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one interesting thing about Great White too. . is you rode something historical. . yes, it's a "Batman" clone. .but it's the first Roller Coaster ever built at a SeaWorld Park

it used to be one big park (it's by far the largest of the SeaWorld parks. . there's a lot of unused land). the waterpark used to be in the middle of the park (included free), and the arches were the main entrance - with the Porpoise pool and "Discovery Cove" area included. many years ago, when they decided to charge separate admission for the improved waterpark, the moved the entrances to in front of each park - and the main entrance/archways just became a scenic thing. what many don't realize is that you do NOT need a ticket to go to Discovery Point - with the porpoises, and Sharks (and the Shark Aquarium). Sometimes when I'm with friends from out of town and we've popped up to San Antonio, we'll stop in, as my pass gets us parking, and Discovery Cove is a beautiful area. you likely discovered that SWSA is not really a "rides" park.. people come for the shows if they aren't there for Aquatica. the only rides that ever do have a line, are Wavebreaker (the only true "Family" coaster in the park, and the two water rides (Rio Loco, and Journey to Atlantis). but hey, it's Texas, so makes sense. But that's why I never buy quick queue. . . except for the Haunts (because during Howl O Scream the Haunts are free. .and paying for quick queue scare pass lets you do all in one night)

Hi Everyone! I said in my SFOT report that before going to my next Six Flags park I went to a park that surprised me. And boy did it! Now, I've heard lots about the SeaWorld parks. I've heard good things, bad things, and mixed things. I've been to BGW so kinda new the drill, but not a true SeaWorld park. One constant was that SeaWorld San Antonio was the worst of the three. With that in mind I say... If this is the WORST SeaWorld...I can NOT WAIT to visit the best! This place was cool, really cool. Quick side note: I'm curious as to the history of the park. Does anyone know why the entrance is the way it is. It looked like the area the is now home to Discovery Cove and Auqatica used to be part of the main park, thus the big glass arches. Is this true, or is that just kinda how it's always been? Anyways, back to my thoughts... Started out strong by heading right after entering and going straight to Texas Stingray. I've ridden what are regarded as GCI's better rides, so I was curious how one of the newer ones went over. And this is a GREAT ride! I would characterize it as the perfect "good wooden coaster" that every park should have. Extremally re-ridable, with an interesting and engaging layout that has a nice balance of laterals and airtime. I wish more parks would have wooden coasters like this. Not trying to be gimmicky, or the craziest wooden coaster around. Just a good old fashioned fun ride, that everyone can enjoy. It doesn't have to try and be the star attraction to be good. It's not my favorite wooden coaster by any means, but it certainly is a great one. Next up was the best Batman clone I road in Texas, the one everyone forgets exists...Great White! Nothing too much to say other than...at least it wasn't rough like the other two... I hit Wave Breaker next, which scores well in the uniqueness category. I like the concept and the unique ride vehicles. Not the most intense ride of course, being geared towards families, but it serves it's purpose well. If this was the proof of concept for the other motor bike coasters that SeaWorld has been installing lately, they should be solid family coaster additions. Mix in the extra theming that DarKoaster and Penguin Trek (that is a jet ski coaster...right? I haven't been following it...) have and I like this type of ride. Good job SeaWorld doing something different with the family coaster concept, and adapting it to your theme of rescue. Steel Eel was next, which I think is the best coaster in the park. I say think because Texas Stingray, while great, just doesn't have the magnitude in my opinion to be the best coaster in the park...but it's just so good. It's a close one. I'll go Steel Eel. Definitely better than Mamba and Titan, even up there with the B&M hypers I've ridden. The plastic seats did hurt a little, and I might have wacked my hand on a tree...but still great. Having knocked out the coasters in short order (No I'm not such a credit whore to ride the Grover coaster, and I didn't want to get wet so I skipped Journey to Atlantis) I decided to check out some of the animal exhibits and shows the park had. And I must say, while some of the exhibits (cough cough Penguins cough cough) were kinda dated, I was overall impressed. They