by robbalvey » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:45 am
Ok, so I know this is jumping ahead a bit in the update schedule and I will have more photos and stuff in the Fuji-Q update, but I figured since this topic was brought up I would add my 2 cents into it. So here are my thoughts on Eejanaika....
I will first say that I am not a fan of X, never liked the ride aside for the initial 2 months that it ran very smooth, I find it overrrated, usually rough as hell (there is the occasional smooth ride I get on it) and the 4D system really does nothing for me.
So flash-forward to my least favorite Japanese park getting a "Super-X." Fuji-Q may very well be one of my least favorite parks in the world. IMO, it is completely unacceptable for the typical visit to be walk in the park and roll the dice as to what ride you will spend 1 to 3 hours in line for. Today was no exception. I heard wait times anywhere from 45 minutes to over 3 hours for the "Big Three Coasters" at the park. And even the smaller coasters have horrible operations. Hamster Coaster was posted at 1hour 15 minutes, Joey waited 45 minutes for the kiddie coaster.
Terrible.
Our goal today was to walk into the park and ride Eejanaika (and the Mad Mouse) since those were the only two credits we needed. We hoped for the best and within 5 minutes of walking in the park we knew our visit would be just as craptacular as our last one.
A slight drizzle (yes, it wasn't even enough to get Dan agitated) kept the ride from opening until about 11:30ish when we were told we could wait in line, but they had given out 200 "exit passes" from when the ride had gone down just after park opening and they had to wait 1 hour before they would let us in the station so that those people could get their ride in.
Huh?
It's not as though those people were hanging out waiting for the ride, they had already dispursed throughout the park. But they did not allow anyone else in the station until they had given the exit pass people a window of 1 hour to get back to the ride.
So after about 3 hours of constant annoyance, we finally board the ride.
I end up in the back row, outside seat and I had what was one of my roughest coaster rides of my life. As much as it pains me to say it, I never had this bad of a ride on X, even when it made me punch myself in the face!!!
I have never been thrown around so much on a coaster and my body whacked around a restraint so much. If it wasn't for the padding, it probably would have been close to those original rides on Outer Limits with the OTSR's.
It was that bad. And I have the video to prove it!
What baffled me is I thought that with these newer trains and the new upgrades to the 4D technology the ride would be much smoother. Now granted I was probably in one of the worst seats possible as people who rode the inside seats said they got a much smoother ride, but I would say the group reaction was fairly split. Some people come off saying it was like being chucked down a hill inside a metal trash can, and those with a higher tollerance to getting the poo-poo beat out of you didn't seem to mind it.
As for the layout itself, it was VERY much like X. In fact, I honestly didn't really notice that much of a difference even when going through the "Full-Full" (or whatever it was called.) It was like I think we flipped an extra time there, but I was so busy trying to not get the poo-poo kicked out of me that I didn't really notice.
The whole ride was like Deja Vu (but rougher!) The first drop felt the same as X. The first raven turn, the second raven turn, the turn around, etc, all felt just like something I had done before.
Now I will say that, if you are a fan of X, you will probably LOVE this ride. It just was not for me, but having said that I would like to try it again in an inside seat, but there is no way I would ever wait in a long queue for it again.
My reccomendation would be to go try out the ride for yourself, just be forewarned about Fuji-Q's horrible park operations, and sit on an inside seat!!!
--Robb
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