How to describe and reflect upon this ride? Let's start from the beginning: we approach the entrance, complete with a test seat, an attendant, and even an audio recording. Entering the line, we enter the next room and stop in utter horror. Ride lockers. What have we New Englanders done to deserve this? Why must the bins in the station be so short-lived? We slowly back away from the lockers, careful not to make eye contact, and begin our snaking journey towards SROS's station. The added tarps that keep us in the shade are a plus, but we don't notice. All that we do is watch in amazement as the cars zoom over the line, full of riders screaming in giddy delight. Finally, we reach the station, but face but another horror: slow dispatching. Why is it that SFNE's operators have to be so slow? Eventually, we get to board the train. We buckle the orange seatbelt and lower the ridiculously confining yellow lap bar. The lap bar started out as a T-bar but became a roman numeral 3 bar (III) due to the added bars on the sides. If it weren't for the golden ticket awards, we would have ran away screaming from this abomination, but something still motivates us to ride this faded-red/pink beast. Finally, we coast out of the station and up onto the lift hill, where we quickly pick up speed. We take in all of the beautiful panoramic views, but they don't last long thanks to an improved lift chaing (I still haven't decided which is better: the slow, agonizing lift or the quick and frightening lift). Our car levels out and tilts forward until we see the first initial tunnel, 221 feet below our car. Our train breaks free from the chain, and all hell is let loose.
We are repeatedly thrown out of our seats (hypathetically, the roman numeral 3 bar prevents us from actually falling out), or in the case of the overbanked turn, pinned down into them. We hold out until the MCBR......but wait, where is it? That's right, we smile at the abscence of a MCBR, but our minds stop wandering when we hit the first helix.
All of the positive g's actually make it difficult for us to hold our hands up, but we relax as we exit the helix. But, 1 second later, we get thrown over a hill and enter the second, even more intense helix. After that, we are thrusted upward once again and our red or blue charriot is thrown into the second, mist-filled tunnel. A few bunny hills that seem unremarkable compared to the last few elements give us some last moments of airtime, and we hit the painful but entertaining brake run that throws us forward against our roman numeral 3 bars.
Aren't you glad that we didn't run away when we saw the lockers?
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