Leaderboard

went to SFFT yesterday for an event, that included a special Eclipse Viewing Party - dubbed "Total Eclipse of the Park" during the Eclipse, we got special glasses, a drone show, and fireworks! (it never really got dark enough for the drones to be super effective, but damn, the fireworks were insane!). Not only does the park still have "Octoberfest" going on (spoiler, the food is all pretty amazing), but also "FrightFest" is in full swing (with Boo-Fest, the kid friendly event going on during the daylight hours). it was a PACKED day, and was in the park from 10am-10:10 pm . . . we actually didn't stay for the evening ERT that was included in the event from 11-Midnight, and we actually left before the Evening "Frightful Finale" fireworks spectacular - but it was the right call, as the park was absolutely PACKED (parking lot was completely full. . don't think I've ever seen that) and we were worried about getting stuck in post Fireworks traffic that can sometimes add up to an hour getting back home to Austin. The park was so crowded, they thankfully had opened up the Employee exit (never seen that before either!) that even with a huge exodus of folks also trying to beat the fireworks crowd, we were on the freeway back to Austin by 10:30. overall opinion before the pictures: Octoberfest - A+ : - the musical performance in Sangerfest Halle is great. - the food from the booths is all excellent (everything we tried at least) - the decor and costumes in that area are top tier, the "Beer Tapping Ceremony was fun" "Boo Fest" - A : - the characters were out and about in costumes - the new location for the corn maze (front left lawn of Rockville High) let them do something more intricate this year, with multiple "chicken" exits if it got too scary for the kiddos due to the animatronics in the maze. - the Voodoo Haunt during the day is running as "House of Curiousities" - with the lights turned up, and no "scare" actors inside - instead there are "guides" that bring each group thru and point out funny and amusing things. This is such a great idea, and I wish more parks took this note and did this! it's so nice to be able to see all the details, and the "guides" are friendly and not scary at all. - multiple cast members in "non-scary" costumes handing out candy to anyone who says to them "trick or treat" - weather kid or adult - the ONLY odd thing was the Trick or Treat/Kids town - where the character meet and greet was next to Hustler. you know what's over there? yup. . the toilets. It was a bitt odd that to take pictures with costumed characters in front of the toilets. .LOL. so . . odd, but not enough to knock this down a grade. "Fright Fest" - B+ : - the grade might be a bit too high, if all you care about are the Haunts. for just the Haunts? C- of the 7 Haunts, honestly, only 2 of them are really good (with great effects and scenes, this includes the new "puppet/clown" house) another 2 were not bad, but were seriously lacking scare actors when we when thru (and it's noticeable because there are so many "nooks" where it's clear there was supposed to be a scare actor. . just weren't there). the remaining 3? they were just OK. . really nothing special that you wouldn't see in the neighborhood "scare house" that someone set up in their garage with hanging sheets splattered with paint, effects that didn't really work, and lots of jump out "boo" type of scare actors. but oddly, the 3 so/so houses did seem to have the majority of the scare actors inside. . . so gotta wonder if they got pulled from the heavier "themed" houses to make the "hanging sheet" houses seem a bit more scary. I dunno, but since Six Flags Charges for their houses, they SHOULD be much better than just 2 really good, two decent, and the rest just ok. (tho were included in our event passes, that's not true for the average guest) - Scarezones/street actors - the park did a fantastic job here. many were terrifying, and the way the interacted with the massive crowds moving among them? bravo. In particular the absolutely PACKED streets of CrackAxle during the Arrival - so crowded it was a bit frightening - but the scare actors came off the train and streamed thru the crowd to the delight of most. the Actors on the Boardwalk - which is now a full scarezone were great, the ones in Rockville (in the heavy fog) were truly pretty terrifying the way they materialized behind guests in the fog, and in CrackAxle were all fantastic. - Shows - this is where SFFT really, truly shines. The shows are all fantastic (and amazingly - to me) use the same cast for multiple shows. How they keep track of the songs and the choreography between the shows? I dunno, but I was impressed. "Curse of the Zombie Prom" is super dumb - but in a great way. fun, and great voices. and do NOT miss "Monster Mash Bash: the Bloodletting" - a real rock concert featuring many songs that are vampire/moon inspired, as well as storyline about 5 teens that are stalked by the vampires thruout the show, and are bitten one by one. Excellent show, tho you might want to bring earplugs, as the music (and the pyro involved) can be loud. there's also