Coaster Palooza

^5 - trustkill22 - I have been to Dick's with many different paper hats. We didn't see any this time, it was my wife's first time there. ^3 - We didn't take any pics of Human Shamus unfortunately. ^2 - Bubba - no basement at the Alamo, I do love PeeWee's Big Adventure though. ^ - I have to agree on the fact that SFFT is a well run park. We had a good time there. I will hopefully post day 2 pics tomorrow. I am having some work done on the house and the computer has to get plugged in everytime I use it. It is a little hastle to hook it all up each time. Thanks for the responses!

Day 1 continued, just a few more pics. All 5 are out to end the day. Here's the multiple tale flipping. more spraying and splashing Full shot of the pool This MC had a lot of energy. Once again, I can't believe how blurry it is. Very Patriotic! I like this move when she stands on Shamu's nose. They are just swimming around A shot of the big screen The trainer and Shamu really have a close bond Riding Shamu! Can I try? A little blurry, sorry, this will become a theme for the show pictures unfortunately. It's not a Shamu show without a splash. Onto the Shamu show. We were able to get seats for the 9:30 show. I think the sign out front scared everyone away. It is a smooth ride OOOOH! Scary! Here's our on-ride photo on Great White They have characters too, that means they are family friendly. This was the, "I can't believe they won't let me bring my hat in, but they let you carry your beer!" She gave it to the ride attendant and he put it on the ground. Couldn't they have done that with my hat? Cool theming here too. We decide to go ride Great White Too crowded and we didn't have a seat. We decided to leave and come back for the 9:30 show. Sorry about the blurriness This is how crowded the Shamu show was for 7:45pm I don't know how safe those fish felt.

