Six Flags America 5/26 PTR/VTR

[violakat03]

Let's start this off by saying I had very low expectations for this park. I'd looked at the ride list and didn't see anything particularly fantastic. Everything I've ever read about this park has been negative. Between reports of rude employees, trashy paths and even gang problems, I was expecting it to be a short day and not very enjoyable. Just get in, ride the rides and get back out.

The truth was very, very far from that. The park was very far from what I expected. I'll explain as we go on.

Before leaving, I shot a short video.

Arriving at the park with my freshly processed season pass (got it on Sunday) I was surprised at how easy it was to use the parking. I went to hand the toll associate my pass, and he just looked at it, saw the word 'parking' printed on it and waved me on. In the back of my mind I was thinking "kaching, this means I can leave the park for lunch!" Pulling into the parking lot, my hopes sank a little when I saw a row of busses already forming. It was about noon when I got there but seeing six tour busses immediately spelled trouble to me.

After snagging a close parking spot, I looked around to realize that those six busses were the only ones there, and only a small handful of cars -less than 100, easily. My hopes rose once more. I left my phone in the car to charge, and then decided to leave my camera there also, as it was still raining slightly and I didn't want it getting wet. I figured I'd go back out to the car in an hour or so and retreive both items.

Entering the park, I took a look around Main Street. SFA's is very similar to SFOG's. Very quaint, with brick pavers to walk on and cute looking storefronts. I was a little lost at first but the handy sign posts led me back towards the Gotham City area. I wanted to get both Joker's Jinx and Superman: Ride of Steel and both of those rides are in that section. Joker's Jinx was a complete walk-on, but I wanted the back seat so I waited one train. It was only running one train - along with every other ride in the park except Wild One - so one cycle later I was climbing in for my first ride at the park.

It was definitely interesting riding what is basically Flight of Fear minus the enclosure. I have the ride layout memorized and it was cool to be able to confirm that yes, it's the exact same - MINUS THE BRAKE RUN! I did little dance of excitement as we blew through that section at top speed and into the second half. I forgot just how fast it flies through that ending part, including the corkscrew. It was a lot more forceful than the trimmed Flight of Fear is, but I think I prefer it enclosed and dark.

From Joker's Jinx, I headed towards S:ROS, where a ride op was sitting in the test seat and turning people away. She said she was pretty certain the ride would be down for the rest of the day, as it was weather related. It's like Millennium Force - it can run in cold windy weather, which is exactly what it was today. I was sad to hear this, but decided I could come back later this week since I have a season pass now. I headed over to Batwing, which is pretty much exactly like Firehawk. Breakdowns and all. In the hour that I stood in a 2-train wait line, it broke down three times. The third time, I gave up and left. From there I headed towards Wild One, where I ended up oh-for-three on the ride functionality, since red train was stuck on the brake run. Cold, wet and windy days have their positives (low attendance) and negatives (breakdown city). I decided to grab a ride on a flat ride, the Falling Star (Six Flags is just as creative in naming as Cedar Fair, as this is a Chance Rides Falling Star), where I wasn't allowed to ride by myself. Luckily there was an uneven group riding so I got a ride partner and away we went. It was a surprisingly forceful for what looked like a very tame ride.

Since Wild One was still stuck, I made my way across the park to Mind Eraser. This is a Vekoma SLC inverted coaster with a couple neat elements to it. Just like everything else, it was walk-on. I slipped in next to another single rider and rode second-to-front seat. Even keeping my head planted to the side of the restraints, it beat the ever living crap out of me. It was also surprisingly fast. I was definitely amazed at just how fast it was moving through the track. But with the headache that it gave me, I decided one ride was more than enough. There was a group of girls that were on their fourth straight ride, I don't know how they were handling it.

After Mind Eraser, I headed to Roar, a GCI wooden twister that crosses itself 20 times. I'd heard some negatives about this ride also, so once again I wasn't expecting much. Boy, was I surprised when this ride pushed its way into my top ten wooden coasters! There were small pops of air time that really tossed you around as they went around corners. The corners were the correct banking to be fun rather than violent and overall the ride was pretty smooth. I got a re-ride on this one since there was no one waiting for my seat.

From Roar, I made my way slowly across the park, stopping at a few flat rides on the way. Their Octopus is a Sartori Polyp, and it doesn't require much to get the cars spinning - in fact they were spinning more on their own than I could get them to spin. I took two rides on this one because no one was waiting and everyone on the ride wanted to go another cycle so he started us up again. After that, I grabbed a ride on the Zamperla Flying Carousel. Just one ride.

