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4/15/2017 - Preview Weekend

Let us know how your day at the park was.
Postby RollingCoasting on April 16th, 2017, 2:19 am
I went to the park yesterday (Saturday) for preview weekend, and I had a pretty good time. I thought it would be excessively crowded due to the stunning weather (It was 81 at one point in the day I believe) and the bring a friend for $9.99 deal, but it was only like a normal July day. I'd say last year's closing day (November 6th) was way worse. I got to the park around 12:45 and stayed a bit past closing, which was extended until 7 P.M.! Upon entering the park, we headed towards Logger's Run and saw The Joker on the way. After seeing it, I have to admit it looks quite nice in that spot. Not much progress on the queue, it seems they were doing work on the transfer track during my visit. Logger's Run ended up being too long of a wait (Looked like an hour) but that was expected because of the temperatures, so we hit Fiddler's Fling instead. It's cycle has been shortened to increase capacity. This kind of sucks though, because FF already had it's cycle cut a bit last year too, so now it's one of the shortest flat rides in the park. After that, we still needed our water ride fix so we went to Buccaneer Battle, and, I shit you not, that was the longest line of the day at 31 minutes. I'll never forget the time I waited more than a half an hour for Bucky :lol: It was only running 3 or 4 boats (Seems they stopped running it at full capacity in 2016), so that explains the queue. Family got in line for Strutter's while I headed to Superman: Ultimate Flight for my first coaster ride of the season. I noticed the queue was empty with a mob waiting in front of it, and realized it was broken down. I got to the SRL and was only behind 3 flash passers. About 10 minutes later, it opened up and they let us go first. I got to the station and saw that there was no attendant to assign me a row, so I snuck to row 8 xD. I had only had to wait one cycle, which they dispatched fairly quickly, but when it came to my turn, I was in the loading position for a good 8 minutes or so before they sent us off. Ah well. While on the lifthill, I actually saw the SFGAm Evaluation Squad walking through the ADA line, I guess that was kind of cool. Fast forward an hour, done with lunch at Strutter's, it's about 4:00 now. Did quite a bit of walking around before I decided to go on Whirligig. I kept checking on Batman's line as I really wanted to hit it up, but it remained at 45 minutes almost all day. (We'll get to that later ;)) After this I went to Revolution, which, I hate to report, has had it's cycle shortened as well. :/ We went back to Yankee Harbor and played some games in the Gotham City Arcade and then went over to Viper. (For reference, it was now 6:00 or so) 20 minute wait for the back row. It was running much better than my last ride(s) on it on Halloween night. After this we had some snacks (ICEE and nachos) and I rode Chubasco, which has also had a shortened cycle. 6:30. We made our way to Yankee Harbor and did a bit of stalling, as our goal was to be last ride of the night on Batman. Well, we go to B:TR and it was only 6:45 or so, so we just got on. No line. Just walked right up to row 3 and waited 1 train. I haven't been on Batman in quite some time, reminded me how fun (And intense) it is. It took us a while to get on due to some girl having to be re-measured, so it was like 6:54. (The lines are chained off two minutes prior to closing). We decided to hit up V2 for the last ride of the night another ride I hadn't been on in awhile. We stood on the staircase to let everyone else pass us to achieve that goal. I ended up being on the last train of the night, my first time doing that. By the time we got off it was 7:15 or so. Ended up not leaving the parking lot until 7:40 due to a bit of traffic and of course the long walk back to the excess lot. All in all, it was a great start to the season. Can't wait to come back!

Fiddler's Fling, x1
Buccaneer Battle, x1
Superman: Ultimate Flight, x1 - Backrow via SRL
Whirligig, x1
Revolution, x1
Viper, x1 - Backrow
Chubasco, x1
Batman: The Ride, x1
V2, x1 - Last ride of the night

Total: 9 - Coasters: 4

Pictures:

20170415_131221.jpg

I saw this Batman souvenir cart in Carousel Plaza. It seemed new (Can anyone confirm?) I bet it will sell capes and those light sticks

20170415_131757.jpg

Finally saw the Joker in person, not going to lie, it looks pretty neat

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It's weird how different this area looked 4 years ago compared to today

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Still not entirely sure how this ride will rank for me.. guess I'll have to wait to find out

20170415_134653.jpg

Bucky's excess queue, which I'm pretty sure has never been used :lol:

20170415_134711.jpg

I didn't even make an attempt to ride X-Flight today. From what I saw, it had a full queue all day, though it was a station wait around closing, but I feel like they may have roped it's line off early due to the 1 train operations on it

20170415_145857.jpg

It's a bird. It's a plane. Nah, it's Pretzelman: Ultimate Flight!

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Not the best quality shot, but I just want to say, The Joker looks great by the pond next to Little Dipper.

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After 5 months of the offseason I was really looking forward to some airtime on Viper again :)

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Love this ride

20170415_182757.jpg

Didn't do the Bull today, but had to get the obligatory shot

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Last ones in line!

