4/10/16

[RC98]

It was an awesome day. Crowds were light and operations improved as the day went on.

 

Since most of the coasters were still closed at park opening due to the cold, my first ride of the season was Skull Mountain. I got to stay in the back row for three straight rides without getting up. Next was a walk on for Skyscreamer, which I find underrated. I try to ride it whenever I’m in the park. I also saw the Harley Quinn train parked on the lift when I was in the area.

 

At that point, Nitro opened up with two trains so I went over to it and rode three times without leaving the station--once in the back, once in the middle, and once in row 3. In the past I always rode Nitro in the back but I actually liked riding near the front more than I expected so I’ll be riding it there more often. Next was Batman, which had a longer wait for the front row since only one train was running. Great ride as always though!

 

At that point the park app said that Zumanjaro and Toro had opened so I walked right onto the Skyride (which was running both sides) to the other side of the park and went to Toro, which went down as I was in the train waiting to dispatch. They spent 20 minutes kicking three different people off of the ride to try to get the sensors to clear but it still ended up going down. When I was around this area I also noticed that Macho Nacho is still closed, I hope it opens soon since it’s one of my favorite places to eat in the park.

 

I left and went to Zumanjaro, which had no line, and I got to ride three times without leaving the ride area. It felt oddly rough going down the drop, which doesn’t make much sense to me since it’s just a straight track. It was still really fun though, the sheer length of the drop makes this one my favorite. Next I went to Bizarro and rode twice without leaving the station, the fire worked on both rides.

 

After having lunch at Best of the West, Toro was running again so I went back over and got to ride twice in the second to last row with a station wait both times. It was running well since it had time to warm up a bit, and I was reminded of why I love this coaster so much. Next I went to Ka, where I was denied a ride since it went down to switch out trains and then went down again right after reopening. After leaving I walked onto Superman and rode twice without leaving the station, and then walked on to the Parachutes since I was passing by and wanted to get a view of what was going on at Ka.

 

Ka ran a train while I was on the parachutes, so I went back over again to see Zumanjaro stuck halfway up the tower with people on it. Once the cars were lowered, Ka reopened and I got in line. It’s amazing how fast its line moves with Zum closed. I rode twice with short waits each time in the third row. I still want to try it in the front row sometime, next time I go to the park I’ll get to it at opening so I can try it out.

 

At this point I had to leave, but I had a great day and am looking forward to returning!

 

Final ride count

Skull, Nitro, Zum--3x

Toro, Bizarro, Ka, Superman--2x

Skyscreamer, Batman, Skyride, Parachutes--1

Edited April 12, 2016 by RC98

[pashacar]

Good report! How was BoTW's service? A common theme from TRs this year has been extremely slow food service. Hoping that trend is starting to fade as employees get more practice, but you never know.

 

. . . and because I'm curious, what did you have and how was it?

[lynn41103]

On 4/10 I had lunch at Nathan's and dinner at Johnny Rockets. Each time I waited barely any time at all. In fact, my meal was assembled at Nathan's before they even finished processing the dining plan. Granted the crowd was a little light that day, but I'd say it's a good sign.

[pashacar]

Nice. Hopefully it was just troubles when starting out for the season.

[SatansHockey]

Nice report! It was an awesome day to be at the park, I did eat at best of the West and I thought the service was slow considering there were only like 5 people in front of me and it was basically empty. If they can't move the lines quickly when it's empty it's going to only be even worse when it's packed.

[RC98]

When I was at BotW it seemed like they were having a hard time keeping up with the amount of people ordering burgers but whenever someone ordered anything else it was ready quickly.

. . . and because I'm curious, what did you have and how was it?

I had a grilled chicken sandwich and fries and it was ok--good quality but rather plain. I can't wait until Macho Nacho opens for the season, I really liked their food last year.

[Matt Kaiser]

Good report! How was BoTW's service? A common theme from TRs this year has been extremely slow food service. Hoping that trend is starting to fade as employees get more practice, but you never know.

 

 

I wouldn't use this as being representative of the service specifically at BoTW. It will definitely change from day to day, from hour to hour. It's all down to how many employees they have, which is literally an issue not having enough employees, not "budget cuts" as everyone loves to assume and complain about. The food department in particular is hurting in this respect. Now, of course there are reasons for the lack of people wanting to work at the park, but that's out of the scope of my point. Just look at how many job fairs and news releases they had asking for employees. Some days they'll have enough employees to staff certain locations to a limited extent, other days they won't at all. Hopefully they can get more employees by the time the season really starts kicking in, but I do personally think changes need to be made elsewhere for that to happen.