Kemah Boardwalk and Bullet Discussion Thread

[texcoaster]

I do think myself lucky to have been able to sample nearly 500 coasters. I don't take it for granted for one minute.

 

It does, however, make it much more difficult to impress me, and I haven't gotten that "butterflies in the stomach" sensation on a coaster in ages. I suppose I'm a bit jaded.

 

Since the scare factor is gone for me, that leaves thrill or fun as reasons to ride a coaster. Of the two, I prefer thrill, although a healthy dose of BOTH is required to reach my top 10.

 

The Kentucky Rumbler had a little bit of fun, but zero thrill for me. I found it rather boring, no matter what Rastus might think.

 

Just as you bemoan living in the UK and being a few hours from a "good" coaster, I live in a large city with only three coasters, two of which are kiddie steel coasters. The other is almost an hour south and is the Boardwalk Bullet. Yes, I'm lucky in that regard. To get to another coaster requires nearly 4 hours drive west, or 4.5 hours north, or 4 hours east.

 

I'm having a hard time feeling sorry for you being 5 hours from Blackpool. Sure, their woodies are "out and back and old", but good God, man, Big Dipper is a classic, Grand National is my fave racing woodie, Roller Coaster runs without restraints of ANY KIND (and has a little airtime!), and Wild Mouse is insanity on rails.

Add in a wicked bobsled, a hypercoaster with a bitchin first drop, a rare steeplechase coaster, and a couple of others, plus a decent drop tower, Valhalla, a haunted swing, etc etc etc...

 

Blackpool is about as far from you as Six Flags Over Texas is to me. Titan and Freeze are good, Batman is OK, and Shock Wave is classic, but they are all steelies. The two woodies there are a mild out and back that needs some serious trackwork and the TxGiant, which is slowed down by multiple brakes all over the layout, and is STILL too rough to enjoy. After four consecutive years of nothing but bad rides on it, I finally had to admit that my former #1 coaster SUCKS now. It not only fell off my top 10, it fell off my top 25.

 

I will trade you Blackpool for SFOT, ok?

[texcoaster]

Crap.

 

Was going to head down to the Boardwalk for some nice rain rides, but the rain turned into Tropical Storm Humberto.

 

Oh, well.

[SKCfan]

I got it worse...

 

I got to work last night @ 3.50AM right smack dab in the middle of HURRICANE HUMBERTO. It went from T.S. to full Cat1 hurricane after it made landfall. Very unusual. It was only 4mph away from being a Cat2.

 

It folded my umbrella like a piece of origami, blew(slid) a port-o-potty about 60', blew over a metal park bench, tore a couple of small trees out of the ground, turned metal-armed redlights on poles 90 degrees and has put about 100K people without electricity in Beaumont.

 

I can literally say that I've went to work in the middle of a hurricane. Before you ask, NO, I didn't have a clue what was waiting for me at the end of my 20+ mile drive to work. I would have never of dreamed it would be a hurricane. It was an experience I'll never forget.

[GuruGuys]

Humberto was quite humble for us as we got the clean side of the storm. I'm not certain but I would imagine the Bullet is up and running today as the weather is actually quite nice.

 

-GG

[jmccalip]

Did we even get any rain? Didn't hear any rain lastnight and when I woke up at 6am is was dry out.

 

Although lastnight around 10PM is was kind of weird outside. It was cool for once, and it just seemed kind of eerily quiet with no wind or anything.

[GuruGuys]

As I arrived at about 6:30pm they were just finishing up putting graphite on the track. They are now using graphite on the track instead of oil and boy does it shows. The ride times were only 3 seconds slower than the RAIN rides!!! The entire back half of the ride is speeding along, you can't come even come close to counting the anti roll backs on the back hills and the train is flying past the magnets right into the station so fast that the middle train does a back wheely on the brake in the station when the train is full!

 

I sure hope they can keep it running at this speed consistently. The ride times were consistently 64 seconds from the end of the lift to the first magnetic brake. As a comparison the ride was running 75 seconds last Thursday when I rode for the same section. The total ride time were around 114, including the exit, lift hill, to a stop on the station brake. This is almost a minute fast than the old averages when the train would take 45+ seconds to get past the magnetic brakes!

