mightypotato

Little Amerricka was awesome. Their wild mouse was INSANE, especially near the end. I'm not really sure words can do the Toboggan justice. It was...well...yeah. I also agree about Hades 360. It's probably the worst/roughest coaster I've ever been on. I only went back for a 3rd ride during ERT because of the Little Titans bribery.

I have it figured out, the finale is a splash down in the pond out front.. Which I believe makes this an Aquatrax then...

I'm cautiously optimistic about this ride. I really enjoy dark rides and am glad the park is putting one in that isn't just cardboard cutouts. However, the lack of concept art or any teaser video is kind of concerning to me.

They are indeed beautiful to look at and pack one hell of a punch. I do hope that if they use Skyrush type trains, they somehow manage to fix the restraints. Those were brutal when I rode Skyrush this summer.

Part 2: Sea World San Antonio The next stop on our adventure took us just across town from the hotel to Sea World San Antonio. For some reason, I always forgot about this park when talking about Sea World. I always think of Orlando and San Diego, never this one. Funny that, because this place was actually pretty darn good! We arrived bright and early in the already hot morning (you might notice a pattern here until we leave the south) and were escorted to the back of the park for our first of three ERT sessions. Yep...you heard right, out of the four coasters at the park, we had ERT on three of them. Now that's starting the day off right. Our first ERT was on Journey to Atlantis, the park's water "coaster". Now, I could open a big can of worms and start to question whether this ride counts as a credit or not. Ah what the hell...*grabs can opener*. So...while I do count this as a credit, I can definitely see why some people don't. Hell, I'm even close to not calling it a credit. I guess what does it for me is that little coaster section (and I do mean little). Since it's gravity driven, I count it. Your mileage may vary. Anyways, for the ride itself? It's a lame coaster, but a decent splash boat. It most definitely provided an "acceptable amount of wetness" without really getting too drenched. The backwards coaster section seemed rather pointless and to be honest, was kind of lame. During our ERT ride, as we approached the second turntable, the ride decided it didn't want to work anymore. I'm not sure how long we were stuck up there waiting at the top of the drop, but we all had a good laugh. It was even better when we all started cheering when the ride came back up and we started to go down the drop. Now that I was acceptably moist, it was time to hit up ERT coaster #2 of the day, Steel Eel! Much like how I always forget about this Sea World, I always tend to forget about this Morgan hyper. And you know what? That's a damn shame, because this ride was great! It provided very nice floater airtime throughout the entire course. I'm pretty sure I spent more time just floating than I did sitting in the train. They were only running one train for ERT, but they were working pretty quickly, so there was never really much of a line. I also really dig the funky supports that the ride has. It kind of reminds me of something I would make in No Limits because I have no idea what I'm doing. After Steel Eel, we made our way over to our last ERT coaster, Great White. This is another Batman clone, but not mirrored like Goliath was. I actually preferred this one over Goliath. Not sure what it was, but I felt like this had some better pops of the positive g's in the second half of the ride. I definitely stayed on for a while and got quite a few rides. It always blows me away just how right B&M got it on the first attempt at an inverted coaster. With ERT safely behind us, it was time to get to the sad and pathetic part of the day, Shamu Express. Not really much to say about it. It's a junior kiddie and I felt bad for riding it. After we got our Shamu Express credits, it was more or less time for lunch. After we finished eating, we had some special visitors from the park. They brought out a bird (I really can't remember what kind of bird), a snake and a lemur! Animals! Cool! We got to get up close and personal with the animals which is always very neat. Easily the star of the three was the lemur who had everyone's attention for quite a while. I mean...how often do you get to see one? After lunch, we decided to do the "Sea" part of Sea World and did a bunch of the animal exhibits. Our first stop took us over to the penguin encounter where we saw...penguins. I love penguins and was very happy watching them walk around and swim in their habitat. It was kind of a shame that they were in winter mode, so it was kept dark in the room. But, whatever is best for the animals comes first. Also in the same building were puffins and such. We stayed there for a while and watched them swim around and dive into the water. It also helped that the building was air conditioned. Next, we figured "what's the point of going to Sea World without seeing some shows?". We made our way over to Cannery Row Capers, the park's sea lion show. When we got there, they had a warm up act doing his thing for the crowd. Yes, that's right. A warm up act at a theme park show. The guy was actually pretty decent and provided good entertainment while we waited for the show to start. Cannery Row Capers is basically a detective themed comedy show, but with sea lions. It was pretty entertaining and gave us all a good laugh or two. Plus, there was a huge walrus at the end. And I mean HUGE. So, it gets points for that. Leaving the theatre, we made our way over to the shark/coral reef exhibit at the front of the park. It was pretty cool seeing a bunch of sharks, but the best part was seeing a diver go into the tank to feed the fish and various rays in the tank. At one point, it turned into a bit of a feeding frenzy with the rays. It was very cool to see, despite it being simple. Another thing you pretty much have to do at a Sea World park is see the Shamu show. So, we made our way to the VERY back of the park to get to the Shamu theatre. At a normal park, that wouldn't be too bad of a thing, but Sea World San Antonio is a HUGE park and everything is very spread out. It actually feels like there's a lot of dead space or places that could be better used. If I had one complaint about the park, that would be it. Anyway, we made our way to the Shamu show and watched some killer whales do some jumps and flips and the like. Out of the two shows we saw that day, I actually preferred the sea lion show, but both were quite good. After seeing Shamu, we made our way allllllllllll the way back to the front of the park and got back on the bus to take us to Dallas. I had a great time at Sea World San Antonio. It was a nice change seeing all the animals and going to the shows instead of running from ride to ride. I definitely think this place is overlooked, which is a shame because it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of said fun! Arriving at Sea World! Pretty! Ker-sploosh! First ride of the day! See? It's totally a credit...*cough* Further sploosh Next up was some Morgan hypercoaster goodness TPR people enjoying the first drop Floaty! The back seemed popular on this ride... ROBOSHARK! Has that been made into a SyFy movie yet? This was the only picture I got of the ride...for some reason. Noted! Sad and/or pathetic. Take your pick. Remember that scene in Hannibal where Ray Liotta eats his own brain? This reminded me of that. Lemur! Bird! I'm not afraid of ghosts, I'm not afraid of sharks, I'm not afraid of cancer, I'm just afraid of snakes! They really creep me out! Where are their arms and legs? It's not OK! (that's for all 3 of you Bob's Burgers fans) Water skiers practicing water skiing Penguins! Puffins! Warm up act to the sea lion show Sea lions! He's on the case! That is a huge walrus! This was a fun show Non robotic sharks! Fish in a tube Sea horses Feeding the fish Feeding the rays Flamingo! The Shamu theatre There's the star of the park! Lots of jumps and such They would occasionally get up on the platforms and spin around for a bit Awwwww...baby whale! Next up: Six Flags Over Texas/Texas State Fair!

