Six Flags Fiesta Texas (SFFT) Discussion Thread

[bert425]

20 minutes ago, Nrthwnd said:

If all of that artwork above, IS what the lighting package would/should/could look like?...... o ...... m .....g.

 

from Skyline Attractions on YouTube:
 

 

[teacherkim]

8 hours ago, grsupercity said:

Should be great additions to the park. I still feel like six flags st louis was the most in need of a kiddie coaster though 

I'm happy for the Texas folks but yeah that would be nice for St Louis. Sigh. Could easily fit in our stupid derelict paintball field.

[coasterbill]

20 hours ago, grsupercity said:

Should be great additions to the park. I still feel like six flags st louis was the most in need of a kiddie coaster though 

If they got this, they would still be in need of a functioning kiddy coaster.

[Vital808]

Hey everyone... a friend and I will randomly be in San Antonio for work at the end of the month and looking to try and hit up SFFT on Sat 1/28.... just wondering if any of the locals can fill me in on what to expect as far as crowds in Jan and if there are any major ride closures? Biggest priority is Iron Rattler so hopefully that's back on 2 trains at this point? 

[bert425]

it was SUPPOSED to be back to two trains, but haven't been back yet this year (will be there Sat).

you're hitting the park on a Saturday, in the middle of the Mardi Gras festival. . . so yeah, you can expect it will be pretty crowded.

i think the only thing that's supposed to be down for maintenance (ie: big ride) is Wonder Woman.  That is closed the 1st half of 2023, as they do some upgrades, and refurbs.

So go in expecting that there will be lines, and you might need to buy flash pass.   Or at the very least make use of avail. single rider lines (on several of the big coasters).

best time to ride things is going to be during the Parade - but I'd recommend watching the parade, as SFFT has a good one.

** if you can wait to go until Sunday?   the park tends to be really empty on Sundays up until ~2pm (Texans love their Church on Sunday). . that's a better day to go.
I noted I'm going Saturday, but I'm going with someone who won't really ride anything "big". .so we're just gonna enjoy the shows and the food, walk around, and ride the smaller stuff like the Carousel or Pirates of Deep Sea.


and SWSA is less than 10 minutes away, and also will be doing Mardi Gras (tho their coasters, other than Wavebreaker will all be either walk on or short waits).

[Vital808]

4 hours ago, bert425 said:

it was SUPPOSED to be back to two trains, but haven't been back yet this year (will be there Sat).

you're hitting the park on a Saturday, in the middle of the Mardi Gras festival. . . so yeah, you can expect it will be pretty crowded.

i think the only thing that's supposed to be down for maintenance (ie: big ride) is Wonder Woman.  That is closed the 1st half of 2023, as they do some upgrades, and refurbs.

So go in expecting that there will be lines, and you might need to buy flash pass.   Or at the very least make use of avail. single rider lines (on several of the big coasters).

best time to ride things is going to be during the Parade - but I'd recommend watching the parade, as SFFT has a good one.

** if you can wait to go until Sunday?   the park tends to be really empty on Sundays up until ~2pm (Texans love their Church on Sunday). . that's a better day to go.
I noted I'm going Saturday, but I'm going with someone who won't really ride anything "big". .so we're just gonna enjoy the shows and the food, walk around, and ride the smaller stuff like the Carousel or Pirates of Deep Sea.


and SWSA is less than 10 minutes away, and also will be doing Mardi Gras (tho their coasters, other than Wavebreaker will all be either walk on or short waits).

Thanks for the heads up! Bummed about WW since I've never gotten to do an RMC single rail but oh well..... I can head up to SFMM when/if they get their act together. Definitely planning on getting the FL platinum at SFFT. Unfortunately my flight back is Sunday morning so Saturday is the only option. Thanks again! 

[bert425]

On 1/11/2023 at 4:42 PM, Vital808 said:

Thanks for the heads up! Bummed about WW since I've never gotten to do an RMC single rail but oh well..... I can head up to SFMM when/if they get their act together. Definitely planning on getting the FL platinum at SFFT. Unfortunately my flight back is Sunday morning so Saturday is the only option. Thanks again! 

was at the park today for 1st day of Mardi Gras Celebration. . . so will try to get something up tomorrow w/ pics.

quick notes tho: 
- the new float - giant Crocodile - is amazing!
- the new Crawfish Nachos are a huge winner. . . loved them.

- Iron Rattler is STILL running just one train.  brutal waits.  yeah, get flash pass, or make use of single rider.
(apparently 2nd train IS on site, but is being utilized for backup parts until 3rd train arrives, at which point two will be back on the tracks)

- Wonder Woman was open and running (tho only 2 trains). . so it looks like the train upgrades there are going to be while the coaster is still open?   at least for the moment.   
(since only 8 seats on each train, 2 trains is still only 16 seats. . so again, yeah, get Flash Pass).

