Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT) Discussion Thread

[Sportsdude360]

On 6/20/2021 at 9:41 PM, dkepler said:

 

Very confused here.  Is Six Flags giving this out to everybody who didn't pause their memberships?  And why that specific amount?  Did you receive any notice or communications ahead of time that you would be receiving this?

The amount is based on the type of membership (Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Diamond Elite) and wether or not you paused during the months the park wasn't operating. I found out about it through word of mouth, no notification I'm aware of was sent by the park, although it may appear on the Member Benefits section of the app. 

[bert425]

Six Flags over Texas has announced that Pirates of Speelunker Cave will replace Yosemite Sam's Gold River Adventure, with the updated attraction opening in early 2022.

https://www.sixflags.com/overtexas/new-experiences?fbclid=IwAR0DLM-XGJXJyKgN4z1BMc5B8t4of3NHQ3_B_3roSAE3LlOaIHVY-Wvabxg

Six Flags Over Texas celebrated its 60th anniversary today by announcing that an all-new ride experience will make its debut for the 2022 season. Pirates of Speelunker Cave is a state-of-the-art attraction that will place guests squarely in the middle of a pirate treasure hunt thwarted by resident Speelunkers. This exciting, new attraction is the second new ride announced at the park and is scheduled to open early in 2022.  Aquaman: Power Wave, a previously announced multi-launch water coaster, will also debut next season.  

“As the world’s first regional theme park, Six Flags Over Texas has built a solid reputation of providing innovative thrills and lifelong memories for generations of families,” said Six Flags Over Texas Park President Ron McKenzie. “What better way to celebrate our park’s 60th anniversary than by announcing a brand-new attraction that pays homage to our past and launches us into the future,” added McKenzie.

An all-new entry plaza will welcome adventurers with coastal theming and an open vantage point of the ride’s first descent into Speelunker Cave. Once aboard their six-passenger boat, riders will experience 17 brand-new scenes that combine state-of-the-art cinematic projection with immersive sets and animatronics.

Pirates of Speelunker Cave is a re-imagining of one of the park’s first attractions, The Cave, that operated from 1964 until 1991 and will replace the current version of the attraction—Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure. The Cave featured original characters called Speelunkers that were created exclusively for Six Flags Over Texas.

Pirates of Speelunker Cave will feature:

• 26 six-passenger boats;
• State-of-the-art animatronics throughout the ride experience; and
• Cinema-style, wide-projection technology to fully immerse riders with high-tech digital and physical sets.

Pirates of Speelunker Cave is set to debut in early 2022 and will be the first of two major attractions opening at the theme park next season.

[coasterbill]

This might be an unpopular opinion but I'm honestly thrilled with this. It's cool to have a Loony Toons boat ride and I do get the appeal of that, but this will probably be a much better ride.

[bert425]

^ I'm ok with it too. . . Yosemite Sam was just fine. . but I've always missed "the Cave". .and this sounds like an exciting (and updated) reimagining of it.

 

[tndank]

Love history and love nods the past.  I approve of this as well.

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Sounds like fun to me!

[Sportsdude360]

"26 passenger boats"  That means this ride will have an impressive rider capacity!!

"State of the art" animatronics and wide screeen projection technology- with digital and physical sets!! Sounds like the Shanghai Disney version of Pirates Of The Caribbean meets the Speelunkers! Something tells me this is going to be a waaaay better ride than SFFT's Pirates Of The Deep Sea!

[grsupercity]

I am not a dark ride person but I know a lot of people that love them. Glad to see Six Flags really killing it post pandemic!

[Bamwa]

Just here for page 420!  Now back to your regular scheduled programming.

[Sportsdude360]

Work being done on Aquaman PowerWave for the first time since the pandemic shutdown. We see track sections have been removed to make way for the turntable apparatus.

[Sportsdude360]

Work progresses on Aquaman PowerWave turntable installation! Flash Passes now available on your phone!

[adamico2]

I'll be heading down this weekend for my first ever visit and have a few questions:

Do any rides open before posted opening, like they do at SFOG? How early should I plan to get to the park on Saturday?

I know to head to La Vibora early. Any other suggestions to minimize wait times? We're hoping to get by w/o flash pass, but we'll cave if it's slammed.

Where in the park would you recommend for lunch? Any table service options?

[Sportsdude360]

Fright Fest decore and purple paint on Pandemonium!