Day 1 – Saturday July 1 As usual we take the late night flight out of San Jose. We arrive in San Antonio at 4am instead of 3:30. At this point what is time really? We made it to our hotel around 4:30 and fell asleep until around 7am. We really wanted to get to SFFT by the time they opened. It was only around 20 minutes from the hotel. When we arrived we noticed that the parking lot wasn’t too full and yes, we paid $15 to park and got the free map with it! We headed on into the park. I was at the park in 1996 and I was fascinated by the rock quarry look of it and I was happy to see that it was still there. We got through the gate around 9:45 and had to wait for them to drop the rope. Once the rope was dropped, we headed straight to Superman. We were second in line and the first train was ready to dispatch at 10am! It was great, I was thinking that this would be awesome to get on this a couple times early and then enjoy the rest of the park. The ride op went to dispatch the train and ….. OOOPS! What?? What did she do? The other op came over and threw his hands in the air! She must have hit something wrong. They unloaded the train and waited for maintenance to show up. After around 10 minutes, they arrived, turned a key, and dispatched the train. They loaded the train again and the maintenance man had left by this time when…. SHE DID IT AGAIN! This time they were able to correct it and dispatch the train. It is now 10:20 and we are second in line to ride it. I’m thinking this day has to get better. Superman Krypton Coaster by the way is a great ride. It is a floorless that really uses its landscape. I have read many reports on how great a ride this is and they are all true. They were also running 3 trains. We went to ride their drop tower called Scream! The ride ops were pretty funny. There wasn’t any waiting and I walked up to one of the towers and the seats just got full. There were 2 empty seats, but they were separate. We decided we wanted to ride together. The ride op said the other tower will be going soon, even though that one isn’t as good as mine. I got a little chuckle out of this and when we got over to the other tower, I told that ride op that she said his tower sucked! He laughed and looked at her. There were pretty good moods all the way around. Next, we went on the Scooby Doo Ghostblasters. We didn’t know they had an on-ride photo and we proceeded to have the worst one taken of us! We were in the Boardwalk section of the park and I wanted to look at the area where Joker’s Revenge used to be. I rode that thing around 10 times back in 1996. Poltergeist was close by and I wanted to ride that. There was absolutely no waiting for all of these rides! It was great for a Saturday on a Holiday weekend. We had to get our Der Rollschuhcoaster credit next and then it was time for a snack before we headed over to the Rattler. Rattler is where we encountered our only line of the day! It was also where we had line jumpers too. I think it is just pathetic to think that you aren’t cutting in line if your friend is “saving my place” ahead. It is still cutting in line! I didn’t get into a fight or anything, but I did say a few things. We saw the rest of a show near by after we rode Road Runner Express and then headed for the exit. Boomerang wasn’t running. It was actually testing as we headed out. I rode it before, so it didn’t really matter and I knew Gyendolynne wasn’t going to ride it. We went to downtown San Antonio Riverwalk for lunch/dinner at the Hard Rock Café and also to see the Alamo. This was the busiest area we would encounter for the day. I took Gyendolynne to Dick’s Last Resort also after we ate at Hard Rock. This HRC is the best one that we have been to yet. The waiters and waitresses are very interactive with the music that is playing. One waiter performed to “Like a Virgin” (Madonna) on the stairway and it was completely hysterical. The next song they performed to was YMCA. All of them made a bee-line for the stairs to get their spots. It was well choreographed. We headed to Sea World after our fun downtown! We have platinum passes from Sea World San Diego that have gotten a lot of use. This would be our 3rd Sea World Park. All we have left is Busch Gardens in Williamsburg to go to. I am not planning on going to Sesame Place or the other couple of parks. What can I say about Sea World? They have Shamu, Sharks, Dolphins, and other animals along with beer and a couple of roller coasters. Their shows are always done very well. We saw the Pirates 4D show first and then tried to see the 7:45pm Shamu show. Remember, we are still operating on a couple hours of sleep. The 7:45 show was packed. We decided to do some more of the park and then see the 9:30 show. This turned out to be a good idea. We rode Great White with minimal wait (3 trains for the front seat) and Steel Eel (2 trains for the front seat). They have a strange policy at Sea World in regards to hats. You MUST put your hat in a cubicle BEFORE you go into the queuing area. There is an attendant that won’t let you into the line until you put it there. I thought that was strange because it was just for the hats! Gyendolynne had a beer in her hand and they let her walk right on in. I guess that a beer is okay in Anheuser Busch parks, but a hat isn’t. When we got on the ride, Gyendolynne handed her empty bottle to the ride op and he set it on the deck. Couldn’t I do this with my hat???? By the time we got back to Shamu’s part of the park, it was time for the show. I am so glad we saw this one. It is a very patriotic show and it is different than their “Believe” show that they do during the day. In this show, all 5 of the killer whales are being used. You can really see that the trainer and Shamu have a great bond. After all that, I guess it is time to get back to the hotel for tomorrow! Here are the pics! They have some cool aligators Next stop, 4D show with goofy glasses, we did get wet. First stop, free beer... Here I am showing off my Platinum Pass. Bald Eagle statue out front. Onto Sea World This will be the last pic I take there. The Alamo is next. Here's the other one. Sorry about the language in this photo, but Gyendolynne found the restroom signs funny. We went to Dick's Last Resort next YMCA came on and they all ran for the stairs to perform. This was a very active staff. The best Hard Rock that we have been to. Check out the neon sign This waiter was performing Like A Virgin. Here we are They have this car hanging from the ceiling. Hard Rock Cafe is next. That's it from Six Flags Fiesta Texas! Watch that hand Foghorn Leghorn! After the ride, we saw this show next door. They sang very good. Here's our on-ride photo After the ride, I saw these shoes and, yes, they reminded me again of the Jimmy episode from Seinfeld. This rock is really close to the Road Runner train as you go by Here's the queue, not too long of a wait, maybe 3 trains. Good theming... Next ride... Rattler's massive lift hill The Rattler fly by the station. There are rules to riding this ride. Scary snake! No rest for the wary though, onto Rattler! a foot massage is helpful during the break Time for a snack (beer) and a picture by the waterfall The shoe coaster, they have an on-ride photo! and in case you haven't seen enough of Poltergeist, here is a parting shot. Yep, another shot I guess I had a few photos of this Poltergeist is close by...on ride photos were not working today Our Superman on ride photo Worst on ride photo of us. We have our guns, now for the competition! Scooby Doo time! Unfortunately Joker's Revenge doesn't exist anymore. It is 4th of July weekend, very patriotic! Smashed penny denial! This is us during the stacking of 3 trains in the Superman station. Six Flags IS family friendly, see, they have characters walking around. This statue was just outside their auditorium Getting through the metal detectors. thank goodness for metal detectors! we're here.... the fountain at the entrance... a shot of the quarry... The view of the tower... Here we are at Six Flags! There wasn't any damage and we figured that a big vehicle must have backed into it and broke it off the tree. There wasn't any other tree damage. This is where it broke off from the tree. I got out of the car and took this pic because I really couldn't believe it. I didn't think it would rain too long, but we notice this on the hood of the car as we looked out the windshield. Here we are in the car at the hotel on day 1 because it is raining outside!

