Looty Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Hi Everyone, Some friends and I decided to go down to Texas a few weeks ago for spring break. We had a great time and rode some awesome coasters. The temp was in the 70's & 80's the whole trip, yet it was extremely overcast which resulted in some rather dark photos. All of the parks were empty (every coaster we went on was a walk-on) which allowed for multiple re-rides. I must say that I was extremely impressed with both SFOT & SFFT. All of the employees were friendly and warmly greeted us at all of the rides. Keep it up SF! In fact, I actually found most of the texans we encountered on our trip to be quite friendly. Anyways...on to the photos! Enjoy! BTW...everyone in Texas does say "y'all" Thanks for reading. Us on the train. Make sure you take the train to get a good look at the boardwalk and "watch out for loose women" in the tunnel. They were installing this ride while we were there (the wipeout I believe). Most rides at Kemah were closed and under construction. In fact, I believe there were more people there rebuilding than visiting. Lots of foliage. The rest of Kemah is gorgeous. Ok so here are my thoughts: My first ride was in the front and I can say that it was incredibly intense and tolerable. My next ride was in the back and I can say that it was one of the worst rides I have been on. It has crazy moments where it just hauls and then there are moments when it slows down so much that you kind of fall into the person next to you because the banking is off around some turns. Not only does it pop you out of your seat, but it also throws you to the side while you are being ejected which results in a beating your floating ribs have never experienced before. It was quite painful and disappointing and I'm pretty sure that BB almost tore me a new one. Lucky for us, the Houston Colon & Rectal Reconstruction Clinic was down the road. I spy coaster nerds. Down the first drop. The terrible crowds followed us to Kemah too. I think this is where we go in. Boardwalk Bullet was the real reason why we came. It also was fresh out of rehab...would we survive? We made it! Reliant Stadium. Home to the Houston Texans and Janet Jackson's boob malfunction Downtown Houston. The next (and last) day we woke up early and drove to Houston to check out Kemah Boardwalk. I wish we had something this cool in Minneapolis. Oh well...I guess the giant spoon with the cherry will do for now. Who doesn't love Hooters? The Riverwalk was next and totally awesome. I highly recommend doing it if you are in the area. There are shops and restaurants all along it that you are able to see if you take the boat ride. We did it at dusk and it was really neat to see all of the lights come on and illuminate the canal. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip. We decided to go see the Alamo and the Riverwalk that evening. Shamu showing off. The last act of the show was cancelled because one of the whales wouldn't leave the pool. Oh well...so long Sea World. Believe was entertaining. One more ride on Great White just because it's so awesome. Definitely one of the better Batman clones. Orca whales are the deadliest predators in the sea...until now!!! You get pretty wet though. JTA. It wasn't bad...but not great. I personally thought the whole turntable/backwards aspect was kinda lame. Steel Eel from across the lake. Yay for cloudy conditions! Great White was awesome! I don't know why, but this one seemed to haul major ass! Steel Eel is a nice coaster and offers some nice air (especially in the back), but I would put it towards the bottom of the Morgan resume. It also features the worst location for a MCBR if you ask me. We decided to give Steel Eel a try. Now who could have possibly eaten all of the fish? The Sea lion show was vey entertaining. Active Eels...Underwater Adventures take note. Poisonous Frogs Piranhas! I think this guy is lost. Fish! These guys heard about all the action goin on over in the dolphin tank and wanted to give everyone a show. This dolphin wanted to mix up his diet a bit and try little children. Did you know that dolphins are the only other mammals (besides humans) to have sex for pleasure as well as reproductive purposes?...now you do. Rachel and I feeding the dolphins which was actually really cool. Sea World was nice but I strongly prefer Orlando's. I guess I just feel like there isn't a lot to do and see at Sea World San Antonio. The next day was Sea World! We conquered SFFT so we decided to leave. The crowds really picked up later. Poltergeist decided to malfunction before we boarded so we had to wait 10 minutes. It was alright i guess... Rachel trying her luck at Guitar Hero. I really liked the boardwalk setting. Sexy! The sun decided to come out for a little bit in the afternoon. "You spin me right round baby right round" Ladies this here is Frank "The Golden One." He's in his 50's, drives as well as Stevie Wonder, and hates melted cheese. Frank can be all yours if the price is right. Rachel and I on the antiques. Overview from the ferris wheel. Road Runner was quite a surprise. I really wasn't expecting much and it totally blew me away. Rattler and Road Runner together...lucky me. Rattler was rough, but not as rough as everyone says it is (although we did ride in the front seat). Zero G! I