Park Review
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Upper Marlboro, Maryland April 14, 2001 This Saturday I took a trip to my real home park (it's a lot closer than Paramount�s Kings Dominion). The day was fairly warm (and got downright hot), and since it was the beginning of DC public schools spring break, there were many, many kids/teens/young adults in the park. Since the water park wasn't open, everyone was in the rides section, so there were fairly sizable lines. Nothing too offensive, but a lot different from many of the Thursday night visits of last season. Recognizing that there would be crowds most of the day, I headed straight for Two Face (Vekoma Invertigo). The line was about 45 minutes long with dispatch-to-dispatch intervals of about 2min 50sec (not too shabby). The only problem I had with the ride ops were the two girls who were checking the restraints. They would literally lean all their weight onto the harness to make sure that it went down that extra click (or three!). Anyway, I love invertigoes, and the ride was as smooth and intense as always. The one thing I despise about my home park is its layout. It is truly a "hub and spoke" system, full of dead ends. So while I was on the Two Face spoke, I decided to hit the Wild One (classic dog-leg out & back woodie) while I was over there. Again, the wait was about 40min, maybe a little less (sorry I wasn�t keep track very well). I scored a front seat ride. Wild One is one of, if not my favorite, out & back coasters (I'm a twister fan), and it provides some really good air, especially on the return leg. And the (slightly braked) helix finale feels really out of control. At about that time I figured I had better head back for Superman: Ride of Steel (Intamin hypercoaster). I had read that only the red train was being used so I expected the line to be long. This was the first time that I had ever seen any part of the zig-zags in the "overflow" queue being used. Still, though, the wait was only about an hour. In line I spied three ACErs (How did I know? They had on ACE shirts...) in line a bit ahead of me. Once we got in the station, I was going to head to my favorite seat (2.2, don�t ask...), but when I saw there was only a two train wait for the first seat of the last car (8.1), I went for that one. It turned out the ACERs (David=Dad, Drew=older son, Jessica=younger daughter) were waiting for the backseat, so I struck up a conversation. We started talking about how S:ROS compared with Millie, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, it was our turn to ride, and since I was riding by myself and Drew was gonna� ride backseat solo, I just hopped back there with him. S:ROS was just as wonderful as ever. That third hill launched us into an airtime utopia. As Drew and I waited for his dad and sis to take their spin, we hung out along the exit to S:ROS, which is the premier spot to watch Batwing construction. I've never seen a coaster in pieces in real life. It was sort of a surreal experience. I actually got to watch the guys install a piece of the flip over track to enter the loop. They are making good progress and by Memorial day, Batwing should be thrilling guest left and right. David, Jessica, and Drew allowed me to spend the rest of the day with them. Again, because of the dead end thing, we stopped at Jokers Jinx because it was in the area. I still kind of like this ride, but after riding FOF OTSR-less, I just can�t get into JJ as much anymore. Fortunately, I had not forgotten my "Defensive riding positions" so I didn�t get a headache. After that, we decided to pause for a brief bite to eat. Here comes another beef with the park. Rarely last year did I eat at the park. When I did, I used a season pass discount at the "Crazy Horse Saloon". However, this year the prices seemed really high. A rib basket (ribs, one side, and a drink) was twelve bucks. Now compare this to Busch Gardens Tampa and Epcot where I got all-you-could-eat for ten bucks and you can understand why I was a little miffed. I ended up getting an order of fries and a drink and it ran me five-twenty-five (Help! Police! Rape!!). I guess they really want to give the Wendy's up the road a lot of business. We were going to do Mind Eraser (Vekoma SLC), but the line was really long and they were only using the red train. The blue train was hanging on the transfer track with some of the water dummies in place. We passed and moved on. Next we took a spin on my favorite "Just for Fun" coaster, Roar (GCI Twister). ROAR never seems to have too long of a wait, which is weird because the crew is never what I would call "the peak of efficiency". Plus, because of the blocking system, the train is not allowed to depart until the other train is resting on the final brakes. Anyway, within about 20 minutes we were all seated in the last car. I love the ejection you get on that twisting first drop. Also, there were some good pops of air elsewhere on the course (which are not always there =]). Roar was running in rare form on Saturday (was that grease I smelled?....). While in line for Roar, we saw empty boats being cycled on Typhoon Sea Coaster (Intamin Flume with "reverser" tables). Jessica asked the attendant if it would open. He told us to check back in 45 minutes. So we headed over and hit Wild One and Two-Face (second times