texcoaster

Um... Blackpool has a "handful" of coasters that most parks would kill for. Twelve coasters, five of them are wood, and a couple of them (Steeplechase, for instance) are hard to find anywhere else.

I noticed several times when I got to stay in the seat for a repeat ride that even though I was on the same train in the same seat for back-to-back rides, each of those rides was different. This ride seems to be a LOT more susceptible than most, to factors such as the number of people on the train and the condition of the track (esp oil and/or water on the rails). I rode some circuits that were truly disappointing. Hell, my very first ride was met with "meh" at the end. I also rode some circuits that kicked my butt with intensity. If EVERY one of my rides had been like my 49th (in the back seat during the rain storm), it might give Voyage a run for my #1 spot. It most likely still wouldn't beat Voyage, but it would be a solid #2. As it is, when I average those really good rides with the sluggish ones, it comes in around #4.

Who the hell made YOU the keeper of the truth? If I found it boring, then that is truth for me. If you did not, that is truth for you. For you to insist that your truth is more valid than mine just makes you seem arrogant. I didn't say I didn't like it. It was, in fact, somewhat enjoyable, but I stand by my opinion that it was boring. I thought the layout was uninteresting, I thought a great deal of potential airtime wasn't delivered, and I like a twister to feel a bit more "out of control". Those are just my opinions, but they are valid for ME. I could care less if you agree, but I resent you saying that I'm being untruthful. "Boring" isn't something that you can validate as true or untrue in general. If I say that a coaster is 100ft tall and it is in fact 150ft tall, then that would be an untruth. When it comes to an opinion such as "boring" or "exciting", then the only way it can be an untruth is if I say it is one thing, but I really thought it was the other. I thought the Kentucky Rumbler was boring. Deal with it. Not at all. Until this year, my #1 coaster was a steelie: the very-smooth Expedition GeForce. Shivering Timbers is smooth (at least it was when I rode it opening season) and it is high on my list -- ahead of Bullet. I don't equate "smooth" to "boring." Hell, I got a big kick out of Leap the Dips, which is smooth, plain, and SLOW... but a lot more interesting and fun than Kentucky Rumbler IMHO. See above "Leap the Dips" comment. What I like in a coaster depends on what kind it is. If it's an out and back, I want floater airtime and lots of it. For a Cyclone, I want falling-off-the-planet drops, heavy laterals, and anticipation-building slow, flat turns. If it's a twister like KR, I want to feel that the coaster is out of control, I want some surprise direction changes, I want to get "lost" in the layout, I want to feel that I need another ride or two in order to figure it all out. KR gave me none of that, and so I found it rather boring. If you read my initial post on this, you'll see that I said "I may be the only one who thinks so..." or something to that effect. I know that KR has its fans. I'm not one of them. The two people I rode it with said it was "OK" but neither of them was in a big hurry to ride it again. Others on the same train LOVED it, so I know we didn't just get it on a sluggish day. No, it's great IMHO because it's a twister that does EXACTLY what I want a twister to do. It meets all the things I list above, PLUS it's a truly unique design with a lot of nice touches. It's one of the few "rough" twisters that I could ride 50 times in one day, which I did on Monday. As much as I love the Voyage, there's no way I could go 50 times in 12 hours. I'll mark this on the calendar: I agreed with you on something. Bullet has the potential to become unridable in short order if they don't maintain it well. At the moment, however, it's rough but not too rough. It's wild but re-ridable (there was at least one person who broke the 100-ride mark this weekend). It has everything I want in a wood twister, and when it consistently runs as well as it runs in the rain now, it might even move up another notch or two on my wood list. Right now, it's at #4.

El Toro is a woodie. The track is wood, it's just not layered wood, it's a single piece. Voyage is layered wood, and is rough like other woodies... actually, it's rougher. I agree with you that the new style of wood track (I haven't been on El Toro, but I have been on Colossus in Germany) doesn't feel "right" for a wood coaster. After riding Colossus, I thought it was fun, fast, had shizloads of airtime, etc etc etc... but I was really disappointed. It did NOT feel like a wood coaster, which was what I had stood in line for.

