[Jay]

Let me preface by saying yes, this trip report is based on a trip I took 7 months ago. Better late than never right?


I had spent the majority of 2009 chasing the elusive number 500 by nickel and dimeing my way through parks I had either already been to, or were fairly close by, including New England, Southwest Ohio, and Freestyle Music Park and Busch Gardens. But even after all of that I was still 4 measly credits short (4 I should have gotten in Maine , but I digress...) Labor Day weekend I was determined to travel somewhere, and after much deliberation it had come down to either a tour of the Texas parks which would be extremely hectic but more credits, or Worlds of Fun/Six Flags St. Louis which would be much more relaxed and happened to have 2 new GCI's that I was really looking forward to trying out, but just barely enough credits to make it over the 500 mark.

Well you're reading this so you know what I chose. Looking back it came down to the fact that Texas Giant would be closed all of 2010, and in 2011 open as likely a completely different coaster. Also cheap Priceline tickets helped. Missouri is definitely the #1 location for me this year so look forward to that trip report in the coming months (or if this trip report is any indication, Thanksgiving ).


The Friday I was to leave started off normal enough, but after just 2 hours of being at work I left for the airport. A short 2 hours later I was in the terribly designed Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and a short 3 hours after that I had arrived in San Antonio. I was a bit worried that my car rental would not go as smoothly as it did for my rental in Cincinnati, being under the age of 25, but it actually went even more smoothly as it seemed they were just in a rush to get me on my way to Sea World. I just wish they had given me a better car.


Sea World may have been the park I was worried about most, as I would only have an hour there, and any of the coasters had a significant line it could pose a problem, and it could not be rescheduled. All the other parks I had planned to visit had at least a small window of movement if need be.


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Sea World Antonio was my first Sea World, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had been to both Busch Gardens parks before that so I expected the same great themeing, and service with just more emphasis on the animals and less on the rides. The layout of the park is fairly simple with a main plaza area then all the bigger rides/animal exhibits in a large circle off to the right.

The first coaster I came to was Shamu Express. (#497)


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How can you not love these cars? It is a basic kiddie coaster, not much to say.

After a bit of confusion I found myself at Journey to Atlantis.


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Is this a coaster? Isn't it? RCDB lists it as one so I will as well. I thought the themeing for this ride was really well done. I've always enjoyed Atlantis-style theming (outside of Wisconsin anyway), particularly as it is a (presumably) fake place, just all the different interpretations are cool to me.

The thing that separates from your basic flume or shoot-the-chutes style ride is this section right here:


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At the top of the lift there is a turntable, and you go down the following drop backwards, before hitting another turntable, and going down the big drop forwards.


I didn't want to get too wet, so after observing the splash a few times I decided to sit in the front. Luckily this was not a problem.


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(Yes I have a boat all to myself) #498.


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Obligatory bird picture for Jonathan.


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It's very crowded today.

Next up Great White. (#499)


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It would actually be even less.


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The Batman clones seem to get a bad rap, if for no other reason is that there are so many of them. I however really enjoy each and every one on its own merits, which are typically compactness and intensity. I could have spent the rest of my time on Great White, but there was still one more coaster to get, not to mention this would be the first of three Batman clones I would ride in a 4 day period.


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Steel Eel is the often forgotten Morgan "junior" hyper.


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Yes we get it, the park was empty.

As far as "pure" Morgan coasters I had only been on Steel Force and Wild Thing and hadn't real impressed with their work to this point. (I have also been on Phantom's Revenge and it is a top 20 coaster for me.. but how much of it is Morgan.. really..?) It is especially unfair to compare the Morgan hypers with those of B&M or Intamin, as the Morgans are just over-sized mine trains.


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I took my initial ride on Steel Eel where I take every other airtime machine, in the back. And was shockingly unimpressed. I had made amazing time running around the park thus far, so I had plenty of time to take another ride, this time in the very front. WOW what a difference. There was really good floater on every single hill, and the stretch run into the brakes with all the bunny hops is just great.


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In less than 2 hours in the state of Texas I had hit my goal. But my trip was just beginning.

For all my Sea World San Antonio pictures please click here.


After my last ride on Steel Eel I made a beeline back to my car so I could begin the long journey to Houston, but before I got too far out of San Antonio I picked up my friend Jake, who would be accompanying me on the rest of this trip.

This is Jake:


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We had met once before in July at Carowinds, and chatted a few times online. His only purpose on this trip was to save me money.

Now I don't want to say the interstates in between Dallas/San Antonio/Houston are long and boring, but wow... if you've ever wanted to see flat prairie land Texas is the place for you. I will admit it was an interesting change of pace from the hills and trees of North Carolina. Also the cities seem so huge, Houston felt like it started 20 miles outside of Katy, and just went on forever once you got inside, not to mention had about 5 different skylines. It was really just an interesting phenomenon the amount of sprawl that these 3 cities alone have.

