it was really fun to read...
I actually have an interesting history with Deja 'Vu, but it probably won't be as good as yours. When the ride first opened in 2001 - I was 6 years old and I was in no mood to ride it. The years went by, and I started riding other roller coasters for the first time, but never got a chance to ride Deja 'Vu for a long time. I didn't really have a big "need" to ride it. It was usually closed or had the biggest line in the park, so I always skipped it...
Then, on a visit with one of my friends in 2007, we went before the park opened. (This was actually the first time I went to the park before opening.) We ran to Deja 'Vu first thing, we weren't first, but we still got on the 2nd train. The ride opened 30 minutes after park opening, which wasn't bad. I rode the ride towards the back and it seriously was the biggest thrill in the park... Not even joking, no other roller coaster at the park was just as thrilling.
Little did I know, that would be the only time I had ever ridden the coaster. I am still thankful for the one ride I had on it, and I was glad it was a really fun and great one, because I think that is a good way to remember the ride. Once again, thanks for posting the thread, it was really interesting to read!
Count me in for having to log in for the first time in probably 2 years! Awesome post BP, thank you very much for doing this write up for Deja Vu. This actually helped bring back so many memories on how rocky those first years of Deja Vu were, most of which I had long forgotten about. I was in high school (11th grade) in 2001, and my life basically revolved around SFGAm/ roller coasters back then. Being from the southern tip of the U.P. of Michigan, I managed to make it to SFGAm about 3 times a year when I was in high school/tech college. Somehow, I make it there less now, usually once per year. This topic really made me remeber back to a time when things were so different, in life; and at SFGAm. Especially in that pic of the souvenir map from 2006, it's amazing (and almost depressing) to see how much SFGAm has changed in just 5 years.
Getting to GAm only 3 times a year made the chances of even catching DV operating slim to none. Everytime I would visit, DV was usually broken down, just plain closed, or rarely open with a 3 hour line. I only got to ride Deja Vu four times ever in it's life at GAm; for the first time in August 2003, on closing day of the season 2003, and once in 2004 and I believe on opening day 2005. I have friends and family who never got to ride the darn thing, lol. I still miss seeing it in the skyline, and as someone else said, it still feels like there is a hole in the park where Vu stood.
This was definitely a nice walk down memory lane. I will be at SFGAm opening day, can't wait!
6Flags4Evr wrote:Quick Question....Do you think Six Flags would have kept our precious Vu coaster if Mark Shapiro didn't come in as CEO? To me, it seemed like they finally got the ride to run right in 07.
The way i've always seen it is that Six Flags is not a company that is going to go out of their way to change everything about the way they program and maintain their rides just for one ride. I'm fairly sure it could have been more reliable, but the way SFGAm runs things having real solutions were pretty impractical. They were constantly throwing big bucks at rehabs and new parts to make it more reliable, but the main problems with the ride i've always found to be other reasons. SF's standards for operating rides are different than a park like Silverwood, which is why I think the ride is better fit for a park like that.
Btw BP thanks for posting my picture on it^, I almost fogot I had it taken I remember in 2006 I started working at that ride, it was one of a kind operations, and one of a kind crew I worked with. I remember the first time I gave a little "pre show" to riders, that explained to them what to do while they are seated and etc. Omg was I scared to see their reaction, then later I made a groupers do it, and it helped a lot Anyone remembers that? We pumped the capacity when we could, and we did great. Then Vekoma came in and fixed the train mispark issue with the ride... *cheers*. A year later it got taken down, sad... cause its then when it started to get better.
Six Flags Ameirca as the number 1 park at SFI.... this is JOKE!
I was one of the rarest one's to ride it when it opened in 01'. Jumped on it when the park opened at Fright Fest and it soon closed later that afternoon. I bet you operators had to deal with alot of pissed of people. I've seen it standing in line for hours the ride breaks down they tell you to leave the line and whoever has to stand in the entrance to deal with people constantly Bi%ching about the amount of time they wasted on waiting in line to ride Deja Vu' and they only came to the park to ride Deja Vu'.
I am always gonna kick myself in the shin. The first year I've ever been to SFGAm was the same year that DejaVu retired. Grrr!! I remember going that day to the park and seeing the long line to get on the ride. I figured I'd ride it next time. Lo and behold I never went back to the park that season and went back the next year only to find that it was being taken out!! I was soo mad but more depressed because the only opportunity I had to ride it and I didn't take it. This was also before I became a BIG fan of SFGAm.
