Rustbucket

This coaster is well on the way. These are pictures from 1/1/2023.

Tracks behind Dragonflier. This coaster foot print is extremely large. Many footings are placed. These pictures are from 10/26/2022.

Thanks for posting this. I hope they will get this fixed. Grizzly was the first wooden coaster I rode as well as my first coaster in the US. I was there on the opening day for that coaster at KD.

I started to see footings for the new coaster. Also, some structures are being built near the entrance of Wildwood Grove. The foot print of this coaster is extremely large. These photos were taken on 9/11/2022.

Nice trip report. We were at Carowinds on Sunday. Even though it rained off and on, the park was really busy. Monday was extremely rainy so we stayed away.

Construction well on the way at Carowinds. These are taken on 9/4/2022.

I really like Mr Freeze. One of those coasters that are unexpectedly good. Knowing SF, they will retheme the Ride.

My son and I visited SFoG on 8/28/2022. This is our "home" SF park and visit here about once a month. Unfortunately, Acrophobia is closed for the day. Twisted Cyclone always opens early before the park officially opens. This RMC is one of the better ones. These smaller RMC retrofit coasters are much more re-ridable than larger ones. Dare Devil dive coaster capacity is very low so that wait time is normally quite long. I always try to ride this early. Mindbender is my favorite Schwarzkopf coaster over Scorpion at BGT, Revolution at SFMM or Sooperdooperlooper at Hershey. This is much smoother since refurbishment in 2021. I love Goliath. This almost hyper B&M coaster has been growing on me. I love the double helix and triple airtime hills at the end. This coaster is getting somewhat rattly. Batman the Ride and Superman Ultimate Flight are clones of the rides at other SF parks. I do find this Batman to be more intense than others for some reason. Great American Scream Machine was retracted this year and much smoother. I wish they kepted 3 row PTC trains for this coaster. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable wooden coaster. This park needs some TLC and in need for a new coaster. Many rides need new paint job. One positive is that it was cleaner than my other visits to this park. This park certainly has potential. There are some unique coasters along with good flat rides. They do need to expand the kiddie section.

Thunderbolt is still a nice little wooden coaster.

I have not been to SFNE in over 10 years. This park has one of my favorite steel coaster (#2 after Fury 325) that was known as Bizarro when I last visited here. I had about 4 hours to spend here. I headed over to Superman the Ride (Bizarro) first. This is quite probably the best Intamin designed coaster. This coaster has everything that I look for on a coaster: extreme airtime, lateral, speed, intensity and re-ridable. Even though this coaster is "only" 221 feet tall, I feel that this coaster is better than any other coaster except Fury 325. Needless to say, this is my favorite hyper coaster. The latest Six Flags cookie cutter coaster is Joker. I rode this at SFGAm last week and at SFNE (#417). I think this one was slightly better than the one at SFGAm. Not much difference between the two. Riddler's Revenge is the new name for old Mind Eraser which is Vekoma Invert. Another cookie cutter design. Batman Dark Knight is a decent floorless coaster. Dominator at KD is a far superior floorless. I enjoy this one more than Kraken at SeaWorld Orlando or Rougarou at CP. Wicked Cyclone (#418) is quite good. As with other RMC retrofit coasters, the restraint system is terrible and thus not comfortable. This feels more like Twisted Cyclone than Steel Vengeance. I actually liked this Six Flags park. The atmosphere felt much better than SFGAm last week. It is entirely possible that shooting at SFGAm night before negatively impacted the park. As I have done a few times, this park is worth visiting just for Superman alone.

I enjoy Whizzer but did not have time to ride it today. I do love the history behind that coaster. Very unique one at that. I really did not like Iron Wolf. For that matter, I am not a fan of stand up coasters. Goliath is a good wooden coaster. I still like Lightning Rod and Outlaw Run better though. This will get the longest wait out of all rides here.

I was planning to come to SFGAm for over a month since I was going to be in Chicago area. I had about 3 hours to spend at the park. With the shooting last night in the parking lot, I really did not know what to expect. I got to the park around 2 pm. There was no parking lit attendant. No one was collecting $35 parking fee or checking parking pass. It may be that they are having staffing issue or something but not expected. There were several Gurnee police cars patrolling the lot though. About 1/4 of the rides were closed including Maxx Force, Viper, and American Eagle. I was looking forward to Maxx Force. Oh well... Only new coaster credit was The Joker (416). Interesting coaster but not something impressive. Goliath is still a wonderful coaster. I enjoy these original RMC wooden coasters much better than retrofit steel RMC coasters. X-Flight, Batman and Raging Bull were just as I remembered them. They are enjoyable B&M coasters yet none of them stand out. Later on, Viper opened back up. This is an underrated wooden coaster. Another one of those Cyclone clones but it this is much better than original. Overall, I was not really impressed with this park. This park used to be one of the better run SF parks but not sure anymore. This is my last trip to this park for 2022. I am hoping that things improve for Six Flags and see new investments in these parks in the near future.

My Six Flags gold season pass for 2022 was $39.99 plus tax. Dollywood gold pass and CF Platinum pass were over $200.00. How is this sustainable for Six Flags? Also, Six Flags have parks near many large urban area that are experiencing surges in crimes. They will need to make some changes to improve. I am visiting SFGAm today; the day after the incident in the parking lot last night. No one was at the parking station. No one was checking parking passes. I see some Gurnee police presence though. There are some great parks within SF Park chain. As a coaster enthusiast, having well run Six Flags will be a welcome development. I am willing pay more if I can get better experiences.

We visited Dollywood on 8/14/2022. Of course, Lightning Rod is the first ride of the day. We ended up riding this coaster 5 times. This is no longer a wooden coaster per se. 60% of the track is unfortunately now I-Box tracked. I definitely prefer wooden tracks but understand the reasoning for this. This is still my favorite RMC coaster by a long margin and still my 3rd favorite wooden coaster. Once this coaster is converted to steel coaster, this will still rank within my top 10 favorite steel coaster. We got 2 rides each on Thunderhead, Drop Line (of course), Wild Eagle and Mystery Mine. We got 1 ride each of Fire Chaser and Dragon Fly. Big Bear Mountain Coaster construction has been going on for many months now. Now, there are signs of what the new ride is. I posted the pictures on other Park section. Interestingly, there was a filming going on for a movie. Dolly Parton was there along with other celebrities including Jimmy Fallon, Miley Cyrus, and Billy Ray Cyrus. Some of them were riding Lightning Rod. Red Cafe was closed for the shooting. There were so many people standing around the filming area. The park was somewhat busier than regular summer Sundays possibly due to filming. As always, this visit was quite enjoyable.