Six Flags America August 2020

After Amy's wedding was rescheduled, we ended up with flight credits through 3 different airlines - Spirit, Frontier, and Alaska, all with different expiration dates. When we went to Las Vegas and Missouri we used our Spirit credits, our Alaska ones don't need to be booked until the end of the year, but our Frontier credit had to be booked by early June. Their schedule went through September of 2021, so we used it to book a trip next August, but I didn't feel comfortable having a trip planned that far out, and Frontier is very flexible with flight changes this year (just not refunds). We wanted to take another summer trip, even if it was just going back to Utah again, so we looked up where we could go with our flight credits and our 6 Flags passes. We couldn't leave until after August 18th due to Allison's tooth removal, but most of the 6 Flags that had reopened during Covid would only be open on weekends after that point. We looked into going to Florida since most parks stay open year round then, but there's no 6 Flags there, so any of our entertainment would all cost extra.

Then Oscar did a little research and found that both Six Flags America in Maryland and Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey were open daily until the beginning of September. He also found really reasonably priced tickets to Baltimore on Frontier. At first we thought we'd just go to Maryland since New Jersey didn't seem like an option. We were on their mandatory 14 quarantine while our Covid cases were rising, but they took us off their list in August when our cases started falling significantly. Since the two parks are only 3 hours away, we figured we might as well go to both of them.

It really saves us money to take our vacations at a 6 Flags since our annual admission, drinks, and meal passes are valid at all 6 Flags locations. Both Oscar and I get a lunch, dinner, and a snack everyday we visit the park, which is usually enough to eat for all of us and saves quite a bit of money. Normally we spend a lot on food during a vacation since we have to eat out a lot, but on this trip we barely spent anything. 2 of our 3 hotels served breakfast and we visited the park for at least a few hours every single day. 

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Unfortunately the catch of getting our cheap flights was that we had overnight layovers in Denver both ways. The way back was fine since we both arrived and departed at reasonable times, but our flight from Denver to Baltimore left at 6:39am! This meant waking up at 3:30am Denver time, which is 2:30am our time, and it was brutal!

Allison slept on the drive to Sea-Tac airport, which worried me she wouldn't be able settle down easily that night in Denver. Fortunately she didn't have any problem. Both kids fell asleep fairly quickly. They'd been warned we'd be waking up super early the next morning, and they did a good job taking advantage of the available sleeping time they had. I, on the other hand, slept like garbage. I think it's partly because we had slurpees and pizza for dinner. I don't usually eat that much junk at night, so I think it just kept me up wired. I got a grand total of about 90 minutes of sleep. 

We got to the airport with plenty of time the next morning. We could have taken the shuttle an hour later at 5, but we didn't know how quick the shuttle ride would be, and we didn't want to risk missing our flight. At the airport we picked up some donuts and super yummy hot chocolate at Duncan Donuts for breakfast. In the end the extra early flight worked out for the best. The sleep deprival helped both kids sleep on the Denver - Baltimore plane, and they adjusted really well to Eastern time since they were completely wiped out at the end of the day. 

We arrived around noon, picked up our rental car, then checked in early at the hotel so we could drop our luggage off. The hotel was spacious with two queen beds and a comfy sofa. Both of the kids wanted to sleep on the sofa rather than on the equally comfy bed. They took turns on it the two nights we were there.

We went ahead and drove down to Six Flags America since there were still several hours before the park closed at 7. I took the kids on a few rides while Oscar went to find out if we could replace our refillable sports bottles. I'd put them through the dishwasher and learned the hard way they're not dishwasher safe. Eventually he did find a supervisor and we were able to pay $5 per bottle to get replacements, but it took awhile before he found anyone authorized to help him. 6 Flags gives their entry level employees zero power to help dissatisfied customers, and they make it difficult for them to access a supervisor who can help. This was the same issue I had trying to get Allison's pretzel at 6 Flags St Louis. 

Once Oscar met back up with us he took the kids through the rides at Loony Tunes Movie Town while I rode some 54+ inch rides. Superman was awesome! It's one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on.

I met up with the family while they were watching the stunt show then I took Allison on a few rides while Tyler did some 48+ roller coasters with daddy.

