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Day 4—Kemah Boardwalk The midpoint of our October trip was a morning flight from Orlando to Houston. While I have always liked Houston, we would not stay for long on this trip. The plan was to go from the airport straight to Kemah Boardwalk, spend the night at a downtown Hyatt, then drive to Sea World San Antonio the next morning. Kemah Boardwalk is an interesting place. It’s a small seaside amusement complex similar in scale to something like the Santa Monica Pier and far smaller than Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Unlike those two which are geared heavily towards rides, Kemah’s focus is more on dining and a marina with a small selection of rides as a secondary draw. It is one of countless properties fully owned by Tilman “I want to build the Houston Rockets into an NBA title contender, but I drove my highly-regarded team president out of town, slashed budgets in every department of the organization, and just traded for John Wall” Fertitta. The Boardwalk is thus a showcase for many of the restaurants under Fertitta’s Landry’s Inc. banner. I happen to think most of them are quite good, so I don’t feel like having the Tilman stamp all over everything is a bad thing at all, even if he’s one of my least favorite NBA owners. A quick Tilman anecdote. After I completed the WDW college program, I worked front desk at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas for a year right around the time Landry’s Inc. purchased the joint. One day when Tilman (everyone always referred to him by his first name) was touring the hotel, he walked out of the back office and stood right behind me, watching me check guests in for ten minutes or so. I was 21 at the time and still a fresh hire who didn’t really know what I was doing yet. Tilman obviously had no idea who I was and probably picked me at random, but having this billionaire owner hovering over me was the most nervous I’ve ever been in a professional setting. None of that colors my opinion of Kemah Boardwalk and Boardwalk Bullet however, both of which I really liked. Bullet was the only thing I rode. The standard-fare flat rides weren’t of any interest to me. I bought an all-day wristband and finished with eight rides on it that afternoon before we left for the hotel. I would have liked to have gotten there earlier and bookended a far longer Bullet marathon with lunch and dinner at a couple of the restaurants, but we made do with an intermission for drinks and aps at Landry’s Sea Food. Operations were okay but not great. The pair of Bullet ride ops were talkative and friendly if not particularly fast. Same with the Landry’s bartender and wait staff. Mask wearing was encouraged but not enforced. The boardwalk was clean and had a pleasant atmosphere I would like to soak in more during a future visit. Boardwalk Bullet This was my fifth Gravity Group after Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Switchback, and Mine Blower. My understanding going in was that Bullet was a coaster that polarized people over its intensity, pacing, and roughness. I had heard thorough retracking over the last couple of years had mostly solved the latter two problems so I knew I was going to love it. In answer to my pre-trip question of which new GG coaster I would prefer, it was easily Boardwalk Bullet. I fully accept that it may have run like a hastily constructed wooden garbage heap years ago, but in 2020 this thing ran awesomely. It was as smooth as such an intense coaster running PTC trains probably can be and it was much more comfortable than the more recent Mine Blower-Timberliner combo. It also hauled all kinds of ass until the final stretch of the layout. It took all the big moments fast, even the tall-ish midcourse hill with the anti-rollbacks it just crawls over in older videos. However, the pacing does let up some at the end unlike Voyage or Mine Blower which never seem to slow down at all. There was never a queue and I never saw a train more than half-full. I imagine a full train would have run even faster and held that momentum until the very end. Like a lot of my top coasters, Bullet is an aggressive ride that constantly reminds you that it, not you, is in control of the experience, so I can see why it may not be for everybody. I would describe it as a more tightly wound and intense Ghostrider or a Knoebels Twister with more airtime. For me it’s also the best coaster in Texas, beating out all three of the Six Flags RMCs. 9/10 This slight wave turn doesn’t look like much from this angle, but it delivers a nice kick of lateral airtime that made me bust out laughing my first couple of times. That’s what I do when I’m taken aback by surprisingly intense elements. I laugh uncontrollably. Boardwalk Bullet’s Texas-themed station is just as Texas as all the other Texas-themed stations you'll find in Texas. As many highlights as Bullet has, the compact structure makes it difficult to photograph. All of my rides were late afternoon/early evening. I want to ride this thing at night when I suspect I’d love it even more. The coaster’s structure pushes right up to the seawall. Several of the restaurants including Saltgrass were closed. I bet the ambiance at Kemah Boardwalk is great when everything is open and the sky is a little darker. The ride selection is fine for what it is, but as the greater Houston area’s closest thing to a true amusement park, I’d love to see them find a way to grow with more rides. Perhaps by building another parking structure and expanding into the parking lot. I was pretty nervous that Bullet was closed when we arrived. We didn’t see a single train cycle during our approach to the parking lot. But it was merely the low crowds and Covid cleaning procedures. Like Ghostrider, the wooden structure’s proportions make it look bigger and more imposing than it is. The first drop is one of the best wooden coaster drops out there. It equals Mine Blower’s for sheer ejector airtime and easily bests it on view and setting.

Hey, who'd have thought that the friggin' crow of all things would be more masked up than the patrons and employees?

I mean... it's a mostly un-themed coaster train. The shots are great and if this marketing works for them then more power to them I guess. I'm looking forward to the ride but I don't care what the train looks like.

