bigboy

Interesting. Maybe the heat is clearing the place out in the late afternoon. We may give tomorrow night a shot. I heard from someone I know at the park earlier in the summer that Justice League may have an extended shutdown in August to straighten out its issues before the busy fall season. Sounds like it may not be needed.

What ^he^ said. Except that they're looking to add additional space, not replace what they have. And that's what I've heard was the plan for that space since they took it over, so I would be surprised if it didn't turn out to be true. I've heard at the very least that the shopping center will be coming down soon because it's in such bad shape.

If what I've heard is coming next year is true, everyone might want to turn down the excitement a few ticks about their plans for the shopping center.

Standard procedure on all of the coasters in the park since the season after the NTAG accident. It was a rule for the park back in the 90's that went away in the early 00's, the theory being that there are 2 people in the last loaded seat on a train that can see any incident that might happen along the way. A little silly, yes, but it's just something you have to deal with at the park. And, honestly, there's little difference between riding in the last seat or the second to last seat on any of the coasters in the park, including NTAG and Titan.

The track movement on Shockwave has nothing to do with its age. It was designed to have give and it has always done that. Many wood coasters did the same thing. There were parts of the Texas Giant structure prior to the redo that swayed a good 2 feet after the train went through. For all I know, it still does it. I haven't really paid attention to it.

My 4 year old loves the ride, despite its deteriorated condition and the fact that she has never been exposed to the LT characters. I would love to see it get a once over with updated equipment. Also nothing I can substantiate, but I've heard that increasing the number of active ride units on JL is what is causing the ride to go haywire and thus all of the downtime.

I was going there Friday afternoon and all day on Saturday. It was the only time I would have been able to travel Yeah, I get that. You go when you can and make the best of it, but you need to have reasonable expectations for what the crowds will do for your trip. Another wild card might be what the fireworks and laser show does to the rides. A few may have to close early on those 2 days as a result. If I were in your shoes, I would shoot for NTAG and Titan late in the day on Friday, hit Mr. Freeze, B:TR, and Sky Screamer as early as possible on Saturday, and then work your way counter-clockwise through the park. It's not totally unreasonable to think that you could get everything else squeezed in during the early part of your time on Friday and through the remainder of the day on Saturday. If you can't get in the all 3 of those big ones early on Saturday, push one of them to the end of the night. The good news about the time of your visit is that the weather looks good. No rain in the forecast right now and it still looks like temperatures are going to stay in the mid-90s.

Good luck. With the 4th being on Saturday, many businesses will observe the holiday on Friday. I believe the park opens early for SP holders Friday through Sunday and they have fireworks all 3 nights. If the weather is good, I would fully expect that to be one of their busiest weekends of the year. Your best bet will be to be there every moment the park is open, be patient, and get the best flash pass you can afford (although that won't give you a huge advantage if the crowds are real crazy).

Yes, and all of last year, I believe.

Can't speak for him, but with scattered light rain all day, the park was probably dead.

The article doesn't say this, but I strongly suspect that this proposal has the same problem that the Earthquest project had: a lack of money. Call me cynical, but when these developers start their laundry list of excuses for delays and regularly update their plans for the media without any real visible progress, the real issue almost always leads back to a lack of funding. I hope at least part of it comes together, but I'm not holding my breath.

We took a quick trip out to the park this afternoon because the kid's soccer game was cancelled on account of last night's rain. I was hoping that the forecasts all week calling for a full day of rain (that didn't materialize, it stopped raining before sun up) would keep the crowds down, but the nice weather and the rescheduled bring-a-friend free weekend made for a pretty large crowd. We kept the ride selection kid-friendly for this trip and, other than one incredibly slow worker on the kiddie swings, the operations were top notch. The crowd was rougher than normal too: lots of wild ass kids and adults pushing their way through lines ahead of people, we saw 2 adults get into an argument while trying to board the train. When we tried to get a pic of our daughter at one of the Looney Tunes character photo ops, a family sent their kids in with the characters to crash our kid's pic. Not the end of the world, but kind of irritated that we have a good pic of our kid with someone we don't know in the pic as well. I did notice that they've painted over the ugly sheet metal facade on the Justice League building. It's a sort of grayish-purple color.

I would probably err on the side of hitting Mr. Freeze and B:TR first and then follow up with Runaway Mountain. Outside of that, the rest of the lines are likely to be manageable or at least more manageable than those 3 will be later in the day. Someone would probably make an argument that hitting up La Vibora early is smart, but you can get around that with the single rider line. Even though schools are still in, you're highly likely to be faced dealing with a lot of school field trip groups, especially on a Friday. For the most part, they'll start bailing out late in the afternoon. The park is open from 10 to 10 that day, so getting through everything without a flash pass should work out for you.

