USA 04/19 – Six Flags America
And here we are. Final bit of fun before the airport.
Day 12 – Six Flags America
Visually another place that blows Six Flags Great Adventure out of the water. Lets see what the fuss is about.
Started strong on yet another Great Chase, yet another Zamperla 80STD. There had been a tornado overnight (we had just missed it on the last couple of days which was a shame as I wanted to add it to my extreme weather event collection), so the staff guy was nice enough to clean up the seats that were full of leaves before letting us on.
This ride is good for the name alone. People that hate on this park name it as one of the worst rollercoasters in the world, but it’s just a completely standard spinner. People are wrong.
Wild One was being spiteful, but the staff guy was amusing, standing under a deafening speaker playing mardi gras music and seeming physically terrified of anyone who came and asked about it. More on that later.
Spitebird was being spiteful of course, undergoing a refurb.
New for 2019. Toilets.
Outdoor Flight of Fear wasn’t as disorientating, but seeing the tangled mess of supports whizzing by was quite a sight to behold.
Glad everything was walk on, queues looked grim.
The ride closed for wind just after we got on it. Good.
On to this hilarious piece of steel. I believe this is my last in the set of unique Intamin Mega/Hyper layouts and what a layout!
The sequence of events still makes me laugh now. It starts by presenting you with what a hill looks like. Then a glorious straight line and a giant helix. A giant, rattling, speed losing, pointless helix.
Another glorious straight line.
Another hill that does nothing.
Another giant helix, this time in the upwards direction.
It just leaves you sitting there watching what’s going on around you and not really ‘riding’ anything in the true sense, thinking what the hell were they thinking?
A couple of hills happen at the end of mild significance. Intamin at their finest.
Is this the one that had Virtual Reality? I can see how there wasn’t any real danger of losing headsets mid-ride.
Batwing was on staggered openings, so we went to Roar, which broke down in front of our face due to wind.
Leaving us with the SLC. Looks pretty good for what it is. Rides alright. Middle of the road.
Roar had then fixed itself. Like Hurler, it was interesting to ride something which resembled what RMC Joker used to be, spotting what they’d done with it, remembering better times.
The ride itself? Meh. GCI again. Old style of trains made it a change of pace at least.
Back to Batwing. Longest queue of the day @ 10 minutes.
This thing fixed everything that was wrong with the original.
The putting you on your back mechanism was smooth and sophisticated.
They changed the shape of the final inversions so they dont physically assault you.
They added a bonus helix!
It only ran one train so you didn’t lie on the brakes at the end.
Quite liked it to be honest. Solidified the experience as more forceful and interesting than Air.
This ride also closed for wind just after we got it. We’ve done well.
All that was left was Wild One. Went back to our guy to get the same old lack of information. Saw some activity over in the distance.
The reason it was closed was that the wind had blown down this stupid Snickers banner from the side of the ride. Entertained ourselves by watching them slowly climb around the supports and remove it.
It took down a piece of wood with it, who knows whether it was structural or not. We didn’t care at this point. Just run the thing so we can ride it and leave. And they did.
Back over to our guy, still getting nervous and still not opening. Another man stuck his head out of the station and shouted down to him.
“You can go on your lunch now.”
“Is the ride open?”
“No. You can go to lunch now.”
Quote of the day – “Someone NEEDS to be here.”
Then he went to lunch. The very second he left, 50 guests turned up out of nowhere and instantly powered into the closed queue, fulfilling his prophecy that someone needed to be there. Still laughing, we followed them in.
The station staff showed no resistance at this point, sending the ride for another test with us standing there. Then it opened. Success.
Best ride in the park, not that it was hard to achieve. A decent enough older woodie with the right level of shake, rattle and roll, plus a bonus helix.
And that was that. Don’t see the problem with this place at all. The lineup is lacking by Six Flags standards of course, but the park itself is perfectly pleasant and a good little half day out.
Goodbye America.
Summary
New creds – 96
Total parks – 10
RMCs – 4
Miles travelled – 3200
Current savings on car parking costs – $401
Best coaster – Skyrush
Best park – Dollywood
Spites – 4/100 (4.0%)