"8 or less hours" Yeah, if it were a case where the park was fully open, I might consider doing an eight hour road trip, but for a limited Christmas event that focuses on lights and food moreso than rides? That's a pretty tough sell. These events are meant for locals to get out and enjoy a little bit of their home park, not enthusiasts looking for their next fix. And that's not even taking into account whatever arbitrary travel restrictions that may currently be in place from state to state (not discussing the validity of them, just simply stating that they exist).

On the topic of guest experience. I am sure under current circumstances it is not as consistent as they would like, most businesses are not if they are even open. That being said after the excellent support in the previously mentioned lost car key debacle at the ACE event, I had another issue completely (once again) of my own making. Apparently it was my weekend to be stupid. In the panic and then subsequent relief of the key, and the fact that we stayed an hour late for ert and went out the resort gate; I totally forgot that I had sent a package to pick up earlier in the day. I realized the next day on our way home and called the park. Of course got a machine, left my sad tale and offered to pay to ship or in lieu of that possibility could I get a refund. I did not hear back for about 10 days BUT did eventually get a call from a very nice and obviously harassed supervisor who asked for my address so they could ship it to me at no expense on my part. So......maybe just a little patience.

I second the notion; I've been on both and miss them. That "horizontal loop" pulled some serious Gs. At KD, it was replaced by Delirium, a type of ride I don't ride, so that's a net loss to me. Stand-ups aren't the best but they are a unique ride type that I'll be sad if they every all completely disappear. I also never experienced any of the "male-derived pain" from these but I guess I just figured out early how to properly adjust the harness to prevent that.

I mean it was a Togo stand up. So it was awfully awesome. I rode King Cobra and it's sister Shockwave at KD. Neither ride was mind blowing but neither ride was absolutely awful either. I have had much worse experiences on B&M stand-ups.

I get where you're coming from on this Boldy, but at the same time, I gotta disagree with you. My family and I did the drive-thru last night, and we had a wonderful time -- so much so that we actually ended up doing it twice in a row. I'm sure on a POV it doesn't look that impressive but for us, this was our first time back in the park since January 1st. The novelty of driving our own car through it is a big part of what makes it a unique experience. Add to that the streamable soundtrack they provided on the website (which of course includes that straight fire banger, the "Holiday In The Park" theme song), cups of hot chocolate, and numerous photo ops throughout the half-hour long drive-thru. Are the lights perfect? Are they better than what they are at any other point during the HITP season? No. But there's still some great moments of magic, such as the forest between Batman and Main Street, the peppermint swirls by Houdini, the carousel, the tunnel of lights, and Snowglobe Santa. The performers that we saw on both loops through the park ended up switching up as well so there were different folks to wave and scream at. Is this worth $14.99 per person? Nah, probably not. But as a free add-on for the season passholders and members, for those with young children, and especially for those of us who have been staying away from the park during the pandemic, it was a nice little treat and way to escape for about an hour. And compared to another drive thru that we did last week over at Sesame Place, it was a way better value for money; that one literally took us straight down the middle of the park from one end to the other and was over in five minutes. (And that wasn't even included on our season passes, either!) Here's a few photos my wife took on our drive(s) through the park: Not much of a line at all, even though people had been reporting that most time slots were sold out for passholders/members. You could go to the left to just get scanned through, or go to the right to pick up some treats and souvenirs. They're saying "prepaid bundles" but I didn't see them anywhere on their website. They were more than happy to sell them to you at the gate however. We ended up getting some of the teddy bear packages for the kids. This stilt-walker greets you as you pull in through the pavilions and make your first turn towards the Hall of Justice. The big HITP ornaments are on display in Gotham near the shops... ...while the Batmobile has been replaced with a large traditional Christmas tree and appearances by the "Evergreen Queen". (The kids were sure it was actually Merida from "Brave".) Leaving Gotham put you into the forest with trees wrapped in multi-colored lights at the front, and... ...after passing by Santa's house... You ended up in the blue trees with the falling snow lights. This led directly to the main fountain area with the gigantic HITP tree. It was mostly cycling through colors, no animated shows like you would typically see during normal operations. This candy cane area is usually one of our favorites during normal operation. The carousel is gorgeous as always. Would be nice if they had actually turned the lights on for the Big Wheel, but this is nothing new... I don't think those have been on in at least half a decade. The "Poinsettia Princess" was missing in action, so an elf was standing in for her tonight. "Ho ho ho" or "HA HA HA!!"? The tunnel of lights is short but enchanting to drive through, especially with the moonroof open! Even Twister gets its turn in the spotlight! Well, kinda, it's still upstaged by the oversized ornament and trees. No driving through Frosty, but this elf is eager to entertain with a little bit of juggling! These present light sculptures are beautiful! Only fitting to have the man himself out in front of Superman IMO. Even though he's safely enclosed in his snow globe bubble, they gave him a microphone so he could talk with the kids and wish everyone a merry Christmas! Non-operational this evening, but always photogenic.

I'm sure I read the Ice Breaker height restriction will be 48" - I remember they were really pushing the exact family-friendlier tone when they initially announced the coaster. On the topic of the trains, I think Premier's current rolling stock is just about the worst out there from any of the major manufacturers at the moment, especially when you compare them to Intamin and Mack's current designs. I think they're ugly, not easy to get in/out of and the comfort collars are a really stupid solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

Wait, there is actually going to be a safari-themed ride in Safari Village? Is that allowed?