Making my way back across the park, I saw that Wild One was running again and couldn't get to this Miller classic fast enough! Originally built in 1917 in Massachussetts, I'm incredibly glad this coaster was not lost as so many others of its era were. For such an old coaster, this thing flies! There are a couple airtime pops but it is by no means an airtime machine like Racer. The corners were fast, the random turns were a bit surprising, and the ending helix was.... wow! The banking is very slight and you really fly through it, even with the trim brake before it, so it flings you hard against the side of the car. If you're by yourself and sitting on the right side it can be a little painful, so after that I slid over to the left seat and rode again. After 3 immensely enjoyable rides, there were people waiting for all the seats so I decided I could call it a day for Wild One.

By now, I was hungry, so I started walking towards the car. The Tea Cups inexplicably drew me in so I took a ride in a green tea cup. Anyone who's been to a park with me knows that I love spinning rides - the faster they spin, the better. I had my cup spinning so fast that everything was a blur, I couldn't walk straight when I got off and I even felt a little naseaous - which is amazingly unusual for me! I decided to opt out of the reride on that one and headed out of the park. Surprise! I left my headlights on. After security kindly came and jump started me, I hit up the Taco Bell 3.2 miles away.

Returning to the park, I took my camera back in so I could snap some pictures as I went.

The entrance is very nice looking.

Never expected to see this sort of lanscaping at a second-rate Six Flags park.

Tea Cups!

Daffy Duck was dancing down the midway.

Look who I found!

Roar and the turnaround of Wild One.

The entrance to Gotham City goes under Wild One, which takes up most of the width of the park. You also cross railroad tracks. I crossed them what seemed like a hundred times and never once saw nor heard the train.

Joker's Jinx and Superman: Ride of Steel

Signs like these were very helpful and placed at each pathway junction.

I wanted to catch a ride on Batwing, so once again I went toward Gotham City.

Woohoo, people!

On my second ride (because they were allowing and encouraging re-rides), I met up with a single rider enthusiast by the name of Scottland. We'd ridden Roar together one time, so it was funny to run into him again. We ended up taking 3 rides together on S:ROS and then he accompanied me over to Batwing. We rode front seat of Batwing. It's the same layout as Firehawk, so no surprises there. The most entertaining part was that I realized as we started to lay down in the station I realized I had change in my pocket, so every time we were tipped back like that, I was trying to hold it in. All $0.90 survived the ride! Scottland had promised me a front seat ride on S:ROS, so we headed back over there and took 2 rides in the front seat (you know the park is empty when you can re-ride front). On the second ride, we were the only people in the entire train! On ride 3, we lost our seats and headed to the back seat. For the final ride of the night, the people who'd ridden front switched with us and we took front, they took back. So a total of 8 rides later, including the last 2 trains of the night, Scottland and I exchanged phone numbers (since he's on a coaster trip too and is planning on being at Kings Dominion tomorrow also) so that we could meet up at KD tomorrow. It was a lot of fun to have run into another enthusiast and ride with him several times.

I sum up a lot of my thoughts in the last video. Some of the ride ops were really hyped up, some were just 'eh' but none of them were moody, rude, or otherwise negative. The ops at S:ROS were definitely the most excited and engaging that we ran into. It was funny that at one point, the guy in the drive box asked me why I was wearing a Cedar Fair park jacket (I was wearing my Kings Island pullover) to a Six Flags park. I told him I live in Ohio and he said "good reason!" and we talked a little bit more while two young ladies were checking the restraints. He hasn't gotten to ride Millie yet because it was broken when he was there 2 years ago and he really wants to go back and get a ride on it. The two young ladies were passing out high fives as the train returned and laughing at our antics as we got off and switched seats each ride. Overall, my experience was definitely positive at Six Flags America and I will definitely be returning. Their coaster collection might be small, but it's a great collection with some absolutely outstanding rides.

[The Interpreter]

Thanks for the great PTR! I love your videos....and am glad to see Six Flags America looking so good...

Wild One has been reprofiled several times. It was really quite incredible before the last such reprofiling, which was about 10 years ago...

And NO linejumping. Wow...just wow.

Enjoy Kings Dominion...and then Dorney and Great Adventure, etc. (wish I could be there with you!)

[violakat03]

Thanks for the great PTR! I love your videos....and am glad to see Six Flags America looking so good...

Wild One has been reprofiled several times. It was really quite incredible before the last such reprofiling, which was about 10 years ago...

And NO linejumping. Wow...just wow.

Enjoy Kings Dominion...and then Dorney and Great Adventure, etc. (wish I could be there with you!)

Yeah, they had signs in the station talking about the history of the coaster, from it's origination to it's current layout. It was redesigned by Herbert Schmeck when the ride caught fire in the 30's, and then again when the SkyCoaster was installed. It's pretty far from the SkyCoaster so it must have been significantly different before to have come close enough to call for a change.

[DropZone99]

I'm loving these VTRs/PTRs! Looks like you had a great day at SFA, and proved it's not what most people say it is. How many coasters have you now ridden?