Six Flags in Winter
Jan. 5th, 2009 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebFor complicated reasons, it was decided that it would be a good idea to go to Six Flags Over Texas (an amusement park) in the middle of winter. Specifically, yesterday with expected temperatures in the 40s and a wind chill factor in the 30s but no rain.
(FYI, the park is named after these six flags that have flown over Texas: France, Spain, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.)
Rides
I'm afraid that amusement parks are too rich for my blood now. I rode the Titan. Once. (Maximum height 255 feet, maximum speed 85 mph.) I knew that first drop would be unpleasant, but I thought the rest might be fun. The ride starts, as usual, with a long ascent, but this one was very steep and very, very high. Then, of course, a complementary plummet: scary and long. Afterwards, there are various spirals and other hills that I thought would be fun, but it was just so fast that it wasn't really. I'm not good with the G-forces. I feel like I have an iron stomach, but not if you squash it. At the end of the ride, I was all wobbly from having used my bracing muscles throughout the ride. I was also a bit nauseated for a couple of hours afterwards.
There were a couple of rides I didn't even try: the Superman Tower of Power, a ride that is all about yanking you straight up in the air (325 ft) and then letting you plummet. And Tony Hawk's Big Spin, what Robin calls a teacup coaster, the kind that's a little slow (50 feet, 31 mph) but where your car can spin around. We had fun with the one at Disney World but this one was a bit faster and not fun looking for people with burbly stomachs.
I did try the ACME Rock-n-Rocket, a ride with some minor spinning, sitting in the very center, during my woozy period, but I spent the time trying not to feel worse instead of trying to have fun.
Fortunately, my first favorite roller coaster from my youth, the Runaway Mine Train, was still there. (Built in 1966, it's 35 feet high and goes up to 35 miles per hour.) My best friend and I rode it 13 times the first time we visited Six Flags. This roller coaster is all about the hairpin turns between the trees. Last time I was at Six Flags, I was disappointed that the cowboy scene at the end was dilapidated and the flashing lights implying a cave-in before the tunnel, not to mention the first half of the tunnel, were missing. There was a lot more padding on the seats, so you didn't have to get bruised as you were slammed from side to side. However, the built-up headrests meant you didn't get as good a view.
Now the cowboy part has been fixed up and although there is still no sense of a cave-in at the end, it's still fun in a different way. The seats are still padded, but the view is better. We rode this ride 7 or 8 times.
The Judge Roy Scream, a wooden roller coaster (71 feet, 53 mph) that is all about the hills, is also still fun but still very shaky. My colleagues think it shakes you up worse than it used to ("shaken, not stirred" comes to mind), but I remember it being harsh from the very beginning.
La Vibora, a bobsled ride (60 feet, 32 mph), and Runaway Mountain, an indoor (dark) roller coaster (65 feet, 40 mph), were fun, but borderline scary. The simulation ride was fun, though the plot wasn't good enough to sit through more than once. We also rode the kiddie rides The Gunslinger, a swing ride, and Yosemite Sam, an animated boating trip.
We also paid extra to ride the go carts. I was a passenger of Robin's and enjoyed watching him pass R even though R was trying valiantly to prevent it by swerving side to side. Stuffing two grown people into one of those things was rather amusing as well, not to mention the difference in acceleration for cars with two adults versus cars with one kids. It was fun to see that N actually got an extra lap in due to his awesome start as well as not letting up on the accelerator. Top speeds seemed to be similar.
As part of the Holiday in the Park season, they also had a snow hill with plastic sleds we could ride down. This was real (man-made) snow. The hill was not particularly steep but we had no problems getting down it.
All of Gotham City was closed (for renovation, I think), several rides weren't open the first 3.5 hours, several rides closed on and off due to high winds, and all the splashy watery rides were closed due to hypothermia concerns. There were no shows at all, probably due to Christmas shows being less relevant after New Years but officially because the actors were back in school. Yet we had no problems keeping busy the whole day, although the first hour or so was spent mostly walking from one closed ride to the next. The lack of crowds, was awesome. Most rides had virtually no line at all.
Food
I'm not sure I've ever actually tried a funnel cake before yesterday. Probably. They do taste just as good as they smell. Dangerous.
I'm absolutely sure I've never tried fried cheesecake before yesterday. It looks like you wrap a thin crust around some cold cheesecake filling like a burrito, then fry it and sprinkle powdered sugar on it. Hot on the outside, not hot on the inside. Good. Yet evil.
Language
Favorite ride names: Judge Roy Scream and the Texas Chute-Out (a parachute tower).
My favorite commonly used phrase was "lap children." Comparable to lap dogs, I suppose. Not allowed on many rides. Favorite quote, "No se permite lap children." Yep, on one of the rides, they didn't even bother trying to translate that.