Maybe I'm the only one who thought Kentucky Rumbler was boring as all hell... just goes to show that different folks like different things.

The reporter says "now that Astroworld is closed the Bullet is one of Houston's biggest roller coasters". I just have one question, I want to know were the other ones are at? There's one at the iTZ's on the northwest side and one at Zuma on the north side. Both are kiddie steelies.

That's nothing... you should see the real one.

Not all the good coasters out there are record breakers. For example a lot of people love Raven at Holiday World and its the smallest woodie there. Another case in point, Son Of Beast at Kings Island, record breaking, but horrible. You stole my thunder, Vegas. While Voyage is my #1 woodie, and it is very big, MegaZeph is at #2 and it's about the same size as Bullet. Shivering Timbers, another biggie, is #3 and Bullet is #4 right now. Later on in my top ten, you find TxCyclone, Coney Cyclone, Phoenix, and Raven... all of them around Bullet's size or smaller. Of note: very large wood coasters such as the Beast, Son of Beast, the Boss, Germany's Colossus, etc are NOT on my list. It ain't how big it is, it's what ya do with it!

OK, after almost 100 rides, I can attest to the following: [1] It's NOT smooth. It's a rough-n-tumble coaster. If you've been looking at the layout, you'd expect this. However, I don't mind a rough ride if it's FUN. This ride is rough because there are high-speed turns everywhere in all directions. That's fine by me. Something like Mean Streak, Rattler, or Son of Beast that are rough but offer very little thrill are not fine by me. Bullet is rough in a Voyage kinda way, but still not nearly as brutal as that ride. [2] The section between the first drop and the big turn that it didn't clear on the first test run... is quite possibly the most intense 10-15 seconds on any wood coaster anywhere. [3] I'm really, REALLY sore now and I still have something in my eye that flew in there about 3 hours ago. I think it might be a piece of a bug. [4] The ride is breaking in. ALL of the rides today were considerably faster than most of the rides yesterday. Some parts are smoother now, other parts are rougher. [5] As the ride breaks in, the middle seats aren't the wild children they were yesterday. They're just rougher. The back end of the train, however, is INSANE on the first drop now. [6] My favorite seat early on was 5right. Now it's 2right by a long shot. OMG the ejector air!!! [7] The neighbor next door needs to sell me her house.

I got 97 rides in before we ran out of time. Guru got 101. If I had stayed last night, I could've gotten those extra 3, but I had 47 rides in at that point and the lines were more than a half hour long. I got 50 rides in today even with a mech breakdown, a bit of a crowd, a lightning storm delay, and one-train operation. That should stifle anyone's worries that they shouldn't come down on a weekend. If it's not spring break, come on down, the crowds are fine! In fact, for the last half hour tonight, we didn't even have to get off.

The slightly revised story as it appears in text on the Channel 13 link went out to the Associated Press. We just went NATIONAL, baby!

One thing to note about the neighbors... They told the reporter that they were run off the porch by the noise, they couldn't carry on a conversation, and they wouldn't be able to BBQ. Bullcrap. I watched them out there all day, sitting on the deck, BBQing, talking normally. They rarely even looked over when the Bullet went by. I've taken video from their yard. It's amazingly quiet on that side due to the design of the coaster angling all the track AWAY from the house. All the noise generated by the riders is aimed back at the boardwalk and away from the house. The little whistle on the choo-choo train is MUCH louder than the coaster from there. Oh, and while we're talking about making the coaster neighbor-friendly, they should be thankful that the designers made sure that all of the track that is next to the bay is low to the ground so their view is unobstructed. It would've been MUCH MUCH cooler for the Boardwalk to build the lift hill pointed at the bay. That would've given riders and incredible view as they went up, and would've faced a lot more of the ride action where folks could see it and want to ride. Instead, they put the lower track by the bay, forcing the riders to look at a parking lot with the water behind them. I think they went out of their way to make it good for the neighborhood.

