Deja Vu Remembrance day

[Galvan]

6 years ago yesterday was the final operating day of Deja Vu!

Share your stories with us today!

Post them here!

[rct2wizard360]

I know there's going to be a lot of posts in here about how mediocre the ride was, downtime, etc. But I know a lot of the long time members can attest that it wasn't really about the ride.

Personally, I wouldn't know as many of you that I do had it not been for that ride. It was a gathering spot. It was probably the easiest place to meet other members. The big green "lawn ornament" in the center of the park. It was the place to be when the park opened and when the park closed. Superman bored most of us. Raging Bull was cliche. When Deja Vu finally got to the point of somewhat consistent operation, it was the ride. Whether you actually enjoyed it, or if you enjoyed the challenge of getting a miscatch or praying your train would valley in the cobra roll, it was the ride of "our people."

In my opinion, the "community" hasn't been as tight since. Maybe that's because the majority of people I knew have gone to work at other parks and things like that. But the others that are still around, I feel like there's less of that "let's meet up at the park this weekend!" Maybe it's just me.

Regardless, this ride was a big part of my teenage years. I'll always have great memories, stories, and friends because of it.

[BP317]

DejaVu was our favorite ride for all the wrong reasons . It was one of those coasters that no matter how many times you had seen it cycle (which for me was over and over, for years), it still grabbed your attention and kept it. When it would cycle every person in the area would stop what they were doing and watch it. For 6+ years, when it was operating, it was the most dominating and attention grabbing coaster in the park. After its removal; walking by that spot, and looking at pictures of SFGAm nowadays, looks bizarre to me without the green and blue dominating the skyline.

What's funny is that when it was removed nobody really complained even though it was one of the best coasters in the park, a true testament to its reliability and consistent operation .

[GoBears]

Deja Vu was my favorite ride at SFGAm! I definitely miss it, when it was running that is.

[DejaVuGurl1203]

I will always miss that ride as it was my favorite. It looked beautiful in the skyline and it was an awesome ride to experience. I got stuck on it twice. Once was in the station and the other time was a retraction which was a pretty cool experience. It was also always fun to watch it test and wait for it to open. I hate to see such a dumb ride as Buccaneer Battle in its place. I wish it never left the park, but maybe it was for the better.

[w00dland]

I think Joe is pretty spot on with Deja Vu. I met more people standing in a "line now forming" for that thing than I did at any other spots in any other park put together. It didn't matter where you were in the park, when you saw Vu cycle you instantly dropped whatever you were planning on doing and immediately ran there. Heck, I remember going up the lifts of most of the rides in the park and the whole time just focusing on Vu's station hoping to see some signs of life.

One thing that I found interesting about Deja Vu was the fact that it really dominated the ride landscape of SFGAm, but seemed tiny and almost mediocre at SFMM. Maybe it was because it was shoved in a corner behind big wooden coasters, maybe it was the flat terrain of SFGAm, but Vu was actually a pretty huge ride. It's been a long time since I've been to SFGAm, and I was sad to miss Vu's closing day back in 2008. I think we need some type of SFGAm coaster dork reunion party next season, assuming Goliath proves more reliable than the big Blue and Green Lawn Ornament, Delay-ja-vu.

[CoastsToCoasters]

I have far too many stories. I was a "lucky" man...call it luck I guess but it was open every time I was there. Sure it closed down & had its breakdowns but I waited those out. It was by far the greatest coaster SFGAm decided to build, still to this day Ill say the Giant inverted boomerangs are one of the greatest coasters devised. That is my opinion & I dont care who calls it/them trash. I adored DejaVu & as childish as this sounds, I still am sour about its removal. It's running great at Silverwood or so I read/hear & I understand SFGAm just got impatient/sick of trying but still, I miss it dearly & wish we could have fixed its issues.

[SFGAm#1Fan]

Like everyone else, I miss Deja Vu terribly. I was only 13 the year of Vu's last operating season and even at that age, I developed such a love for that ride.

