Skycoastin' Steve's 2011 Season Extravaganza!!

[mattnzDonkey eat mullet pump.]

I LOVE this photo of Roxanne!

Great TR as always Steve - looking forward to more!

[sspaz1000I prefer to mate with donkeys over humans!]

I loved Wooden Warrior. Such a wonderful surprise, and to start off the trip with that, awesome. And Boulder Dash. Amazing.

You have some great pictures here.

[fatdaddyI'm 39 and can't find the Shift Key]

I did not know Skycoastin' Steve had fanboys, creepy. Cool report, you can see in the pictures how humid it was, the humidity seriously was killing me. Waiting for your next update, guess I should work on mine.

[Skycoastin SteveFive babies drowned in a fire]

^I thought you were my #1 fanboy.

[traincrossinWisconsin Dells Fanatic]

I agree, Wooden Warrior was such a surprise and a huge hit! Quassy was a great little park with quite a few rides. And Boulder Dash at Compounce? Wow, it was just, wow, yea. That triple up at night? Heavenly. Can't wait for more pics!

[RoCoBonafide Donkey Expert]

Revisited this thread to check out your Jersey Shore-Whore trip and got caught up on a lot of stuff I'd missed, including the awesome Cheetah Hunt and Wooden Warrior shots. Awesome all around.

(And those freakin' Cheetahs, the real ones, are truly among the most beautiful animals to walk this planet. Magnificent.)

[Skycoastin SteveFive babies drowned in a fire]

^Thank you, much appreciated!

And I agree about cheetahs, those animals are absolutely gorgeous!

[Skycoastin SteveFive babies drowned in a fire]

Moving right along, we had made it to Bizarro Bash at SFNE, which would be quite an..........interesting day for me.

Let me preface all this by saying that I am 6'5", which is 77", which is 1 inch taller than the max height restriction for Bizarro. More on that later.

Upon arriving at SFNE, we waited for a little bit outside the entrance for all the Bash stuff to get organized, and then we were walked back for our ERT on Bizarro, the new Wild Mouse, and Batman. We went straight for Bizarro, and upon arriving, found out we had to purchase fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo.s for ERT. Really? For ERT? Whatever. So we did that, and then the fun began. They had someone at the entrance to the ride measuring people (which is fine, "safety" and all), and despite them KNOWING that a few of us were too tall, let us on anyway (which obviously made me happy). They also had one train running for a group of almost 200 people (yay, go Six Flags). So we rode Bizarro, had fun despite the horribly uncomfortable lapbars, then went to the Wild Mouse. This was also another ride that several of us were too tall for, but they let us ride anyway (remember that for later). Then we did Batman (meh) and the waterpark ERT (which was excellent, my first water coaster and the funnel slides are always awesome!).

Once the park opened and the flood of GP came pouring in (park was packed), we started using our Gold Flash Pass. Thank goodness for those things and ERT, otherwise we would have basically ridden nothing all day. Slow crews, several rude employees, hardly any employees I would describe as polite, dirty bathrooms and walkways, no shade ANYWHERE (except for the lunch pavilion). At some point we went and rode Bizarro again, and I was let through the entrance again by the height checker who LITERALLY looked at the top of my head and her height stick as I walked by and just shrugged. I think at that point I had ridden it three times without getting denied.

For some of the other rides, Cyclone had AWESOME airtime in the back car on the first drop (even if it hurt), and the rest of the ride was just OK. The new section of topper track was incredibly smooth, and I'd like to see more parks using this in the future. Thunderbolt wasn't anything special, and it was pretty rough. The boomerang and SLC were typical Vekoma offerings. I did really like Pandemonium, as the Gerstlauer spinners are leaps and bounds better than the Zamperla spinning mouse coasters. I know at some point we also did Houdini, which was one of the most bizarre rides I've ever been on, but still lots of fun. We also got the two kiddie credits and did the S&S tower a couple times.

Back to Bizarro. At various other points during the day, I started getting denied for being too tall. Once was by the rude kid at the entrance, and another time a different girl was at the entrance, measured me, said I was OK, I waited half an hour in the Flash Pass line, and then got re-measured by one of the ops on the platform and I was sent packing. So by this point, I said screw it for Bizarro until night time ERT. During night time ERT, I made it through fine and got three rides in, including one in the front row, and not once was I checked for height (and this is with at least two supervisor/manager type people in the station). The fourth time I come back around, sit down in the train, and the little bitchy female ride op in the station has me get out and get measured. Of course, I was too tall, and unable to ride the rest of ERT even though I had ridden three times already right in front of them.

Someone asked them why they have the max height in place even though there are ZERO issues with clearance on the ride (I rode hands up every time and never came close to hitting anything). Their answer? "It's for efficiency, we don't want anyone that could possibly not fit in the restraints to get in line." OK, for starters, that kinda makes sense. But here's a good idea for increasing efficiency: GET FASTER RIDE OPS. I will admit that the lapbars were REALLY tight on my legs, but I was able to get it far enough down to lock properly every single time. So what's the issue? If you see someone that might be too tall, have them sit in the test seat (just like people who might be too large), and if the lapbar goes down far enough, let them ride!!!! Once again, Six Flags' lack of common sense shines through. And for comparison, Superman at SFA has the exact same max height and I've never been denied. Not once.

That ended up being a bit wordy, but if you can imagine my frustration the entire day when I was the proper size to fit in the kiddie coaster, but couldn't even ride one of the top steel coasters in the country, it was bad. And I do want to say that Robb and Elissa put on a KICK A$$ event for us, I just felt bad that the park basically ruined it for me. I don't see myself going back to that park any time soon.

Here come the pictures, full album can be found on facebook here.

[televisedconfessionCounselor Neil]

Neil took this while Jen and I were getting our minds erased. Nice shot, Neil!

I'm surprised it came out that well. Apparently I become a better photographer while intoxicated.

[mattnzDonkey eat mullet pump.]

I edited my Bizarro Bash TR after reading yours - I think I was a little too nice! If the height restriction policies made more sense - and were consistently adherred to - then different story. Sorry to hear you had such an annoying time - idiotic policies and employees can really fudge up your day.