We were in St. Louis on the 19th for a Cardinals game, and the next day my brother and I spent the day at SFSL. We stopped at St. Louis Bread Co. before and after hitting the park.
We arrived a little after opening and stayed till 9 (closing). It was a pretty hot day, but otherwise great weather, and I was SHOCKED by the lack of crowds! Maybe it was because of the heat and the waterpark being open, but I didn't really notice anything different after it closed.
We hit every coaster and every flat (except for the cars that go through American Thunder) at least once, and we were blowing through everything so fast my brother wanted to leave early. I was actually getting pretty exhausted too, but I made him stay. Afterwards, I tried counting overall rides and I think it was 33.
This was our 3rd time visiting the park.
Mr. Freeze continues to impress, and we rode it 4 times. I wish they had 1 side forwards and 1 side backwards, but backwards is probably better.
The Boss is seriously amazing, but it seems to get worse each year. At this point I'd say it's just as rough as Mean Streak, just in a different way. Where Mean Streak takes the hills hard, The Boss takes the turns hard. Either the track just fell apart, or the math on the curves wasn't very clean, because it feels like the train is just ramming every turn as hard as it can. I love the layout though, so I'm really hoping SF invests in its rehab soon (it also goes great with the terrain, just like Screamin' Eagle).
We rode Boomerang twice. Its age really shows. The inversions have more punch than I expected, but with that came some serious transition issues. Every train that was sent, you can see people's head whip around like crazy.
And of course it's still got a ton of downtime.
That Mine Ride is so much more intense than it looks. The last tunnel is awesome. I'd love to see some nice cushions on that thing.
St. Louis' Batman is pretty crazy force-wise and also crazy smooth compared to Great America's. After walking all day, the second ride on Batman (front row. We literally stood in an empty station to ride front, that's how empty the park was) just killed me. My feet/legs stung so bad from the blood, and I felt terrible because I actually wanted to ride it again, but that would have been a terrible idea.
American Thunder is way more intense than Viper. And it's not exactly as smooth as I remember it, but I guess I'd say the frequency of the vibrations are much higher than those from "bumpy/rough" rides. It's more rattley and less thumpy.
But after that trip to St. Louis, I finally realized how low on the intensity scale American Eagle sits. Viper is higher, but definitely not in league with The Boss and American Thunder (I don't really know how to compare Screamin' Eagle and Viper).
Since Raging Bull is my favorite Great America ride, I often think of St. Louis as having a lesser assortment of rides, but now I've realized that the St. Louis coasters are pretty damn powerful compared to Great America.