I figured that as soon as the "Coaster Now Open" billboards went up, they'd be back out there for a follow-up on the almost entirely anti-coaster article they did on the neighbors back in July. I was happy to talk to them and give them as many positives as I could. I couldn't believe that the reporter put the bit in there about the Killions "being run off the porch due to the noise" especially when she sat right next to me on the coaster and we saw them sitting on their porch with the BBQ smoking away! Geez. Oh, and for the record, the reporter had some "street cred"... she's a veteran of NYC and loves the Coney Cyclone. She said that the Bullet is better, and she LOVED the back seat.

By the way, if you click "NEXT" beside the picture of the Bullet looming over the house, you'll see a pic of me in the front car, with Guru in the row behind me. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5103258.html

Airtime? Did someone say airtime? There is a wicked little "pop" (noted in the Chronicle article) on the east side of the ride. Notice the picture below. Coasterphotos pointed it out to me, and when we had to be walked out of the car on the catwalk today (mech probs shut it down for awhile) I was able to get a pic with the phone. See the arrows? Notice how there is NO STRIPE where the road wheels go between the arrows on the main rail? It's all upstops there, baby! The road wheels have NEVER EVEN TOUCHED that part of the track. Sweet.

Lord, no. Voyage remains the most brutal coaster I've ever loved. I've been on more brutal ones, but I hated those. Bullet is nowhere NEAR as rough as Voyage, not even in the back seat. Keep in mind, however, that Bullet hasn't even broken in good yet. Whether or not it becomes brutal will have to be seen over time. It certainly has the potential to be a nasty-rough ride, but I think that Kemah is proud of their baby and will keep it well maintained.

It was interesting to see how many kids were there with mom and dad, and it was said that it was the kid's first-ever rollercoaster. I had to think, though, that Astroworld closed two years ago and many of these kids were too small to have ridden any of the coasters there when it was open. They picked a pretty riotous and rambunctious ride for their first one!!! I had a good time trying to decide which kids would get off screaming "I wanna go again" and which ones would never ride another coaster as long as they lived. One particular case was "Miles", a boy perhaps 8 years old, a little small for his age. He was in tears. It didn't help that while you wait in line, the track is all around you, shaking the entire structure, screaming passengers rocketing over your head, the rumble of the train incredibly loud... he was NOT a happy boy. Guru and I tried to reassure him, but it did no good. I was a bit angry with his mom for making him ride it anyway. I like to see kids get off a coaster with the sort of enthusiasm that I have... not with trauma. It was obvious, however, that momma wasn't changing her mind. Miles would ride. When the ride was over, Miles was a bit shaken, but probably more relieved than excited. He really wasn't entirely sure what he had just done, he just knew that it was finished. As the train slowly coasted from the brakes back into the station, we got up a chant of "Miles! Miles! Miles!" and everyone on the train applauded him. I think he was still too dazed to appreciate it. On the exit ramp, I pitched an idea to Guru and he loved it: we waited until Miles and family came down the ramp and I said "Yay Miles! Hey, buddy... what size t-shirt do you wear? Since this was your first coaster, you should get a t-shirt so you can wear it to school on Tuesday and show everybody that you rode it. You'll be the most popular kid in school!" So Guru and I pitched in and bought the kid a shirt. He was still a bit too shaken to appreciate it, but his mom thanked us several times. By the time Tuesday comes, his adrenaline will have subsided, the fear will have left, and he'll be proud of himself. ...and he will truly be able to tell all of his friends, "Oh, the coaster? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

OK, those who have been on it now: After months of pictures and speculation, what parts of the ride exceeded your expectations, and what parts didn't quite live up to your own hype? For me, the first drop, turn, and zig-zag totally lived up to my expectations and then some. I thought it would be much more brutal than it is. Way fun. The upper bay turn is a bit more intense than I was expecting. Yay! The biggest surprises, though, were the fairly strong laterals on the little curve before the lift (!) and the turn at the top of the lift. Both are really just "get me from here to there" areas, but both are done at a pretty good clip and are better than I expected. As for not living up to my expectations, I'd probably have to say that when it's dry, the last third of the ride is kinda sluggish. When it's wet, it isn't sluggish at all. I hope once it breaks in good, it will run as fast dry as the wet rides we got yesterday!

