Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT) Discussion Thread

[Linders]

Was fine to ride twice yesterday but not today. Ugh. The girl behind that was smaller than him was ok and the two kids smaller than him in line in front I us were both ok to ride but something drew their attention to his thighs and they said it didn't touch enough so they made him get off.

[Linders]

And he made the seat buzzer go off too!

[GigaG]

Are the upgraded restraints limiting the airtime at all? And would you say the new restraints are better or worse than El Toro when it comes to walks of shame? Also, do you think the stapling rule will spread to other SF parks?

[Linders]

The airtime was just as good as before. I actually preferred the new lap bars over the old ones because they don't hurt my thighs when I catch air and am lifted. I do hope they chill out soon. My son has been riding that ride with no trouble since he was barely 8. He's almost 10, and suddenly he doesn't fit? He got off in tears. And that's after riding it twice yesterday! I do hope they chill soon so he can ride it again. It's his favorite ride and he's missed it a lot these past couple of months.

[Linders]

Freeze was running 2 trains this afternoon/evening.

 

The photo's will be sold in the gift shop.

Yes, rode Freeze today! Short wait! It was great. Didn't ride it yesterday because of the crazy line on 1 train operation. 2 really sped things up. On the other hand, Texas Giant parked blue train and was only running the black train today. We got lucky and got a good spot in line, thinking it'd be 5-10 min, only it was closer to 20-30. I had a first timer with me and really wanted her to get to ride it. She was hands up all the way and loved it.

[g0stars2552]

I rode the Judge Saturday night and my goodness I needed a chiropractor after that. I'm not even 25 yet and I had to get my chiropractor to adjust my neck today. It's good that they will be renovating the ride.

[g0stars2552]

I love riding the Titan because you can see the "SFOT Graveyard". The old PTC Texas Giant cars are still there along with the old dark red mine train cars.

[johnychen]

^The old dark red mine train cars are from Astroworld's Excalibur.

[Linders]

I rode the Judge Saturday night and my goodness I needed a chiropractor after that. I'm not even 25 yet and I had to get my chiropractor to adjust my neck today. It's good that they will be renovating the ride.

Rode it last yesterday. Not fun at all. Extremely rough and painful. At one point we bumped up and the lap bar went square into my tummy so hard (and I don't have a huge tummy) that I nearly threw up. My 11 yr old son was complaining the whole time, and normally he likes that ride. I do hope they fix it. I don't think it should go down. It's neat in a nostalgic kinda way (like Shock Wave), it just needs some TLC to make it enjoyable again. I bet ridership goes up if they do indeed make the repairs. I'd ride it more. I am not sure I can anymore after yesterday.

[Vonni]

At this point, would it be better to just remove JRS and replace it with a better coaster? Or does JRS still have some life left in it? I went to SFOT in 2004, but didnt ride it so I dont know how to relate.

[Linders]

At this point, would it be better to just remove JRS and replace it with a better coaster? Or does JRS still have some life left in it? I went to SFOT in 2004, but didnt ride it so I dont know how to relate.

Oh I would say it has life left in it. The structure doesn't look shabby, except for a needed paint job. The trains are in great shape. Look like they have been updated in the last 5 years. When I was a kid riding it, back in the 80's they were different. They didn't have bucket seats and individual lap bars. In fact, I don't recall the seatbelts, at all. I remember having one single lap bar on a bench seat that had a small gap between the back and the bottom big enough to loose a pair of sunglasses that one might have been sitting on. That was me.

[g0stars2552]

They took the NTG blue train off as I was just about to reach the platform. It was really cool seeing that slide switch track. they put it back on towards the end of the day though

[g0stars2552]

They took the NTG blue train off as I was just about to reach the platform. It was really cool seeing that slide switch track. they put it back on towards the end of the day though

[Linders]

They took the NTAG blue train off as I was just about to reach the platform. It was really cool seeing that slide switch track. they put it back on towards the end of the day though

That's cool. I've always wanted to see them do that. Never managed to get there at the right time to see it. I wonder why they took it out. So, was the red train the one Mrs. Esparza fell out of and that's why it is out of operation? We decided to have my son wear jeans on our next visit. It was that small of a gap between his leg and lap bar that got him booted off. The perils of being a skinny legged no butt kid. LOL.

