Day 9 - Six Flags St. Louis

The Park

Quite a small park, although the walk to the back of the park for the two woodies was quite arduous as it was up-hill. It features the usual Six Flags style of theming and quite a pleasant atmosphere.

The Coasters

[The Boss] The Boss. CCI woodie. The previous evening, we had a dark ERS on The Boss. And my God, what a ride! Extremely fast and furious, although suffering badly once again from roughness especially at the bottom of the drop off the midcourse brakes. I wonder if it's the trains that are at fault - this is a CCI structure after all! The first drop is magnificent. Instead of rising up immediately afterwards, it continues on a flat for a short stretch straight through the ride's structure, then you get a surprise further drop before a small right-hand corner, then a further small drop before it eventually decides to go up again! Especially in the dark, this was a very special moment. The very end of the ride consists of a very furious helix, banked so that there are continuous lateral forces all the way around. And by the way, this picture shows the drop off the midcourse brakes, i.e. this is halfway round the course. Imagine what the first drop is like!

Mr. Freeze. Premier "Diving" LIM-launch coaster. This is an identical ride to the one at Six Flags over Texas that we had visited on Day 3 of the trip, except that it is a mirror image. And of course, this is now one of my favourite coasters. A stunning 0-60 mph launch by magnets into a top-hat inversion, then an overbanked corner, then a 200ft vertical spike where it gets an extra boost of power to send it all the way up to the top. And a freefall backwards to do the whole circuit again in reverse. Wonderful! (Note that the video below is the same as the one on the Day 3 page, featuring the launch of the SFOT machine, and the rest of the ride from SFSt.L)

[Mr. Freeze distance]  [Mr. Freeze spike]  [Mr. Freeze top-hat]  [Mr. Freeze video] mr_freeze.mpg 725K

Six Flags Moment #5
On entering the queue line for my first ride on Mr. Freeze, I was surprised to find a group of 20-or-so RCCGB members standing outside the exit, seemingly hanging about doing nothing. I asked them what was going on, and I got the reply that they had been reprimanded for filming rides and were waiting for security - apparently they'd been told by the Mr. Freeze operator that the filming of rides was forbidden in the park. What?? I later found out that they'd been filming inside the Mr. Freeze station, and the operator had taken exception to this and had threatened to confiscate their cameras after stopping the ride for 15 minutes. After they'd spoken to security, it was decided that the operator had over-reacted, and an apology was issued! Of course, there is no rule against filming in the park. Also despatch times on Mr. Freeze all day were appalling. Only one train running and 10 minutes between despatches not unusual...

Screamin' Eagle. John Allen woodie. A deceptively long out-and-back woodie (it just kept on going and going!). A very nice, smooth ride, a little airtime, and a wilder ride at the back.

River King Mine Train. Arrow mine train, with three lift hills. Quite OK.

[Ninja] Ninja. Vekoma multi-inversion coaster. This was another of those one-time-only rides. You know what to expect from Arrow/Vekoma multi-inversion machines by now - jerky track bending, hard seats, and lots of headbanging.


Batman: The Ride. B&M inverted. Another BTR clone, and this one seemed much better than the one at Six Flags over Texas. I told you it was the colour that did it! Much faster and more intense. But still not a match for our Nemesis...

[Batman The Ride, zero-G roll]  [Batman The Ride, corkscrew] 

Other attractions

[Splash!] Another Scooby Doo interactive shoot-em-up featured at the park, but this one was different as it was an indoor boat ride instead of a more classic ghost-train style. There are also a few occasions when you get wet! And there were sveral quite scary moments, usually these rides shy away from being too scary. Oh, and the picture is of Adrian and Ian on the bridge of the giant splash ride.


[Excalibur]  [Excalibur's Archer]  And finally, Excalibur. An Evolution ride - apparently they've been out some time, but I hadn't seen one before. And I wasn't brave enough to try it. I can't deal with continuously spinning, high-G rides as well as I used to be able to. But being very fond of the Frisbee-style rides, I was surprised to find that this doesn't actually swing but just rotates once, much more slowly.


It goes from this... [Excalibur, starting to rotate] ...to this... [Excalibur, halfway up] ...to this. [Excalibur, upside-down]

Hey wait, we're not finished yet...

Six Flags Moment #6
I heard the tale of a member of staff chasing an RCCGB member after he'd left the park through an open gate instead of a turnstile marked Exit, and made him come back and exit the proper way. Guests must always exit through a turnstile!


Six Flags Moment #7
And another member of staff causing a commotion when trying to place an exit stamp on the underside of the wrist of a disabled person who couldn't actually turn his arm over. Exit stamps must always be placed on the underside of the wrist at all costs as that's where the re-entry person will look for them!


Six Flags Moment #8
The Boss operator, who forced people to take personal items with them in the train, which appeared to contradict the disclaimer written at the entrance to the ride which implies that personal items may be left in the station. Also, since The Boss is a rough ride, if people are carrying fragile items then this is a lawsuit waiting to happen if something gets broken! And...it violates the park rule that no cameras are to be taken on rides...

Also visit the official Six Flags St. Louis web site.

Next Page: