milst1 Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 This was our first trip of the year and I scored 19 credits (22 for my wife, Cheryl, and her sister, Lauren). Enough chatter. It's off to the airport and back home. Hope you liked my trip report! Re-rides were not a problem! I admit that I was a bit disappointed at how rough it is for a new coaster, but it *was* rideable. Yahoo! We had to wait for some maintenance issue to be resolved before opening, but open it did! Lovely views of Galveston Bay. Kemah Boardwalk! Tony Hawk! Fun! Dizzy! Then a *long* drive and an overnight stay in... From soaring to whoring. Pretty cool Scooby Doo shoot-em-up dark ride. Cheryl couldn't hit a barn door! You'll be charmed by its looks, but the Rattler is deadly. If only the ride were a fraction as good as the kickass sign. Yes, fun, flight. Fiesta Superman Superman Lift Hill Porn If I never see one of these again, it'll be too soon. This is the 3rd incarnation of this B&M inverted, re-dubbed "Goliath". It's finished and they need to build the station. A ride op told me the first riders will all be named "David". Hello, SFFT! Goodbye, SeaWorld San Antonio! I love theme park landscaping, and SeaWorld does it right. Is it a flume or a roller coaster? Yes! Shamu Express! Land sharks! Not a bad coaster sign! Power outage leaves riders stuck for several minutes on Great White. Steel Eel lift hill. Really really great ride. We rode 3 times in row. Amazing. And for my money, this is the best roller coaster in Texas. I know this is only 150', but it's an air machine. Definitely worth the trip. We drove back to Austin for the night and then it was another early morning drive, this time to San Antonio and the nicest park on our trip, SeaWorld! It's the *very first log flume ever*!!!! First ride was awesome, second ride jarred my kidney stones loose. La Vibora! I rode this 12 years ago when it was "Avalanche Bobsled". I love these things, they freak me out. Titan was my favorite ride in the park. Of course it went down as we reached the front of the line. You can see what a crappy day it was. Batman to the right. You were right if you guessed: "An animatronic Mr. Freeze". SF and the Gotham theming thing...I still don't get why they completely fetishized it to death. That's my rant. Now who would live inside an old abandoned Gotham City snowcone factory? Here's the flip side of that construction site. There are some signs of life, and we did see track pieces in the parking lot from the top of Titan. Here's the front of the new Tony Hawk coaster...not much happening yet. Shrunken junk and nipples pokin' b/c of the chill. We're at Guest Relations presenting our special letter from Corporate in NYC that says that even though our home park is SFGAdv, we can have our season passes processed at SFOT. Hooray! Oil Derrick Yay! After a 3 hr drive from my sister-in-law's in Austin, we're at SFOT pretty close to opening. Kinda cold and dreary for most of the day. That late Friday flight from JFK to Austin...
65skylark Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 Nice Job! I really want to get that Sea World park. It looks great.
ebl Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 "La Vibora! I rode this 24 years ago when it was 'Sarajevo Bobsleds' at SFMM." Fixed for me! I have to do the major Texas parks sometime. The only one I've been to is Wonderland in Amarillo. Eric
sfotkid Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 Thanks for the pics of SFOT. The week you came was very cold and wet.. but nice to see you had a good time
VivaLaVibora Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I'm glad you enjoyed La Vibora. That ride to me is a gem in that park. I think that's the best ride, and than you have Batman, and Mr. Freeze to add to that. You have other rides too that I think are great. I liked Rolling Thunder when it was at Six Flags Great America, and it's virtually the same ride with different style cars. Why haven't I gone to the Great Escape? Nothing else besides that and the Comet look that interesting for me to visit that park. I never felt a need to go to SFFT. It's so far away too. The only thing I don't really care for at SFOT is there flats. I wish they had some better ones. I really like SFOT though. Those roller coasters are just great to me.
SharkTums Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I share your views on Steel Eel! My favorite Morgan Hyper even though it's tiny! Nice TR!
noyzz Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 Man Texas looks like some fun!!!!!!!!Road trip! Thank you for sharing your trip!
larrygator Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I'm glad SF Corporate was able to help with the pass processing. I'll get my Texas fix in a day. I'm really looking forward to my return to SFFT and my first visit to SeaWorld San Antonio. On my last trip I had to decide between the two parks, this this I have time for both. Yay! Unfortunately, I couldn't work out a longer layover in Houston, or I'd contemplate a quick side trip to Kemah, but the Boardwalk is too far from the airport.