Guru, you're already saying you'll be out there tomorrow? The Advil must not have worn off yet, lol. I agree that having to wait 10min or so for each ride near the end was a good thing. I'm not sure we'd be walking well if we'd still been re-riding at the pace we did earlier in the day. My thighs are SORE from slamming the lap bar. I'm having a hard time choosing my favorite seat. While 5R was insane last night, it just didn't live up to my memories today. 10L was really good, and it was funny listening to you OW OW OW in 10R! Seats 2R and 2L, however, were doing bitching air and WTF with the 4th row and all the upstop grind??? That car was ssssssssssmokin!!! The upstops were hitting so hard you could hear it several seats back.

The ride began quite fast today at its noon opening, but as the oil wore off the track, it got a bit more sluggish. Only, however, on the tops of the big hills. The opening sequence of drop, zig-zag, and upper bay turn were as fast at the end of the day as they were last night. That section is breaking in QUICKLY. There are now several spots where the upstops are riding the lip pretty hard. Third big drop. This one ends up going under the station past the photo camera. The big turn and drop. Haulin azz on the upper bay turn First drop. Notice back seat riders' ejector air! Waiting in line is almost as much fun as the ride! When the train goes overhead here, EVERYTHING shakes! Zig-Zig after the first drop Bottom of the first drop.

I asked them last year, when I first found out about the coaster, if they would do a season pass. The email I got back was that while no plans for a season pass were in the works for this year, they were discussing several options for the future. It sounds like it might be a plan for a few years down the road, after they add more rides, but it won't happen yet. As it stands, the wristband is a pretty good deal. Hell, I paid $19 tonight to ride a really good coaster 10 times. I went to Vegas and paid $12 to ride Manhattan Express ONCE, and it SUCKED. Guess which is the better bargain?

Dude, I realize that it's late, but go back and re-read that. If there is a long line, you'll have to walk around no matter how many tickets you're holding, because there won't be an empty seat.

