Linders

Our weather has been pretty stormy this week. I bet that is setting things back on getting it going. The lightning in these storms has been crazy.

I am too!!!! I saw the pix posted on TPR's FB page and shouted out a huge WOOHOO!! We are trying to find a way to run down to San Antonio before the kids go back to school and not having much luck with it.

Must be college and private schoolers.. All of the local ISD's start on the 26th, but either way, IRAT is open, and I am losing my mind hoping NTAG will open up before they go to weekend operations.

Man, gotta get back out there before school starts back up. My son really wants to ride it. Glad to hear it has reopened. I wonder what that means for us NTAG riders up here in DFW. Kinda bummed about the seatbelts. Gonna quench some of the airtime, but understand why they did..

Glad I checked my calendar! This week they have scaled down to 7pm closing all week and then next week 6pm. So heads up, it's still summer break but they are winding down, so don't go expecting to stay till 10! Or don' t do what we like to do, go later in day, like 3 or 4, to catch it as people are going home, and stay till 10pm. Guess we will wake up early and go tomorrow instead.

Figures they'd open it back up when they go back down to weekend operations, if the 6 week rumor holds true. Is there a link to the article saying investigations will go until February? 6 weeks seems more reasonable to me, but you never know. Going tomorrow with my boys. I could sure use some roller coaster therapy.

^ Agreed. I judge what the crowds gonna be like as I pull into the park by how many people are waiting to ride, as the line ques are very visible from the driveway. If I see a line, I sigh and say to the gang, "Dang, gonna be crowded today, Judge Roy has a line." I look forward to the day when my 11 yr old will ride without me. He's done it once with his brother.

Judge Roy's thrill is that its air time includes the whole train, not just your posterior. And not always in the same spots. I find myself looking at the wood and cable railing along the side wondering if the train decides to go rouge, will it keep us from flying away to glory and onto Six Flags Drive? Then my thoughts go to "ow ow ow, brace, ow ow ow, oh crap that hurt, ow ow ow ow!" I look at it this way, my son loves it, but won't ride it without me and the more he rides it the more he will get used to coasters and eventually he will build up the nerve to "go bigger" and we can move on to the good ones. It's an investment of sorts. I look forward to the day I enjoy NTAG and Titan with him, like I do my 9 yr old.

That's because you're a kid! LOL. Enjoy it while you can.

Dang. Which would explain the horrendous lines. Good grief. Wonder if it'll be worth our time to go this week. I am sure Freeze will be back up and running by then. I compare Judge Roy to a minute long car wreck. The line indicates the amount of people who enjoy getting their backs and brains bashed in for a solid minute. I commented to a ride opp, that was trying to get people excited to ride it (you know how they do for every ride). I sarcastically told him, oh ya, excited for my beating. He tried to give me the whole nostalgia, it's a classic song and dance. I said, it is torture and the only reason I am on it is because my 11 yr old begged me to ride with him because this is the biggest coaster that is open that he will ride. Last time, even he was complaining about it hurting. It's sad, because it is a good starter coaster. It was my favorite for a number of years until I build up the nerve to ride and graduate to bigger and better coasters (back then, just the Shock Wave). I never remember it being that rough. For future reference, I found sitting in "brace position" helps.

^^ Cool beans. We've never been to FF. This is the first year since in almost 25 years (I was 15 or 16) that I have had a season pass. Back in the 80's and early 90's I don't remember them having FF. If they did I didn't know about it. I am wanting to go this year. I hear zombies come ride with you and stuff. Awesome! Even with the ride issues this year, I plan on getting passes again for my family. It was $300 well spent, and we got every penny and then some out of them!! I hope they offer some good incentives for next year like they did for this year. The free gold upgrade was fantastic! The free parking for the $20 a pop to park has stretched that $300 even further!

^^ Smart move changing it from Saturday to a Monday. You will stand a better chance of a light crowd. Although, a friend of mine went on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised to find it not so busy. If you can take the heat, I'd hit it before our cold front comes in and draws all of the folks staying in or at the water park over b/c of the high temps. We are going on Wednesday. Going to get in all we can before they start shutting it down early and then school starts. Anybody know if they have the Gotham coaster shut down for Fright Fest? For some reason they close them down every HIP. Going to miss the Freeze!!

No telling what they will do, especially given recent events. It would be awesome to go and actually be able to ride ALL of their coasters because they were actually all open and fully functioning. But that might be asking too much. One time I went and 5 different times, I got up to the ride and they had to shut it down for this that or other. One time on Titan, we all actually sat down and pulled the lap bars down only to have them turn around and pop 'em all open for a malfunction. That was Titan's 2nd shutdown of the day. NTAG, Freeze, and the Cave ride (of all things) all joined in the malfunction party that day. It was crazy. Of course Shockwave was down, too. I asked one of the ride ops if their maintenance guys went on strike or something, and they said they always act up mid-season. Okey dokey! I am suspicious of the fenced off area where Flashback once resided. Crossing my fingers for a good coaster.

LOL, I know that's right!

Oh, and so you know, they close at 6 all week that week.

Sigh... No..

We didn't go this week, but last week we went and it was very quiet around there. We went on Wednesday and Thursday and the crowds were light. With the temps being so hot, people must be hitting Hurricane Harbor. We are going again next week. Hope it will be a light crowd. Of course, season pass holder coupons will be active that week. That drives me crazy that they put all of these date restrictions on the coupons. Oh well. Good luck!