We were headed over to ride either it or Titan one last time before closing on Sunday, but ended up spending the last 30 minutes of our visit in park security because some chick decided to help herself to my other son's phone. She freaking answered the phone when I called it, said a bunch of stuff in Spanish and then hung up, and refused to answer it again, and eventually turned it off. I had her traced (I have a tracker on my phone) to the front of the park, then nothing. Not a good ending to our day. Phone was a worthless water damaged piece of crap that he was using until I got him a new one for Christmas. Jokes on her!

[jfruge]

^ I hate to be such a stick in the mud, but please, please don't be the cause of an accident, nor a hindrance to those trying to enjoy the park and its rides. Ride operators are responsible for the safety of all, and true patrons of roller coasters and amusement parks are not willing to try and circumvent the word of someone who is trained as the first line of safety. A word of caution...test seats are just that. They are present to act as a comfort and luxury to patrons who wish to ride. However, the final word comes to, as it always should, the ride operator. NTAG has been shut down for nearly the entire season because of an accident, please don't allow yourself to be involved in another.

[Sportsdude360]

^^How did she get your son's phone? Did she just take it off of his person?

[Linders]

^ I hate to be such a stick in the mud, but please, please don't be the cause of an accident, nor a hindrance to those trying to enjoy the park and its rides. Ride operators are responsible for the safety of all, and true patrons of roller coasters and amusement parks are not willing to try and circumvent the word of someone who is trained as the first line of safety. A word of caution...test seats are just that. They are present to act as a comfort and luxury to patrons who wish to ride. However, the final word comes to, as it always should, the ride operator. NTAG has been shut down for nearly the entire season because of an accident, please don't allow yourself to be involved in another.

Nobody is trying to cause anything. I for one would NEVER put my child in a position to be in any danger. He was clearly ok to ride it for the past 2 years and twice the day before. We had one op that was being over-cautious. There were kids smaller than him on it, just before we got on and behind us! I sat him in the test seat after we got off to see what they were talking about and it was a tiny gap, and not all the way either. He has a bigger gap on Titan. I had to get the operator to re-assure me he was ok to ride it with it not at all touching his thighs on that ride. I got her to come and look at it and she re-assured me that he was safe. And even still, I only let him ride the front seat of the car because it is smaller touches his thighs better. NTAG's lap bars touched more thigh than that even. So, I am not causing trouble and I didn't pitch a fit when they kicked him off. It was over-cautious and inconsistent. If I was gonna cause trouble, I would have run to the manager and made a scene. Guess you had to be there.

In answer to the phone thing. We think she slipped it out of his pocket while waiting in line to ride Judge Roy.

[Linders]

^^And to add to that, the lady behind us leans forward and tells me that I should have made him slouch down in the seat more so that it would have touched more, like her daughter just did and got away with it. You know, the one I mentioned being smaller than him. We were in line next to them. If a blue jean's thickness worth of a space is going to make him fall out then they need to raise the height limit to 54' like they have for Freeze and Batman!! Surely by 54 inches all the thighs will be touching the bar that they want to touch.

I understood that they were having to be over cautious right now, and expected them to nitpick every crook and cranny of every seat. I was completely taken by surprise when it happened to him because he has ridden that so much in the last couple of years, and rode it multiple times the day before on OPENING DAY, when you would think they would have made a call like that and didn't. I personally put his seatbelt on and tightened it to the hipbone, and then pushed the lap bar in as far as I could shove it, and even I didn't even notice it. And I look for that stuff (hence Titan). Never a problem and nobody said a word about it, except this one guy on Sunday. There were managers on the platform that I could have flagged down and pitched a fit about it, but I didn't. I saw it for what it was and told him to go stand with his brother not riding.

