Six Flags Fiesta Texas All Day - Monday, Oct. 10, 2016

Or, how much fun can a person have in one day? 

It dawned on me a week ago Saturday night at Six Flags Fiesta Texas that I first rode the huge roller coaster at Pacific Ocean Park (POP) in Southern California with Mom when I was four years old. Next month I will be 64. That means I have been riding roller coasters for 60 years! And this is the first time I've had a season pass. Woo hoo.

Bob had to work today, so Susan, Darren and I met at Six Flags Fiesta Texas when they opened at 10:30 a.m. Susan told me she is having a problem with her retina in one eye so she can't go on any wild rides, only smooth ones. Darren and I went on Iron Rattler first thing. We didn't have a long line and made it to the platform before we had to wait. They only had one train running today so it took a while to actually get on the coaster. We were in the second row. It was awesome. 

From Iron Rattler we walked over to Sky Screamer, the swing ride on a 200' tower. Susan and I went on that. The views are amazing from the top! Take a look...

Sky Screamer

From Sky Screamer we headed to Fiesta Bay Boardwalk to do the Scooby Doo Ghostblasters Ride, Crows Nest Ferris Wheel, and Hurricane Force 5. All were rides Susan could go on.

Darren and Susan

We passed Batman: The Ride... 

Cars almost at the top on Batman: The Ride

...and Scream!

Scream! drop ride

Scooby Doo Ghostblasters

Below is Crows Nest Ferris wheel from the ground looking up. 
 

Crows Nest

The weather was gorgeous and we had great views from high up on the wheel.
 

Darren and Susan on the Crows Nest Ferris wheel

Me with Poltergeist coaster in the background

Batman: The Ride and Sky Screamer

Poltergeist

The Poltergeist Coaster (above) is downright disorienting. Once you're locked into your seat with lap bar and seat belt, you're told to keep your head against the headrest. The coaster shoots out of the platform at about 70 mph and doesn't slow down until the end of the ride. As you can see looking at the tracks above, this coaster gets around, literally. At times you have no clue which way is up and which way is down.

Scream! Drop ride

Below is the Pandemonium roller coaster. This coaster has round cars that spin like teacups as the coaster makes its way around the track. Unfortunately, it was closed today. But that's okay we went on it the first time we were here. It's moderately exciting.
 

Pandemonium roller coaster

Batman: The Ride has the tracks on the side of the cars. Some cars face forward and some face backward, but once you head up to the top and go over, all the cars spin head over heels, forward and backward. Crazy ride. At one point, I was hanging from the pull-down bar/seat belt only (facing the ground). This is a thrill ride, for sure.

Batman: The Ride

Superman Krypton Coaster

Sky Screamer tower, Batman: The Ride, and
Iron Rattler in the background

After our great views from the Crows Nest, we went on one of the newer thrill rides: Hurricane Force 5. 

Hurricane Force 5

On Hurricane Force 5 you sit on motorcycle-like seats. The whole circular platform spins in a circle while you go up and down a track. We love it, it's different and relaxing.
 

Hurricane Force 5

By this time we were hungry and opted to eat lunch at Old Blues Bar B Q. Susan and Darren had to leave at 2 p.m. They opted to have funnel cakes for dessert at Mockingbird. 

We said our good-byes and I headed off to ride Goliath, the coaster with tracks on the top. It wasn't a very long line, so I rode it twice in a row. One time I waited for the front row so I could feel like a bird flying with no seats in front of me.

Goliath - the starting climb

Goliath barrel roll

Goliath

It was a little after 2 p.m. and the park was open until 6, so I headed back to ride Iron Rattler. This time the line was much longer. I'd guess it took about 45 minutes to an hour to get on the ride. 

Once on the platform I looked for another single rider so we wouldn't have any empty seats next to us if we rode alone. I met a young man who is also a roller coaster fanatic. We compared notes on the amusement parks we had been to. He is from Vancouver, Washington, so we also talked about the former Jantzen Beach amusement park (a favorite hang-out when I was a teen-ager -- it was before his time, but he knew about the park) and Oaks Park. We both raved about Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, a roller coaster enthusiast mecca. He and his sister travel the world to go to amusement parks. Next year they are going to England.

Iron Rattler art

Iron Rattler art and the "snaking" line.

A scene from the Iron Rattler line

The "story" of Iron Rattler

Next to Iron Rattler is the Road Runner Express. We went on that coaster the first time we came. I didn't go on it today.

