Linders

My family drove down from DFW last week and got another chance to ride IRAT again. Last time we rode in the front car, and to be honest, after riding Texas Giant at our home park so much, we were underwhelmed. The pause at the top of the hill kills it for the awesome drop awaiting, if you are in the front. We like speed! So this time we went closer to the back and had a very different and way better experience!! Rattler is way awesome in the back! On a different note, what is with Superman closing 30 minutes before the park closes? Is that the norm? We got there at 8:24, and there was a sign blocking the entrance saying it closes at 8:30. Us and another couple looked our phones and it wasn't even 8:30 yet, and the park closes at 9, not 8:30!! It wasn't closed over a break down because it was running with a train full of people. Why that ride and not the others? We went on to ride Poltergeist and pretty miffed at that! It's not like there was a 30 min wait to get on. My kids and I rode it earlier and wasn't in there more than 10 mins. My husband joined us after work and went to ride with him and that's what we found. Superman's closure was our only complaint from our visit. The Lone Star Nights show was great! We loved it.

We may pop up there for some roller coaster therapy when my hubby gets home later, assuming it hasn't rained again. If we have to leave because another storm pops up and floods the park again then it's no big deal. For those 2 boys, this will likely be their only shot at coming all season. I'll bring them next week when it's gonna be sunny and hot and they can experience all the rides they want, all day.

I just made the call to reschedule for next week. I'd hate for those two boys to waste their ticket they earned. If for some reason they open NTAG later today and the rain stays east, I'll take my son myself. We have passes so no biggie if we are only there a short time. He's naturally disappointed. But at this point, all it takes is one shower and we'll be swimming out.

I know that they said the park will be open today. Anybody have any idea if they are closing any coasters today? My son has a couple of friends coming with him that earned a ticket from reading at school. They want to ride coasters. I'd rather take them next week if they going to be closing down NTAG and Shock Wave. This will be one boy's first time here.

They have the original lap bar pads, too. We rode it last Thursday for the first time since last summer. Only change we noticed was the seatbelts. Also we learned that it's a much better ride if you ride further back in the train. Up front was too slow. I really don't care for the pause at the top of the lift. NTAG has spoiled me!

You've got that right!!!!

We went today and aside from it being toasty, it was darn near perfect visit. All the coasters were up and running and we walked onto all but Batman. Dispatch was so slow I was ready to eat my boiled brain before they got us back to the loading platform. I don't think they realize how stifling hot it is in the holding area of the station, just after the ride is over. People get tired of waiting and start clicking their seat belts. If they'd just install a big fan, it wouldn't be so miserable. I digress. At Texas Giant, you could see the barricades by the entry and an employee at the entrance, but no stopping to warm the test seat. In fact, we walked right up and straight to a train. Same for Titan, Freeze, and Shock Wave. Overall a great visit, and a perfect way to celebrate the last day of school!!

Probably because they waited an hour plus to ride that ride and want to try and find out if there's a chance it'll open back up shortly, to wait it out or they just wasted a whole hour out of their day because that ride won't be reopening, go find something else. It may be annoying to you, but think of the poor schmo that waited all that time in the heat for nothing. Uninformed guests who don't understand the following [/ That's part of the nature of that job. That person who just threw away an hour out of their day doesn't know that you don't know. Nothing on their ticket stub says, "If ride shuts down, don't ask the dude working the line because he won't know and you might annoy him." You get paid to stand there, nobody forced you to work at an amusement park. You never know, that person may have paid for a one day ticket and this is the only time that season they'll get to come. They really wanted to ride that ride, waited for it only for it to close down on them. They may be asking you because they are hoping you might know (because you are working that ride), if they should wait it out or go on. I understand hearing the same question over and over annoys you, but that's something you should expect. I'm just saying, you need to think about it from their end. There are no ways that person can know you don't know. After all they aren't at a theme park every day like you are. I had a friend come with me last summer who hadn't been in years. She paid for a one day to come with me. We experienced 5 break downs in that one visit! Most of them after having waited for up to 30+ minutes and even getting so far as to board the ride and turn around and get off. I was annoyed but thought oh well, I'll come back another time. I felt bad for her, she can't come back. Maybe you should move to a different position if that bothers you so bad.

Probably because they waited an hour plus to ride that ride and want to try and find out if there's a chance it'll open back up shortly, to wait it out or they just wasted a whole hour out of their day because that ride won't be reopening, go find something else. It may be annoying to you, but think of the poor schmo that waited all that time in the heat for nothing.

