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First Notes\; it's a lot better than what I thought it was going to be. When I saw the testing video, the first thing you noticed was how slow the train takes most of the elements (which I was expecting it to, long before track wasn't even completed) but this actually works to its advantage IMO. While its not the most forceful ride, it does have force at the right moments, and more importantly it deliver some unique sensations that generally most coasters fail to offer.
Ride Appearance: Well, as you have seen from videos and pictures, the only way you could possibly miss tatsu is if you're blind. Its huge! And not only that, it all takes places over 200 feet above your head once you have entered the park. So once you have entered the park and tooken all you photos from the entrance you head to the area with the raft ride (I'm drawing a blank on the name right now) If you look
here at the map, and look at the Raft ride, you can get a better sense of Tatsu's location. The entrance to the que starts where those steps that lead up to the tower are at. So basically what SFMM has done is they have a ride themed for another area, but in order to get to that ride, you have to enter through some other area that has nothing to do with Japanese anything. (Way to go SFMM)
But I guess we can over look this seeing as how Tatsu is such an awsome ride.
But lets talk about the area around which the ride itself is located at. Well, like I said, those steps that used to lead up the summet,are now Tatsu Que Line, and I must say that it is a lot better organized then SFMM's last ride Scream. Where everything about scream is an eyesore (except the track itself) Tatsu looks very nice. And they aren't even finished with landscaping yet! If you've looked at the TPR updated (the one with hurricane harbor on the front page) they did a small tatsu update where the hill was blasted with green stuff that helps the plants grow. Well, I haven't seen any plants sprout up yet, but I know that it will help bring plant life back to the area a lot faster than what it would without it. Also, while I was there, there were still a couple of workers out in the fields working away at Tatsu, and besides that some other things I noticed is they haven't finished detailing all the footers (hopefully they're still planning on doing that) and the Orient Express is still in pieces, but Revolution is back up in running and had the longest lines I've ever seen for it, and not only that they were running only one train, and they were loading very slowly (so as a result we didn't bother riding it[:(])
So besides all the stuff, we get onto the station building. Its not great, or good, its just ok. But at least its better than what they did in the past. Its still an improvement from that, but I think they still need to take the time to actually design the buildings and all that stuff better to help give it a better atmosphere. But who knows maybe we'll get that with SFMM's next ride. But at least its not an eyesore.
![[lol]](https://www.coastercrazy.com/forums/images/smilies/icon_e_ugeek.gif "test"){kind=icon}
So now that we've covered that the station is just ok, lets talk about the layout of the station. At least this is good, it not a bunch of people jumbled together like on Silver Bullet, there is a lot more room to move around with, so its cool. There's really no complaints about how they did the que system. And so now that we've covered all of that, lets get to the moment you have all been waiting for!!!!
RIDE REPORT!!!!111100007777
So the first thing you do on tatsu is sit down on the ride. And once the ride is ready to have its restrains pulled down, you pull it down and the ankle restrains lock around your ankle's and your OTSR locks around your body. Besides the bars to grab onto (which B&M has done a real good job on making it convinient and natural to grab on to, like they always do) they also have this foam restraint which forms around your body. You can adjust it to go back or forward while your sitting down, but once the Ride Op hits the go button, it locks around your body to keep you from falling out. The whole system is very well designed.
But contrary to other reports you might have read on the internet, the restraint system isn't as comfortable as you would think. It more so when the ride ops don't staple you, but it can get quite uncomfortable when they do. Along with that, those ankle restraints do get to you. Especially when you've been sitting on the break run for twice as long as the actual ride itself is.[shocked] Also, I reccommend not having your cell phone in your front pocket if at all avoidable. Mainly because one of the times that I was stapled, my cell phone was pressing against my leg, and some time during the ride, my leg started spasming out, and needless to say it hurt a lot. So keep that in mind.[;)] But other than that, the system is ok, and not to bad.
So now that your strapped in, and in flying position, you head up the lift. This is always a fun part. Going up the lift to look down at the ground several hundred feets below you is pretty sweet. And having something to actually stare at (meaning something other than just trees[;)]) only makes it better. The view is especially good in the front seat with nothing in front of you. And its just a very pleasant experience. And while your up there, you also get very strong urges to spit on the people below you. I reccommend that you fight that urge simply for the sake of that guest you may hit. And if you must spit, do it before you get to the path.[;)] Although, not everyone will show some simple curtousy, and I reccommend looking out for globs of spit falling from the sky when you see a train going up tatsu. While I never saw anyone do it when I was on the ground, I did see multiple people do it while on the ride. I'm seeing spitnets installed in the future. Also, simply because Tatsu is above your head with no nets at all, I'd watch out for any falling object, simply for you own well being. But overall I don't think its something you should worry about to much, because the ride ops do a good job of making sure no loose articles are on the ride, and those restraints do an extremely good job at keeping objects that are in your pocket.... in your pocket.[;)]
So finally we have reached the top, and the people in the front get an extremely good view of the entire area, and everybody else just gets a good view, after that its a plummet into the first wingover.
