My compressed summer Tr pt 2

Park 7: Visonland

Well we had a WHOLE day at this deserted little park with only one strong ride. That being Rampage. The park looks great and is very clean, but the second shifts of ride ops were completely incompetent. While the train was going over the course soem guy threw his backpack over the track in the station, only it didn't make it and landed smack dab in the middle of the track, so what does he do, he jumps over the air gate, jumps into the track and throws the bag on the other side then hops back out. Then the ride ops just said "Hey, no no." What the hell!! That guy should have been ejected from the ride if not the park! I realize that if he some how got caught on the track somehow the ops probably would have been able to stop the train, but that guy was just a a dumb ass idiot, why even gamble with a sixteen thousand pound train. Idiot. Other than that the day was fine. The rapids ride is the worst in existance because no one ever gets wet at all on it, it was just a big show. The space shot was the second bestI have been on because it is older and more forceful than the newer tame ones.

Rampage 10/10 (Top Ten)
The front seat is the money spot because it is a lot smoother than the back and you get better airtime. You get 5 moments, the best being the second hill, but the last two at the very end are awesome to. The ride doesn't ever really feel out of control unti lthe very end, which rips through the final turns with such fury. It isn't to intense or boring, just a pleasent middle with some awesome moments of g's, and I would like to add that the finale turn is awesome inthe front, it is a big tease but effective!

Park 8: Six Flags New Orleans

This is a neat little six flags park, great layout and very clean and reasonbly friendly. We only ended up staying till about 2 because none of the rides thrilled us to much and it was so unbeleivably hot!

Batman: The Ride 8/10
Yay another batman clone, this time it is a mirror image. It was smooth and the first drop is neat over the little lake, but I felt that this was the tamest of the batmans, it just didn't have the forces of Over Georgia version.

Mega Zeph 7/10
Rode in the very front, and the second to back (avoiding wheel seats). Until this point I was wanting to go back to SFStL to try a non wheel seat on Boss to see if it was smoother. But this ride made me realize that G trains can suck horribly anywhere you seat, my previous experiences had been inconclusive. The ride itself was okay, nothing great, it is mostly airtime less, and the turns shuffled HORRIBLY, the usually wonderful swooping CCI turns completely sucked on this. Arguably the most diassapointing ride of the trip.

Jester 6/10
I thought this ride would completely suck since after all it is a vekoma turned backwards, it just seemed like it would beat the living crap out of you, but it wasn't that bad, it was reasonbly fun and surprisingly smooth.

Muskrat Scrambler 5/10
A small wild mouse that didn't do a whole lot for me. The turns were pretty fun, but the drops lacked any sort of oomph.

Zydeco Scream 4/10
Hey a boomerang! Yep it goes foward through 3 loops, then backwards through the same three loops. I always feel a tad dizzy upon climbing the second lift, and the backwards leg is always an unpleasent experience. Pretty soon I'm going to go to a park and say I rode a boomerang even though I didn't, because they have all been the EXACT same in experience for me.

Here is where the trip takes a unique and unpleasant twist. We drove to Houston to go to Six Flags Astroworld, upon exiting the highway and waiting in a line on a frontage ride, I came to the conclusion that this line was for Six Flags and not for an event at arena. The houston traffic had already pissed me off, so waiting for half an hour just to move about two hundred yards got me hot. By this point we had to go to the bathroom so we pulled over and conversed, I was already sick of the bs that had followed this leg, so I said "You know this completely sucks, Houston sucks, and the people suck, I don't want to go through all of this just to go to a Six Flags bastard son park. I'm sure coaster enthusiasts are goign to look down on me while thinking "He skipped a park with 9 credits!" Well guess what, I didn't want to ride any of this rides other than Texas Cyclone, and Georgia Cyclone was considered the best of the clones, and I thought it was only alright. I realize Texas Cyclone is better now that they got rid of the coffins, but nothing else at the park really drew me. So what we did was decide to just skip this park and then drive the four hours to Dallas. I have driven in 3 of 5 largest cities in the country, and Houston is by far the biggest hell hole I have ever been in, and am very happy I got out as fast as I could. o offense to the 1.5 million people that live there, but the traffic needs some SERIOUS help.

Park 9: Six Flags Over Texas
At one point I didn't even plan on going here, but we did and it was the best new park of the entire trip. We got in about 4 hours saturday evening, and then from 2-9 on Sunday. We had a battery completely go out on us, and having people jump it didn't even work. Of course I know how to clean battery terminals and what not but we took the newest car with the least amount of miles so it didn't have anything other than jumper cables. Oh well, that and the houston experience were made up 4 fold by this awesome park! The ride ops are awesome, the park has some amazing coasters and it is very clean.

Texas Giant 8.5/10
I wasn't sure what to expect with this, so we got a front seat ride first because I heard the front was the best. It is fast, and long and the turns are different, they slam you a bit and are in general designed wierd, but the ride is fast and fun. The turn after the drop fo the block is awesome and gives great air, and the helix is cool, although it is slow, but after you fall out of the helix the speed picks up and the magic carpet finale is pretty cool, you get another 2 moments of decent air as you wizz through the structure. A nice surprise.

Titan 9/10
I figured that this ride would be Goliath with an extra helix, and I was right. We rode in the front car several times, the airtime on the bunny hill is pretty great and the first helix is one of the most powerful out there. The complete stop on the block brake is annoying, but it creates a nice hangtime moment, the second helix isn't as good as the first but still very powerful.

