Secondly, forgive any misspellings or repeated letters or whatnot, I believe someone (not me) spilled somthing sticky into my keyboard and I dont yet feel like pulling out all the keys and scrubbing it out. I will try to proof read and attempt to correct errors,
Thirdly, I dont work, or have ever worked at SFGAm so I'm not breaking any park rules/policies posting any of this. I reccomend if anyone here has a job with the park you avoid posting much if anything onto this. So, with all that out of the way, on to my psuedo TR.
Today myself and some other people(All ACER's heading to SFStL this coming weekend) headed up to SFGAm for some pass processing (call for an appointment, while I hear it can be hard to get, it's been proven possible).
Started off the day driving up to the park, meeting up with my group and heading into the employee lot (as obviously the front lot is strictly off limits), which means we need to get from the back of the park to the front of the park, courtsey of a SFGAm van driven by an employee (not sure of any policy on names on this board, so I'll not post it), and just report what I was able to see from our little van tour.
Trip #1, from the administrative building to guest relations at the front gate. We took the Red Route (for those who dont know that involves driving down that road on the east side of the park, right on the inside of the fence where that other road is where Shockwave was stored, right though all the fright fest themeing). so yeah, not much to be seen, little report on what's back there. Power Dive is still in the E-lot in it's entirety, there are a few supports leftover from Shockwave it seems sitting in the far corner of the lot near the berm, no track though, and it seems all but 4 Sky Whirl Cabins have been destroyed (4 red ones, all now fright fest themeing, but intact). So alittle further in we drive right next to the trains on their storage track, exposed fully to the elements which is somewhat suprising, both wheels and track are covered in a thick layer of rust (explains the noises from the train opening month). alittle while later we pass 2 of the removed Hometown square kiddie rides, disassembled but stored in that area. Then we drive down the road, seeing some fright fest themeing but not much else til we round Superman, and we get our first view of the waterpark, and to our suprise there was some yellow fiberglass slide on the tower on the east side of the wavepool, maybe 6-7 sections starting at the splashdown pool and going up for a short ways, I hear it was put up either early this morning or last night (after the web cam took it's daily shot). So we drive completely around superman on that road, then we head onto that midway though that access lane between the bumper cars and Condor. First off the bumper car building that I could see right into through an opening, all the Orbit cars, Scrambler Tubs and some other assorted tubs from rides were in there (though suprisingly seemingly not the bumper cars, though they could have been hidden behind other stuff). Condor, looks like it has not been touched since closing day, they havent done a thing it seems, I get the feeing there is no refurbishment happening, probably some internal repairs that needed to be done, unless they paint it at the last minute, I doubt it will look much different from last season. (though they probably refurbished or at least repainted the cars I'd assume), then we drove down the midway to the front gate, weaving in and out of garbage cans and lightposts (pretty cool actually) noticeing they were powerwashing Sky Trek Towers queue, we then head indside and all get our passes processed and get spiffy new ID cards (though be forwarned they do not have parking passes yet, you can not get it til opening day and you will have to pay the $10 then get it refunded when you get your pass). So afterwards someone(who's name is available upon request) runs right up to the front gate and starts taking pics of the parking lot/waterpark, confusing park staff and her getting a verbal scolding from an employee.
Next we head back into orleans place but this time we turn into the central corridor that goes down the center of the park, under batman and all. Really not very senic, just alot of 1970's looking buildings and the park operations office and all. Once we get to DV, it obviously has not been painted at all yet, still has the splotches all over it, though there was there gray primer here and there indicating they are getting ready to paint it. Umm, not much else really. once we got to IW, I noticed one of the supports of the turn before the non-block brake is completely covered in scaffolding and there is alot of heavy duty welding equipment loading onto the scaffolding and it looks like there is some major modification going on on that support only. (though Wolf is known for having issues with that kind of stuff frequently). Also we were told American Eagle is having track work done on it's lifthill, though our driver was not exactly sure what is being done (wouldnt be suprised if it was still original 1981 track and is due for a replacing, even on something as low stress as a lifthill).
Add ons I though of after I wrote it all:
Also I think on the way out we spotted another of the Hometown Kiddy rides.
And at the very end of the tour we passed the maintaince building where out front there were a bunch of wooden crates with V2 marked on them, and the garage door was open and there were 1-2 of V2's Wheel Carriers sitting there on the floor, fully wheeled, just about ready to be reattached to the train(which we didnt see)
And finally as a note, Please people do not all rush to call SFGAm to get your passes processed just to get an off season tour of the park. If that happens and the system is abused you can be sure they will not have this service again in the future, and it is/was a really nice thing, especially with the new rules that you cant negoiate a deal to use vouchers to get into other parks. Someone did have to either stop what they were doing, get the van and drive us to the gate and process our passes, or come in on their day off and take care of us. And I'm sure he didnt exactly appreciate it. Homestly, would any of you want to drive 6 Coaster nerds around a park when you could be doing more important things. So if you really are headed to another park before opening day, give the park a call and I'm sure they'll see what they can do, but if you're not going to SFStL/SFKK, just dont even try. Thats something I'm sure SFGAm will appreciate