1. People in a large party that send their 8 yr old kid to stand in line at the front gate and "hold their place" for them while they park the car, go to the bathroom, etc, and then all decide to join her just before it is her turn to go in, after waiting for 20+ mins to get in. Yep that happened. 2. People that stand in front of you in line and when it's their turn to get on, change their mind and get off and the ride op refuses to open the gate and let you on, rather sending empty seats. 3. Titan breaks down every time we visit. Every single time, and sometimes multiple times! I've gotten so far as to sit down, close my lap bar, only to have it pop back open and ride op announce it was shutting down. 4. I know this has been said already, but it bears repeating. 1 train operation!! 5. People that fart in line. 6. Buying popcorn and then spill it all over the place trying to get the lid on it. The people at the stand usually always offer to refill it, when it happens in their line of vision. Still annoying to have happen. 7. If you have bad allergies, take a pill. Nobody wants to be in line behind "Sneezy McSnotty" for an hour. Yep. That happened. He had no Kleenex with him and sneezed ever couple of minutes. Rubbed the hand under the nose a few times, sniffed it back in. I was fully nauseous before the ride started. 8. Being next in line for a ride and you hear the phone behind the dispatch board ring. The ride op gets off the phone and announces that there is lightning in the area, shutting it down. I know it's for safety, but it's no less annoying when it happens. 9. Recheck car 5...locking car 5...recheck car 1.... locking car 1...recheck car 7.... on one dispatch. Need I say more? 10. Waiting 45 or so min for Texas Giant and suddenly having to pee right before it's time to board. Trying to decide how bad I need to go and will I be able to hold it? That's annoying. 11. Waiting for 45 min for Texas Giant and your kid suddenly decides he needs to pee and cannot hold it. We went before we got in line. Very annoying! Not everything annoying that can happen at a theme park is due to someone else. Ma nature can be pretty annoying, too.

Paid parking anywhere is the biggest scam perpetuated on humanity!! Say you buy a one day ticked to SFOT. $65 full price. Then they want to nail you for $20, just to park your car! But hey, it's a busy day so your are paying $20 to park and walk a mile or two to the park entrance because they decided for some reason to not run the trams that day. But for an extra $5, you can walk half a mile. An extra $10, you go valet! I am a gold pass holder so no paid parking for me, but I sure feel sorry for those who are already paying through the nose to get a ticket only to get scammed for parking.

I got one the same email. I told them I'd like an extreme coaster. Something along those lines. I forget the exact wording used.

We were there when they opened up NTAG, right after the accident. Yes, they were a long dispatch. But, it seemed to me that over time it sped up close to pre-accident dispatch times. Especially during Holiday in the Park. My observation this year has been a lot of dilly dallying on the platform. Attendants taking their time walking around, not just in checking restraints, just over all. No hurry at all. A lot of chit chatting with each other. Another issue I have with the way they do things is a lack of single rider lines. Only a couple of rides have them. I can't tell you how many times you see multiple empty seats on a train I waited 30+ minutes to ride. No lack of people. They don't try to fill em. Nobody sits down, they close the gates and off it goes empty. I've had single riders ask to take the empty seats. Nope, won't do it. Completely inefficient. My other observation was on Season Pass Holder Appreciation Weekend. PACKED like sardines, but I kinda expected that. I went with a family that had small children and so it was it was mostly flat rides. I could see that the lines for the good rides were 1-2 hour wait times so I didn't go there. I went for the ERT on Freeze and Batman after closing. We get in line for Batman and there were still non-pass holders there from before closing, so I expected to be a good hour. Nope, we booked it through that line!! I don't know what they did different but a line that is typically stagnant, was constantly on the move. We were there about 30 min, and got on and had a great ride! Of course, they did that bs, empty seat thing because they wouldn't listen to people asking to get on. But we moved. Probably the fastest I'd ever been through that line. Freeze was boogying too. It usually is, as long as they are running 2 trains. So, they can move that line when they want to!!!

