Bizarro Trip:

A Great Boss and a Bad Legend

Photo courtesy of Jeff King

I just returned from a weekend trip to Six Flags St. Louis and Holiday World. I'm not sure if I entered some kind of bizarro time space continuum or not, but two very weird things happened. First, The Boss is an excellent roller-coaster! I don't know what could have generated such an overwhelmingly negative response, but the coaster I rode was great! It was great in both front and back, had airtime on every hill, fantastic laterals that weren't painful, and a finale that included a wild series of toss-you-outta-your-seat bunny hills and turns, and a speedy helix that ends with an airtime filled bunny hop before jumping into the brake run! WHAT COASTER HAVE PEOPLE BEEN RIDING!?!? This is a *very* good roller-coaster. It's probably not top ten, but it's certainly not the worst CCI of the year. Granted, the mid-course brake blows bigtime, but I can't imagine taking that first turnaround at the top of the next hill any faster. Also, the Gerstlauers severely detract from the ride (and the newly welded, top heavy lap bars no longer stay in place, taking away the one redeeming feature of these insideous, painful trains), and the wheel seats are considerably rougher than the front seats. However I firmly believe this is a direct result of the Gerstlauer trains only, and not the design of the coaster. I am more convinced than ever that Gerstlauer trains are severely compromised in quality, safety and comfort. Still, The Boss is a great ride, despite its detractions. I don't know if it's broken in or if people unconsciously jumped on the "Boss is bad" bandwagon, but I know I liked it a lot, an awful lot. And not that it would matter or change my opinion of the ride, but nearly everyone I spoke with over the past weekend felt the same way - Joe Campanella, Chris Trotter, Jeff King, Scott Schaffer, Andrew Hartman, Clayton Hauk, Jack Wleizen, Kris Holm (it was SO great finally meeting you, Kris!), Cindy Stout, and many others. The Boss may have been bad before, but dont' give it a pink slip just yet. It's a great ride! Now, also in Bizarro Mark's Coaster World, The Legend has turned into a lengendary dud! Something dreadful has happened following the double up - the coaster inexplicably begins slowing down, and by the time the train reaches the double helix it is no longer the out of control, breathless ride of Stark Raven Mad memory. Instead, the train severely pauses at the crest of the second helix, completely interrupting the fast and furious pace of the ride. And by the time it reaches the final big drop the train is, and I am not exaagerating, *crawling*. What used to be an unbelieveable finish that tossed you up and down and this way and that, throwing riders out of their seats on that final turn into the brake run is now no more exciting than Hersheypark's Wildcat on a very bad day. It is distinctly mediocre. What in the world happened? Coasters are supposed to speed up as they break in, not slow down! Could this be a case of Legend needing a daily dose of grease on its track? I know Boulder Dash very much demands this kind of attention in order to qualify as a number one coaster contender. Or could this be yet another reason to hate the letter G? I would love to see Holiday World perform a little test - switch trains on their coasters and see what kind of performance they get out of PTCs on Legend. The way this coaster is running, it won't be staying in anyone's Top Ten list for long. What a collosal disappointment! Having said that, there are some very positive things to report out of both parks. Six Flags St. Louis is truly a beautiful park - for my money it's the most beautiful of all the Six Flags parks, even prettier than SFOG! There are more food outlets at the front of SFSL than any other Six Flags park as well. I really love the design and feel of this park. And there is something intangible here - a feeling I got that made me relax and forget about the "new Six Flags" standard of poor operations and customer service. Instead there is an atmosphere here that harkens back to the good ole days when the Six Flags name meant more than just dazzling coasters - it meant quality. And Six Flags St. Louis is a quality park. It might not have the most outstanding coaster collection, but it has atmosphere and charm and efficiently operated rides and pleasant employees and civilized guests. Sidebar: the water park is incredible. Even if you don't like water parks you should take a stroll through this one just to look around. Holiday World, I am happy to report, was *shockingly* crowded. And I don't mean a little crowded, I mean this place was packed to the gills. We had to be directed to park in a lot I didn't even know existed. The lines for both Raven and Legend filled the entire queues, with Legend's queue surpassing an hour. I think with this amount of success, perhaps adding a second train to Legend is warranted. Even the flat rides had waits of thirty more minutes. The Raven also continues to deliver. Unlike the Legend's inexplicable demise, The Raven just never lets up and becomes a serious predator at night. It now clearly outshines its newer big brother in both performance and excitement. The Spider at Holiday World is unquestionably the best I've ever ridden. Cindy Stout and I met up with Kevin Coley on this day, and on our Spider ride Kevin suggested we lean our heads back as far as we could, and look up for the entire ride. OH MY GOD! The Spider here consistently delivers great and sustained spinning action, and Kevin's technique produced a swirling sky effect that left us very dizzy (and sore necked!) Happily, Holiday World continues to lead the way in employee relations, with ride ops as courteous and helpful as ever, and food concessionaires going the extra mile to ensure guests have a pleasant day. After the park closed, I walked up to Kris Kringle Cafe well after ten o'clock on the small chance that I could get some pizza, and sure enough the door was open. It was amazing too see the young lady behind the counter still with a smile on her face long after most guests had left the park, and she was more than happy to serve us some pizza. She could have easily said "we're closed." But *this* is the standard Holiday World has set for its guests, and I am extremely grateful for it. You can't imagine, after the incredible disappointment over Legend's poor performance, how nice it is to be able to still leave the park with a smile on my face, thanks to employees who make it a part of their job to make sure every guest is treated well. Mark