When they were done I took both kids on a few things while Oscar went on some thrill rides. Unfortunately we missed our free dinner since meal plan service stops promptly at 6pm (this was not true at the other 3 Six Flags we've been to). 

Allison slept on the drive back, so we put Tyler down first that night while Allison went for a swim. Before we got her down to the pool, though, the kids were being pretty rowdy, and someone made a noise complaint to the front desk about us. We got a call then hurried to get Allison out of the room and Tyler settled down to bed quietly. 

The next morning the kids slept in due to the time change, then we ate breakfast and got ready to go. We were 5 minutes from heading out the door when we got another noise complaint at 10:20am! The other night was understandable since the kids were overstimulated and jetlagged, but the next morning they were well rested and back to their usual selves. They weren't jumping on anything or making any more noise than most kids do. I would probably only make a noise complaint at a hotel if noise was preventing me from sleeping, but my kids went to bed early and slept late. I think the fact that someone made a noise complaint at 10:20am says more about them than it does about my kids. 

The next morning predicted clouds and thunderstorms all day, so we figured it would be a good day to finish up the rides we hadn't been on the previous day. Clouds certainly make mask wearing much more bearable, and with rain and thunderstorms in the forecast I didn't bother bringing swimsuits for the water park. I took the kids on the Pirate Ship while daddy rode some thrill rides. 

We worked our way around to the Penguin River Blizzard. It was still plenty hot in spite of the clouds, so getting wet felt nice and refreshing. The kids loved this one! We rode it multiple times in a row as long as no one else was in line waiting. Oscar caught up with us and we all rode it together once after they'd already done it once with me. Then they all went one more time while I walked off to ride a few thrill rides, though I did get a few pictures of them on their way up and down.

While I was gone Tyler rode the Riddler ride. Here and at Silverwood this type of ride is 48+ inch, but at 6 Flags Magic Mountain and 6 Flags Great Adventure, it's only 42+ inch. Allison's done it before and really likes it. I love that she has such a great, accepting attitude when she's too short for a ride, even if she knows she's been on that same type of ride before. I would have thrown a fit about that sort of thing when I was a kid. My parents have stories...

When we met up again I rode the horrible Rajin' Cajun coaster with Tyler. It was very uncomfortable. I think if we'd sat next to each other rather than in the two separate compartments we wouldn't have been thrown so much. Allison and daddy rode the train and got a picture of us on Rajin' Cajun. Allison loved all the figurines in the Fireball souvenir area. We figured out how to sneakily buy one and get it back for her birthday, though it got damaged on our flight home, which required some epoxy repair.

We caught up with them in the Whistlestop area. The kids did a few more rides while I went off to try a few more coasters. For food we got Philly cheesesteaks, which were pretty good. For a snack we got fried Oreos, which weren't quite as good as I was expecting. I'd had fried Oreos at the Fair before. They tasted like a delicious donut with a melted Oreo inside. Here they were made by the funnel cake place, so the batter tasted like funnel cake. They were still good, but I preferred the ones I'd had at the fair.

While I was gone the kids did a few more thing, but Oscar said at that point they'd lost some of their enthusiasm for rides. They spent a lot of time at the candy machine and wandering around the Looney Tunes statue.

I saw them doing a kids' coaster on my way back then took them on the Carousel. It was clear to me that the kids really just needed to play. At 6 Flags Magic Mountain they spent a good chunk of time each day playing in the Looney Tunes Lodge, a play area where they can go down slides and launch foam balls. They had one of those at Six Flags America as well, in addition to a nice big play structure in the Whistlestop area, but of course, they were both closed for Covid. It surprises me with all we know about Covid now that there's still so much concern about outdoor/well ventilated children's play areas. We still have too much concern about touching shared surfaces when we now know this virus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets. If the kids wear masks, which they're already doing in the park anyway, the risk of contracting the virus at a play area is incredibly low. I think the concern is that kids won't social distance, which is true, but if they're already outside and wearing masks, closing play areas is overkill.

