sharondbond
2019-07-19 20:50:08 UTC
I asked about prioritizing what we should ride on my work group's June trip to San Antonio. No one answered my post, but it didn't matter because there was flooding that day and we never got to go. But 3 of us prioritized getting there early in the morning on the 15th just so we could go. After the usual SNAFU at the Lackland AFB visitor center getting our visit requests settled, we hit up a Taco Cabana for late lunch and then headed to the park. We didn't get to stay long but it was a really good visit for the most part.
Temps were in the high 90's that day, but the humidity was low by Ohio standards. So while it was blazing hot, it wasn't sticky. The "feels like" temp was 104 but I'd rather reach that with 98 degree temp and 45% humidity than the 94 degree temp and 80% humidity that we're having right now.
Paul has a season pass, but Karen and I did the online ticket option. So their ticket "price" is $50.99, but tack on 2 fees and it's up to somewhere north of $64. Luckily we did not have to pay the $27 parking fee because the pass covered that. The park was lightly crowded because it was a Monday, so we got to park in the first row after premium parking.
Heading in, we had no idea where to go first, so just generally headed in a clockwise direction. This is one of the hardest parks that I've been to to figure out how to get to something. It doesn't help that on the park map, they reuse the same numbers and only change the colors. So there's a red 11 (Goliath), a blue 11 (Crow's Nest), a pink 11 (Daffy's Bus Stop) and a lighter blue 11 (Lone Star Lagoon). And every time we thought we could get through on some path, we turn a corner and there's some fence or gate blocking us. Plus, on the online "interactive" map, they don't show your current location.
OK, enough Six Flags bashing for now, on to the rides. The first thing we came to that we decided to ride was their S&S Power tower drop ride, Scream. We looked at it and Paul and I decided it looked pretty tame. Karen chose to watch. It was fun, and a little more intense than we were expecting, but pretty good. They were only running 1 leg of the tower. I would have liked more launches upward, but the one was fairly good. But yeah, fairly tame compared with other drop tower rides.
Then we tried to go from there to Goliath but got blocked each time we took a different path. But we were right by the Pirates of the Deep Sea dark ride. It's the typical shooting dark ride (might be a Sally) and I'm convinced that there's some unwritten law that all dark rides must incorporate a ghost or skeleton playing a pipe organ. It was fun and at least it was air conditioned. We joked that we should ride something, come back to this, ride something, come back, ride, come back, etc.
Pandemonium is almost right next to it, so I headed in to ride it. Paul and Karen stayed back after watching it spin. That's the point. It (Gerstlauer) was a much better spinning coaster experience than the traveling spinning mouse coasters that I've been on (Reverchons). Since there was no one in line to get on when my car got back, we just stayed on. I was with a Mom and daughter who had ridden it before and always ride it. First ride I started backward, then got the forward experience on the second ride.
Then we wandered around to find a bathroom, mainly so we could find a water fountain, then headed onto Wonder Woman Golden Lasso. Karen decided to ride, although she hasn't ridden coasters in over 10 years. This was the wrong choice for her. It's one of the most intense loopers I've been on, because they've crammed it into a very small space up against the quarry wall. The first drop is awesome, and then the next element is thrilling, but then it just explodes. I really liked the trains - the sight lines even in seat 7 were fantastic. The restraints were a little weird - the straps kept slipping off my shoulders and I'm not exactly skinny. I would have ridden it again but both Paul and Karen were a bit overwhelmed.
We liked the theming with the temple, and the landscaping. However, it's kind of off to have old Warner Brothers cartoons playing. I still haven't figured out what Daffy Duck in "A Pest in the House" has to do with Diana's temple, LOL. It was the first of 3 rides where we had any kind of a line. But even though each train can only take 8 riders (you ride single file in your own seats), they were running 3 trains and that ate up about 24 riders every 3 minutes. The only problem I saw was that most trains went out with only 6 riders - they blocked the last 2 spots in the station. I could have sat in seat 6, 7, or 8.
Then we walked a little bit more and there's Superman Krypton Coaster. Neither of them wanted to ride, so I went by myself. I loved the first drop, the loop, and the next element. The back half could be dropped altogether IMO. My ears really got boxed on the corkscrews and other elements. It really surprised me to get that banged up on a B&M. I would have ridden the first half the rest of the afternoon but not the back. I was in row 2, outside right, so it really, really surprised me.
Paul and Karen decided to then go on the SkyScreamer (200 ft swing ride) but I don't do well on those kind of rides. This was the second ride where there was any kind of line. They had to wait through 2 ride cycles. Both reported that it's a much more intense ride than it looks like down below. I waited at a table in the shade and still sweated through my clothes. Did I mention how hot it was that day?
