Just another wonderful time at Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo

-Not a place for kids!

Where do I start? The violence, the crowds or the riot that ensued consisting of about seven hundred people? Well I’ll leave the riot for last.

It was Greg’s birthday and he wanted to go to Fright Fest so we gathered the crew together and met at Marine World in Vallejo around 6PM. I didn’t drive. Steve has a Yukon and some of us piled into that. We had a good size group. Me and my wife, Steve and Brenda, Francis, Kiran, Brenda’s brother Tony and his lady friend, Aaron and his two kids and of course Greg and his girl Jen. The park closed at 10pm so we figured we would have some time to go on a couple of rides, see a haunted house and have some fun. Well lets just say I was in for a BIG surprise.

Of course there were a lot of people. I was expecting the crowds and the lines. It’s the last weekend of Fright Fest. Thousands of people converged on the park to see the park decorated for Halloween. Parents brought their excited children and people like us came just to have a good time. It took over an hour to get to the ticket counter and I shelled out my $50 bucks for two tickets. (Thank’s to a buy one get one free coupon.) With so many people trying to get in, it was like a heard of cattle just moving with the flow towards the actual entrance to the park. It was hard to keep our group of 13 together with so many people merging to 3 open lines of ticket takers into the park. (Why didn’t they have all 8 of the gates open, I don’t know?) I don’t know how the parents were keeping track of their kids. One of those kiddie leashes would have been handy. Then there were the people that just seemed to be ‘hanging out’ at the entrance. Kids on cell phones that didn’t look like they were going in, just obstructing the path for everyone else.

First order of business was to get to a roller coaster. All of us got into the park and started moving towards Medusa. Like I said I had no idea what I was in store for. The line for the ride

was about 80 feet out from the initial sign for the roller coaster. It wrapped around like a snake in so many different directions that it was impossible to know who was actually heading into the ride and who was only half way in and stuck in a crowd. No matter how close we thought we were getting, we would just get further away in the maze of the lines. Everyone in the group was frustrated. Not only because of the lines, but because of the groups of people who were blatantly cutting through the lines and being completely rude while they did it, it made the experience even worse.About an hour and a half (No lie) into the line I figured we had already waited this long and we must be getting close, we just dealt with it and moved along the maze. Then I started noticing the park security. At first only a couple of them. Wearing their cool ear pieces and official uniforms started whispering into their microphones and looking around the crowd. That started making me nervous. Then several more started appearing. We were in a confined area with hundreds of people and it was becoming clear that something was about to go down. I told Meghan to stay close (Not like there were many options.) and mentioned to Aaron to keep an eye on the kids. I know that these types of situations could get ugly fast, but I was still being hopeful that there would be no incident. No luck.

When about a half dozen security guards were in view, one of them started asking people to stand to the left. WTF?!? There was nowhere to go. Then a couple of Vallejo's finest Police were there looking into the crowd. They were obviously looking at a specific group of people to pull out of the line. A group of about 6 guys that had cut their way into the crowd to get a closer place in line. What did they expect us to do? I think they expected this group of guys to just go quietly and get ejected from the park. I looked at the security guard and asked if we could just get behind him in an open area so they could get into the crowd and do there thing. He wasn't hearing it. He would rather have a path of people in his way while he yelled at the group to move towards him and they were also ignoring him. So they did what any self respecting security guards would do, they went into the crowd to grab them. (Wrong move) I had Meghan behind me as the guard started getting members of the group to move out of the line. One of the bozos in the group thought he was cool right in front of me and bumped into the guard as he walked by. Then the S#!^ hit the fan. The guy made a move, bumped Meghan in the face and a short scuffle took place and the cop grabbed the guy by his hair and threw him to the ground. The guy grabbed me as if I was going to hold him up, but I brushed him off. (OK, I hit him off.) Good going Vallejo PD. No games, just a quick take down a few shots from the stun gun and off the guy went into the darkness. It all happened so fast. At this point I was done! I didn't come to Marine World for this crap. Make it through this line, get on the ride and I was going to call it a night.

The three minutes of fun on the ride almost made up for the earlier events but not really. I was hungry and really just wished I could pull a Superman and fly us back to the house. Everyone didn't want to make the trip a waste so after everyone took the ride we wanted to get something to eat and go to a haunted house. At this point I wasn't having fun anymore. Large groups yelling at people passing by, small groups of rowdy kids pushing each other around and then families with their children walking through. Not exactly a great place for children. We made our way through the park towards the food and I was in a zone. All I can compare it to would be like the times my squad would be moving through sections of Baghdad knowing something was about to happen at any moment but just having to be ready for it. Then "it" happened.

From behind us a crowd, no I'll call it what it was, a mob was running towards us. Hundreds of people running in our direction yelling and screaming. Parents grabbed their children out of the way and I got Meghan and I up against a fence. Like a wave of angry energy they were running by us. My mind was moving a hundred miles an hour. 'Are they running towards something or away from it?', 'what do I do', ' where can we go?', ' is Meghan alright?'. Once the mob rolled through, scared people grabbed their crying children and made a break for the exit. We had lost a few people in our group but Meghan Steve and Brenda made it. I didn't know the exact layout of the park, but figured if the mob ran to the right, we should walk to the left. The crazy mob mentality is such that if even one person in the group becomes violent then they all take that form. At this point they were just a few hundred people knocking things over and creating their own personal mosh pit in the park. Nothing overly violent yet. I wasn't planning on sticking around for that time to come. Oh...yeah. Where was security now? Hmmm...no where to be found.

About half way down the left path we were talking about the insanity of the evening. Who does this crap? I'd rather be safe in my living room watching re-runs of Knight Rider then be around the pandemonium. Then "it" happened again. From the distance I could see them. The mob. Still in the hundreds making their way towards us. The path they took must just have looped around to come our way and they were coming fast. I saw a small alcove near a building next to the log ride and told Meghan to get in there. Not exactly the best move but if the mob moved the way it had been, they would pass right by, unless they needed a reason to stop and then we would be stuck. Ahead of the mob were more people trying to get out of the way and people clutching their kids making it out of the area.

The mob made it by us. It looked like they had picked up a few dozen more people along the way. I looked at Steve and Brenda and I didn't have to say it was time to go because it was written all over our faces. How the heck was a group of park security guards and maybe 6 police officers going to stop this mob before it got out of control. (It already was out of control, but blood wasn't being spilled yet.) Sure the police already proved they didn't mess around, but they were vastly out numbered.

We made our way to the exit along with the hundreds of others people and their kids just trying to get out of the park. We had to call Tony on his cell and wait for him to make it out before we left. A Sgt of the Vallejo Police was out next to his car calling in for more cops to arrive. Yeah, a lot more. Tony and Elaine made it out and we walked along with the hundreds of people like refugees to our car. Everyone was talking about the madness inside. Everyone was happy that they made it out. We still didn't know what happened to Greg, Kiran, Francis and Aaron with his two kids. The guys were smart enough, they would be alright and Aaron would take care of the kids.

We piled into the car and hit the road. Mobs of people were even outside the park in small groups of 8-20 scattered all over. I didn't put the seat belt on until we hit the freeway. At least we got out of there.

Greg called and said that an all out riot had broken out near the front of the park. People screaming, things breaking. The park opened some back gates and shuffled them and other people out that way. At least they have some type of plan for these things. Everyone was accounted for and alright. I reminded Meghan that next time someone mentions Six Flags Marine World that we would be passing on the offer. Free coupon or not. Everyone made it home and if nothing else we can have something new to talk about at a get together.

"I lived through the Fright Fest Riots of 2006"

-Good times!

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