We hadn't brought swimsuits due to the weather forecast saying high chance of thunderstorms. It was cloudier than a typical summer day, but nothing resembling thunder or rain ever occurred. I thought we should try checking out the water park to see if they had a kids' splash area open. I worried those would be closed too for the same reason as the dry play areas, but it had appeared open to me from the parking lot the previous day. 

We were not disappointed! We found a wonderful play area within about 200 ft of the entrance. During a  normal summer these sorts of splash areas get ridiculously crowded, but it's Covid and not many people want to go to a waterpark when the forecast is poor, so there weren't too many bodies to wade through. It was plenty hot in spite of the clouds, and the water was very refreshing. They were in sensory heaven! Playtime was exactly what they needed.

Both kids really liked sliding down the whale tongue. It's a good thing they played on it a lot that day since it was closed most of our other days here.

This little girl on the right was wearing the same sort of swimsuit that Allison has, which you'll see in future posts. Allison made fast friends with her. And the nice man in the long sleeve shirt helped get her up and comfort her when she swallowed water and started coughing. I was on the other end of the play area talking to Oscar so I saw it happen but couldn't get to her quickly. I REALLY appreciate when other parents help out like that. 

I was having a glorious chat with another mom on the beach chairs (I hadn't done much non-virtual socializing with other adults since before Covid) when Allison was knocked over by another kid and scratched up her knee. We left the water park since he was bleeding a bit and we didn't think she should be in the water with an open cut. Then while we were sitting on a bench waiting for Oscar to grab some dinner, she got stung by a bee. Poor girl poured her distressed heart out to the nice man in the first aid area. She was bandaged up and received some sting ease and ice and was all better relatively quickly.

That evening Oscar was badly sunburned on his head. It made him so warm he couldn't even share a bed with me. He hadn't known there would be places for his hat on each thrill ride, so he left it with us in the stroller. He'd also had a hard time since there aren't nearly enough mask free zones, as opposed to 6 Flags St Louis where every bench was a mask free zone. You're supposed to wear them at all times unless you're in a mask free zone or in the water, but I still pulled mine down while walking through the park whenever I was far away from anyway besides my own family. I base it on if someone at a normal voice said "put your mask back on"to me. If I'm far enough away that I couldn't hear them, I'm fine. If I could hear them, then I should be wearing it. 

The next day we hit up the water park again, and we brought our swimsuits this time. It was sunny and noticeably more crowded than it'd been the day before. We didn't stay too long this time, though, because we still had to make the 3+ hour drive to New Jersey that day (more about that in my next post). After swimming Tyler used his wet swim shirt for a mask while we picked up our lunch.

You'll notice some flip flops on the ground next to Tyler. They were a complete flop. I bought cheap pairs for both kids in the hope they would slip them on and off on their own in the water park, but neither of them figured out how to walk in them. Both kept walking out of them and struggling to get them back on. After that it was back to their regular velcro sandals. 

We returned to Maryland after 3 days in New Jersey, this time at a different hotel. The new hotel had an actual breakfast where we could toast our bread, pour milk on our cereal, and sit down at a table to eat. It made a nice break from the non-perishable sack breakfasts. We spent the morning doing laundry, relaxing, and Oscar did a little telecommuting. 

Later in the afternoon we hit up the water park. In addition to the fun splash area we'd played at before, Six Flags America also has a big Kids' splash area with big water slides. Wild Waves and Silverwood have these as well, but the lines for the big slides are always enormous and crowded. It was nice for the kids to be able to go down as much as they wanted to with little to no lines.

I did some 48 inch stuff with Tyler. Most of it wasn't all that impressive. Only Tornado and Halfpipe were real winners. Zoomazon Falls was slow and boring, and it let out in a 3 ft pool. I see no reason why Allison couldn't have gone on it.

Bahama Blast the only big slide Allison could do, and fortunately, she loved it. It's a family slide that all 4 of us could ride on at once. We did it many, many times. The only annoying thing was carrying the tube up with us. It's too bad they don't have an escalator belt to bring them up for you.

I took the kids in the wave pool where we got a little rain. We barely noticed it since we were getting splashed in the waves, but Oscar videoed it while he sat on the sidelines (wave pools give him motion sickness). He also got a picture of a rainbow after the rain cleared up just above Tornado. 