The drop is very fun, especially without that predrop thing most B&M's have. In the back, depending on if your stapled or not, you can get a small pop of air, and then a nice lateral tug on the drop. But if you don't expereince this pop of air on the drop, don't worry about it, because its nothing too special. So at the base of the drop you get a nice ground/tree missing visual with some good forces at the battom of the pullout, I'm ruffly estimating it at 2.5 g's, or w/e the max is that B&M would ever put you through in flying position. THen after that you fly through the wingover, which like said earlier, is taken real slow, but this works to your advantage, because it gives this really fun and unique weightless sensation, something like you'd experience on one of those crappy ground flat rides, but simply because its on the ground you don't get any cool visuals... unlike Tatsu. So your wipped over the turn, and then you dive into the exit of the wingover where you get about 2 g's, then you fly into the wingover, which feels the same exact way, its very much fun.[:D] After that you dive into the Egg Turn(Horse shoe) where you don't get very many forces, but you do get some nice visuals. Especially so in the front seat. From there you fly into the second overbank which is very much like Silver Bullet's, except you thread on of the 0 homie G roll's support, and where I didn't notice it, if you look for it, it might be a cool hand chopper, or visual, but it acts more of a subconsious thing in the background. Mainly because you're more concentrated on flying over the break run, and your picture which takes place right before the second over bank. After that comes the highlight of the ride.... the world's biggest Pretzle Loop ever. And let me tell you... it's very intimidating, and I got a unique feeling I haven't felt on a roller coaster in a long time... fear.
Because you just know its gonna kick ass, and before you know it your flipped on your back on your stomach is in your mouth, and your buzzing with and adreanline, then all of a sudden your still back up at the top, still pinned to the back of your seat, and it's very much fun. And I'm glad it comes right when it does, simply because its probably the best inversion in the world, and not much else compares, IMO. And I don't think you have to worry about that trim being used, because it looks like its only going slightly faster than 20 miles per at both the entance and exit to the pretzle loop, and while its intense, I don't think .5 g's extra are really going to make that much a difference to riders anyways, seeing as how its pretty intense to begin with. And actually, the pretlze loop is probably where the back seat wins the visual contest against the front seat. Because where in the front seat you have nothing in front of you, the back, you can see 28 other rides in front of you, and its very intimidating. What a rush! After that you go into what I'm thinking is sort of like an Immel Man exi. Where it isn't officially an Immelman, its close enough for people who go on it to have the same experience as say Montu's Immel Man (But not Dueling Dragon's Fire, simply because it's immelman pawns all others!) From there you fly into the inline twist which feels more like a regular 0 g roll on like an inverted coaster, then you fly into the turn around which delivered a fair ammount of g's and you pop up into the brake run witha nice refreshing pop of air which can be felt in all seats, although, its slightly better in the front, imo. Then you slide through the brake run, but not too much... and you basically go into some wierd turny thing that can be found on numerous floorless coasters such as both medusa's, kraken, scream, ect. And although its not wow! or super fun, or anything like that, it is a little fun, and its cool to go through that thing with some speed. And from there you sit on the break run for about 2 minutes, until they're finished loading the next train. I imagine this will change once they get all 3 train in operation, but if it doesn't, then I'll be real upset simple because it means that they are not working fast enough. It really shouldn't be that hard to get the train out in between a minute to a minute and a half. If all the florida parks could do it, then why can't any of the califonria parks? Also, the flyer isn't that much more sophisticated as to where they HAVE to spend more time checking the restraints. IT's as simple as once its locked.. it's locked.[;)] So now lets go into our final set annalysis...
Front vs Middle vs Back
There really is no bad seat at all. They all have thier advantages (but none really have any disadvantages, just features that are not as good as the other) The front seat gives you a better view then the rest of the cars, and you still get all the sensation that all the other seats get, you also get more air time in that pop into the brake run, but you don't really get that whip or weightlessness that the back seat delievers on the first drop. Its also probably the best seat for the egg turn, simple because thats just there for the visual effect.
The middle offers a more balanced set of forces, and I felt gave better feelings during the wingover and the 0 g roll, and you get a slightly better pop of air into the final brake run.
The back gives the best experience for the pretzle loop, simply because its the most intimidating part of the pretzle loop, which imo, gives more sensation to it then what you would get otherwise. And just because of that, I reccommend you take the back seat for your first ride.
Other then choosing your row, you specific seat (IE far left or right side, middle, ect) doesn't matter. It all felt the same to me, and even though I kept alternating seats, I really did not noticed a difference at all, mainly because of how the elements were designed, so that shouldn't really matter at all.
Closing Words. Where Tatsu is not forcefull, it at the same time is not forceless. Its just the right blend of weightlessness and force. And simply do to the position in which you sit in, it does wear you out, but its totally worth every single ride. Yesterday I got in 7 rides (which isn't anything to brag about compared to all the media day people who got 10 - 30 rides in easily) but I think it was still enough to really appreciate the ride for what its worth. It runs extremely smooth at the moment (like all B&M's when their trains have been assembled with extreme percision at some factory) but when things start to loosen up and get a turbulent, we'll see how it runs then, but for now its running great, and I couldn't be happier with the decision to put it in, and with the design itself. Hopefully they'll improve on a couple of things (IE running the trains efficiently) but other than that, there is not much else to say except, "GET TO SFMM TO RIDE TATSU." After all, Paul Ruben thinks its Magic Mountain's best coaster to date, and he's been on 697 coasters, and been to every single theme park in the world.
