Associated parks:
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We arrived at the park at about 1:30pm to a pretty decent crowd. Typically the park is pretty empty and most rides are walk-ons, so I was a bit bummed I'd actually see a few lines (gasp!). I noticed right off the bat that the park was pretty well decorated and was looking forward to the ghosts and ghouls on the inside of the park.
First ride of the day: Boomerang: I begged my gf to skip this one, but she was intent on riding everything in the park that day. My 'hey, lets wait till the end of the day and hit it on the way out' approach didn't deter her from walking in line. Waited about 20 minutes to be reminded of why I hate boomerangs. My girl got a little motion sickness from it and I promptly gave the "I-told-you-so".
(03/10 sympathy points) Next we were off to the
Spassburg section of the park. Since it had been awhile, I was soaking up the entire atmosphere and was reminded of why this park is always so well received. The park was immaculately clean and fairly well decorated.
Next up was Poltergeist, and this would be the first time I'd ridden it since the 'bang you till ya bleed' OTSR's had been removed. Poltergeist: WOW! This thing is about ten thousand times better with lap-bar only restraints. I used to have a love/hate relationship with this coaster because I loved the way it looked and the idea, but hate the way it beat my head like Mike Tyson. (especially around the ears) Now, with the freedom to move a bit, its completely enjoyable, and the pacing is freakin' awesome-when you get towards the bottom you're really haulin' a$$ and the corkscrew is pretty butter smooth. My only regret is that I didn't get a chance to re-ride.(09/10)
After that we managed a walk-on for Scream, which is an S&S tower. One of the best if you ask me, this is one of the best S&S towers out there, and you get an amazing view of the Rock Quarry that Fiesta Texas is built in. I was surprised it was a walk-on, because usually this is one of the longest waits in the park. Its one of my top 3 rides in the park, and by far my top flat.(10/10)
We made our way back to the boardwalk area, but left most of the flats back here alone. We did manage to jump in line for Scooby-Doo's ghoster coaster. This was one of the longer waits, which was to be expected for a family dark ride. Inside queue was cool but I was pretty disappointed with the ride itself. The interactive game involved kind of threw me off at first (I didn't realize you were supposed to aim for the little green lights), but I was more paying attention to the themeing of the ride itself to really play the game. To me this is more of a game than anything else and holds nothing to SFoT old dark ride with the gnomes, etc. (of which I can't remember the name, but man that ride used to rule.) My GF loved it though and she scored like, 980 or something ridiculously high like that. (05/10)
After we hit that we were off to Superman:KC. I love this floorless coaster; it was my first and still my favorite. We had about a 30-minute wait for the front, and it was an awesome ride. I did notice it has gotten a bit rough over the years, but this is also at the end of the season. I also really wish it had a Dive loop. You can beat the first half of the ride though-imagine falling 170 feet off of the side of a cliff and then hitting one of the largest loops ever. You then race up the side of the cliff to the top again, make a quick helix and drop down into a zero-g....man, its breathtakingly fun, and unbeatable in the front! (09/10, with a point taken for the 'just a bit shaky' trains)
We decided to hit the other side of the park, and got a quick ride on The Gully Washer river rapid. I bet if you're up north this would seem like an insane idea, but it's still about 85 degrees down here, so it wasn't too bad. The blood red water was freakin' AWESOME. They had all of the fountains in the park dyed red, but the river here was the best job yet.... Pretty much a walk on, and I didn’t' t get too wet (thank god, cause this was another one of those 'my gf wont let me get away with NOT riding it' rides. I felt bad for the family that sat across from us though, 'cause they got DRENCHED in the waterfall. I laughed, cause I'm cruel like that.(08/10 particularly for the effects of the water)
After gully washer, we tried to hit The Rattler but it broke down while we were in the cue. I was a bit bummed, but not too depressed seeing as that this thing usually beats the living sh*t out of me. I hadn't ridden in long enough to be a little bummed about it though. (the drop into the quarry wall tunnel after the helix on this ride is absolutely the best, and reason enough to forget about the "pain then boredom" first portion of the ride) Oh well, maybe next year. We then decided it was time for some good eats, so we hit up 'Ole Blues BBQ'. Man, as soon as you step in this place you forget you're in a park and feel like you just went out to eat. I liked that. The food was pretty damn good, and it wasn't insanely priced like most park food. I got a Huge brisket plate and two sides for 7 bucks! That’s a steal if you ask me, and it was probably the most satisfying meal I've ever had a park.
To let our food settled we decided to hit Roadrunner Express. It was a walk-on, which was surprising. This packs a lot more of a punch than I remember, and it had an awesome pop of air after the first drop. Ride is pretty well themed, and it makes a pretty cool dash through the Rattlers structure on the first drop, which is rad. We got stuck in the holding break before the station for about ten minutes, which bummed us out, but we figured it was par for the course since we just walked on the thing. It was getting dark by this time and we'd ridden everything so we managed a walk around the park to get rerides on Scream and S:KC.
The major thing that bummed me out is that there was no section of the park that I found that was heavily fogged with ghouls and such waiting for you. It might have been back by the haunted house, but the haunted house was at the very back of the park, with only it and an upcharge ride back there, so we didn't check there. Last year I was at SFMM and even though that trip pretty much sucked (standard issue horrible wait times, bad food, etc.), but at least they had a killer "haunt" section over by Superman. One of the ghouls last year scared the bajesus out of my girl last year, and she was all prepared to "face her fears". Oh well.
We caught the big Super Scary Ghoul Concert or whatever at the end of the night. It was basically just 30 people dressed up to the nines in costumes singing current pop songs with some pretty killer pyrotechnics. It got a little old after awhile, but there was this 15 yr old kid sitting next to us that knew all the words and was dancing around all awesome, so that made it a bit more worth it. I will say they go all out for the shows and they did an f'ing spectacular rendition of Queens 'bohemian rhapsody'. We left a little early and tried to catch a ride on Rattler at ten after closing, but they already had the sign up. SHUCKS.
My thoughts on the park:
SFFT is a beautiful park, probably the most unique in the chain seeing as that it’s built in an old rock quarry. The park makes excellent use of the rock cliffs, and incorporates them into a lot of rides. Lots of waterfalls also add to an awesome atmosphere. Def. not your standard issue SF Chain Park. They, in my opinion, could really use another good flat and a good Thrill Coaster. I don’t think they've gotten any new major coaster since S:KC. The rides they do have are well run and great rides though, so at least it’s not like SFAW. They could also use some more shade in some of the queue lines. Luckily enough for us, there was a breeze and it was cloudy, but Texas summers are brutal, and I'd hate to be out there during Mid-summer. We had a great time there, and I'd suggest anyone in the area visit this place! It's worth a drive! *** Edited 11/1/2004 9:18:51 PM UTC by slowmotion***
/lesson learned.
-Eric: Major Parks: SFNE(homepark), SFA,SFGADV,CP,BGE,BGA,Kennywood,and Sea World: Track record 65 different coasters ridden #1 is Millennium Force #2 is El Toro and than there are all the others
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