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Texas Cred Run in a Pandemic! | Part 3: SFFT

Sky

Mega Poster
In a bout of slight stupidity, @Groot and I decided to take a slightly ill-advised trip out to Texas, aka one of the current hotspots for COVID in the United States. With the Texas Live in May cancelled, we were still itching to get out into the region, since we'd never been. We know how to be smart with masks and sanitizers and all that jazz, so after some planning with @tomahawk (and a lucky price drop on the flights) we decided to just say screw it and make it happen. We had a good chunk of Delta flight credit left over from the cancellation, so we used about half of that to book the flight out to Dallas for right after the July 4th holiday weekend. And with staying most of the week with Tom, plus we already had Six Flags/Sea World passes paid for, we wouldn’t have many expenses during the trip. Perfect!

Buuut then Tom went and destroyed his foot, making his go of the parks impossible. So after an hour-long chat, we figured out the best new itinerary, working around some tricky rental car needs and park closings (cause, you know, pandemic):

Monday, July 6: Land in Dallas stupid early, get rental car, Six Flags Over Texas, drive down to San Antonio
Tuesday, July 7: Sea World San Antonio, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, drive back to Dallas
Wednesday, July 8: Hang out in Dallas
Thursday, July 9: Also hang out in Dallas
Friday, July 10: Fly back to Atlanta

So, onto Dallas!

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Our day started with a 3:45am wake up call, after which we were dropped off at the airport by my father-in-law at 5:00. Our flight wasn’t until 8:05, but his dad works near the airport stupid early anyway, so the timing just worked. We just kind of explored the terminals and goofed off on the peoplemovers to kill time since neither of us had been on a flight in 10+ years.

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Land at Dallas Love Field on time after an uneventful flight, get the rental car, and immediately get going to Six Flags Over Texas. After multiple wrong turns (seriously, Dallas and our GPS just did not get along), we finally see Titan looming over the parking lot—which they’re oddly social distancing as well, as cones were covering two out of every three spaces.

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@Skeletor decided to come out to the park and join us, and we’re so glad he did, because the place was deserted! We only had one wait all day. It was such a fantastic first visit to this park! We get through the park entrance at around 11:30, and security is a breeze with the COVID stuff in place—seriously, they need to just keep these forever, because it was so quick and easy.

First up was supposed to be Titan, but it was closed when we got there and sadly remained closed all day. (We assume, as even though we never went back to the ride entrance, we never saw it run all day.) So, on to New Texas Giant instead!

New Texas Giant: We walked on, and we had so much fun on it. The restraints were quite comfortable compared to the RMC we’ve come to known and (mostly) love. They were seating every other road, and that was the trend for all the coasters over the course of the day. There was some fantastic ejector and great overbanks on it. Get back to the station—station is deserted. They tell us we can ride again if we want. Uhh, yes please! Take another lap. Still no one in the station. We almost stay another round, but we still have the entire rest of the park, and someone took one of our rows anyway. Excellent start to the day.

For those that are curious about RMC rankings, I’d put it solidly in the middle of my list. I’ve done…7 so far (I had to count), but 2 more are still to come this trip, so who knows how that will change.

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Shock Wave: I had been anxious to give it a shot, as the comparable Mind Bender is in our backyard. Unfortunately @Groot is too tall for this one (he can’t fit Schwarzkopf trains with his long legs) so @Skeletor and I took a lap in the front row. It was definitely a good time, with lots of nearly-standing airtime, and the back-to-back loops gave some serious G’s. My first impression was that Mind Bender is still better, but I was told I need to ride in the back before making a true comparison. Fair enough. We decided to come back later on and focus on the rest of the park first.

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Runaway Mine Train:
Again, quite similar to Dahlonega Mine Train in Georgia. Sure enough, it has the same spine crunching transitions, not made any better by @Skeletor and I choosing to sit in the back row so that @Groot could have a seat to himself for his legs.

