Six Flags: Personal account 2
Yesterday morning I woke up last minute at 6 and started prepping myself for the long day to come at Six Flags St. Louis on the sophomore class trip.
Class president Isaac Chambers had told us that absolutely no food or drinks would be allowed in the park, so I thought I was being sneaky by bringing some Pop-Tarts and water. When I arrived at Uni a little before 7 a.m., my classmates were gathered just inside the main entrance, girls with hair still wet from showers and students sipping coffee they had picked up from Espresso Royale.
Nobody seemed fully awake, except perhaps Kareem Sayegh, whose energy seems limitless. Assistant Director Sue Kovacs checked in students right at 7 and we were handed our tickets. Unfortunately the tickets were really wide, so they didn’t fit properly into a wallet.
Kovacs also distributed her cell-phone number among students, since we were required to check in via cell phone at two-hour intervals, warning us nonetheless that making prank calls would be of no benefit since she had a list of the entire class’s cell-phone numbers sitting right in front of her.
We were required to take two turtle vans and one minivan to the park. Personally I would’ve preferred a regular bus considering there were no bathrooms on the turtle buses. And when it started to reach 10:30 the vans got hot, and even though we turned on the air conditioning, on occasion the cool air would turn into blasting hot air and made everyone even more uncomfortable than they already were. But on the bright side, there were movies we could watch.
Once at the park we all gave our tickets to the person at the front and were forced to have our bags checked and walk through metal detectors. It wasn’t exactly a thorough process, though, considering they didn’t even ask me to have my bag checked or anything. Immediately into the park there were official Six Flags photographers who kept telling everyone how gorgeous they were and how we needed our pictures taken.
Considering it was opening day, we had expected there to be insane lines, but fortunately nothing was that bad. The water park was closed, and there was a cheer competition, so there were plenty of halter-topped cheerleaders wandering around the park.
I stayed with a group of friends and went on almost every ride possible. Even though none of us was that scared of the roller coasters, we all screamed nonetheless.
There was one ride called XCalibur, which wasn’t a roller coaster, but basically you got into these seats and they tipped them backwards so you faced the sky. The ride started spinning you really fast. Then you slowly got flipped over so you were facing straight down to the ground while spinning.
Anyway, right when we were getting in our row of seats this giant wasp came into our compartment and caused me and all my friends to go ballistic. The people watching us from the line thought we were crazy since the ride hadn’t even started yet, and the guy in charge of operating the ride just shook his head at us.
The worst line by far was the line for pizza. I expected the lines would be crazy and the food would be overpriced. But $7 for a slice of pizza? And I waited over an hour for one slice. They served you cafeteria style, so you got your food and then went to check out and pay. Lots of people got two slices of pizza and would finish one slice by the time they had to pay, so they only had to pay for one slice. It was very inefficient.
One of the best rides was the water-raft ride. There was some mom in front of us who snapped and yelled at us when she thought we were going to cut her. But that was all right. Twelve of us sat in this raft and got soaking wet. Lor Sligar got so soaked she got up and moved to the middle of the ride to prevent from getting even more wet.
And for some reason they wouldn’t let us wear our swimsuits on that ride either, so our clothes were drenched. We went under a waterfall and almost ran into a hissing goose that was living on the side of the water.
The most thrilling ride was probably Mr. Freeze. I had never been on it, and not many people were willing to go with me. Sheri Grill had told me her mom had blacked out on it, and after about an hour and a half of waiting in line this girl in the car in front of us said her seatbelt wouldn’t work. The bar that’s supposed to come down over your legs wouldn’t stay down for her. All I could think was that if I were her, I wouldn’t have stayed on, but they told her they had fixed it and so she stayed.
Isaac, Alan Liang, Laura Voitik, and I all went on the same ride (but Alan and Isaac were more brave, and sat toward the front). The ride only lasted about 35 seconds, but going up that 90-degree lift and then going backwards was thrilling enough.
Considering the horrible lines we had to experience for lunch, most people decided to skip out on dinner and wasted their money on things like automatic foot massages and winning stuffed animals from park games. When it was time to go, people met back at the front of the park wearing pink Batman capes and getting a few last pictures with the attractive Wonderwoman.
On the way home everyone slept, watched the movie playing, or played with their cell phones. We stopped at a couple of gas stations to pick up cheap candy and at McDonald’s, and around 10 p.m. we made a rest stop where everyone got out and played at the highway park.
Although it was incredibly fun, I was just happy to be home, and if I hadn’t given some of my brother’s friends rides home I would’ve undoubtedly fallen asleep in the car. I hope our class gets to do something like this again soon.
— Lizzy Warner