On a little side note for those who care and you may not believe me but whatever, If you look up Giant Inverted Boomerang on Wikipedia, In the atricle where it talks about the train design, THAT'S ME SITTING IN SEAT 1A! I was a proud single ridder even at the age of 13

[Luxornv]

This coaster gave me the most disorienting feeling I've ever experienced on a coaster. I loved the feeling on tower 2 as the catch car hooked up just as you thought the train was just going to fall back through the course. It's also the only reason I decided Silverwood was worth a visit. I didn't make it out there until I was already out in the region on business and only spent $100 to get there.

[kossdude1]

I never rode it, but wish I had if I was tall enough.

First off, I really wish Buccaneer Battle wouldn't have been built. A ride that should be in Yankee Harbor in the County Fair area? Come on people.

Also, I hear that the Deja Vu that was SFOG was moved to Mirabilandia, where it sits in storage. Why not just buy it from them and bring a G.I.B. back to the park. We deserve having it back. It was amazing and we're much different without it.

[DeathbyDinn]

^ As much as we may "deserve it," it was still removed for a reason. I know SF has made some odd decisions, but I think they're at least smart enough not to buy back a ride they removed for under-performing.

[Stoogie]

When I took my wife and her kid to the park, the boys were dying to ride Déjà. We got in line, waited 2 hours and by the time came to ride, my wife's daughter who had only rode Demon before got split up from us because there were two older ladies about 60 Years old were trying to pair themselves up with someone they came with. With the split seating, my step daughter ended up riding before us and I was like oh man, she's gonna be in tears. The ride ran its course and wouldn't ya know it the thing valleyed. When she finally got off, she said that was fun!!! She was 8 lol.


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[Chitown]

I rode all 3 Vu's in the states, and while I liked them, I can see why Six Flags removed them. They were a maintenance nightmare. Especially SFOG from what I hear. When I moved down to Florida, I visited SFOG, and the first day it was closed, but the second day I visited, it was open. I got lucky. Enjoyed it, but knew it was just a matter of time before they were gone. Makes you wonder why when they transferred the SFMM Vu over to SFNE, that they changed the name. They probably didn't want the DV name associated with it.

[x-flight]

Best ride great america had other than shockwave in my opinion

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[TwistedSTEEL666]

Dèjá Vu was a fantastic coaster ride! I have only been on it several times. Everytime I visited the park it was either open or closed. Well mostly closed, but sometimes it would open later that day. Most of the time, it had a some what long line, other times the line was short. I feel that removing DV and replacing it with BB was a colossal mistake. One that the park now knows.

I heard something along the lines that DV was starting to run better with less down time towards the end of its stay at SFGAm? That reliability was going up?

[SFGAm#1Fan]

^I can remember when Deja Vu opened for the 2005 season, it was running on a pretty consistent basis more than it ever had been before than in its prior seasons. Once it opened for the 2006 season, it seemed like the park finally tamed the beast! Same with its final season in 2007. In the end though, It was Shapiro who finally said enough. If it wasn't for him, I believe Deja Vu would have survived a few more seasons at our park but would have eventually been removed just because of it's capacity issues and future park expansion.

[TwistedSTEEL666]

^I can remember when Deja Vu opened for the 2005 season, it was running on a pretty consistent basis more than it ever had been before than in its prior seasons. Once it opened for the 2006 season, it seemed like the park finally tamed the beast! Same with its final season in 2007. In the end though, It was Shapiro who finally said enough. If it wasn't for him, I believe Deja Vu would have survived a few more seasons at our park but would have eventually been removed just because of it's capacity issues and future park expansion.

Shapiro jumped the gun when it came to Deja Vu. If it was running better, then why axe it? Wouldn't it make sense to give it a chance for a few more years, or at least keep it if it was showing signs of improvement?
Getting rid of it and then replacing it with Buccaneer Battle was a colossal failure. In the end it proved to be a flop.

