Six Flags Fiesta Texas 8/22/18 - My First Raptor

I make it a point to visit this park once a year, as it’s one of my favorites – probably the most scenic I’ve visited after Alton Towers and Dollywood – and this year it was of particular interest due to the addition of Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster. That was the first place I headed upon entering the park. There wasn’t much of a queue but there were mechanical issues with the ride. Only one train was running and I watched it get stuck on the lift hill with riders. I also watched while they ran the train empty through several cycles and each time it got stuck on the hill. The train was taken off, another one was transferred onto the track and I finally got on.

One thing which impressed me is that the trains don’t stop moving during the unloading and loading process. There is no choice of seats; I ended up in the last row b/c I was the last person in a group of 8. As to the ride itself, it felt somewhat strange to be riding on a single rail. The ride was pretty intense although not as smooth as I had anticipated. It’s thrilling alright but I felt somewhat off balance and banged an ankle against the partition in the car. However, I decided to reserve judgment and reride it later.

Next up was Superman, my favorite floorless, followed by Iron Rattler. I truly believe that Iron Rattler is one of the best coasters in existence and was fortunate enough to get 4 consecutive rides before having to exit when more people showed up. Otherwise I would have stayed on, as it’s a long walk from the ground up the ramp to the loading station, especially for a 67-year-old. In any case I took a lunch break and grabbed another ride on Superman before heading to Batman. I’ve heard people complain that they don’t get enough flips on Joker at Great Adventure or SFNE. Well, Batman is off the wall insane. I didn’t count the flips but they were intense to the point of being almost violent. The guy sitting next to me and I thought that the ride was a riot.

Back to Wonder Woman. By this time there was quite a queue and with a one-train operation it took an hour to get on. While waiting in the extreme heat – 100+ degrees – I came very close to passing out and was afraid of passing out on the ride. This time I ended up in the front row and while the ride experience was different, I had the same impression of its not being especially smooth. While not fast - it goes only 52 mph – it was whipping me around like crazy and the restraints were sliding all over the place when they weren’t digging into my shoulders. You can actually see from the onride photo that the restraint slipped off my right shoulder – not a good sign – whereas for some reason, the restraint stayed put on the woman riding behind me.

On to Poltergeist, which I find to be a fun little ride. Someone told me that a second train had been added to Wonder Woman so I went back to give it one more shot and managed to get on in less than 20 minutes. Once again I had the perception of its being intense but not necessarily easy to ride. At this point it gets a mixed review although I may change my mind later after I’ve had more time to analyze it. It certainly is novel; I’ll give it that. And with the trains being in motion during unloading and reloading, it would be an efficient process if they could run all 3 trains at all times, with some qualification. When 2 trains were operating, each had one seat that was blocked off so that brought the capacity down to 7 riders per train and that is pretty dismal.

By this time I’d had about enough but rode Iron Rattler once more and bypassed Roadrunner b/c I didn’t feel up to going up the steps and ramp. Instead I decided to ride Goliath, forgetting that it too has steps and a long ramp. Oh noes!!! Rode it anyway. All in all it was a pretty good day at the park although the heat nearly did me in.

I definitely feel like the minority in that Iron Rattler was my favorite RMC conversion. (Until Steel Vengeance, that is.) I just feel it has the best flow, and feel the most like a real coaster, as opposed to just a bunch of "Hey, look at how much crazy stuff we can do!"

I know that SV is more of the latter, but it's just so darn good at it.

Tommytheduck, I guess that that places me in the minority as well b/c Iron Rattler is also my favorite RMC conversion after Steel Vengeance, and it's more easily rerideable than SV. I adore New Texas Giant, Twisted Timbers and Wicked Cyclone but Iron Rattler is really special.

NTG is probably my favorite but Wicked Cyclone and Outlaw Tun are both really close. I just have no use for going upside down.

I’ve rideen CGA’s raptor and I had similar thoughts. A little too intense, marginally uncomfortable restraints, and bad capacity. I can see why it would be a big hit with GP (wink) though. Ours doesn’t have continuous loading though.

I got many more flips on SFNE’s Joker than SFFT’s Batman. YMMV, I guess?