Then we got to the one of 2 coasters that Paul and I really wanted to ride - Iron Rattler. On the way over, we talked about going on Gully Washer but decided that if we going to ride it, we should do that last.
Iron Rattler had the longest line of the day because of how they handle the Flash Pass people, and there was only 1 train running. We opted not to get FP because the park basically was pretty uncrowded. For Iron Rattler, they were holding the entire line back at the last switchback. The operator would wait until the entire last section before the station was clear, and that a lot of the station was clear, then he'd look to see if any FP people were coming up. Eventually he'd let the great unwashed through.
This ended up being the last thing we rode that day, but we both concluded that it was worth it being the last ride. We were 2 rows from the back. We loved everything about the ride. The first drop is fantastic. The second long drop is fantastic. The swooping elements are fantastic. The barrel roll is fantastic. And it was running extremely smooth. At times, the way the track was used reminded me of The Voyage, but without Voyage's tendency to throw you around violently.
We would have ridden more, but then we got the lemonade of doom. Karen had already gotten a drink and Paul and I really needed something. He got a frozen lemonade by the stand outside IR. The frozen one was more money so I decided to just get a regular lemonade. Yes, it's $5+ plus but it was HUGE. Much bigger than I should have drank at that point. I may or may not have sent my system into some sort of sugar overload/slightly diabetic shock. I just felt absolutely lousy. I really wanted to ride Road Runner Express but my stomach was just not up to it. Paul really had wanted to ride Goliath, but his stomach was not up to it either. We decided to just go back to the hotel and chill.
On the way out of the park, I really felt like I might need to find a garbage can really quick. We sat down for awhile outside of the building where they do season passes. Eventually I felt good enough to go on. We stopped and watched Goliath for awhile. Then slogged out to the rental vehicle, with me looking where each garbage can was located. The ride back in our Jeep Sahara was a little rough too. They went to dinner but I just chilled in my room, then hit the pool. The pool water had to be in the 90's, because it was easily 5 to 10 degrees warmer than my brother's pool on July 4 that was at 85. It was bliss. I had made a joke while drinking the lemonade that it was probably dinner, and it was. I just never got hungry, even the next morning. It really wrecked my system.
So the rides that I would have wanted to go on, but didn't get a chance were Road Runner Express, Goliath, Bugs' White Water Rapids, Gully Washer, Crow's Nets, the train, Kiddee Koaster, Poltergeist, and the Grand Carousel. Stuff I don't even want to contemplate riding were Batman and Boomerang. One is Vekoma headbanger, another would make me lose my cookies on the first flip. So maybe for the October or January trip we'll try to go back, when it's (relatively) cooler.
Sharon
Temps were in the high 90's that day, but the humidity was low by Ohio standards. So while it was blazing hot, it wasn't sticky. The "feels like" temp was 104 but I'd rather reach that with 98 degree temp and 45% humidity than the 94 degree temp and 80% humidity that we're having right now.
Paul has a season pass, but Karen and I did the online ticket option. So their ticket "price" is $50.99, but tack on 2 fees and it's up to somewhere north of $64. Luckily we did not have to pay the $27 parking fee because the pass covered that. The park was lightly crowded because it was a Monday, so we got to park in the first row after premium parking.
Heading in, we had no idea where to go first, so just generally headed in a clockwise direction. This is one of the hardest parks that I've been to to figure out how to get to something. It doesn't help that on the park map, they reuse the same numbers and only change the colors. So there's a red 11 (Goliath), a blue 11 (Crow's Nest), a pink 11 (Daffy's Bus Stop) and a lighter blue 11 (Lone Star Lagoon). And every time we thought we could get through on some path, we turn a corner and there's some fence or gate blocking us. Plus, on the online "interactive" map, they don't show your current location.
OK, enough Six Flags bashing for now, on to the rides. The first thing we came to that we decided to ride was their S&S Power tower drop ride, Scream. We looked at it and Paul and I decided it looked pretty tame. Karen chose to watch. It was fun, and a little more intense than we were expecting, but pretty good. They were only running 1 leg of the tower. I would have liked more launches upward, but the one was fairly good. But yeah, fairly tame compared with other drop tower rides.
Then we tried to go from there to Goliath but got blocked each time we took a different path. But we were right by the Pirates of the Deep Sea dark ride. It's the typical shooting dark ride (might be a Sally) and I'm convinced that there's some unwritten law that all dark rides must incorporate a ghost or skeleton playing a pipe organ. It was fun and at least it was air conditioned. We joked that we should ride something, come back to this, ride something, come back, ride, come back, etc.
