Six Flags Over Texas 7-17 & 7-18

Let me start out by saying that the only reason why I was at the park on Saturday was because Saturday was my travel day. The ride from Mississippi to Texas was filled with rain, but I knew on the other side was sunshine.

Saturday, the park was jammed packed. They were sold out of Qbots it was so full at 1PM, approximately when I got to the park. I didn't expect much from Saturday anyway, my only surprise was that it was so packed and it never let up all night. Even at closing, there were throngs of people. But I did get a layout of the park which I used for the Sunday's visit. Since I stayed at the Sleep Inn across from the park, it wasn't a big deal that Saturday was so packed. I expected Sunday to be a much more managable day, and it was. The weather was great both days and I had a great time.

Texas Giant:

I was really looking forward to this one. But instead of being named "Texas Giant," it should be renamed "Texas Turbulence." Now, I rode closer to the back the first time. Never again. I got off the ride 'shaken'. I mean I felt like I was beat up. I did give the ride another chance. I noticed during testing one of the ride ops was in the middle of the train and I chose that spot, I figured it must have been the sweet spot. It turned out to be alright. I didn't like the front either. From the middle of the train, it was still rickety, but it was a much better ride from there. I wish I could have ridden it when it was 'new'. Maybe it was a smoother ride back then. I have to admit riding it about 6 times though. It was fun, just rough. And let me add that the ride staff for that ride was really cool.

Mr. Freeze:

This was cool. But man it's over in the blink of an eye. I wished this was a full circuit loop as I've never been on a LIM coaster until this one. It was a neat ride. I was so weird looking at the coaster go straight up, slow down slightly and then get pulled up by the LIMs at the top before falling back down again.

Batman:

Batman's Batman. I'm still left with the impression of Raptor at Cedar Point. Up til then, BM was easily in my top 10 list. I love inverted coasters, but I really wish Six Flags didn't have to buy almost all of this same exact design and place it in almost all of their parks. Anyway, this one, as compared to the one in Georgia, doesn't seem to be as smooth as the Georgia version. I'm not sure why that is. I just remember SFoG's coaster being less rough on some of the elements.

Judge Roy Scream:

What can I say? It's a really good coaster. Hardly any line for this on Sunday. An easy walk on, run around and walk back on again ride. The back was rough though. The front was sweet. It was over really fast though. But it did give me something to do during Batman and Mr. Freeze.

Titan:

Titan has some great moments but there are a few things about it I don't like. One, I realize the space that the coaster is in so it doesn't expand like Millienum Force or Magnum XL. However, that's why I like MF and Magnum, because they take you out and away and then bring you back in an interesting way. Titan's midcourse break is bitter sweet for me. See, I like it when the break isn't so abrasive. But, that makes for a very interesting moment. After the break, you get ready to drop again, so it's like having that first drop moment again. Then you can lean into the drop and hang outside the train which makes for an interesting twist. Knowing about the break makes be think about how much energy is 'wasted' on this coaster because if you have to have a break that hard mid course, I can't help but imagine what the ride would have been had they kept the ride the same up to that point, and resdsigned the rest of the track to take advantage of the energy. I guess they just had to design the ride to fit the space at either Magic Mountian or SFoT. That being said, don't get me wrong, I love this coaster. I just think so much more could have been done with it. It's not a bad ride at all, smooth as all getout. Helixes so intense you have to work hard to keep your hands up. It's still a great ride and it's got place in my current top 5 favorites. Also, it had Cool ride staff that let us ride back to back at closing as well.

Flashback:

I never really was that happy with these types of coasters because they are everywhere. Because of that, I've been to parks with them and rode everything but this type of coaster. I finally decided to get on one while I waited on my QBot to tell me it was time for Batman. It's was just okay. Nothing to brag about.

Runaway Mountain:

Why is it that indoor coasters don't let you get off at the same point you got on? Disaster Transport at Cedar Point is the same way. I think the Mayan Mindbender at Astroworld wasn't like that but I'm not sure. Anyway, this again, was just an okay ride. Would have been nice if there were some lighting effects or something. The was just 'cool' because you couldn't see what was next so there were surprises here and there, but that's every pitch black coaster. I didn't see the need or have the desire to ride it more than once.

Mine Train:

I'm not sure which was the roughest between this and Texas Giant. This wasn't very interesting at all to me. It's worse than the Mine Train at CP, IMO. Dahlonega Mine Train at SFoG is still my favorite mine train. I just didn't like the roughness of this one, it's showing its age. And DMT is not smooth as butter either but it has a more interesting layout with it's 3 lift hills, luck of the moment Splash Water Falls unintential synchonization and surprise ending.

Mini Mine Train:

I liked this better than MT. It only it wasn't so short but that's what mini means right?

La Vibora:

Well, it's a bobsled. What can I say? I liked it more Runaway Mountain.

Shockwave:

I really wanted to ride this so that I could compare it to Mindbender at SFoG. I've always wanted to ride the "Billboard of Fun" but it looks like I'll have to wait until next year.

Spongebob 4D:

This was really cool. It was worth the wait which was about an hour. Loved the little surprise at the end. It was so silly I couldn't help but laugh.

Casa Magnetica:

This was really neat. I hardly ever do any thing other than rides and coasters at parks, but since I closed the park and I needed to so something after eating I took this in. I'll probably go through it again some day.

Overall, Six Flags over Texas is a great park. This was only my second visit with my first being waaaaaayyyy back in the 80s when I was a kid and all I rode was Judge Roy and the Mine Train. It was also my first theme park as well.