GuruGuys Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I loved Steel Eel when I rode it last year! So far it is my favorite airtime steelie. The third seat on the front car was killer! Hope you sat in the front row on the Bullet, its starting to get a bit rough again as you stated, especially in the back, but the front is a very fun and different ride than the rest of the train. Does SFFT have those mandated ride lockers like SFOT? -GG
CoasterGuy06 Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 It's good to hear Steel Eel was running great. On my first visit in 2002 I rode it over and over and was really suprised at how good the airtime was. My trip in 2006 was not so well. They really had the MCBR turned up and both times I rode it I thought it was just 'Meh.'
ebl Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I've heard nothing but good things about Morgan hypers. And I always forget that we actually have two Morgan coasters here in the Golden State, though none are hypers. One day, I'll get out and get some Morgan airtime under my belt, be it in Texas or elsewhere. Eric
milst1 Posted April 4, 2008 Author Posted April 4, 2008 First, thanks to everyone for the very nice comments! Hope you sat in the front row on the Bullet, its starting to get a bit rough again as you stated, especially in the back, but the front is a very fun and different ride than the rest of the train. Yes, front row was definitely smoother than back. We actually settled into the middle of the train for rides 3 and 4. I was astonished by the amazingly powerful sideways slam right after the first steep grade. There were also spots where the coaster seemed slow and "hung" while banking. The train also crawled at a snail's pace, literally, from the final brake run to station, but all of this could have been due to the fact that our trains were always light (few riders). I gotta watch the TPR video again now that I've been on it. Does SFFT have those mandated ride lockers like SFOT? -GG We didn't carry anything around with us so I'm just not sure if they were enforcing a locker policy, sorry. How were operations when you went to SFFT. When we went a few weeks ago, they were terrible. Hopefully, they are improving. Ops did generally suck but everything was open, and the crowds were really light so the ops didn't make much difference, with some exceptions: S&S Tower (Scream?) had only one tower in operation, Poltergeist only runs one train, Tony Hawk loading seemed really slow, and the line wasn't even that bad. Is this typical for this ride? This was interesting: We almost always get a Flash Pass, but when we went in to get it, they actually told us not to bother, they hadn't sold one all day. As a guest, okay, cool, saved me $101 (price of a Gold FP for 3 people). As a SIX shareholder, I'm thinkin' "Take the Money!"
GuruGuys Posted April 4, 2008 Posted April 4, 2008 First, thanks to everyone for the very nice comments! Hope you sat in the front row on the Bullet, its starting to get a bit rough again as you stated, especially in the back, but the front is a very fun and different ride than the rest of the train. Yes, front row was definitely smoother than back. We actually settled into the middle of the train for rides 3 and 4. I was astonished by the amazingly powerful sideways slam right after the first steep grade. There were also spots where the coaster seemed slow and "hung" while banking. The train also crawled at a snail's pace, literally, from the final brake run to station, but all of this could have been due to the fact that our trains were always light (few riders). I gotta watch the TPR video again now that I've been on it. Yes, after the winter re-tracking this slam basically vanished and the first drop was very smooth however as I rode again a few weeks ago and then again last week the slam has come back with a vengeance. In addition they have added about 20 ft of plastic behind one of the rails after the first drop. Its still amazing to me that they are having issues with the track after this entire section was completely re tracked this winter. You are right about the empty train making a difference, the ride goes 5 seconds faster with a full train and comes off the magnetic brakes much faster. Still, even with an empty train it should not come off the brakes that slow - another thing that has never been figured out. I will say that I am glad they are using oil on the track now instead of graphite, it has been running in the mid 60's the past week or so, which makes the ride exceptionally better, eliminating the hangs and stalls you experienced, at least with a full train. When I rode with CoasterJoe he it was running well and he really liked the ride, especially in the front. -GG
milst1 Posted April 4, 2008 Author Posted April 4, 2008 ^^^^^^^^^^^ Cool, thanks for the extra insight, GuruGuys. After painful experiences on Texas Giant and Rattler, it's my conclusion that Boardwalk Bullet is the the best woodie in the Lone Star State, even with an empty train stall. And overall we really liked the whole Kemah boardwalk setup, hotel, restaurants, etc. And let me note for all that Houston Hobby Airport is not too far from Kemah...we made it there in about 30 minutes right before rush hour on Monday. And I'm terribly sorry for Houston about the loss of Astroworld. I did that park in '96 too and loved the Texas Cyclone, even with the Morgan "coffin cars". -Martin
robbalvey Posted May 5, 2008 Posted May 5, 2008 Great TR! How did I miss this one?? See you guys at SFMM in a little while.... --Robb
Bolliger&Mabillard Posted May 5, 2008 Posted May 5, 2008 This is a gret PTR! Me and some friends are taking the exact same trip, minus Kemah boardwalk (We looked into it, but we're starting from East to West). It sure is cool to see these parks from the inside before I go.
sfotfreak Posted May 5, 2008 Posted May 5, 2008 Yes unfortunately we do have the locker policy even though me and my dad carry a cup around they make us pay! We usually hide it behind the photo both!
Team Thriller Posted May 5, 2008 Posted May 5, 2008 I love the Sea World pictures. They are so magical. I remember Mr. Freeze being down at Six Flags St. Louis. I was pretty mad also. So I can understand how you felt. --James
sfotfreak Posted May 5, 2008 Posted May 5, 2008 Mr.freeze seems to have alot of down time recently, i wonder why
Bolliger&Mabillard Posted May 6, 2008 Posted May 6, 2008 Every Premier coaster I have ever been on has went down while I was on it. I've only been on three, but I see it as either me just being that unlucky, or the rides just come with gaurenteed down time.
BeemerBoy Posted May 6, 2008 Posted May 6, 2008 Nice report! I like the original "concept art" of Steel Eel's sign better.
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