That's the 2nd full week after school is out for most of the area, so I wouldn't expect overwhelming crowds in the middle of the week. That's also the last 2 weekdays during June where the park closes at 9:00pm. Even still, as long as you start early and move with purpose, you shouldn't have any problem getting to everything. I like going counter-clockwise hitting the B:TR/Mr. Freeze/Skyscreamer end of the park first and finishing on the end with Titan and NTAG. You just have to remember to jog back into the center of the park at some point for Runaway Mountain. La Vibora tends to have a long wait regardless of the overall crowd, so I recommend using the single rider line.

The park is closed on Friday according to their site. Do you have passes to some type of private event?

They may not be slammed, but I wouldn't count on it being slow by any means. Fort Worth and Dallas are in school, but Arlington and a whole handful of other suburban districts are still out.

I'm almost certain I remember seeing a separate Discover card line when I was there on Monday. It was to the left side of the turnstiles right in front of the restrooms.

I took advantage of the extended spring break schedule and the gorgeous weather today and took my 4 year old out to the park for a few hours. I was surprised (not sure why since the weather was so nice) to find that we were only a dozen or so spaces away from having to park in the overflow lot. They were running trams and there was almost no wait at the turnstiles. Even for a day when they looked to be short of staff, they had nearly every turnstile open. We hit up a handful of kid-friendly rides: Convoy, the kiddie swings, the splash battle knockoff, Gold River, the antique cars, a full lap on the train, and Boot Scootin. The employees were friendly and incredibly efficient. Everything was a 1 cycle wait or better except for Gold River and the antique cars (both around 10 minute waits). It was pretty obvious they were a little short-handed due to most area schools being back in session today - a few rides were closed (the acme rockets in the kids area, El Sombrero, Flume 1, Shockwave looked to be 1 train only) and a few were staffed by supervisors. Just a couple of random observations: I've said for the last few years that Gold River never looked to be in as bad condition as its reputation suggests, but I noticed a marked deterioration from our visit in December. There were a few animations and lighted scenes that were not working at all and the "old faithful" scene had no running water at all and the fiberglass around the "geysers" was cracked and broken in several places. All of that was a little surprising a week into a new season. We also had a unique experience on the train. The train laid down and couldn't make the hill between the front gate tunnel and La Vibora. I'm pretty sure there was a stuck brake caliper on the coach we were on because it was making a pretty awful noise from the depot to that point. The engineers spent some time draining air lines and whatnot and they eventually backed up and made a successful reattempt at making the hill. All in all, a very nice first visit to the park for the year. I think we'll make another trip Friday or Saturday evening if the weather cooperates.

I can't recall any specific years, but I believe the park has opened in February in any season where the 28th or 29th has fallen on a Saturday. The first day of the season the first year I worked at the park was on February 29th. It's not incredibly common, but it's happened before. They also attempted to open earlier in February the year the NBA All Star Game was at AT&T Stadium and the weather ended up being terrible. I wouldn't count on the park being open on Sunday either. Forecast high of 50 with rain.

I'm not sure how "new hat" Mike Apple's replacement really is. He's been at the park for nearly 25 years. That being said, he's a smart guy and is quite capable of improving things if he's given the right support from above.

Opening weekend is usually not terribly busy. Of course, warmer weather may mean bigger crowds, but it's unlikely that you'll need a flash pass.

Someone in the local print media researched undeveloped land parcels available in the county on the scale that they're talking about and found that there are none. A company that didn't exist a week ago, barely exists today, and is probably the work of someone within the company to give it a hint of financial legitimacy. Stranger things have happened, but I don't think all of the good intentions in the world can will this project into existence.

The most important thing is what they won't say: There's little, if any, money behind this. They're still just trolling for investors.

The park is usually open for a week or two of regular hours before Memorial Day weekend. It's usually not incredibly busy on the weekdays. There may be school field trips, but it's not like a spring or fall weekend or a holiday. I don't remember the last time a new ride didn't open sometime after spring break or before Memorial Day. If it isn't open by the time you're planning on going, I would assume something has gone pretty wrong.

Why would you think that? The structure of NTAG is wood and still requires a similar daily inspection to what it required before the conversion. Judge still has to be inspected and maintained on a daily basis and there are a number of other rides with wood structures that need regular attention (MIne Train, Mini Mine, the flume ride). Not to mention the dozens of buildings in the park that require repair from time to time. I can't remember a year in recent memory that Judge didn't see some type of replacement of structure or track in the off season. Unfortunately, corporate doesn't give them much to work with in the way of money for Judge, but the park knows how to make it count. Did anyone hear about the fire at the park on Saturday? The small utility building at the train crossing next to Daffy Duck Blasters caught on fire and burned to the ground on Saturday morning. Luckily, there were plenty of off-season staff on site and it was caught quickly and extinguished before spreading. The building had likely been there for nearly 40 years and had once held pumps for the fountains and ponds that ran under Big Bend. The ponds were all filled in last year, so it was only housing a generator and some electrical panels for the kiddie rides.