I can't believe the change in the park in just a couple of months! When we were there for West Coast Bash and the Tatsu ACE event, the park was operating great. It does seem that the upper management is not caring about enforcing what Shapiro wants and it might be because of the announcement of getting rid of SFMM. It is really sad too when we saw what they are capable of. I can't believe the one train operations. This is in direct contrast to what Shapiro wants. That does come from upper management and it looks like they are saying, "We're going to run the park our way now." It just isn't right, especially on a Holiday when you're going to have a huge crowd. I'm glad we were in Texas.

Great report Ted! It's really impressive how you fit all that in in just 2 days. It must be great to live so close to so many parks. We just got back from our trip last night. I'm hoping to post some photos soon.

Man, when people post things on the weekend, it takes me a while to catch up! Nice Trip Report Don. All these parks make me want to go to PGA soon.

No benefits, but I did get a backpack with some things in it. The on-site gym is free for employees and they don't allow any outside people in.

We really liked Indiana Beach. That's too bad about the dispatching of the trains. It wasn't like that when we were there. The hotel we stayed at was the Best Western right off highway to get into to town (where Wal-Mart is!). That hotel was fine to us. We liked Cornball Express because of the airtime. Our first ride on it, we weren't expecting anything and it took us by surprise. The photo lady was really nice too! I'm surprised they didn't give you a map. The map is on the backpage of their news letter. I also agree with you on the chair swings. They're neat, but the chair in front of me kept coming all the way back and hit me! I actually had to put my hands out to stop it from hitting me. We also rode the Lost Coaster backwards and I agree, don't do it! Chicago traffic sucks! Nice continuing update on the report!

We have an on-site gym at work and I have been going for the past year. I get up every morning to get in there by 5:30am. They have a member of the month and I was nominated for it last month. They sent me an email before my vacation and all I could think about was that I was going to be gone for a couple weeks and I am the member of the month! How is that going to look? The guys here are calling me the "Gym Rat" of the month. Well here is the proof! Well, I guess that is me. I tried to give them a roller coaster picture, but they wanted to take the pic instead. Hey who is the member of the month?

^^I agree with you Julie, this work thing gets in the way of fun. If you're not working, then you want to catch up on your sleep, or do your laundry, but wait, you haven't finished your trip report yet. Sleep and laundry will have to wait.....

Nice trip report. We went to Geauga Lake last year and encountered the same lack of a crowd. It is nice to just go right through a park in a couple of hours with multiple rides!

^Yeah, it looks like you 2 were following right behind us. As for SFKK, they did have us leave the lap bar up to check the seatbelts. It took a while to dispatch Thunder Run because of that. That also was the ride where the on-ride photo developer guy didn't put the border in because we didn't ask for it! I really couldn't believe that. It was the first time that has happened to us. Seriously, do we really want just a "plain Jane" picture of us on the ride, or do we want the border? Should that even be a question!

HOLY COW! Looking forward to the captions....

Thanks coasterbilly! These TR take a while to put together, but the fun part is when people enjoy them so much, like yourself. ^^Wally, Cabela's is definitely different! I didn't buy anything in there, but I have ordered some shirts on-line. Next up.....Texas for July 4th weekend! Only 1 week away.