After passing by the empty lot which Jake told me used to be Six Flags Astroworld, and taking a variety of elevated highways and bridges we found ourselves at Kemah Boardwalk promptly at 9pm. I still to this day have no idea how I got there, I just went where Jake told me to go.


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Initially we thought they were only open till 10, but upon arriving found they were open till 11. We opted for the ride all you want wristbands for 20 bucks.

First up:


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What else? Boardwalk Bullet. (#501) The entire reason for driving out here in the first place. If I am completely honest in the planning stages of this trip I had briefly considered not going to Kemah in favor of some other parks with more coasters, also I had heard some very good things and some very very bad things about Bullet, so I went in completely not knowing what to expect.

HOLY COW am I glad I made the trip. A bit of a spoiler here but this is hands down the best ride in the entire state of Texas, and it wasn't even running 100%. There was one dead spot on the 2nd hill I believe, but everything before and after that more than made up for it. Every time it dove into the structure for some twists and turns it was just madness. On the Mitch's wood poll for this past year I ranked it #13 of 113 wooden coasters, so I hold Bullet in very high regard. If they could just get that one hill worked out it would move even higher. Not to mention it is extremely impressive structurally. Kind of like a wooden Flight of Fear/Jokers Jinx type ride.


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After another fantastic Bullet ride, we went to explore the rest of the park. First up being Drop Zone, an ARM drop tower.


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These are probably the best non-Intamin drop rides out there, and this one seems even taller than it really is being right on the Bay.

Next was the Observation Tower, which was really cool, but it was dark so I have no decent pictures.


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After seeing the Wipeout in action from above, we headed there next, and it may have been the most complete shocker of the night. It stopped and started like 5 different times, went forwards, backwards, had a round up mode where it didn't tilt at all, and probably had a ridetime of about 5 minutes, overall just a fantastically ran flatride.


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If you notice I haven't brought up eating at all during this TR, and that's because I hadn't all day. Jake and I started to look for something simple to snack on and found nothing. What we did find what a cool street performer, who juggled with fire and other type street performer things.


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He held our attention long enough till we realized, we have a great wooden coaster with no line less than 100 feet away, so another ride on Bullet we took.

At this point the hunger situation could not be ignored any longer, but if there was one thing I quickly noticed about Kemah, there are virtually no 'easy' food places. If you want a full service sitdown steakhouse they have those, and if you want alcohol they have lots of that.. but there are no small food stands where you can just get a slice of pizza, or a sandwich, or a burger, or just something easy.

Jake and I settled for Dippin Dots while relaxing on a bench. It was a nice chance to soak in the trip so far, and what would be coming in the following days.

We had been watching the Pharoh's Fury swinging ship, so we decided to do that next.


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I really love these non-inverting ships, I wish Carowinds would get one.

We took 2 final Boardwalk Bullet rides, the last of which we saw possibly the drunkest girl I've ever seen get coaxed on to the coaster by her boyfriend. And then had to be carried off the ride when it stopped back in the station. It was hilarious and depressing at the same time.

Jake took a POV from one of the final Bullet rides, here it is just to show how fast it was running.
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(I just liked the lighting for this one)

For all of my Kemah Boardwalk pictures please click here.

After taking the interstate through the middle of Houston, which looked AMAZING at night, I had to set myself up for the long 3 hour drive to the hotel, by getting a large fry and soda from McDonalds. We finally made it to our hotel that night in Fairfield, TX around 2 AM.

Map of my driving for Day 1:


Only to have to wake up at 7 AM to be back on the road for Oklahoma City the next day..

...Oklahoma City?

...to be continued...

[Jonathan]

What theming?

[Jay]

I didn't mean the ride being themed so much as that general area. I would probably compare that particular ride to Apollo's Chariot which also has no themeing, but small things to the overall area.

[jordN1414]

Only to have to wake up at 7 AM to be back on the road for Oklahoma City the next day..

...Oklahoma City?

...to be continued...

Frontier City?

[cwgator]

I didn't mean the ride being themed so much as that general area. I would probably compare that particular ride to Apollo's Chariot which also has no themeing, but small things to the overall area.

The one in Orlando has great theming and from the looks of it, a better ride (tho the backwards section seems cool on theirs).

[Jay]

The next day we woke up at 7am and treated ourselves to a decent, though unusual (no biscuits and gravy Texas? Seriously?), McDonalds breakfast and were on the road to Oklahoma City by 8.

Yes instead of just spending 2 full days at Six Flags Over Texas like any normal person, I decided to drive the extra 400 miles or about 6 hours round trip to Frontier City, a small park in Oklahoma City. Luckily the park did not open till Noon so we got a decent nights sleep of about 4 hours.




