Magic Spring Photo Trip Report

Today (7/5/10) I took a 250 mile one way drive to Magic Springs (Hot Springs, AR) on a semi hot day. I was banking on no one being around after the July 4 holiday and I was right. The ol' man and I had a really good time taking in the rides and the water park.

The park was sparkling clean and very well landscaped. All of the rides were operating when the park opened, another big plus vs other reports I have read on previous years. I found the staff to be friendly and many ride ops almost begging people to come over and give them something to do. Re-rides were offered when no one else was in your row or if there was an empty seat on a flat ride. I will say the park is lacking two things. A major roller coaster (X-Coaster was a really good ride, but in all honesty I don't see it as a big draw) and more flat thrill rides. I think with all of the improvements they have done to get the park up to snuff, they will now be able to concentrate on bringing additional rides into the park such as with the new boogie blast in the water park.

All in all the park has wonderful potential and is in great physical shape, PARC has done a nice job revamping the park and I can see them having success in the future.

First off a culture credit. Our drive down 270E brought us into the Ouachita National Forest. 1.8 million miles of forest and 700 miles of trails. It was a definite welcome site vs the interstate.

And they had a rest area on the side of a 2 lane highway. And it was CLEAN! There are several logging companies and mills along this road. I felt like I was on a discovery channel show

Long line to get in at 11 when the park opened. My only beef is that they only had two ticket takers. Thanks to my ClubTPR membership, we got to buy our discount tickets at home and bypass the long ticket line to the left.

Just inside the park you are greated with this, to the left a bag check, to the right, no bag check, walk right in.

See? Clean, and not that busy.

Nice landscaping

Grab a bite to eat. Asking about prices? Large drink = 2.70 +tax, meals 7.75-9.00+tax

Wave pool with X Coaster in the background.

X Coaster running.

Arkansas twister in the rear

The Swings were up and running, I love the 2 wide versions.

And they had this scarey looking ride.

They have games, but nothing over whelming like a six flags or cedar fair park, and no one yelling at you wanting you to play.

The BBQ at this place smelt really good.

Nice view.

The park's carousel.

where you can ride a cock.

Wet Ride, yeah, on a hot day!

This thing will soak you. They only had one boat.

Seriously only one boat. Period. Not even a second boat off to the side. Oh, yeah, and it will soak you.

Then again, there were no lines.

One of my fav shots of the Plummet Summit

Ahh, a Verkoma. Never know what you are going to get.

But that's part of the thrill, this one looks harmless.

The restraints were quite comfortable. Your ears weren't beat all to @#%@

The was a nice ride overall. Smooth for Verkoma and again, the seats were great. They have two trains, but only one on the tracks, the other one was partially disassembled on the maintenance track.

As we leave the Gauntlet with a shot of the station (walk on!) we have our first credit out of the way. More pics very soon.

Next round of pics.

Next we head over to this little gem. The ride op was friendly.

She didn't mind seeing two very sad and pathetic people coming to ride. We were told for a kiddie ride, it was intense. I thought she was fibbing.

Lift hill. She was not lying, for a kiddie coaster, it was actually, well, fun and slighlty intense.

This has to be the shortest S&S tower I've ever seen, even shorter than the two at WoF

Wild Thang. I couldn't get the ol' man to get on this, and as a result, I couldn't get on it either. They don't allow single riders, guess they want to balance the ride or something, affraid it will break down.

Off to the twist and shout.

Cool little cars.

Typical wild ride.

Zero people waiting.

They make you sit on the outside of the ride. The Ride op's were cool as could be and bored out of their minds. They were happy someone walked by to ride.

Random riders. After we showed up, others did too. They don't run the lift motors at all on any of their coasters when a train isn't on the lift.

Big Bad Johnson

Mine Train.

Lift hill.

Empty station. Big John was not bad, but the ops were having fun with it.

They had a second train in here took apart, looked like for parts.

X Coaster, coming up next.

Final round of pics.

how about some X Coaster?

Ding Ding, going up.

OMFG!!

Fly Baby, Fly!

I think someone just pooed themselves.

Seriously, this ride is really fun, really short, and really not scarey.

Back of trains, they have restraints similar to that on the S&S Screamin Swings and Fly Swatter, they lock down tight on the way up the hill, just watch the breack on the lift hill when you swing up the second time, you might bump your head and say a few new words as a result.

Magic Springs Exercise Progam, I lost 3 pounds today. No really, I lost three pounds today.

Wildlife.

Water park, included in admission, can't beat that.

New Boggie Blast

Lazy Lazy

The twister.

Lift hill. Nice out and back ride.

Noted.

I liked these trains for some reason, roomy and comfortable. The train did act like it was in a "think I can think I can" mode over the last hill before the bunny hops. Don't know if it was trims or what, I wasn't paying much attention to that, just thought it was funny.

