Alrighty folks - I FINALLY made it back to California, and the boycott officially ended yesterday as I made my first trip to SFMM in almost 10 years. We're of course hitting up DL and KBF as well, but I'll post about those later. Sorry - didn't bring my camera so this won't have any photos. That being said, I'll try and keep it short.
Since my last visit, the park has added Scream!, Tatsu, Apocalypse (formerly Terminator), and Green Lantern. They've also changed X into X2, and Superman now runs backwards.
Tatsu was utterly amazing. Smooth as glass, long, exciting, and being on top of the hill made it even better. This is without a doubt one of the best rides I've ever been on.
Superman backwards was probably the biggest surprise of the day. The ride is a million times better than before - shooting out of the station down the launch track backwards was AWESOME. This was a brilliant move by the park, and I hope it never changes back.
Scream! was...kind of disappointing. It wasn't a bad ride, but it was much rougher than any other B&M I've ridden, and there just wasn't anything special about it. Medusa at SFMW (only other floorless I've ridden) was much better in my opinion.
Apocalypse was also very surprising. I don't think I've ever been on a woodie that was that intense. It didn't have a lot of big drops or hills, but once that ride got going it did not feel like it slowed down until you hit the brakes! After that first drop you are just TEARING through the rest of the turns and hills. I loved the tunnels and other effects. While I wouldn't say this is my favorite wooden coaster, it was the most intense, and a great addition to the park. MUCH better than Psyclone. And you can't go wrong with millennium flyer trains.
Finally, X2 was...meh. I didn't really like it to begin with the first time I rode it nearly 10 years ago. The new trains do seem to make the ride a bit smoother, but after the first drop, it just seems too rough for me. Plus, the audio soundtrack and special effects weren't working. Call me crazy, but I don't like this ride very much.
Due to the lines, we never did get on Green Lantern. I honestly don't think that ride looks all that much fun (looks too short), and it was always well over an hour wait. We decided to let that one wait until next time.
Couple other notes: Revolution was about as I remember it - rough, slow, and tame...but good for the memories. Colossus has aged terribly - feels like you're on square wheels! Goliath was as good as ever (and I continue to experience tunnel vision during the helix). Viper seemed much faster than it was last time I rode it (have they eased off the trim brakes at all - seems like it to me). Log Jammer and Jet Stream were great (and hilarious) as ever. Ninja was broken when we tried to get on it, and we didn't have time to hit up Riddler or Batman. Naturally, we also decided to skip Deja Vu.
We did purchase a Flash Pass, which I found to be completely worth the price. $115 for two people at the "Gold" level (middle level of the three). We were able to go straight to the front of the line on most rides in the park, and it saved us a ton of time. I'd highly recommend this if you go. Had we arrived at the park on time (instead of after lunch), we could have easily ridden ever coaster at least once.
And how did the overall park compare to last time? We all noticed a huge improvement. The crowds were really light - several of the rides were walk ons. The park seemed much cleaner overall, and although the crowds were not nearly as family friendly as you find at DL, they were, for the most part, reasonable. No intimidating gangs walking around, never saw people cutting in line, etc. I do still think the park has a ways to come before it's back to how I remember it as a kid, but they've obviously put a lot of effort into fixing the problems that caused us to turn our noses away for the past 10 years, and it really shows. I'd gladly go back there again now that I had a fairly good experience. Kudos to SFMM for doing whatever you did - keep it up because it's definitely working.
I'll post more about the rest of our trip later on.