Mini Mine Train: Well, it was a cred run after all. And @Groot managed to fit with ease, because it oddly had a ton of leg room for him.

Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast: Freeze was honestly one of the creds I was looking most forward to because it’s just so dang unique. This was our only wait of the day, but it wasn’t even that long at that. Loved seeing the dual loading platform in action! I definitely wanted front row for this one, and it was worth it. The backwards tophat was great, and going up the spike was an incredible view. I was cracking up laughing the whole time, which is my mark for just an overall fun ride.

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Joker: After a quick hydration break, we went down to the path for the ole Free Spin. One of the ear loops on my mask broke as I was putting on my harness, and it went fluttering off in the wind partway through the ride. The return run had us flipping like crazy, and I had no idea which way was up. Then we found my broken mask on the exit path!

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Batman The Ride: We rode in the front. It was…another Batman clone.

Judge Roy Scream: I was warned that this would be a bad one, but it wasn’t too bad, even towards the back. I thought it was fairly enjoyable without too much jackhammering, to be honest. But I may have been the only one in our group with that opinion.

La Vibora: The three of us fit with no issues into the bobsled. I had been on Disaster Transport nearly 20 years ago, but remember absolutely zero of it. It was a fun time. Weird to hold onto the low bars that I knew were inches from the track.

By this time, the heat was getting worse, and we still had a long drive ahead, so we skipped out on Pandemonium, and Runaway Mountain was closed. Plus @Skeletor was needing to head out soon, so we went back over to Shock Wave to finish up the day on that back row ride I supposedly needed. It did have some insane ejector—not a bad ride by any means, but I would still rank Mind Bender above Shock Wave, but only just barely. It’s Mind Bender’s diving helix that eeks out the win for me.

We finished out the park in just about 3 hours, which was a pleasant surprise. Quite the cred run for us! We said our goodbyes to @Skeletor, and we started our trek down to San Antonio.

OVERALL THOUGHTS ON SFOT: We were a little wary of going out on this trip with the COVID cases in Texas growing quickly, but we felt fine at SFOT (and on our flight as well, for that matter). There were no lines to worry about distancing, and the one line we did have, people spaced out well. I was the sanitizer lady, who had some in my pocket at all times, making everyone sanitize after every ride. SFOT was a super nice park, and the layout was a breeze to get through (minus the Aquaman construction). Great variety of coasters, too! I haven't been to too many Six Flags parks, but I would definitely rate it on the upper end of the ones I've done. Maybe one day we'll get back to get those last few creds that we missed...

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On the drive to San Antonio, we were able to make one additional stop since we got out of SFOT at a decent hour. Yep, we were those people, and we stopped at Austin’s Park N Pizza (in Pflugerville, which is so fun to say), for the garbage cred that is…

Fiesta Express: Yep, we paid money for an 8-foot-tall coaster. The op said no words to us and judged us hardcore. We also used some leftover credit on a quick game of air hockey (that I won).

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We got to our hotel in San Antonio nice and late, and stopped at a local In N Out for some late dinner before collapsing in bed. After about 22 hours going nonstop, with a 2-park day ahead... we needed that sleep.

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Day 2 to come whenever I actually finish writing it up!
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
I'm glad to hear y'all had a great time at SFOT! The park seems to get a bad rep among CFers but I'm glad a number of us have been able to visit the park on empty days and enjoy it.

I can't wait to hear the rest of your hot takes, btw! :p
 

Sky

Mega Poster
I'm sure my overall park views are skewed because we keep hitting parks when there are no crowds! Great America last year, and all three parks this trip. I really had no "Six Flags Day" moments. I'm sure I wouldn't be saying that if we didn't walk on to nearly everything...
 

Sky

Mega Poster
DAY 2, PART 1: SEA WORLD SAN ANTONIO!

Day 2 started with a mediocre grab-and-go breakfast at the hotel that was so mediocre we ended up getting some additional food at a CVS. We got to Sea World San Antonio shortly before opening, where there were approximately 5 cars in the preferred parking lot.

