Joker Construction Tour

A big thank you to Jenn and park management for inviting us to see the construction of joker upclose. When i got to the park and walked up to sign in i was surprised to see the entrance to the park changed. The ticket booths are cleared out and they built roofs to connect them all which will be where the metal detectors are going so you pass through them before you get to the gates to scan your pass. In other words it will be like the other SF parks which should make the line move faster to get into the park. They cut windows into the group sales building for ticket sales.

You can see the roofs in this shot



The new ticket sales windows in Group sales



The construction on joker is moving along but the wind has been tough to work in. They are busy doing other things on the ride like putting the trains together. The ride looks really good in that spot and i think it looks better then Gradv. The ride is expected to open to the public Memorial weekend.





We got to sign this support piece



Jokers train







The new snack building will have popcorn, softserve icecream, pretzels, popcorn and soft drinks.



Looks like we are down 1 mister



Now on to Minderaser, yes they are new trains not just new restraints they do have the old wheel chasis only the whole bottom of the train is new, the arms that hold the new seats and the vest type restraints. The way the new seats are tilted there is no need to drop the floor for dispatches and arriving trains which should help capacity. The new VR does not need the code plack to start the program, when you put the headset on you can still see the station and it doesn't start until you crest the lifthill. It was fun because you get to shoot at flying things and it keeps track of your score so you can compete against friends for high score. They will only run VR on 1 train and 1 without from 2pm until 1 hour before closing. They will not be giving the headsets out in the station, they will be given out in the que where they cleared out that spot between the que house and the set of switchbacks before the stairs.







Work going on in rockville on the games building





The park added all new composite benches throughout the park.



If you have any questions feel free to ask and i will get you an answer. We were only allowed in the southend of the park but i did ask to go down to DC but was told no way. I have a couple short videos i will add tomorrow as my internet was down for a while today.

Thanks for sharing AJ. Things are looking really good so far. Now on to the next big announcement

The park looks wonderful. I miss it so much. Can't wait to get back there in 2 weeks. (Hopefully with my work schedule still unknown.)

The new snack building kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in my opinion. I don't know why they chose those colors for it.

Also I think they should have made the motor building for Joker fit in a little better. Instead of yellow siding right next to a bright green and purple structure. Maybe it looks better in person and maybe im just being picky.

Heres fox 61 news report from media day yesterday.

http://fox61.com/2017/03/22/six-flags-new-england-to-launch-new-coaster/

--- Double Post Merged, Original Post Date: Mar 23, 2017 ---

Another thing i forgot to add is, the midway in front of joker will not change. They will be putting the game back as well as the stage where they have shows. The smoking area in the southend was moved to where spider was located. I don't know if its there permanently or if they moved it for the construction of the new snack building. If i remember some other things i will add them here. There was so much info given out it's tough to remember everything. The tour was only 2hrs and the time flew by.

I have a sad feeling that Slingshot will seriously dampen some good pictures of Joker

should stick that upcharge thing on the cement pad that used to have the kiddie rides outside of pass processing/entrance to Whistle stop

Nice report! Everything's looking great! I'm happy they changed the entrance.

Any word on an opening date for Joker yet?

Memorial weekend

First I love how when you're walking from Rockville you're going to see the cars going up Jokers lift. That's going to be a cool sight.

Second, in regards to ME: How are they going to figure out the one train VR and one train without? Are they going to have the line split after you get headsets? One line for VR one for no VR? I don't see any other way they can do it.

To be honest, we didn't get to go through the que we entered up the exit so we don't know if the que is split but i think it will be other wise how else would they do it.

They didn't say much about that part. They only said that they would be handing out headsets in a cleared out area where some switchbacks were.

Here's a couple short videos i took that i finally uploaded.

joker

Minderasers new trains

Toward the end of the tour, a group of us were chatting with park president John Winkler. He told us there would be a split line for the VR and the non-VR riders (but didn't tell us where the split would happen).