I can't help but compare SFoT to SFoG though. SFoG's scenery is so beautiful and it has the edge of SFoT in the looks department. But, SFoG is such a big pretty, hilly maze. SFoT is a lot easier on the legs in that respect. SFoT is not ugly by any means and with Shockwave on the interstate and JRS at entrance, it really sets the tone for what's inside. I guess it just boils down to preference.

Also, at SFoG, the all of the ride ops seem more like one big team in that you can hear them all yell "Clear." when each team member is done checking their assigned position and then the op says "Train is clear for Dispatch." At SFoT, it seemed they all said something different at each ride.

Anyway, I look forward to making a SFoT trip every year like I do with SFoG. It's definately a must visit.

My Current Top 5:

1. Millenum Force
2. Superman: Ultimate Flight
3. Raptor
4. Magnum XL200
5. Titan

GOOD TR...I LIVE IN OKLAHOMA SO OTHER THAN FRONTIER CITY, SFoT is my "home" park. Been there many, many times. Did you not ride Superman:ToP? Just curious. The park does have a few negatives but is still a very good Six Flags park though. Solid coasters. I rode Texas Giant back in the day. It did seem somewhat smoother than now. But, I dunno, I still consider it my number one woodie. But I havent been a whole gob of alot of woodies. Its rough, but still a good solid wooden coaster. Theres my two cents i guess.

Agreed about Texas Giant. Yeah, it's rough, but it's rough and out of control and provides a very thrilling experience. I very much enjoyed it in 2001.

Good review of Titan as well, It's always nice to see someone enjoy a coaster for what it DOES have rather than ONLY bemoaning the things it lacks.

I also feel the exact same way about Mine Train and Mini Mine Train. I liked the Mini one better. The original was way too jerky. Than again, it's the original mine train, right?

The mini-mine train rules! I'll throw in my vote for it being the better of the two. It's a shame you only rode Mr. Freeze once. Out of 11 people on our Texas trip in 2002, only one thought Titan was better. We also liked Runaway Mountain quite a bit. There's something about that "drop" (I won't go into anymore detail than that for those who haven't ridden it yet), that puts this above other dark coasters. As for your comment about trains not returning to the same station, both Myan Mindbender and Skull Mountain at SFGAdv. both return back to the same point.

It's funny that you've avoided Boomerangs like the plague. I'll admit that I've gotten sick of them, because they're everywhere, but to not have ridden one before because they're everywhere seems strange to me. It's nice to see that someone isn't concerned with the credits. But, I'll have to disagree that Batman shouldn't be everywhere because they rock! *** Edited 7/22/2004 3:55:39 PM UTC by Intamin Fan*** *** Edited 7/22/2004 3:56:56 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

Am I the only one that likes the Mine Train and doesn't think it's rough?

Uuhmmmm.... Yes!

Ah yes, SFoG, I remember it well. For the record- the Mine Train at SFoG didn't impress me in the slightest, I much prefer the original SFoT version. Just to put things straight, the SFoT Mine Train does have three lift hills and "surprise" ending. Texas Giant is still one of the best woodies around, so for that matter is Georgia Cyclone- both give an outta control type feeling that I love. I pretty much agree with your other reviews, though I didn't think Batman was necessarliy better at SFoG than SFoT. As for the parks appearances, I'll agree that SFoG has more scenic surroundings, but you can keep those damned hills. My legs are still aching from that experience. As for the ride ops, that one is up in the air. I will never forgive that op that locked the Georgia Scorcher seats while my legs were bent! I had to ride in extreme pain the whole time, made me afraid to get on Mantis at CP the following day, fortunatly the ops at CP did a much better job of getting people in the right position before locking the seats.

Anyway, nice TR.....

I'm really not a Power Tower type fan. They just don't do anything for me.

I rode Freeze more than once. About three times actually.

I never really got the point of Boomerangs because I've been on rides with 'more stuff' on them before. I'd rather not waste time standing in line for such a short ride. I didn't see it being worth the return in time investment as Mr. Freeze was.

Yes, Mine Train does have a surprise ending but it's not as surprising as Georgia's IMO. The neat thing about my ride was the fact that the train stopped in the Saloon portion of the ride and that made it interesting to listen to little kids talk about how they were going to shoot the dummies.

Giant just didn't do it for me. Yes, I rode it a lot of times but it gave me something to do... waiting on Titan more so than anything else. I don't hate it, I just don't think it's all that. Yes, it's exciting to feel like it could come apart at any moment and I like the layout of the ride. I like the left hill going through the ride but the fact that it's so rough takes it down a lot of points for me. I heard on more than one occasion people in the park talking about that ride and getting beat up on it. If it's supposed to do that, it does it well. If you like it, great. I say tomato, you say tomato.

Blasphemy! Perhaps we caught it on a PARTICULARLY good day (well, 3 days), but WOW, I was impressed....:)

I'll admit to liking a woodie with some KICK to it, but I thought for the speed and aggression shown by Giant that it was QUITE smooth. Meh, read the sig...;)

Titan was a bigger better badder version of the SoCal Gio coaster that I rave so much about, so you can guess how I feel about "the Big T"...

Shockwave, pure Anton goodness, potentially better than SFoG's green guy...

Freeze, it's the TOP HAT, baby....I absolutely *love* that element...

Add in the Mine, and Mini-Mine, and S:ToP, and a solid B:TR, and Judge Roy, and, and......all WELL maintained.

edit: I forgot the indoor Runaway Mountain! Now *I* am the blasphemer...;)

Can ya tell I love SFoT, best staff of ANY *big park* I've been to as well...AWESOME park! *** Edited 7/24/2004 12:03:31 AM UTC by rollergator***