integrated well into the theme park environment, helping to offer a cool mix of thrills and animal engagements. And that I think is what I thought was the great accomplishment of this park, and really nice balance of animals, education, and thrills. The rides were all solid great rides, not stand-outs but solid, mixed with well presented animal exhibits. In my opinion this is the formula that SeaWorld should follow. They shouldn't be all about the biggest, craziest coaster, and they shouldn't be all about education, but a mix of both. They do kinda hit you over the head with the SeaWorld Rescue thing, which while I understand why they do they could be a little more subtle about it... BGW has similar attributes, but it's european theme and heavy hitter coaster line-up lend it to focus more on the thrills rather than the animals. SWSA had a better balance I thought. If this is the worst of the SeaWorld parks, then I'm really excited to visit Orlando and San Diego and see the balance more fleshed out. If I could ask San Antonio for one thing it would be more, more of this awesome balance that makes SeaWorld so unique. One thing they could improve is the Orca Encounter show. Now I get it, maybe it's a lot of work to retrain the Orcas for a new show, maybe this was the super quick fix they needed during the height of the Blackfish controversary, and they just stuck with it. But come one, you can make it less obvious that this is the Shamu show with all the Shamu references stripped out, and some new videos spliced in. This could be such a cool experience with and educational focus, and the tricks demonstrating the abilities of these amazing creatures. As the Orca program at SeaWorld winds down, I hope they come up with a better way to showcase these animals while they've still got them. Speaking of improvements to this park. Catapult Falls was of course not open during my visit, but let me say this is the ride this park needs. Continuing that "solid rides" theme I mentioned earlier, this park needs another water ride for the Texas heat. I'm excited for this ride and what it means for the park going forward. I hope next on the table is some more/refurbed animal exhibits and shows. This park also had some details of it's own such as this sub over by the sea lion/otter area. I like little things like this, does this sub have some historic significance for the park? Also, I really enjoyed Discovery Point. I wasn't able to spend a lot of time there, but the idea of having some exhibits available for the cost of parking, with of course upcharges as well, we interesting. It was pretty well presented I thought as well. And that concludes my time at SeaWorld San Antonio. I REALLY enjoyed this park. I expected Fiesta Texas (oops spoiler alert) to crush this park in every way, but I have to say for me it's very close. It definitely puts San Antonio high on the list of cities I'd like to return too. See you all next time!

Hi Everyone! Would you look at that, I'm playing catch up on trip reports again. I had the privilege of doing both Texas and NorCal this summer, interspaced with a very busy work schedule. I'll start things off with the park that, for better or worse, I spent the least amount of time on Six Flags Over Texas. This was the year that I finally bucked up and bought a Six Flags pass. I knew I wanted to do the Texas parks, and was pretty sure I'd be going to Discovery Kingdom as well so the math seemed to work in my favor. I don't know if I'll continue it for next year, since its value is directly tied to my currently undecided travel plans, but it was nice to have. Anywho, Over Texas was the first Six Flags park I had ever visited...I know great start right... And well...it was fine I guess... I went straight to New Texas Giant, over my better judgement of going to La Vibora, which was my first RMC I-Box. And while I though it was good, it definitely felt like a proof of concept. It was smooth, but not all that adventurous with it's layout. One thing that I thought was really interesting was how the ride was positioned, not in the physical sense but in the marketing sense. I though it was interesting how the ride seemed to be presented as an updated version of the Texas Giant, rather than as a whole new ride. I mean think about it for a second, to my knowledge every RMC I-Box conversion since this one has been marketed and presented as a brand new ride. They may pay homage to the old attraction in the name or elements, but they are seen as a whole new experience separate from the old one. This ride felt like Six Flags wanted to position it as, "the Texas Giant, just good now!", rather than a whole new ride. From the minimally modified layout and theming, to old Texas Giant sign still in the gift shop, it didn't feel like they wanted it to be seen as a new ride, just a refurbed version of an old one. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, what you guys think? While I was in that corner of the park I did Titan. And wow...what a waste of a coaster. I should be able to remember some moment from a hyper coaster, and well I can't. In fact I had to go back and edit this part of the trip report to include the part that I road it... After Titan, we headed towards the other side of the park. Sadly we passed the then closed Pirates of Spelunker Caves...I was really bummed about that. It looks like a really unique attraction, especially for Six Flags. We hit up Knock-off Space Mountain on a Budg...I mean Runaway Mountain. Seriously though, can't you at least put something, ANYTHING, EVEN ONE OF THOOSE AWFUL ADVERTISEMETNS, in there to look at rather than a "meh" Premier coaster in a box. Next we did Justice League, which while impressive for a Six Flags, I'm not all that big a fan of shooting dark rides and I'm not the most familiar with the DC universe so it didn't resonate all that well. I like the vehicles and the animatronics and effects which seemed to largely be in working order. But the heavy reliance on screens and the shooting aspect really detracted for me. I have yet to ride a shooting dark ride that I've ridden and not said that be better without guns. I think it's just a ride genre I struggle with. After Justice League, we noticed some storm clouds in the distance and a check of the forecast confirmed that our day was probably gonna get cut really short. I got in line for Mr. Freeze but with a relatively long line and 5 minute dispatches I was like nah... So I went to Batman instead. And it was fun. Not my favorite invert by any means, but a solid ride. Of the three Batman's I road in Texas this one fell squarely in the middle, not to rough but not so smooth either. Glad I got the cred. Not so glad I got the cred...Judge Roy. Goodness, what a POS. Maybe this layout was fun at one point, but thanks to Six Flags maintenance it looks, sound's, and rides like it's gonna collapse. I'm pretty sure the intensity warning in the station is an excuse... Grabbed a quick snack and my complementary souvenir cup, then headed for Casa Magnetica. This was probably the experience that stood out the most to me. While a little short, I really enjoyed the wacky humor and "crooked house" effects (Who am I kidding, the peacock idol is ALIVE!!!). I'm glad the park brought this experience back and I hope other parks nationwide consider these smaller, more subtle experiences. I was gonna hop on New Texas Giant again, but then it went down for lightning. We thought about waiting or doing the log flume, but with the storm clouds quickly rolling in, I called it quits. And good thing, I got in my rental car and it POURED and I mean POURED. Now I'm from the PNW and whats more the rainy part of the PNW, yet I can only remember a few times it rained like that. Also, I got in the car started driving away and remembered Shockwave exists...RIP cred. As a whole I thought Over Texas was an interesting park. It felt like at one time someone cared and had a grand, well-planned, vision for the park, and somewhere along the way someone else said "to heck with that" let's put random rides and stuff everywhere. I liked the little details that someone clearly thought about when they were built. The remnants of that early vision were very apparent, and it looked like a recent effort has been made into restoring many of the older and broken down parts of the park. To be a good park though I think it still has a long way to go. Maybe Selim's idea of a higher standard for Six Flags will carry through and start here, but somehow I doubt that. And that's my hope for the future of this park. That someone who actually cares will be put in charge, and chart a new course forward. Build upon Casa Magnetica, Pirates of Spelunker Cave, and all the other improvement projects they seemed to be working on. Create a long-term vision that can buoy the park, and then clean the place up. If this park didn't get any new rides for a few years, but just restored an area of the park a year, I would be happy. I'll leave with a picture of what is now the only Intamin bobsled coaster in the US, here to hoping that it and the park can not only hang on, but thrive in the next few years. I mentioned earlier that I had bought a Six Flags pass, and that I did all of the Texas parks. So you probably know what my next Six Flags was...but first a stop at a park that actually surprised me. A park I didn't think would be so cool, but ended up giving me a lot of hope for it's chain and the other parks in it. See you all next time!