Day 10 – Sunday – WofFun and Fly home……or so we thought. It is 8am and it has been pouring down rain for a while. Maybe this will help to clean up WofFun? We decided not to go back to WofFun and to try something else in the area. The waiter at the hotel told us that there is a Dave & Buster’s by the Cabela’s. We thought that would be a great place to kill some time. Dave & Buster’s is like an adult Chuck e. Cheese and Cabela’s is an outdoor retail store, but it is more like an event to actually go there as we would find out. On our way there, our “check fuel cap” light came on. I thought, “I filled up in Branson and I know I put that cap back on tight.” Oh well, let’s pull over. I opened the gas and sure enough the cap was loosely sitting there. When Gyendolynne started the car, she had to pump the gas and this car is fuel injected! Looking back a little bit I wonder if someone tried to siphon out the gas. There weren’t anymore problems. Cabela’s is something else. If you’re a hunter, fisherman, or taxidermist, you are in the right place. We aren’t any of them. After Cabela’s we went to D&B for lunch and then the airport for the flight home. Pretty uneventful ending, but if you made it all the way through, THANKS! We hope you enjoyed it. To sum a few things up: You don’t have to pay for parking at the following: Holiday World, Beech Bend, Indiana Beach, Mt. Olympus, Timber Falls, Celebration City. If you can work it right, you might not have to pay at Paramount’s Kings Island (VIP Pass). It costs $5 to park at SFKK, $3 to park at Wyandot Lake, $15 at SFGAm, $8 at WofFun, and anywhere from free to $20 to park at Silver Dollar City. Free parking is a bit of a hike there, and it is $5 to park in preferred with a season pass. Chicago is NOT our kind of town! We would definitely go back to Holiday World, Beech Bend, PKI, Indiana Beach, Wisconsin Dells (Mt Olympus, etc.), Silver Dollar City, and Celebration City. WofFun had to be the worst park of the trip followed closely by SFKK. We must have caught SFGAm on a bad day. It was pretty crowded and the rides weren’t all operating early. We might make it back there, but we won’t go out of our way for it. There isn’t anything bad about Wyandot Lake, but we just aren’t water park people. If you are, then Wyandot should be fun! Best ride of the trip was Voyage. Hades is a close second and then, in no particular order….Legend, Raven, Kentucky Rumbler, Cornball Express, Hoosier Hurricane, The Beast, Raging Bull, Wildcat, Cyclops, Zeus, Powder Keg, Wildfire, Twisted Twins, The Patriot, Mamba, and Thunder Run. I know I have woods mixed with steels, but those were the rides we liked on the trip. We went to 12 new parks, had 40 new coaster credits, and missed 15 for various reasons. Next trip: Texas for July 4th weekend! More humidity! We’re both exhausted! Goodnight everybody. This is kind of a weak way to end this trip report, but it's inside Dave & Buster's. If you haven't been to one, it is like an adult Chuck E. Cheese. They have many virtual reality games along with other games, such as pool, shuffle board, etc. This whole mall area is developing. They have an independent minor league team playing across the street and this place should be open soon. We won't be there for either. after all the hunting and stuff, we decided to go to Dave & Buster's for an adult beverage and some lunch. okay, now we're in the fishing area. Hey, what's this? A hunting display!!! Even Cabela's has a smashed penny machie! Why can't Mt. Olympus? you guessed it, more hunting! This is the shooting gallery for..... This one is hunting. This is one of the many themed areas. They had hunting, fishing, boating, more hunting, and more hunting. A taxidermist's dream. Look at the size of this friggin' place! Gyendolynne is already making friends! Actually she is talking to her parents. We're here at Cabela's. This will be much more fun the World's of Fun! The view from our room down stairs. This reminded us a lot of the Hilton Suites in Anaheim. This room was next door to the Presidential suite!

^Photos can be deceiving!

Keep the trip report coming! I am anxiously waiting for Pennsylvania.