Over the long weekend, expect the park to be packed. Fast Lane is a must if you want to get on everything. Your best bet is to hit up Fly and The Bat first. Thunder Run typically has a full queue, but short wait since it moves quickly. The B&M's will be running all three trains and most everything else will be running two. Hope you enjoy your day!

Two years ago, I decided to take the plunge and went on my first TPR trip. I loved it so much, I decided to do another one whenever I could. When Outlaw Run and Iron Rattler got announced, then I heard that TPR was hitting all three RMC coasters, I knew I absolutely had to do this trip. Despite two of the RMC coasters being closed, I still had an absolutely fantastic time with both old and new friends. But as always, I'll get to all those "final thoughts" type things at the end of this report. So...let's get this party started! THE DAVE THOMAS DISCLAIMER™: I like to write my full park experience the best I can, so prepare for some word reading. Part 1: Six Flags Fiesta Texas (you are here) Part 2: Sea World San Antonio (Page 2) Part 3: Six Flags Over Texas/Texas State Fair (Page 2) Part 4: Magic Springs (Page 3) Part 5: Silver Dollar City (Page 3) Part 6: City Museum (this place is so awesome, it deserves its own part) Part 7: Six Flags St. Louis Part 8: Wisconsin Dells + BONUS PARK! Part 9: Six Flags Great America Part 10: Cedar Point ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Part 1: Six Flags Fiesta Texas We arrived early to the park on what was already a very hot day. We met up with the higher ups at the park who gave us the expected bad news that Iron Rattler was indeed closed and wouldn't be opening any time soon. But, then they gave us the good news that we got morning ERT on Superman Krypton Coaster, Poltergeist and Pandemonium! Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! We made our way to the back of the park for the first coaster of the trip, Superman Krypton Coaster. This is a very unique floorless coaster than interacts very well with the quarry walls. It still has the "B&M cookie cutter" element order (minus diveloop), but it just seems...better. I guess setting really makes all the difference in the world. Plus, this one still has forces. I really enjoyed the ride and can say without hesitation that it's my favourite floorless coaster. After many rides on Superman, we made our way over to Poltergeist, the park's Premier spaghetti bowl coaster. After riding this, I've been on all 4 Premier spaghetti bowls, and out of them I prefer this one. It seemed to have a bit more of a kick in the launch and doesn't come to a complete stop on the MCBR like the FoF clones do. Still, I really shudder to think about how bad this would have been with OTSR's...this thing definitely whips you around during the ride. We only got one ride in on Poltergeist during ERT before leaving to grab our Q-Bot. Q-Bot obtained, we made our way over to the first of many Gerstlauer spinners on this trip, Pandemonium. This particular Pandemonium was one of those Tony Hawk's Big Spin rides and it still has all of the old theming...or at least Six Flags' attempt at it. There are random half pipes and skateboarders all over the ride. It doesn't quite make a lot of sense, but if you've got it, you might as well use it. Anyways, back to the ride itself. It's your standard Gerstlauer spinner, fun but not too intense (unless you find that lucky balance). We didn't find that balance during our ERT rides, but we definitely did later in the day and spun like crazy. So...ERT was done. Now what? Well, seeing how it was incredibly hot outside already, we decided to use our Q-Bots on the Scooby Doo dark ride which became known as "Air Conditioning: The Ride". Whenever we needed a break from the heat, we would go take a ride on Scooby Doo and enjoy the A/C. Now, as for the ride? It was ok. Not the best shooting dark ride I've been on, but it was your standard Scooby Doo/Boo Blasters type affair. Definitely something you could ride multiple times in a day and not get bored of. After Scooby Doo, I realized that I was at 199 credits. The choices for my 200th credit were Goliath, the park's Batman clone, Boomerang or Kiddee Koaster. Naturally, we chose Kiddee Koaster. What made it even better was that when we were lining up for it, the rest of the line was also TPR people who have no shame. In fact, the ride that I was on was a complete TPR takeover. Good job guys! I actually regret not buying the on ride photo because it would have been hilarious. With my 200th credit safely secured, we made our way over to a far better ride, Goliath. Batman clones would be a recurring theme on this trip, with 5 on offer over the course of the trip. This particular Batman was a mirrored version with only 7 cars, much like the kick-ass one at La Ronde. However, this one wasn't as good as the La Ronde one. Don't get me wrong, the ride is still fantastic and packs a good punch, but it felt like it was lacking something. Not sure what it was, but it just didn't hook me in like most Batman clones