bigboy

The one from Georgia had the same space shuttle theming. I forgot about Crazy Legs. I also remember hearing that the Scrambler from AW was supposed to go to OT, but was damaged in transport. The one that went in near Titan was the one that had previously been on the Air Racer/S:TOP pad.

Take it with a grain of salt, but I had always heard that none of the rides added in 2006 came from Astroworld. I remember being told that SFOT's looping starship came from SFOG. I'm pretty sure theirs (like AW's) was removed after the 2005 season, so it's certainly possible that one ended up in Arlington.

On my last 2 trips this season (early August and early December), the operations never seemed as bad as a lot of reports suggested. Sure there were issues here and there, but it was positive overall. I also hope the trend continues. There are good people running things at the park. They are just hamstrung sometimes by tight corporate micromanagement and a highly competitive employment market in the D/FW area. I can tell you from personal experience: it's tough finding good part-time (and even low end full-time) help right now.

I was also there Friday night, mainly just to process our season passes and give our daughter a chance to run off some energy after a busy week. The lines at the turnstiles were probably 10 deep or more, likely because of people coming in with the cheap season passes, but it moved quickly. We mostly hit up rides we could do as a family: the carousel, a few rides in LT Boomtown, Cloud Bouncer, the train, antique cars, and Gold River. I took a quick lap on Sky Screamer. I waited 2 cycles, probably a little over 10 minutes. I hadn't been on it at night and not at all since its opening year. I wouldn't say the ride scares me, but I definitely get an uneasy feeling. There's just something about twisting around in a tiny seat suspended by chains that high in the air that's unsettling. The park had steady business but it was far from busy, especially given the warm weather. I heard it was an absolute nightmare yesterday. No surprise since it was 70 in the afternoon, still in the 60s at closing, and the rain chance is high today. The employees on the rides we were on were pretty good. Most were friendly and seemed to be working with a purpose. This is our first time to buy passes in a few years, so I'm looking forward to hitting the park every few weeks. We'll probably go at least one more time before the end of the season.

3 minutes is better than what I've seen and heard about over the last year and a half.

You're making a pretty big assumption that it was closed off because of the accident. Stuff happens. It could have been closed off for any number of unrelated reasons. I agree that the employee shouldn't say it isn't working, but I don't think it's anyone else's place to hassle employees who are just doing their job.

That's awesome. I'm glad you were able to get some satisfaction out of putting the minimum wage earning teenager who is just doing his job in his place. Well done.

I'm a big guy (5-9, hover between 245 and 260) and I've never had trouble with Titan, NTAG, or Mr. Freeze. Getting on B:TR or S:TOP with their OTSR is a tight squeeze for me, but my broad shoulders and chest are as much a problem as my gut.

You're pretty safe from horrendous crowds going on a Friday night a full week before schools get out in the area. I've never known the weather to have a huge impact on the HIP crowds unless it is exceptionally cold (in the 30's) all day and into the night or if there's rain. There may be longer lines for the more popular rides that normally get long lines, but many will be near walk on most of the time. I typically avoid the week before Christmas and the days between Christmas and New Years since that tends to be the busiest time. We went on a week day after the HIP event ended last year and the lines were almost non-existent. I think I waited 20 minutes for NTAG in the middle of the day.

The location on the application for the observation wheel is on the grounds of the convention center near the Rangers ballpark. This is at least the 3rd proposal for a giant observation wheel in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. I'm not holding my breath at this point.

To get a head start on the short turnaround for rehabbing rides for the next season.

Holiday in the Park starts on November 28 and the Gotham area rides usually close at the end of Fright Fest.

You should be fine. I'm 5-9, 250 and I've never had an issue. And FWIW, I rode Shockwave in the middle of August and found it to be as smooth as it's always been.

Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath on this one actually happening. They floated press releases around in the spring of 2013 and held an announcement celebration in downtown Fort Worth that June. Word from the local press around here was that it was an idea with no money behind it and they were just trolling for investors. They also announced that they were moving their headquarters to Fort Worth and not a word has been said locally about that or the theme park proposal in over a year. The article linked above sounds like it was written using material from the company's web site.

The water recedes almost as fast as it rises and they're pretty well-practiced at cleaning up after a flood. I would imagine everything will be reopened today.

Probably didn't work out well today. The park closed around 3:00 for massive flooding. The area has been hammered with slow moving pop up thunderstorms all week.

It's "no single riders in the last loaded row". They had the policy the entire time I worked at the park in the mid-90s and they also didn't allow single riders on any flat ride (the entire ride, not a particular seat or row). It went away sometime in the early-2000s and came back shortly after the accident on NTAG. It was explained to us when I worked at the park as an insurance requirement that allowed for at least 2 people to have a chance to see every rider on a train in the event that something went wrong.

Tony Hawk (or whatever it's called now) and Superman.

It's not field trips. There's a band festival at the park the first 3 Saturdays in May.

When I worked at the park (more than 15 years ago), it was exceptionally reliable. It would have the occasional computer glitch like almost any ride, but those were few and far between. The only major issue I remember when I was there was an empty train rolling back in a valley on the second half of the ride on a cold morning. Many of the issues they've had in recent years have been structural, like the settling of the ride due to erosion in the creek that it straddles and the big issue they had last summer.

The group behind that proposal is Southern Star Amusements sans Danny Rogers. So, big ideas and no money. I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.

Most definitely. High temp in the 60s on Saturday and the low that night will be above freezing. Sunday is a supposed to be a little cooler, but probably not enough to slow things down.

It allows them to get a head start on offseason maintenance and rehab on the rides in that area. HIP runs through January 5th this year and that gives them an offseason of less than 8 weeks.

There's an employee stationed at the MCBR because it's a good 10-15 minute walk from the station to there. An awful long time for riders to sit in a train unattended if one happens to stop there and can't be dispatched immediately. Walking there involves ascending a ladder, crossing a bridge over the creek, descending another ladder, and then ascending the stairs up to the perch.

The park has owned the strip center for the better part of the last decade and they've done little with it. Why does everyone seem to think its demolition is so imminent?