This is the scenery for every highway in Texas.




I made sure to drive right through the middle of Dallas so I could get a great view of this Chevy Cobalt.

Around 10 we stopped at the Oklahoma Welcome Center (state credit #29 ) to just take a break from the car and stretch our legs. This turned out to be a VERY good idea as we ended up finding Frontier City coupons good for half price admission. Unfortunately I didn't take this trip a few years ago or we could have just used our Six Flags season passes...




As you can see Oklahoma roads look pretty much like Texas roads.. with a few more hills and trees.

We finally arrived at Frontier City shortly after opening, and I was immediately impressed with the quality of themeing.



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The entrance for Diamond Back was actually inside of the main gift shop at the front of the park which was odd to say the least, but he headed there first.


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Diamond Back is one of 4 remaining Arrow Launched Loops left in the World, and only one of 3 operating ones.

Unfortunately it was closed at this time, so after contemplating for a few minutes Jake and I decided to explore the rest of the park and hope this was open later.


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The park couldn't afford the entire Skycoaster so they only put in half of one.


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Disney called and it wants their characters back.

After wondering around a bit we finally decided to ride Silver Bullet first. (#502)


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Silver Bullet is a classic Schwarzkopf Looping Star, and with very few Schwarzkopf coasters left at permanent parks this was a pleasure to see.


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It had a very similar layout to the now-removed Laser at Dorney Park if I recall correctly.

Right next to Silver Bullet may have been the main reason for even coming to Frontier City, the classic NAD woodie, Wildcat.


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The Wildcat is nestled in the trees at the back of the park, so this is really all you can see of it. It reminded me a lot of Zeus at Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin (which reminds me somewhat of Raven at Holiday World, but whatever..)


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There was a small line to wait in but that was okay because the park had featured notes about historical and defunct coasters of the past. I learned that Wildcat started off life in 1967 as Wildcat at Fairyland Park in Kansas City, Missouri where it only ran for 10 years until the parks closure in 1977. The park sat SBNO for many years before Frontier City purchased the Wildcat it and opened it in 1991.


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How can you not love this sign?


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POV is bad etc., but I was surprised how good this picture came out.

We took 2 rides on this (#503) and found it to be a very fun, enjoyable coaster. No extreme forces like Boardwalk Bullet the night before, but very smooth and re-rideable. We did not have a lot of time to spend here so these were the only two rides we took.

The Ferris Wheel was perched on a hill near the Wildcat/Silver Bullet corner so of course we had to ride.


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There were still 2 coasters left at this point, one was on the other side of the park and had a questionable chance of being open and one was right next to us with a long line. We sucked it up and got in line for Steel Lasso the park's new Vekoma Junior Invert. I know what you are saying "Jay, Carowinds has one of those and its TERRIBLE!" Well not only was this one a completely different layout, the seats were the new-style Lapbar only.


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I would like to see Cedar Fair invest in the trains for their 3 models, but that is extremely unlikely.

We had to be in line probably about 30ish minutes so I have more pictures of the last turn of Steel Lasso than anyone should legally have so I will show you something else.


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With the new trains not only was it a very comfortable ride, it was very fun as well! I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. (#504)

There was only one coaster left to get and we hadn't even seen half of the park yet so we went the *other* way to Diamond Back. This way seemed to have a bunch of rides either completely inaccessible or just plain closed. I don't know if they were having staffing problems or they were deeper than that, but I hope there is no danger of the park closing.

On the way there we stopped at the former Nightmare Mine to see if we could snoop around. Nightmare Mine is an enclosed Galaxi style ride, but it has been closed for almost 10 years now. There was just enough space in a door to fit my camera through and this is what I saw:


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What appears to be a perfectly fine coaster and some creepy animal anamatronics? Kind of makes you wonder why they still have the coaster with no intention to run it, unless they are straight up Pedrolanding it.

We arrived to Diamond Back to find guys working on it which is never a good sign. We waited around for a bit and talked to one of the ride-ops. I told him I was from North Carolina, he thought I was crazy. It was getting late and I was getting worried we might not get Diamond Back, so we went over to the park's kiddie coaster Wild Kitty in hopes we could get lucky.


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This woman, despite there being no children in line, could not be bargained with. She could not be reasoned with. She didn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And she absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

Erm.. yeah we didn't get to ride.. even though we would be riding an even smaller coaster later in the day.

Diamond Back did not appear to be running still so we went to the park's shoot-em up dark ride, Quick Draw.


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If I recall correctly it was the exact same layout as the Great Pistolero Round Up at Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach. I shot a 500 which was good I guess?

Upon leaving Quick Draw we heard screams and saw Diamond Back had finally opened. So we sprinted up there before it broke again.


