I'm not sure why but Silverwood's Aftershock has been running faster than I remember Deja Vu going. Plus, someone said one tower is shorter than the other? I still think it looked better at Six Flags. I miss the cobra roll the most.
I have yet to go to any amusement park outside of Great America. I would rather spend money on Cedar Point or Magic Mountain than SIlverwood. They have like 4 coasters and 2 of them are wooden. Plus, I already rode Deja Vu in 2007. Granted, it was only once but it's not THAT special to go all the way to a desert like town in Idaho. I Really want to go to MM. I wanna ride Goliath, Riddler's Revenge, X2 and Tatsu.
I meant Silverwood is in the middle of nowhere, not exactly a desert. There are nothing but mountains around Silverwood while Magic Mountain is in Valencia, CA close to the LA metropolitan area.
onyxhotel08 wrote:I meant Silverwood is in the middle of nowhere, not exactly a desert. There are nothing but mountains around Silverwood while Magic Mountain is in Valencia, CA close to the LA metropolitan area.
Sort of....lots of highway for about 30 minutes going up and down up and down....until u see a red tower peaking out of a mountain range.
What makes MM so special is that it is the only park from Six Flags that is open year-round. I'm so jealous; they never close, have Deja Vu and constantly get spoiled with new rides. I can't complain about Great America, though. It's still a great park. JUst wish a little more emphasis would be placed on thrill seekers. Just a little bit.
They have a need for thrill seekers and a general public more then us. They have SO much competition in So Cal that they need to keep more rides coming so they can get as much of an audience as they can. We don't have any competition, our park was lacking the family audience so the park put emphasis on that the past few years. Now hopefully, they will switch gears in the next year or two.
Hey everyone, the name's Brandon (same Brandon from Roller Coaster Pro). I'm new to this forum. This thread attracted me, as I am a Silverwood Ride Operator, and I thought I could clear up some things going around in this forum reguarding Aftershock.
-Since Monday, 7/21, the ride has not broken down, however, it will go down every 50 cycles due to a program that Six Flags put into the coaster's system. Vekoma is currently trying to get that program out of the system, as it puts a strain on Silverwood's maintenance crew. Because this system is in the program, maintenance must be at Aftershock all day to quickly restart the ride after the 50th cycle.
-Silverwood will not be installing the evacuation platform under the cobra roll, as it is unnessacary. Cherry pickers will work better than the evac platform. Also, there is little to no chance that Aftershock will valley in the cobra anymore, as Vekoma tweaked Tower 2, so the catch car takes the train up higher on Tower 2, thus making for a faster return trip.
-Aftershock will not lose the blue and green colors, however, Silverwood may repaint it to reflect darker shades of it's current scheme.
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Silverwood can't teach an old ride new tricks
Apparently it can, as the dispatch times on Aftershock have been quicker, smoother, and more efficient than while it was at SFGAm. Dont believe me? Here's a exerpt from ScreamScape.
2008 - Aftershock - (7/23/08) I was also sent some comments about the ride as well, saying that it was running very smooth on the first day. It was also noticed that the ride ops, though new to the ride, seemed to be dispatching trains far more quickly than what was witnessed at the various Six Flags parks that had the same model ride.
I guess I'm not the only one who thinks this.
Here's a few photos from the opening day. Yes, that says Minimum 47', Maximum 80'
Opening day was great. I was on the very first public train, and 6 more times after that day. I came back the day after and got 3 more rides, bringing my count up to 10 so far. I may go back tomorrow and the next day as those are off days for me to bring my count up to at least 20.
47" is ris-kay, even kids that were 54" would often smash their face into the restraint (the part that was added to prevent people from reaching forward and hitting limit switches) and get bloody noses and the blood would get everywhere, the problem definitley wont be any better for kids shorter than 54.
Glad to hear its running well and I think it will do real well there, but im not about to ride the gravy train just yet. Theres been times SFGAm has done huge rehabs and the ride ran extremely well and refused to break down for an entire month, then the next month it would all just go to hell and the ride wouldnt move without complain a storm.
That entrance plaza is AWESOME, always thought the best view of the ride was from behind the towers and its cool they put the entrance there.
How are the restraints checked there, at SFGAm we had to check the seatbelts then go back and check the shoulder harnesses and it normally took about 2 minutes, when I was there normally it was between 450-500/hour (whereas SFMM gets between 200-300 normally) and when Vekoma was here working on they said we loaded it way faster than the other parks (though that was in 05, cant speak for the 06 or 07 operations)I dont think SFOGs has actually operated for a full hour without a significant break down so its difficult to judge numbers there .
Last edited by BP317 on July 28th, 2008, 12:09 pm, edited 3 times in total.
^^^Thanks for that post. It's good to hear that it's running good, for now. I guess we'll have to see at the end of the season if it is truely running better...
Deja Vu worked ok at first too but in 2002, after the winter, it had serious problems. We will see next year how it does after the off-season. Don't celebrate just yet. They should have kept the 54' minimum just to be on the safe side. Guess Silverwood wanted more people to get on it to get more guests in the park. Too bad there wasn't a full Aftershock pic. WHY has rollercoaster pro been down all week?
I am really shocked (no pun intended) at Aftershock's height change. From 54"-78" to 47"-80", something is wrong. Do they have less strict codes in Idaho???
I don't know but why in the world did they "tweak" Tower 2, sounds stupid to me.I know i won't be able to go to Idaho anytime soon but I really do wish they would get rid of Vu's colors it still depresses me.
Vekoma says the height requirement as 1.40m or a little over 54". For visual aid:
Im all for shorter height requirements but that is not a good idea, especially with DejaVu which I think warrented a 54" requirement more than any other ride because kids that were even 54 would smash their face on the harness and get bloody noses, and it will be even worse with shorter kids.
From 54"-78" to 47"-80
It was 76" not 78"
I can see why the rides loading way faster at Silverwood,they took out the extra seatbelt. That should make loading a breeze, at least 75% faster than it was here. Wow if Six Flags took out the extra belt like Silverwood did that would have fixed their big capacity issue, without it, DejaVu could have pulled in more riders than many of the other coasters at SFGAm .
Add the shorter height requirement + no seatbelts thats, well interesting. The seatbelts were there because the harnesses only went down to a certain point and those really skinny girls that ride would have a lot of space between them and the restraint, and having 47" really skinny people riding with no seatbelt, well they have a lot more space to fly around now .
Last edited by BP317 on July 28th, 2008, 6:31 pm, edited 3 times in total.
I'm sure the under 54' crowd loves the new height requirements. How bad have the lines been? I wish someone would post a trip report on Silverwood. I do think the colors should be darkened a bit. Once Great America gets a new thrill ride, 2009 or 2010, it will be "Aftershock who?".
Barbie? you wish. It'd be my little ponies all the way. Can stick it in SW Territory. And while they're at it they can repaint Bull Hot Pink and Baby Blue and call it My Big Pony. It'd have some serious synergy happening. I sense a whole new themed area coming on here.
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
Definitely, its called the offseason and a computer reformat. The hard part is installing a new program that Vekoma gives the park that will hopefully work well once the new season comes around. Sophomore slump maybe?
Top 5 wood-5-Goliath 4-Ravine Flyer II 3-Phoenix 2-Voyage 1-El Toro Top 5 Steel- 5-Velocicoaster 4- Maverick 3- Fury 325 2-Steel Vengeance 1-X2 Coaster Count: 444