GuruGuys

I will be in the area on April 21-24th, I want to visit SFMM and Knotts on the 22 and 23 (Tuesday and Wednesday). This will be my first visit to both parks. Which park should I do on which day, or does it really matter? Is there anything else I should try to squeeze in with the half day I have on the 21st or 24th while I'm in the area? Any park tips or advice like what to ride first at park opening etc? -GG

Yes, front row was definitely smoother than back. We actually settled into the middle of the train for rides 3 and 4. I was astonished by the amazingly powerful sideways slam right after the first steep grade. There were also spots where the coaster seemed slow and "hung" while banking. The train also crawled at a snail's pace, literally, from the final brake run to station, but all of this could have been due to the fact that our trains were always light (few riders). I gotta watch the TPR video again now that I've been on it. Yes, after the winter re-tracking this slam basically vanished and the first drop was very smooth however as I rode again a few weeks ago and then again last week the slam has come back with a vengeance. In addition they have added about 20 ft of plastic behind one of the rails after the first drop. Its still amazing to me that they are having issues with the track after this entire section was completely re tracked this winter. You are right about the empty train making a difference, the ride goes 5 seconds faster with a full train and comes off the magnetic brakes much faster. Still, even with an empty train it should not come off the brakes that slow - another thing that has never been figured out. I will say that I am glad they are using oil on the track now instead of graphite, it has been running in the mid 60's the past week or so, which makes the ride exceptionally better, eliminating the hangs and stalls you experienced, at least with a full train. When I rode with CoasterJoe he it was running well and he really liked the ride, especially in the front. -GG

I loved Steel Eel when I rode it last year! So far it is my favorite airtime steelie. The third seat on the front car was killer! Hope you sat in the front row on the Bullet, its starting to get a bit rough again as you stated, especially in the back, but the front is a very fun and different ride than the rest of the train. Does SFFT have those mandated ride lockers like SFOT? -GG

I am planning a short barely two day trip to SFMM in the late April or early June. To get the good airfare rates I have to travel on Tuesday and Wedensday. The available flights arrive at Burbank at 10am Tuesday and leave at 6pm on Wednesday. Here are the questions I have: If I can spend 5 hours in the park on Tuesday and about 4-5 hours in the park on Wednesday, will I have enough time to ride everything more than once (what are the crowds like). When does school end (I'm assuming it will be much more crowded then?) Thanks for the help. -GG P.S. If this belongs in a trip planning thread feel free to move it there instead.

During the second day of Lone Star Coasterthon last year it started raining heavily. Within about 30 minutes that bayou was starting to go past it banks and parts of the park were being roped off. Several restaurants (Panda Express near the observation tower for one) had about 4 inches of water on the floor. It continued to rain heavily for almost an hour. A few hours later the water had all drained and the park was back to normal. One of the maintenance guys said it was normal for park to drain really fast after the rain. All I know is - wet tennis shoes and a lot of walking = major foot pain! -GG

350lb payload = I could ride it! Forget a Segway, get your very own Big Dog! -GG

Glad you were finally able to make it out to ride the Bullet. I can't believe the hours you guys drove in two days time. The Texas triangle in one weekend is quite a feat. The Bullet was running decent for your visit and I'm glad you enjoyed it. The front seat is by far the best seat now and was really performing when we rode. Hope you make it back in the future for some 'ERT' on a weekday! -GG

My favorites so far are The Zipper & Afterburner. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo going on now provided Texcoaster and I with, by far, the best Zipper ride either of us have ever had! After spending what seemed like an eternity upside down and going down we got 5 complete spins in a row. They have the zipper setup just feet from a big slide so it appears you are going to swing right into the side of the slide! Don't skip it if you make it out there! The Afterburner at the HLSR was running a HORRIBLE program when we rode, it swung past horizontal only twice and most of the ride was taken at no more than 40% height. The two afterburners at the local ghetto carnivals around town are running much better programs which get you to past vertical within a few swings and keeping you there for at about 10 swings, then slowing down, stopping, and rotating the other way around before going back to past horizontal peak swings. Awesome ride when they run it like that, very nice negative to positive G transitions. I love how you can just feel the energy build as you are pushed down in your seat knowing you are going to get that 'perfect swing' and boost of air as the ride rotates you just perfectly to peak at the highest point of the ride. -GG

The past few weeks seem to have been the most stable for the Bullet as ride times are remaining pretty consistent at 67-72 seconds. Train #2 rides about 1.5-2 seconds faster than train #1 which leads me to say that they started running two trains on the weekends. This keeps wait times under 15 minutes even at the busiest hours. With spring break in a only a few weeks we will likely see our longest wait times ever but I still doubt they have to use that extra few hundred feet of queue by the parking lot. This picture was taken last week - they are obviously getting ready for the mad Spring Break rush... -GG Anyone guess which rides were still open that day?

The food issue needs to be corrected. Its so bad that I had leftover food vouchers that I didn't use at both Six Flags ACE events in Texas last year! Perhaps I'm the first ACE member to turn down free food (if you can call it that). The chicken strips, in particular, are horrid. -GG

The Boardwalk Bullet commercial will make it's debut in Houston on cable and on Network television (KHCW, KHOU, KPRC, KRIV, KTRK, KTXH) the week of 3/13-3/20 for spring break. Spring Break is one of Kemah Boardwalk's busiest weeks of the year, if not the busiest. A slightly edited version of the commercial is attached. I still don't think the music is fitting -GG boardwalk-bullet4.wmv Final version of Boardwalk Bullet commercial that will start airing in Houston in March 2008.

