Six Flags: my bravery increases
Jul. 13th, 2005 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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melovechocolate had won herself a free ticket to Six Flags because she did such a good job on a fundraiser her school held... and discount tickets for the adults, although it turned out we got a better discount using a Dunkin' Donuts promotional coupon. And it was only good through 6/30, so we went on 6/29, which was also Christy's birthday.
And got caught in a thunderstorm. Before we managed to go on a single ride. This peeved us mightily. Waiting out the thunderstorm in the snack bar was not entirely awful... we were diverted by the Baby With A Mohawk (so cute!) and the delighted reaction of the teenage boy with the elaborate bleached-out, flame-tipped mohawk (which, it transpired, his aunt the hairdresser had helped him create -- I had to ask if he had help 'cause the red tips were so PERFECTLY even) to the baby... which had to win him some points with his girlfriend, we figured... anyway, the people-watching was entertaining, but not a full admission's worth. So we decided it'd be worth it to pay the upgrade prices for season passes, since that'd be about equal to paying Dunkin' Donuts discounted gate again, and then come back a LOT, since it's only half an hour's drive from us, and really milk our money's worth out of the passes.
So that's what we've been doing with ourselves this summer.shadowflyer and melovechocolate went back on 7/1, because melovechocolate had to miss camp for a doctor's appointment in the morning anyway... I could have gone with, but I wanted to get some sleep before the Reel Big Fish concert that evening. We all went back on the Fourth, which was of course insanely crowded, but with season passes we didn't feel so stressed about "OMG we have to do EVERYTHING today," and shadowflyer and I went back with melovechocolate on this past Sunday afternoon.
I was tellingmhaille about how terrific the Tornado water slide was -- one banked curve, one steep drop to give you speed, and then you go up the sides of a GIANT FUNNEL -- and she was saying "nobody will GO with me this summer." It's awkward for her, because her kids are tall enough now that they no longer get in free, but are not tall enough to go on any of the GOOD rides. I said "I'll go with you -- get someone to watch the kids for a day and we'll go on a Tuesday or Wednesday!" Those are my days off, after all. Then I looked at the coupon book they give you with the season passes and I said "if you can do it this week you can get in for $10." So yesterday we went.
We were headed for the water park, but to do that you have to walk past the Mind Eraser, which is a suspended inverson coaster that has scared me silly.mhaille had ridden it before, and said "hey, the line's not too bad, I want to do this first." So I waited for her. And got a frozen lemonade in my refillable souvenir cup, which brought the price down to tolerable. When she got off, I explained about being scared of inversion coasters, but I was trying to psych myself up... and if I was going to do one, I wanted to try the Flashback first, 'cause it was SHORT, and if I hated it it'd be over quickly -- one initial drop, one Immelman loop, one straight loop, and then they crank you up the hill again and send you through it backwards and then it's over. She said "I'll go on it with you." And then we hit the water park.
The water slides are great, but it would be nice if the attendants were consistent. The signs say "only water shoes." How are Teva sandals not water shoes? And then we were trying all of the Big Kahuna slides and I guess the attendants changed shift between our second and third trip down because the new guy made me take off my water moccasins after I'd been down twice in them already, no problem. We got tired of arguing with them and went back to the coasters.
Mr. Six's Pandemonium is the new one this year. No inversions, no really fierce drops -- but the car rotates like a Tilt-A-Whirl or a flying-teacups! LOTS of angular momentum! The only drawbacks are not with the ride itself, but with the line -- even on a Tuesday the line was insane, and they play music to fit the "spinning" theme, and there are only so many times I can hear "You Spin Me 'Round Like A Record" without going bugnuts insane (cover and original both), and I think I passed the threshold. People-watching continued to be amusing -- "knit hats in the summer are stupid, but he gains points back for the patch on his pants that he clearly put there himself and it might actually even be covering a hole, and MAJOR points for choice of girlfriend, she's a knockout." And "Those two, in the black and grey. Trying a little too hard maybe? Especially the ironic trucker hat." The ride itself was fun, and the two girls who got put into the car with us were good-natured sorts.
After Pandemonium, the near-absence of line at the Cyclone was refreshing. Old wooden coasters get no love, but they're still a good satisfying ride. And one thing I love about the Cyclone is that they put a short curve in before the first drop, which gives you a second after the initial pull to go "whee, coaster!" instead of "ohshitohshitwe'reallgonnadie." Since it's a wooden coaster, though, it's BUMPY. And it's got the old-fashioned low cars, no headrests... so you have to remember to sit straight or you risk wrenching your neck on the turns.
After the Cyclone we were still psyching ourselves up for the Flashback, so we went on the Scrambler, and reminisced about fair midways of our childhoods. The Scrambler really loses something without the actual smell of fried dough wafting in.
