- June 11th, 2013, 10:20 pm
#51059
The final part of my St. Louis trip is one of those weird places that I have now been to three times despite no real reason to ever want go to more than once: Six Flags. I visited the park in 2005 as part of a group trip to parks throughout the Midwest and again in 2006 for the suicidal 30 hour marathon on the Screamin' Eagle roller coaster.
My biggest criticism previously with Six Flags St. Louis was that there was no real standout coaster. Since my last visit, that may have been corrected with the addition of American Thunder, which opened in 2008 under the name Evel Knievel.
Six Flags St. Louis seems more interested in wooden coasters than the rest of the chain. Not many Six Flags parks are building wooden coasters these days, but the last two major coasters at St. Louis have both been wood, with The Boss opening in 2000.
American Thunder is a Great Coasters International project, so it's not hard to know what to expect: a smooth, graceful, twisting ride with a number of nice airtime moments. Unfortunately, as these coasters become more prevalent, I am worried that they are becoming a bit old hat to me. American Thunder met those expectations, though there were a few spots that are getting a tad rough.
American Thunder is one of the smaller GCI coasters, but packs a great punch none the less. I have been on 9 of the company's 20 rides, and I rate American Thunder quite highly, with it only being topped by the larger and more interesting Thunderhead at Dollywood and Renegade at Valleyfair. The highlight of the ride for me was its finale, a series of short bunny hills in rapid fire succession filled with great airtime.
When I asked for a photo with the coaster in the background, this was not really what I had in mind. You can at least tell that there is a roller coaster back there.
I rode the Mr. Freeze coaster when I visited in 2005, but since then a new twist has been added.
The trains have been turned around, now launching out of the station backwards.
The ride is intense, but was a little too disorienting for me, as coasters that go backwards often are. One ride was enough.
Another new coaster for me, Pandemonium, a pretty standard spinning coaster built by Gerstlauer.
I actually enjoy these rides a lot more than I ever thought I would, though the amount of spinning is hit or miss depending on the individual coaster and the weight distribution of riders in the car. We did not get a ton of spinning on my ride.
Now, the most traumatizing moment of the trip.
In 2006, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Screamin' Eagle, Six Flags gathered a group of 20 roller coaster enthusiasts to mark the occasion by riding the coaster non-stop (with regularly scheduled breaks) for 30 straight hours, starting at 8 AM and ending at 2 PM the next day. Due to some sort of malfunction in my brain, I joined the other 19 morbid fools to brave what would turn out to be 100 degree heat and a few hundred trips around the track on a wild old wooden coaster. 14 of us made it the 30 hours.
With only one train operating for some reason, Screamin' Eagle had a surprisingly long line, so I only managed one ride, which was enough to conjure up flashbacks of that long seemingly endless night out in the woods of Eureka, Missouri. Though the legendary John Allen's final creation would never be described as rough, it is not a particularly forgiving ride, and it's hard for me to remember how exactly I could have survived, especially as the coaster picked up speed as night fell and the empty park meant no need to ever stop.
I had also forgotten just how large the Eagle is for a ride of its era, and it was in fact the world's tallest and fastest when it opened. There is not much airtime and it is never going to make anyone's top 10 list, but the coaster careens around its L shaped layout (which I came to know quite intimately seven years ago) at a good clip, making use of the natural terrain for some unexpectedly long drops.
Next door, ruining the view of this beautiful classic coaster, is the park's "new" ride for 2013, which is actually a used Vekoma Boomerang that operated at Six Flags Over Texas for nearly 25 years.
Much to my pleasure, in typical Six Flags fashion the coaster was not yet ready to go for the summer, meaning I did not have to ride it. There are few things more terrible than a Vekoma Boomerang.
Also not ready, the park's previous new ride, the 230 foot tall SkyScreamer swing ride. This was slightly more disappointing, but not really since the nearest park to me, Six Flags Great Adventure, has the exact same ride.
An obligatory ride was required for the park's quirky River King Mine Train, which has an odd history of becoming one of the first stand-up roller coasters in the world in 1984. The stand-up cars lasted one year before being removed in favor of the old trains.