a band performing in front of Dr. Diabolical twice a day that was very good (I was told). - decor. . . wowza wowza wowza. . the park looks absolutely fantastic. Entry area is Dia De Los Muertos, Soul Harvest scarezone at the end of the plaza. The boardwalk is all clowns. CrackAxle is "Steam Pumpkins". . and the arch between DC Universe and Crackaxle is filled with glowing Jack O lanterns. . and honestly? is absolutely gorgeous. - be ready for the Crowds. . it was manageable during the day, but by ~4pm, the lines for any ride were crazy (and pretty much everything was operating). . and by 6pm (when the houses open. . tho the scarezones don't open till 7, as the creatures from the Arrival are who staff the scarezones). . it was difficult to navigate the park with the very crowded pathways. the Eclipse Party gets an A+ just for how fun it wal - and the park has no control over the Sun, so not their fault it didn't get darker during the full eclipse (the + is for the brilliance of blasting Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" right at the moment of full eclipse to start the drone show). and a perfectly timed small cloud allowed for some amazing pics of the eclipse as well. and the whole day/night? the park had the lights on Kid Flash going. it looks incredible. it really does. Jeffrey told us inspection is next week, so the ride should be open very soon. ok. how about some pics! arriving at the park. . one perk of attending an event, is you arrive a few hours before park opens, so able to park way up front in the lot! while waiting to check in, bumped into SFFT Jorge Alvares - the park's Marketing Supervisor (and also the voice of the San Antonio Spurs - he does the announcing at the home games) Lone Star Lil's opened up for the Eclipse Party, and most folks in the park has purchased this option. . so we all headed there, and I saw my friends Kelly and Nick (aka: the Quirky Coaster Couple). .they were in outfits for Octoberfest (and later that evening would change into Victorian Garb for Frightfest ).. they're oddballs, I love em! also met many other friends at the event, include Erika, Andrea (who gitterized us), & Belinda and look who I bumped into wandering around Lone Star Lil's making sure everyone was having a good time: Park President Mr. Jeffrey Siebert Jeffrey and I are ready for the Eclipse! a pic taken of the gang of folks I was hanging with. . taken by Park Marketing Manager Jeff Filicko (and I appreciate him airdropping me this pic, even tho the snaps on my shirt were losing a battle with my belly when I sat down. . LOL ) the Sun is starting to be eclipsed! see? (via my phone with the eclipse glasses over the lens) Ring of Fire started playing, and the drones take off! still a bit too bright, but they made a carousel horse, a few other things, and spelled out Six Flags and a pretty spectacular fireworks show began and suddenly a very well placed cloud passed by, and was able to get a couple of lovely pics of the eclipse without the needed glasses lens: the finale of the Eclipse fireworks was impressive as hell. . . this pic does NOT do it justice. .it went on like this for at least 2 minutes. grabbed a pic with the aforementioned Jeff Filicko before we headed out into the park, after congratulating him on such a fun Eclipse event. let's take a peek at Kid Flash! the station is almost done, and the LED Light package is amazing. . it doesn't really show up in my pic, but even in the daylight was impressive. dinner wasn't for a good 5 hours yet, so the group I was hanging with headed to Sangerfest Halle to grab some Octoberfest food. passing some Frightfest decorations on the way but there is this giant Octoberfest Animatronic out over here too for my $$? the best food stand. all three Proteins offered here are fantastic. and the German Chocolate Cake got a great review too. the meatballs - smothered in sauce, with a side of the potato wedges (I shared with someone, and dipping them in the meatball sauce made them so much better). that's the cake in the background there SOOO good and can't go to SFFT without a visit with Sweet Connie! clockwise from me: Bryce, Connie, Steve, Russell, Erika, and Nellie the newest figure on the Carousel. . finally able to get a pic without someone on it. going to the Trick or Treat Trail from Boofest (as noted, by the toilets. . LOL) . . but I mean, I HAD to get a pic with "Wizard" Wil E. Coyote and Haaaay Gurrrrrrrl! the new house this year is over in the old "Joker's Funhouse Coaster" unused queueline. the cornmaze for Boofest, has some slightly scary animatronics in the center of it this year. . . .I think that might be why there are multiple "chicken exits" from the maze this year. we headed over to watch "Curse of the Zombie Prom" show. . . it's silly, but fun. and one of the zombies comes out early to mess with the audience (pretty full show too) she's doing her "Shamu" impression to poke at SWSA up the road. since the Zombie Prom show is in the big Zaragoza theater near the front of the park, we popped into the VIP lounge for colas and cookies/snacks. this lady had an adorable rhinestone Cat in