SFNE

went to sfne's opening day yesterday. i have to say the park has not improoved much over the course of the winter. the park as usual was dirty, unorganized, and overall lacked the intelligent emoployees you'd find at Disney or CP. a few of the rides have changed a bit, cyclone was "fixed" and thunderbolt has a few changes aswell.

we got to the park about an hour and a half after openig. it was roughly 70 degrees out the entire day (awesome!) when we got there, the main lot was closed most likely because almost none of it remains because of waterpark expansions. parking was 10 bucks or 30 for a season's pass. if we wanted to wait, we could exchange our parking pass for a season's pass at guest relations and pay the difference. we decided to wait and see if we could afford one later.

for some reason, every employee at the entrance was wearing mr. six style glasses and bowties (?)

coasters: first we went on scream, just because its awesome. then thunderbolt.

thunderbolt has been being slowly rebuilt over the past 3 years or so. last year they replaced a lot of the trackwork and this year most of the horizontal beams were new. however, the track pieces that were not 1 year old desperatly needed to be replaced. the ride was much rougher than i've ever felt it. they also added breaks to the final bunny hops and on the hill before the breaks - consequently killing the best part of the ride.

Mind eraser - bumpy as hell as usual for a vekoma SLC, but it seemed to be running smoother this year. there was NO line and we just walked litterally right into the front seat. i think some of the shoulder harnesses have been replaced because they simply looked and felt new.

Batman - holy crap did SF kill this ride! it opened THREE years ago. it was smooth as glass and just plain awesome. this time around, i dont know why (mabey the wheels arent broken in?) but the ride was bumpy, the track itself was fine, but it felt that kind of bumpy where it just desperatly needs a paint job. also, it went much slower than usual. the g's were lower than normal too.. also suggesting it went slower. then it broke when we were on the break run so we had to wait for SF mechanics to show up.

then we went over to the other end of the park to get on Mr six. we saw the line, and it was long as hell so we did blizzard river instead and unlikke EVERY other opening day i've been to, the waterfalls were on - so me + my friend (who were the only ones in the boat) got soaked. then now nice and wet, we decided to go on mr six again. the queue is right smack in the middle of the midway and in the hot sun. good plannin on SFNE's part. there are no cooling things at all. we got in line at the same time mabey 5 parties got out of line so the line SEEMED to move then iwas watching the ride and they sent out 2 trains over the course of 2 mins. the cars were half full, meaning 2 people per minuite (roughly). so if you do the math, that's 240 pph. there were at LEAST 500 people in this line so basically we screwed the idea of getting on that. next was cyclone because it's right there. oh.. aslo, Mr six is the QUIETEST ride i've ever heard. its quieter than freaking hypersonic!

now, i normally don;t ride cyclone. hell, every time i get on it i swear to myself i'll never go on it again, and this time was no different. there wasnt much of a line, and in the station the train was going around the course and my friend and i were just talking and all of a sudden the entire station shook as if there was an earthquake. of course, it was onyl the train hitting the breaks with the force of something very hard movng very fast. (i included that to show you how violent this ride is). we got in and even the straight segment before the lift is bumpy! going up the lift i was looking around and most of the track has been relaced in the past year or 2 so i thought it *shouldnt* be that rough. we go down the first hill and the TRACK was reletively smooth. the supports shook and bent and moved like hell when the train was going around it. since the last time i was on it, they really smoothed out the ride even though it still hurts like hell. they have also added FOUR breaks along the track to slow the ride down. not only does this kill the ride, but it shows how cheap SF is. instead of actually fixing the ride, they slow it down and kill it. the final turn is very slow and boring. overall, this ride DESPERATLY needs to be demolished and colpletely rebuild from the ground up. it could also really use some steel supports under the wooden track like the comet in lake george ny. the ride is just too rough for itself and SF is just letting it fall apart. there's also chipping paint all over it and all the metal stuff is rusty with tons of corrosion. another year of operation or so will proove this ride to be unsafe.

Superman: barely a line, only a half an hour wait. we got right on. now they measuer you twice, once before getting in line, once when getting into the station. i'm not sure why they do it twice, but i guess SF has its reasons. only the blue train was running this time, i don't have a clue where the red train was. the train looks like it was repained or something but it looked good. the ride itself hasn't changed at all but it really seemed like they are enforcing saftey on this ride. the attendants REALLY push down on the restraints and they have announcements in the line saying stuff like "if you have unique physical demensions, you may be turned away" and various other warnings that basically say "if you're fat or deformed, get out". the ride as usual was awesome although it could use a paint job.

Season passes: i STRONGLY reccomend a six flags season's pass. it's only 10 bucks more for a season's pass than a regular pass. i got the season't pass. the line for the photo's was very short so we figured to go back later to get the pictures done. when filling out the slip, i realized i couldn't find my slip so i got scared and went to guest relations and told the gy my story (i dont have a piece of paper, but i have the recipt and envelope and coupons and eveerything else) so he said i cant get another one. so i said i didnt even know if i ever got one because that was the first time i looked at it. now, any sensible company (Disney, CP, etc) would just give you another one because you paid for it and you own it, or give you a refund. actually, we did lookse our park hopper's in Epcot last year and they just simply replaced them. but instead, the guy said he's REVIEW THE SECURITY TAPE from EVERY CASHIER in the enterance. which would add up to well over 100 hours of tape to fast forward through and try to pick me out. (wtf?) so he said he didnt want to take up our time so he'd go do it and we can come check it out when we leave. so we went to do superman, where i found the slip in an extra chamber in my pocket that i didnt know i had. so we rode superman and went back to get the passes because we had finished the park by this time. so i go back to guest relations to let them know that i found it, and the lady there DIDN'T REMEMBER ME! she had NO clue as to what i was talking about! so that was funny. then we had 20 bucks left over so we wanted to go upgrade out parking pass. now, in EVERY SINGLE parking lot i've ever been to, you pay for parking, put the slip in your window to proove your car should be there, and go enjoy the park (besides, where else would you park?) so we go back to guest relations and say we want to upgrade. again, i had the recipt and everything else i needed, but she says she needs the slip which the lady at the gate said we are supposed to stick in the window. so now she calls her manager over and she says for us to go to the car, drive to the bridge on the parking lot, take the coupon, make one of us climb the bridge, and go back into the park and to guest relations to get the upgrade. now, we werent about to go over a bridge, take a tram, and walk 1/2 a mile to the car and drive back to do it all over again for some pass, so we left.

overall it was a lot of fun, the rides were great, the wheather was perfect, and there was nobody there. but they really need to get their act together with maintenence and customer service. but what can i say, it's six flags, i wasn;t expecting much more.

ALSO: on a quick note, if you buy a Disney 7 day park hopper, you get a ticket to all of the disney properties (hotels, resorts, theme parks, water parks, downtown disney, golf, and everything else on disney property) for about 28 dollars a day. ONE DAY PASSES at SFNE are 49.99. a little overpriced? i think so.