[FParker185]

Main reason they got rid of it had nothing to do with reliability as much as it being a high-thrill coaster in one of the more heavily attended parks having a sub 400pph capacity.

[TwistedSTEEL666]

440pph is too low of a number for DV?
Isn't V2 around that same number?

These are one train coasters which can only have a certain number of riders per hour, right?
I mean what's the most that V2 has done in an hour 400-600? It also has had it's fair share of mechanical and technical problems right? It had as many problems as DV had from day one, yet the park still decided to keep V2, why?

Was it an issue with Vekoma and a sketchy prototype?

[Viper 88]

Don't know it pises me off years later that I founf out Vekoma seats accomodates 95% of the riders who came to ride Deja Vu. I avoided it for the very opposite reason i didn't think I would fit ala Batmans OTSR so my rationale was well I cant get on batman so I cant get on Deja Vu and there was no test seat so I am not going to bother to wait 2 hours and not even get the chance to ride Fatal mistake. I really wished they kept Deja Vu and gotten rid of V2 just something about it strikes me as being unsafe. Besides does anyone remember Tidal Wave Hello same thing. But I guess Sf has a History of that kind of thing RC TDK.

[FParker185]

V2 can do around 800pph. Also there is really not much that can fit where V2 is now Plenty of one train coasters have low capacity approaching the DV range, however none of those one train coasters appear at SFGAm or most other heavily attended major amusement parks.

DV was also a a pretty big strain on the parks budget.

[TwistedSTEEL666]

V2 can do around 800pph. Also there is really not much that can fit where V2 is now Plenty of one train coasters have low capacity approaching the DV range, however none of those one train coasters appear at SFGAm or most other heavily attended major amusement parks.

DV was also a a pretty big strain on the parks budget.

Didn't SFGAm have to go to Vekoma a few times for DV parts?
Was Vekoma always reasonable with their prices and quality of parts?

It seems to me that the GIB prototypes were rushed into service by Six Flags Corp.

[FParker185]

VEKOMA(Veld Koning Machinefabriek) went bankrupt and was completely liquidated during the construction of the GIB's. Premier Rides agreed to help finish the rides. The Vekoma that exists today actually has little to no relation to the VEKOMA pre-2001. A dutch steel manufacturer bought most of the assets and the catalog from the old VEKOMA.

I know Vekoma did some work on at least DV at SFGAm periodically, but since they didn't build the ride itself, it wasn't always all that successful.

Also no ride manufacturer on earth has reasonable prices for parts. Cause in the end who else makes those parts? There are 2 choices, either pay 5x what a part is worth, or have your multi million ride sit dormant. Chance Rides is extremely notorious for this with literally 10-20x markup for ride parts that you can freely buy elsewhere, but anything not bought directly from chance is not approved to be put on the ride which would result in failed inspections.

[AirTimeDaz]

Whenever I would come to the park, it was unfortunately closed. I was a little annoyed but said "Oh, well. I'll ride next time." But next time was never to be, because it was snatched out of the park so fast, it made my head spin! but after reading how everyone loved it and what it meant to you all, now I'm pissed! Thanks for rubbing salt in my wounds, guys!

[Sporlo]

Whenever I would come to the park, it was unfortunately closed. I was a little annoyed but said "Oh, well. I'll ride next time." But next time was never to be, because it was snatched out of the park so fast, it made my head spin! but after reading how everyone loved it and what it meant to you all, now I'm pissed! Thanks for rubbing salt in my wounds, guys!

I managed to ride it once in my life. Every single other visit it was closed. Now I can't be sure, but I think it shut down soon after we got off. If not, it was closed right before we got in line. I'd say it was a fun experience. Quite disorienting, which made it unique for the park.

Also, I second all the comments about its dominating presence. I always imagine it to be "smaller" but when I look at the numbers I remember that this thing was quite tall and very imposing in the open space it occupied.