the Hat outfit on, and let me take a pic. yes, Adults *can* dress up for Frightfest, but the only rule is face cannot be covered! if you want to do makeup? you can only cover 1/2 of your face with it. we spent some time in Thirsty Buffalo enjoying drinks, and then headed over to the picnic grove for our dinner (that was included with the event ticket I had purchased). . on the way by Dr. Diabolical's Elixir cart . I noticed that they have JUST put a permanent cover over it. thank goodness for Shade. (I complimented Jeffrey about it later when I bumped into him again, and he said this is only step one. .there will be more improvements to this stand - hopefully a 2nd tap so they can double staff it) after dinner we fought our way back into CrackAxle - tho stood pretty far back (near the Buried Alive house) because it was just too crowded to try to get any closer for the Arrival. it worked in our favor, as we happened to be standing right where the Stilt Ghouls come out from (since they don't arrive by train). the ghouls that stream off the train, disperse into the (packed) crowd and mess with folks. . . after we did several houses, we took a break to go look at KID Flash light package in the evening. . how about a video of the light package in action? IMG_6182.MOV a look at Kid Flash from the other side. . and another short video of the light package in action: IMG_6200.MOV we made our way over to Lone Star Lil's for the "Monster Mash Bash: the Bloodletting" another great show - that happens to star many of the cast from Zombie Prom My friend Nellie - who was in the earlier pic with Sweet Connie. She won the Monster Makover the park drew for, and they made her over into a monster and let her terrorize folks in a Scare Zone for a while (what a fun contest they do every nite!). but once she was "released" back into the park, they had to clean off 1/2 her face, because Adults may not have full face paint in the park. and I bumped into the Quirkies again before we headed out. . .so I got to see the Victorian garb they had changed into. all in all, a great time was had yesterday. I'd recommend hitting SFFT soon. . while Octoberfest is still going on (to enjoy the food) and the Frightfest atmosphere. personally? I would not pay for the fear pass, and just stick to the two free houses, and ignore the other 5. . but hey, if you love jumpscares? it might be a good deal for you! regardless, recommended, as this park is always wonderful!

Quick Oktoberfest/Frightfest report from Saturday: Arrived around 2:00 to a comfortable crowd...lively but not crazy. Goals today were to ride Wicked Cyclone and Superman, have lunch, and check out the Oktoberfest offerings. Anything else would be a bonus. Pretty classic October weather with gray skies and temps in the low 50s. Didn't take too long to achieve my goals. Ate at JBs on arrival with absolutely no wait and the food was ready before we even got to our seats. Wicked Cyclone had a quick 10-15 minute wait for a fun backseat ride. Skyscreamer was a short line when I was up there so I hopped on that too. Wasn't windy enough to spin the seats around, but for some reason they slow the spinning down to almost a stop when the gondola gets to the top. It's almost an unnerving feeling because it makes it feel like it's about to go all Windseeker on you and break down in mid air, but then it speeds back up and starts to descend. Weird, but still fun and it's always bizarre spinning in reverse. Made our way down to Superman passing a long Thunderbolt line and Scream running one tower (it's only a Frightfest Saturday but ok...) and found a line inside the final canopy. In 10 quick minutes we were in the station with a two train wait for the back. Surprised to see the heat lamps in use but it allowed the ride to run pretty quick and still very smooth. Superman at SFA kind of beats you up on a few of the transitions but this thing is running as smooth as it was 23 years ago. Headed up to check out the Oktoberfest scene which was pretty busy but grabbed a pretzel and some beers and listened to the band that was playing for a while. It was a fun atmosphere and pretty well done by Six Flags standards. Also watched abysmal dispatch times at Joker, Riddler, and Batman and decided I was happy to skip those today. Around 6:00 we checked out a couple of the smaller Frightfest setups but the bigger crowds were streaming in and we hit the road around 6:30. Fun afternoon! Thundercow? This maze is a much better use of Goliath's plot than Goliath was. I always thought these banners are both a cool nod to the history of the park as well as a really awkward place to mark where the trash bins are in JB's. Either that or the park thinks their best restaurant is trash. Idk. I spy 6 coasters in this shot! Heatlamp the Ride I'm not sure if this bar is new or if I've been very non-observant the past few visits, but pretty cool little spot right under Superman. Will have to check it out next time I'm there! Prost! Guess I'll need to hop a flight to LA because there's no "Riddler's Revenge" in this park lol. Goodnight SFNE Premium one tram ops on a Saturday night.