^Kumba, WOF doesn't suck, it just isn't a comfortable park. There was a lot of security around the Patriot because of it being new and they don't want any trouble. Mamba and Timber's queues were fine. The rest of the park, you're on your own. There wasn't any security check upon entering the park. We believe they need it. The bad thing about this park was it was just so dirty. The restroom that I used was horrible. It was flooded and there was some stuff on the floor that wasn't supposed to be there. They could have closed the bathroom and fixed everything, then open it again, but they chose to put a floor fan in there to dry it out. I was standing in a lot of water...at least I think that's what it was! The 2 that Gyendolynne went into were just disgusting from what she told me. She even told someone in management and their response was, "That's not my area, but I'll see what I can do about it." I would think the response would be, "Which bathroom and we'll get right on it!" UNBELIEVABLE! I don't know if we hit it on a bad day, but Robb & Elissa have a report from last year and it doesn't sound all that great either. This park was by far the worst on this trip. I'll post Day 10 later today and you'll find out something else about how we felt.

^^^I read your trip report too Eric. These get to be so long and the jobs get in the way of writing them and posting pictures. I want to get Day 10 posted tomorrow. I believe I will have time for that in the evening. ^^Thanks for the nice words. Our top woodies on this trip would have to be Voyage, Hades, Legend, Raven, The Beast (We like it!), Kentucky Rumbler, Avalanche, Cornball Express, Hoosier Hurricane, Wildcat. Top Steelies would be: Raging Bull, Powder Keg, Wildfire, Mamba, Superman (SFGAm), Batman. This is just for this trip. So many woodies in the midwest!

^Nice seeing you yesterday Ryan. I can't believe how many pics you have to go through. I will hopefully have the last day of this trip up by Monday.

Sundays aren't usually bad early. Below is my circuit, but you might need to change it if you need to ride something else. I can can get this done by 11:30 on Sundays. I have been there so often. Go to the left first and ride Top Gun Continue on the left side to ride Delirium. (if you want a kiddie credit, hit up Taxi Jam). After Delirium head to the back for Psycho Mouse, Survivor, Drop Zone and Grizzly. They are all in the same area. You should be around the food court now. If you need to eat, now is the time. I am here by about 11am. Next hit Invertigo (if it is running and not too long of a wait). I don't ride this anymore because of the long lines for it. They load the ride so slow. Demon is right next to Invertigo. Last ride of the day, Vortex. I really wouldn't make this the last ride because it beats you up a little bit. I would make sure I ride Top Gun a couple more times before I leave the park. Depending on what you need/want to do. Some might say start right to get the low capacity rides out of the way (Invertigo), but Psycho Mouse is a low capacity ride too. Roll the dice and take a chance!

Hey all, I just added a POV of Sea Dragon at Wyandot Lake. Here is the link: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=197298 Here is the link to the POV of OPA! at Mt. Olympus: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25841

This was sent to me, and I think it is awesome! Too many beers!

Silver Dollar City and Celebration City were all walk-ons on Friday too. Saturdays are usually crowded for Amusement Parks. I will post what happened on Sunday soon, as well as post a video of Sea Dragon from Wyandot Lake. It takes a lot to go through hundreds of pictures and create a trip report. I am glad you're enjoying it so far. We had a really good time!

