Ugh, the *awful* Intamin ZacSpin - Green Lantern: First Flight

Ugghhh..... Six Flags Magic Mountian and Intamin have built one of the worst coasters I've ever ridden.... and they've named it....
 Green Lantern: First Flight.

So Six Flags, and Magic Mountain with its need to add coasters and stay ahead of the "coaster capital" record crap... plopped down one of the most pointless, violent, terrible coasters I've come across so far. The rare Intamin ZacSpin / Ball Coaster. The ride is a production model and sold for around 7mil. Its hard to think Six Flags put much effort into the ride and didn't get it just to add one more coaster over Cedar Point.

After my one and only ride on it... I can see why only four were ever built and didn't really care if I ever rode it again. That being said.. I was kinda looking forward to the ride at first and maybe a little more so seeing is how I missed being able to ride a smaller model of the same ride by a few days back in 2007..... But once the ride opened to the public, months late, the reviews started coming in saying it was crap. Oh well....

Yup.... Green Lantern: First Flight.

825 feet of pain

 Walking up to the ride.. it looks like it might be fun.. or at least it looks, uh unique?

And its a little strange that Six Flags built a green and black coaster right next to the parks only other green and black coaster.

Sadly, it beats the living crap out of you... and manages to slam your entire body forward and back with its free spinning car. Once was more than enough although I had originally wanted to ride it twice to try leaving the station both forward and backwards as well as trying the left and right sides of the arm. Jeff refused (I also got placed with some random other single rider...)
(but.. but... +1?)

And for a park as massive and busy as Magic Mountain it really is a capacity nightmare. With each car only holding 8 riders and only a single car cycling at once along with the horrifyingly slow load times... the line for it, while short... just doesn't move.

(I think it has 5 cars in all but four will be loading in the station while the fifth cycles...)

Here's the oddly shaped lifthill. You can also see the seats on the right are off-balanced. While loading in the station the staff try and keep this from happening but even my ride, this happened.

(I'm also kind of amused that all four ever built have chain lifts.. yet in RCT3 it can only be made as a launch coaster... I guess because when RCT3 came out only the concept was out but none had been built yet)

Ugh, don't worry. No one is having fun.

Along with the free spinning nature of the ride, the cars are able to flip 360 although it doesn't happen every time and it seems to only be able to happen in one spot (at the very end) our car did mange to do one full 360 flip but while watching I saw some cars not do it at all.

Um, but at least it looks cool?

I don't know.. I found two videos on youtube from CoasterForce that shows the ride in action. In the first video, an off-ride video from a few angles you can see cycles where the cars don't ever flip (the first full off ride video) and cycles where they do make at least one full rotation  (2nd, 3rd, and 4th)

Yeah, its awful... Also, Green Lantern is the only one of the four built that have those guards on the side of the restraints that prevent you from sticking your arms out/up. How odd.

Here's an on-ride video... ew.

In this video the car doesn't even make a full 360.

(you can see it invert at the end but then it rocks back without completing the roll)

Oh hey...

Here's a photo of me with it.

(I had wanted to do my 365 with Lex... but it was closed almost the whole day we were there...)

Yeah.. So I'd be fine without anymore being built. I guess I'd ride them (you know, for the credit) but I wouldn't really look forward to it. I kinda think that's how most Magic Mountain guests feel too. I didn't see anyone getting off and running to get back in line.. or even saying positive things about it! You'd here multiple people exiting the ride complaining about how bad it was.

Yup

The Technical Park Loop Fighter, Stinger (FSF)

Mmm, digging around some random folders on my computer I found some of my photos from the 2013 Florida State Fair and just tossed up a few photos of Stinger, a Technical Park built Loop Fighter ride. Stinger was new for the 2012 season and is one of just two Loop Fighters in the US 

(currently... and I've ridden them both! :D )

Woo, Reithoffer Shows Stinger. It swings back and forth... goes over the top doing a 360* flip.. And the cars can be locked and unlocked to freely swing/rock/flip. Its super fun, although it runs what I'd consider a short cycle (but I've got an extremely high tolerance to rides) short cycle or not, its still a fun ride and can be pretty intense depending on how your row of seats flips and rocks while in the "unlocked" mode.

