Pass processing took about 15 minutes. Not too bad. A little confusion on buying the Season Dining Pass at pass processing, but we got it figured out.
With my new Android phone, I will confess: I don't know how I ever lived life before I could get the RideHopper app. Oh. My. Gawd. Sheer brilliance, whoever put that together. Although, it showed its weakness when someone clearly felt like screwing with it at the end of the day, putting in max wait times for a few rides that couldn't possibly have it (SkyTrek, Spacely's Sprockets), then for all the major coasters. Good work, GP idiotas.
Protip: Portion sizes at the park are pretty big, so we get by on one Dining Pass for my girlfriend and I. Not a bad way to go.
Ate at JB's for lunch. Burger was OK, but the girlfriend loved the decor and the jail getup on the Packers' side (fitting the Packers' side gets the good stuff, though a jail getup would have probably made for a better Lions or Cincinnati Bengals theme, but I digress). Neat new place.
First coaster of the year: American Eagle. I thought I saw riders on Blue when I got there, but only Red was running when we hit the platform. Did see Blue go on a test run, though. Was disappointed in the crew — when they're on their game, they fly through to make sure lapbars and seatbelts are on. This crew, though, was very pokey about it. Uy.
Anyone know anything about Revolution cycles? I swear it's better sometimes than others. I prefer it when it spins less in the beginning and more after its worked up some back-and-forth momentum rather than the other way around, which is kind of what it seemed to do for us Saturday. How much of this is in the Ride Ops' hands?
Lots of bands and school groups and what appeared to be a day with a threat of rain turned out to be gorgeous, so long lines all day. Ugh.
Saw a whole lot of people walking around with trophies at the end of the day. I'm not convinced any band actually lost.
Finally seemed to get a strategy that somewhat worked for Whizzer: Girlfriend leaned right, I leaned left. Avoided any nose bonkage, which is nice.
X-Flight was the worst line all day. Hate to say it, but just like Superman, one-train operation kills that ride on a busy day. Sad we didn't get to hit it. Of our "big three" (X-Flight, Bull & Superman), we only made time for Bull at the end of the day with the lines.
Rue Le Dodge was surprisingly short line-wise all day. Love it when we can sneak over there.
With the lines, honestly, we were just cool with riding flats. Triple Play and Condor were nice, short waits. Guy getting off Condor, though, asked about why it "doesn't stop at the top like it used to." Did it ever do that? Don't think I'd like it if it did, honestly.
Confirmed my want not to ride Namtab as I saw a kid finishing off a puke in a flower bed near the antique photo place while being half supported-by and half laughed-at by his friends ("Just get it all out of you, man." [snicker]). Granted, I don't have enough evidence to 100 percent confirm Namtab was the cause ... could have been V2, or the kid just could have been legitimately sick, but given the location, I'm calling that the most likely reason. Girlfriend showed faint interest until we saw that.
Adding one more funnel cake place: Good idea. Not instituting an assembly line-like system or different seasonal flavors like Magic Mountain's very efficient operation: Bad idea. Lines were still long with annoyed people at the end of the night. Right idea, but the actual system to make the funnel cakes needs an overhaul.
Almost as if they had been listening to our conversation a couple weeks ago, Looney Tunes on TV most of the day! I had no idea this was going on. Brilliant. They held everyone's attention in line, too. Good stuff. Can't beat the classics.
In all, Whizzer, Viper, Eagle Red, Ragin' Cajun (outside left, worth the wait) and Bull on the coaster list. Triple Play, Revolution, Condor and Rue Le Dodge for flats. Eight and a half hours, nine rides, plus lunch (JB's) and dinner (Angelo's; first time the two of us ever combined to finish the All The Pasta You Can Fit On One Plate ... I'm still convinced they could fit more if they truly thought like engineers).
A good trip, but it's always good when I can spend that kind of time with my girlfriend. Come to think of it, we've never had a bad day there.
for you not showing much interest in namtab. it isnt to bad of a ride i mean more than one ride is sickening but not bad! i havnt saw a puker once on that ride this year(sure there has been many) but i already saw 4 pukers on raging bull one of which sunday(EWWW) but all in all its a fun ride you should get on it at least once!
Glad to see though you guys enjoyed your first trip to 6flags!
PfightingPolish wrote: (Angelo's; first time the two of us ever combined to finish the All The Pasta You Can Fit On One Plate ... I'm still convinced they could fit more if they truly thought like engineers).
There's a reason they changed it from "all you can pile on your plate" to "all WE can pile on your plate"
DejaVu2001 wrote:There's a reason they changed it from "all you can pile on your plate" to "all WE can pile on your plate"
True. At the same time ... it's freakin' spaghetti. What does a decent-sized box cost at the store, $2.50? Plus another buck for the sauce and the meatballs? And that's not at bulk. Even if they let you take as much as you want, or put a little more on, or whatever, the margin would still be pretty good.
Neither here nor there, though; the portion size is basically just right for two. Wish they gave you real parmesan cheese shakers, though, rather than the little packets. I end up taking about 10 of them to put a reasonable amount of cheese on the plate.
BURTONxBLUNT wrote:for you not showing much interest in namtab. it isnt to bad of a ride i mean more than one ride is sickening but not bad!
... still debating it. We might try it once. I have a general rule: If Pam can/wants to do it, we do it, save only for Giant Drop. She seems to have piqued curiosity, so we might.
We generally go once a month, so I'll probably check back in sometime in early June.
PfightingPolish wrote:Quicky update from our trip on Saturday.
[list][*]Anyone know anything about Revolution cycles? I swear it's better sometimes than others. I prefer it when it spins less in the beginning and more after its worked up some back-and-forth momentum rather than the other way around, which is kind of what it seemed to do for us Saturday. How much of this is in the Ride Ops' hands?[/*]
[*]Guy getting off Condor, though, asked about why it "doesn't stop at the top like it used to." Did it ever do that? Don't think I'd like it if it did, honestly.[/*]
[*]Confirmed my want not to ride Namtab as I saw a kid finishing off a puke in a flower bed near the antique photo place while being half supported-by and half laughed-at by his friends ("Just get it all out of you, man." [snicker]). Granted, I don't have enough evidence to 100 percent confirm Namtab was the cause ... could have been V2, or the kid just could have been legitimately sick, but given the location, I'm calling that the most likely reason. Girlfriend showed faint interest until we saw that.[/*]
[*]Adding one more funnel cake place: Good idea. Not instituting an assembly line-like system or different seasonal flavors like Magic Mountain's very efficient operation: Bad idea. Lines were still long with annoyed people at the end of the night. Right idea, but the actual system to make the funnel cakes needs an overhaul.[/*]
-For Revolution, I highly doubt that the ride ops have any control on what cycle to use. If the cycle was different from one week to another, than it's the mechanics changing it.
-For Condor even though it's not completely stopping, they probably are referring to Fright Fest when Condor goes really, really slow on top.
-A funny story about Batman backwards is that Batman was going to open. It was broke down at the beginning of the day. So, I think it's going to open because the they tested it out already. I am waiting at least 10 minutes after they last tested it. They didn't test it again, and than they opened the line. I'm wondering why it took 10 minutes after the test run. Well, the floor was all wet with water, and it wasn't raining. I think the employee puked after their test ride.
-I find it ironic that you mention Magic Mountain as having an efficient operating funnel cake place when Magic Mountain only has ONE of them whereas SFGAm has 5 of them (by Whizzer, near Rue Le Dodge, near County Fair train station, in waterpark, new one by V2). I think that's dumb that Magic Mountain only has 1!
"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:I find it ironic that you mention Magic Mountain as having an efficient operating funnel cake place when Magic Mountain only has ONE of them whereas SFGAm has 5 of them (by Whizzer, near Rue Le Dodge, near County Fair train station, in waterpark, new one by V2). I think that's dumb that Magic Mountain only has 1!
On the one hand, I see what you're saying, especially since Magic Mountain has a bigger footprint than Great America. Honestly, while the coasters are great at Magic Mountain, the experience there on the whole seems kind of lacking ... restaurants, restrooms (uy, some of the dirtiest, fly-infested restrooms I've been in for years), etc. So yeah, on a high level, that is kind of an issue.
However, I'd almost rather have one really good funnel cake place than four mediocre, inefficient ones. We went at the end of the night, they had lots of options, including a maple nut funnel cake and a couple other interesting sounding flavors, there wasn't much of a line, they were quick and we got in and out fast with our funnel cake goodness.
I will grant you that I have a few theories on this. First off, I think it's entirely plausible that funnel cakes just aren't as big of a deal in California. This might just be the stigma of living in Wisconsin and thinking we like things that make us fat (at least I, along with most of my friends and family, do) and people elsewhere don't. But maybe that partly plays in.
Also, their place is near the front entrance but kind of away from most of the rides, so it might just not be in a heavy-traffic spot. And, for whatever reason, the park as a whole seemed kind of empty by the end of the night. We went on a Monday and it was a pretty hot day, so maybe a lot of folks spent the day in the waterpark and left.
All that aside, though, they definitely took more of an assembly line approach and the experience was far, far better there than the lines I've waited in and the delay of having the person working the register also being the one who runs off to partially finish making the funnel cakes.
PfightingPolish wrote:[*]Anyone know anything about Revolution cycles? I swear it's better sometimes than others. I prefer it when it spins less in the beginning and more after its worked up some back-and-forth momentum rather than the other way around, which is kind of what it seemed to do for us Saturday. How much of this is in the Ride Ops' hands?[/*]
That's all the job of Safety/Ride Control....Ride Operators push the buttons and the computer/PLC takes over. It does seem like Revolution is on a different program where the start of the cycle has significantly more rotation in it than it use to have. Perhaps that particular program gives the park less mechanical issues with the ride....since it never ran very well at GAdv.