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Tried to get a shot with the train, but failed

20170415_191634.jpg

One last shot of The Joker before heading out (It is pretty photogenic as you can tell)
RollingCoasting

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Postby Whizzer Whiz Kid on April 16th, 2017, 6:23 am
RollingCoasting wrote: I got to the SRL and was only behind 3 flash passers. About 10 minutes later, it opened up and they let us go first. I got to the station and saw that there was no attendant to assign me a row, so I snuck to row 8 xD.

You are the reason single rider lines get taken out. JK, wonder why there was no grouper and still let you go singer rider.


RollingCoasting wrote:
20170415_131221.jpg

I saw this Batman souvenir cart in Carousel Plaza. It seemed new (Can anyone confirm?) I bet it will sell capes and those light sticks

Don't think it is new. For the last few seasons it has been by Batman.
Favorite @ SFGAm - Eagle ~ Favorite Steel - Skyrush ~ Favorite Wood - El Toro
35 Rides on Eagle in 2015
68 Rides on Eagle in 2016
102 Rides on Eagle in 2017
9 Rides on Eagle in 2018
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Postby RollingCoasting on April 16th, 2017, 2:03 pm
Whizzer Whiz Kid wrote:
RollingCoasting wrote:
20170415_131221.jpg

I saw this Batman souvenir cart in Carousel Plaza. It seemed new (Can anyone confirm?) I bet it will sell capes and those light sticks

Don't think it is new. For the last few seasons it has been by Batman.


That was my initial thought as well, and I don't remember seeing the cart by Whirligig (I could be wrong though) so maybe. I'll have to check for sure on my next visit
RollingCoasting

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Postby Whizzer Whiz Kid on April 16th, 2017, 8:00 pm
Favorite @ SFGAm - Eagle ~ Favorite Steel - Skyrush ~ Favorite Wood - El Toro
35 Rides on Eagle in 2015
68 Rides on Eagle in 2016
102 Rides on Eagle in 2017
9 Rides on Eagle in 2018
Whizzer Whiz Kid

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Location: Nowhere, Wisconsin

Postby RollingCoasting on April 16th, 2017, 10:21 pm
Now that I think about it, I spent a lot of time in Yankee Harbor yesterday and do not remember the cart being there so it probably was just moved into Carousel Plaza.
RollingCoasting

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Postby CoasterRiderSC on April 21st, 2017, 4:44 pm
I took my 6yo daughter (she'll be 7 in May!) on Sunday with the Bring Friend 9.99. She's a legit 50 inches tall now. It was Easter, but we went to the Easter Service at our church on Saturday!

Weather was pretty nice and not hot, but not cold either. Most of the rides were walk-ons at the beginning of the day. We did like 6 rides the first hour I think! Then it got a little bit more crowded but still not crazy.
MY deal to her was this: ride Giant Drop or Goliath to earn a dippin' dots! Last year she earned one by riding Eagle (red). Before arriving she said she'd do Giant Drop and had actually been talking about riding it for a few weeks, but when we got close to the ride she quickly changed her mind!

Later on in the day, she said "I'll do Goliath once for the dippin dots!" I was thrilled to hear that! So we made our way to the line. She then said "That thing is almost straight down, Daddy!" I thought that was cute and funny at the same time. I told her to keep watching/studying the ride to see what it does, and I also told her it would have been OK to change her mind. And I told her what applies to probably almost every ride: It's NOT as bad as it looks! We got to the station and got in row 2 , to minimize the first drop (usually I'm only in last 2 rows). After descending the drop after the overbank turn she yelled out "I Love this ride!"

This was a great daddy/daughter memory for us both! I was so thrilled that she made good on her word to ride it and she can't wait to do it again! We ended the night on Whizzer which is sort of a tradition for us.
Then I waited in line for some nachos by the Demon.

Food selections
[*]Bavarian Pretzel - was excellent
[*]Nachos - very weak, with almost no ground beef.
That's one item I won't be getting again! Hardly any ground beef and pretty much all chips. It reminded me of those Wendy's commercials from the early 80's "Where's the Beef??!"
[*]Orange chicken - very good, had it with lo mein noodles
[*]Pizza from food court - super weak! I'll never get that again.

And I agree that Joker is much more impressive looking up close than in the photos.
All in all it was a great first trip there!

Dark Knight - 1
Demon - 2
Goliath - 1
Justice League - 2 (very first ride of day, then a 2nd one)
Viper - 2
Whizzer - 1 (closing ride)
River Rocker - 2 (walk on)
Ricochet - 1
Buccaneer - 1 (walk on)
Condor - 1 (walk on)
-------------------------------
14 total rides ( 7 coasters)

We took a fairly long lunch break so I was happy with the ride count and the park was only open 6 hours.
Single Day Ride Count Record

50 rides 8/17/2018 (Without Flash Pass - Coasters After Dark)

---- "Here we go, kids!! Here we go!!"
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