(Also, when doing the full swing-loop... it makes me giggle?)

So yeah, photos and stuff.

Yaayyy!

Also, just for fun..... I've got this lovely on and off ride video of Stinger, at the 2013 Florida State Fair on my youtube page... and I've added it below.

Woo!

Bears at the Stone Zoo!.... Uh, again!

Yaayyy!

No trip home for me to visit my family would be complete without a quick stop at the Stone Zoo to check on the bears!! :3

Yaayyy!!! Bears doing bear like things!

Uh, like being a bear! 

This one is sitting... um.. with his foot up

This one is, uh, looking over there.... for some reason.

This one.... He's playing with a rope!

And this last one, he's looking over there... instead.

Yaaayyyyyy!!!!!!

Also...

Bonus Sandhill Crane!

(That thinks its a flamingo)

Uh.... Southwest Fall Festival?

So yeah... that Southwest Fall Festival..fair......thing... that happens in Orlando every fall

It has rides and stuff... (Via Carol Stream Amusements)

So yeah... again, the Southwest Fall Festival.

 Its just a small Church Fair in Orlando.. but its also just down the street from my house.. So Jeff and I walked around for a bit. We didn't ride anything but in the past we've been on most of their rides elsewhere.

 The main Midway and stuff.

 Games....and stuff

Oh yeah, and there were rides... Like this SBF Drop Zone tower

and this Chance Wheel.

Ooh and this Tivoli Orbiter

(that was in my photo of the day a few years ago)

 The Mulligan SeaRay was closed while we were there.

 Aw, Musik Express. I remember when Sam Pino used to bring this kind to the Melrose carnival :(

 *proof I'm not a credit whore* 

I've now been to like.. 10 spots where Carol Stream's kiddie coaster has been.. and I've still not ridden it!

 Yaayyy!

The James show. PT.9 - Featuring Deka

So... Yeah... Six Flags Over Georgia.

Being laid-over in Atlanta overnight and having the option to take a later flight the next day... The simple choice was to take a quick trip to Six Flags, I had even done the same thing last summer when a missed connection occurred and a flight the next day was rebooked. If only today had worked out the same as last year. Deka and I ended up at the park on what was the last day of the season before the park switched over to weekends only. It was also bring a friend day for season pass holders. So yeah, it was incredibly busy and after staying in the park just over two hours, we left, without ever riding a single coaster! In fact, we just rode Acrophobia (my favorite) and the new for 2013 Sky Screamer (that Deka had yet to ride, despite SFOG being her home park and being a pass holder herself!) We still managed to have fun at the park, I just wish I could have ridden Mind Bender or Goliath. I don't know... maybe next year.

Anyways, a few photos....

Ooooh.... Six Flags!!!! Were gonna have fun!!!

Oooohhh!!!! Excitement building!!!!

Annddd...... All hopes and dreams of riding anything or having any sort of fun... stopped here.

(and at this point the park had already been open a few hours!)

Walking into the park... You'll pass no less than 2,000 signs for the parks new Sky Screamer. It was almost seasons end and Deka still hadn't ridden it yet and it was on my to-do list. Sadly, I didn't know it would be one of just two things I'd be riding all day...

Mmmm, Goliath and Acrophobia!

I really wanted to ride both, but because of the extreme busyness of the park and lack of time, I was only able to ride one.... but it was the one that's important to me (Acro!)

Even Cyclone had a (long) line.. Running both trains, full. I don't think I've seen any line for this ride in my past 8-9 visits! That being said, I was fine not riding it today....

We had to make our way past it and up the hill for something better... :D

Mmmm, Acrophobia!

My favorite stand-up, spinning, tilting, drop tower!