Day 8: Sat, June 10th part 2 (of 2): Djurs Sommerland we headed over to "Vikingeland" section of the park, for the next coaster on our hitlist: Thor's Hammer - a Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster some nice ride theming here, but this was one of the sections where the operators were wearing kahkis (I was hoping for heavy fur vests. . LOL) Don't forget. . Thor died on the cross for you. . . or something. .what do I know? I'm Jewish | as mentioned. . great theming thruout the park. . . even if the trains scream "traveling carnival" (and you can catch the bottom half of an operator's Viking Khakis in this pic) a really fun bobsled tho. . with some of it over the water - and thru a house! in the lake there on the left, one can go around the island in either a canoe or a paddle boat. it was hilarious, because they apparently just put the people in them and let them go - regardless if they know how to paddle (or steer). there was a canoe with four little kids in it, stuck on this turn here for a good 15 minutes as we watched them panic and try to paddle with their hands to move (someone finally came along in a boat and helped them) a self operating "pulley" ride that are "poles with helmets on them". . that's ALL they are. get your minds out of the gutter! here's the station where you can get either a canoe or paddleboat. Didier and I sat on a bench and watched as brave folks decided they wanted to paddle the lake. no shade, but I think David paddled for all. . . it wasn't quite time for lunch yet, so we passed back thru DinosaurLand (where lunch was to be) hence another pic of the Disc-O (the park also has a decent sized waterpark area called "VandLand". . but I'm not sure if any of the folks on the trip went to the waterpark here) and back into Westernland. .the theming on the outside of the Bumper Cars building I didn't actually look at them to see if the cars themselves were themed to Buffalo or not.. .but thought it was rather cool that the kiddie version is in the same building as the adult version. not a Bumper Cars rider. . but a Pony Espressen? Yes please! whee! the park also has a wave swinger called "Wild West Carousel". . . I don't typically ride these, but this one ran forwards, and then backwards, which looked like a unique ride experience (and it was). oh, it also shoots water up at you to try and get you wet. heading back for lunch, some I was with wanted to ride the Disc-O. these always make me a bit nauseous, and I certainly didn't want that right before lunch. .so I passed. tho managed to get pics of them on it. Can you tell which pic is before they noticed me with the phone up, and which is after? Lunch was a PACKED Pizza buffet. I recall it had some really weird stuff on it - such as corn pizza ?? but it certainly wasn't the worst pizza I had, and I recall enjoying it. the table I saw with. at first I thought I had misfiled this, as I don't recall them having one of these (at all). . but I see the dino in the background, so it must still be at Djurs Sommerland, and I just don't remember. this style of ride seems to have gotten popular tho, as I saw it at many parks in Scandinavia on this trip. Universal Denmark? after eating way too much pizza (as you can probably tell from the belly in this pic), needed something calming. So I suggested we ride the train. it's not a full size train like you'd see in USA.. but similar to a lot of the trains in the parks I'd been to in Europe. a lovely route, and gave a great view of the park. Thor's Hammer Juvelen Piraten playground full of ways to injure oneself. . . more playgrounds and trampolines. all really full too! Jonathan and David were eager to try out the King of the Mountain and made it up easily. I watched. oh. .there was plenty to look at. . . . while they attempted to make a hospital visit in a foreign country. . . yeah. . getting up was easy. do you want me to call the fire department to get down now? all played out, we headed into the "kiddie" area, which did have some adult rides. we were ready to ride: Vilde Hønsejagt (the wild chicken hunt) - another Zierer family coaster with lots of chicken theming. . and a fox at the front of the train trying to eat said chicken (I think?) hey. . TPR folks here too! Howdy! Pic courtesy of Didier I believe this was absolutely adorable. . a frog hopper, but themed to pigs in slop. I didn't ride it, but I really wanted to just to say I did I DID ride the classic carousel type ride tho (of course). . with Big Mike and Jonathan and I can't recall if we rode the tractors or not, but I think we did ride a couple of things over here in this section. a wet/dry slide. . . for some reason called Speedy Gonzales. . .hmmmmm. . there was a band playing music, that some folks were hanging out listening to. and we headed over to the one big section