Speaking of obligatory rides, here is a coaster that was not worthy of one. I have my one ride on the brutal Ninja, and that is all I will ever need. Keep walking.
Batman: The Ride, while cloned all over the world more than almost any other large coaster, is always worthy of a ride. This might be the most successful roller coaster design ever. The compact layout fits easily into a park and few if any of the much larger inverted coasters that have followed it have matched its intensity.
At St. Louis, though, something seems "off" about Batman. It's hard to put a finger on it, and you might not even realize it without being told, but the layout is a mirror image of the other versions of this ride. Left is right and vice versa.
The final coaster is the park's most unique. The Boss, a massive wooden creation by Custom Coasters International, sprawls into the woods and terrain at the back of Six Flags St. Louis.
This is a roller coaster that I want to love so much. It has an insane beginning with an extended double-down for a first drop and a very long layout filled with big drops and twisting turns. Unfortunately, it's just not a great ride. The widely hated Gerstlauer trains (which I've actually never minded that much) bounce all over the track as if they are about to tear loose, creating a headache-inducing ride that I typically absorb while hanging onto the grab bar for dear life. That wouldn't even be a deal breaker for me, but unfortunately the ride is also devoid of any airtime whatsoever. In many ways it is reminiscent of The Beast at Kings Island.
I finished off my day with a couple final rides on American Thunder. It's a coaster designed to emulate the classics, and it is a nice fit for this park. I'm not sure the average park guest necessarily agrees, though, as American Thunder never had a wait while many of the other coasters did.
This ride provides a worthwhile reason to come to a park that is overall fairly uninspiring. To give credit where credit is due, however, this park has always felt a bit out of place to me in the Six Flags chain in a good way. Due I think to its smaller scale and preservation of tree cover, it can sometimes feel more like a laid back family owned park than big Six Flags. Reminders of the corporate brand are around every corner, however. Six Flags St. Louis does not seem to add big roller coasters at the same rate as other parks in the company, but in a dream world it is not hard to imagine an incredible terrain coaster making use of the woods and hills on the edge of the park. Hopefully one day they can entice me to come back.
The final part of my St. Louis trip is one of those weird places that I have now been to three times despite no real reason to ever want go to more than once: Six Flags. I visited the park in 2005 as part of a group trip to parks throughout the Midwest and again in 2006 for the suicidal 30 hour marathon on the Screamin' Eagle roller coaster.
My biggest criticism previously with Six Flags St. Louis was that there was no real standout coaster. Since my last visit, that may have been corrected with the addition of American Thunder, which opened in 2008 under the name Evel Knievel.
Six Flags St. Louis seems more interested in wooden coasters than the rest of the chain. Not many Six Flags parks are building wooden coasters these days, but the last two major coasters at St. Louis have both been wood, with The Boss opening in 2000.
American Thunder is a Great Coasters International project, so it's not hard to know what to expect: a smooth, graceful, twisting ride with a number of nice airtime moments. Unfortunately, as these coasters become more prevalent, I am worried that they are becoming a bit old hat to me. American Thunder met those expectations, though there were a few spots that are getting a tad rough.
American Thunder is one of the smaller GCI coasters, but packs a great punch none the less. I have been on 9 of the company's 20 rides, and I rate American Thunder quite highly, with it only being topped by the larger and more interesting Thunderhead at Dollywood and Renegade at Valleyfair. The highlight of the ride for me was its finale, a series of short bunny hills in rapid fire succession filled with great airtime.
When I asked for a photo with the coaster in the background, this was not really what I had in mind. You can at least tell that there is a roller coaster back there.
I rode the Mr. Freeze coaster when I visited in 2005, but since then a new twist has been added.
The trains have been turned around, now launching out of the station backwards.
The ride is intense, but was a little too disorienting for me, as coasters that go backwards often are. One ride was enough.
Another new coaster for me, Pandemonium, a pretty standard spinning coaster built by Gerstlauer.
I actually enjoy these rides a lot more than I ever thought I would, though the amount of spinning is hit or miss depending on the individual coaster and the weight distribution of riders in the car. We did not get a ton of spinning on my ride.