 

The ride is totally different this way, the only time it really slows down is on the first big hill and its going over that much faster. I can only imagine how fast it will be in the rain when it is oiled, er, graphited this way!

 

-GG

[texcoaster]

I was a little bit leery of putting Bullet at my #3 woodie spot (ahead of Shivering Timbers) before, but I did it based on the best rides that the Bullet gave me vs the best rides that Timbers gave me. When the Bullet runs slowly, however, it can be ho-hum.

 

Tonight, I not only felt confident enough to keep it ahead of Timbers, but I also moved it ahead of MegaZeph into the #2 spot (right behind Voyage). Bullet was FLYING tonight. Graphite, oil, Vaseline, whatever... I don't know what they did, but tonight was the most fun I've had on a coaster in a long time. The crowds were light and I got 32 rides in... 129 total so far.

 

It seems that the faster Bullet goes, the smoother it is. Empty train rides were rougher than full train rides. Luckily, the train was often full. Seat 2R, once a favorite, was lackluster. Seat 5R, my fave on opening day, was brutal.

 

Seat 10R was my favorite tonight, by far. Going back to the topic of "everyone has their own opinion", Guru rode 10R a time or two and didn't like it much. He wasn't getting nearly the action out of that seat that I was.... and believe me, I WAS! Even well after my 100th total ride, that seat was as good or better than any I've had. It was almost as good as the rain rides that first night.

 

I clocked the ride (station to first brake) at 1:51 for most of Labor Day. Some rides were as sluggish as 1:55 with an empty train. Tonight, every ride was 1:44 or faster. Eleven seconds faster on such a short ride time is phenomenal. The Boardwalk really seems to be making sure that when it starts getting sluggish, the graphite comes out.

 

If they keep that up, this little coaster could be the surprise hit of the year.

[mike robinson]

That is good news. I think we can all agree that the slower the train is, the ride can be a lot rougher and the faster the train is, well it just gets better and better.

 

I think thats why we are seeing such a discrepancy in some of the trip reports.

[ErinBrookeTX]

Can ya'll educate me in graphite? Does it do the same thing as oil does?

[kewlcoasterdude]

So is this a good ride?

[GuruGuys]

I think thats why we are seeing such a discrepancy in some of the trip reports.

 

Exactly. The last part of the ride can be a bit boring when it is not flying around. Whatever they are doing lately is really increasing the speed on the back part more than the first part, but the first part is fast enough anyway. I heard more people get off the coaster yesterday stating that "it just never slows down" than I have ever heard. The reaction of the people getting off the ride completely changes this way, its really fun to watch them!

 

The ride is MUCH smoother this way too. The back seats which most will likely prefer were a cakewalk for me while the middle seats where a bit rough due to shimmying on some of the corners. The turn before the station fly by drop glides through where in the past it seemed to really slow it down. I still say that if you want a pretty smooth ride but more small ejector air ride in row 2, although TexCoaster had a bad experience on it yesterday (probably because of the drunk sitting next to him).

 

To answer Erin's question, apparently they are using graphite because it sticks the to track and lasts longer than the oil.

 

-GG

[jmccalip]

Here is that No Limits file I messed around with. I think it's a little more accurate to the real thing now. For example, the first drop now has the little straight piece right before the actual drop. Sorry about no complex support structure, the beams kept hitting the track.

 

Uses improved friction, v1.6.

http://www.freewebs.com/stampeder1/TEXASG%20GG%20jmccalip.nltrack

[GuruGuys]

Sorry about no complex support structure, the beams kept hitting the track.

 

 

heheh! Imagine how the real construction workers felt!!

 

Your layout is pretty close, the first big turn is not banked enough, the decline going from the lift to the first drop is a bit too much, beleive iti s 96 feet at the top of the lift and 91 feet at the drop. A few parts went into wood but that might be my no limits configuration as I am no expert on it.