There was hardly any line for the Flashback either. I guess because it's not fantastically new and because it's smaller than Superman and Batman and so on. So we didn't have a long line to get panicky in. Panic didn't really set in until the harnesses were down (and my hands were sweating like crazy on the ohmygod handles) and they were cranking us up that first drop. You go down the first drop forwards, so they crank you up backwards. It doesn't look all that steep from the ground... especially if you've been staring at Superman's 200-foot, 80-degree initial drop all day and going "no, no way..." but when they're cranking you up it? It's STEEP. I wouldn't be surprised if it were 75 degrees. The website doesn't say.mhaille and I were telling each other "it didn't look this steep!" as it was cranking.
Then they dropped us. WHOO! Steep, but short... and then up, and twisting, and whoo! You're upside down! Upside down turns out to be not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I think inversion coasters have come a long way since I was seventeen -- those were some of the first generation, and they really did look pretty evil, and I think they've improved the harnesses too. And up and over again, and then you're being cranked up the hill... and waiting for them to drop you down it backwards is pretty scary, too, but going through it backwards is just whee, fun! So I'm not scared of inversion coasters any more.
Next up, the Thunderbolt, the smaller wooden coaster. That's really my ideal coaster -- exactly at the level where all of it is fun, and none of it is "why did I do this again?" There was a boy about ten or eleven years old in front of us in line -- reminded me of Vern from Stand By Me, although brighter. He was trying to talk his mom into going on the coaster so his just-tall-enough little brother would have someone to sit with (there was also an older brother, about fourteen I guess). We helped him talk her into it -- they'd just been on Poison Ivy, which is really a baby coaster, although it's in the DC Superheroes section, and I explained that Poison Ivy was a little gentler because it was steel not wood and more about the curves than the drops, and the mom was saying "if you were scared at ALL by Poison Ivy you might not want to do this," but the littlest boy was clearly eager, and I was encouraging them to give it a try. She did. We had a great time -- good clean coaster fun -- and the littlest boy was all "That was SO MUCH FUN!" and the mom's reaction was "Well, I survived!"
Next I waited formhaille to do the Scream -- which is just a big vertical tower drop. Bleah! Not for me. mhaille says it's no problem at all as long as you close your eyes... but I still don't think I want to do it. That elevator-belly sensation just isn't fun for me. I people-watched some more -- the little gothling in the black T-shirt over a neon green skintight long-sleeved shirt, some sort of neon green and yellow patterned thing (baby doll top maybe?) hanging out the hem, black shorts, and ONE stripy knee sock was interesting. What's up with ONE sock? Haven't seen that before.
Because we'd survived the Flashback so well, we talked ourselves into the Batman coaster. Not without doubts. All through the line, we were saying "we COULD chicken out now... you know, there's storm clouds coming in, if it starts raining and they shut the ride we have an honorable excuse..." but we went through with it. I let the girl in line in front of me stash her flip-flops in my backpack so they wouldn't fall off on the ride.mhaille and I agreed that we'd close our eyes on the first ascent because it looked very steep and scary... but you could feel when it got to the top, and I opened mine then (although I didn't look around), and WOW! The first drop is very steep, but they TWIST you as you're going down it, and you know what? That twist takes the vertical-drop sting right out of it! It was GREAT! And the other twists and curves and inversions were fantastic. WHEE! I am definitely going on the Batman again!
We were going to do the Spider next, because we like old-fashioned midway rides, but someone had gotten sick on it, and they didn't know how long it was going to take to clean it, and as we were debating going to the Crack Axle Canyon section to check out the midway-style rides there, the storm clouds DID open up, so we decided to call it a day. It was past 6:30 PM by then anyway, so we'd certainly had a full day of it.
We even made it to Haven afterwards, although we were both awfully tired.mhaille did my hair for me -- isolating some of the red streaks and renewing the color on them and then doing the rest of my hair all black because the brown roots were starting to show. I had packed the full leather battle dress -- miniskirt, corset, and 20-eye Docs -- because I was going on the assumption that cherrybutterfly and number42 would be there and I wanted to show off for them -- but, much as I love the corset, dancing in it (especially when I was tired) was not so much fun, so next time I am wearing something I can move better in. shadowflyer came anyway, although it meant we had to deal with two cars, but I was glad, and lordavon and madraxus were also there, and it was good to see them. I was pretty out of it, though. I want a shiny dark red vinyl mini like the stripy girl had, I do.
