Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 23

We woke up a little earlier in what would be our last full day at Mexico City on this holiday. We had a bit of a plan... We were thinking about going to Six Flags Mexico earlier in the week - but Ant wasn't really phased about going to another themepark this trip. He had found out how to get their via public transport - but I was too scared/crazy/confused to go by myself - so we shelved the idea.... until today.

We had extended our booking at the Eurostars Hotel by another day to allow us to visit Six Flags (thanks Anty!). We had this crazy glass cupboard door - which had a crack in it on our first night here at the hotel. Over the week - the crack in the glass had progressively gotten worse. We had no idea how it was cracked in the first place - and we were a bit afraid that the hotel might charge us to replace the door. Luckily - when we extended the hotel booking by a night (over the internet) - they never mentioned anything about the ever-expanding crack in the cupboard door - and they let us keep our bling bling room for an extra night (didn't have to move rooms).

We caught a metro out to the Universidad station (aka University). The train was full of its normal eclectic mix of crazy touts (there had been this beggar dude who repeatedly smashed his face against a bag of glass for cash... as you do. The train for me got a little iffy towards the end when there were a couple of young guys who seemed to be acting up on us (whistling and acting moody) - but it was just nothing.

From the Universidad station - we had to catch a bus to Six Flags - but this is where our journey got a little hard (and I was thankful that Ant was here to help out). We got out of the metro stop at one side and walked up and down a 300m stretch of road - where it had seemed like there was only one bus which stopped along this road. Ant noticed a number 64 bus which had a "Six Flags" sign on the front. But we couldn't find any 64 stops... Getting a bit desperate - we went back to the station and exited along another stretch of road - this time it didn't seem to have any stops at all (just offloading of passengers). After the super efficiency of the train - it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to find that the buses were super hard, difficult and chaotic. We headed back into the station - and onto another bus platform - where we finally found a Six Flags bus stop. We climbed onto the bus - and paid an 8 peso ticket. The bus was a little bit ghetto - it looked like there were bullet holes in the front windscreen - and it looked like it had come direct from the 1960s.

The bus ride took about 20 minutes - and it passed through what looked like the Tuggernong of Mexico City - but it did have some really big f##k off malls (where "Sears" appeared to be the premier store... cough).

Six Flags Mexico City was apparently a Mexican-run themepark until a couple of years ago - where the Mc Donalds of Themeparks - Six Flags - bought it out and changed it to a 6 Flags (I did my research before we left on wikipedia). When we arrived - there appeared to be hordes of locals queuing up out the front... I was at this point getting flashbacks to Knotts Berry Farm and that darn Toys for Tots promotion. Ant and I just headed for the front of the park - where we found a relatively short queue to buy tickets. Again - most people seemed to be conducting hostage negotiations with the ticket office people - getting them to explain every single ticket combination and permutation. Admittedly - the tickets seemed a little confusing. There was a "General Admission Ticket" - at about 310 pesos (or $30AUD - now can you see why we wanted to go??!). There was a "Annual Pass" at a steal-esque price of 510 pesos (or about $50AUD), a Flash Pass for three rides for 100 pesos (or $10AUD) and a VIP Pass for 590 pesos (almost $60AUD) which was, at the time, inexplicably more than an annual pass. Ant and I just went for the general admission tickets and were on our way through the front gates.

Six Flags had a little bit of a "Main Street Mexico" theme out the front of the park - as opposed to the warped-Main Street USA at Disneyland. We decided that we thought it was a good idea to not go on the wet rides at the end of the day (like we had done at Disneyland) - so we got in the biggish queue for the "rocky river rampage-esque" ride (you know - those big tube things that go down rapids and stuff and you get wet). We had to wait for about 30 minutes (which is no good for the both of us since we are so damn impatient). We had noticed the "Flash Pass" queue - which was completely empty. If someone entered into it - they immediately bypassed the "regular" queue and hopped onto the next available ride. During our time in the queue - we came to the opinion that if got a "VIP Pass" - it would include an unlimited "Flash Pass" queue ticket (instead of just the three rides you get with the Flash Pass at the front gates) - and Ant was adamant that there would be somewhere in the themepark where you could upgrade your regular admission ticket to a VIP ticket - because themeparks always want to upsell stuff to you.

The "Rocky River Rampage" or the "Río Salvaje" as it was called got us all wet (as a good wet ride should). Ant commented at the part of the ride where there were statues with running hoses aimed at tubes "What sort of sick sadist came up with this idea!~".