CoasterNick3157 wrote:I was one of the rarest one's to ride it when it opened in 01'. Jumped on it when the park opened at Fright Fest and it soon closed later that afternoon. I bet you operators had to deal with alot of pissed of people. I've seen it standing in line for hours the ride breaks down they tell you to leave the line and whoever has to stand in the entrance to deal with people constantly Bi%ching about the amount of time they wasted on waiting in line to ride Deja Vu' and they only came to the park to ride Deja Vu'.
What was kind of funny is that people came to expect it at DejaVu, by the time I worked there when there was a downtime announcement many people in the line were not surprised.
The much more annoying thing is capacity being slowed down by people not buckling their seatbelt that was across their waist, and then yelling at the top of their lungs over and over that their harness is not locked but i'm sure most people here know all about that. Someone once kicked me right in the shin because their harness was not locked and was trying to get my attention . The other annoyance would be the refusal of people to sit in the B seats (which offered a much better ride anyway). When Behemoth was first announced and I looked at the train renderings, the first thing that crossed my mind was whoever designed those trains clearly has never worked on DejaVu .
I remember when Eagle and Viper first added the seatbelts how many people ignored them and just sat down and pulled down their lapbars, it really slowed down the capacity a lot. Of course now we are conditioned when we get on a coaster like that the first thing we do is buckle, but back then it was weird sitting down and having to buckle a seatbelt.
Deja Vu, while an amazing ride. No doubt, was a series of mistakes that Six Flags has made to our park. With a park the size of SFGam, that ride and V2 really had no business in the park.
I haven't been on here in at least a year, but after reading this I also felt the need to sign in and comment because you really did an absolutely phenomenal job with this post, unfortunately I didn't start visiting the park until 2007 so I never got the chance to experience what was Deja Vu first hand, but after reading this I feel as if I actually was there going through all of this too, and thats how well of a job you did on this. So Thank You Brad for taking the time to do such an in depth explanation about the life of Vu
I only got to visit the park 3 times in 2007, 2 out of the 3 visits Vu was closed, but I remember going the first weekend of Fright Fest, it was like 90 degrees outside or something crazy, and we went to Demon first thing in the morning and I remember looking up at Deja Vu and seeing it running for the first time in my life, it really had a captivating quality about it, because I was definitely mesmerized looking up at Vu, it struck fear in my bones, but I was itching to experience it. Vu had just opened for the day, I watched it cycle twice, and thought about getting in the line which was very very small at the time, but decided our group could ride it later in the day, which was a bad decision because later in the day the queue was 3 hours long, and that wasn't a possibility. That was my only chance to ever ride Vu and I blew it. I remember that moment every time I visit the park and stand by Demon and I hate myself for not taking that opportunity, and to this day I still have yet to experience that monster.
For a time after I heard it was being removed I was obsessed with it, no one could possibly imagine how much I wanted to ride that ride, and how the park has never been the same for me without it, it was one of my first memories of the park, and to see it leave was crushing. The first time I ever visited the park was in May of 2007 for the 8th grade class trip, I had never been on a rollercoaster and I remember looking up at Deja Vu and wondering how it was even safe, it was like an obsession for me ever since the first time I saw it. I remember refusing to believe it was gone, and it's sad to see how much the park has changed since my first visit in 2007.
I still have yet to ride Vu, even after visiting Magic Mountain 3 years in a row all 3 times it was closed, this spring break just about a month ago when I was at Magic Mountain was when I was hoping I would finally be able to ride it, that failed as the ride was still undergoing rehab, me and Vu just don't get along I guess, I've been in it's presence so many times, but still have yet to take a ride.
Once again thanks Brad for rekindling this flame inside of me. I almost forgot about it over the years.
To go with the fact you said its last year it was working relatively fine, I've read in the past that its working marvelously in Idaho. It's a shame its gone, in my opinion it had the best paint scheme of any ride in the park. Unfortunately, I can't empathize with anyone that says they never rode it, I'm guilty of riding it 3+ times every day it was running! I really miss that infamous ride, and hope something like it sprouts up in the future (although SFGam probably views it as a lesson learned)
Great original post, I would like to add something that makes the history more complete.
After sitting idle for the entire summer of 2001, the internet speculated that it would open on Saturday, October 6..I believe the second weekend of fright fest. The ride had its media day in the middle of the week. There was even an article in the Daily Herald about how it was going to open on Saturday, so I took that to be very valid.
I had to work until 4 pm on Saturday, but decided that once I was done working, i would make the hour ride to Six Flags just to get on it. I had been looking at it all summer and it was so tantalizing. I was pumped.