of the park we hadn't been in yet: Piratland this was a kiddie flume ride, Piratefisken, but it looked like there were adults riding with their kids, so got in line to ask. gaaa. . . lots of photo ops where you can get bitten here and a great view of Skatteøen (Treasure Island), the park's Mack Water Coaster from the kiddie flume queue the "boats" (or more realistically, barrels) are tiny, but after bonding with the operator over ABBA (I caught him singing along to "gimme gimme gimme" and joined in with him), he said OF COURSE you can ride, and let us each take a barrel. Said operator. . in a section that is participating in "full immersive costume" he he even let me hold his sword (get your mind out of the gutter!!) for a pic and them offered to take a pic of those of us who were riding before sending us on our way. . . whee!!! (pic courtesy of Andy, I think?) no. . I'm not embarrassed at all. . this was a fun flume! and got me a bit wet too. they also have this really weird "Sword ride over here called Sablen (the Saber) that's kind of a drop ride, but it also sways back and forth kinda like a topple tower. regardless, we got on it and it kinda broke, and we got stuck on it for a good 15 minutes while it kept cycling over and over. . . . it was funny, and I'm glad it wasn't anything too extreme. they had to call maintenance to come get it to stop cycling. but yeah, when it finally stopped, I was ready to get off. after we got off. . but smiling happily before we started our ride. . . and then we headed over to Skatteøen a Skull! theming love this pic because it caught a bird in it. . . from the Skatteøen line, you can see Piraten cycling (that's the park's incredible Intamin Mega-Lite). . we had ERT on it after park close, so hadn't been over to that yet. Treasure Island theming in the station. an onride pic snapped by Big Mike as we left the station and the official onride pic, that I loved, so bought for the memory. I think we headed over to Piraten to get a ride on it (just in case. . ya never know what might happen before end of day). I don't remember doing that, but these pics seem to be from Piraten's queue line, so we must have. we still had an hour or so before the park closed, so we went back to hit things we still wanted to ride, or just to wander. i went back over to Wild Asia to grab some pics of DrageKongen and Tigeren. . . dang. . look at the height this thing gets to! sadly, the bread/smores place was out of packets, and so we weren't able to cook our own over the fire. but I got to sit on a horse and pretend I did! and then hit some souvenir shops for Magnets, and, of course, ice cream! while enjoying our ice cream towards the front of the park, we watched the kiddos play in the water play area up here. . . and I spotted the park Mascots, Karlo & Karoline. . . (and Karoline's pet duck Anden Palle (Second Pallet??)). . so of course got in line for a pic it was close to end of day for the park, so we made our way over to Piraten square. . . and discovered Soulken (the Soul?). . a pretty intense octopus flat. . so we took a spin on that - it was great! and in the shadow of Piraten one of the many reasons I love TPR trips. . the ERT. Look at this (lack of) line. . as they were cycling thru the remaining guests for us. ok. .I took this pic so I would remember where we were.. . see??? a reminder. . ok, ok. . maybe that wasn't the ONLY reason I wanted to remember. . . .. (hey, I'm single, and looking is just fine) after several wonderful rides on Piraten. . whee!!!! It was decided that it was time to play "Pass the Sword" !!! we did great, and didn't lose it even once. . . what a great time, everyone just had a blast on this coaster and then we all posed with the fantastic crew at Djurs Sommerland for ending on a great day with us! and with that, we said goodnight to Djurs Sommerland, and headed back to the hotel. what a fantastic day!

you are very welcome. . . I love this park, and always happy to share. and as for those online (and yes, there ARE several) who are loudly and vocally complaining it was a lot of hype for 3 "kiddie" rides? I say to them: 1- they aren't "kiddie" rides. . most of the rides in thrillseeker park were for older kids - they removed one of the two truly kiddie rides (Bucking Broncos) over to Iron Rattler. Leaving only one true kiddie ride (the speedway electric cars) over there. The rest of the rides? Adults and older teens always ride anyways and were welcome to. Kid Flash, and the 3 new rides, are FAMILY rides, not kiddie rides. 2 - if expecting a new coaster announcement? that's on them - the park got a giant Dive Coaster in 2022, and in 2023 is getting the family Kid Flash. 2025 is the 30th anniversary of the Boardwalk.. . . so at NEXT YEAR's FT92, I expect an announcement of a new coaster - by the boardwalk area. & 3 -