Scares, Flips, Twirls and Craziness - Sat., Sept. 17, 2016

This happened on Sunday, September 11, 2016:

I admit it. I am a roller coaster adrenaline junkie. This is the first time in my life I've had a Season Pass to an amusement park and I want to go as often as possible.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio is open only on weekends now that school is in session. With our new season passes in hand, we drove 25 minutes to Six Flags to meet Susan and Darren for a day of roller coasters, water park, and other fun rides. Today we wanted to explore and see what the park had to offer. Plenty, it turns out.

When the park opened at 10:30 a.m. we were inside waiting for them to open the line into the rest of the park. I was like a kid in a candy store and wanted to go on everything at once! Since that was not possible, we used the strategy of going to the big roller coasters at the far end of the park first.

Superman Krypton Coaster has an intriguing gimmick: put roller coaster riders in virtual reality goggles and show them a movie with all the twists and turns matching the twists and turns of the coaster. OMG! Here were my impressions. First off, the goggles don't fit over glasses. So Bob and I took our glasses off. Bob put them in his hat and held on to them through the ride. When the ride started, it was very disconcerting not to see where the coaster was going. As we watched the movie in our goggles, the coaster car followed Superman's flight path through Gotham City. We didn't know what was coming next. About 1/2 way through the ride my goggles were shaking loose and flopping around on my head. There was no way to adjust them because of the big restraining bar that came down over our shoulders. So it was VERY distracting to have the goggles loose.

At the end of the ride, all of us agreed we'd rather do the roller coaster without goggles. Next time we go, we'll skip the goggles. (Although I heard from the rep who supplies the goggles -- who happened to visit Travelers World a few days before we went -- that Sunday was the last day they would be using the Virtual Reality goggles.)

From Superman, we went to the new Batman: the Ride. Whee! This roller coaster has the wheels and track on the side of the cars which means the cars can spin around head over heels forward or backward. What a trip. At one point during the ride I remember hanging forward facing the ground with all my weight on the shoulder/lap bar. You have to have a lot of faith in those restraints!

After the ride, Darren stopped us to get a quick picture by the Bat Mobile. Today is 9/11 and Darren took the perfect patriotic red, white and blue photo.  See how happy we are. We survived the ride!

Susan M., me, Bob by the Bat Mobile

Here's the BatMobile

After those two coasters it was time for lunch. We went to Johnny Rockets, it's one of the franchises in the park. (There are two of them.)

Then we decided to explore more and wandered over to the Fiesta Bay Boardwalk area where we went on Scooby-Doo Ghostblasters: The Mystery of the Haunted Mansion. It's a slow-moving ride on a track through a "haunted mansion." Each of us had a laser ghostblaster to shoot at targets throughout the ride. All the way through, the four of us were seriously blasting away at the targets. I won with a scare score of 1410. Then we went on the Crow's Nest ferris wheel which afforded a wonderful view of the park.

From the ferris wheel we watched a new ride called Hurricane Force 5. Picture a U-shaped roller coaster track. At the bottom of the "U" is a round platform with motorcycle type seats facing outward. When the ride starts the round platform starts going around in circles, then it travels up and down the U-shaped roller coaster track. We had no idea what to expect when we decided to try that next.

We waited in a short line to ride Hurricane Force 5. The ride was really fun and even a little relaxing. We thought it would be scarier; the four of us were pleasantly surprised.

You'd think we were gluttons for punishment if you saw what we went on next: Pandemonium. It's a roller coaster with cars of four people that spin like tops as the roller coaster goes around the track. It was tame for most of the ride until the cars tipped a certain way on the track and our car spun around in circles. Different.

From circles on the roller coaster to circles on the swings, you know, the carnival ride where you sit in a seat, the seats lift off the ground and then the swings go around in circles about 20' off the ground. That's another relaxing ride with a view of the park.

It was mid-afternoon and time to hit the water park (included in our passes). On the way to the water park Susan, Bob and I made a quick detour to the Road Runner Express roller coaster. Darren sat out the ride and watched our backpacks. There wasn't a long line and we made it on the second coaster into the loading platform.

Once at Whitewater Bay, we changed into our swim suits and water shoes. Bob sat in the shade and waited with our belongings while Susan, Darren and I rode the Texas Tumble water raft ride. First we waited in a long line all the way up a four-story tower, then the three of us were loaded into a big round raft. The raft goes down a big, open-air tube. You sit on your bottom with your legs in front of you. I didn't like that it felt like the raft was going to fold in half on the banked turns.

The Lazy River was so crowded, there were no inner tubes available to float. Because it was so hot, Susan, Darren and I walked through the Lazy River. Bob waited with our belongings. We asked if he wanted to go in the Lazy River and Susan and Darren would keep track of our bags, but Bob said no. We finished up Whitewater Bay by going to the Wave Pool. All four of us were able to cool off in the wave pool.

We dried off and changed back into our shorts and T-shirts, feeling refreshed. Then we went back out to the park. We tried to go on SkyScreamer, a 200'-tall swing carousel tower. Think carnival swing ride on steroids. This swing's seats travel at 43 mph! Unfortunately, the SkyScreamer was closed and we were not able to go on it.

All of us were hungry so we went to Sangerfest Food Court for dinner. Bob had a turkey sub sandwich with potato salad. I had a turkey leg which I shared with Bob in exchange for some of his potato salad.

After dinner, we took a train ride around the park. Then it was time to go on the Iron Rattler, the biggest, baddest, fastest, tallest coaster in the park. As we started to walk down the path to the coaster, the attendant told us the ride was closing. We asked him what time the ride closed since the park was supposed to be open until 8 p.m. He said, "The ride closes at 6 p.m." It was 5:55 p.m. and we didn't get to go.

On our way out of the park, Susan and I rode Boomerang Coast-to-Coaster while the boys waited. The Boomerang starts out by pulling the roller coaster cars backward up a very steep track then releasing them. The roller coaster goes out through loops and over hills, goes up to the top of another tall tower, then goes backward through the whole track. It was really fast! We finished our day on a high note, pun intended.

High on the list of rides to hit first on our next visit are: Goliath (roller coaster with the rail on top and cars suspended beneath), Iron Rattler, Poltergeist coaster, and Superman Kyrpton Coaster (without the virtual reality goggles).

We left the park about 7:00 p.m. The parking lot was total gridlock. It took way longer to get out of the parking lot than it did to drive home.

What a day! So much fun. We'll go again for Fright Fest at the park (weekends at the end of September and all through October).