Six Flags America - 4/12/2014

[Mikey]

This past week I have been in Washington DC doing some consulting for an up and coming special interest group that is pro-federal regulation of the entertainment industry, or at least certain parts pertaining to the design, construction, and operation of amusement devices.

Having the weekend off I figured it would be a good chance to visit Six Flags America. You know, for science. Also because there is good money in learning from other peoples mistakes.

I showed up at the front gate around 10:15, only a hand full of people where there waiting. Several blue tags and a silver tag where out front lurking around. I think they were a bit underwhelmed by the opening attendance. Probably because the hours on the site weren't displaying correctly so the park actually showed up as closed.

The gates opened for gold pass holders a few minutes later. Walking in from the front gate you are immediately presented with a genuine knock off of Disney's Main Street. The first thought that came through my mind was "there is no way in hell Six Flags built this". I found out later that it was built prior to Six Flags ownership when the park opened in 1973. The level of theming is immersible, but as soon as you get to the first split in the road it abruptly ends.

At the fork I turned right, and headed across the rail road tracks to the Gotham City side of the park. The level of theming in this part of the park, well it's almost non-existent other then the signage and Bat Mobile model. Passed Jokers Jinx and across the rail road tracks again, way in the back of the park is Superman. Even further then Superman is Batwing, which didn't open until noon.

I walked onto Superman and sat in the first car of the first train. 6 rides later I got really board with it. The lay out of Superman consists of a few hills that feature some good sensations, but the helixs just destroy the pacing of the ride. Any turns on a ride destroy energy, this ride was 75% turns. It was like riding a test coaster in roller coaster tycoon where you built a lift, and the first hill, and then just built a bunch of straight track back to the station. The park already has an out and back coaster wooden roller coaster for kids and families, what it really needed was a hyper-coaster with some balls.

Leaving Superman via the gift shop, and after having walked all the way back to civilization. I realized how much of a desperate landscape this park was. The rides are spread so far out as to almost maintain the illusion that the park is bigger than it really is. There aren't even bathrooms by Batwing! You would have to walk 10 minutes before finding one. But dammit they have a funnel cake trailer and a vending machine for drinks out by the gift shop!

I headed for Jokers Jynx next, and it was a walk on. Jokers Jinx was one of two Premier Rides LIM Launch coasters purchased by Six Flags in 1999, her sister resides at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. These rides are now 15 years old, and the LIM modules are approaching the point where they need to be over hauled because they break down for one reason or another. With each LIM removed from service there is a noticeable reduction in launch performance can be felt. Not on this ride, it felt like the LIMs were brand new as the train reached V2 about half way down the launch tunnel. A surprising kick in the pants. Sporting a fresh coat of paint and some new brass in the brakes I would say someone has been looking after it quite well.

Rode it three times in a row and decided to move on. I walked back across the rail road tracks and turned into the loop that features Apocalypse and Roar. Walking passed the big Apocalypse sign and into the queue I realized that this ride had no real story line and doesn't really fit into any particular area of the park. The area this ride exists in is pirates theme, but you wouldn't know it because well, any pirates theming outside of the swinging ship ride is non-existent. With a passing train I saw the fireball ride up into a black mushroom cloud of poorly combusted gas and immediately knew that Mark Shaprio was responsible for this travesty.

Having ridden this ride back when it was Iron Wolf, and having ridden it's currently dismantled cousin Batman from the late Astroworld I was prepared for some head banging. I soon found out after the first drop that well, it's gotten worse. I feel this ride should have never been placed back into service as a stand up ride. It should have been re-engineered as a sit down or floorless. What should have been a lovely new marquee attraction for a small park in DC turned into a plotless headache whose alleged theme is the destruction of the world and all man kind. When Shaprio approved the apocalypse name I thought it was just for preparing the share holders for the timely death of the Six Flags franchise.

After popping some advil, I collected my thoughts and moved on down the road to Roar. As of late, Six Flags has not been known for having smooth well looked after wooden roller coasters. Instead opting to replace the bigger ones with steel track, steeper then vertical drops, and inversions that would otherwise not be possible with laminated wood construction. For a while there even the out and back wooden coasters with basic geometry were getting pretty rough. This was not looking good for my newfound headache.

You can always tell by the sounds it makes when a wooden coaster is running rough. You can see by the jerky movement in the trains as it passes over sections of track which just are fitted right. Roar being tucked away with no good viewing angles on three sides, I really did not know what to expect. It sounded good, and most of the bolts appeared to still be in the correct places on the trains, and the guest weren't walking off in paint. So I kept an open mind, and man was I surprised.