Day 9 – Saturday – SDC and World’s of Fun (I will take what Robb and Elissa say about this and call it the World’s of NO Fun!). We went to SDC one last time before we left to ride Powder Keg and Wildfire a few times. Powder Keg was running 3 trains! Their operations are great! Wildfire had a 2 train operation still, but there was any wait for that either. I rode it once and then we went back up front. Marvel Caverns is near the entrance and if you have an hour to and hour and a half to spare, we definitely recommend this. We went to the Luray Caverns in Virginia last year and this place is special too. It is a little cramped, but if you don’t have a problem stooping down, please go on this tour. I can’t say anything more on this. You have to see it. Our tour takes us to our final place before heading home, Kansas City, Missouri for the World’s of Fun. I will say this place is terrible. I read what Robb and Elissa wrote about this place before and it is all that. To start off, we get there and hand our season passes from Cedar Point to guest services and the kid looks at it and gives a big huff, like he can’t be put out to process these passes. He takes out 2 forms which he has to fill in his name, my name, my season pass number and circle the park from which we came from (Cedar Point). I can’t believe how hard that was! Next we walk up to the front entrance. There are no metal detectors or bag inspections. There are 3 people working and only one “entrance”. The other 2 people are just sitting there, so we walked up to them to hand them our PAPER entrance (yes not ticket) and they said you’ll have to wait in that line to get in. There is only one entrance! It is 5pm at this point, the park closes at 10pm and you have 1 entrance and 5 exits that are being tended to by 2 people. I tried to be okay about all this because we just got there. Gyendolynne went to the 1st bathroom we could find and when she came out, she said it was so disgusting in there. The other bathrooms weren’t any better. The one that I went in was actually flooded a little and there were some things on the ground. There was a humongous dryer on the ground, but why didn’t they just close the bathroom until it was all cleaned up? Maybe because none of the bathrooms are clean there and they don’t know what a clean bathroom is! We went straight to Spinning Dragons after that, but the line was really long, as it was with the Patriot. We figured every line would be long and we should just head to the back to ride the rides and work our way up front. We rode Timber Wolf first in the front row, then went to Steel Force, oh I mean Mamba. Mamba’s line wasn’t long at all. They were running 3 trains! We were able to ride it twice in 45 minutes, once in the front and then in the back. As we headed back up front, we passed by Boomerang and the line was huge! I couldn’t believe all these people waiting for that ride. The Patriot’s queue was still pretty long. The attendant at the beginning of the line was good enough to tell us it was an hour wait from her. They were running 2 trains. This place had the most security of any area of the park and we still didn’t feel safe. The Patriot reminds us a lot of Top Gun at PGA without the water. I think Top Gun is a little faster too. That is about the best that I can explain it. There have been so many other reports on it, I don’t want to get redundant. We had dinner at the Lonestar and checked into our hotel, which was the Embassy Suites. This hotel was awesome, we were in the Norwood Suite, right next door to the Presidential Suite. This leads to our question: Because we had a bad hotel in Branson, and a great hotel in Kansas City, but SDC is awesome and WofFun sucks, would you rather have a great hotel and a terrible park, or a great park and terrible hotel? Ultimately we all would love to have great hotels and great parks, but you sometimes come up with craps (a gambling term). Cool room Embassy Suites hotel, the Norwood Suite right next to the Presidential Suite. Good night WofFun What I will say about Patriot is that it reminded us both of Top Gun at PGA. It is a similar layout. If they had water at the end, we thought we would buzz it. Mamba, pretty good ride. Just like Steel Force at Dorney Park, go figure? On-Ride photo! The guy behind us was a little scared. That looks like an hour....it turned out to be 45 minutes. With drink in hand, we are about to wait our 1 hour to ride Patriot NO WAY! Boomerang??? What is this line for? Steel Force....I mean MAMBA If you can't take it, leave through this exit. First ride at WofFun We'll come back for you We won't be riding this on the trip. The park is a little crowded It was 4pm and they had one person taking tickets and 2 people just sitting in other aisles not letting you through and not taking tickets. This may look like a fun happy park, but..... Good-bye Silver Dollar City, we'll miss you! Always something to see Looking straight down Looking straight up More random pics Another passage Here's a close up Gyendolynne was interested in the structure behind her. Unfortunately I didn't find any new passages If you make it through, you can name the passage after yourself.... Looking forward to going up those steps A lot of stooping going on This place is just incredible Another one looking over the edge Random cave picture That is where we started. This is so big. A cave picture! I took the previous picture on top of the structure on the right. This is a better shot of how big the opening is and how deep the cave is That is looking straight up at the opening where an indian and a bear fell through years ago They give you a lot of warnings about how many steps it is and how steep it is. This is the 1 hour tour map This was very interesting and there wasn't an added cost for it We went through Marvel Cave NOPE! Oh dear lord! Should I hold on? We thought this waterfall was neat, it is by Wildfire I caught it just as the explosion went off! Powder Keg, a little busier, but they were running 3 trains! Ain't that the truth