Six Flags St. Louis 8/5/2015

[Gplez90]

My lady and I had visited Six Flags St. Louis last year on the way to California, but were only there for about 1 hour (long enough to ride Mr. Freeze, The Boss and American Thunder). This year, she had a conference to go to in St. Louis, so I thought I'd tag along to visit the park again! The forecast for the day was terrible. 80% chance of storms (some may be severe). With the way us coaster enthusiasts think, what better time to go!? I got there 20 mins before open and the parking lot was nearly empty. Every other Six Flags I'd been to before open had at least some signs of intelligent life in the parking lot before open, even with rain in the forecast, but not St. Louis.

Walking up to the front entrance, the park shows it's age, but the skyline of the park is pretty decent. You can tell that the park is situated on a hill/mountain or whatever you wanna call it, but you can almost see every ride from some parts of the parking lot.

As I mentioned before, the entrance to the park is very dated. Getting into this park took quite a bit more time than it did at other Six Flags parks, even though the crowd was light.

Anyways, I didn't come here to critique the entrance, I came to ride some darn roller coasters! Onward to Justice League Battle

For Metropolis. This ride was something totally out of the ordinary for Six Flags so I was way beyond excited to try it out! I speed walked all the way to the DC Square in the 85° heat and humidity to find this big oversized bundle of disappointment.......

I felt like I was on The Price Is Right and I lost the showcase. Oh well, at least the building looks very well done!

What else was I to do, but turn around and ride one of my favorite launched coasters on the planet, Mr. Freeze!!

The ride is really cool (no pun intended)! The queue for the ride starts in the DC square, crosses over the white water ride, and into the ride's infield where you can watch the ride strut it's stuff. A quick siren goes off outside of the tunnel prior to every launch. The Mr. Freeze comes screaming out of the tunnel!

Halfway to the station, the queue becomes enclosed. What's really neat about the queue is the closer you get to the station, the colder the air gets. Just before going up the stairs, you pick side A or B (the sides don't really matter since this isn't a wing coaster. The station is really neat. It is themed after an old abandoned Ice Cream factory with snowflake textured lighted everywhere, and muffled rock music playing.

But the coolest thing about the station is how premier rides chose to go about two train operation. Last time i was there, only one side was open, but this time both sides were open. When train A returns from the trip, train B is ready to go. Train A slides to the loading platform while simultaneously, train B slide to the launch section. It is very efficient. Riders exit the ride toward the middle of the station, away from the loading platform.

Now onto the ride experience. The reverse launch is incredible. 0-70mph backwards and you feel every bit of it! The feeling of going backwards into an inverted top hat is an experience only the zero-g stall on Goliath can top! Exiting the top hat, into the high over-banked turn then 90° straight up into a spike. This isn't an inverted impulse coaster though. Mr. Freeze has LIMs in the middle of its 220ft tall spike that actually pull you higher than gravity would allow otherwise! In the back seat, you'll get every bit of that 220ft 90° drop. In the front, you'll feel every bit of 70-75mph! I say 75mph because the second half of the ride is noticeably faster. It's a very intense ride. The g-forces are incredible, the top hat and the spike are sensational, and the theme is well carried out. For the intensity of the ride, I feel it is the perfect duration to make it re-rideable. Mr. Freeze gets a 9/10 in my book. Bravo Premier Rides, bravo.....

I ended up ride Mr. Freeze about 7 times in the last row without getting out of my seat because it was so dead. Then I moved to the first row rode twice in a row.

Had to do a little back tracking now towards the front entrance to American Thunder. Personally, I can't get enough of a GCI coaster. They just make great coasters. They're not too tall, not super fast (though they feel that way), and super fun. The ramp from when the ride was themed after Evil Knievel is still there. Again, there was no wait for this ride either. I walked right onto an awaiting front seat! I don't even no how to describe this ride except HOLY AIRTIME!! There's airtime all over the place on this thing! Twists, turns, crossovers, airtime, turns, twists, airtime, twists airtime, turn airtime, airtime, airtime, airtime!!!!!!! AIRTIME!!!!!!!!! 8/10 that's all that's left to said..... ahem....... airtime.....

Twisted Heap of airtimey goodness!

when a ride has so much airtime you don't know what to do......

Say what's that? Is that a Vekoma boomerang? Ugh alright I'll ride it. But just once! Boomerang was just another boomerang coaster among hundreds. Nothing special. The view from top was great though! Until you lose you vision to a mild concussion after the cobra roll. 5/10 just like every other Vekoma boomerang.

After riding the New England Skyscreamer, my thoughts were "it couldn't hurt to ride one half the size. I never rode the one at SFGAd so I thought I'd give this one a try. This Skyscreamer was more on the level of WindSeeker; relaxing where the NESS was much more of a thrill ride because the seats twisted and turned. 7/10 because I didn't have to wait for it.

