Park Review
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Gurnee, Illinois May 30, 2001 Here is a brief review on the new Vertical Velocity (also known as V2) at Six Flags Great America. I ook off a little early from work and took the 90-minute drive to the park. Arriving at the park about an hour before closing, I hoped to get at least one ride on V2.
First some stats about the ride. On to the ride report... Just as I got in line, I heard the announcement on the PA system in the area of the ride: "The ride has temporarily ceased operation." Great, I thought, after having taken a 90-minute drive to the park just to get a ride on it, it breaks down. It seems that the train had stopped just beyond the station. After about ten minutes, the mechanics arrived and ran it back into the station. After unloading and a test run it was back in operation. During the down time, very few people left the line. Because of the short line, I was able to get two rides in an hour and ten minutes (including the down time). My first ride was in the third seat from the front. My first reaction at the completion of the ride was, "it rocks!". The ride cycle surprised me a little. The train is launched out of the station forward and part way up the front twisting tower. It then roll backwards toward the station. As it enter the station, it�s accelerated in reverse, toward the rear tower, climbing almost to the top of the rear tower. As the train roll down into the station, it is again accelerated forward. This time it makes it almost to the top of the front spiral tower. It then rolls back through the station and again is accelerated backward. This time the train makes it to near the top of the rear tower. The surprise for me was that it is held briefly at the top of the tower, you looking down at the water below, before rolling down and through the station again, going part way up the front tower, and being stopped as you it backwards into the station. My second ride, after a 25-minute wait, was in the third from back seat. There were a few differences in the ride from the back of the train. First, the g-force as you start up the front tower seems to be stronger from the rear seats. Second, the view while hanging 170+ feet above ground is great. I liked the back better than the front. Yes, the spiral was fun, but I liked the view from the top of the back tower better. Overall on the Griswold scale (+5 to -3), I would rate this ride at about 3.5, giving it the fifth highest score of the coasters at SFGAm. Overall, this low rating puts the ride at #18 on my list of 72 coasters, behind the Raging Bull, Viper, Shockwave, and Iron Wolf. After a few more rides in warmer weather conditions (55 degrees F today), it might turn out to be slightly better. Overall, it was not as good as I had expected. Because of the rumored launch speed (0-70 in four sec), I had expected a much greater kick from the start, but it surprisingly smooth and does not feel anywhere near that fast. Dave Rounds
I took the afternoon off and visited the park just to ride the new Deja Vu. I arrived at about 3:30 and immediately proceeded to Deja Vu. The wait for the first ride was about 1:40, with a ride cycle time (including load/ride/unload) of about four minutes, which seemed quite slow.
The load process was different than any other coaster that I have ridden.
In this case, the have you seat yourself and buckle the seat belt, but instruct you to not
pull down the shoulder bars. After they check each individual seat belt,
they tell everyone to pull down the shoulder bars and buckle the
safety belt. The rode ops then check that the shoulder bars are locked and
buckled and recheck the seat belt.
My first ride was in the third from the back row or seven (the
middle two rows were roped off). The ride starts out with by lifting backwards out of the station and up the vertical tower, not at
all like the inclined tower of Six Flags America�s Two Face or the Knott�s Berry Farm�s Boomerang.
The initial drop has a feel similar to a free-fall type ride, but with the
fall being face down. There is a very noticeable multi-g transition between
the drop and the transition into horizontal station track. From there,
through the boomerang element, the
ride is very smooth with minimal lateral or vertical g-forces being noticed.
The forward pass through the vertical loop exerts a moderate, but very smooth
force downward into the seat. The transition to the second vertical tower
lift was the smoothest of any boomerang-type coaster that I have ridden, with
virtually no jerk when the lift mechanism began raising the train. The drop
produced a freefall-type sensation with a transition similar to the bottom
of the first tower. The reverse pass through the loop provided a similar,
but more intense g-force than the forward pass with a very noticeable
difference passing through the top of the loop. The reverse pass through
the boomerang element provided two very intense "snap-roll" sensations as
the train passed through each outside corner of the element. The biggest
surprise in the ride, IMO, was the way the train is lifted part way up the
first tower after passing back through the station, being followed by a very
slow letdown into the station.
My second ride, after another hour and fifteen minute wait was on the outside seat of the front
row (actually the outside seat of row 1B). The drop was similar, but the
transition seemed much more intense, in addition to having a virtually
unobstructed view of the fall. Likewise, the transitions through the
boomerang element were much more intense from the front seat. The forward
pass through the loop and second lift were similar to the first ride. During
the reverse pass through the loop I noticed a very different sensation on
the front seat; there seemed to be a moment of weightlessness as we passed
through the apex of the loop. The reverse pass through the boomerang element
seemed to produce a different, less intense sensation than the forward
pass, a more consistent uniform g-force feeling.
Overall, I gave this ride a four on the Griswold scale (-3 to +5, with 5 being
the best) and rated it as # 9 on the list of 81 coasters that I have ridden.
Overall time for two rides was slightly more than three hours, not bad for
a four hour round trip from work, to the park, and back home.
Dave Rounds
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