After the Rio Salvaje - we went to the location where there was a "VIP Pass" symbol on the 6 Flags Map (the map was completely En Espanol - as to all of the signs, attractions and shows at the park. There was an office (yay) - where we both upgraded our passes for 290 pesos each (which was probably more expensive than just buying it at the front office). We were both given this yellow felt wrist bands with the words "V.I.P" in big bold text. Wow - I felt like Britney at Las Vegas ritzy night club...

We then put our passes to extremely good use by "by-passing" the entire long big queue to the Superman rollercoaster (or "Superman El Último Escape") and went straight to the front of the roller-coaster loading dock. I felt sort of bad for jumping in front of so many people (sort of felt like a middle-aged Chinese woman) but hey - I payed the extra money so I want to avoid the queues. The Superman rollercoaster was a giant, non-upside, coaster which was really really big and tall and had a huge big drop. It was fun and fast (and made Ant a bit squrimish because of the heights involved) - but we enjoyed it. I was a little anxious about our bag because the attendant took it from us and just left it above the lockers near the ride's exit - but it was still there when we left.

We did something a bit more tamer next - the Haunted House of La Llorona... but maybe it was a bit lamer instead... We had no queue whatsoever. There was a VIP gate at the entrance to the ride - so we probably by-passed a 15 minute queue. These VIP passes are sort of like the "Qantas Club" of 6 Flags... The woman at the front took our bag off us (they seem to have this phobia of taking bags onto any ride whatsoever here) and we got on a "on-rails" ye olde ghost train which was completely En Espanol and we couldn't make heads or tails out of any of it... Maybe we needed some drugs to help us...?

We started to notice that 6 Flags didn't really have any distinctive themes in it. The layout was quite confusing (for those trying to interpret a en espanol map which is not to scale (or has any resemblance to reality). They seemed to have some sort of tie-in with both Warner Brother cartoon characters (eg: bugs bunny) and Hanna Barbara characters (eg: the robot maid from the Jetsons). I was a little shocked to find a "Speedy Gonazles" Hamburger shop - thinking that Mexicans would find that character offensive and stereotypical. But you saw people buying giant Speedy toys and stuff...

Ant and I chowed down on some Nachos (which were about $4AUD and fairly plentful). We were thinking we where heading in the direction of the "Splash" ride - another wet ride which we could bowl over early in the day. But instead we found ourselves to be at the opposite end of the park at the wooden ""the beast" rollercoaster ride (aka "Medusa"). It was a big f##k off rollercoaster (bigger than that old wooden one at Wonderland - RIP - never forget... sob) and I'm sure we probably would have void any claim we could make on our travel insurance by going on it. According to the official website - it goes more than 80KM an hour. It was pretty violent and aggressive ride - Ant and I were bouncing all over the carriage (with the arm rest banging on our legs) - I was a little surprised that I didn't end up with extensive bruising on my legs. Both Ant and I got a really bad back and neck out of it... Ant was saying "do you want to do that one again" - I just looked at him with disgust...

We then went on something a whole lot more tamer - the ferris wheel (aka Rueda India) which was trying to out-racist Frontierland at Disneyland - with lots of hokey Red Indians everywhere... Our VIP "I'm a celebrity - get me out of this queue" pass again avoided a 20 minute queue - and we just strolled up to the front and they let us on the first available carriage. The load took about 15 minutes (to load and unload everyone) - but once we got off (in a non-blue sense) we got some neecye views of the park and surrounds. We noticed that it was quite bushy around the park (flammable).

We then finally worked out how to navigate our way to the "Splash" ride (and no - I don't think the ride had any relationship to the "Splash" movie with Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah and that dad from American Pie). It was like a four-abreast ride which could seat up to about 20 people. You get lifted up a ramp, you go around a curve and then you splash down and not only do you get horribly wet - but you also drench the people who are crossing over a bridge and are making their way off the ride to the exit... Talk about sadistic. I thought I might as well brave this one - Ant sat out on it - thinking that he might pick up some cholera from the ride. I got to bypass the queue (again) and I got first dibs on a front row seat. When we landed - there looked like there was a 8 foot wall of water in front of the flume thingy - and yes - everyone got drenched completely... so much so - I had felt wet for pretty much the rest of the day. Although at this themepark - we were smart enough to leave our passports back in the hotel safe. On one of our pre-blog trips - we went to the Wonderland-sister themepark in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia - where we went on not just one wet ride - but two - in a row - with our money belts on.... We spent the next 40 minutes trying to dry our passports under a toilet hand-dryer. I don't think my passport has ever really recovered since.