I am still tired, but I had fun.
melovechocolate had won herself a free ticket to Six Flags because she did such a good job on a fundraiser her school held... and discount tickets for the adults, although it turned out we got a better discount using a Dunkin' Donuts promotional coupon. And it was only good through 6/30, so we went on 6/29, which was also Christy's birthday.And got caught in a thunderstorm. Before we managed to go on a single ride. This peeved us mightily. Waiting out the thunderstorm in the snack bar was not entirely awful... we were diverted by the Baby With A Mohawk (so cute!) and the delighted reaction of the teenage boy with the elaborate bleached-out, flame-tipped mohawk (which, it transpired, his aunt the hairdresser had helped him create -- I had to ask if he had help 'cause the red tips were so PERFECTLY even) to the baby... which had to win him some points with his girlfriend, we figured... anyway, the people-watching was entertaining, but not a full admission's worth. So we decided it'd be worth it to pay the upgrade prices for season passes, since that'd be about equal to paying Dunkin' Donuts discounted gate again, and then come back a LOT, since it's only half an hour's drive from us, and really milk our money's worth out of the passes.
So that's what we've been doing with ourselves this summer.
shadowflyer and melovechocolate went back on 7/1, because melovechocolate had to miss camp for a doctor's appointment in the morning anyway... I could have gone with, but I wanted to get some sleep before the Reel Big Fish concert that evening. We all went back on the Fourth, which was of course insanely crowded, but with season passes we didn't feel so stressed about "OMG we have to do EVERYTHING today," and shadowflyer and I went back with melovechocolate on this past Sunday afternoon.I was telling
mhaille about how terrific the Tornado water slide was -- one banked curve, one steep drop to give you speed, and then you go up the sides of a GIANT FUNNEL -- and she was saying "nobody will GO with me this summer." It's awkward for her, because her kids are tall enough now that they no longer get in free, but are not tall enough to go on any of the GOOD rides. I said "I'll go with you -- get someone to watch the kids for a day and we'll go on a Tuesday or Wednesday!" Those are my days off, after all. Then I looked at the coupon book they give you with the season passes and I said "if you can do it this week you can get in for $10." So yesterday we went.We were headed for the water park, but to do that you have to walk past the Mind Eraser, which is a suspended inverson coaster that has scared me silly.
mhaille had ridden it before, and said "hey, the line's not too bad, I want to do this first." So I waited for her. And got a frozen lemonade in my refillable souvenir cup, which brought the price down to tolerable. When she got off, I explained about being scared of inversion coasters, but I was trying to psych myself up... and if I was going to do one, I wanted to try the Flashback first, 'cause it was SHORT, and if I hated it it'd be over quickly -- one initial drop, one Immelman loop, one straight loop, and then they crank you up the hill again and send you through it backwards and then it's over. She said "I'll go on it with you." And then we hit the water park.The water slides are great, but it would be nice if the attendants were consistent. The signs say "only water shoes." How are Teva sandals not water shoes? And then we were trying all of the Big Kahuna slides and I guess the attendants changed shift between our second and third trip down because the new guy made me take off my water moccasins after I'd been down twice in them already, no problem. We got tired of arguing with them and went back to the coasters.
Mr. Six's Pandemonium is the new one this year. No inversions, no really fierce drops -- but the car rotates like a Tilt-A-Whirl or a flying-teacups! LOTS of angular momentum! The only drawbacks are not with the ride itself, but with the line -- even on a Tuesday the line was insane, and they play music to fit the "spinning" theme, and there are only so many times I can hear "You Spin Me 'Round Like A Record" without going bugnuts insane (cover and original both), and I think I passed the threshold. People-watching continued to be amusing -- "knit hats in the summer are stupid, but he gains points back for the patch on his pants that he clearly put there himself and it might actually even be covering a hole, and MAJOR points for choice of girlfriend, she's a knockout." And "Those two, in the black and grey. Trying a little too hard maybe? Especially the ironic trucker hat." The ride itself was fun, and the two girls who got put into the car with us were good-natured sorts.
After Pandemonium, the near-absence of line at the Cyclone was refreshing. Old wooden coasters get no love, but they're still a good satisfying ride. And one thing I love about the Cyclone is that they put a short curve in before the first drop, which gives you a second after the initial pull to go "whee, coaster!" instead of "ohshitohshitwe'reallgonnadie." Since it's a wooden coaster, though, it's BUMPY. And it's got the old-fashioned low cars, no headrests... so you have to remember to sit straight or you risk wrenching your neck on the turns.
After the Cyclone we were still psyching ourselves up for the Flashback, so we went on the Scrambler, and reminisced about fair midways of our childhoods. The Scrambler really loses something without the actual smell of fried dough wafting in.