Also, I guess it's my second favorite drop tower over all. Just behind Hurakan Condor

After a very good ride on Acro, with an extremely long loading process.... We made our way to the park end of the park.

For Sky Screamer! The queue was full and spilling out onto the midway but Deka said this was the shortest she had seen it all summer, pointing to where the park has temporary extended queue areas setup to the left of the entrance....

yaayyy! Swing Towers!

Sky Screamer was placed where the parks Enterprise, Wheelie, once stood (and they used the same queue house). Wheelie ended up making its way to Orlando and was featured in one of the bonus twitter photos in the very first part of this trip!

We're having a Six Flags.... day

(ya ya ya!)

Sky Screamer runs rather short but I guess with a giant line the park cares more about capacity rather than giving the people who just waited an hour a good ride, worth their wait. I don't know, maybe I'm just used to the Star Flyer we have in Orlando that runs a nice long program. (at $7 a ride)

And now.... photos of three coasters I didn't get to ride but wanted to!

(and yes, I've ridden them all in the past... ZzZzz)

NINJA!

Yeah, I know... everyone hates it... But I kinda like it?

And.... Goliath

Pretty sure everyone likes this one...

Annddd... Mind Bender, my favorite coaster in the park :(

(at least I got to ride it 3 or 4 times... last year)

Random 7/11 Slurpee machines in the park now.

Six Flags New England added them as well but I don't remember seeing them at other Six Flags parks I've been to. I'm sure they have them as well.. I just didn't care?

WE'RE HAVING FUN

Yeah, so that's it... After leaving the park Deka drove me to the airport where I found once again my flight was gonna be delayed... But at least this time I got the slightest bit of compensation... a $25 meal card... that I wasted $23.50 of! (on a veggie wrap, a jumbo peanut butter smoothie... a cookie.. and some expensive bagged gourmet popcorn) at some point I did make it back to Orlando where Jeff picked me up and drove me home. Then I went to work the next day and drove the Monorail in circles for 12 hours... yay!

Conclusion PT.2

Yup, a nice relaxing vacation

went from Florida to Georgia to Oklahoma to Missouri to Kansas back to Missouri to Arkansas back to Oklahoma to Texas back to Oklahoma again and onto Missouri to Georgia and once more, back to Florida in 9 days....added some 41 new counties (and a whole bunch of revisited ones!), 5 new parks (and 3 revisited), and some 17 new for me coasters, including a new top 3 woodie! As well as visiting 2 (3?) zoo's, a waterpark... a giant soda store and the largest man-made arch in the world...Along with the 6 flights to and from 4 different airports (2 new for me!)... lots of duck sitings and even a few bears along the way. annddd I got to hang out with two of my first coaster-friends..... friends.

. <3 good times.

Woo, some 225 photos later... my longest blogged-trip update is finished!

Bonus photos via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364046689780236288
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364073938600484864
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364088650436333568


Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364065563422625792

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364066007729442816
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364108251073220608
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364105610494619648

And, um, that's it... Part 9 of 9. Yaayyy for adventures!

never again

The James show. PT.8

Yup.... The Saint Louis Zoological Park

My day at the St. Louis Zoo should have been the last in my adventure... but things didn't end up that way... I only had enough time at the zoo to see the major areas and sadly, not enough time to ride the train... Or explore the rest of the massive Forest Park area (in the end, I had a huge delay at the airport and could have spent hours more at the zoo and forest park.......)  The zoo opened in 1904 and was part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World's Fair) and the 1904 Summer Olympics as well. Forest Park is also home to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis Science Center, as well as large areas of park land. From 1896 to 1963 there was even an amusement park located within Forest Park with a pretty fun looking coaster.

Anyways.... uh, photos from the Saint Louis Zoological Park.

 Woo, not only is the zoo AZA accredited... its FREE!

And incredibly classy.

The zoo is very large and split into six sections. 