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(#505)

These definitely aren't as fun as Schwarzkopf shuttle loops that were out around the same time, but they are definitely unique, and unique looking. I don't want to say the transitions are bad, but they are certainly 'interesting.' One can only wonder how much longer these will even be around.

For all of my Frontier City pictures please click here.

We high-tailed it out of there, and out of Oklahoma. Frontier City was a nice enough park, but I have no desire to ever go there again. (Or at least until they get a new coaster)

We made amazing time and were back in the Dallas area around 5pm. The next Texas park we were to hit however was:


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Sandy Lake! Never heard of it? No one has.

The park was initially very strange. The parking lot is about a 3 minute walk from the nearest ride. It had a swimming pool, mini-golf course, paddle boats, a very small arcade, and some small grandstands with stage. The place looked like the type of place you would rent out for a family reunion or some other such gathering.

As far as rides there wasn't much. The park has 2 tiny kiddie coasters and a old dark ride along with a bunch of flat rides plopped down in a field like a permanent fair or something. The entire park has a 1950's vibe, but I don't think it is intentional. After buying some tickets from someone who I'm pretty sure spoke no English we went over to the Little Dipper. (#506)


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What is you damage Frontier City? This is the exact same make/model as Wild Kitty. As far as kiddie coasters go this was pretty brutal. Of course they had to send us around 10 times even though 1 was more than enough.


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Is a comment really needed here?

Finally the real reason for coming, a CLASSIC Pretzel Dark Ride.


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As I have gotten older I have gotten an even greater appreciation of old dark rides. The Sally shooters are nice, but nothing beats something from 50 or 60 years ago that hasn't been made in ages. This Pretzel fits the bill nicely. There are only a handful of them left, and this would only be I think my 3rd. (Spook-A-Rama at Coney Island, NY and Haunted House at Beech Bend being the others) Dark rides have long surpassed flat rides for 2nd in my "most important things to ride" checklist. First, for now anyway, are still roller coasters.


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If I am brutally honest, the inside was not in great shape. While it was very dark, none of the stunts were really lit well or did much of anything. Still, I would rather have this than a Sally shooter if I were given a choice.

Next it was time to lose any remaining dignity.


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This is safe right?


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WHY DO I DO THESE THINGS? (#507)


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To wash away the shame, I immediately headed for the park's Rock-O-Plane. I wasn't aware that this was even here, so it was a pleasant surprise. Jake had never done one so I forced him on as well.


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I try to ride an O-Plane ride (Rock, Roll, Fly, or Loop) anytime I see one, as they are fairly rare, and was quite disappointed in July when I went to Coney Island (Ohio) and didn't get a chance to ride theirs due to a long line. This made up for it a little. It was running really well and I got a bunch of good flips and also lost a lot of change.


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Dutch Wonderland says hi.

We hung around for a few more minutes before deciding to leave. Overall the park (if you can call it that) was very quirky, but fun. It's right off the Interstate north of Dallas, worth a few minutes of your time if you are ever in the area.

To see all of my Sandy Lake pictures please click here.


One of these is my car and one is not.


Map of my driving for Day 2:




Next up.. SFoT.. or.. "How many coasters can you ride in less than 2 hours?"

[jordN1414]

Awesome post haven't been to Frontier City in forever! I grew up there when I was younger. Thank God I still dont live there. The nightmare mine use to be a awesome ride but it hasn't been running for a long time and had some good theming in the cue line to the coaster. Quick draw use to be called treasure mountain it was like a haunted house then use love that ride as a kid. I also have to say I have no desire of going back unless they get a big new roller coaster but it's a great park for kids.

[Jay]

We arrived at Six Flags Over Texas shortly after 6pm, and with the park closing at 8 that would give us around an hour and a half to explore the park.

Since it was close to the entrance Jake suggested I try to get Wile E. Coyote's Grand Canyon Blaster, the park's kiddie coaster, first. I had heard they flip flopped on when and if adults could ride but I got lucky and was treated to a ride. (#508)


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Along the way to our next stop, Jake pointed out some Big Bend footers that were never removed. Big Bend operated at Over Texas from 1971-1978. It was a CLASSIC Schwarzkopf Speed Racer. (think Whizzer at Six Flags Great America)


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Next up was a sight I did not want to see:


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Yes it is a Boomerang, a closed one. If I had to miss any coaster I'm glad it was this one, but still.. missing any coaster just irks me. Jake was also annoyed as he did not have it yet. SFoT seems like a strange place for there to be a Boomerang in the first place. The park is really too nice to have a pile of crap like this at their park, much like Hersheypark or Carowinds for that matter.


Jake has an unhealthy obsession with Mr. Freeze so we headed that way next. We were greeted with a long line as they were only running one train. He said it would just be smarter to come back to it first thing the next morning.


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From Freeze we walked across the midway to Batman.