As I pulled into the parking lot and walked towards the park I was a bit concerned that I hadn't seen a train cycling, but figured maybe it just had very slow capacity. When I finally walked up to the ride's entrance, I was greeted by a sign that said,"This ride will not be operating today because of weather." Apparently it was too cold to operate the ride. I was quite upset. So... just one more of the lowlights of this rides operating history: Its highly advertised opening day, after months of waiting, was a complete bust, as the ride never opened. However, it did open the next day. (I was not there).
Anyway, I finally got on the ride the next weekend, and it was fantastic...scary and thrilling. It was one of those moments when you are totally pumped after you get off a ride and want to get on another one right away. I still think it was the best ride in the park when they tore it down. I stopped buying the season pass after 2007 because of the decision, and I've only been to the park twice since then.
Yes, I miss Deja Vu, BUT the good news is that I found another park that isn't terribly far, so I just visit there. It's Invertigo at Kings Island, and that ride is awesome even though it's a little smaller, and not as many degrees on the towers. Besides that, I found an incredible park called Kings Island that if it weren't for Deja Vu and them having Invetigo, I never would have went there. It even has Deja Vu blue and green paint in the station. For Deja Vu, I was always a B seat person. If I went in an A seat, it just didn't feel that good. One of those years, I actually kept count of my rides on Deja Vu, and it was above a 100 something. The reason I kept count is because people always say the ride is broke all the time, and it wasn't broke ALL the time. And misparks were very common, and that's like 5 seconds for a mechanic to move the train, and people would leave the line for that like it's going to be broke for 5 hours.
I believe since it was there I only got 1 miscatch which is a shame. And I did get on it in October the 1st year, and holy cow I almost lost my winter hat on that ride. It was flying off my head, and I caught it (the hat). Whether it was done on purpose or not, I see traces of Deja Vu in the park. The Little Dipper has the blue paint on it, the Buccaneer Battle has the green and Deja Vu's blue on it. Also, last year I still seen Dark Knight has that ticket box thing, and that you can see a little green with that. That was Deja Vu's.
The way I see it I rather have Deja Vu than the Dark Knight, even though they aren't in the same spot. When Deja Vu came out, Dark Knight came in - in a different spot, but Dark Knight is a fun ride too. At least, the park gave me a fun ride so it's wasn't as awful as it could have been if they would have taken Deja Vu out, and not given me anything else to replace it. In a way, I think it would have been better for our park to get Invertigo instead of Deja Vu because that ride doesn't breakdown as much as Deja Vu did. When we were going to get Deja Vu, I actually thought that we were getting Invertigo instead (face to face boomerang ride), but that was the other Great America.
Oh, and I have been on SFOG's Deja Vu before that was taken out. One of years I went it was open, and another year it wasn't open. I've been to Magic Mountain, and the ride was in closed - off-season mode, so it definitely wasn't working with no train on the track. In a way though, I'm not really wanting to go to Magic Mountain again just for Deja Vu because of them pushing you to a certain seat -They are like Nazis telling you to go there, or there I'm told. I believe they also have flash pass on that line which would increase the line by a ton.
And the worse thing that happened with Deja Vu at SFGAm is the sardine canned feeling in the station, and than to combat that - they hired groupers. I didn't care much for groupers. How to fix would have been just fixing the line in the station better!! Geesh, but it's gone now anyway. But nope, they don't want to invest more money into lines unless they are getting more money out of the ride such as when they add Flash Pass to rides.
What it sort of weird to me is that okay I really like Chaos at Cedar Point, and they play this what I enjoy awesome song called Deja Vu by Yngwie Malmsteen, and just like Deja Vu it's gone now. And what do they replace it with, a basketball court just like they replaced Deja Vu with. What's next? Mr. Freeze at St Louis, and put a stupid basketball court in it's place!
And out of the Deja Vu line, I really started to get hooked on so many songs that they were playing during they year they had 80's music. There was some music I didn't even hear before that I enjoyed such as: Maniac Monday 867 5309 Jenny Duran Duran Ordinary World I Come from a Land Down Under Jessie's Girl Nu Shooz I can't Wait Shout - Tears for Fears Tainted Love by Soft Cell Take These Broken Wings What's on Your Mind Walk Like an Egyptian (I heard before this)
Etc.. - Just great music I enjoyed all the time I was in line.
"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"
And out of the Deja Vu line, I really started to get hooked on so many songs that they were playing during they year they had 80's music.
I agree, the music that was played in 2006 was a welcome change from the old circus music stuff that had been playing in County Fair since the Marriott days (music was changed to celebrate the company's 45th anniversary and each area had its own decade). By the time mid season rolled around I believe they kept the 80s and Hometown Square 60's (which worked quite well) but the rest of the park by then had gotten it's own themed music in more modern form from the old Marriott music. Then for some reason in 2007 they started playing random music everywhere. As much as that Marriott music gave the park character, the County Fair loop in particular was very odd and people would constantly complain about it. We went from having that weird music most people hated to having Depesche Mode playing in the queue was quite a transition .