tend to do. After Goliath, we made our way to the air conditioned lunch being put on by the park. The food was good (for park food), but the real highlight was beer. Glorious beer! And not just your usual Miller Light stuff, but actual beer like Shiner Bock. The beer really hit the spot and got us ready for the rest of the day. After lunch, we still needed to finish up our credits before the Iron Rattler walkback, so we begrudgingly went to Boomerang. What else can I really say about it? It was a Boomerang, it punches you a few times and you go backwards. Hurrah. For the last of our credits, we made our way to the park's surprising mine train, Road Runner Express. It was actually really good! It was definitely a nice surprise finding a mine train like this. The drops were nice and the various helices gave some nice forces. Overall, it was a very fun ride and one of the best mine trains I've been on. Credits obtained, we decided to see what else the park had to offer. We made our way over to Sky Screamer, the park's Starflyer. I think I finally got used to the Starflyers on this trip as this one didn't terrify me like the one at SFGAdv did last year. Instead, I found this to be relaxing and the views you got were nice. I also enjoyed just peeking up above the quarry walls, it was definitely well placed by the park. So...the log flume. This park has a pretty decent log flume with a few good drops and nice interaction with the path (over and under the path? What madness is this?!). But...there are some surprises along the way. Namely, a dragon that squirts water at you and keeps following you as you make your way to the next lift. Both times we rode the flume, the dragon seemed to lock itself on to me, soaking me. Speaking of soaked, on our first ride, I foolishly chose the front seat. As we came off the second lift, the front end dipped a bit, causing water to flood in over the top and sides. Again...soaked. But then, just when I thought everything was fine and I would stay dry, we decided to ride the rapids ride. I don't know what it is, but I seem to have a magnetic attraction to the waterfalls on these rides. Every time I ride a rapids ride, I always get bulls-eyed by the waterfalls. This one was no exception. So, I was soaked...still yet again. After drying off for the final time, it was time for our Iron Rattler walkback! We got some great views at the bottom of the first drop and then the park took us up in a van to the top of the quarry walls were we could walk around the crazy curves at the top of the ride. It was really bittersweet being up there. Just looking at it, you can see how insane and fun it would be, but you knew you couldn't ride it. Ah well...gives me a reason to come back! We re-rode a few things, then made our way to our VIP (i.e., the front of the grass) seats for Lone Star Nights, the park's light and fireworks show. The only word that can describe this show is "$TEXAS". The whole show was about how awesome Texas is, but mainly San Antonio. Easily the best part of the show is when God himself hammers Texas into the world. Amazing. Also, as a really cool thing to do, the park put TPR's name up on the rock wall just before the show started! After the show ended, the park gave us still yet even more ERT on Superman and Sky Screamer! Both rides were even better at night, with Superman running fantastic. I stayed on Superman for the majority of the ERT session and had an absolute blast. All in all, we had a fantastic day at the park, despite Iron Rattler being down. The park staff was extremely friendly and went out of their way to show us a good time. I definitely appreciate all the perks and little things they did for us. And now, pictures! First park of the trip! We are very important people, apparently. First up, ERT on Superman! Huuuuuuuuge vertical loop! Very cool interactions with the cliff walls! Zero-G! The park ran two trains, which meant zero waits. Hurray! Poltergeist also ran two trains! Still no waits! Hurray! Mmmmmm...spaghetti Twisty! Oh yeah...there was also a combo tower here. It was decent enough. Preparing to get spinny... You are here. Noted. My 200th credit...ultimate shame. Ba-na-na-na-na-na-na...Goliath! Yeah...that doesn't have the same ring to it. Still a fun ride though. More hot zero-G action Oh. Goodie. You've been on one, you've been on all of 'em. This was a nice little surprise! Don't go chasing waterfalls...stick to the rivers and the streams that you're used to. Superman from the train ride I always loved the look of interlocking corkscrews Sploosh! That stupid dragon... I'm glad I'm no longer terrified of these things The worst part? There's a reason this sign is here. TEXAS! Time to walk back! *cries* It just looks so awesome! I really need to get back to San Antonio... I bet this part is fun... Gorgeous! The track bends in ways no track should. Amazing. More curvy goodness Oh, I'll be back. Poltergeist from the ferris wheel at night Yay fireworks! Sky Screamer by night! DVD Bonus Extra - Lone Star Nights video! Next up: Sea World San Antonio!