[CedarFlags]

First ever trip coming up next week.  I'm so hyped!  Based on the price of Flash Pass for the day, I'm assuming that the Columbus Day holiday is pretty busy?

Any absolute Dos & Don'ts for a first timer?

[bert425]

2 hours ago, CedarFlags said:

First ever trip coming up next week.  I'm so hyped!  Based on the price of Flash Pass for the day, I'm assuming that the Columbus Day holiday is pretty busy?

Any absolute Dos & Don'ts for a first timer?

DON'T park close to the entrance gates (ie: preferred parking) if you are going to shut down the park.

the exits for the lots open from the back and side, not from the front where you come in. . ie: you can't get out that way, and you end up stuck in a literal parking lot of cars not exiting for a good hour plus.

 

so if you're gonna shut down the park?  Park your car about 1/2 way back in the lots with easy access to the side exit for when it opens up later in the evening.


also, Sunday mornings tend to be really slow in the Texas parks (everyone's in church).   so perfect time to go.

ride notes?  La Vibrora 1st (capacity SUCKS.. so if you wanna ride it with no real wait?  there 1st).   Also Freeze goes up and down.  a LOT.  if you see it running?  head over there.

[CP_RULES]

Is Pandemonium getting a Bizarro re-theme to accompany Aquaman next year since they are right next to one another? Those colors look familiar...

[bert425]

^ totally Ocean Master colors too. . .makes sense since it's so close to Aquaman.
(and he's confirmed in Aquaman 2 movie)

 

tho since Six Flags corp. already have Bizarro signage, it might go that way (it's a bit far from Superman tho).

[CP_RULES]

I know nothing of the comics world and don't watch the movies. However, the wiki page for "Bizarro" mentioned a battle with Aquaman so I figured there was at least some relation. 

One way or another seems like a re-theme to fit the revamped area around Aquaman to me.

[bert425]

^ Legion of Doom is a group made up of  the villains of the Justice League's Members - most memorable to many from the Challenge of the Superfriends Cartoon.

tho in the comics they tend to be deadlier, with the majority being Superman or Batman villains, with the remaining being the main villain of one of the Justice League members.

typically, the villain opposite Aquaman in the LoD is Black Manta (he has been in that role in both the classic cartoons and the comics.

of the villains listed in the animated film you wiki'd:
Toyman is a Superman Villian
Cheetah is a Wonder Woman villain
Solomon Grundy is a Batman Villain
and Bizarro is a Superman villain





tho as noted, Six Flags already uses the Bizarro character in other parks, so they have signage all ready to go, and it could well be Bizarro retheme.  (especially since the whole Bizarro schtick is "backwards". . so fits in with a spinning coaster).

or . . it could be they just decided to paint Pandemonium purple

[CP_RULES]

Call it Purple Tony's Bizarro Manta Swirl for all I care. As long as it fits in nicely and keeps absorbing people so the lines are shorter for better rides.

[Lightning Rod]

I'm planning on making a trip at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. This is my first time and first ever visit to Texas. I'm doing a 14 hour overnight drive from Minneapolis to Texas. So I was wondering is the holiday in the park worth the visit for both parks and will all the rides & coasters normally open? Also is it normally busy week before Christmas? I'm planning on Fiesta Texas Friday & Saturday. Over Texas Sunday & Monday. I was also thinking of going end of February week before spring brake instead of December haven't decided yet. Are both parks normally open during the week in February? And would it be better to visit in February crowds? Thanks.

[tndank]

We were at Fiesta on Superbowl Sunday last year and the park was dead.  I sat on Wonder Woman for a dozen laps at one point.  Never waited more than a couple trains for anything it was so dead.  The night before we waited an hour and fifteen min to ride WW just before the park closed.  Did it roughly 20 laps on Sunday.  Wife and I agree that we will be planning another trip somewhere on Superbowl Sunday.  Feb is good at Fiesta.  Seaworld was fairly dead on Saturday.

 

[bert425]

24 minutes ago, Lightning Rod said:

I'm planning on making a trip at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. This is my first time and first ever visit to Texas. I'm doing a 14 hour overnight drive from Minneapolis to Texas. So I was wondering is the holiday in the park worth the visit for both parks and will all the rides & coasters normally open? Also is it normally busy week before Christmas? I'm planning on Fiesta Texas Friday & Saturday. Over Texas Sunday & Monday. I was also thinking of going end of February week before spring brake instead of December haven't decided yet. Are both parks normally open during the week in February? And would it be better to visit in February crowds? Thanks.

check the Park Calendars to ensure that SFOT is open that Monday.

yes, both parks are year round, but they tend to not be open daily in "off months". . . mostly Fri-Sun.   So double check.