This definitely brings back memories. I remember being afraid right before riding it back in 2002, but I loved it. I was lucky to get a retraction on that ride. Also the County Fair music definitely reminds me of the times I waited in line for it. I hear that county fair music and all I can think about is Deja Vu.
Great post! I didn't post much on here and I am from Montreal, so my only time at SFGAm was in 2008. Deja Vu was already gone sadly.
I rode it at SFMM and its an interesting ride. The loops don't do much for me, but love the vertical towers!
I have a funny story regarding the 4th Giant Inverted Boomerang, the one in Spain. The original location for that Boomerang was supposed to be Six Flags Belgium, as the star attraction when they flagged the park in 2001. For some reasons, during the actual flagging construction, they pulled a switch and got a regular Boomerang from Vekoma for Six Flags Belgium! Never mind the fact another Six Flags owned park had a Boomerang since 1984 100 miles away! the Giant Inverted Boomerang was sent to Warner Brothers Movie World Madrid to boost the new park small ride count. It opened in 2002 there and is not a very popular ride. Spainards are scared of loops and my friends tell me of days there where they marathon Stunt Fall! The ride has its issues and can be down for days. Like noted in the original post, the heat in Spain means they rope off the front car most of the time to reduce the risk of a miscatch.
Hmm. Had the day off of work today. Rode 8B with no wait this morning. The crew is awful and they send trains like every 7-8 minutes, but its still a great ride.
Top 5 wood-5-Goliath 4-Ravine Flyer II 3-Phoenix 2-Voyage 1-El Toro Top 5 Steel- 5-Velocicoaster 4- Maverick 3- Fury 325 2-Steel Vengeance 1-X2 Coaster Count: 444
When it was installed in 2001, I was obviously much younger and had to rely on either my parents or my friends' parents driving me out there for my one time annual visit to the park. In the summer of 2001, my family decided to go out there so I could redeem that free ticket we all got for reading so much during the year. This was just the beginning of me being an enthusiast and I was really excited to ride both V2 and Deja Vu. When I got to the park, I was greeted with the sign that came up in so many stories here, "The following rides may not be operating today: Deja Vu." I hoped that was just there to cover them in case it never opened, and thought it would later in the day. It never did though. I did get my ride on V2 though and just remember the pure excitement and rush from it that I've only felt one other time from a ride. As I mentioned, my visits to the park around this time were sparse since I was still too young to drive. In 2005 or 06, I made a visit to the park with my cousins and finally had a chance to ride. It was later in the night when it was finally opened and we got around to it, but I was too tired by that point and just waited around outside. My next chance to ride didn't come until 2007. I bought a season pass for the first time this year and knew it was going to be a good summer. I had just graduated from high school and had the summer to look forward to with just my friends and my job at a movie theatre. A few of my friends and I went out to the park in late May and I finally got a ride on it. The suspense had built up for so long, so this had to be a great ride. It did not disappoint me. The one thing I will always remember is feeling of going up the 2nd tower and then the catch car pulling the train up a little more. This got me really disoriented and was the most disoriented I've ever felt on a coaster. This made the ride for me and I was really happy to finally be able to ride this. I went back to the park a few more times that season and got rides on it when possible. It seemed to be operating reliably and I thought that it would be here for many years. Unfortunately I was wrong. My last ride on it came during FrightFest of that year. I was at the park on a trip from school and was with one of my friends who had never been to this park. We had heard the rumors and I didn't want to believe them. I couldn't get back to the park for one more ride and sat at my desk on the last operating day of the ride reading the reports of the last rides. I miss this ride and always have to think about it whenever I walk by the blank spot or now Buccaneer Battle or ascending the hill on Raging Bull.
. Unfortunately for Six Flags, their nightmare scenario with this ride was about to become a DéjàVu experience for years to come.
. The ride opened Memorial weekend that year, I remember that day vividly as we had big crowds due to HH also opening that day and a few minutes after the ride opened (it opened at like 2pm) it already had a nearly full queue, then a rainstorm came through after we did a couple cycles and closed the ride again 
) it is possible to whack the limit switch pin in that case you would immediately e-stop the ride and get stuck on the tower.
. 
I remember going that day to the park and seeing the long line to get on the ride. I figured I'd ride it next time. Lo and behold I never went back to the park that season and went back the next year only to find that it was being taken out!! I was soo mad but more depressed because the only opportunity I had to ride it and I didn't take it. This was also before I became a BIG fan of SFGAm. 