love how it sits up against the rock quarry. Not even Superman could penetrate the dark clouds. Superman was awesome. Not as good as Kraken, but still really good. Some lovely SFFT scenery. Goliath is a good ride for SFFT. It was terribly busy. The next day we went to SFFT (one of the nicer SF parks IMO). Pussy Willows! We drove down to San Antonio after SFOT and checked into our lovely hotel complete with... ...as well as the new Dallas Cowboys spaceship! Down the road is the Texas Rangers field. Thanks for an awesome day SFOT! The extra helix really adds to this ride. I definitely liked it better than Goliath. Titan was good. It broke down when we entered the station so everyone left. We stayed and it opened 10 minutes later with an empty station. SFOT has some nice scenery. Shockwave was closed for rehab. I certainly hope it regains its confidence. Texas Giant was really awful. I sure hope $10 million can save it. Freeze's station was actually really hot and humid. Freeze and Superman. Mr. Freeze and Batman with random woman mooning us. Rachel and Frank testing their luck in the TNT Shack. Superman was fun. I prefer these combo launch/drop towers over the regular ones. The boomerang wasn't that bad. I believe I only fractured one rib this time so it was a good day. First stop was Tony Hawk's Meat Spin! The next day we went to SFOT! We ate at Saltgrass that evening. Our food was delicious although our waiter set a new record for longest time it takes to check an I.D. when a young person orders a beer. Yay...I survived. Unfortunately Frank drives worse than most high school girls. Here is the gift shop where J.R. parks his car. I think he was shot here too. J.R. was shot while attending this wedding too! I'm standing on the balcony where J.R. was probably shot again. Perhaps he was shot in that pool as well. Here is the back of the house where J.R. was shot. First stop...Six Fl...err I mean that ranch where they filmed exterior scenes for that old, boring show. I was the only one in our group that didn't want to tour it so I was overruled. The next few photos feature more Dallas ranch boringness so stay with me...we can get through this. We had to choose between a Impala or a Transformer Antagonist. We chose the Charger! We had to take a taxi to our rental car office. I think our crazy cab driver has an issue with throwing things away. That's better! Here's me showing off my rather large cheeks (I think I'm 1/16 gerbil!). Here's the crew. Frank (more to come on him), John, & Rachel. Everyone looks so excited huh?
FeelTheFORCE Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Awesome pictures and great PTR!!! Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Great White is more intense because it is slightly smaller than your standard Batman: The Ride clone, so it could fit. After checking RCDB, the length of Great White is about 150 feet shorter than other clones.
holyblakbelt Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Any TR that promotes the St. Cloud State Huskies automatically makes it an epic TR! But besides that, it looked like you had fun.
Electerik Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Great TR, with some very nice shots! (I especially liked the one of Mr. Freeze's station.) I agree that SeaWorld San Antonio is fun, but lacking. Shame about Shockwave; I'm rather fond of that one.
PKI Jizzman Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Wow, this TR was friggin' fantastic! Exellent photos, information about the parks, and AWESOME captions! I was entertained throughout the whole report! And glad to see and hear thoughts on basically the TRP Texas Trip without the TPR trip part lol! I can't wait to go down and try out all the parks. I can take a beating on woodies, so I'm sure I'll think BB is spectacular.
U2Rox Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 GREAT Trip Report!! I really Like some of the photos you have, Good work!! I LOVE the shot of the new Dallas Stadium, That's where U2 is playing in Oct. WooHoo!! Thanks for posting I had fun reading!!!
Lenaapple1974 Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Nice PTR! It was definitely great to look at, and left me wanting more! Great White looks awesome! I love Batman: The Ride! The one at SFGA goes so fast by the end of the day, your head spins! I would love to get a crack at that ride. What is the deal with JTA though? Do you go down the drop backwards? That turntable thing is weird. LOL. I think they should have themed it better. The whole ride is so short. IMO, if they are going to keep the name, they should at least try and clone it. If not, then change the name! Shamu stadium is huge compared to the one in Orlando. Does the seating arrangement take away from the show as a whole?
YoshiFan Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 That Guitar Hero game is very interesting. 85% is super easy to get, and I see they are giving an expensive prize away for getting 98-100% on Expert. I'm sure there are plenty of people who can get that score and I give it a few months at the most until they either make it 100% to with the guitar and game set or get rid of it completely.
Looty Posted March 25, 2009 Author Posted March 25, 2009 ^Or you will see a large number of people walking around looking ridiculous wearing those stupid capes!
