Happy Halloween

We decided to take a break from the ranch and, since it is October, that means Halloween fun. We decided to make a weekend of it. Down in San Antonio, there are two amusement parks: Sea World and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. We decided to visit Six Flags on Saturday and Sea World on Sunday.

We left on Friday night, rolling down US 281 toward San Antonio. We stopped at Marble Falls for dinner. After dinner, we rolled for San Antonio and checked into a motel very close to Fiesta Texas.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

After we entered the park, we picked up a copy of the daily activities. It informed us that several of our favorite rides were not available. Although, they were advertising Halloween activities, which they call Fright Fest, we saw much less than in previous years. To top it off, their premiere activity required an additional fee. As usual, the water in the whitewater raft ride and in the fountains was dyed red. Some Halloween decoration were up.

Lunch, at the Fest Halle, was a comedy of errors. We selected two beers and got on line to check out. After we got to the front of the line, the clerk told us she was under twenty-one and could not check us out. We would have to get on another checkout line. We got on that line, but there was no one manning the cash register. By the time someone returned to the cash register and checked us out, our food was cold. A complaint to the manager got us fresh, hot food, but a simple sign directing us to the correct line and a cashier who was manning his post would have saved us time and frustration and would have saved the park money.

In spite of everything that went wrong, we had a fun day. We topped it off with a funnel cake - they had something unique: pumpkin funnel cake!

Sea World

On Sunday, we were welcomed with their Halloween theme: Jack is Back! and Howl-O-Scream. Pumpkins and other Halloween decorations were everywhere! Skeletons! Tombstones! A quartet of singing skeletons! Two animated skeletons who banter with the public! A special show at Shamu Stadium! Special food stands! After 6 PM, a whole section of the park became a scare zone!

They had not one, but two haunted activities! Up by the penguin encounter, they had a haunted house, Den of the Departed. Near Shamu Stadium, they had a longer, scarier haunted trail, Jack's Frightmare Forest. In the scare zone, they had staff members made up as evil clowns, zombies and other scary characters.

We had a much better time at Sea World.

In Summary

If you are going to San Antonio in the next few weeks, go to Sea World and skip Fiesta Texas. I wonder who will do the better job for Thanksgiving through Christmas? We will just have to come back to San Antonio and check both out.