Photo TR: Six Flags o Texas

[chadster]

So today I made my way back to SFOT. The day started out cloudy, cold, and crappy, good for me. The park started off empty, got a regular flash pass for $26 which made for unlimited re-rides, wait time less than 1 minute even with regular line wait times of 15 to 20 minutes, sweet!! I did see a few of the gravy buffet making their way up the exit ramp of Batman, suppose their ERT got rained out as Saturday rained off and on all day.

 

Be sure to cast your answer in the quiz, the answer can be found somewhere in my report

Welcome to the parking lot at SFOT. Here, we have this Intamin contraption, and just prior to park opening, it's not testing...

and here we have Titan, still looking good after it's off season paint job

hmmmm, i wonder which one I would choose, duh!!!

Noted!! Lockers are a must at these rides!

Ok, enough screwing around on the outside, time to get to the good stuff

first stop, the entrance water feature, then a sharp left to the flash pass pick up area, $26 with discount, perfect on days like today. The pass allowed me to ride over and over, no waiting, not even one train, instant on on ALL rides, yes!

WBAT is broadcasting on HD radio

walking through spain and past the dancing hat. The sombraro has a really weak ride program, not worth the wait or the 60 second ride, moving on.

Titan please.

68 degrees, and cloudy, but if you forgot to take a shower, here you go.

Mrs. Fields is waiting on you

i don't want to go to any of those

wonder if that's open, we'll find out in a bit

Titan please, moving on.

and a classic TG pic

nerd shot

lift hill, storage tracks still have old rails, but the tfer track is in place, looked for the trains, but only found the old red and blue trains rotting beside Titan (could only see from Titan), sad, they aren't even covered up.

enough of the giant for now, on to Titan, and my instant re-rides!

2 trains today #1 is resting.

weeeeeeee

look!!! wheel wetters!!! Titan was running the best it has all year IMO

my QBOT was having issues, not to worry, instantly fixed by the flash pass peeps, apparently they had several acting a fool today, I just showed it at the line and they let me on until I was able to get a replacement

looney toons, passing today

wants some candy little boy?

apparently wrapping the trains and stairs aren't good enough, now we are wrapping the walkways

water rides opened today at noon, smart move on their part.

pocket rocket

aquaman says....

not an accepetable amount of wetness

so on my way to 8 rides on Batman, we stopped off at Tony Hawk

spinning

and spinning

and finally, spinning

what does 26 dollars get you, past all this in less than 1 minute.

chuteout was closed

well....

i must be hungry

depending on which way you swing, could be better than the glory hole

speaking of swings

and then we have this flat ride, and behind it, the boomer thats closed for the season, I'm heart broken, seriously, I cried a bit

time to make our way into gotham city

yeah!!! B&M goodness

as soon as I find my way to the FP entrance, I will be on that ^

so off we go on our journey to the FP entrance

noted! your crap may be missing after two hours, your dollar only goes so far these days!

this way to batman

on the way in we see Mr Freeze

and there is Mr. Feeze

moving on

still moving

crap under batman, still moving, and getting tired.

moving some more

more moving

the bat mobile is on the left covered by the grey tarp

whewwww, finally made it!! 8 rides, running very well! Hope they keep it open during the Holidays this year.

after me bot was scanned, I signed up for Mr Feeze, one minute wait, only one side running before noon

Mr. Freeze says...

see ya

later!

if you chose answer 1 you are wrong, S&S drop tower, running both up and down shots today, ride op said they just turned the down shot back on recently. (Its turned off due to over heating)

bam!

average banana with pubes

well endowed banana with pubes

say it isn't so, they are wrapping the derek!

of course

shockwave only running one train

and it's not on the FP

so with this line, I skipped it, still a good ride tho, just not worth a 30 minute wait

hmmm

hmmmm

they got my hopes up and then bang. It was even listed on the FP as closed, but it's "available today"

i like that shot

if you chose answer # 2, your wrong.

yes please, the intamin thingy is open

roughness today, but didn't wait at all, got right in the next pod

noted

a little bit of Spain in Texas

is this SF's equiv of the unemployment office?

wow, they are still calling this a wooden coaster

ride up time lap counter on the right and count down to launch clock on the left, considering this was my second visit to this area of the park today, that's not a good sign.

more wheel wetters!!! (i know, its a little hard to see but its those grey bars on either side of where the train is coming in) I305 isn't so different afterall!

so as we leave we have a treat

track!

don't know if that's all of what's left to be put in or not , but it could be dependant on where the rest of it might be sitting

ok, so here is a picture of Titan coming down the hill.

