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Trip Report 5/27/16


ReptileGuy

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Overview:

 

Went to the park today with school for a end of year field trip. When we arrived at 10:00 the park entrance was full with people from schools and other groups. We got in the park around 10:20. Overall the lines were decently short today, longest being 1 hour for Nitro. Besides that all were 30 minutes or less. I was with a group of 4 including me, who stayed together the whole time. Once again I realized how difficult it is to get through the park with people who don't enjoy coasters or know the park. I still had fun though as we are all good friends and had a good time. Just wish we took advantage of lines and got on more rides.

 

Summary of JOKER issues:

 

Throughout the day the Joker ride was testing on and off, and finally opened up around mid-day. I saw it running and saw how short the line was due to the Season Pass only rule. My group I was about to enter the line but the employee who watches over lines wouldn't let me go with my medical bag. While I was talking to them the ride got stuck as seen in my first photo. I walked over and got a snack from the stand right there and watched to see how long it would take the ride to be operating again. Seeing that many people were leaving the line I then got on line in hopes of it opening again. This time there was a security guard there as well as the employee. The security guard let me on with my bag. The ride continued to get stuck every few rides. By the time I was about 6 rides from boarding it had stopped operation completely. They were testing train after train, all of which got stuck in the same spot. After another 15 or so minutes they stopped testing and cleared the line. Didn't have time to wait and watch them work on the ride but that would of been cool as the station is so visible from off the ride.

 

Here are some pics ---> https://imgur.com/a/8tYHY

 

10:00 - 11:00

- Arrived at the park

- Got in line

- Got into the park around 10:15

- Ran immediately to Superman as one of the members of my group had never been on a ride and wanted to try that first

- After Superman entered the Green Lantern line

 

11:00 - 12:00

- Got on Green Lantern

- Walked to Seafari cut-through and then went to El Toro

- Waited and rode El Toro ( row 3 )

- Exited El Toro and made our way towards Log Flume

 

12:00 - 1:00

- Log Flume was closed so we went to Best of the West for lunch

- After lunch Log Flume had just opened so we went on it

- After the Flume we rode the skyway to other side of park

- We got off the SkyWay and walked over to Nitro

- Got on the Nitro line

 

1:00 - 2:00

- Waited for and rode Nitro

 

2:00 - 3:00

- Got some snacks by Nitro

- After Nitro we walked back to the Ferris Wheel and rode it as others in the group wanted to

- Side Note... Ferris Wheel is a very long ride!

- After the Ferris Wheel we walked over towards Joker

 

3:00 - 4:20

- We sat for a little and discussed where to go next, we ended up just sitting for a little

- at around 3:20 I made my way over to Joker ride as they were just going to play games.

- The ride kept getting stuck and the issue discussed above occured

- Finally at around 4:20 the line was cleared and I left the park

 

Ride Totals:

  • Superman
  • Green Lantern
  • El Toro
  • Log Flume
  • Skyway
  • Nitro
  • Ferris Wheel
  • (almost Joker...)
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I wouldn't blame this entirely on Six Flags. It's really S&S's product that they've built and just handed over to Six Flags. Similar situation to buying a new car and having it break down the first day you drive it off the lot. The only thing I think they could have done differently to try and avoid this would be longer testing and stress testing. Something like GACoaster talked about with SeaWorld, where they have all the employees ride to simulate crowd patterns and whatnot. That's especially helpful on a ride like The Joker, where having actual humans with flailing arms and legs actually makes a difference in operation. (And we saw what happens when you spin too much)

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  • Spinning (too much) is what this ride is all about.
  • Any car not upright in the loading/unloading area should be automatically corrected or there is a big design flaw.
  • Not spinning does not seem to be a valid solution but I suspect it will be the solution.
  • It is still a fun ride in its current state but the consistent 0-2 flips last night is not enough.
  • Luckily I got 1 ride before it was changed.
  • Did such issues exist with the SFFT install?

(They really should have had ACEers hit this thing hard with various loads before opening.)

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It ran complete fine and often before opening with riders. It was just a freak thing where all the possible factors were all lined up at the correct time.

 

I just hope the spinning goes back once they fix or figure out the issue.

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^ How much more did it spin before the incident? Out of my two rides (both on the green side) one was really good and the other stayed pretty much upright aside from two inversions.

I never actually counted and totally regret that but easily probably hit the '6' each ride, if not close too it. In the B roll footage you can kinda see how much it spun. The top row alone was about 3 flips each time.

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I wouldn't blame this entirely on Six Flags. It's really S&S's product that they've built and just handed over to Six Flags. Similar situation to buying a new car and having it break down the first day you drive it off the lot. The only thing I think they could have done differently to try and avoid this would be longer testing and stress testing. Something like GACoaster talked about with SeaWorld, where they have all the employees ride to simulate crowd patterns and whatnot. That's especially helpful on a ride like The Joker, where having actual humans with flailing arms and legs actually makes a difference in operation. (And we saw what happens when you spin too much)

 

Fair enough but whether SF or S&S, it's embarrassing, especially since they opened the same ride a year ago.

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