SFOT Photo Trip Report - Flashback Edition

[Imagineer22]

This is my day at Six Flags Over Texas, Flashback edition because 1: It has been over 3 years since I have been to a theme park, 2: Six Flags has put a lot of photos of their own heritage in the park and 3: there are a lot of photos of Flashback (you have been warned!).

 

With the loss of my job in 2009 and the birth of my first daughter 2010 I went from being the crazy theme park travel guy to just crazy watch youtube videos of coaster guy. Money for food somehow became more important than coasters?? Who knew? Anyways, I was selected to participate in the commercial shoot for Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast a few weeks ago and got a free ticket to the park for participating. With beautiful weather, local kids still in school and a five day weekend I decided to take the opportunity and make a solo trip to my home park of 20+ years. I haven't been to the park in over 5 years so this was a little bit of a home coming for me with a lot of Flashbacks to visits past, present and future.

 

A short review of the park:

The park was in really good condition. Nice landscaping and clean paths. Lots of school groups with well behaved kids, no line jumping!

 

NTG is as crazy and insane as everyone says it is! I rode 4 times and each ride just got better and more insane. The mist was on full blast in the tunnels causing the train to come back wet. The little hill before the mid-course breaks is the best thing ever created! It felt like I was going to fly out of the train no matter where I sat. The only down side to NTG was at the end of the day. I got off the 3rd to last train of the day. There were only a hand full of riders left in the que so the next train would be the last one of the day. There was not a full trains worth of riders so naturally people asked to ride again. We were greeted with a stern "No, we are closed. You must exit." So instead of letting their 'guests' leave happy and feel appreciated for literally no money they force people off the ride and run a near empty train. Not a HUGE deal but it did leave a sour taste in my mouth.

 

Operations were overall pretty decent given the crowds. Mostly 2 or 1 train operations which is expected for a weekday before school gets out. Titan had a countdown clock that the crew tried to beat, and usually did. Why doesn't every ride have this? Runaway Mountain was an exception though. They had 3 operators doing a 4 person job. They ran three trains when they should have been running only 2 given their staff. They would let two trains worth of people into the station. Run two trains. And repeat the process. This caused for the third train of riders to sit on the break run for 5min at a time. Also it caused the line to move in stages making it very frustrating and difficult to judge waiting time.

 

My biggest complaint is with food service though. I paid $17+ for a Johnny Rockets hamburger, fries/onion rings and large soda. I asked for no onion rings, 'we can't do that'. I asked for a large water, 'you must pay soda price'. I asked for 4 small free waters, 'only one per person'. It is like they were going out of their way to not accommodate simple requests. If I am paying outrageous prices the least they could do is give good service! Six Flags apparently would rather I throw food away than take 10 seconds and scoop some fries into the basket. Now I know they must charge something for the soda cups to be used for water but full price is a bit steep. Rant over. On the plus side the place was packed with a full que out the door but I only waited about 15min to get my food and I got an inside table.

 

Aside from those minor things the day was great. I have just come to realize I am not a 'guest' at Six Flags, I am a customer. I wish Six Flags would stop using the word 'guest' because if they truly treat their guests in their home the same way I wouldn't want to visit any one of the employees homes. I know it isn't the individuals fault, they are just following policy and they don't have the power to take care of their customers. Such a shame because this park in particular is on the verge of being a great must visit destination. A small change in policy of taking care of their guests would go a long way!

 

Since this was a solo trip I only brought my point and shoot camera. The quality isn't the best but hopefully I will return with my wife and daughter in the fall and bring my Digital SLR. On to the photos!

First we must Flashback to 10am Monday

This is a good sign the crowds should be light! I see you evil yellow busses...

Small Town USA ISD called, they want their busses back.

First ride of the day was my most anticipated ride at the park.

Its the 'Hollymolly cowabunga yee'haw launch your butt right out of the seat' first drop.

Most anticipated element for me turned out to be the 'boring' part of the ride.

I don't know what is worse, the empty front row or the youngest riders are the only ones with their hands up.

These signs are everywhere. But for this ride I totally agree with it. This thing will launch you so hard it will make your thighs hurt. How long before seat belts will be added?

Back seat was good, front seat was great, mid train was insane (15 moments of air, 8 of which were crazy ejector air).

Something is missing here.

See the que extending out into the walkway in the sun?

OMG SHADED THEMED QUE! Oh wait, we can't wait in that....don't want to get it 'dirty' with foot traffic.

Superman photo fail. It was a quick last minute photo for a last minute ride.

Last minute because I almost missed this magical gem of a sign! 30+min wait turned into a 5min wait!

More water than usual on the sign.

We now pause this coaster trip report in progress for some rapids love! I am a closet rapids ride fan and feel there are too few pics of rapids ride on the internet. I am doing my part by filling that void.

This is why I love rapids rides but rarely ride them. Roaring Rapids does a great job in the 'natural' landscape department.

The 'big' final splash

Low crowds means I could walk the que to get unique photo ops.

The somewhat unique dual loading station ramps

Loading station and a quick splash right off the bat!

Is the water coming from a fire hose, sewer runoff or employee drinking fountain? Answer now to win big!

Fancy photo op #1 ruined by stupid smog, or maybe just a bad lens

Flashback to when the tower was operating

Wouldn't it be cool if they had a giant slide that came off the tower? That would be like totally awesome! Oh wait...