of the day for me, firsts for them). At about 5pm (park closed at 6pm) we got back over to Typhoon Sea Coaster. It is now running and the line is seemingly short, so we hop in line thinking that we might even get to S:ROS before they close of the line. No such luck. Typhoon has about ten boats, but Saturday, they were only using three. Three eight-passenger boats on a fairly long course (+2.5min) equals a capacity much worse than even Hypersonic. What could have been a 15 minute wait with full capacity quickly turned into an hour. After a bit of line jumping excitement by a self-proclaimed "ghetto" girl, we took our ride. The flume is alright and doesn�t get you soaked. There are two really long tunnels with minimal pirate theming, but it's kinda� boring. If they were to pipe in some music or some speech, it would be so much better. It is kinda� cool with the "reversing" turntables though. That pretty much sums up the day. I gave my email address to the ACErs, and we agreed to meet up again (they are passholders too). They also chastised me for not yet attending HersheyPark and Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Greg you should be happy =]). Other quick notes, I went into the "Flags" store looking for a cool coaster shirt. They had an abundance of styles. They had a Wild One tee with "beast-like" eyes peering over the track, and they had one similar to the Busch gardens "Fear the Four" shirts with JJ, SROS, TF and Roar. Finally, they had a "World's Greatest Coasters" shirt with JJ. SROS, TF, Roar and Mind Eraser. I really wanted this last shirt, but couldn�t find an XL. Maybe next time. One other thing. I don�t really want to start a rumor, but I saw a shirt that looked a little out of place. They had just plain shirts of Superman (the actual comic book hero), Batman, and the Riddler (not surprising). But there was also a shirt of Catwoman! Could this be a harbinger of things to come? Probably not, but it did strike a chord with me. Oh well, I've bothered you all enough. I'll holla.
lata,
This is the second installment of my �home parks� trip reports, focusing on the park I really consider "home". It's closer to me, I visit there more often, and I really like the place. If one was to just read the posts on some boards (mostly URC), one would get the impression that the park is just shy of being one of the seven circles of hell. People often complain about the "lazy" (i.e. slow-moving) ride ops, the abundance of trash in the park and the �inner city teens� and �gangstas� who comprise the regular clientele (note a touch of sarcasm). Some have gone so far as to rename the park Six Flags over the Ghetto. Well, SFA, isn't your usual amusement park. Strike that, the park is just about like anywhere else; there are rides, shows, games, etc. There is a fair amount of Theme Park Mentality (if there is a such thing), and food/drinks are pricey. It's very much a newer Six Flags, as every coaster save Wild One can be experienced elsewhere, but to experience all of them you would have to go coast (Six Flags Darien Lake) to coast (Six Flags Marine World) and some places in-between (Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Six Flags Worlds of Adventure). Furthermore, the park was never intended to be very big. The midways are relatively narrow (though never jam packed), and the layout is a horrible "Hub and Spoke" system with no less than three dead ends. However, what really sets SFA apart is the crowds. You will not see the usual perfectly lily-white crowd of, say, Holiday World. You will not see a random smattering of pepper flakes in the sugar of Cedar Point. You wont even really see the slightly mixed crowd of SFWoA. Nah, your gonna� see black folks - and lots of them. Really, this should come as no surprise to anyone. The park is located just south of Baltimore and east of Washington, DC in Prince George's County, MD. Baltimore is 64.3% black, the District 60.0% black, and PG County is the nation's fastest growing suburban area in terms of numbers of blacks. So there are a whole lotta� black folk who live around here. This, I believe, causes a bit of a culture shock for some people. One kid wrote a trip report on CoasterBuzz last year in which his little sister actually said, "Daddy, there are too many black people here". I could only laugh in disgust (the dude is actually a cool guy, I�ve never met his sister =]). Enough of the background info, I'll get to the real meat. I called up Mike, Tim, Vicki, Kevin, and Jen from work (see Paramount�s Kings Dominion trip report for background) and told them we�ll meet up at about 3:30pm near Superman: Ride of Steel. Some things happened, so I didn�t arrive right on time. I was worried that I had caused them to miss a chance to ride Batwing quickly. You see, Batwing does not open until after 2pm. Why? Well, according to a security guard, some of the Vekoma guys are still onsite and they want the morning time to teach the SFA all the ins and outs of the ride. However, when he leaves (in a week or two), they will be opening it with the rest of the park. I showed up at the designated spot about 15-20 minutes late and they weren�t not there. I was both relieved and worried at that point. I went down the path to see if I could peep them in the Batwing line. I did this twice to no avail. I then figured