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We stopped by Guest Services because we had heard about a perks package for platinum passholders due to the closures—and we were in for a treat. Not only did we get preferred parking on arrival, we got additional % off of merchandise and food (30% instead of 20%), four free drinks, photo pass, and $100 in park spending money that can be used with the merch discount. We were slightly overwhelmed, given we had only budgeted a few hours in the park.

We did go ahead and take some quick pictures at the entrance, since they were suddenly free!

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We quickly discovered that despite the park opening at 10, most of the park didn’t actually open up until 11. So first stop? Kiddie cred!

Super Grover: We both grabbed a quick front row ride—and since there was no line, we even did it separately to chronicle the goonery.

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Steel Eel: Next up was Steel Eel, which looked gorgeous with a recent repaint. With the blue skies, man I could not get over how good it looked dominating the park skyline. Still no lines, so we opted for a front row ride. It gave some surprisingly good floater on every hill and had a great time. Empty station again, so we hopped to the back row—that was a mistake, and a stark contrast to the front row experience. Back row gave us the airtime, and then slammed our spines back into the seats on every valley. So, pro tip, definitely ride front for this one.

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We meandered through a gift shop and killed a few minutes of time before the backside of the park opened up. And once it did, we were off to…

Wave Breaker: We were worried about Groot fitting this one, since he’s so tall, but he did, just barely. Anything motorcycle style like this tends to nearly break his ankles to fit. It was uncomfortable for him, but he powered through it. Wave Break had a fun couple of launches, and kept low to the water. Not a top ride by any means, but for it’s intended purpose, it was fun! (Also the only picture I got of Wave Breaker was technically of Steel Eel. Whoops!)

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Next up would have been Great White, but it was closed for the day. Not a huge disappointment, but y’know… creds. So next around the circle was the newest coaster of the trip, and one of the few major “New for 2020” rides actually operating right now!

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Texas Stingray: We got to ride both front and back of this GCI, and my best way of describing it is that it’s a feisty little guy. Not super tall or anything, but has some great speed, snappy turns, and fun airtime. We definitely preferred the front on this one as well! That seemed to be a common theme at Sea World. We should have ridden it more, given that the park was empty, but we were already on a time crunch.

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The park seriously felt deserted at times. I could take wide pictures of the area and not see another person. It was strange, but not unwelcome.

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Journey to Atlantis: Man, was this a far cry from the JTA in Orlando! This was our only wait of the day, and many times while in the hot line I asked myself if this cred was worth it. (Spolier alert: It wasn’t.) I was expecting a nicely themed indoor portion like in Orlando, but nope! Just the lift, a turntable and pointlessly backwards dip, and the drop. Like… why? It flooded my paper mask which felt gross, and that point on I switched to my fabric mask.

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We had already been at the park longer than planned initially, but we spent a little bit of time in the front store to spend our merch credit. I ended up with a generic spirit jersey (I had my eyes on a different shirt over at Wave Breaker and regret not going back for it) and @Groot got a couple of regular t-shirts. After our extended discount, we still had $20 in credit leftover good until the end of the year. Hopefully we’ll make it down to BGT this year to spend that!

With the preferred parking we got, it was a quick walk to the rental car to head to the second park of the day!

OVERALL THOUGHTS ON SWSA: It was great to visit a Sea World park not in Orlando, even though SWO is very near and dear to my heart. My major critique is that there isn’t nearly enough shade for that Texas heat. Granted, we went in a heat wave during a pandemic, but still. We were really struggling at points to stay cool. Also, we were given the drink passes for the closure perks, but the employees had seemingly never seen them before. Anytime we tried to redeem them, we had to go through multiple people telling us to go to different locations. Maybe we were just the first to actually use them?

Those points aside, I loved the park. The entrance area was gorgeous where it separated out into the three parks. Employees were actively telling people to put their masks on properly (even went so far as coming on the loudspeakers on a lift hill to tell guests they must wear masks on the ride). Also Steel Eel was one of the most photogenic coasters I’ve ever seen with the repaint. Extra kudos on that.