 

Bugs Whitewater Rapids is now down for major refurb, and per signage out front, will not be open during your Jan. visit.
(and will note, Gully Washer will still be closed as well, as they await a pump replacement from overseas). . both water rides, so likely a "dont care" for a Jan visit. .but just mentioning.

[tndank]

Since Universal's announcement OT and Fiesta have knocked $100 off the diamond pass for all parks. 

[bert425]

Not a "full" report, since I'm at the park so often. . but here's a bunch of pics from yesterday, opening day of the Mardi Gras festival.

showing off some of the decorations, the drinks, the food, and the Parade.



tons of photo ops thruout the park

but the drinks are KILLER.

we went for the Fishbowl. . .two types of Rum, Blue Curaco, sprite, pineapple juice, and cherries (instead of the swedish fish. . because. . ewwwww)

 

so good.. and we had a LOT of them.

 

nightmare fuel!

the Looney Tunes were out in the Mardi Gras regalia. . including Babs

Sylvester

Daffy

and more. .but those were the only ones I wanted pics with. . we were hungry and ready to hit the food stands (and get more Fishbowls)

 

this is the Crawfish Nachos - they were so good.   To be honest, the chips could have been a little fresher tasting, but the topping?  oh my. . everyone in my group got em and all of us loved them.

no pics of the Boudain Balls. .as those got eaten before pic could be taken. . but nice and juicy, with a spicy kick.

the Cajun Hushpuppies, with bits of Sausage cooked inside.   Some of this batch were a little overdone, but still were good (and hey, it's the first day, they'll get the cooking times consistent quickly)

we ate while the very good Jazz band performed in front of Rockville high.

we also went thru Houngan's House of Voodoo (a free haunt, that is a permanent one on site, so the effects/props are VERY good).  No pics allowed in there, so no pics, but absolutely worth a walk thru (or two) if you're in the park.

LOL. . we drank so many fishbowls, the stand ran out of the cups, and had to start serving in the Hurricane Glasses (hey, there were 5 of us, and we had 4-5 each. . LOL)

and um.. . .yeah, they are strong.  (free pour, so tip your server at the stand!    )

once we were all sufficiently full, fat, and happy? we headed over to the Carousel for a ride.   But no trip to Fiesta (for me) is complete unless we stop in and say hello to "Sweet, Sweet, Connie" who's always at her post outside the ladies restroom in Sangerfest Halle.

we headed around to get a ride on Cliffhanger as the parade was starting from the other end of the park (a walk on. . so yeah, hit the rides in CrackAxle right around parade time), and then walked around to the back entrance to Diamond Lil's - which is where the parade pretty much ends.

you can get a GREAT view of the floats, and get TONS of beads, as they toss them by the armful to those at the end of the route (tho if you want pins, clappers, duckies, or anything other than beads?  catch the parade towards the start of it, as those go quickly from the floats)

here comes the parade!

 

wasn't SUPER busy today - 1st day - but usually this double decker float has people packed on both levels.   

I suspect future parades will get these "free to ride, but you have to sign up" slots in the floats completely full.

 

(don't mind the promotions folks squatting in some of the pics. . . I tried to use pics without them (as Jorge's butt ended up in a lot of my pics.  LOL). . but I understand completely, it's the first parade of the season, and they wanted to capture as many promo pics as they could!   so they're in some of my pics too).

 

ah. . THERE's Jorge on the right

blurry, and I got ride of several blurry ones, but I love this float, so wanted to include.

the "hick" characters that march in front of the newest float. . an amazing Alligator (or is it a crocodile)

they were fun. . and I got "forked" 

such an incredible float. . .

and ending with King and Queen.

from where we watched, we just walked back to CrackAxle and hopped in the line for Iron Rattler, as the parade ended ~20 minutes before Park Close.

 

overall, we were in park for about 6 1/2 hours, and rode 3 things (Iron Rattler, Dr. D's Cliffhanger, and the Carousel), but also walked the park, did the Voodoo house twice, drank (a lot), ate (a lot) and listened to some music.  

all in all?  a really fun day.

[bert425]

5 hours ago, tndank said:

Since Universal's announcement OT and Fiesta have knocked $100 of the diamond pass for all parks. 

I asked Park President Jeffrey Siebert if "upgrade" options are going to be offered for those of us with current passes who might want to upgrade to all parks passes.

his response?

 

[Skysthelimit]

^ Love the pictures! Glad you had fun. My partner and I don’t drink anymore so living vicariously through you with hurricanes. I thought only SeaWorld Orlando and SFOG free poured the hell out of their drinks of all the parks we’ve day drank at over the years. 
 