 

So I know you are dying to know what the correct answer is, and while it could be #4, it's #3. SFOT has no Ferris Wheel.

Edited September 28, 2010 by chadster

[larrygator]

Good to know that Six Flags new management did not learn from old management regarding Season Pass pricing.

[CD]

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out why the play pass would be appealing to anyone? Do you have to buy 4 or more season passes to get the $59 price as well as the free parking? That's pretty lame if you do...

[chadster]

^ you can buy one for 59.00, or, if you are "out of area" you can buy for 54.00 (depending on your zip code) To get the free parking tho, you have to buy 4.

 

**EDIT** I was mistaken, you must by four to get that price, 54.00 is still offered for out of area

 

$54.99 Play Pass

Season Passes

$59.99 each when you buy 4

$69.99 Individual Pass

$99.99 Combo Pass

 

in other words, this time last year the passes were 49.00 for play, 59 for season passes, no min qty required for the 59.00 pricing, this year, they rasied the cost of the play pass 5.00 and the SP by 10.00, but here's the best part, as a funatics member and visitng SF's at least 5 times, you get a 20% discount, do the math.

Edited September 27, 2010 by chadster

[chadster]

Good to know that Six Flags new management did not learn from old management regarding Season Pass pricing.

 

isn't that the truth.

[RandallDuell]

I'm unclear, did you buy and use a flashpass?

 

SFOT looks like a nice park, although nothing can quite compare (at least visually) with it's sister park in San Antonio. Incredibly scenic place!

[CoasterPete]

Can anyone enlighten me on what the wheel wetters are and they're purpose on Titan? I've never seen or heard of these before. Thanks!

 

Pete

[chadster]

@ Randall - Yes, I paid 26 bucks for the flashpass, while it probably wasn't needed, since I only planned on staying a few hours, it was well worth it for the near automatic re-rides

 

@Pete - word on the street is that watering down the wheels after a run helps to cool them off to prevent failures. Basically in this case, the train hits a sensor on the break run which triggers a valve that turns on the misters until the train passes. It gets pretty darn hot in Texas, combine that with the heat the wheels will generate by normal friction/operation and you have a reciepe for de-lamination, cracking, etc., prematurely ending their life. I305 uses them as well for similar reasons. Its my understanding that the wheels got extremely hot after it's high speed intense runs and they were replacing them quite often, cooling them down after a run helped to curtail the issue.

[samisthabomb]

Actually, Six Flags Over Texas DOES have a Ferris Wheel. A tiny one at that, but it counts.

[chadster]

I'm sorry but kiddie rides don't count in my book, maybe something you can still ride tho

[Funky Cold Medina]

I'm almost the same age and I can't ride them!

 

Denied credits FTL

[samisthabomb]

Yeah, it would be nice to see SFOT get a full-sized ferris wheel. However, the observation tower makes up for it IMO.

[BrandonR]

Back when I operated Titan we had an ongoing issues of the wheels melting, especially in the summer. Looking back it was probably closer to delamination of the polyurethane or whatever material they were made of, but it was a pretty big problem. You could always tell when one of the wheels was messing up because the train would sound several times louder, like a jet fighter flying overhead, when it went through the first helix.

 

I want to say we had the wheel misters installed then but I'm not sure. I think they eventually found a better wheel material that could better handle 85 mph speeds and 110+-degree weather.

[chadster]

Excellent information, thanks!

[bellhop96]

I really enjoyed viewing this report. These Six Flags parks look fantastic. I live in Scotland,UK and have never been to any Six Flags. It's posts like this that really put Theme Park Review ahead of Coasterforce and Kingdom!

 

P.S. I loved the captions!

[chadster]

Thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it! One of these days I am going to make it that direction, until then, I'm like you, I can only look at the reports, and it just makes me want to travel more! Maybe next year you can come over and ride the new Texas Giant, it looks amazing!

[Rochester26]

Cool pictures!

 

I would really like to get to this park at some point. I'm especially interested in trying Titan, Shockwave, Mr. Freeze, and the new Texas Giant when it's opened!

[chadster]

Thanks! Titan has it's strong points, I feel more G's in the center of the train than anywhere else and rather prefer sitting there vs the front anyday. Shockwave has some surprising air time and forces in the loops, a quality ride still today. Mr Freeze is equally awesome, especially soaring the sky and getting pushed up a few feet, you get the feeling like you might go off the track, the front is money on this ride, and don't forget, they have a dark coaster too!