    River's Edge, The Wild, Discovery Corner, Historic Hill, Red Rocks, and Lakeside Crossing

It also has a large Chance C. P. Huntington train with four stations... and it runs multiple trains! But due to time issues, I was unable to ride it :( (next time for sure!)

As soon as I entered the park and checked the massive map.. I made my way to the left

(hippo...hippo...hippo!)

Passing a rather large under construction area... That once open will feature bears!

(Guess I was too early, booo)

But that's ok, because just past it was....

The Hungry, Hungry Hippos!!!

(hippo hippo...hippo!)

Oh, and this terrible women... Who while standing NEXT TO the sign saying "Welcome to the Anheuser-Busch Hippo Harbor" kept telling her child "LOOK AT THE RHINO! DO YOU SEE THE RHINO?! LOOK! THE RHINO IS SWIMMING!!!" I was ready to slap her... but I just walked away.

Walking down to the Elephant area you walk along side this neat little stream.

The zoo has lots of water features... Ponds, fountains, waterfalls. Its very impressive. 

At the bottom of the hill is the Elephant Overlook... And yeah, you can see Elephants there. 

Who knew?

I made a quick pass by the Butterfly Pavilion. Yup.

and... I was able to get to the outdoor viewing area 

for the penguins.

They also have an indoor penguin viewing area with puffins as well but it wasn't open during my visit, I believe an entire section of this area in the zoo was under refurbishment at the time.

((Polar Bears were listed as "coming soon"... but I was sooner than them :( ))

Most zoo's seem to be getting in on this Carousel trend. More than half of the zoo's I've visited in the past few years seem to have them. This is the Mary Ann Lee Conservation Carousel. Although unlike most zoo's their carousel represents animals found within the zoo itself.

Oh!

And its across the patchway from the duck pond!!

QUACK QUACK!

Fragile Forest features orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. The area is split half indoors half outdoors and the areas open and close with the seasons.

In the 'back' (or, I guess.. far right side) are the Red Rock Territories and Historic Hill areas of the zoo, Historic Hill being the oldest area, dating back to 1904. Sadly, these were the areas I was only able to spend minimal time at :(

But I did happen upon this sleepy Hyena.

I was unable to spot any of the big cats in the zoo :(

No Lions, Leopards, Tigers, or Jaguars for me....

But I did get to see Mr. Ring-Tailed Lemur!!!

I almost missed the lemur house all together... 

in my race to the exit.

After leaving the zoo I made my way back to the airport with a stop for a quick lunch... Knowing Jeff gets mad at me for eating at chains when I'm in new cities... I found a place on my GPS down the road from the zoo called My Daddy's Cheesecake Bakery & Cafe... and I checked it out. I ended up getting a super yummy veggie wrap.. and well, cheesecake. Tragically, I was unable to pick just one kind to try and ended up getting two <3 :D

Once full of yummy cakes.. I continued onto the airport where I found my flight was to be delayed by hours... So I walked by some trendy camp store filled with custom and wonderful looking rubber ducks, fearing I'd be walking out with 15 of them... I just got myself a panda bear suction-cup and quickly exited... While sitting at the gate waiting to fly from STL to ATL to MCO we were informed our flight was going to be delayed more and that you could call Delta for more info or rebookings... I jumped at the chance to book a later flight out of Atlanta.. I sent Deka a whole bunch of texts and booked myself a flight out of Atlanta the next night. Woo, Six Flags Over Georgia.... here I come!

At some point the flight did leave St. Louis, getting me into Atlanta around 10pm. Deka picked me up at the airport and we headed off to her place but stopping at a Waffle House along the way for some numnums.

In the end, the St. Louis Zoo is pretty amazing. I'd put it in my top 5 zoo's for sure. Not really sure where at but after Omaha (my #1)...  and maybe before the National Zoo (unless they bring their hippos back)

Bonus photos via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363733758727319552
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363842265430515712

Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363693300382834689

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363726941695647744
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363731719003709440
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363733151597596672
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363771188851380224

And that's it for part 8... Here's where the story ends... well, should have ended. Just one update left now.