^^ When we went to SFFT last summer, we were very impressed at how efficient they were at loading and dispatching. Only that kiddie car ride (kinda like the antique cars at SFOT, only 50's type cars) made me want to pull out my brain and start snacking on it from the insane wait time. Had it not been for my son, we'd never got in line. Two loading stations, two employees, one car at a time dispatch. SFOT can dispatch 4! Anyway, other than that, I noticed on Goliath, we flew through line. No stupid shoe rules. I loved how we didn't sit forever in a stagnant loading station waiting to be cued up to get off. Holy cow, in July, it's brutal and hot in Batman waiting for them to spend 5 minutes to recheck 10 different cars. The one visit we went when Irat was open, the line moved pretty fast, even with one car closed off in one of the trains. Over all we were very impressed with how quick the lines moved. NTAG seemed to me to speed up though as time went on and people grew more confident that they won't get killed. This year, we went on day 1, and it seemed like training day. I was understanding. It was the first day of the season and these people's first time with GP. We went on Friday. Still insanely slow. It seemed to me like nobody was in any kind of hurry. They didn't seem green, like on day 1. Just sloooooow! Lots of dilly dallying and being silly with each other. It still wasn't a bad wait, as the park wasn't crowded. Our visit was pretty darn good. All coasters were open and we rode all that we wanted to ride. The longest wait for us was on Freeze. I'd love it to come and actually see them run 2 trains. We waited over 30 minutes and the end of the line was at the top. That shouldn't have been more than 15 minutes! Day 1, we didn't ride it because they were on 1 train operation and the line was pretty far down. You could see the slow dispatch time while waiting for Batman as it was quite awhile between dispatches. It was clear that we'd not have time to ride much of anything if we waited it out and passed it up. SFOT management would do good to take some pointers from SFFT. We thought that last year. We were impressed with that park, over all. We also loved their fireworks show at the end of the evening. Off the subject. One other thing SFOT could do to get people back into their parks is to lower their prices a couple of bucks, not raise them. One would think if they are trying to win back the crowds after a nasty accident, they'd throw out some sweet deals to get people in the gates. At least the popcorn refill prices didn't go up.

I saw the Facebook post on that lady winning. How cool! Sad that people commenting on her post poo-poo'd on her win by ugly remarks regarding a bad PR incident with a disabled vet at SFFT. They were on that post and another post. One even told her that she should donate that money to the man. Wow. I was sad to see they initially denied him a refund (even though they post on their website that they don't offer refunds), but they did refund the money (too late to save off bad press), and it wasn't at this park. It was a neat prize package. Good for her!

We got a couple of rides on it on opening day. I was happy to see them finally running 2 trains again. The line zipped through. It was nice.

I need to add to my last comment on our visit yesterday, that I am happy to say that we got our two sons to ride Batman with us. They have had this thing about it being inverted and wouldn't ride it last year. My youngest was a hair too short for it, most of last season. We convinced them to try it once and they loved it! So, that puts another ride on the roster that we can all 4 ride together as a family! Now, to convince them to ride Freeze...

It was a good time today. It was pretty evident that delays were because of newbies in training. I'd rather them take their time if they are just learning. We had fun. Hard to imagine that we'll be dodging ice tomorrow.

While waiting forever to ride Giant, the tv in line advertised that they will be running Batman backwards this summer. So, I guess that answers that burning question. Now to get through this slow moving Giant line. Good thing the weather is nice.

And of course opening weekend comes with bad weather on Sunday, meaning everyone is going to cram in Saturday, when the weather is nice. Rrrr. Last year's opening day was cool and cloudy and a light crowd. We had a great time.

I just got my newsletter with the link to register my season pass. Perks are minus buddy passes. So, I guess they are just going to hand those out whenever they feel like it. Kind of irritating.

If that were the case, then why wouldn't they just quietly stick it on their website? I don't see how turning a train backwards on a coaster with very little attention would make the news. But, that's just me.

Dear SFOT personnel reading this page, PLEAAASSE don't make backwards Batman the new attraction for 2015. It was kinda neat that season when Judge Roy was backwards. It would be a nice little bone to throw to us coaster lovers without little kids to turn Batman backwards THIS year, but for the love of Pete, please don't make it the new attraction for 2015. I guess there could be worst things. We could be getting a 20+ yr old recycled coaster nobody rode from another park, so they could make room for a cool new ride. Eh hem, Flashback going to SFSL. As for Mr. Freeze, I was very pleased they turned it backwards. We rode it facing forwards back in 2001. My husband and I walked off swearing never to ride it again. We had the worst headache, neck and back ache. It was a fun ride, but it caused major pain for both of us. We were ruined for the rest of the day. Advil didn't touch it. Fast forward to last Spring. I had a friend tell me that it did that to her, too when it faced forward. She said that when they revamped the restraints and turned it backwards that it didn't bother her anymore. So, I gave it a shot. I am hooked on Mr. Freeze!! It was just what the dr. ordered. In 3 weeks the "Namtab" mystery will be solved.

Do what? Did I miss some news?

There's a little rumor from the SFFT page that SFOT is also remodeling the front entry gate. Any truth to that? They are doing it at SFFT. They said its to help speed up the lines.