Anyway, we were at SeaWorld San Antonio yesterday and SFFT today. Flights from Orlando were cheap which is rare so we used our miles and took advantage of the long weekend. 
 

We visited the park for 2 full days in 2018 and were stoked to be back. I’m not an expert like Bert so I’ll keep it brief, just as an outsiders opinion. Keep in mind in my advanced years I have some weird quirks when it comes to park preferences:

- I could sit and people watch at this place all day. It’s so pleasant and the gorgeous weather made it even better. 
- We both agreed that the whole Dr. Diabolical “experience” was something that a coaster enthusiast would design if they had a chance and the presentation is stunning. Operations were great. It was weird to only have a retractable floor on the front row and the lift was speedy. It pains me to say it, but the ride itself is the 5th in the park, behind IRAT, WW, Superman, and Poltergeist. Even with a full train, the rattling takes a way from the experience a bit. 

- For some reason, I thought WW was closed. We were pleasantly surprised to see it running. We agreed it wasn’t rough and really enjoyed it. I think I appreciated it more on this visit. Just so unique and powerful. 
- Random notes: Less busy than expected. We bought Flash Pass because of the RMCs. Loved the Pride merchandise staying around. The merchandise in general was also much better than the other SF parks. The lunch we had at the cafeteria had impressive operations but terrible quality. The Pirate themed Sally Ride (forget the name) and FREE haunted house (“ “) were both spectacular for a regional park and rounded out the experience. 
 

 Until next time! 

[bert425]

^ the Pirate Dark Ride is called "Pirates of the Deep Sea". .and it's only a Sally Ride in technicality, since they kept the ride system in place.

but otherwise, it's completely inhouse built!   They gutted the Sally Scooby Doo shooter, and built up everything at the park!   It's the first ride the park built with the impressive queue (since way back when the park had a Joker coaster where Pandemonium is now and you went in thru a funhouse). 

the park went on from there to do the super impressive Fun House in front of Joker, the heavily themed DareDevil Dive queue, the incredible re-do for Poltergeist's queue, and the brand new detailed Dr. Diabolical Queue.    So yeah, that's all thanks to Jeffrey Siebert and the in house Fiesta Texas team.

[Skysthelimit]

Awesome tidbits, thanks! 

[appel]

We might be heading down to Fiesta in mid May. 

Does anyone have any info if they plan to close down Wonder Woman to do the train and operational system upgrade? 

Would be a bummer to miss out Wonder Woman... 

Thanks, Boris. 

[bert425]

SFFT 2006 - pic from the top of the Scream drop tower, via disposable camera.


 

caught Der Twister (the old Top Spin) cycling in this one:

 

and me

[bert425]

At Winterfest today, Jeffery *did* announce that they will be shutting Wonder Woman down "in the back half of this year" for retracking, and new trains installations.

so it WILL be down, but not until later in the year.

Bugs Whitewater is currently down for Refurb, but should be back up in the next month or so.

[CedarFlags]

Retracking?  That's unusual.  

[bert425]

he might have used the term "Re-profiling". . not sure.

but remember, WW was the 1st of it's kind - a prototype. . so RMC/SFFT have said they want to use what has been learned since to bring WW: Golden Lasso up to match the ride experience of Jersey Devil & MM's Wonder Woman coaster.

[bert425]

y'all. . dunno if this applies to other SF parks or not (didn't check). . but SFFT just went live today online with a HUGE Spring Break sale:

buy a Platinum Pass, on sale for $89, and get a free upgrade to Diamond (that's the all parks with parking included pass).

 

kinda sucks that I just paid almost that much to upgrade to Diamond a couple of weeks ago ($60). . but a GREAT deal if you don't have a season pass yet.

 

[Arthur_Seaton]

^ Yeah, I saw that and will likely grab one. Kind of a trip to see them go from such significant price jumps back down to almost the regular annual membership price. I think I've been paying something like $80 for all-park access for years now. This would have been the first year in quite some time that I didn't buy a pass (both SFFT and SFMM are "home" parks these days) because of an in-park processing screw up. 

[coasterbill]

On 1/25/2023 at 10:31 AM, bert425 said:

so RMC/SFFT have said they want to use what has been learned since to bring WW: Golden Lasso up to match the ride experience of Jersey Devil & MM's Wonder Woman coaster.

lol... yikes.