that they might have gotten something to eat, which would mean that they left Gotham City. I figured I would grab a bench by the entrance to GC and wait there, as I knew S:ROS would call them back that way. As I was walking, I saw them, so I joined them there. I found out that they had already had a chance to ride Batwing, so I was glad I had cost them no time. They wanted to ride Typhoon Sea Coaster, as none of them had ever had a chance to ride it before (it has problems a lot). Jen was worried about getting wet. I told them that you don�t get too wet, and that she would be dry after a few moments in the sun. Well, let's say that this time I was wrong. The ride went as I remembered up until the last drop. The spray was about three times what I had previously experienced. Of course, they all started bawling me out, but really it wasn�t so bad, as we were dry only a few moments later. We stopped at the Shipwreck Island food court for a quick snack, and then it was back into GC for another Batwing flight. The Batwing queue was jam packed to the rafters and with only the one train, and we knew it would be awhile. No matter, we got in line anyway, where I spotted our own RCTalker Ben Ashley. We chatted very briefly, and then our lines parted ways. Anyway, after that it was back to the monotonous line. But there was some excitement in our future. Everything was going fine until about 30 minutes into the wait. There was a little commotion about some apparent line jumping. The alleged jumper said that all he did was move up because the people in front of him would not move and there was a gap. He even offered to let the people that felt "jumped" back in front of him. I thought that was the end of it. But no more than 20 seconds later, I see this guy and, like, four of his friends simply duck under the rails and jump and entire zig-zag. Well I got indignant and say to the cat, "Look, I'm not going to trip because you're doing that behind me, but if I see you in front of me, 'It's on!'.� He starts getting a little hard, but not too much saying stuff like, "I aint even getting in front of you, but you aint gotta� make threats". I said, "I'm not making threats, just saying how it's gonna� be". Well, while I'm saying this to the "ringleader", one of his girls just ducks under the rail behind me (as if no one else could see it). I was just like okay. My intention was to wait until I got within shouting distance of the platform and call over the ride ops (I know several of them by name) and tell them to get security. But I didn�t get that chance. While I was trying to reason with the jumpers, another lady who was obviously pissed off with the jumpers got out of line immediately and went up to the platform to get security. Everyone could she her pointing them out and folks in the line were all like "Yeah". Anyway, to sum up, the jumpers ran out of the line like some little punks, but not before threatening to "steal" (urban slang for punch) me and Tim. Whatever, I just said to him that I was a grown-ass man and I don�t run. Meanwhile, they were fleeing from security. I don�t know what happened to them, but I didn�t see them anymore that day. After that the wait was without incident. It took about 1.5 hours (not terrible). Also, Batwing has a real Millennium Force-like loading procedure. They only let a train-load of people in at a time and do their best to match up people and ensure the trains are filled to the max. They are a really good crew. It's actually not surprising, though, since one of the ops is a supervisor in the Mind Eraser area and most of the rest of them were the S:ROS crew from last year (they still work on S:ROS sometimes too). Anyway, they rule (sorry, had to =]). After that (circa 8pm), Kevin and Jen decided to take off and head back up to New York. But Tim, Mike and Vicky were going to stay until close, so I stayed with them. We caught a quick ride in the last car of S:ROS, and the ride was great as usual. After that, we took a ride on Joker's Jinx. Now all of them had been on Flight of Fear without the OTSRs at Paramount�s Kings Dominion & PKI, but Tim had never been on it with the OTSRs. I told him that I would show him why they changed it. After a mildly painful ride, he agreed that the lapbars were better (another convert). After a quick pit stop, Mike said he wanted to try the Iron Eagle (Zamperla roto-shake) and Vicky seconded that. I have no shame in saying that ride scares me. I went on it once in '98 and that was pretty much enough for me. It's not bad, but I'm not big a fan of falling upside down (which is the reason I don�t like Volcano). Anyway, I begrudgingly acquiesced. As the restraint came down, I shifted slightly and the harness locked one notch higher than it should have. I had so much room I was sure I was gonna� fall out. I had to hold on the entire time. However, I still enjoyed the ride a little more than my first time. It was still intense, but not overly intense. Maybe Batwing has gotten me adjusted to the heavy Gs on the head. We decided to finish the night off on S:ROS (circa 8:20pm, park closed at 9). I told them that my favorite place on the train was in the second car. And I used Josh's Millennium Force tip of picking your feet off the floor, especially on the infamous third hill. It feels like your just certainly going to come