Roar features these swooping fan tail drops and it's constantly changing direction. Sometimes it tells you which way its gonna go, other times it leaves you guessing. Significant portions of the ride have been recently re-tracked. It felt it was superbly smooth. It's not the biggest ride, it's not the fastest ride, but then again it doesn't need to be. It certainly has it's place within this parks collection of rides. I hope that this level of maintenance will continue for this ride.

After leaving roar I headed over to the parks wild west section to check out the SLC and see if this park had anything else to offer. Unfortunately when I got there I found the rides operators on ride marketing duty. So I went to go eat lunch at a nearby restaurant and wait for Batwing to open. The food definitely left some room for improvement. The portions were small, and the chicken tenders were undercooked and the fries soaked in grease. The parks only been open for a few days so far this season and you can tell there is quite a bit of experience lacking in all departments.

After finishing lunch it was time to ride Batwing, a Vekoma flying coaster. I have only ridden the B & M implementation of this type before and always wanted a competitors implementation to contrast and compare. I walked all the way to the back of the park again, this time taking the loop that includes an expanded kids area. Just after passing the rail road tracks I noticed something behind Apocalypse that caught my eye. It was the remnants of Skull Mountain, an Int. reverser flume ride with a compatible theme that was replaced by an abusive stand up coaster. Not sure why they did not cut it up, but im pretty sure it was just laziness.

Arrived at Batwing, there was about a ten minute wait. I was thankful because it allowed me to see what I was about to endure. From afar it became immediately apparent the problems with this rides design and implementation. As the train departs the station, riders lay on their backs. Once out of the safety of the station, this means that you are staring directly into the sun. The lift hill also faces in a direction that is conducive to guest being exposed to this problem anytime the sun is out.

Looking at the train I noticed that the restraints were soft flexible straps (two point racing style harness) and not hard over the shoulder restraints. This was good, since there are already too many headbangers in this park. As side from a few odd transitions and weird forces the ride was pretty un-remarkable. It's very short and it ends in an abrupt stop. Neither of which made my head feel any better.

I headed back out of Narnia and back out the big wooden roller coaster and into the mardi gras section of the park. This area had recently been re-themed and construction was still in progress. Weirdly they built a wooden bridge across the rail road tracks, this meant the train was down, but it allowed for a complete loop of the area. I rode the freefall tower for old times sake, and walked around and looked at the new bar and wild mouse ride that they had recently finished assembling. Walked around some more and re-rode a few things, took some pictures, then headed for the exit.

Reflecting upon my trip to this park, I really feel like it's ride collection is a result of being a dumping ground for second rate rides that no other Six Flags park wanted. What ride wasn't donated to them was purchased out of the bargain bin or from passing carnivals. It's like half the park was designed and well thought out with ten year plans and extensive theming and variable ride styles, and the other newer half was thrown together by a drunk schizophrenic over a few weekends. The sparseness of the attractions in the back half of the park combined with the low quality and repetitive nature of the flat rides really cheapened the experience provided by this park. How can you have a park with 8 coasters, three of which are decent, and a bunch of flat rides that do exactly the same thing.

So in closing, Do I feel it's a good value? Maybe. Is it worth visiting more then once in a year, no. Does it provide a lasting memory, no. Is it a world class attraction? No.

[mkingy]

Nice pictures I look forward to the full trip report!

[Coasterkidmwm]

I'm wondering what the next ride SF Great America sends to SF America will be. Maybe we'll give them Vertical Velocity or something. Still kind of annoyed they moved the spinny mouse but oh well.

I went to that park around 12 years ago. Definitely remember finding the random barren spaces very odd. I remember Joker's Jinx, Superman, and Wild One. Didn't get a chance to get on the SLC but I guess that isn't bad necessarily.

[Oscar]

That this ride needs is to be made into a brand spanking new ride. The heartlining between this stand up and a floorless coater are the same. So to make this a smoother experience, just convert it into a floorless roller coaster and retrack it a bit. Rough estimate it would cost about $1million but then they could market this to the general public as a new ride. A floorless roller coaster!

Seriously though, I rode it when it was still called Iron Wolf and its not a ride you want to ride twice. As a floorless though, I think it could be good.

Superman at the park looks good but I do see the point of the helices messing it up. They should have made it a pure thrill ride!

Do you think Apocalypse can be a new "Batman The Ride" type someday? I expect that.