[Arthur_Seaton]

Drove down this morning to process my 2023 pass. I'm still not sure what pass I now have or have upgraded to, but I know it gets me into multiple parks, and that's all I care about. I think there are some other perks, and the ticket processor told me to grab some souvenir cup, but I've no need for something like that. I'd originally purchased a 2023 pass back around labor day, but SFFT absolutely snarfed the processing and cancelled the whole thing. I was going to sit the year out as the result, but this sale made the price only $10 or so more than normal.

Anyhow, the park was absolutely dead, so I was in and out in an hour or so. Two rides on WW (I thought they were closing this for rehab or something? It's still rattly and rough, but they seem to have ironed out that gnarly pothole by the camera section). Two solo rides on Superman (business as usual). One on iRat (single train with part of the train roped off it seems). Two on the new drop coaster (felt less bumpy as well, as though somebody took an iron to that track, too). Two on Poltergeist (business as usual). It seemed like everything else was up and running except for the flume ride, but I haven't seen that thing running in quite some time.

[bert425]

^ was there yesterday (might put some pics up eventually). . but grab that souvenir cup from Member Services.  

 

(it's that red "Member" tumbler you see many people carrying.).

Gets you free drinks (Soda/Powerade/water) all season at any fountain service or self service place.

I use mine mainly for water or Powerade.

[bert425]

40 minutes ago, Arthur_Seaton said:

Anyhow, the park was absolutely dead, so I was in and out in an hour or so. Two rides on WW (I thought they were closing this for rehab or something? It's still rattly and rough, but they seem to have ironed out that gnarly pothole by the camera section). Two solo rides on Superman (business as usual). One on iRat (single train with part of the train roped off it seems). Two on the new drop coaster (felt less bumpy as well, as though somebody took an iron to that track, too). Two on Poltergeist (business as usual). It seemed like everything else was up and running except for the flume ride, but I haven't seen that thing running in quite some time.

 

direct from Park President's mouth yesterday (was there for Feliz Fiesta event):

-- WW will be going down for track refurb later this summer.  
Two train ops as the 3rd train is currently in pieces (I have pics of it from "backstage" yesterday) , and they WILL have a brand new train coming to go along with the refurbed track.

 

-- Iron Rattler is still one train ops, because the Pnematic safety lock parts they were waiting on from Gerstlaur (back ordered for almost a year at this point) actually arrived earlier this week.   (have pics of those too).  The 2nd train WILL be back on the ride by next weekend, bringing it back up to full ops for Spring Break.     3rd train also arrived (have pics of that too). . but that one is now waiting for the same safety lock parts before they can have that ready for use on the ride.

-- Cliffhanger is running two trains as it was having TONS of issues yesterday due to an issue with a part at the 2nd brake - it was triggering estops with three trains running, so they took the 3rd train off (that's' why it was only running two trains today, with the 3rd on the transfer track).   Jeffrey said they have the replacement part at the park to get it fixed but as that will take a few hours to fix, they are going to do it during the closed days this coming week, so this too will be back up to full 3 train ops by next weekend.

 

-- Bugs has been undergoing refurb the past few weeks.   They have put all the refurbed figures back onto the ride, but have not reopened it yet.    That too should be open by Spring Break.

meaning the only rides that will be down for a while still are:   Gully Washer (they are still waiting for that replacement pump, but hopefully it will be back up by Summer), Miss Kitty (refurb almost done, but they are not quite ready to get the train back up and running yet)

&

Boomerang. . .going down for refurb very soon.    (ie: by the end of March).  
Per Jeffrey, SFFT's Boomerang is the most ridden one in the Six Flags Chain.   
the Refurb will switch the ride to Magnetic Breaking System, and the park will be getting TWO new trains for it, featuring the Vekoma Chest Restraint system (comfort collars ?).   They are getting two, so they can always have a train for the ride, when they need to refurb the other train (same reasoning for the 3rd Iron Rattler train) since SFFT is a year round park.

 

oh, and the cameras are down/GONE on all rides, as they are in the process of switching to a new Photopass vendor.  but again, supposed to be back and operating by Summer.

hope that info helps

 

 

[Arthur_Seaton]

1 hour ago, bert425 said:

Boomerang. . .going down for refurb very soon.    (ie: by the end of March).  
Per Jeffrey, SFFT's Boomerang is the most ridden one in the Six Flags Chain.   
the Refurb will switch the ride to Magnetic Breaking System, and the park will be getting TWO new trains for it, featuring the Vekoma Chest Restraint system (comfort collars ?).   They are getting two, so they can always have a train for the ride, when they need to refurb the other train (same reasoning for the 3rd Iron Rattler train) since SFFT is a year round park.

Boomerang is well positioned in the park and looks great in that entry plaza. That said, they can add as many comfort collars as they like — I'm still not riding it! I think I tried some "improved" Boomerang at Hershey or something. It was still very much a boomerang, IMO.