Empty. The ride ops again were friendly, even offered to hold my camera for me with out me having to walk over to the storage area, how cool was that? Anyway, ride in the back car, you will feel like it's about to come off the track.

Again, had a great time, hope you've enjoyed the pics.

Wow, another PARC park that's really been turned around! Thanks for posting this, I haven't seen much of MS lately. I know PARC has been giving the place a lot of attention just by following them on Facebook, but I didn't know it had payed off this much. They've sure done a lot to get stuff back open and beautify the place. It shows they truly know how to run these parks. I just hope it starts paying off for them. People still dog MS a lot because of its rep. I hope the locals start taking note.

^^I totally agree. They are really showing their committment to the community and park. Really, the only thing they need to address at this park now is the parking lot. It's been striped and re-striped so many times that many people were just parking in random ways. If they were to seal it and stripe it right, that would add icing to the cake on their totally awesome revamp.

All of the rides were operating really well, I can't stress that enough.

At first, I seriously thought that Big Bad John was a heavily themed restroom facility.

Sounds like the park is doing well! For some reason, I'd really like to ride X-Coaster, even if it's not all that great. And Arkansas Twister sounds like fun. Thanks for sharing!

X Coaster should be on the bucket list, that's for sure. I just don't see it as being a big draw to the park. Basically, once you go over the top, it shoots you down through the station up the front tower, then back through the station and up the rear tower, then up the front tower where it breaks, attaches to the chain, and brings you back to safety. Fun ride.

They don't run the lift motors at all on any of their coasters when a train isn't on the lift.

Wild Waves does the same thing. It must be a PARC thing.

Wow, I didn't even know this park existed! It's got a few nice rides, too; I never knew that America had an X-Coaster! I guess I have another park to use my PARC Season pass for. Speaking of PARC, I wish they kept as much care of Wild Waves as they do of their other parks. WW feels pretty neglected compared to their other properties, like this one here.

Just curious, you mentioned a price for the large soda in your report. Is MS not doing the free soda promotion anymore?

Thanks.

Cool pictures. I live in Houston and have been thinking about taking a road-trip up there. Would you recommend a trip to Magic Springs?

Just curious, you mentioned a price for the large soda in your report. Is MS not doing the free soda promotion anymore?

 

Thanks.

I didn't see anything anywhere about free soda. I know that Lake Compounce was offering Free Soda when I was there earlier this year, and that was a first for me. Magic Springs did offer a souviner cup for like 7.00 and then refills were 1.50.

Cool pictures. I live in Houston and have been thinking about taking a road-trip up there. Would you recommend a trip to Magic Springs?

From Houston that is quite the drive. MS is a smaller park and good for a weekend getaway, especially if you mix the lake into it. If you don't go in the summer, I would probably say I wouldn't make the trip given the distance you are from it as the water park is a great perk and makes it worth while. I know I might be dancing around a yes or no answer and if driving that distance doesn't bother you, I'd say make the trip. If you lived a little closer(250 miles or less), I would say definitely go, it's a nice, clean, peaceful park. Hope that somewhat helps.

edit: I just checked mapquest, it shows about a 7 hour drive from Houston. If you are looking to get away, this is a nice part of Arkansas, and like I said before, mix in the lake and the downtown area of Hot Springs and it would be a nice little getaway. Just be sure to go when the water park is open to get the full effect.

Wasn't X-Coaster SBNO for a while? Anyway- nice pics that really show off some of the park. I've never been there and there seems to be a lack of pics from anything but the coasters.

By the way...Detonator (Space Shot) at Wof is 200 feet tall but you only go up 165ish feet. The Accelerator (Double Shot) at Celebration City (RIP) was itsy-bitsy. I'd guess less than 100 feet tall.

^^

Yeah X was out of commission last year, but they were able to get the part in and the ride opened back up around a month ago I'm told.

The tower here was probably in the same league as Celebration City, about 100ft

Unfortunately there were a few rides I didn't capture. Hawk, Log Flume, Bumper Cars, and Kiddie Land (4 rides) When I go to new parks I try to capture everything but don't always succeed. ( or remember, sometimes the movable scenery distracts me) Glad I was able to post stuff to give you a better idea of what the park is like. They've done a nice job on it and deserves some love.

Thanks for the nice trip report. It looks to me that the park has changed very little since we were there in October 2007 for Magic Screams. Every coaster was up and running then except for Twist n Shout, a credit I'll have to go back for. Of course the water park and water rides were closed when we were there.

I've read that they've had little ups and downs over the last few years with the coasters but I see pretty much the same thing I saw 2 1/2 years ago, a well-run little park that's set in a gorgeous landscape. The only major problem seems to be their anemic attendance.

I lived in Monticello, AR, about 2 1/2 hours away by car, between 2001-2003 and I never saw a single marketing piece from MS. And Hot Springs just isn't the tourist draw that it once was. Anyone here see their advertising, say, in Little Rock?

Once again, thanks for the nice photo update.