out the train, as you have no way to brace yourself. After the great ride, we had time to get back in for one last spin. We went back to the same second car, but switched rows. Again, I like this car because it has the most noticeable flo-jection on the second hill (the other hills are fine anywhere). When we got back, we noticed a lot of empty rows and asked the controlling op if we could fill an empty seat, and they said yes, but this and the next red train would be the last two of the night. We got a random seat (4.1 I think, it's the one that actually has the INTAMIN plaque) and still had a great ride (it was pretty dark now, not pitch, but dark). When we get back to the station we all started chanting "One more time! One more time!". The op started laughing and said "Okay, but you have to be really quiet so the other train doesn�t hear you". Unfortunately, we couldn�t contain ourselves, overcome with appreciation. So we cheered the whole time. Another great ride; four rides on S:ROS is a great way to end any night. Actually, the op let the other train have a re-ride as well. That was nice of them, as they really didn�t have to. When we got back to the station, nobody pressed the issue again, we just all said thank you and moved on. At the main gates, we exchanged info, Mike said to hit him up if I was ever in the Ohio area, and we bid our adieus. It's always fun to be with people who don�t get to ride S:ROS too often because they are always impressed. I think that is the real reason I like SFA more than PKD. They have two coasters I love: S:ROS (#2 steel) and Roar (#6 wood), plus the lines are always short (especially near closing time on weekdays). This was the first day that I didn�t ride either of the woodies, but five S:ROS, one JJ, and one Batwing (last row) coupled with great conversation was more than enough for me (Roar and Wild One aren�t going anywhere). Once again I've finished off my Eminem CD, so it's time to stop typing. I hope you've at least slightly enjoyed reading this, because I had fun writing it and a blast actually living it.
later days,
I'll stop being cryptic and get right to the point: BATWING RAN TWO TRAINS TONIGHT! I specifically went to the park with the intent on "power riding" S:ROS. I got to the park somewhere around 7:30pm after the (long) hike to Gotham City, I figured I'd briefly pop in on Jokers Jinx (I just can�t help myself). JJ was having a malfunction and was about to send out an empty, so I left the line and went to my main destination, S:ROS. I saw that the line was just out of the station, so I knew it would be a short four or five train wait for the PoLR (Path of Least Resistance; i.e. shortest line). I figured I had plenty of time to get a few rides in, so I wanted to look in on the Batwing line. I walked down the well-themed midway, and as I approached the station, I saw something weird. Is that people in the other (of the dual) station? YES! YES it is! This is a very encouraging sight. I also noticed that the on ride photo booth was rapidly vending photos. I walked to the queue proper and noticed the line was only using two (out of ten) of the zig-zags. Now the wait with one train and all zigzags full is about 1:15 or 1:30. I estimated that this wait would be nothing! I was right. There were a ton of people working on the ride. I think there were no less than twelve people associated with the ride. Now, one thing that I've noticed that is different between the Batwing and X-Flight queues is the "close" station on X-flight goes directly up the stairs, but on Batwing there is an extra set of zig-zags, so that the distance between the split point and the platform is about equal. There was an attendant directing traffic at the split to both sides. At the platform, while some of the ops were checking restraints, there was another filling up the rows with people (ala Millennium Force), including calling out for singles. They called out for a single while I was waiting and I scored the back row (wonderfully intense as always, ride #16 in the books). After that (it took all of 15minutes, yes!!), I went back to my S:ROS mission. I should note here that most of the Batwing crew were Superman ops from last year/ earlier this year. They are the best crew in the park (though JJ is starting to catch up). However, since they are now on Batwing, there are now others on S:ROS. Tonight, it was my least favorite crew, the "Femi-Nazis from Two Face" (FNFTF). The chick running the ride held up dispatching a train for five minutes to try and find out who was smoking (I know some of you love that :(), even though they had already put it out. Whatever. I got a ride in the front of the last car with a fellow coaster nut originally from California, but now local. I of course ran back around for another ride (3.1 I think) and while ascending the lift, I saw a buddy of mine in line. I ran back around and we rode together twice. The last time, which coincidentally was the last train of the night, we sat in the very back and two other people sat in the very front - and that was it! The rest of the train was empty. People asked if they could fill the empty seats but the FNFTF wouldn�t let them. It was strange being in such a desolate train. But fun nevertheless. Take care!
later days,
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