We got back a bit late since we picked up pizza on the way home. Allison was tired and we hadn't set up a bed for her yet, so she made her own.

The next day we hit up some water rides before going into the water park since we had our swimsuits on already. Shipwreck Falls got us soaked!

Oscar rode Mind Eraser since it was right new to Renegade Rapids

And he rode Firebird while I took the kids on the flying ships and watched a bit of the stunt show. 

I took the kids on Wonder Woman swings while Oscar bought the dinosaur in the Firebird store for Allison's birthday. Then we all rode the Penguin River Blizzard. 

We figured out the best way to used our snack credits. The ice cream place served ice cream sandwiches in between too warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies. They were so good! After that we never chose any other snack.

We finally got around to the lazy river that day, which it turns out isn't completely lazy. It's actually called the Wahoo River because it has intermittent waves. 

I like that you could use a tube or not. At Wild Waves and 6 Flags St Louis you have to use a tube, which I find annoying. I don't always want a tube. Especially when it's hot, I want to be in the water, not sitting on a tube.

Tyler put a lot of effort into making a double tube and getting himself into it.

Their wave pool is enormous! It's so wide they have to station lifeguards on platforms in the water. My only complaint is that the waves don't last long enough per cycle, and the non wave breaks are too long.

This is Tyler wearing his mask when he knows full well he does not need to wear it in the car. As long as we're not outside in sunny, 80+ degree weather he actually enjoys wearing it. He's a sensory lover.

The next day thunderstorms were predicted until about 3pm, so we had another chill morning. Here are the kids helping daddy's heart beat.

The weather seemed to be clearing up in the afternoon, so we took a detour to the Washington DC temple on our way to the park. We were a bit disappointed by our obstructed view. There was construction going on and we couldn't get into the parking lot. :( But rain started coming down hard on our way from there to the park, so it turned out for the best in the end. If we'd gone straight to the park we would have spent about an hour waiting for the rain to stop.

After lunch we figured if there were any rides we wanted to go on again, now was the time to do it with clouds and empty lines. Tyler rode the train in this picture, but Allison didn't want to (she said it's because she didn't want to go around the loop three times). 

Here are the kids riding Zydeco Zinger and Allison pretending to ride Fireball. 

We didn't think we would do the water park since we were getting there fairly late and the weather was unpredictable, but I brought the swimsuits just in case. It was a good thing I did. The kids lost interest in the rides pretty quickly and just wanted to play. Had the dry kids areas been open, though, we probably would have just stayed in the theme park. Bring back the dry play areas!

cuddles with daddy on our last full vacation day

This was our most crowded day by far. We're glad we'd already done everything we enjoyed at least once. We rode a couple water rides in the theme park then hit up the water park for one last splash. The best part of that day was getting to ride Halfpipe with Oscar. Tyler was tall enough for Halfpipe but didn't care for it, and Allison was too short. We were somehow able to convince the kids to watch us while we rode it together twice. They stood at the bottom of the pipe and enjoyed seeing us go back and forth. I should have given my phone to Tyler to take pictures.

The next day we had to check out by 11am, but our flight didn't leave until 3pm, so we spent some time in downtown Baltimore. It was raining, and indoor stuff was closed for Covid, so our options were pretty limited. We did find Ft McHenry though.

This is where the battle of 1812 was fought that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner." 

Here's a statue of Orpheus at Fort McHenry.

We had to layover in Denver again that evening. This time our flight out wasn't until 9:00am the next morning, which felt like 11am to us, so it was a much easier transition. The only bad thing was we spent about 90 minutes waiting for our airport shuttle in the wrong place (which looked identical to the right place we'd waited at the first time). Oscar and I comforted ourselves from that fiasco by ordering delicious Indian food. They gave us so much rice! We didn't come close to eating it all, so we packed it up and brought it home with us on the plane. The bag with the food ended up being checked by a TSA agent. He let us keep it, but said we failed the healthy snack test.

Cute Allison entertained herself sweetly and easily at the hotel with her tiny toys.

And on the flight back we got some fantastic views of Mt Ranier and the surrounding Cascade scenery.