There was hardly any line for the Flashback either. I guess because it's not fantastically new and because it's smaller than Superman and Batman and so on. So we didn't have a long line to get panicky in. Panic didn't really set in until the harnesses were down (and my hands were sweating like crazy on the ohmygod handles) and they were cranking us up that first drop. You go down the first drop forwards, so they crank you up backwards. It doesn't look all that steep from the ground... especially if you've been staring at Superman's 200-foot, 80-degree initial drop all day and going "no, no way..." but when they're cranking you up it? It's STEEP. I wouldn't be surprised if it were 75 degrees. The website doesn't say.
mhaille and I were telling each other "it didn't look this steep!" as it was cranking.Then they dropped us. WHOO! Steep, but short... and then up, and twisting, and whoo! You're upside down! Upside down turns out to be not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I think inversion coasters have come a long way since I was seventeen -- those were some of the first generation, and they really did look pretty evil, and I think they've improved the harnesses too. And up and over again, and then you're being cranked up the hill... and waiting for them to drop you down it backwards is pretty scary, too, but going through it backwards is just whee, fun! So I'm not scared of inversion coasters any more.
Next up, the Thunderbolt, the smaller wooden coaster. That's really my ideal coaster -- exactly at the level where all of it is fun, and none of it is "why did I do this again?" There was a boy about ten or eleven years old in front of us in line -- reminded me of Vern from Stand By Me, although brighter. He was trying to talk his mom into going on the coaster so his just-tall-enough little brother would have someone to sit with (there was also an older brother, about fourteen I guess). We helped him talk her into it -- they'd just been on Poison Ivy, which is really a baby coaster, although it's in the DC Superheroes section, and I explained that Poison Ivy was a little gentler because it was steel not wood and more about the curves than the drops, and the mom was saying "if you were scared at ALL by Poison Ivy you might not want to do this," but the littlest boy was clearly eager, and I was encouraging them to give it a try. She did. We had a great time -- good clean coaster fun -- and the littlest boy was all "That was SO MUCH FUN!" and the mom's reaction was "Well, I survived!"
Next I waited for
mhaille to do the Scream -- which is just a big vertical tower drop. Bleah! Not for me. mhaille says it's no problem at all as long as you close your eyes... but I still don't think I want to do it. That elevator-belly sensation just isn't fun for me. I people-watched some more -- the little gothling in the black T-shirt over a neon green skintight long-sleeved shirt, some sort of neon green and yellow patterned thing (baby doll top maybe?) hanging out the hem, black shorts, and ONE stripy knee sock was interesting. What's up with ONE sock? Haven't seen that before.Because we'd survived the Flashback so well, we talked ourselves into the Batman coaster. Not without doubts. All through the line, we were saying "we COULD chicken out now... you know, there's storm clouds coming in, if it starts raining and they shut the ride we have an honorable excuse..." but we went through with it. I let the girl in line in front of me stash her flip-flops in my backpack so they wouldn't fall off on the ride.
mhaille and I agreed that we'd close our eyes on the first ascent because it looked very steep and scary... but you could feel when it got to the top, and I opened mine then (although I didn't look around), and WOW! The first drop is very steep, but they TWIST you as you're going down it, and you know what? That twist takes the vertical-drop sting right out of it! It was GREAT! And the other twists and curves and inversions were fantastic. WHEE! I am definitely going on the Batman again!We were going to do the Spider next, because we like old-fashioned midway rides, but someone had gotten sick on it, and they didn't know how long it was going to take to clean it, and as we were debating going to the Crack Axle Canyon section to check out the midway-style rides there, the storm clouds DID open up, so we decided to call it a day. It was past 6:30 PM by then anyway, so we'd certainly had a full day of it.
We even made it to Haven afterwards, although we were both awfully tired.
mhaille did my hair for me -- isolating some of the red streaks and renewing the color on them and then doing the rest of my hair all black because the brown roots were starting to show. I had packed the full leather battle dress -- miniskirt, corset, and 20-eye Docs -- because I was going on the assumption that cherrybutterfly and number42 would be there and I wanted to show off for them -- but, much as I love the corset, dancing in it (especially when I was tired) was not so much fun, so next time I am wearing something I can move better in. shadowflyer came anyway, although it meant we had to deal with two cars, but I was glad, and lordavon and madraxus were also there, and it was good to see them. I was pretty out of it, though. I want a shiny dark red vinyl mini like the stripy girl had, I do.I am still tired, but I had fun.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 07:12 pm (UTC)On a side note...will I be seeing you dancing at our one year anniversary this Saturday night?
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 11:42 pm (UTC)Also, next Tuesday, I CAN go to Haven, because I had asked for that Wednesday switched. I am sorry that we got confused. Love me Pweeeease??
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 12:57 am (UTC)