#pandemonium (sfsl)

[heartsoulrocknroll]

Six Flags St. Louis First-Time Trip Report 10/20/24 and 10/25/24

I am so excited to finally have time to talk about what was probably my favorite and most epic coaster trip yet. Sunday, 10/20 was day 1 of a week-long trip through Missouri, Indiana, and Tennessee. We spent the whole operating day from 12 PM to 9 PM at Six Flags St. Louis. We came back through St. Louis on Friday, 10/25, because I was so damn addicted to my top 2 there, I couldn't pass up a second day. The park was only open 6 PM to 11 PM that day, and we stayed the full five hours.

Coaster Thoughts and Rankings

1) The Boss (7 rides + 6 rides = 13 rides, including 11 night rides)

The Boss has been one of my top bucket list rides since I became a complete wooden coaster freak, and it exceeded every expectation I ever had. If you ride on a wheel, you can feel those Gerstlauer trains bumping around on the track like nothing you've ever ridden before. My first two rides and my only two daytime rides were on a wheel in rows 8 and 10. After those rides, I wrote, "Rough to the point of being unable to focus on the layout. Constant bumping, but some good air off the various drops, some lats, and insane speed." All of my other 11 rides were night rides in the front of a car in rows 9 and 11, where the coaster still has a significant bite, but where you can still enjoy the fantastic layout to the fullest. Make no mistake, this is an ELITE coaster. The sensation of speed is truly insane and is completely unmatched by any other wooden coaster. That ridiculous speed, along with the wooden coaster bite, makes you feel like the train really might fly off the rails. The first drop gives great floater air. And before you even return to your seat after the drop, you fly even higher out of the seat on the subsequent speed hill, which gives a sharp, quick pop of flojector. Then you get slammed into the left side of the train with crazy laterals at the same time! Then there is another sharp, quick airtime pop! This is a WILD, VIOLENT sequence that is now one of my favorite moments on any coaster. The last big drop also rocks, giving great airtime, and there are a few more small hills with some quick air after that. I can't express how badly I yearn for the old helix, but you still get some solid laterals on what is left of the helix. Then you are thrown into that iconic last dip before the breaks. It's one of the most violent jolts I've ever felt on a coaster, and hearing everybody shout expletives at the same time when the train reaches that point is an essential part of The Boss Experience in 2024. I've heard some criticize the pacing, because of the way the train slows down at a few points in the ride, but I think the same people saying this wouldn't be able to handle it running any faster lol. Every time it slows down at the top of a hill, it picks that speed right back up at the bottom. It's a unique layout, and it's part of what I love about the ride. Also, The Boss is the craziest, wildest, and BEST night ride in the world, as far as I'm concerned. The wooded setting is extremely dark, which only makes this ride, one of the most out of control coasters in existence, an even more unpredictable experience. The only night rides that can compete are Legend and the Beast. We ended both of our days at SFSTL with a marathon of Boss night rides, and I swear it's the happiest I've ever been. On our first night there, we got to stay in the train twice in a row without getting up and got the very last ride of the night. What an experience. A big part of me wants to say this is my new favorite woodie, but I'm struggling hard with my love for Voyage, Toro, Shivering Timbers, Boss, and Legend. It's top 5 wood for me, and top 10 overall easily. (And for the record, I am STAUNCHLY anti-RMC Boss. Don't even say it to me, I do not hear it.)

2) Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast (5 rides + 4 rides = 9 rides, including 3 night rides)

This ride is so stupidly underrated. One of the only LIM launches left in the world, a rare backward launch -- I am obsessed with the uniqueness of it. The only way to experience this ride is in the back of the train. The launch is fantastic and super powerful, and going backward just makes it feel that much crazier. This ride crushes you with strong positives that feel like they come out of nowhere, as the train pulls up blindly into the inverted tophat backward. The sensation of being pushed even higher up the spike after the train has reached the highest point it could on its own momentum, just hanging there, almost slipping forward in the seat, staring straight down at the ground for seconds on end is nuts. The vertical drop off the spike is phenomenal, and it is one of the only drops that can still give me that stomach-dropping sensation. Then you get a little bit of hangtime coming back through tophat forward. This is another incredible night ride.