Mine Train 5/10
It is a little mine train that had an awesome op and good theming but the coaster itself sucks.

Mr. Freeze 9/10
The launch on this is only ok, there is much better, but what follows is a combination of insane disorienting inversions, turns and spikes. With the lap bars, this ride kicks a lot of but, the g's are intense and going through the top hat is nothing short of terrifying, complete fun!

Judge Roy Scream 7/10
This is another neat looking coaster, it is beautiful outside the park ,but is not all that great a ride. We rode in the first car, and got one good moment of air on the second hill but it was pretty much dead after that.

Batman: the Ride 8/10
This yellow behemouth ties with the Six Flags NO version as the worst, it has more vibration to it, and actually had a tad of headbanging in the flat spins. Still a strong ride, but nothing great.

La Vibora 8/10
This was my first bobsled ride. Besides the fact that I go shoehorned into the front with my mom, which made me unable to stretch my legs out. The ride itself is prtty cool thoguh, the turns are fun and it picks up the pace fast, quirky but super.

Runaway Mountain 7/10
This was the longest wait of the park at about 45 minutes. It is a decent ride, it is essentially a windstorm except smoother and in the dark, got a back seat ride so the spiral dive was pretty intense.

I was surprised by the lines here, on Saturday the line for TG was about 40 minutes and Titan was about 35, while Mr. Freeze was about 30. On Sunday TG was about 10 and Titan was about 20, Mr. Freeze was about 20.

Park 10 (Last one): Six Flags Fiesta Texas

This is a very well themed six flags patrk that is kept up, and as advertised has some neat shows. The bugs bunny flume is on of the best in the country because I got soaked, mostly from the boat dipping into the water at the top of the lift, and on the big drop.

Poltergeist 7/10
This did pretty much nothing for me, the launch was okay and the 4 inversisons were pretty ok, but everything in between that was very tame, the turns were really boring until it actually started to dive into itself.

Superman: Krypton Coaster 10/10 (Top Ten)
By far the very best new coaster of the trip. This isn't nearly as intense as Wildfire, but is a heck of a whole lot of fun. The first drop off the cliff is awesome, and in the front you get great stall time on the loop. The helix on the top of the cliff is tame but yet again extremely fun and then the zero g roll is completely amazing, giving you great airtime. The rest of the ride is pure ecstacy and all the while it is completely smooth. An amazing steel coaster and the floorless fact just make it that much better.

Rattler 6/10
I noticed while watching Robb and Elissa's videos that they have reworked the first about 270 degrees of the helix instead of being the obnoxious undulating dropping turns it is actualyl straight and, the trim wasn' on too bad, although it did kill a lot of speed. I just can see that with all the trims removed and the helix completely reworked that this would be all that great a ride.

Roadrunner Express 8/10
Arguably the best mine train in existance, although it really is to short. IIt is completely smooth, has one great moment of air, and is thrilling enough for coaster buffs, and mild enough for the little guys.

Boomerang 4/10
Oh look another boomerang, see Zydeco Scream for review.

That is the end of my summer, amazingly the last two parks turned out to be the best with some great rides and great people. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you too had a great summer. Seacrest out!

I know you already said you'd take some heat, but you blew it by missing Astroworld. Ultra Twister is one of the most frightening rides in existence, Greezed Lighting kicks ass, and Texas Cyclone just plain out rocks. Add into the mix Dugeon Drop, a very tall Intamin drop ride, and I think you would have had fun. Plus you could have tried out SWAT, the only S&S park installation of this ride, and a backwards Arrow suspended coaster. Don't miss out on such opportunities, because you never know if you'll have them again. *** Edited 8/19/2004 8:11:24 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

Don't get me wrong I'm a HUGE coaster enthusiasts, but I don't live for it most of the time. I only add parks that I want to go to so I obviously wanted to go, but the facts are: It was hot as hell 95 at least plus the obscene humidity while dallas was about 85, and San Antonio was about 85, the traffic completely blowed, and I was already tired from the 5 straight days of theme parks plus 200+ miles each day to get to the next park. Eventually we will go back to texas because SFOT and SFFT completely blew us away, and we might try to hit SFAW again, but still nothing their strikes a real chord with me. To put it simply: I'm a coaster enthusiasts but not a creit whore so if I don't want to go to a park for any reason, guess what I'm probably not going to go. I'm 100% sure in my mind that I made the right decision because the park would have been packed, it was the surface of the sun and I didn't say this but on of Houston's radio stations were having a little party there so it was a complete strike out for me. P.S. I didn't miss out on any oppurtunities because I had an absolute BLAST at SFOT that I'm 100% sure I wouldn't have had at SFAW.

I never said you had to be a credit whore, but if you're a coaster enthusiast and you haven't experienced some of these rides, then I don't understand. I could see it if the park only had the SLC and other clones that you've already ridden, but there are so many different types of coasters at SFAW, and some pretty darn good ones at that (except for the SLC of course). I went in with a partially closed mind also, and came away feeling quite different. You mentioned the Alvey's in your review and they seemed to have a great time there according to their recent pictures.

I understand your concerns about the heat and crowds though, but that's never stopped me in the past from going to a park (of course, neither has heavy rain, or extreme cold).

If he didn't wanna go, he didn't wanna go. Nothing worth getting into an argument over. Too late now anyway.