 

The first turn at the bottom of the drop happens sooner (as it is dropping) and is a bit more agressive. I'm no no limits expert, perhaps Texcoaster who has ridden it a lot more can help make it perfect?

 

-GG

[texcoaster]

jmccalip, if you don't mind, I'd like to try tweaking your track to make it more like the actual ride.

 

I don't have AHG (I'm on a Mac), so it will be a bit tricky, but I'd still like to try.

 

There are some really good things happening in your track, but there are lots of little elements that make the real ride such an intense maelstrom and they are missing here (the non-straight first drop, heavier banking on several turns, stuff buried inside a mass of structure, "the pop" before the lower east turn, etc etc etc). I'm no NL expert, though. Maybe I could add in the missing elements, then someone else could come in and fix it further.

[texcoaster]

Got in a few more rides today... was a bit crowded. Usually had to wait about 3 trains or so between rides.

 

Up to 152 now. I think Guru hit 200 tonight.

 

Bullet was running pretty well, hitting the same times as Saturday when several ACErs dropped by. Not as well as Thursday, though. Those rides pushed Bullet into my #2 wood spot. This was still a top-10 ride tonight, though.

[almightyfire]

Hi Tex, has there ever been a wait where the line was down the ramp to the parking lot?

[jmccalip]

So how does a new coaster not have a long line(I'm not complaining )? Is it because of the ticket system?

[GuruGuys]

Hi Tex, has there ever been a wait where the line was down the ramp to the parking lot?

 

As far as I know, there has never been a line that has stretched past the entrance. They have about twice as much queue ready to use if they ever needed it (maybe spring break). With two trains when the line stretches to the entrance queue it is about 45 minutes.

 

So how does a new coaster not have a long line(I'm not complaining )? Is it because of the ticket system?

 

Its the nature of the park. Kemah is a small park and during weekdays it is usually pretty empty. They can push about 500 people through the coaster an hour on the weekends so the line moves fast. If this was a full blown amusement park where everyone comes for the rides it may be different but Landry's target goal seems to be to get people to spend money in their restaurants then hit the rides on the way out. This especially seems to hold true for the coaster as the line backs up with single ticket riders when everyone gets through with their Friday/Sat night dinner.

 

It has nothing to do with the ticket system. There are two places you can get tickets and while some people have posted that they waited 30 minutes for a ticket they could have gone to the other ticket booth where there are about 5 employees working the booth instead of the one by the coaster where there is usually just one employee and got through the line much faster.

 

Personally I've never had to spend more than 5 minutes in line to buy my band.

 

-GG

[Phideaux]

I finally got to Kemah. My cousin, his wife, another friend, and I decided to go to Schlitterbahn Galveston and then go to Kemah after.

 

There was not much of a line, two or three train wait at the most. I was impressed with the coaster, it was fun. Three out of the four of us liked the coaster. It is not in my top five but I have always enjoyed Kemah so I am happy it is there.

It would not fit in my trunk.

[GuruGuys]

Did they move those exta cars to the garage?

[texcoaster]

Hi Tex, has there ever been a wait where the line was down the ramp to the parking lot?

 

It was so nice to meet you on the coaster tonight!

 

I generally don't stick around once the line gets more than 20min long, so I can't tell you if it's ever been longer than that.

 

I'm spoiled with my drop-by-after-work ride sessions. I show up around 7pm or so and ride till 10. Can usually manage about 30 rides, or 10 rides/hour.

[texcoaster]

Hi Tex, has there ever been a wait where the line was down the ramp to the parking lot?

 

It was so nice to meet you on the coaster tonight!

 

I generally don't stick around once the line gets more than 20min long, so I can't tell you if it's ever been longer than that.

 

I'm spoiled with my drop-by-after-work ride sessions. I show up around 7pm or so and ride till 10. Can usually manage about 30 rides, or 10 rides/hour.

[SteveChiller]

I rode it on Saturday. Front was ok, back was better. I guess it's maybe like 7 or 8 on my top 10.

[almightyfire]

It was nice meeting u also Tex. I am sure we will run into each other again soon. It is just a relaxing place to go at nite.

[Phideaux]

The extra cars are in the garage second floor.