7th Stop: Six Flags Over Texas, Fort Worth, TX

The last stop on the most wonderful of trips

All good things must come to an end, and our last stop is Six Flags over Texas, near Fort Worth. We stayed at the Omni Hotel downtown. This is one of our favorite hotel chains, and they took great care of us.

Fort Worth is seemingly infatuated with water, as evidenced by several water-oriented parks and plazas we visited. Given their roasting summers, this is not surprising. There is a 4-acre park next to the hotel called the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The park features several "pools," each of a different nature. Here's the "aerating pool" with its misty sprayed water cloud.

We enjoyed live jazz on Sunday afternoon at a nearby plaza, which also has a water element. Here, jets of water dance as they emanate from the concrete walkway, and kids of all ages run through the pillars of water.










Now it's off to Six Flags!

One of the featured rides is Titan, a "Hyper Twister Coaster" with a 245 foot drop. The ride is over a mile long, and features a 540-degree helix element that pulls some pretty serious sustained G's (4.5). Of course, this just an excuse to make faces at the ride camera, which we did. 

Here: Enjoy the ride yourself. The 540-degree 4.5G helix is after the ride comes to an almost dead stop.

Batman is a suspended-type 'coaster, similar to other Batman rides we have enjoyed at other parks. Our preference on these is to be in the front, since otherwise your view is blocked.

We experienced something here we had not seen at other parks: a very inefficient crew.  These gals were taking their sweet time loading and checking the trains. Even though the park was very slow on this cloudy Monday, it was annoying to stand there watching grass grow.


We hopped on a ride called Pandemonium, which is a mild ride but fun. On this ride, the cars move along a track conventionally, but the 4-person cars themselves spin freely, which means that each time you ride it you get a unique ride. Fittingly for a ride called Pandemonium, it started raining mid-ride!

Finally, our favorite ride here is called "Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast." You enter an old, abandoned ice cream warehouse that is themed to be the hideout of Batman's enemy, Mr. Freeze. Any ride you enter through the mouth of a scary clown has to be good, right?

The ride begins when the lights in the launch tunnel turn on and the lights in the station dim. Linear motors ("LIMs")  launch the train, with its cars facing backwards, through a 190-foot tunnel and up into a 150-foot-tall inside top hat that flips you completely upside-down. This element is followed by a 105-foot over-banked turn and a vertical spike. As the train climbs this spike and slows, it is gently pushed up almost all the way to the top by another set of LIMs. The LIMs reverse and the train runs the entire course in reverse.

We rode this ride several times, from the front, middle, and, finally, the back. It was, by far, best from the back.  It is simply a wonderful ride, with so many elements we like: Wicked acceleration immediately from the linear motor launch, a loud tunnel, inversions, and even a 90-degree vertical "spike."  A real screamer!

Enjoy a virtual ride on Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast!

Our last ride, from the back, was so great that we decided to end our day with it so as to make it the  last ride of the trip.

A last post to this blog will be forthcoming after we get home to summarize the trip and list our favorite rides and experiences.