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We were greeted with no wait. It was a typical Batman, fast and intense. (#509)

Moving into the Boomtown section of the park we hit up Mini Mine Train. Now I have been on almost every Arrow Mine Train on Earth, but this would be my first Arrow Mini Mine Train. I wasn't sure what to expect.


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(#510)

The name explains it perfectly, it is just a smaller version of the somewhat larger Mine Train rides. I wish Six Flags Over Georgia still had theirs, as only 4 were ever made and only 2 are still standing. The only really notable thing about this is that is completely inside of the perimeter of Mr. Freeze, so you get some nice views.

The exit for Mini Mine Train, leads directly into Mine Train so we gave that a whirl.


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It reminded me somewhat of Over Georgia's Dahlonega Mine Train, where it didn't do much, but had one pretty good drop to end it. (#511)

Exiting out of Boomtown area we hit up Tony Hawk's Big Spin, utilizing the single rider line.


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I really enjoy these spinning coasters, and this one was no different. (#512) More parks could use them as not only are they fun, but the entire family can enjoy them.

Jake suggested we go down to La Vibora since it also had a single rider's line, but it was closed at the time so we hurried along to Titan. Titan feels like its miles and miles away from the rest of the park since there is only one path to get there.


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I don't know if no one else in the park could find it either, but we lined up for the 2nd row with no wait. (#513)

Overall it is very very impressive looking, and it has lots of positive g's. Unfortunately the negative g's it does have was just not enough for me, and the ride itself is very short for being so tall. It was fun but give me a B&M out and back any day.


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The exit for the Titan area happens to go right past the q-bot entrance of Texas Giant, whereas the normal entrance was much farther away and very long and unnecessary walk. There was no line so the nice attendant guarding the q-bot gate let us pass.


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Oh hell yes.

Texas Giant was a ride I heard a lot about even before I became an 'enthusiast,' so needless to say I've been wanting to ride it for a very very long time. Like Titan it is very impressive to look at, but I was hoping the experience was a tad better.


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We hopped in the front seat, and were off. (#514) In more recent times it has not had a great reputation, so I was really expecting not to like it much at all. But I was really wrong, it was fairly smooth, had a few nice pops of air, and the 'magic carpet' finale was nothing short of amazing. With a few tweaks it could be an even better ride, I hope what they are doing to it this year doesn't completely ruin it.


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At this point we only had 10 minutes left before the park closed, so Jake pulled me through various paths and buildings and somehow we ended up at Runaway Mountain.


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This is my only picture of Runaway Mountain, yes [fail].

Runaway Mountain is an indoor version of the Windstorm/Hurricane rides by various manufacturers. It reminded me a lot of Skull Mountain at Great Adventure, even though it is a completely different layout. It was fun doing the turn in complete darkness. (#515) Overall a fun ride that I would end up not even seeing the rest of our time at SFoT.

For those counting we somehow got 8 of the 12 open credits in just over an hour and a half. This may be even more impressive than the time I went to Cedar Point in 2003 and got 13 of 15 credits in 5 hours.

It was only around 8pm at this point, so we did some driving around. Where to?


Where else?

We happened to be driving by during one of the first ever games for the stadium, Oklahoma-BYU, so trying to get around was an amazing amount of cluster####edness. My memory card had been acting strangely, so we thought it would be a good idea to go to the Walmart across from the stadium so I could purchase a new one. Its kind of funny you go to someplace like that, which looks exactly the same at every location in the country, so you think you may be in your local store. But once you leave you realize there is a giant spaceship that appears to have landed next door.



We hadn't really eaten since breakfast 13 hours ago so we drove around and looked for something to eat. After driving around for even a little bit we realized this would not be a problem, but actually choosing something could be. We found a little sandwich place called Philly Connection where I actually had a delicious turkey sub.

I somehow got a hotel not far from SFoT, so we just spent the rest of the night watching college football, we would get to sleep earlier and have to wake up later than the previous night.


The next day started off early enough just before 9am where we had a terrible contental breakfast. We weren't eating any of it so we just left to drive around the area. Where to?


Where else?

This was the view immediately upon exiting the hotel, so we didn't have to think hard about where to go.



It really is an amazing structure up close, but for over a billion dollars I guess it better be. We went into the Pro Shop and inquired about the tours. The nice lady behind the counter said 17 dollars which I thought was pretty crazy at the time. If I would have known how things were going to be for the rest of the day I would have probably signed up immiedately. Back out to the car we drove around some more.





Oh yeah this is a Six Flags Over Texas trip report, not Jerry World... we arrived at the park about 10 minutes till open, which put us in great position for hitting a bunch of things at the beginning of the day.

First up of course..