I was going to copyright this image cause it is so unique but then I decided give back to my community and will allow anyone to save this image and use as your own. You are welcome!

I miss the white paint and chaser lights.

Hey SFMM how is it going? Wanna trade for X2? What do you mean no takeybackskis?

There is something really cool about being eye to eye with super man.

What is the coolest thing in the pic? Two trains one shot, Cowboys UFO stadium, Empty Parking Lot or Rangers Ball Park which will host its 3rd straight World Series?

Hey Hurricane Harbor, remember that bomb bay ride at Wet N Wild that injured that guy in the 90's? Didn't think so....

Oldie but a 'Goldie'! See what I did there?

Everyone purchase ACME stock ASAP! Those earthquake pills will be a hot seller on Dec 20th 2012!

Its Mine Train time!

Err Runaway Mine Train

I mean Six Flags Mine Train.

Oh crap, lets just call it 'that ride over there in the trees'.

See, its got twisty bits in the trees.

Mini Mine Train getting some love from not so mini people.

I am proud to admit that I did ride and unashamed to admit it packs quite a punch, for a kiddie coaster.

Time for a ride on the train and get great views such as this.

Camera fail!

Camera win!

Freeze was down for a while during the day.

Best flat ride in the park! Could have marathoned if I wanted but I had other things to do.

This was open, jealous?

**insert take the tunnel joke here**

Judge may be old but it is still picturesque, probably more picturesque if it had a train running though.

a Six Flags that actually flies its Six Flags!

Pandemonium was down most of the day but started testing so I got in line and was on within 10min. Perfect timing cause the line quickly grew to 30+min the moment the ride opened.

Something isn't quite right here...

Marketing fail! Introducing Mr Freeze reverse reverse blast!

Even though I had the credit from the commercial shoot, lets see if I can get lucky twice in one day.

Looking good so far!

Turn the corner and I was met by this! -face palm-

So with freeze a no go you know what this means!

Its time for Symbol the Ride!!!!!

We jumped from sector 2 to sector 5. That is fine with me cause sector 3 and 4 had horrible sirens that killed your ear drums so they were converted to parade float storage.

Oh crap I am in the wrong line! I apparently got into Batman Symbol The Ride line by mistake.

I got the holy grail of SFOT photo ops! Mr Freeze and Batman dualing! Too bad I was in the wrong spot.

Thats ok because I got this rare photo that no one has ever taken instead.

Way to go Six Flags for three train operations on Flashback!

The third train was in the station...

This report is 'Flashback edition' so I will take one for the team and ride...

I must Flashback to a time before I rode so I can get rid of this headache!

Now if I can only Flashback to when this ride was Red/Black with chaser lights. You know, back when it was the 'big' ride in the park with the most inversions. Back when it had its original train. Back when the line was non existent and you could ride over and over and over and over again with no wait! Back when...oh who am I kidding its still everything but the paint scheme....

Did you know in order to ride the log flume you must have a riding buddy? AND a cowboy hat that you wave in the air while screaming YEEE HAAWWW!

Flume 1, Check! or is it 2? I don't know...

Flume 2, Check! or is it 1? I really don't know...

Six Flags did the ultimate tease, water running on the hill but did not open flume 2, or was it 1? Seriously this sign said flume 2 but the line sign said flume 1 was closed? Sorry no pic to confirm.

Avalanche Bobsled, I mean La Vibora also had a single riders line but I opted not to get beat to a bloody pulp by the block brakes. Even the GP was talking about those brakes...

After a quick ride on Titan I had time for one last ride...

Well with a line like this I will make it two last rides!

The final flash back, Solar Eclipse Six Flags style! Hope you enjoyed the report and have a Six Flags Day! What ever that means...

[brneff99]

Nice TR...I can't believe that I travel to the Dallas area from SoCal approx twice a month for work and have never yet been to this park!! Its on the list...dying to ride NTG...Flashback, not so much...not sure we really miss the ole Bobsleds at SFMM but we do miss the Parachute Drop at KBF.

[YoshiFan]

A similar thing happened to me at Nitro a few years ago. There were only people waiting for the front row and it was past closing and people asked if they could re-ride. They were told the same thing that the park was closed and they were not allowed to re-ride. Some people started arguing saying the seats would go out empty anyway and the ride ops changed their mind and allowed anyone who had an empty row to re-ride (I wasn't one of the people arguing and was going to exit the ride but did re-ride once I saw they allowed others to).

[jzoole]

Awesome trip report! Somehow, I never knew that there was once a slide coming off the Oil Derrick!

 

Thank you for writing captions that are actually funny!

[robbalvey]

This made me laugh....

 

 

Like, really, I'm sure even some of our amateur photoshoppers on the site could do a pretty good job of taking an old picture and turning the train around! (anyone want to give it a try?

 

Edited May 22, 2012 by robbalvey

[robbalvey]

This is better....and I suck at Photoshop!

Edited May 22, 2012 by robbalvey

[chadster]

^^Considering that the park maps still show the old texas giant layout with a red ink pen used to color the track in, this didn't surprise me.

[Imagineer22]

I say just Flashback to a time when the ride was run forward. Time travel is much easier and less expensive than photoshop!

 

 

I wonder what else we can Flashback to at SFOT??? Maybe SFOT is at the center of the universe causing time to converge into one singular spot!? I must contact Sheldon immediately!

[gisco]

They people who created the poster probably had no clue what they were doing and even if you told them probably still wouldn't understand the problem.