 

If you want to know, since you want to peg me as one of "those" parents, Mr. Stick in the Mud, he has been a shoe sole's height too short to ride Batman and Mr. Freeze all summer. He cried when he came up an inch too short and couldn't ride. Have we gone and stuck shoes with big soles on him to get him on it? Nope! We have them! And they would make him tall enough to ride! And he'd probably be fine, but safety first! We have a mark on the wall and he stands up to it and we tell him how much more to go till he is tall enough to ride.

[Mrlittle]

I would just try to have your kid ride again. The employees were probably told to look for certain things. I understand your child rode the ride before but that one employee might have just been overly cautious. I would not be surprise if they ask many people to get off who have been on the ride before.

[Linders]

^^ Yep. That's what I told him. He was so upset about having to get off. And I knew why, and all. So, when we got finished, I explained to him that it's gonna be like this for a little while. He understands, too. He doesn't want to die on a roller coaster, either. He wants no part of those Gotham coasters until he is 54 inches or more. He is super cautious with it, too. He's on the threshold now, but won't attempt it. I think what upset him so much was how more secure he felt after the upgrades. He used to make me hold his hand on it before the accident. The first ride on Saturday, I held his hand to the top of the hill, then he threw it up in the air and then let it go and was hands up the whole way. Both times. I agree, it's the guy. We're gonna go back on the weekend the State Fair opens for Fright Fest. We will re-attempt getting him on. I posted pix of him a couple of pages back in his seat with the new restraints, that I took before he rode the first time. A friend of mine that was up there saw a guy get kicked off because of he was too big. She said he wasn't all that big, and all but did have a pot belly. That was on the same day my son got booted. By next season I am sure it'll have settled down.

[GayCoasterGuy]

^This brings back memories of working the Cedar Point Blue Streak (when it was a classic with very high lap bars, no seat divider, etc.) and we would see kids walking through the queue with some very ridiculous foot-rigs.

 

The stuffing of napkins in the shoe was popular. We saw little boys with HUGE cowboy boots (did they sell them in the park?) and once saw a little girl with a HUGE pair of high heels on. It's the kind of stuff I wish I had pictures or video of now. It was priceless. Then of course, we had good old fashioned walking on the tip toes.

 

Thank you for respecting the ride op, as obnoxious and inconsistent as it was. It was a fluke of a case, a circumstantial discrepancy. It would have been perfectly within your right to go get a "height wristband" or whatever they do, but you let it roll off and went on with the day (more than I would have, but it speaks to your patience!).

[Linders]

^^You have to wonder if those parents were smoking crack, LOL. There is a reason for height requirements!

Ya, I was irritated but didn't make a big stink. More so because it totally caught me by surprise given the amount of times he rode it the day before. I know the guy was just looking out for my kid and can't blame him for that. Not to mention, he'd probably heard about it all day from other riders not making the cut. He was clearly already having a rough day/weekend at a whopping $7 or $8 an hour.

[boardwalkbullet91507]

The stuffing of napkins in the shoe was popular. We saw little boys with HUGE cowboy boots (did they sell them in the park?) and once saw a little girl with a HUGE pair of high heels on. It's the kind of stuff I wish I had pictures or video of now. It was priceless. Then of course, we had good old fashioned walking on the tip toes.

 

I would like to add that I used to stand on my dad's foot at Astroworld. The ride ops never said anything.

 

I really hope the reopening of NTAG sort of ends this 'rut' the parks been in lately. I hope they finish out the season strong and come back better than ever in 2014. The modifications look much more comfortable and look to add to the ride experience. I'll have to go out and try it out for myself, but SFOT is always a 'if we get to it' summer activity. We couldn't make it this season, so here's to hoping I can make it next.

 

And lastly, thanks Linders for all the updates from in the park. It's really beneficial for those like myself who can't make it out to the park. Best of luck with the restraint issue.

[Vonni]

Has any demolition began on that shopping mall? Just curious...

[bigboy]

The park has owned the strip center for the better part of the last decade and they've done little with it. Why does everyone seem to think its demolition is so imminent?