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Two quick rides on Mr. Freeze. We got one in the very front and one in the very back, both great. The inverted top hats are so much cooler than the non inverted ones, in my opinion anyway. (#516) It's a shame there aren't more of these great Premier coasters.


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I just liked this one.

On the way to the next coaster we passed by Superman: Tower of Power. It had no wait at this point, so we figured it would be worth a quick ride.


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I guess you are riding on Superman's legs?


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The next coaster was a ride I had been looking forward to ever since I had ridden Mind Bender at Six Flags Over Georgia..


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..the first coaster with consecutive double loops ever!


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I will go ahead and say I don't think it's as good as Mind Bender, but Jake who had been on it a few times, said it wasn't running well at all. The loops were very intense, but the rest of the ride did not pack the punch I had come to expect from an old Schwarzkopf like this. We took 2 quick rides (#517) and were off to the next ride.


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Oil Derrick, is a typical observation tower. Texas is very flat so you can see for miles and miles, unfortunately on this day was very hazy or you could have seen the skylines of Ft. Worth and Dallas. I believe it's around 300 feet tall which isn't as tall as the Eiffel Towers at Kings Island and Kings Dominion.


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After spending a fair amount of time at the top of the Oil Derrick, we went next door to a CLASSIC dark ride..


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Spee-Lunker's Cave Ride originally opened in 1964, and was transformed into Yosemite Sam in 1992. While all the characters were made by Sally, this is not a Sally shooter.


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It is very much like Monster Plantation (Mansion?) at Six Flags Over Georgia, where you sit in boats and go through a themed story. Overall I thought it was very well done, and amazingly maintained. Thumbs up to Six Flags for keeping this around.


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Next up was a small walk to La Vibora where we were greeted with this:


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Then we went over to the Single Rider line which looked like this:


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We only had to wait a few cycles and we both ended up in the same car anyway. (#518) It's amazing to me that people still wait in massive, slow moving lines. Especially for silly rides like this. As for the actual La Vibora ride there isn't much to say about it. If you've been on Disaster Transport at Cedar Point or any other bobsled coaster you've been on this, I do remember it being quite loud though.

Only one credit left in the park so we trudged up to Judge Roy Scream.


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Somehow Judge Roy Scream has been Kentucky Kingdom'd away from the rest of the park, and is separated by this tunnel under the entrance road.


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I will go ahead and say I don't remember a damn thing about Judge Roy, other than it wasn't good and it wasn't bad. It was a solid "meh", even in the front seat.


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With all the credits complete at the park, it was quickly becoming obvious that the park was getting more and more crowded, it also seemed as if the temperature was getting hotter with every passing minute.

The next ride we decided on was Texas Chute Out. I missed this while it was at Six Flags Over Georgia, and I think the Great Adventure one was closed on both of my visits there, so this would be my first parachute drop.


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I didn't expect the drop to be as quick as it was, but other than that it was a nice relaxing ride, it's a shame there aren't more left.


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We kind of wondered around for a while till we found the (crowded beyond capacity) Train, near Mr. Freeze.


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The train was another nice relaxing break without having to walk or do anything, and had some good photo opportunities. We decided to get to get off at the halfway point to see how the lines for rides on that side of the park (such as Titan or Texas Giant) were, and as you can imagine the queue for everything was full. Back to the train station, we took it back to where we started.


It was about this time I proposed Jake an idea: we go back to Jerry World and try for the tour (yes despite scoffing at the price earlier) and then go to a Steak and Shake we had seen from Oil Derrick. He obliged, but just wanted one more ride on Mini Mine Train so he could get a Mr. Freeze pic like this:


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On the way out of the park we passed the Aquaman splashboat ride, which is kind of silly and ingenious at the same time. Silly for Aquaman being themed to anything, ingenious for just slapping a few Aquaman things on a preexisting ride. I'm surprised I haven't seen this more.


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So it was with much reluctance that we left Six Flags Over Texas around 2pm. We probably spent less than 6 hours total there in 2 days, but in the time I did get to spend there I really enjoyed it. The park has a ton of flat rides I didn't even mention, so you could easily spend an entire day riding those. It's also fun to see how the really old sections of the park haven't really changed much. The Texas, Old South, and France sections are some of the oldest parts of the park and all the buildings and paths are really close together. It's a shame the crowds and the heat pretty much changed our plans to stay the entire day. Hopefully I get to revisit the park soon.

For all of my Six Flags Over Texas pictures please click here.

We headed over to Cowboys Stadium where were greeted with more lines. Turns out the tour tickets were sold out, which was ok with me because the line for the tour may has well have been the line for any Six Flags ride. Never underestimate the power of the Cowboys franchise, or a billion dollars.

We went over to the Steak n Shake, which amazingly did not have a line. We ate well and relaxed in the air conditioning before the long drive back to San Antonio. The original plan was to stay at a hotel north of Austin, but since we were leaving so early Jake invited me to stay in the guest room at his house.