Next up... Six Flags Fiesta Texas!
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Really like the blond locks @Groot ! Crazy time to be in Texas, but much better than Florida. Parks look even emptier than the ones I've been to so far.
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
You might've timed out this visit perfectly, considering the parks might close back down lol. And ironically these conditions might be the best way to experience Six Flags. Imagine what they would've been like on a typical July day!
 

Sky

Mega Poster
We got really lucky with the timing! We had a contingency plan for the trip as well if Texas closed all the parks again. We were there during a heat wave, too... I would have died at SFFT if it were a regular day with normal lines ? It was definitely strange with the masks, but it was easy to distance because there were so few people to distance from!
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
The heat wave is just called July in Texas. It's hotter this week fyi.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

Sky

Mega Poster
DAY 2, PART 2: SIX FLAGS FIESTA TEXAS

The drive over to Fiesta Texas was quick, and it was so unique pulling into the parking lot! The rock surrounding the whole park was gorgeous and I couldn’t get enough of it. We breeze through the entrance…and enter another deserted theme park. I loved the whole entrance area though! It was quite vibrant and festive, and so cute for a Six Flags park.

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By recommendation, we headed to the right side of the park for…

Iron Rattler: We were told to hit this RMC first because operations might be slow on it, causing a line. Welp, that definitely wasn’t an issue. After heading through the bizarrely narrow queue that we hoped was the right line, we came to an empty station. We started with a front row ride—and man, I was not prepared for how good that ride was! The first drop kicks you out of the seat, and the layout plays with the terrain so well. And then the dive off the cliff? Oh, just beautiful. I loved it all so much. The POVs do not do this thing justice. We rerode in back row, because why not, and it was just as good. Iron Rattler just hit right that day and easily broke my top 10.

My hot take: I liked Iron Rattler better than Steel Vengeance. I know, jaws just hit the floor. My main critique of SV is that it tries to do too much, and Iron Rattler feels like it has much better pacing and balance. It was definitely my sleeper hit of the trip.

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The heat and exhaustion was starting to get to us. @Groot wasn’t feeling 100%, so we chugged some water and decided to grab a snack to see if some food might help. We stopped at a fries stand and discovered a creamy garlic option—yes, please! Honestly, it’s the best food we’ve ever had at a Six Flags park. So, so good.

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Road Runner Express: We let the food settle with a quick ride on the nearby mine train (ish?) coaster, which had so nonexistent of a line that the ride ops were essentially twiddling their thumbs as we walked up, even with only one train running. This thing was a nice surprise! Had some forceful moments and was just a good bit of fun.

With RRE, @Groot was sitting at 149 for his coaster count, meaning we had a very specific destination in mind for the next destination…

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Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster: Ah yes, the biggest reason for our Texas trip. Even watching it from the entrance made me wonder how a coaster could whip so fast and still be comfortable. I’ve always had an issue visually with the single rail coasters, and seeing it in person made it no less strange looking to me. And you know how I said that SFFT was deserted? We walked on for this one. Literally we made it to the gate as it was opening and got our back row seats.

I honestly barely know how to describe this thing because it was so intense. I realized later on in the day that the restraints left dark marks on my arms from the airtime. It was so damn fast. @Groot wasn’t feeling well enough for another ride, but we took his cheesy milestone photo before I gave him our bag so I could get a reride. I had to wait an extra train to request front row, but that was zero issue. Front row was a much better ride for me—straddling that single rail for the ride was so unusual. In front I was able to actually enjoy the ride without fearing for my life from the airtime bucking me off the seat. The openness of the seat was incredible. My primary complaint with the ride was the train felt unstable on the track, especially in the station. Hopefully newer versions will address this a little bit!