At SFFT, the Waterpark will not be open, neither will the bumper cars (they typically use that for the "skating rink" during HitP, and Gully Washer (rapids) tends to be drained and closed - tho the flume will probably be up. . . but I believe most rides are open.

At SFOT, as far as I'm aware, most rides will be open, other than the water rides (flume & Rapids).   But it's been a while since I've done HitP at SFOT, so that might have changed.

[CedarFlags]

So I had my first ever visit to the park on Monday 10/11 and it was a doozie....  I'd like to tell a story about Runaway Mountain.  And I think my experience with this one ride really encapsulates the entire visit.  It's a lot.

So... like a huge number of the rides in the park, Runaway Mountain was closed for most of the day.  And I get it that parks can't always control these things, but the amount of closures was STAGGERING, especially for the first half of the day.  It was hard to tell when it re-opened, because the app actually never updated to say it was closed.  For about 3-4 hours, it just kept saying 10 minute wait.  But it did reopen and I snagged a Flash Pass wait time for it because the line very quickly got super long.  With so many rides being down, the ones that were open definitely had to absorb more people.  I decided to walk the queue just to look.

The scenery in the queue was gorgeous.  I was pleasantly surprised over and over again how lush the park is with all the trees and streams and stuff.  The park was so much prettier than I was expecting.  I read that the waterfall effect was recently restored and I thought it was cool that they dyed it red for Fright Fest season.

So, my Flash Pass time comes up and I walk down the pathway with the sign to find this clump of people standing around.  Some are waiting for their reservation time to actually get there, some have made it to their time,  and some are guests trying to exit the ride.  The ones exiting have to re-enter the station to get their stuff from the bins, while the new passengers are also trying to enter the station to leave their stuff.  And it's just total grid lock and the girl at the door is doing the best she can to manage these separate groups of people but it's awkward as hell.

So I do get into the station and I'm one cycle behind my turn.  And the RO at the dispatch panel *very* aggressively announces that the gates will be open for only 3 seconds before they close and will not open again.  Each of the cars (4 riders) has a gate, so that's less than 1 second per rider.  And true to her word, she shuts the gates  after 3 seconds,  leaving one pair of riders stuck on the wrong side and sending the train with an empty row.  With a 45+ minute queue.  Which then totally screws the grouping for the next cycle and the girl at the door (who is grouping, managing flash passes, managing the entrance queue, and managing the exiting riders who are going back for stuff) has to fully re-group.

So I finally get on the ride and it's actually kind of great.  Way more exciting than I was expecting, and the turning drop off of the midcourse faked me out into thinking there was going to be an inversion.  Super fun.  And even though there's no theming in the building, I noticed a spooky little ghost projection on the ceiling as we climbed the lift.  Such a nice touch.  And then we turned around and I noticed the projector on the other side of the ceiling was showing a blue Windows startup display.

So we finish the ride and I get off and tell the Ride Op on the unload platform about the projector... thinking she'll be like "cool, thanks for letting me know about it, I'll call someone."  She just kind of smiles and says "okay", and that's it.

 

So... that was pretty much how the day went.  Other highlights...

• NTG is incredible and I think it might be my new #1 steel coaster.  But the dispatch times were atrocious all day long.  Just about every cycle stacked (running 2 trains), so we were looking at about 3 minute dispatches as the norm.  I saw lots of people walked out of the line because they were so frustrated with how slowly it was moving.  The 3-second gate rule was also in effect here, but obviously didn't make much of a difference.
• The Love At First Fright show was so cheese, but the performers were all very talented and I was impressed by the overall production quality.
• For some reason, the employees checking Flash Pass at each ride weren't actual employees.  They were all wearing shirts that were from some Booster Club, and about 1/3 of them weren't even checking or scanning before letting people through.  Seemed weird that the park would outsource something like that.

[bert425]

^ yup. .they are outsourcing Flash Pass it seems:

(likely a cost savings move, and also factoring in no need to do full training)

https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Accesso1/743999769574254-six-flags-over-texas-the-flash-pass-team-member