YoshiFan Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 It was like that at Great Adventure last year, the capes were prizes for some game where it was a winner everytime. I saw lots of people wearing them on every trip to the park.
paintballer Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Congrats on visiting SFoT on there most profit earning Spring Break! I'm sure the crowds were big, but you had fun! Good to see a TR from my home park
Emiroo Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Outstanding report! Great photos and captions. Makes me wish I was with you! It seems like you had a blast. I look forward to reading your next one.
Looty Posted March 25, 2009 Author Posted March 25, 2009 What is the deal with JTA though? Do you go down the drop backwards? You go down that small dip backwards and then you turn again and go down the big drop facing forwards (all while listening to the Amy Grant music that is playing over the speakers up there ) Overall, it's not nearly as great (nor similar) as JTA in Orlando.
SFjunkie2010 Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 Great PTR it makes me wish that I had gone to Texas instead of Cali. =/
paintballer Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 Great Photo TR it makes me wish that I had gone to Texas instead of Cali. =/ We have clean air!!!
Volt Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 Awesome PTR! The weird thing is that there were so many people there
Looty Posted March 28, 2009 Author Posted March 28, 2009 Congrats on visiting SFoT on there most profit earning Spring Break! We were there the week before the "big" spring break crowds and it was absolutely dead so I can't imagine how hoppin those parks must have been the week after we were there.
JFrombaugh Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 I completely agree with you on Journey to Atlantis - the backwards drop is surprisingly intense, but yeah, the turntable spins are kinda pointless and 10 seconds of free coasting do not make a coaster, especially one with a 45 minute wait (when I went). Something tells me you didn't get the full SFOT experience though. I didn't see anything about Runaway Mountain, the fat laden food, or the mediocrity of Judge Roy Scream which sits outside the park beckoning you to come ride it.
christianscoasters Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 I completely agree with you on Journey to Atlantis - the backwards drop is surprisingly intense, but yeah, the turntable spins are kinda pointless and 10 seconds of free coasting do not make a coaster, especially one with a 45 minute wait (when I went). Something tells me you didn't get the full SFOT experience though. I didn't see anything about Runaway Mountain, the fat laden food, or the mediocrity of Judge Roy Scream which sits outside the park beckoning you to come ride it. I thought the turntable spins aren't pointless, but they weren't great. If they had spun a little bit faster, it would have been more fun. When we were turning, I was wondering why it was so slow. The backwards and forward drops were great though! As for Steel Eel, I agree that the back gives GREAT air. I'm going to be honest, this coaster has more airtime than any other coaster I have ridden. I did ride in the back, with a full train, so we may have been going a little faster, which makes more air. I thought it was short, but for what it has, it was awesome.
Looty Posted March 28, 2009 Author Posted March 28, 2009 Something tells me you didn't get the full SFOT experience though. I didn't see anything about Runaway Mountain, the fat laden food, or the mediocrity of Judge Roy Scream which sits outside the park beckoning you to come ride it. We did Runaway Mtn. and JRS...I didn't take any good photos so I didn't post them. Runaway Mtn. was actually kinda cool. I really like indoor/dark coasters and the fact that you can't see where you are going (especially Exterminator at KW).
cprocks22 Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 O how I miss San Antonio, the Riverwalk was absolutely gorgeous when we went and I loved it. We walked it as opposed to taking a boat and went in a lot of the little shops and such there, such a great place. Thanks for sharing!
Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess Posted March 29, 2009 Posted March 29, 2009 I WAS JUST DOWN AT SFOT last week on thursday! It was packed as hell, glad I got my flashpass! I wanted to go to SFFT as well as afew other parks in Texas too...but I didn't have the time. (I wanted to visit SFFT and SW too) Flashback is a surprizingly smooth coaster indeed. Glad you enjoyed SFOT, I did too. I think I even developed abit of a southern accent while I was down in Texas! Did you ride Conquistador or whatever it's called at SFOT? The Intamin pirate ship? It's almost airtimeless! I was so dissapointed, I even sat at the very end too! Texas giant isin't that good of a coaster IMO, it has not much airtime. Same said for Judge Roy Scream.
Thelegendarymatthew Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Nice PTR, I liked seeing the sea animals for the SWSA one, but its really all about the coasters
Looty Posted March 30, 2009 Author Posted March 30, 2009 Did you ride Conquistador or whatever it's called at SFOT? The Intamin pirate ship? It's almost airtimeless! I was so dissapointed, I even sat at the very end too! Really?...I actually liked it.
Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 How did you manage to get airtime on Conquistador? I heard alot of people on the ride saying it's airtimeless too. Perhaps they're running it with a less intense program when I rode it?
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