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I got back to the empty station and probably could have requested a reride, but I had to go check on the husband. I met @Groot in the photo area, which was when I realized that no one else got off the ride. We looked at the pictures he got of me offride to verify, and sure enough—I got a front row zen ride on Gal! I’d call that a trip highlight.

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We took another hydration break before @Groot said he was feeling well enough for one more ride on…

Superman Krypton Coaster: This one has kind of been a bucket list ride for me since I was new to coasters. We opted for a front row ride on this one, because the floorless views make me happy. I loved the first half of it, with the helix on the cliff definitely the highlight of the ride. After the zero-G roll…meh. There was a pretty hefty rattle, even in the front seat, and the second of the ride was so uninspired. That said, I’m glad I got to ride one of the coaster I’ve always just seen pictures of, but I was a little disappointed that it didn’t live up to expectations.

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We only had 4 of the creds done, but we had hit our 3 priorities and called it quits for the day. The heat and lack of shade was doing a number on us, and we still had a 5 hour drive back up to Dallas area. We cut through the middle of the park (which was thankfully also a mask relaxation zone) to get back to the car. Our rental didn’t have any sunshade, so we came back to a roasting hot car with black leather seats—and naturally, my seat has been 100% in the sun. I nearly passed out waiting for the car to cool down long enough to me to touch the seat to my skin. We stopped at a gas station to load up on hydration before hitting the road to Dallas with a food stop in Austin.

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OVERALL THOUGHTS ON SFFT: I genuinely wish we could have spent more time at the park. It looked so cute, and had a fantastic lineup. I watched a vlog on SFFT since getting back, and they showed things that we never saw in the park because our route was so limited. We’re still missing a ton of creds, so next time we go to Texas, we’ll definitely be focusing our time on San Antonio (also so @Groot can get more than one ride on Wonder Woman to be able to judge it properly.)

This was the end of the coastering on our trip, but we did spend some time in Dallas and Oklahoma (vaguely) that I’ll post about at some point!
 
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ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
I rode WWGLC about a dozen times on media day and I'm so glad I started with the front seat a couple of times before trying the back. In fact, of the dozen rides, nine of them were front seat because it's so difficult to do immediate re-rides after a back seat one. That's how much more severe the intensity is back there compared to up front. Too bad @Groot wasn't feeling well, but if he had done the front first he might have been able to do a re-ride on the last car.
 

rideguy70

Mega Poster
We were supposed to hit Texas on virtually this same trip a month ago, but it just wasn't safe (and I think closed at the time anyway). Still feel it was a bit risky going now, I feel like airplanes are not very safe from a Covid point of view, but I am happy the trip seemed to work out for you.
 

Sky

Mega Poster
I rode WWGLC about a dozen times on media day and I'm so glad I started with the front seat a couple of times before trying the back. In fact, of the dozen rides, nine of them were front seat because it's so difficult to do immediate re-rides after a back seat one. That's how much more severe the intensity is back there compared to up front. Too bad @Groot wasn't feeling well, but if he had done the front first he might have been able to do a re-ride on the last car.

Yeah, front was way easier to manage. I wish I could have gotten more rides on it, but heat and a very short timeframe limited what we could do. We'll definitely be back for more at some point. I'll make sure @Groot gets a front row ride to make up for it!

We were supposed to hit Texas on virtually this same trip a month ago, but it just wasn't safe (and I think closed at the time anyway). Still feel it was a bit risky going now, I feel like airplanes are not very safe from a Covid point of view, but I am happy the trip seemed to work out for you.

We were very nervous about taking this trip when we did, I won't lie. We felt okay on the plane—they gave out multiple things of sanitizer upon boarding and we had no issue keeping our masks on the whole time. I do think that the lack of any crowds made a difference, because there were so few people to come into contact with in the first place. We didn't see too much cleaning in the parks, probably because we never waiting in line long enough to see it happen, but we were armed with masks and hand sanitizer, and that proactivity helped us feel much more safe in a tricky situation. (Thankfully we're over a week out from being at the parks themselves with no symptoms, so we may be in the clear!)
 
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