I hope they find the right land for it - Greezed Lightnin' was my first looped coaster and the first non-kiddie coaster! I remember the slow days at Astroworld when you could get on it over and over again without waiting a line. What a launch it had! -GG

Now we'll see who is first for a 600ft Wonder Wheel type Ferris Wheel -GG

Popular Mechanics Article on BIG Ferris Wheels At almost 700 feet Beijing Great Wheel will become the tallest/largest "Observational Wheel" in 2009. -GG

So far the schedule for the Bullet is to be open daily even on weekdays in the winter. This may change in the future, and perhaps near future, so stay tuned. The Bullet usually opens around 1pm and continues to run until the park closes at 10pm on weekdays and 11pm on Friday and Saturday. A cold front is coming in so there is a chance for some rain rides tomorrow evening when the front first comes in about 6-7pm. Weather remains a bit wet and cold until Thursday and although still chilly us Texans (high of 56) Friday should be a great day to ride. -GG

Not sure if you stuck around for the rain but the Bullet ran as fast as 62.12 seconds and was running <64 seconds almost all afternoon and night, by far the fastest it has run for a day. 62 seconds is what I hear they were aiming for as a decent speed, even though it was designed to run even faster. -GG

I can see a bit why some of the people get tired of clicking on the Bullet thread, to read "Gorgeous day to ride". What significance does that add to our conversation. I guess you could have stated that its great to have a coaster that is open 7 days a week in the winter where it was mid 70's and sunny today. So, in an attempt to salvage this statement, I ask to all: Which other coasters in the U.S. offer this? Ok, really more than we need to know I think! -GG

And yet there's only three or four people that were there that day that continue (day after day after day after day) to proclaim the Bullet's greatness. I'd say that's a minority. Aside from Texcoaster, I don't know anyone else that is 'proclaiming its greatness'. I guess that makes sense, I always wondered if it was normal for woodies to vary 10 seconds in their cycle time. It seems like a lot. ...Or perhaps the ride isn't as good as you want to believe. Maybe those "wusses" were on to something. The problem with the TPR shoot was that many of the riders rode for the first time that day - and many of them rode in some of the worst seats at the time. The ride had a nasty kick at the bottom of the first drop, and if you were not ready for it it would really kick your butt. In addition, everyone rode multiple rides in a row, without getting up and without even getting the lap bar reset. Without being able to reset the lap bar, I was having problems tolerating the Bullet especially in the back seat as there was no room to shake around the seat while being pinned done in it. Finally, it was riding around 70 seconds that day, which is on the slower end of the spectrum. With all that in mind, I can see why most of the TPR group didn't care for the ride. After the maintenance, they may enjoy it a bit more but I have said in several posts that I doubt it will change their opinions on it too much. Aside from it no longer being too rough for some people to ride it is still a bit slow and boring on the back half. I don't believe anyone would call it a "Bad" coaster however. I think Robb put it best when he posted that a really good coaster is in there somewhere, it just hasn't happened yet. The locals, (and I don't mean local coaster enthusiasts), Kemah's primary customers, seem to like it just fine and it is performing very well in revenue for the Boardwalk. I started thinking about this, I don't recall the Bullet ever running that slow, even before the changes. What is this, S.N.L., this is the third or fourth time this 'joke' (about Bullet Run Times) has been posted, its been run into the ground. -GG

One of the good things (or bad depending on how you look at it) about The Bullet and I guess many woodies is that they offer different rides depending on the weather, track conditions, etc. Every day that I ride the Bullet I have at least a few rides that perform differently in places than before. This keeps things interesting for me. -GG

We don't time it, just ask the control operator when you get off the ride, they are usually happy to tell you the computer calculated time from the console. Those sound like ride op errors (or, as I've heard them call each other, Ride Stoperators when the mess up and hit the e-stop etc.), not really breakdowns in the usual sense that something is wrong with the ride. They were training a lot of new crew when I was there last. -GG

On the Bullet? I quit counting after 300. I've probably passed 400 by now but not sure. On other coasters? I have a very low coaster count overall - this is why I've never ranked the Bullet as I've not ridden enough woodies to compare it too. This will change as I will be making an East Coast trip that should get me up to about 80 total coaster credits afterwards. On another note, the Bullet has been running a solid 65 seconds all day today, which is faster that it has ever run solidly before. This is a good thing. Perhaps we'll loose a few more second in the coming weeks when things break in. -GG

Well, it's a good coaster and worth several repeat rides, plus you get the aviator, inverter, swinging ship, etc.... The best ride other than the Bullet IMO is the kiddie tower, the Chance Bouncer ride. It gives me tiny stomach drop every time I ride it and makes me LOL. Perhaps the Bullet ranks higher for some because it is easily available all year and you rarely have to wait in line to ride it - not many coasters offer that luxury. I stop by at lunch and buy a single ride ticket now and then, when I buy an all day pass I usually ride at least 20 times. -GG

Video on page 13 finally works... -GG

Since the first drop is rated at max of 51mph I doubht its going that fast around the bay turn. -GG

At what point during the ride? You mean max M.P.H. during the first drop? I don't think anyone has tried to clock that lately. I believe we calculated the average speed of the entire ride from end of lift hill to brakes to be about 27MPH. -GG