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I'm totally interested! Drive home to MS from TX, spend a day or two with the parents, then keep going east! Sound's like a plan! (and a lotta driving!! )

Everything I've seen/heard about this week indicate that it is and will be crazy busy, especially Saturday. I'd go gold. I've never been to the BBQ place, but I can say for sure that the pizza place isn't cost-efficient. For that much, I'd leave the park, and go across the street to Subway...

I followed the link to download the video as an ipod-file and played it from my hard drive. It plays fully for me

Am I the only one who thinks fire effects on a coaster with wooden supports is a bad idea? Apocalypse, all wood, has fire. I don't think it would be a problem at all. Oh that reminds me. When we were out there for the commercial shoot, we met one of the PR guys in charge of the Facebook page, and whatnot. I specifically asked him about the concrete footers that had been poured in the infield of the NTG, saying I had heard rumors of it being an oil derrick or something related. He, of course, (as I expected, but still...) said he didn't know anything one way or the other about it. For what it's worth.

There are two other factors at work here: [1] Shockwave is at the end of a LONG dead-end walk, so it's not "on the way" to any other major rides. Most of the folks have ridden it lots of times since it's one of the oldest coasters. [2] Runaway Mountain is air-conditioned. This puts it in the same category with water rides that aren't that great but that have 2 hr lines in the heat of summer. Aahh...This is indeed true. Good points!

This is true. Which works in our favor, somewhat, as it makes the line for Shock Wave much more bearable.

From what I've seen, Shockwave is sorely under-appreciated by the GP. I've not been there in mid-season madness, but every time I've been to the park so far, it's waiting line was decidedly shorter than all the other coasters. Similarly, the local GP overrate the Runaway Mountain (the dark coaster in a warehouse) --- It's fun, but not 2-hour wait fun. To me anyway.

Yea, all the rules are the same about not bringing loose articles on the big rides, BUT they don't force you to use the lockers for the big'uns anymore...the rides (Titan, MR. Freeze, Batman all included) now all have some sort of on-platform storage area for your loose junk. Most rides have nice cupholder frames for us crazies and our season sports bottles...

They are/were filming for a commercial for the NTG, and needed extras to ride the train, so on Tuesday, they posted a casting call on their Facebook page. You had to email in with name/picture and be approved to come up today. EDIT: Oh, and regarding legroom...I had no problems, but I'm only an average-height guy...5'9" or so. But it wasn't really that enclosed, and I didn't get any sensation of being cramped, nor did I hear any of the taller riders say anything.

For those looking for in-station train pics, they are up on the official SFOT page. Here's a link to the in-station one:

Speaking of the trains: the windows are a complete nonissue. Regarding the longevity of the "New" tags: the seats all say The Texas Giant...so...yea. fwiw.

Still at the park, doing some waitng. I never rode the old Texa Giant, so I can't compare it, but having just ridden it twice, I'm willing to bet it won't be comperable. It really is a holy effin eff kind of ride. I was in the middle, and got some major airtime. Its gonna definitly be a success.

Well, it definitely looks (and sounds) like a smooth ride now, that's for dang sure! It looks like this ride will be hauling some serous butt!

Me too! Super excited about this!

Actually, even though they say to 22, they are encouraging everyone to apply. It is in the comments on their main facebook page.

For what it's worth, that's the Christian Youth Weekend at SFOT. That may (or may not) affect attendance, but is worth knowing.

Either way, the wait is over, April 22 is the big day. Super excited here, cause I was already planning on being at the park that day. In the flaspass topic, I got one when I was there on the 5th, and it had 2 major perks for me. 1) I spent the entire day there, and spent maybe, -maybe- 2 hours in line total all day. And most of that was for rides while waiting on the flashpass to "mature" on another ride. 2) When the park first opened, pretty much all the big rides were still in testing, and unavailable to reserve via flashpasss, so the ride op for Titan let flashpass holders jump ship from the regular line to the flashpass line, and go 1st, scoring me the opportunity to be on the 1st (publicly accessible anyway) Titan train of the season. Geeky, I know, but I was excited by it, haha

Its completely off-topic relative to the NTG, and I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that the basic flashpass actually takes off 25% of the estimated wait time, at SFOT anyway...with gold and platinum being 50% and 90% respectively.

I completely agree that it would make no sense. It probably is wishful thinking somewhere along the line getting misunderstood for fact. Either way, they are planning a couple of big bashes throughout the season, so the April 30th date may be closer to reality.

I'm kinda iffy on the validity of the sign's reality...it just feels too perfect. I dunno. FWIW, I heard from the Dippin Dots guy that there's a strong chance that the NTG will, in fact, be open on opening day, despite the fact that the official SFOT Facebook page specifically says that it will not. Course the Facebook page has no official opening date yet, and I'd like to hope/dream that there will maybe be a soft opening at least, but I'll hedge my bets with the official page for now. Either way, I'll be there the 5th with bells on. Will definitely grab some pics