3) American Thunder (3 rides + 1 ride = 4 rides, including 1 night ride)

This is another vastly underrated ride. When people talk about the best GCIs, you never hear American Thunder mentioned, and I find that baffling. We got one of the first trains of the day on our first day, and the very first train of the night on our second night, and it does run a good bit slower when it's not warmed up. So maybe people are just getting bad rides. But we got two later rides on this thing, and once it's warmed up, it has a nice twisted drop and 5 or 6 fairly strong pops of floater airtime. There are a couple of very sustained floater airtime moments on the second drop and the hill following it. These moments are stronger and more sustained than any airtime moment on the more highly praised GCIs, Thunderhead and Mystic Timbers. There are some more great pops of air on the bunny hills at the end as well. In my mind, this ride is very comparable to Thunderhead, as it has more defined standout moments, but perhaps weaker overall pacing and speed. I do think I prefer it to Mystic Timbers though.

4) Screamin' Eagle (1 ride + 1 ride = 2 rides, including 1 night ride)

This is the fastest and best-paced PTC I've done. It has a nice, wooded setting and a fantastic sense of speed that you really don't get on any other PTC. It also has stronger airtime moments than any of the others, except Phoenix. There is good airtime on every drop, especially on the speed hill before the turnaround and on the drop off the turnaround. It has a very dark setting and is yet another awesome night ride in this park. There is a bit of a pothole after the first drop, but otherwise, it is a very smooth ride. I wish I could have gotten more than two rides on it.

5) Batman: The Ride (1 ride)

It's a Batman clone, so I have said it all before, but it's an excellent ride. It's compact, it's aggressive, it's forceful, it's whippy. It's some of the best work B&M has ever done.

6) Ninja (1 ride)

Started by Arrow and finished by Vekoma, this is just a mess of a ride. I've heard a lot of hate for this ride, but I don't think it's that bad. It's certainly no elite coaster, but it's good fun. It's got some strong air on the drop and good positives in the loop/sidewinder. The corkscrews and the helix at the end are fun. The profiling is awkward, as you might expect, and with the hard restraints, if you don't hold your head forward, headbanging is likely. But overall, it's a solid ride.

7) Boomerang (1 ride)

It's your standard boomerang. It has some good positives and solid intensity like all these rides do. It still has the hard, over-the-shoulder restraints that can cause some headbanging. Fun ride though.

8) River King Mine Train (1 ride)

This is a pretty good mine train. It's a fun, relatively smooth ride. It has three lifts for a longer experience, with a nice helix after the second lift and a fun drop into a dark tunnel after the third.

9) Pandemonium (1 ride)

This ride does a good bit of spinning, to the point of dizziness for me. There were some little moments of air, especially coming off the midcourse brakes. I think I prefer the Maurer spinners to the Gerstlauer ones like this.

10) Rookie Racer (1 ride)

This is a fun, smooth family ride. The helix even gives a little, tiny bit of positives. Vekoma is good at injecting really small doses of actual forces into their family rides, and this is a perfect example.

Park Thoughts

I loved my experience at SFSTL. I know people hate on this park a lot and say that it's one of the two worst parks in the chain, but I can't comprehend that. I've only been to three Six Flags parks, but I can confidently say SFSTL is miles better than the dump that is SFOG. The ops were solid. They have at least two outstanding, thrilling flat rides, one of which is super unique. The coaster lineup is great in terms of both quality and quantity. Ten coasters is a good number. The whole top five is extremely strong, and THREE!!! of those are fantastic woodies. It is a wooden coaster paradise! There are some solid supporting coasters, and none of them are a complete dud. Plus, in my opinion as someone who hasn't been to all of these parks yet, the top 2 can only be rivaled by Fiesta Texas, Great America, and Magic Mountain. Maybe New England and Mexico?? Not Great Adventure anymore. Anyway, it's an awesome park, and I can't wait to go back. If everything works out like I hope, I'll be back in 2025.

