We left Urbana later than anticipated at 8:30am, and thanks to traffic though St. Louis, didn't arrive at SFSTL until almost noon. Although it was raining pretty hard when we left, it was sunny by the time we got there (Drat! Long lines!) First impression: "Where are the coasters?" Due to the hilly setting of the park, there are no awe-inspiring views coming into the park. I'm so used to seeing American Eagle, Raging Bull and the Sky Trek Tower all tower over the interstate that that alone was quite surprising.
Started off for the front gates... as others have mentioned in their trip reports, having the metal detectors so far before the gates makes for so much better traffic flow into the park. Upon first entering the park, I was really impressed with the FrightFest themeing... three hearses sitting outside the gates, as well as tombstones, cobwebs, orange gels in the lights... this looked good. After getting in, I was a little surprised at how tiny the entrance plaza was. I knew to expect a smaller park, but I've never been to a park that had such a small focus of attention at the front (just a small little fountain)... but I did like the Disney-esque attention to detail in the buildings all around. For FrightFest, Hurricane Harbor was turned into a Kid's Walkthrough "Haunted Trail."
Onward to B:TR... I was surprised how long the line was (one tends to forget how lucky one is when our park has 12 coaster to take people, as opposed to a lot of people in only 6 coaster lines). Also, it must usually be quite long, because unlike our Batman, there was no shortcut through most the line for empty days. Themeing was on par with ours, although I don’t think that the urban theme works quite as well in a larger space. In a way, our B:TR's tiny footprint makes it a better ride. The ride itself was disorienting because of the mirrored layout of the track... It's so weird to dive right instead of left!... but otherwise, it was pretty much the same as ours. 7.5/10
Next up was Ninja... every review I have read of this coaster has said how neck-jarring it was, but to me, it was nothing compared to Shockwave. Still, a good ride (especially with a short wait), with bonus points for the unbelievably convincing head chopper, my friend actually screamed and tried to duck). 6.5/10
This is the point of the day that we started getting lost... the park is beautiful, but the map is absolutely no help because the path layout is not adequately represented. I really like the fact that I feel like the park was built into the terrain and trees, instead of adding token terrain and landscaping after the park was done. However, the fact that there were no divisions between theme areas, and that there were at least three dead-ends that we ran into within the park was fairly irritating. It gave the park a very disorganized feel, and made it difficult to navigate, to say the least.
We past the line for Mine Car Coaster, which was well outside of the queue due to the FrightFest themeing added to the line... meant to come back, but never did.
We wandered around (AKA, got lost) a little more, until we came upon the Screamin' Eagle. Now, I've got to say that I like wooden coasters, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with this one. The line moved at a crawl because the crew was incredibly slow. I've heard people say that this coaster was great, but I just didn't feel it. I much prefer a winding, twisty, out-of-control coaster, and this is not it. It's a very straight forward up-and-down-and-up-and... etc. coaster, and the really loud squealing from the wheels was frustrating. Overall, I didn't get much airtime or thrills out of this straightforward coaster. 4.5/10
Normally I am big fan of flats as well as thrill rides, but most of the lines for SFSTL flats were ridiculously long... we waited a bit for bumper cars (Water Street Cab Company), but got tired of waiting when it became clear the wait would be half an hour or more. One thing I must say that I love about GAm is that for most flats (Other than GD, Revy, and KC, of course), there is rarely much of a wait. Therefore, we didn't get on nearly as many flats as I would normally like to go on.
Late lunch was at Screen Stars Diner... although the themeing was decent; I must say that from what I saw, the food options at SFSTL cannot hold a candle to those at GAm... not enough choice. One interesting thing (look familiar?) was the only thing the park got for "New for '04":
Next up, we waited over an hour in a long queue for The Boss., but this one was definitely worth the wait. As I mentioned above, I love my woodies out of control, and this one was one of the best in that respect that I have ever ridden. Although some who rode around us complained of the roughness, I loved it. There were so many great, fun elements in this ride, especially the first drop into the series of head choppers. Great ride! 8/10
As it was a warm day, we next headed for a water ride. I was, however, disappointed to see that they weren't running their rapids ride (Red water on GAm's Rapids is always a highlight of FrightFest). Instead we got on their Ice Mountain Splash.... a really crappy version of Logger's Run... the final "plunge" is only 35 feet high, and does not get you wet at all! The worst water ride I have ever been on! 2/10
Next, we wanted to go on the huge ferris wheel, Colossus, but after seeing a FULL QUE because the staff was only loading 10 out of the 40 cars per cycle, we decided against it.
Our next pick was Scooby Doo Ghostblasters... I have heard this ride was great, and by Six Flags standards, it really was (although I prefer the Men in Black-themed similar ride at Universal because the effects are even better. However, this is one ride I would love to see cloned at GAm. Although we waited a full queue 50 minutes for this, I thought it was worth it 8/10
As soon as we got off Scooby Doo, we had the luck to see Mr. Freeze just opening, which had been closed most of the day. We rushed into the line, and only had to wait 15 minutes for our launch (The wait was much longer later in the day... they were stupidly only running one-train operation, for some reason). Although the launch is not a powerful as V2’s (something I love), the ride itself is amazing.... the upside-down top hat with just a lap bar is unbelievable! A great ride... GAm, take note (but make ours faster, bigger, and not themed for Mr. Freeze). 9/10
Our last ride of the night was Xcaliber, something I had been looking forward to for the entire day... and unfortunately, after waiting 30 minutes (due to incredibly slow load time... only 5 cycles in that time, and the ride only runs like 1.5 minutes) I was disappointed. Although the view is cool, the forces are not that impressive. I much prefer Orbit, which I know is simpler, but more fun. A cool looking ride, Xcaliber is, but not much excitement there. 5/10
~~~SUMMARY~~~
All in all, the day was fun, although I feel no need to go back anytime soon... the park is beautiful and clean, but the layout is so chaotic. Also, don't go for FrightFest(you'll notice that I've barely mentioned it), unless you want to be disappointed... I only saw like 3 costumed characters in the park the whole day, and they weren't really trying to scare people... and their costumes are nothing compared JPM's. The haunted house was $8, and not even open when I went past it (or if it was, there was no staff anywhere to be seen to sell or take tickets.) The decorations were sub par compared to GAm's (Although it got some enjoyment when the hand holding a broom fell off a mechanical witch while I watched). All in all, the park was fun, but small, and FrightFest was a huge disappointment.
Your comments are appreciated! Sorry for the novel; I like to write!
