Blitz Arrives!

It's always exciting when a new attraction arrives at the park, and the past couple of days have been no exception.  On Monday, Blitz rolled into the Team Member parking lot, and in just two short days was already set up and cycling, slowly, up and down.  We plan to commission the ride this afternoon or sometime tomorrow, which is basically a fancy term for accepting the ride from the manufacturer and saying "ok, we'll take it."  ...kind of like driving a new car off of the lot.  The area in front of the ride is a big cement pad at the moment, but that will change before park opening--we're installing astroturf on the existing football field, so we don't have to worry about any drainage issues any longer.

 

The Thomas Town pop-jet fountain is also coming along, and. contrary to previous reports that it was going to be installed next to Harold the Helicopter, it's being plopped down right in the middle of the Thomas Town area.  The pavillion that used to reside in that spot has been moved to a location next to the Carousel to house a new set of lockers that are coming in for this year.  

Ride training is well underway, although we still have a lot to do.  Jen and I are both working 70+ hours a week right now--and with Opening Day less than three weeks away, I'm sure that number will increase even more fairly soon.  In fact, as I'm writing this, Restricted Area training is going on at Batman, and Jen and I are about to head down there to get the trainers trained on Attendant and Operator positions.  

Ok, it's training time. 

-John

Gen Cert!

We had a great turnout for Gen Cert tonight, with over 40 people showing up! That's fantastic! After tonight (I'm sitting in the back of the room typing this), we'll have our first group of people ready for ride training!

Speaking of ride training, we're going to start training on rides next week, beginning on Monday, March 16. You'll be notified if and when you need to be here, but we're planning on getting started with training on Mind Eraser and Teacups on Monday; Carousel, Bertie, and Harold on Tuesday; Crime Wave on Wednesday; and Looney Tunes Movie Town on Thursday. By the end of the week, every division besides D2 and D5 will be training.

...Speaking of Division 5--Funtime, the manufacturer of Blitz!, will be here to start certifying site controllers so that we can start training on the ride. We're all pretty excited about that. Opening new rides is always a good time, especially one as cool as the Slingshot.

We're about to begin rolling on Skycoaster training, as well. What does that mean for those of you who are not on the Skycoaster crew? Well, free flights, to put it simply. We need flyers in order to train on the ride, so we generally will let people come up during other ride training sessions to fly once or twice. Keep an ear out for the opportunity to fly while you're here getting trained on your ride!

Construction has begun on some of the "special" elements on Superman. That's all I can say about that. Oh, and one of the trains is here, hiding in the maintenance shop. They're pretty cool looking. That's all I can say about that, too :)

Joker is just about entirely installed and nearly ready to go. It looks great in Nightwing's old spot!

I'll post some pictures of this stuff and more in the coming days. Keep an eye out, and have a Six Flags Day!!

-John

Welcome to the Team!

As we get closer and closer to opening day, it's my pleasure to announce the following additions to our 2009 Rides Supervisor staff (in no particular order and, as usual, last names are omitted):

• Kevin M.--Last season, he worked as a Team Lead in Division 1.
• Matt C.--Also worked as a Team Lead in Division 1 for the 2008 season.
• Jessica J.--Team Lead in Division 5 for the 2008 season.
• Erin J.--Division 5 Team Lead for the 2008 season.
• Derek W.--Division 5 Team Lead during the 2008 season.
• Matt H.--Division 3 Team Lead during the 2008 season.

Congratulations to all of our newest supervisors!