We left from my house at 7:45 a.m. and stopped for coffee at Gas City in Aurora, and then we were off. We got onto the highway at 8 a.m. and I just sat there pondering what I would do today. It did drizzle lightly as we were on the highway, but it was not much, it stopped a little bit later. Around 8:45ish we were passing the Eagle, Bull and everything from the highway and got off onto Grand Ave. We had made perfect timing, 45 minutes, and hardly any traffic at all! We got into line, waiting for the parking lot to open. It wasn't long, about 10 minutes we were in the parking lot. And I got my cameras ready and everything and we started walking to the gate, we got into the Season Pass entrance with our Season Pass vouchers and waited awhile, like some 30 minutes or so. My mom and sisters decided to go to the bathroom; I stayed in line waiting for the gates to open.
We keep in touch, thanks to my new 2-way radios. When we're all back in line, this lady comes out with a Palm Pilot and gets some info from our Season Pass vouchers, and our ages too. Anyway, I'm watching the security guys on the other side of the metal detectors and I can tell their ready, I see a few more employees go roundabout their business, and then they start letting us in. Now, I know my shoes would set off the metal detector and they did. So I get searched and everything and I'm fine, so they let me go. Now after all that, we go to the lockers by Six Flags Photo and I rent a locker to keep our stuff in, my younger sister just had to keep her LARGE bag in it.
After that we were off, through New Orleans and to the chain blocking us the rest of the way. Now we were one of the first ones at the chain and we had Batman on the mind. I started to talk to the guy behind the chain, I asked him, "Which rides wouldn't be open today?" and he said "all but this one (pointing to King Chaos)." Now he didn't know the condition of Raging Bull, but we're getting there soon. Anyway 40 minutes, goes to 15, then to 10 and finally 5 to 1 minute, yes time flies here! 1 minute till 10:00 a.m. and when I think he's gonna remove the chain, I go "Yay!" and he just laughs, the chain is still up. 10 a.m. we walk to Batman, while everybody else runs to wherever they want to go.
When we get to BTR, we get in line and get into the front row. Now, my mom wanted to go on BTR for 12 years now and finally she did. My sister's were on it last year. Anyway we start the ride, and yes it was hauling big time today! We finish the ride and it leaves me a bit dizzy. 7/10. Next we headed over to the Season Pass Processing Center in Hometown Square, when we get there, some lady checks our vouchers to make sure we have the backs filled in, we do. We go in and have our pictures taken, and get our passes and our coupon books! Next after that, we go to the Fastlane Center, and I look on the sign, hmmm, why isn't Raging Bull on the ride list?
Anyway we go in and, there's no line for Fastlane purchases, so I use my buy 2 get 1 free coupon, and I get 3 Fastlanes, I give one each to my sisters and keep one for myself. Next, we head over to Raging Bull to see what's happening. And when we get to the Bull, the entrance to the line was all blocked off. It was around 11 a.m. to 11:30ish a.m. I asked when it would open, and they didn't know. They were fixing it a lot. So instead we head over to Viper and it's not that long of a line, until we get into the station. 15 to 20 minutes for the first row. We finally get to row 1, my younger sister and me sit in row 1 of Viper, and my other sister waits for the next Viper train. We start out and we start going up the lift-hill and, just when we're about to reach the top, it stops about five feet from the drop, about 100ft. above.
I had to explain to my mom several times that we were stuck 100ft. in the air, sitting down in the train and all harnessed in. Soon, an employee comes walking up the side of the lift hill and tells us that a mechanic will be here in 15 to 20 minutes. We didn't have to walk back down the lift, we would finish our ride, and we did. All and all, we were stuck up there for about half an hour. Anyway after our ride, we got off; I bought an on-ride photo of Viper and waited for my other sister to come off the ride. 8/10. After we got off, I went to check on Raging Bull, still closed. So my sisters went on Ricochet and I waited for them, mean while it started to rain, it wasn't that hard, after they got off the ride, we went and headed for Superman, long line, Fastlanes ready! We got into the fastlane entrance on SUF and the ride was temporarily closed (due to the rain I think) But I ended up talking to the fastlane dude with the hole puncher we talked about SUF, Bull, his job, and SFGAm World. Really nice employee.
Finally! The ride was open again! Everybody cheered. We got into the front row, one train only had 2 seats available for front row, and the other one was fine. Great ride! 9/10. My sister's also liked the ride, and we would ride it again soon. After SUF we went out to the car to eat lunch, we did get our hands stamped, it was raining again, and it was around 1:00 p.m. to 1:30ish p.m. I had a sandwich, Gatorade, and sting cheese, plus a few grapes, and Triscuits. While eating lunch, I saw Raging Bull test running for the first time of that day! Maybe it would open? Anyway, when we headed back into the park, we first went to see a show, it was raining again! We saw Stargate SG-3000, great show, very fun. 8.5/10.
