Negative-G - Six Flags St. Louis Opening Weekend 2016

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The New For 2016 Fireball at Six Flags St. Louis, Eureka, Missouri

From the look of it the ride itself Fireball is good to go while the most of the remaining work is taking care of the queue and exit.

As for a ride experience this is similar to those "Ring Of Fire" rides you might see at a county fair. The big differences between this and those is this one wasn't designed to be taken apart and put back together every week, it has a larger capacity and it is larger than the fair model with a height of seventy two feet.

Fireball like on a Ring of Fire will seat you in a car that will go forwards and backwards in a pendulum style around the loop getting higher and higher with each pass. Eventually you will go completely inverted as the car gains enough speed to complete the loop. It has been a few years since I hopped on a ride like this but the highlight of those rides were when it stalls out at the top of the loop leaving you hanging there. Hanging against your restraints with the perception in your head of nothing beneath you but a fall followed by a sudden stop doesn't sound like fun to many but Bond and I seem to enjoy those moments. Hang time is a good thing.

Fireball looks great up there on the hill. It really stands out in the day time and it is going to look really great at night when the two rings of LED's light up. My guess is that it will open up sometime in late April or early May and I'd expect it to be quite a crowd pleaser.

Oh if you happen to be a large fan of the Rush Street Flyer after it was removed from Six Flags St. Louis for Fireball it ended up being in better shape than they thought so it ended up getting refurbished and sent off to La Ronde.

This is where Six Flags St. Louis started to turn around for me. For decades; through the Time Warner years and then the Premiere Parks years of owning the chain, Six Flags St. Louis was kind of the forgotten park. Corporate threw it a bone every five years or so but in general it got little for new attractions and little for upkeep.

In 2010 Jim Reid-Anderson took over after the chain emerged from bankruptcy and he put a stop to just spending on the big parks like Chicago, New Jersey or Los Angeles and started investing in all of the parks. As a result aging rides like the Yo-Yo was replaced with Sky Screamer, the long closed and rusting Hannibarrels was replaced by Tsunami Soaker, Scooby-Doo was replaced with Justice League and now Fireball replaces the Rush Street Flyer. I am curious as to what is going to be replaced and upgraded next. I have a few ideas if anyone from Six Flags wants to ask but this has been the right direction for the park.

Another big upgrade to Six Flags St. Louis in 2016 is the addition of a Holiday in the Park. We will all be able to get in the Christmas spirit while getting our need for coasters filled. Holiday in the Park is going to extend Six Flags St. Louis' operating calendar out to January 1, 2017 making our off season only 103 days between then and Good Friday.

So the real question is who wants to meet up for coasters on New Years Day?