On the Texas Midwest trip, I got both my 200th and 250th credits. #200 was Kiddee Koaster at SFFT. Ultimate shame. #250 was Raging Bull at SFGAm.

My last ride was Leviathan on a random stop at Canada's Wonderland last weekend.

I've been hopelessly addicted to DuckTales Remastered for about the last week or so. It's both a really fun game and a huge nostalgia bomb. Plus...remastered Moon Theme! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMOwW7rO8fM

Now that I've finally been on a few wing riders to round out the B&M catalogue, here is my preference* for B&M rides: 1. Old school inverts (i.e., Batman, Montu, etc) 2. Hypers 3. Dive machines 4. Sit down loopers 5. Floorless 6. New inverts (Talon, etc) 7. Wing riders 8. Flying 9. Stand-up * Your mileage may vary

As if I actually needed a reason to go back to Knoebels... I'm glad that the ride finally seems to be in the final stages before opening. The park has put a lot of time and effort into the ride and I hope it works out for them in the end. Either way, I'm excited to finally be able to ride this.

I'm glad to see you also went into the Skyride (AKA: Texas Sweat Lodge). That was mind numbingly hot, yet hilarious. Like everyone else, I completely agree with your sentiments towards SFOT and the State Fair. I had a far better time at the State Fair than I did at SFOT.

The park has gone to the city with plans to "renovate" Predator. This is happening, folks. Source: http://thedailynewsonline.com/news/article_9f51610a-016d-11e3-bc2f-0019bb2963f4.html

The vibrations on the outside seats at 75+ mph would be brutal.

I enjoy a ride that pulls strong positive g's. However, I like it in short bursts like the various Batman clones do it. The sustained positive g's that Titan pulls was almost too much for me. In the end though, airtime will always trump positive g's.

That was an absolutely amazing two weeks. From highlights like Outlaw Run and lowlights like Hades 360, it was so much fun.

Went to the Rockstar Mayhem Festival yesterday in Toronto. I was actually a bit surprised it was still going on because of the floods and general strain on the power grid, but nothing stops metal. There was a alot of music to be found yesterday and I greatly took advantage of it. I caught sets from Huntress, Battlecross, Job for a Cowboy, Machine Head, Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Mastodon, Five Finger Death Punch and Rob Zombie. So...yeah. It was a VERY long day. The highlights of the show were Amon Amarth and Rob Zombie. Amon Amarth are pretty much my favourite band, so I was guaranteed to love them. Though I haven't been a big fan of his recent albums, Rob Zombie still puts on one hell of a show. It was among the best sets I've ever seen, full of crazy props, stage effects and pyro. I also got the chance to meet both Amon Amarth and Battlecross while they were at their merch tents. I may or may not have gone into fanboy mode. Anyway, here are some pictures from a crazy long, but crazy good day. Huntress! Battlecross! Job for a Cowboy! Amon Amarth! Mastodon! Five Finger Death Punch! Rob Zombie!

Saw Rush last night in Hamilton. They played a VERY long set that encompassed pretty much everything from their catalog. The concert was broken down into two halves. The first was mainly a lot of their older stuff, while the second was entirely from Clockwork Angels (with the exceptions of YYZ and Spirit of Radio at the end). For encores, they played Tom Sawyer and 2112. It was a great show and the crowd was SUPER into it. Then again, Hamilton is Neal Peart's hometown, so it was guaranteed to be loud.

I actually find it a lot like Millennium Force. It's got the big sweeping turns, a few airtime hills and is really built to show off the sensation of speed. I305 on the other hand is a completely different beast. It's all about balls to the wall intensity with very quick transitions and some killer pops of airtime. In my opinion, I305 > Leviathan > Millennium Force. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I was at the park all day yesterday and had a blast as always. Phoenix was running fantastic and is still loaded with airtime. Flying Turns wasn't testing (probably due to the on and off torrential rains), but trains were in the station.

G5 is always the forgotten Dive Machine. Great to see some coverage of the ride (and the park in general)!

Intamin fart is the sound of airtime. I also enjoy the fast wind of the hydraulic launch motors and Intamin's magnetic brakes. Then of course, there's the B&M roar.

TeamTPR is here at Canada's Wonderland and ready to ride!

The most in one day was 58 on Behemoth during Coasting for Kids 2012. The most total is also Behemoth and is probably somewhere around 160-170. Leviathan would be second with roughly 75 laps.