After that we went to see what was up with Raging Bull, it test ran, but it was still closed! After that I decided to wait in the line forming outside of the Bull's entrance. I waited for about 30 minutes, no go. My sister who was waiting with me, decided she didn't want to wait no longer, she went on Giant Drop, I stayed in line for Bull. After a while a Six Flags employee told us that she didn't know if Bull would open, or when it would. She told us to ride some of SFGAm's other rides. My sister's went on some more smaller thrill rides, while I browsed the shops for gifts. After all that, we decided to go take a ride on Revolution. Wow! This ride was pretty cool, slow at start, but really fast near the end, it was really something else! 9/10.
After ole' Revolution, we went on American Eagle blue, it screeches SO loud! They need to oil it! It was a fun ride, they raced the trains. While on the large helix in the back of the park, I looked down into Raging Bull's station, I saw 3 or 4 mechanics huddled close together working non-stop on one of the trains of the Bull. I knew it would open very soon. When we got to the final brake run, they held us there for about 15 minutes, the red train had already beaten us, and the other blue train was still in the station. They ran the red train by itself twice, and then we went back into the station. They must have been trying very hard to race the trains. We got off Eagle and started to head for Vertical Velocity, there was hardly any line, hmmm. It was just me and my older sister; my younger sister didn't ride (chicken.) While standing in the station for V2, I saw Bull test running again for the second time! I saw it several more times after that!
We got our ride on V2, excellent, just like I remembered. 8.5/10. We stopped after that to get some funnel cakes, then we started to head in Raging Bull's direction, I saw several more trains go up and down, then I saw hands stick up on one of the trains, IT WAS OPEN, RAGING BULL WAS OPEN!!!!!!!!! It was around 6:00 pm. We immediately "jogged" over to Raging Bull, and my older sister and me got in line, yes! I had a real 'itch' to ride this all day since 10 am! Again, my younger sister chickened out, so my mom stayed with her. The line for Bull was long, REAL long. About an hour, maybe more. We reached the station, took row 1 in the teal train, they were only operating 2 trains, teal and red, yellow wasn't on the track. Wow! How good it felt to get on Bull again! 10/10.
When we were finished, my sister had a ball with it, said she wanted to ride it again; we would, a bit later. We decided to head for SUF again, we were about to use fastlane for it, when my sister forgot it in her coat. But as it turns out, we didn't need it, SUF was a walk-on, and we got up to the station, in line for row one, there were several people in front of us in line for first row as well, the people ahead of us were very nice, they let us get ahead of them and directly to the train, they were saying 'hurry.' They did this, because we were a group of 2. Wow, quick ride, saved time! Great! 9/10. We got off SUF, my mom and younger sister were in a show, it was getting close to 8 pm. I went in to Carousel Gifts and bought a Batman t-shirt, and me and my sister went to the back of the Pictorium and waited for the other two to come out This part I didn't like, it seemed like it took them forever to come out!
I asked the ticket guy for the go-karts, "What time is it?" He said, " 8:15 pm." They needed to hurry; the park closes at 9 pm! They were finally out around 8:25 pm. Shows are a waste of GOOD time! We decided to take a final ride on Bull, just me and my older sister, my younger sister was being a royal pain in the butt, crying and everything. Me and my older sister ran over to Raging Bull to save time. Hardly a line for Bull till' we walk down the stairs, but it moved fast, we got up to the station, in line for row 1. We got the teal train, but before we left the station, I had the ride op take a picture of me and my sis sitting down in row 1 of Bull, very nice ride op.
Then, we were off! Climbing the lift hill of Bull, I counted the lights on the lift. 25 lights per side, 50 total on the lift hill of Raging Bull. We got a good night ride on Bull, the right way to end a good day at SFGAm. 10/10. I stopped at Peabody's Gift Shop and bought a 'History Mug' this ceramic SFGAm coffee mug. Then me and my older sister headed for Columbia Carousel and the reflection pond. My mom got our stuff out of the locker we rented in the beginning of the day, and we left the park at 9 pm sharp. What a great day!
Ride Totals for 5/31/04:
AE Blue: 1
BTR: 1
RB: 2
SUF: 2
V2: 1
Viper: 1
P.S. I have been on Iron Wolf, Déjà Vu, and Demon before, I didn't have time to ride them. I will have to ride them next time I go to SFGAm.
P.S. I was wearing a blue SUF t-shirt with just the Superman logo on it, olive green cargo shorts, black shoes(steel toe), and I had on a Raging Bull pin. Did anyone see me there on 5/31/04?
NEXT VISIT?? Maybe----JUNE 16th, 2004
Antonio A. (aka- TwistedSTEEL666) SFGAm Trip Report 5/31/04
I took a little over 100 pictures that day, I'll have them posted up in a few days.
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