OK, I'll get some of the questions out of the way before my reviews (yes, THREE of them). YES, you can re-ride without walking the plank. I believe the rule is that you can re-ride three times if nobody is in line for your seat, then you have to get out and walk around. This rule was not enforced during the half hour just before closing when they reopened it after the rainstorm. There were only about 10 of us still there at that point, anyway. The longest I had to wait in line? Um... I NEVER had to wait in line. Every time I walked around, I walked right back up into an empty seat. Most times, I just stayed on the train. I rode in seats 1L, 1R, 2L, 3L, 5L, 5R, 11L, 11R, 12L, and 12R. Loading and unloading went really fast, but the train was often only half full. Interestingly, the initial part of the lift is very slow. Usuallly, about 2/3 up the lift, you'll stop and wait for the other train to get into the station. Then the lift kicks it into high gear and pushes you over the top pretty quickly. When you stop on the brake run, the lead-in track to the station isn't angled very steeply, and it takes FOREVER for the train to get back to the station. REVIEW: First ride, seat 1L. Lift was fast, the turn at the top was more swoopy than I expected and pretty fast. Laterals, even! The drop is nice, with a little hangtime just over the edge in the front car. The zig-zag track at the bottom is nuts. The upper bay turn is nuts. It's all just a blur until the big hill with the anti-rollbacks. Here you catch your breath and enjoy the view. The drop off this hill is really nice with a sweet little banked bunnyhop at the bottom, into the near-90 banked lower bay turn. This might be the smoothest part of the ride. Up and over the Saltgrass hill, down into the structure, then over a little bunnyhop. At the top of this hill, there is a pop. I don't know what causes it, but NOBODY sees it coming. The entire train is launched into the lapbar fairly violently for no apparent reason. Airtime where there shouldn't be any. Sweet! A seriously banked left turn leads to another big hill that drops down under the station and they take your picture. Neat strobe light effect under there. Coming around the back side and into the final stretch, it loses a little steam, especially on the final turn before the station. All in all, a good ride. Not a white-knuckle ride, but great fun for the whole family. Once you get past the first drop and zig-zag track and upper bay turn, you're done with the "hard stuff". Review: 2nd ride, seat 11R. Anxious to see if that little flat section at the top of the first drop provides the ejector I predicted in my video. Verdict: HELL YEAH! Nice, NICE, NIIIIIIIICE bit of ejector air, with the train twisting another direction before you come down. The zig-zag in the back is even more nuts than in the front, and substantially rougher (but still not as rough as Giant or Rattler). The big drops are better back here, and the sensation of speed is enhanced. When you're inside the structure, you get lost and can't predict the layout. Turns seem faster. Review: 4th ride, seat 5R. HOLY CRAP. What's up with seat 5 on the right side????? The zig-zag is not nuts, it's INSANE. The upper bay turn has airtime where none of the other seats did. The lead-in to the big turn had airtime, the bunnyhop after the big turn had air, WTF??? Maybe it's just me. Gotta get Guru on this one. Review: rides 6-10, in the rain. OH.MY.GOD. They should've named this coaster Jeckyll and Hyde. All that crap I said about "good for the whole family"? Fuggedabowdit! This thing HAULS FREAKIN AZZ when it's wet. Yeah, yeah, ALL wood coasters are faster when they're wet, but not like this. Not EVER like this. I am not kidding when I tell you that the Bullet was toying the the bottom of my top 10 list (my ride list is now at 480), but after the "rain rides" it is sitting SOLIDLY at #4. If breaks in good and runs this fast all the time, this ride will be the surprise addition to many, many top 10 lists. At least one person (with a pretty decent track record himself) has claimed it as his #1 coaster after the wet rides. My whole life is going to change after tonight. I'll be watching the weather forecasts, praying for rain, and then drive to Kemah during the storm so that I can be on the first trains out after the rain lets up. Yeah, it's THAT much better. Oh, that #4 ranking is the average sentiment of dry/wet rides. If I only ride it when wet, it would be #2, with only the Voyage beating it out. As it is, Voyage, MegaZeph, and Shivering Timbers are ahead of it... but such notable rides as Coney Cyclone, TxGiant, Raven, Phoenix, and Boulder Dash are below it now.

Floater air is when you lift out of your seat and hover for a bit. It usually comes at the top of a camelback hill or long speed bump. Shivering Timbers, Superman SFNE, Titan's speed hill, Expedition GeForce all have this kind of air. Voyage has TONS of it. Ejector air is a quick pop where the rider is launched quickly into the lapbar, then back down into the seat. Using your TxCyclone reference, think about the drop off the "post turn", that turn directly below the big turn after the first drop. Excalibur's drop had some nice ejector air in the back seat. As for whether Bullet has more or less air than TxCyclone, I'll know later today. Honestly, other than the back seat, I never got much air on the TxCyclone. It was more about wicked drops and the delicious contrast between the quick hills and the slow turns. I think a better comparison coaster for Bullet is the TxGiant. YES, the Giant is much, much larger, but it seems a bit more fair to compare that twisted layout to Bullet's than it does to compare TxCyclone's layout. TxCyclone was drop, slow flat turn, drop drop slow flat turn, etc. Giant and Bullet are both full of wild, undulating, curving and twisting track, taken at breakneck speeds. I sorta expect Bullet to be an extended version of Giant's "flying carpet" finale. I'll know more after tonight.

I plan to be there after work Friday, from open till around 5-ish on Saturday, from 3p-close on Sunday, and from open to close on Monday. I'm hoping for at least 100 rides before the weekend is up, but I think a lot of that will depend on the queue.