Went back to Fiesta Texas today, as my newly acquired pass was offering me "bring a friend free" today.
So I got hold of my friend Russell, and we headed down to San Antonio, despite the weather being kind of crappy -- very overcast and drizzly, with fog, and hovering in the mid 50's with a cold front on the way for later in the day.
I figured it was still a good day to go, as the park would either be dead the day after Christmas, or super packed, and we could just wander around.
it ended up being pretty dead, both for the crowds, and for the staffing (seemingly). .there were multiple restaurants/food service stands shuttered, and a bunch of flats just not operating (Spinsanity, Waverunner, Hustler, and others weren't operating - tho *had* been on our prior trip back on the 3rd - but strangely the Top Spin, Twister, *was* running. . although that's seemingly rare, since there was NO ONE riding it - they were cycling it with no one on it just to show that it was operating the times we passed it).
Superman: Krypton Coaster and Poltergeist never opened (both had signs noting the weather was the cause due to the temperature), and as the cold front hit earlier than expected - around 3pm - and the temps dropped into the mid-low 40s, other coasters, such as Goliath and Batman and rides like Skyscreamer shut down.
Luckily, Iron Rattler kept running (yay) as that was the main reason I wanted to go back, and we ended up getting 3 rides on that.
tho the last ride, towards the late afternoon had a fairly longish wait (35-45 minutes) because as other rides closed, everyone in the park seemed to head to the Cracksaxle Canyon area - where IR, Roadrunner Express, the Train, and a few kiddie rides continued to operate.
Even earlier in the day, when IR was a "Walk On" it still took 10 minutes or so due to somewhat atrocious dispatch output from a staff that seemed to not care too much about being there when it was cold (even tho Fiesta was running two trains on Iron Rattler, the prior train would always be back on the break-run waiting for the loading train to leave. . yeah, so even tho there were two trains, it was just as if they were running 1).
That's a minor complaint tho, as we did get multiple rides with not a long wait initially -- and every other employee we dealt with during the day was pleasant, happy to be there, and seemed to be having a great time (Kudos to the Security Guard who we chatted with for staying upbeat despite being assigned to keep people from jumping in the giant tree in front of Rockville -- no really. . I asked her why she was guarding the tree and we had a wonderful conversation about it).
For Iron Rattler, we rode back, near back, then front. Despite how much i loved the back? i would say IR is a front seat ride. . such an amazing amount of airtime in the front seat that we just didn't get in the back. And the way the front "stalls" over the drop as the rest of the car crests the lift hill? it was like a mini version of Valravn. LOVED IT.
we spent most of the rest of our time just wandering around (again, IR was the main reason we had gone, since I'd only ridden it once, back on 12/3, and Russell had never been on it), but we did get a ride on Fireball (1st time I've ridden one, and I must say that I liked it way more than I was expecting, and it didn't make me nauseous at all), and we went ahead and hopped on Scooby Doo, since the line was *way* shorter than the ferris wheel!
Took a bunch of pics of Wonder Woman construction - and the construction guys were on-site working. . they seem determined to have this ready to go in March. And I think they will do it! almost the entire track is now up, and the only part missing is the Lift Hill (and the loading station).
the track is wonderfully, wonderfully twisty. The pics don't do it justice just how twisty this track is. Just lovely.
anyways. .here's the pics from today!
hope you enjoy.
