My dad, uncle (Donny) and my friend (Chris) left the house around 8-8:15 A.M. and due to a few short stops at dunkin donuts, mcdonalds and getting lost a few times, we arrived at 10:30. We had already printed our tickets online, so we waltzed right into the park. (Nice bonus, saves time and quite an amount of cash). First, all four of us went to the "Fast Lane" building to rent the lo-q technology to basically skip lines. Then, me and Chris sprinted to Superman where we plugged in our FL device and obtained only a 20 minute wait! Better than standing in line (for what seemed to be about an 1 hour+). While we were waiting, we got some drinks and stood around while watching Superman run a few circuits.
When it was time, we went to the front of the line and jumped in the second row, first car. Normally I have the patience to wait that extra 15-30 minutes for the first row, but because Chris had to be back home at 6 for driving lessons we had to really use our time efficiently (our house is about 2 hours away, so we had to leave at 4, which only left us a 6 hour day all together!). Anyway, we enjoyed our first ride, and as usual, it rocked. I was a bit dissapointed though. The cars seemed to produce alot of turbulence (still quite smooth, but for an Intamin Mega, a bit dissapointing). Also, at this time, only the red train was running, the blue train was being checked over on a side track by the break run.
After our Superman ride, we headed over to the Batman side of the park. We used our FL devices again, and instantly we were able to jump on batman (Ok, not instantly but 1 minute wait). The ride was very fun, although Batman is'nt intense, no air (no suprise for a B&M) and pulls no real extreme G's. Me and Chris then passed my my dad and Donny, but continued on to the Flashback/Cyclone side of the park. Upon arrival we reserved a spot on Flashback using the FL and then bought lunch (the wait was 18 minutes, worked perfectly). For Flashback being 20 years old, it ran great, not bumpy either for an old Vekoma shuttle.
After lunch, we walked to Scream (205 ft. S&S power tower). We rode twice in a row, as the line was very short. We did the upward launch tower, as the downward launch seemed to have a longer line, and would hurt our time to much. After Scream, we returned to Superman where we boarded within 15 minutes of our FL use. This time, we rode all the way in the back, and let me tell you, the first drop is completely heaven. Before the train becomes level on the top of the lift hill, your butt is already out of the seat.
The sun really came out after our Superman ride and we were hot, so we caught up with my dad and Donny at the Hurricane Harbor water park. We chilled in the wave pool and then rode a few slides (the majority of the slides were pretty lame to be honest).
After our 45 minutes in the water park we returned to Superman, again. Both the front and back lines were pretty long, so we just decided to take a middle car (can't recall exacts, I'm guessing 4-6th though). Again, the ride was great, and I noticed that there was a decent "slammer" and some lats coming out of the second tunnel and into the final bunny hills. That helix really pounds you down into your seat, it's awesome! The combination of quick transtions from extreme positive to negative verts really creates an awesome ride. As me and Chris left Superman, we met up with my dad and Donny. Donny had a FL device and it was registered for two people for a ride at superman just a few minutes away. Because my dad would'nt ride Superman, I told Chris to ride with Donny. This is when the real "fun" starts.
Chris and Donny's ride on superman was fine, up until the break run. The idiotic dispatcher manually dispatched the blue train from the station before the red train hit the break run (the train Chris and Donny were in). So, the blue train climbed about 50 feet up the lift (the last car of the train just entered the lift section that nearly doubles the lift speed) and then stopped. The block mechanism stopped the blue train, because the red train had'nt even completely stopped in the brake run! Right as the red train enters the brake run it remain "shut down". I am imagining that because the dispatcher released the train in the station before the other train had cleared the other block, it entered the blocks into an emergency stop. At first, I thought Superman had broken down, but after I asked the dispatcher he told me that the coaster had entered an "emergency stop". That wasn't his exact terminology, but it was something along the lines of that. There was also that sound that you hear in movies when an alarm has been triggered, as soon as both trains had come to a complete stop. So, this other man arrived about 10 minutes later and must of overided the emergency stop or something, because the trains then continued their normal circuit (passangers on the blue train had to be escorted off of the lift via the stairs next to to lift). After the red train entered the station safely and the passangers (and Donny and Chris) had gotten off the train, and the blue train had halted in the break run, Superman was closed for a few minutes, and then tested to ensure safety. So after this entire dilemma (about 1 hour in all) Superman began it's normal circuit, once again.
At this point, it was 2:30, so me, Chris and Donny headed over to Flashback again, for one last run on it. Then we headed to thrill ride, Time Warp, which was a 10 minute deal altogether. We wanted to hit Blizzard River up, but the wait was rediculous (1-1.5 hours or longer), so we skipped that.
We returned to Superman, for one final run in the last row. Me and Chris went absolutely ballistic yelling and waving our arms all over in the station, we made our last ride a great one. We left the park just a little before 4 and made it back here in less than two hours (would of been 1.5 hours, but dam traffic)
Overall, it was an extremely fun trip for only 5.5 hours of park time. We hit Superman 4 times, Flashback 2 times, Batman 1 time and Time Warp 1 time. Of course there was swimming time and lunch as well.
We decided to Skip Cyclone, as it's rough and not really worth it. It didn't help that it was closed for the majority of the time we were there. We also skipped Thunderbolt, it's a great nice woodie, but we wanted the bigger and better things. We never made it to Mind Eraser, but I could care less, it's no fun, just a free pass for a headache really.
So comments about Superman. The cars seemed to be pretty bumpy for an Intamin Mega, especially for such a great steelie, you would think SFNE would preserve their rides in a better manner, and maybe even perhaps replace or have the wheel assemblies tuned up. Also, there really is quite a slammer right out of the second tunnel I have never noticed, it seems to out of character for Intamin, I was quite suprised. It produces some not so friendly lats too. At least they finally got the blue train running half way into our trip.
All in all, awesome trip, I never imagined I could of packed so much riding into so little time.