Fast forward 4-5 hours later, I am returning the rental car back to the airport. The final tally was 1274 miles of driving, or 20 hours and 20 minutes according to the in car timer. And this was in about 2 days and 3 hours time. I was trying to find a comparison so one could possibly understand what 1274 miles is like, and here are some that are close.

Round trip - Carowinds to Busch Gardens Tampa (Tampa, FL) - 1,131 miles
Round trip - Carowinds to Holiday World (Santa Claus, IN) - 1,143 miles
Round trip - Carowinds to Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) - 1,150 miles
Round trip - carowinds to Waterville USA (Gulf Shores, AL) - 1,189 miles
Round trip - Carowinds to Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, NJ) - 1,194 miles
Round trip - Carowinds to Libertyland (Memphis, TN) - 1,246 miles

One Way - Carowinds to Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington, TX) - 1,047 miles
One Way - Carowinds to Valleyfair! (Shakopee, MN) - 1,191 miles
One Way - Carowinds to Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio, TX) - 1,250 miles

Okay, time to stop playing with google maps..

Jake suggested we go to CiCi's pizza near his house, where I only had a few pieces of pizza. It was about this time it hit me that I wasn't feeling well at all. I don't know it was from being in the car so long, or the lack of sleep or food, but my body felt like it was destroyed from the hard going of the 3 previous days. We headed back to his house where I finally had a decent bed to sleep in , and sleep I did.


Map of my driving for Day 3:


Total map of my driving:



Up next:

The best Six Flags park.. ever?

[Jay]

No Fiesta Texas yet, sorry. Hopefully tomorrow.

The slow loading times every time I clicked this were KILLING me, so I changed some stuff around.

I replaced every picture that was on my flickr with it's "medium" counterpart. Under the picture I put a link to the photo's "all sizes" page which will bring up the 1024x768 image, as well a link to a 2048x1536 picture.

All the random pictures that I uploaded to TinyPic, which weren't on my flickr, remained unchanged.

[Wormy]

Good solution. GREAT stuff!

[rctdcifreak]

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Yes it is a Boomerang, a closed one. If I had to miss any coaster I'm glad it was this one, but still.. missing any coaster just irks me. Jake was also annoyed as he did not have it yet. SFoT seems like a strange place for there to be a Boomerang in the first place. The park is really too nice to have a pile of crap like this at their park, much like Hersheypark or Carowinds for that matter.

When I was looking at the pics a second time I realize that this Boomer is actually pretty much the same paint scheme as Cobra. Just thought it was funny and worth mentioning.

[Jay]

Jake only lives about 20 miles from Fiesta Texas, so we woke up fairly late around 9am, had a quick McDonalds breakfast, and arrived at the park shortly before they opened.

First we were greeted by Mr. Six.


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..then we were greeted by the Boomerang.


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Jake suggested we ride the Boomerang first since it was the one of the only rides you could wait for before the park opened, and it also gave us a chance to get it out of the way immediately. While this may be the nicest looking boomerang I have seen in my travels, the ride was just as terrible as all the others. (#520)

We then ran over to Poltergeist, a Premier spaghetti bowl. This would be my last of the four to get in the United States, and interestingly enough I had ridden Joker's Jinx the week before, and both Flight of Fears earlier in the year. Polty may have been the fastest feeling (or perhaps I should say least braked) of the 4, but that was probably just because it was freshest in my memory. (#521)


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Yes this is a station for a roller coaster.


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I'm surprised these didn't catch on more, they are so impressive to look at, and the lapbar-only rides are quite fun.

We passed by Scream, which had no line, so we took a quick ride. Typical S&S tower.


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Next up was Tony Hawk's Big Spin, which is the exact same layout as the one at Six Flags Over Texas.


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As I said before every park NEEDS one of these great family spinning coasters, they are so much fun. (#522) I just wish they'd shake up the layouts a bit.

It was about this time Jake pointed out to me that for every different section of the park, that the walking surface was also changed to reflect the theme. While a very subtle thing, it works very well.


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See?

We planned Superman: Krypton Coaster to be our next coaster to ride, but it was actually closed when we got there. B&M's are closed so infrequently I was actually worried that something seriously was wrong with the coaster. We weren't just going to wait for it to open with coasters still left to get, so we ventured into nearby Wiggles World.

The newly renamed Romp Bomp A Stomp, is the smallest version of the Vekoma roller skater.


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Cute 'lil ride. (#523)

We went back over to Superman, where it had re-opened.


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As with everything else at Fiesta Texas, it looks absolutely amazing from any angle. But also with most floorless coasters it doesn't have a lot of 'force' even in the back seat. Unfortunately this was our only ride of the day, (#524) I would have liked to try a few other seats. So all in all its a fun ride, but not quite the intensity that a Medusa at Great Adventure or Spanish Superman have.