^^ Yes, it was! It's all blocked off there now. It's kind of hard to picture in my mind how it used to be because Flashback is gone, and they have it all fenced off. But I'd swear to you that I didn't have to cut through that stair case that is, next to that theater to get to Judge Roy. It has been so long. It's been over 20 years and I have grown up, had kids, and went a full decade not going to Six Flags. It would be cool to see an old map. My first time there was in 1979, and I was 5. All I remember was riding the boat and walking down a walkway with my parents and cable cars going overhead. Oh, and the old Cave Ride. Like I said I hope they put something real cool in place of Flashback!

My husband and I were sitting at the table talking about the rides we liked to ride at SFOT that are no longer there with our kids. We got on the subject because we were wondering what they are putting in over in the area where Flashback was and the old bumper cars. Clearly something is in the works over there. They didn't need much space for TSS. No more than they needed for the Chute Out. That area used to be home to a couple of our favorite ground rides as kids. Who remembers "Roto-Disco?" It was right next to the bumper cars, another favorite. Another thing we were trying to remember is what used to be over at the Gotham area. I know the train depot that is currently over by there is not the original place for that station. I can remember sitting in the waiting area in that section watching them build the Texas Giant in the distance with my jaw to the ground. They only had the lift hill up and another really tall hill. I knew it was gonna be crazy awesome. Anyway, my husband said he saw sections of concrete with bolts coming out of them back there behind the fenced off area by TSS. I told him they were probably the footers from Flashback, but he said they looked like fresh concrete. It would be neat to see another coaster come in and replace the funky one they had there. Something bigger, better, faster, and a quicker moving line. Flashback was one of those we rode just because it was there and only when the line was short. Otherwise, we just walked past it. It took too long to get through the line.

Our visit wasn't photo worthy. Poor operations, bad attitudes, and just overall not a good visit. Rides opening late and closing early without warning. Operations, food service, and park services staff that just seemed completely indifferent about their jobs. At 9pm we played the "find an open restaurant" game so we could use the meal vouchers that we pre-paid for, and all of them were closed. It's sad because IMO, Six Flags Over Texas used to be one of the best parks in the chain, if not THE best! And yesterday, I witnessed some of the worst operations I've seen at any park. And I've been to China! On the plus side, the park did manage to get us a couple of early morning rides on Mr. Freeze, but even getting those wasn't without a struggle. --Robb We were there that day, too. Experienced some cruddy attitudes. Especially from some guy standing guard at the bottom of the steps at Titan. Apparently the power went to his head. Given all you've said in their defense with the accident, and re-assuring people on national tv, the safety of amusement parks you would think they would have some sense of gratitude towards you being there. At least Fiesta Texas rolled out the red carpet for you all. We went down there a couple of weeks ago and watched that show. It was so neat. I kept thinking, our home park should do stuff like this. That's too bad. They seem to be cutting corners at every angle on costs.

Random goofiness. I'm taking my boys to SFOT for the first time since the NTAG accident. I was really really worn out, exhausted and tired when I went to bed last night. Knowing I was going today, coupled with my complete exhaustion must have influenced some crazy dreams. In one dream we were at Six Flags heading over to Titan and I noticed the Giant was open. WOOHOO! So, we bolted over to the line and got on. It was SLOOOOOOOWWW! What the heck? So, in my crazy wacked out dream, their "fix" was to slow it down and it was no longer fun. LOL. Wow. Glad that was a dream. Gonna go have some fun without the Giant today. I'll ride the Titan and Freeze a couple of extra times to try and make up for it. Weeeee!!

The park is probably emptier than usual because people are across the street cooling off at Hurricane Harbor. They did offer some sweet combo pass deals and this is Texas, in the last week of July. I bet it will be like this for awhile. If NTAG opens up soon, it'll pick up again for a little while. Although, there will be a lot of people afraid to get on now, so lines might consist of die hards, at first till some time passes without an instance and people forget. And not to sound rude, and I am sure several larger folks will be a little gun-shy of getting on, too. Understandably so. It'll be interesting to see how they push the ride's opening, to convince people it is safe to ride, while not disrespecting Mrs. Esparza's family. I, for one will be there with my gang this week. And if it's true about the lighter crowd, we will enjoy the short lines! We didn't get combo passes because my kids aren't real confident in the water, so it would have been a waste of money. We prefer Six Flags.

Don't forget Mr. Freeze!!

You don't know how happy I was when I learned that it won't be dismantled and sold. It's been a long time favorite of mine, since back in the 80's. I worried that it would go bye-bye as it isn't the most popular ride anymore. You can usually slide on in less than 30 min on a busy day, now. Back when I was a teenager, it and Judge Roy were the big deal in Six Flags Coasters until Texas Giant came out. They didn't have the Go-Karts there, those were Shock Wave ques and they were full on a semi-busy day. It was always the first ride we tackled when they opened the flood-gates at 10am. I wonder if they are gonna do anything with Judge Roy. It isn't even fun anymore. It is a beating. It's like someone grabbed my shoulders and slammed me against a brick wall repeatedly for a solid minute. You only see kids and some brave parents on it anymore. I liked it when I was a kid and it didn't hurt. Would be nice to see them do some track or train repair on it. I get air time on it, but it isn't in my seat, it is train air time. I wouldn't mind if RMC gave it a little touch or two, but that's wishful thinking.

^ And I have seen that first hand. Sigh.. Something I noticed is SFFT doesn't care if you are barefoot or not on that ride. There are flip flops all over the place on the platform for that ride and Superman Krypton Coaster. I have seen riders hand their shoes to the platform attendant from their seats! Batman just isn't worth the long wait in the heat to me. It's a cool ride and all, but I liken its line worthiness to Runaway Mountain. It's an alright ride and all, but not worth more than a 20-30 min wait, especially when it is 100 degrees outside. At least Runaway Mountain is air conditioned once you get in. I won't get in line for that one until it is in the door. By that point it isn't a long wait.