Road Runner Express Station

View of Road Runner Express from Iron Rattler line

Once the thrills of the Iron Rattler coaster were over, I headed to Poltergeist for another crazy ride. I got to sit in the front car, my favorite place. Of course I screamed my head off and couldn't figure out which way was up in that tangle of tracks.

Poltergeist station

After Poltergeist, I finished up my day by going on Superman Krypton Coaster and one last ride on Goliath on my way out of the park. 

Superman Krypton Coaster

Superman coaster station

With Halloween coming up in a few weeks, the park is decorated with all kinds of frightful scenes. I took photos of some of the tamer stuff...

Grateful Dead?

Want to go see this show

Any Young Frankenstein fans out there?

Time for me to go home. That was enough and the park was going to close in 1/2 hour anyway. We all had a blast! Can't wait to go back at night for more Fright Fest fun.

Travel Bug out.

Scream Queen - Sat., Sept. 24, 2016

Tired...four hours sleep on Friday night...ten hours of work on Saturday. I was a zombie when I got off work. Bob, on the other hand, had run 14 miles first thing in the morning as part of his marathon training. In the afternoon he drove to Austin to hear Gary Johnson, Libertarian presidential candidate, speak. He had to stand in the meeting room because it was so crowded.

What do you do when you're tired and you feel like a zombie? Why, go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas Fright Fest, of course! That'll wake you up in a hurry.

Bob and I rolled into Six Flags about 7 p.m. It was still light outside. Dark, gloomy clouds loomed in the distance. Would it rain? Was there a possibility of thunder and lightning? Maybe, but with our season passes it didn't matter, we could come back another time if we needed to.

The park had been open since noon and would remain open until 10 pm. Maybe that accounted for the extremely short line at Goliath, the roller coaster with the rails on top where your legs dangle freely. Bob and I walked right up to the loading platform and were able to get on the second coaster that came into the station. Oh, how I love that coaster! I did get a little dizzy and when Bob asked me if I wanted to return to line and do it again immediately, I said no.

It was starting to get dark and we were hungry. Our next stop was Old Blue's BBQ restaurant. Bob had a chicken vegetable spud and I had a Texas style spud. My baked potato had brisket, cheese and BBQ sauce on it. Bob's spud had diced chicken, broccoli and Ranch dressing on it. The potatoes were huge and we could have shared one. I got pumpkin pie and Bob got a berry cobbler. The pumpkin pie didn't meet my taste standards and was almost frozen. The cobbler, on the other hand, was warm and yummy.

Next, I really wanted to go on Iron Rattler, THE most exciting roller coaster in the park. Bob decided he'd wait for me and hold our water bottles. The line for Iron Rattler was pretty long so it took me a while to get to the platform. Because I was a single rider, I was able to go ahead of some people to get on the coaster. I sat next to a guy and I said, "I hope you don't mind, I scream...a lot." He said he didn't mind. I told him it was my first time on Iron Rattler. He said, "The first drop is straight down. It's insane." I thought he was exaggerating.

Well, come to find out, the first drop is straight down. We go 70 mph! OMG. What a ride. That is one of the most fun coasters  I have been on. It was dark outside so I wasn't really sure what was coming next. The coaster does some tricky maneuvers including a zero-gravity roll. Wheeeeeee! When I got back to Bob he said I had been gone 36 minutes.

For Fright Fest, Six Flags Fiesta Texas has areas they call "Scare Zones." In certain places, the walkways are pitch black with blowing smoke and creatures come out of the dark to scare you. We walked through one Scare Zone on the way to Sky Screamer, a 200' tall tower with a swing ride on it. I could barely see where I was going! We did see a creepy monster-type character in the gloom but we were walking as fast as we could so didn't really get a good look at it.

Sky Screamer (not my photo)

The Sky Screamer is wonderful. You sit in the little swings and they lift off the ground. When they start going around, you go up and up to 200' in the air. You are higher than the sides of the old rock quarry where Six Flags is built. The view was awesome at night with the lights on the amusement rides. The ride goes pretty fast.

When we finished riding Sky Screamer, it was coming up on 9 p.m. and we decided to head home. With season passes we can go back any time. The evening was great and we didn't have any rain.

We especially liked the fact that we were in the park at night; no sunscreen was required and it was much cooler to wait in the lines...no hot sun beating down on us!

Thanks, Bob, for going to the park with me. You are a real trooper after the day you had.

Travel Bug out.