Six Flags St. Louis

First: The coasters, in order of my least favorite to most favorite: (note: Boss, Screamin’ Eagle and Boomerang were closed the day I went due to Holiday in the Park)

River King Mine Train (Credit #97)

This Arrow Mine train is an awesome family coaster. A long ride with three lifts, an excellent finale with an ejector drop into a tunnel if you are in the back row, and an overall classic slightly jank Arrow through the woods, and reminded me somewhat of my beloved Whizzer. Got a night ride too! 5/10.

And now, there is a large jump up in the quality of the coasters

Ninja (#95)

This Arrow/Vekoma relocated custom looper is a GREAT COASTER. Not much airtime on the drop, but the loop and sidewinder are forceful and whippy, the headchopper with the lift chain is INSANE, the corkscrews are nice and floaty, and the last low to the ground helix gave a better sense of speed than Millennium Force ever has for me. I’m blessed enough for the Arrow trains to be basically built for my body type, so no headbanging or roughness for me here! 8+/10

Pandemonium (#94)

Gerstlauer made an awesome coaster here. So incredibly smooth, and I was able to get some great unbalanced rides. The spinning was great, but not quite as good as the original up in Minnesota, however the airtime on this one was pretty great in a few spots and I love how the final run is sunk down into the terrain. Plus the moving station made for some great dispatches. A perfect family coaster, and due to low lines at the end of the night was actually my most ridden coaster at the park. 8+/10

Batman: The Ride (#96)

I have high standards for a Batman clone. My home park’s (SFGAm’s) is my second favorite B&M invert, beating out the likes of Nemesis, Raptor, Great Bear, and Hungarian Horntail, only losing out to Chinese Fireball. This Batman is also a mirrored clone, but since it has the full 8 car train, it wasn’t neutered like Goliath at SFFT. One thing to note however, is due to social distancing restrictions, the train was running on average a quarter train, and the back row was roped off. Combined with 40 degree temperatures, she was definitely not running as fast as she should have. She was still forceful and whippy, just not as much as my baby at Gam. This was however my first Batclone that I thought the second corkscrew was more whippy than the first, which was interesting. During normal times, this classic all-black Batclone probably would have gotten a 9.5+ or a 10, and been the second best in the park, but instead she gets an 8.5/10.

American Thunder (#93)

Finally a fucking good GCI. After riding the Hersheypark GCIs and Wickerman, I understood what a GCI could be, but they failed to deliver. American Thunder delivered. A combination of ratcheting Millenium Flyers, a fucking insane pace, awesome airtime, a smooth ride, and mag brakes made this an awesome woody! It shot to my second place woody, with Goliath at SFGAm beating it out still. I should be able to get on Renegade at least this summer, and I absolutely cannot wait! 9.5+/10

Mr. Freeze (#92)

Holey shit. This coaster is awesome. Such a simple layout creating so many awesome experiences. My favorite ride was actually near the middle of the train, as the forces were more mixed. A ride in this seat goes like this: A forceful, awesome backwards launch, a half second of just going backwards fast with no forces, then you’re slammed with a one two three four five punch of insane positive forces, whippy laterals, hangtime, whippy laterals, and then back to positives through the inverted tophat. All backwards. Like, holey shit. Those positives then remained through the overbank, and up into the spike launch, which is just absolutely surreal. Being pulled up to 200 feet, while face down, and then falling right back down was one of the best launch experiences I’ve ever had. And now you get all of that again, but forwards, with the added benefit of stronger forces through the overbank and the same forces through the tophat. This coaster is a forceful and smooth masterpiece (reliability notwithstanding). 10/10

Park thoughts:

Excalibur is a must do. It’s one of a kind, and the sensations on it are so unique, it’s something you can’t find anywhere else. The park was beautiful! Plenty of cool shop faces, foliage, and the setting with the hills is awesome. You can tell it is not as well funded like SFGAm, but where there aren’t cool buildings there’s awesome greenery. The front entrance is wonderful, and I have no complaints at all. COVID procedures were just as well done as at SFGAm, which is awesome! The only true thing they are really missing right now is a kiddie coaster. I understand now why Six Flags hasn’t really added anything huge over the past dozen years, their top coasters I got to ride plus Boss are absolutely wonderful. With the recent investment into the upkeep and rejuvenation of the park (new front entrance, Freeze animatronic, Excalibur refurb), I truly think that this park has a bright future. I cannot wait to come back during the normal season to get those last three coaster credits, plus get some more rides on some absolutely legendary coasters that turned two of my least favorite manufacturers to some of my most respected!