We had lunch at (the shame continues...) Domino's. Here at 6 Flags - it seemed like that they have outsourced all of their restaurants to other companies to do - so instead of getting one of those fantastically underwhelming burgers at Tomorrowland Disneyland - you can get a pizza from Domino's or a hamburger from Johnny Rockets. We ordered a large pizza to share between us and a couple of "super-size me" drinks. The pizzas were cooked fresh and were OK - hey it beats the Tomorrowland Burger Cafe thingy.

We quickly finished our lunches (in a rather "my mum would disapprove at the speed at which we are eating" rate) and headed over to the VIP section of the Batman Inicia Stunt Show (or "Batman Begins"). The VIP section was a roped off section at the front of the theatre. No hanging around waiting forever for a show - bagging the good seats... You just flash your pass and the attendant lets you through (just like Paris at a nightclub!). The show was pretty hokey (as all themepark shows are). I think it was loosely based upon the "Batman Begins" movie and I'm sure if you hadn't seen the movie - that none of it would make any sense whatsoever. Everybody spoke En Espanol - but you could sort of work out who people were and when cars should explode. Everyone was lip-sync'ing the words (a la Milli Vanilli) and there were "added" sound-effects to the punches and kicks which made it completely hilarious when it was super-obvious that none of the punches were connecting.

We then checked out the "Boomerang" ride - which was a bit like the old "Demon" rollercoaster at Wonderland (is this a recurring theme about 6 Flags Mexico) - which is like a single-way track rollercoaster (not a loop) and when you reach one end of the track - you go backwards. There were a couple of loop-de-loops and Ant pretty much freaked out after this ride. He had very sweaty palms over this ride and had these giant marks on his hands from his fingernails... I promised Ant not to disclose this information on the blog - but hey - what are you going to do about it?? Log in and delete it??! Ahem - don't do that Ant!

We then went on the Canoa Krakatoa - which we thought would be a bit tamer than the Boomerang. It was one of those swinging pirate ships (like the Bounty's Revenge at Wonderland!) but this one didn't go upside-down. We again by-passed the queue (those suckers!) and we sort of felt a bit nauseous after this one. Maybe it was something to do with the ride lasting about 5 minutes. Anyway - if you did spew on it - then you would only spew into the face of someone else... klassy...

Anyway - I then checked out the Batman: The Ride (in english) which was one of those inverted roller coasters where your legs stick out (like the Lethal Weapon ride at Movieworld). To be honest - maybe I was starting to feel a little queasy after the Canoa Krakatoa - and this ride wasn't make the situation any better.

We then checked out the "Kilahuea" which was sort of like Anal Probe 7 at Wonderland - except you went upwards really quickly and bounced at the top - before being flung to the ground - only to bounce for a bit a the bottom. I had some solo fun on it (Ant hates heights and decided to give it a miss).

In order to lift Ant's spirits - we decided to BUY SOME ICECREAMS...! Although the place that we got the icecream had that distinct Mexican "lack of staff and service" feeling - where it took about 10 minutes to get a cornetto (for me) and a giant ice cream for Ant (try logging on and deleting that !).

I was still eating my cornetto when I was in the queue to the Catapulta ride (which is sort of like the Wipeout ride at Dreamworld - only that it doesn't twist around rather it goes forwards/backwards and upside-down. I had barely finished eating my icecream when I was strapped in on the ride and was flung upside-down about 10 times - whilst doing poses for Ant who was madly trying to take some kodak moments. As soon as the ride was finished - I raced back into the VIP queue - where I made it onto the next ride... yay... Strangely enough - I didn't feel like vomiting after that one.

Straight after that I did the sister ride - the Curandero (which was sort of like Bounty's Revenge at Wonderland). Although this ride wasn't such a hot idea because you weren't strapped in as tight as the Catapulta and you had this distinct feeling that you were going to slip out of the ride whilst upside-down (sometimes for about 10 secs or more). Also - being in the middle of the ride was probably worse than being on the outside - because there was less speed - and thus you were not sticking to the ride as you should have been. I had felt a little sick after this one. To be continued... xo xo