Six Flags Darien Lake
Reids Take Shaggy Back For Second Visit
Six Flags Darien Lake Trip Report
Saturday, September 01, 2001
Six Flags Darien Lake has become a required trip when we have guests visiting us in Newmarket. This past Labour Day weekend our guest was John "Shaggy" K. This would not be John’s first visit to SFDL. His first visit was back in October 1999 during Fright Fest. During 1999’s Fright Fest the park had many rides not operating. Just like our first visit to SFDL with John this visit also turned out to be a lot of fun.
After a very busy Friday – CNE all day and back to PCW for the Eruption in the evening- I had the troops up at 6:30 AM Saturday morning so we could be at SFDL when it opened. The trip could not start without a stop at our local Tim Horton’s for Donna’s Coffee. About half way there we stop at another Tim Horton’s for more coffee, do-nuts and pee breaks. I have learned never to get behind a bus while crossing at the border. There was no delay at the border and we arrived at the park just as they were unlocking the parking lot gates. We got a spot about 100 feet from the front gate. The weather this morning was a bit chilly and we all had sweaters and wind pants on. The sun finally came out mid afternoon and only then could we take our sweaters off.
Today’s mission – 1) Have Fun 2) Get coaster counts for John and Adam… When John arrived in Newmarket his coaster count stood at 193. At the end of Friday John added 4 from the CNE. There was a two count at PCW which had to delay until Sunday because the desire was to make Martins Fantasy Island’s Silver Comet number 200. This left SFDL’s Predator 198 and Mind Eraser 199. These two coaster were not operating back in 1999.
SFDL has just recently added FAST PASS and John purchased $20 of passes at the front gate. We waited for the rope to drop and headed directly for S:ROS. Now the big question I had would the premier attraction at this park have both trains running or would they disappoint like our other three visit this year and only be running one? Not only were they running both trains on S:ROS but they had both trains running on Predator. Our first ride of the day was S:ROS ‘s seat 1.2 with John getting the double ride. John was the recipient of all double rides at SFDL and PCW. Double rides are easy to do with five people and a two train coaster operation… higher math skills are required for a three train operation. S:ROS’s seat 1.2 is the fastest queue in the station. Why? Because everybody lines up for the front seat and blocks the entrance to this seat. It is not rare to see this seat go empty. Just walk to the front of the station be polite excuse yourself and get in line. Sometimes the people in front of you want you to go ahead of them because they are trying to line up with their buds waiting for 1.1. Within minutes we were back in the station for our second ride. Normally the line up for 1.1 stretches all along the back wall but this time only a couple of riders are in front of us. So our second ride of the day was a chilly enjoyable front seat 1.1 ride on S:ROS. Again John received the double ride. This was our first S:ROS ride since the SFNE accident and now we find ourselves bracing ourselves in the brake run… Just in case.
Predator …. First time we have seen the red train running this year. John had not ridden back in 1999. I gave him the option of a rough ride or a good ride. John picked the good ride so we lined up for 1.1. The rough ride consists of riding either of the last two car in the rear bench on the left side on the black train. Fortunately John and I got the red train for an okay ride. This ride was probably pretty good back in 1990 when it first opened. It’s layout should be constantly popping you out of your seat. We did not re-ride Predator during the rest of our stay. Seems like the crew has added a new seat belt check routine since our last visit which has slowed down a normally efficient crew.
Over to the Twister … Huss single gondola top spin. John was the only one who rode while the rest of us watched. For some reason Mr. Keeter was able to get me on PCW’s Shockwave and Cliffhanger on Friday evening and after watching Twister’s cycle I decided to give it a go. Since there was nobody waiting in the queue we were given a double ride. I liked the way Huss’s restraints kept your body and legs in the seat. I am no a big spin and spew fan and still not sure why I got on. On the way to Twister we checked the times for the Batman show.
Time for lunch and we have always had good experiences with the food at SFDL and we quite enjoy their hamburgers. The Chicken Shack which is tad on the slow side has very good chicken wings. After lunch we walked over to the campers store for some ice cream snacks.
The Batman show was at 2:00 PM which left us enough time to ride Viper and Mind Eraser. Donna had already gotten the count on both and opted not to ride in lieu of playing a few games. Adam had not previously ridden Viper and this would be his first ride. The four of us rode in the same car and bought the photo. Viper is holding up pretty good and still a very enjoyable ride. I believe it was the first coaster with six inversions.
Before our Mind Eraser ride John showed Donna the Fascination game which we tried a couple of times. You could tell from the gentleman running this game – that it was his game. He was very energetic and made you feel welcome. On the way out he tossed the boys a little prize. Now these are the things that add to you having a Fun Day.
For Mind Eraser we went up the exit to use John’s FAST PASS. Good thing because the line was already down the stairs and only one train was running. We just arrived on the exit and maintenance was putting the second train on. This guy was fast. WOW! He had that train on and the ride running under five minutes. This was the first time I have seen a transfer track work on a SLC and I now know where Vekoma got the idea for X-Flight’s spinning transfer track for the split station. Mind Eraser was not only John’s 199 coaster but also Adam’s first ride and second SLC. Fast Pass saved us at least 45 minutes.
Time to head over to the Batman show. If you know John besides coasters he is also a very big Batman fan. Now we have seen this show enough already and only because of John did we go see it again. This show has been shorten since the first of the year. The Bat Mobile is no longer used in the show. The last time we saw it I figured that the car was not working and figured it would return. The show is just over 15 minutes while before it ran close to 30 minutes. SFDL’s have a very good Batman character because he is tall and looks the role. I think it looks funny when a short person plays the role of Batman.
Back over to S:ROS… We decide we would line in the queues so we could ride the very last seat and then use up the rest of our fast pass tickets. The queue was maybe less than half full and we only had to wait 30 minutes for the last row. It was in the queues that the sun finally appeared for the first time around 2:45 PM. John really like the back row but I think I am partial to the front. Donna figured that her two rides earlier in the morning were enough and let the four boys ride S:ROS. As soon as we got off we were all back up the exit for a FAST PASS ride which is the middle car. Not many guests use the FAST PASS system and most S:ROS fast pass seats were going empty. John and I used up the two remaining FAST PASS tickets and let on we were sleeping for the on ride photo. I could not pass on the photo and should have it posted soon. We checked out the gift shops before we left around 4:00 PM so we could make it over to Martin’s Fantasy Island for their after 5 admission.
Summary: Mission accomplished… We had Fun and John got coaster 198 and 199.
Regards,Kevin Reid
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