Pandemonium is almost right next to it, so I headed in to ride it. Paul and Karen stayed back after watching it spin. That's the point. It (Gerstlauer) was a much better spinning coaster experience than the traveling spinning mouse coasters that I've been on (Reverchons). Since there was no one in line to get on when my car got back, we just stayed on. I was with a Mom and daughter who had ridden it before and always ride it. First ride I started backward, then got the forward experience on the second ride.
Then we wandered around to find a bathroom, mainly so we could find a water fountain, then headed onto Wonder Woman Golden Lasso. Karen decided to ride, although she hasn't ridden coasters in over 10 years. This was the wrong choice for her. It's one of the most intense loopers I've been on, because they've crammed it into a very small space up against the quarry wall. The first drop is awesome, and then the next element is thrilling, but then it just explodes. I really liked the trains - the sight lines even in seat 7 were fantastic. The restraints were a little weird - the straps kept slipping off my shoulders and I'm not exactly skinny. I would have ridden it again but both Paul and Karen were a bit overwhelmed.
We liked the theming with the temple, and the landscaping. However, it's kind of off to have old Warner Brothers cartoons playing. I still haven't figured out what Daffy Duck in "A Pest in the House" has to do with Diana's temple, LOL. It was the first of 3 rides where we had any kind of a line. But even though each train can only take 8 riders (you ride single file in your own seats), they were running 3 trains and that ate up about 24 riders every 3 minutes. The only problem I saw was that most trains went out with only 6 riders - they blocked the last 2 spots in the station. I could have sat in seat 6, 7, or 8.
Then we walked a little bit more and there's Superman Krypton Coaster. Neither of them wanted to ride, so I went by myself. I loved the first drop, the loop, and the next element. The back half could be dropped altogether IMO. My ears really got boxed on the corkscrews and other elements. It really surprised me to get that banged up on a B&M. I would have ridden the first half the rest of the afternoon but not the back. I was in row 2, outside right, so it really, really surprised me.
Paul and Karen decided to then go on the SkyScreamer (200 ft swing ride) but I don't do well on those kind of rides. This was the second ride where there was any kind of line. They had to wait through 2 ride cycles. Both reported that it's a much more intense ride than it looks like down below. I waited at a table in the shade and still sweated through my clothes. Did I mention how hot it was that day?
Then we got to the one of 2 coasters that Paul and I really wanted to ride - Iron Rattler. On the way over, we talked about going on Gully Washer but decided that if we going to ride it, we should do that last.
Iron Rattler had the longest line of the day because of how they handle the Flash Pass people, and there was only 1 train running. We opted not to get FP because the park basically was pretty uncrowded. For Iron Rattler, they were holding the entire line back at the last switchback. The operator would wait until the entire last section before the station was clear, and that a lot of the station was clear, then he'd look to see if any FP people were coming up. Eventually he'd let the great unwashed through.
This ended up being the last thing we rode that day, but we both concluded that it was worth it being the last ride. We were 2 rows from the back. We loved everything about the ride. The first drop is fantastic. The second long drop is fantastic. The swooping elements are fantastic. The barrel roll is fantastic. And it was running extremely smooth. At times, the way the track was used reminded me of The Voyage, but without Voyage's tendency to throw you around violently.
We would have ridden more, but then we got the lemonade of doom. Karen had already gotten a drink and Paul and I really needed something. He got a frozen lemonade by the stand outside IR. The frozen one was more money so I decided to just get a regular lemonade. Yes, it's $5+ plus but it was HUGE. Much bigger than I should have drank at that point. I may or may not have sent my system into some sort of sugar overload/slightly diabetic shock. I just felt absolutely lousy. I really wanted to ride Road Runner Express but my stomach was just not up to it. Paul really had wanted to ride Goliath, but his stomach was not up to it either. We decided to just go back to the hotel and chill.
On the way out of the park, I really felt like I might need to find a garbage can really quick. We sat down for awhile outside of the building where they do season passes. Eventually I felt good enough to go on. We stopped and watched Goliath for awhile. Then slogged out to the rental vehicle, with me looking where each garbage can was located. The ride back in our Jeep Sahara was a little rough too. They went to dinner but I just chilled in my room, then hit the pool. The pool water had to be in the 90's, because it was easily 5 to 10 degrees warmer than my brother's pool on July 4 that was at 85. It was bliss. I had made a joke while drinking the lemonade that it was probably dinner, and it was. I just never got hungry, even the next morning. It really wrecked my system.
So the rides that I would have wanted to go on, but didn't get a chance were Road Runner Express, Goliath, Bugs' White Water Rapids, Gully Washer, Crow's Nets, the train, Kiddee Koaster, Poltergeist, and the Grand Carousel. Stuff I don't even want to contemplate riding were Batman and Boomerang. One is Vekoma headbanger, another would make me lose my cookies on the first flip. So maybe for the October or January trip we'll try to go back, when it's (relatively) cooler.
Sharon