Trip Details

We left home around 12 PM on Saturday, 10/19. Because of the damage to I-40 from Helene, we had to take the long way around through Cherokee, through the parkway to cross the NC/TN state line, then through the middle of Pigeon Forge. That took a while, but it was a pretty drive with the leaves changing. Then we drove by Nashville and through Kentucky and a small part of Illinois to get into Missouri. After about a 10.5 hour drive, we got to our hotel in Missouri that was about 30 minutes from SFSTL late that night around 11 PM, maybe a little later. Being so close to the park, we were actually able to get at opening at 12 PM Sunday morning and spend the whole day at the park until closing at 9 PM. Early in the day, the lines weren't bad at all. The crowds started to pick up as it got darker and the Halloween event started, but even then, we didn't wait more than 30-35 minutes for anything. We started the day just going around the park in a circle to hit all the credits. We got on American Thunder first, then rode Mr. Freeze twice. Then we rode Pandemonium, then The Boss, then Rookie Racer. We did Joker, the Zamperla Discovery flat ride, because my partner wanted to. I'm not a flat ride person, but this is a good model. I didn't realize it was so new either, just opening about a month before our visit. We got a second ride on The Boss after that. Then we rode Screamin' Eagle, then Boomerang. We took a little break for a snack. My partner got a pretzel, and I got corn on the cob, but it really wasn't what I wanted. It was more like lemon pepper on the corn than cheese or whatever you might expect. The bees were going absolutely nuts in this area of the park. I could barely get my food eaten. Next, we rode River King Mine Train. Then we made it back toward the front of the park for Ninja. We got in line for Batman, and the ride shut down for some reason. So we used that time to get some food at the Chinese food place near Batman. After that, we went back to Batman and got a ride. That was all the credits done by 5 PM, and we had four hours for re-rides on whatever we wanted. We rode Mr. Freeze again, then got two more rides, one of which was a true night ride, on American Thunder. We went back to Mr. Freeze for two night rides. Then we spent the last hour of the night just getting as night many rides on The Boss as we could, which turned out to be five more rides. The queue for this ride is absurdly long, with huge wooden fences as walls almost the whole way, so we had to figure out ways to go back around more quickly. In the process, I took a gate latch to the ribs that left a bruise. We saw a massive skunk walking around underneath the break run while we were waiting in line. We got the very last ride of the night!!!!! We also got to sit on the breaks for at least 5 minutes in the dark before that last ride, while the ops loaded the other empty train with weights to make sure it could complete the course. So our last ride ended up being after the park closed at 9:05 PM.

Because I loved the rides at this park so much, we opted to leave Missouri through St. Louis so we could go back. On Friday, 10/25, we left our hotel in Marshall, MO, and drove back to St. Louis. We drove into the city to see the arch, which was a stressful experience. Then we made it back to SFSTL before 6 PM. The park was only open for haunt that night from 6 to 11 PM. We were there in time to wait for the rope drop and stayed the whole night. We got on American Thunder first, walking right on to the first train of the night. Then we got four fairly quick rides on Mr. Freeze, only waiting about 10 minutes for each ride, despite specifically choosing to wait for the back every time. By the last of those four rides, around 6:45 PM, it was dark. I finally had a second to find and buy a Boss t-shirt, which is my new prized possession. I have to shove it in my jacket pocket for the rest of our rides lol. We then got on The Boss for two amazing night rides. There was about a 30 minute-line for it at this point. We took a little break from The Boss marathon to get another ride on Screamin' Eagle, because I just couldn't leave without doing it again. That was a pretty solid 30-35 minute wait. Austin really wanted to do Catwoman Whip, which is a flat ride model that I actually have a healthy fear of. Lol. I wanted to do it too, but the line was so long, there was just no time. So we went back to The Boss, where we spent the rest of the night. The line was still pretty long around 9-9:30, and we waited about 40-45 minutes a couple of times, but it was so worth it. By 10:15ish the line died back down to about 20 minutes. My partner wanted to go back to Mr. Freeze before closing, but I just couldn't tear myself away from The Boss. We were able to get a total of four more rides on it. It was EPIC, to say the least. We looked in some of the shops before leaving and got some shirts.