Coaster Community

First I want to apologize for the delay in posting this. I have been recovering from pneumonia and last weekend simply got away from me. In my last post I talked about having a rather long night that involved a wedding reception and an impromptu party in my hotel room. As a result I didn't get up until a little after 1PM the next day, Sunday, April 27th. Valerie and I lounged around for a while and we left the hotel around 3PM. After we got a few blocks away from the hotel it started sprinkling which later became a light rain.

 

I knew that Six Flags St. Louis was directly off of I-44 so I figured that since I had a rudimentary map of the area from the wedding I would just use that to get to the nearest exit. Unfortunately, just because a map shows that a road intersects with a highway does not necessarily mean that there is an exit as I soon found out. We drove right over I-44, and since I was in denial I continued on the same road for about half an hour until it reached a dead end. We turned around, went to a gas station on the Saint Louis University campus and were able to get directions to I-44 from one of the customers. The employee that was working at the time seemed to think the park was over an hour away, but the customer was in agreement with me that it was closer to 30 minutes. I have a feeling the employee was a student who lived in town only during the school year and was not ambitious enough to venture outside the campus very often.

 

The directions worked out and we arrived through the gates around 4:30 PM. The park was scheduled to close at 7PM that evening so that gave us a decent amount of time. The rain was coming down as a light drizzle so most of the folks who had come earlier in the day and since left. This also explained why we were able to get a parking spot in the front row of the non-reserved parking. We didn't want to waste any time so we headed directly to Mr. Freeze, number 45 on my ride list. The last time we visited the coaster was up and running, but Valerie and I were both too scared to ride it. After riding Xcelertator at Knott's Berry Farm last May we both decided we were willing to ride any coaster regardless of how scary it looked. Mr. Freeze speeds you off at 70mph in 3.8 to an inside top hat, a banked curve, and then a 218 ft straight vertical climb where you pause momentarily before experiencing the rest of the ride backwards. It was definitely more enjoyable than I had expected and had we had more time I probably would have rode it again. But, that's just going to wait until my next visit later this summer.

 

After riding Mr. Freeze we rode SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY OF THE SCARY SWAMP, a interactive dark ride where you shoot targets to earn points. It was experiencing techincal difficulties on our last visit, and after waiting for an hour we hopped out of line. This time we waited less than five minutes. This ride is probably a little bit more fun for kids, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Next we headed to Tony Hawk's Big Spin. Unfortunately this is a coaster that they choose to close during the rain because of the potential for an injury that my result from sliding around on wet seats. This was supposed to be number 46 on my list, so I was a little disappointed. We decided our next stop would be Screamin' Eagle. It is one of the more enjoyable woodies I have ridden since it doesn't require a visit to a chiropractor afterwards unlike the Boss. I also think it is a little underrated with the amount of air-time it has; however it's ranking did improve to 75 from 152 on the most current Wooden Roller Coaster Poll. Since lines were non-existent we rode once in the front, and once in the back. I had never ridden this coaster in the back and it's a completely different ride and just made me like it all that much more. It may look old and tame, but you have to ride this one on any visit to the park.

 

After we exited Screamin' Eagle an announcement came on saying that due to the expected forecast of the weather to get worse they were going to close early at 6PM. We checked our watches and had a little over 30 minutes left. We had both already agreed that we didn't want to ride Boss, and that we were going to end our day with Batman The Ride. So we had to decide whether we wanted to ride River King Mine Train or Ninja, a traditional sit down looping coaster. We opted for Ninja since we recalled enjoying that one more on our previous visit. Unfortunately it turned out to not be that enjoyable, and after riding many more coasters this time around it wasn't surprising that I didn't enjoy this particular Vekoma coaster since they are known for banging you around. After this visit, Ninja has demoted towards the bottom of the list for coasters at this park.

 

After we shook off our ride on Ninja we headed to the front of the park to ride Batman. When we arrived at the front of the queue I was a little worried that they had capped the line for the day since an employee was standing in front of the entrance. When we approached him we soon realized that he was a simple locker nazi enforcing the new policy of having to store belongings in a locker on certain Six Flags coasters. We paid our dollar to store our backpack and went back to the queue. One thing I will say about the queue for Batman is it done fairly well. With the sound effects and the landscaping it is a decent recreation of Gotham City park. However, when you don't have to wait in a long line it is a little annoying to have to go through the entire thing. It would be nice if they had a low rider volume entrance. Right was we were exiting the park themed part of the queue we heard screaming from above us. We were underneath the lift hill and the train had stopped half-way up. This didn't bother Valerie or I as we have been stuck on coasters ourselves and we know that it is safety measures that trigger these emergency stops. We went ahead and proceeded through the line hoping that it would be fixed in a timely enough manner that we could get a ride in before the park closed. We waited in the gates for about 10 minutes before they got things running again. We had to wait for a few train runs for our seat in the front, but that was fine with us. The ride itself is not as smooth as other B&M inverteds we have ridden, but it was still enjoyable. When we came back to the station there was no line for the front so I asked to ride again. The ride op obliged, but Valerie decided to sit this go out since she knows that she needs a little break between rides. I'll admit that after the second ride I was feeling a little woozy, but not as bad as the as the last time I rode coasters back-to-back.

 

As we walked down the exit ramp we saw it was a little after 6PM and knew it was time to head to the front. Before leaving the park I made a point to stop by guest relations and let them know that the folks at Screamin' Eagle and Batman were doing a great job, considering they were nice enough to give us re-rides. All-in-all it wasn't a bad trip considering what we were able to do in one and a half hours. I look forward to the next though, when Evel Knievel will be open and we go with a couple of our friends. Until then take a look my trip pictures in my gallery.

 

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License and has been republished with permission.