"A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link"

I had heard great things about Screamin' Eagle so that was my next ride of choice. The entrance of the ride is rather interesting. You kind walk through a midway games boardwalk to get to the rides entrance. Six Flags' way of trying to get money out of their guests I guess. Any who, I again walked right onto an awaiting front row. I wasn't really expecting much from this ride, but in a way, it under promised and over delivered. It was fast, very airtimey, and flew through a wooded area! What more could you ask for from a classic woodie?! I has to be one of my favorite out and back classic woodies! 8/10

not much of the ride is visible from the midway.

One of the parks older coasters River King Mine train was not far so I decided to hop on it. I am way too large to be riding these arrow family coasters anymore. It was actually a lot of fun though! Some sharp twists and turns, 3 lift hills, and a drop in a tunnel. This would be a perfect first coaster for a youngin. I won't rate this one because it falls in a different category.

Ninja didn't look to be too bad of an Arrow Looper, so i gave it a chance. The coolest thing about this ride is the fact that two ninjas are there to greet you upon arrival.

Just another Arrow looper in my opinion. Nothing too special. Just slightly less painful than most others. Especially Vortex. 6/10

While waiting to disembark Ninja, I looked over at Batman The Ride and thought to myself, wow. That is going to be my 150th coaster!! But boy did i have to earn it a way. This was my 5th Batman The Ride clone, but it had one of the longest walk ups of any coaster I had ever been on. The Gotham City Park theme at the entrance of the clones is always nice, but but I never had to walk every single inch of the park until now. Not that it was terrible, just unexpected.

just a glance of the Gotham City Park part of the queue. Even after the Park theming, there is still a fairly long walk up. I would hate to see this queue on a busy day. The station of this clone was no different from the others. Same Batman symbol, same music, same Batcave feel.

As mentioned in previous trip reports, I love the Batman clones. They're fast, smooth, and intense. They really do pack quite a punch for the size that they are. 8/10, no different from any of the other clones.

One ride I forgot to mention that I rode earlier was Pandemonium. Ahhhhh what a great ride. However, if you are 6'4" 250lbs, I do not recommend riding by yourself. The end of the ride will really suck for you lol. The overall ride was great! The spinning was slightly disorienting, but added an extra thrill to the ride! There was even a bit of airtime in there. The final break run was where things got real in a hurry. Being the only one in the car, i can into the break run with great momentum and the car continuously spun at a pretty high rate for about 30 seconds. By the time it stopped, I was ready to revisit my breakfast. Thankfully i have a very strong stomach. I did fall exiting the station though because i was so dizzy. 7.5/10 for Pandemonium...... Until the end that is...

I continued to do laps around the park, figuring I'd keep going until the storms come. After doing 5 or so laps, riding each ride multiple times at a time, i stopped and rode the train. I like the train at SFStL. It's a very beautiful steam engine train that uses propane to heat the water instead of wood or coal. Tommy G. Robertson was the name of the locomotive in operation for the day.

While on the train, I got some cool pictures of some scenery around the park as well at the back half of Batman The Ride.

Batman had to be emergency evacuated.

for Fright Fest?

one of the stations had this wooden Liberty Bell in it.

After doing three laps on the train, i decided to suck it up and go see The Boss to pick up my chipped tooth from last year. What a horrible decision it was. I have never ridden a worse wooden coaster in my life. So much pain. So much speed, but so much pain. If anyone plans on visiting SFStL can you please pick up my spinal cord please? Thank you! 5/10 OUCH

After riding The Boss, it was about 4:30 and the storms were starting to move in. I had already ridden everything I wanted a bunch of times, so I decided to leave.

Overall, Six Flags St. Louis is a solid park, but it's missing something. It's missing that ride that draws guests to the park. A ride that is considerably lengthy and intense. The park has a solid flat ride selection, but it's just missing "that ride". Until that day, I wouldn't go out of my way to visit the park. If im in the area cool, if not, oh well. Here are some more pictures from the day.

Welp, that's all she (I mean I) wrote folks! As always if you have questions please feel free to ask! Adios!!

-GP

[McSalsa]

Fun Fact: While Arrow Dynamics did initially start the construction for Ninja, they didn't finish it, Vekoma did, as Arrow went into bankruptcy in 1986. The ride also was originally built for a 1986 Expo in Vancouver and didn't begin operation at SFStl until 1989. So I guess you could debate whether or not this ride is an Arrow or a Vekoma.

 

Also great TR.

[Gplez90]

Totally forgot to add one picture to the report. SFStL has a couple of these bush tunnel thingys. I love any park that has these things! Lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[westcoaster]

Nice pictures great report.

[westcoaster]

Nice pictures great report.