Now, the most traumatizing moment of the trip.
In 2006, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Screamin' Eagle, Six Flags gathered a group of 20 roller coaster enthusiasts to mark the occasion by riding the coaster non-stop (with regularly scheduled breaks) for 30 straight hours, starting at 8 AM and ending at 2 PM the next day. Due to some sort of malfunction in my brain, I joined the other 19 morbid fools to brave what would turn out to be 100 degree heat and a few hundred trips around the track on a wild old wooden coaster. 14 of us made it the 30 hours.
With only one train operating for some reason, Screamin' Eagle had a surprisingly long line, so I only managed one ride, which was enough to conjure up flashbacks of that long seemingly endless night out in the woods of Eureka, Missouri. Though the legendary John Allen's final creation would never be described as rough, it is not a particularly forgiving ride, and it's hard for me to remember how exactly I could have survived, especially as the coaster picked up speed as night fell and the empty park meant no need to ever stop.
I had also forgotten just how large the Eagle is for a ride of its era, and it was in fact the world's tallest and fastest when it opened. There is not much airtime and it is never going to make anyone's top 10 list, but the coaster careens around its L shaped layout (which I came to know quite intimately seven years ago) at a good clip, making use of the natural terrain for some unexpectedly long drops.
Next door, ruining the view of this beautiful classic coaster, is the park's "new" ride for 2013, which is actually a used Vekoma Boomerang that operated at Six Flags Over Texas for nearly 25 years.
Much to my pleasure, in typical Six Flags fashion the coaster was not yet ready to go for the summer, meaning I did not have to ride it. There are few things more terrible than a Vekoma Boomerang.
Also not ready, the park's previous new ride, the 230 foot tall SkyScreamer swing ride. This was slightly more disappointing, but not really since the nearest park to me, Six Flags Great Adventure, has the exact same ride.
An obligatory ride was required for the park's quirky River King Mine Train, which has an odd history of becoming one of the first stand-up roller coasters in the world in 1984. The stand-up cars lasted one year before being removed in favor of the old trains.
Speaking of obligatory rides, here is a coaster that was not worthy of one. I have my one ride on the brutal Ninja, and that is all I will ever need. Keep walking.
Batman: The Ride, while cloned all over the world more than almost any other large coaster, is always worthy of a ride. This might be the most successful roller coaster design ever. The compact layout fits easily into a park and few if any of the much larger inverted coasters that have followed it have matched its intensity.
At St. Louis, though, something seems "off" about Batman. It's hard to put a finger on it, and you might not even realize it without being told, but the layout is a mirror image of the other versions of this ride. Left is right and vice versa.
The final coaster is the park's most unique. The Boss, a massive wooden creation by Custom Coasters International, sprawls into the woods and terrain at the back of Six Flags St. Louis.
This is a roller coaster that I want to love so much. It has an insane beginning with an extended double-down for a first drop and a very long layout filled with big drops and twisting turns. Unfortunately, it's just not a great ride. The widely hated Gerstlauer trains (which I've actually never minded that much) bounce all over the track as if they are about to tear loose, creating a headache-inducing ride that I typically absorb while hanging onto the grab bar for dear life. That wouldn't even be a deal breaker for me, but unfortunately the ride is also devoid of any airtime whatsoever. In many ways it is reminiscent of The Beast at Kings Island.
I finished off my day with a couple final rides on American Thunder. It's a coaster designed to emulate the classics, and it is a nice fit for this park. I'm not sure the average park guest necessarily agrees, though, as American Thunder never had a wait while many of the other coasters did.
This ride provides a worthwhile reason to come to a park that is overall fairly uninspiring. To give credit where credit is due, however, this park has always felt a bit out of place to me in the Six Flags chain in a good way. Due I think to its smaller scale and preservation of tree cover, it can sometimes feel more like a laid back family owned park than big Six Flags. Reminders of the corporate brand are around every corner, however. Six Flags St. Louis does not seem to add big roller coasters at the same rate as other parks in the company, but in a dream world it is not hard to imagine an incredible terrain coaster making use of the woods and hills on the edge of the park. Hopefully one day they can entice me to come back.