We actually got immediately back in line for Superman but it closed again. Definitely strange.

We weren't going to wait around for Superman, so we headed over to Rattler, the park's lone wooden coaster.


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I had heard nothing but negative things about this ride for a long time, so we opted to wait the extra few trains for the front seat.


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We didn't get killed in the front seat so I can't complain about the roughness too much, but the layout is just absolutely horrible. The helix is so big, slow, and just .. plodding. I've never seen a wooden coaster do less with more track. At least Son of Beast (had) a loop.

The only really cool part was the drop into the cliff near the end. (#525)


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Next door to Rattler was Road Runner Express, the park's Mine Train. This was also the last Mine Train Arrow ever produced.


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lol ramps.


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Overall a good ride, and utilizes the cliff well. As with seemingly all the coasters at Fiesta Texas it was fun, but not quite the best of its class. (#526)

There was only one coaster left to get, so we made a beeline back to the very front of the park, where Goliath now sits.


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Goliath is often called the 'jinxed' Batman as it came from Six Flags New Orleans, and Thrill Valley in Japan before that. It is the only B&M coaster to be moved twice, and for a long time was the only one to have been moved at all. (Dominator, Orochi, Chang all having moved since Goliath's opening in April 2008)


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This is a really pretty coaster, and very photogenic as well being right next to the parking lot/entrance of the park. The queue also snakes under the lift and zero-g-roll for even more photo taking opportunities.


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Overall another solid Batman clone, this would also be the last new coaster (#527) and last coaster period for me on this trip.

With all the coasters done, it was time to relax for a while, so we took the train around the park.

(I don't have any train pics so this will have to do)


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We still had about an hour left before we had to leave so it was time to start doing some of the flats. I of course opted to go straight for the dark ride, but found what Jake said was a long line. He also noted that it was exactly the same ride as at Carowinds so I wasn't too broken up about it.


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However right next to Scooby Doo was a Huss Frisbee, with no line.


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Now I have been on my fair share of normal Huss Frisbees such as these, but never have I felt an 'overdrive' spin as intense as this one. Absolutely awesome.

The exit for the Frisbee led right into the entrance for the Ferris Wheel, so of course we tapped that next.


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The Wheel was nothing out of the ordinary but it provided really good views for the Boardwalk and Rockville areas.


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Yes this is an amusement park.

I kind of wanted to do Twister, the Top Spin next, so Jake consented and we hopped on.


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I enjoy Top Spins, I really do. I have been on good ones, bad ones, the giant one at Kings Island even. But there is something about Six Flags and Top Spins which make the program they run, really lame. Then again I'm one of those pricks in RollerCoaster Tycoon which need a 10 excitement, 10 intensity, and 10 nausea before I ride.

After we got off Twister I started to notice this aqueduct like structure nearby.


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After investigating some, I found it to be Bugs White Water Rapids, the log flume for the park.


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It was fun, had some nice drops and some interesting themeing.

We kind of farted around for a little while longer taking pictures, until leaving around 3pm. Overall, considering everything, this is my favorite Six Flags park (and I've been to all of them outside of California). The themeing all over the park is Busch quality if not better. The park was very clean, employees fairly nice, they have a LOT of flat rides that I didn't even talk about. Also the giant cliff as a backdrop really sets the tone for the entire park. I just really love everything about the park, except for interestingly enough, the coasters. The park has a decent collection of coasters, but no single one stands out.

To see all my Six Flags Fiesta Texas pictures please click here.

Jake and I were both pretty hungry so we went over to the Chick-fil-A near the park. It was a nice place to get out of the heat for a while. They were having the 'wear your sports team logo and get some free crap' promotion so it was quite crowded.

Jake dropped me off at the airport with more than enough time to get where I was supposed to go, however something happened in the communications between Delta, American, and Priceline where my ticket had vanished, which kept me at a counter for ages. I did make it to my gate as they were boarding.

The short flight to Dallas was fairly non eventful until our approach where I got a great view of SFoT and Cowboys Stadium. The stadium is impossible to miss from 10,000 feet.



I had more than enough time to explore DFW and while it was similarly sized to Atlanta's it was much easier to navigate, and much prettier.

On the way home we flew right past a pretty big storm and I got first hand look at lightning inside of a cloud. I never thought I would see multiple lightning strikes below me.

I made a small video of the lightning here, its kind of interesting.

I finally arrived home around 1am.

If you read through all 4 posts of this drivel, congrats give yourself a cookie.

[Top Gun68]

Great reports. I sure wish I had the time/money/patience to travel to other Amusement Parks.

[Jonathan]

Fiesta Texas looks really nice, but there is just nothing there that interests me. Reminds me of Port Aventura.