Weather
I wore plenty of clothes and was just fine. A thermometer I saw just after we left said it was 34 degrees. But I know the wind chill was never below 20 degrees because I wasn't hurting. (The day before yesterday it was 80 degrees and would have been a very different experience.)
(FYI, the park is named after these six flags that have flown over Texas: France, Spain, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.)
Rides
I'm afraid that amusement parks are too rich for my blood now. I rode the Titan. Once. (Maximum height 255 feet, maximum speed 85 mph.) I knew that first drop would be unpleasant, but I thought the rest might be fun. The ride starts, as usual, with a long ascent, but this one was very steep and very, very high. Then, of course, a complementary plummet: scary and long. Afterwards, there are various spirals and other hills that I thought would be fun, but it was just so fast that it wasn't really. I'm not good with the G-forces. I feel like I have an iron stomach, but not if you squash it. At the end of the ride, I was all wobbly from having used my bracing muscles throughout the ride. I was also a bit nauseated for a couple of hours afterwards.
There were a couple of rides I didn't even try: the Superman Tower of Power, a ride that is all about yanking you straight up in the air (325 ft) and then letting you plummet. And Tony Hawk's Big Spin, what Robin calls a teacup coaster, the kind that's a little slow (50 feet, 31 mph) but where your car can spin around. We had fun with the one at Disney World but this one was a bit faster and not fun looking for people with burbly stomachs.
I did try the ACME Rock-n-Rocket, a ride with some minor spinning, sitting in the very center, during my woozy period, but I spent the time trying not to feel worse instead of trying to have fun.
Fortunately, my first favorite roller coaster from my youth, the Runaway Mine Train, was still there. (Built in 1966, it's 35 feet high and goes up to 35 miles per hour.) My best friend and I rode it 13 times the first time we visited Six Flags. This roller coaster is all about the hairpin turns between the trees. Last time I was at Six Flags, I was disappointed that the cowboy scene at the end was dilapidated and the flashing lights implying a cave-in before the tunnel, not to mention the first half of the tunnel, were missing. There was a lot more padding on the seats, so you didn't have to get bruised as you were slammed from side to side. However, the built-up headrests meant you didn't get as good a view.
Now the cowboy part has been fixed up and although there is still no sense of a cave-in at the end, it's still fun in a different way. The seats are still padded, but the view is better. We rode this ride 7 or 8 times.
The Judge Roy Scream, a wooden roller coaster (71 feet, 53 mph) that is all about the hills, is also still fun but still very shaky. My colleagues think it shakes you up worse than it used to ("shaken, not stirred" comes to mind), but I remember it being harsh from the very beginning.
La Vibora, a bobsled ride (60 feet, 32 mph), and Runaway Mountain, an indoor (dark) roller coaster (65 feet, 40 mph), were fun, but borderline scary. The simulation ride was fun, though the plot wasn't good enough to sit through more than once. We also rode the kiddie rides The Gunslinger, a swing ride, and Yosemite Sam, an animated boating trip.
We also paid extra to ride the go carts. I was a passenger of Robin's and enjoyed watching him pass R even though R was trying valiantly to prevent it by swerving side to side. Stuffing two grown people into one of those things was rather amusing as well, not to mention the difference in acceleration for cars with two adults versus cars with one kids. It was fun to see that N actually got an extra lap in due to his awesome start as well as not letting up on the accelerator. Top speeds seemed to be similar.
As part of the Holiday in the Park season, they also had a snow hill with plastic sleds we could ride down. This was real (man-made) snow. The hill was not particularly steep but we had no problems getting down it.
All of Gotham City was closed (for renovation, I think), several rides weren't open the first 3.5 hours, several rides closed on and off due to high winds, and all the splashy watery rides were closed due to hypothermia concerns. There were no shows at all, probably due to Christmas shows being less relevant after New Years but officially because the actors were back in school. Yet we had no problems keeping busy the whole day, although the first hour or so was spent mostly walking from one closed ride to the next. The lack of crowds, was awesome. Most rides had virtually no line at all.
Food
I'm not sure I've ever actually tried a funnel cake before yesterday. Probably. They do taste just as good as they smell. Dangerous.
I'm absolutely sure I've never tried fried cheesecake before yesterday. It looks like you wrap a thin crust around some cold cheesecake filling like a burrito, then fry it and sprinkle powdered sugar on it. Hot on the outside, not hot on the inside. Good. Yet evil.
Language
Favorite ride names: Judge Roy Scream and the Texas Chute-Out (a parachute tower).
My favorite commonly used phrase was "lap children." Comparable to lap dogs, I suppose. Not allowed on many rides. Favorite quote, "No se permite lap children." Yep, on one of the rides, they didn't even bother trying to translate that.
Weather
I wore plenty of clothes and was just fine. A thermometer I saw just after we left said it was 34 degrees. But I know the wind chill was never below 20 degrees because I wasn't hurting. (The day before yesterday it was 80 degrees and would have been a very different experience.)