Texas Halloween Weekend

On Wednesday, October 27 I departed Melbourne, Florida en Route to Killeen, Texas to enjoy the benefits of the :) FREE AIRLINE TICKET :) I receaved during the July Trip I wnt on to New England. My First Flight was :( Delayed :( Four Hours due to Weather problems in Atlanta, but Finally the Plane took off. When I arrived in Atlanta I found out the "Fun" had only begun! My Flight to Texas was repeatedly delayed by the Weather until about 11:30 PM when it got :( CANCELLED :(. I was rescheduled to leave Atlanta on 7:30 PM the next day. I found Hotel Accomo9dations and spent the next day checking out the Sights in Downtown Atlanta before returning to the Airport where I FINALLY made my way to Texas. Picking up my Rental Car I made my way to San Antonio where I put in for the night.

The next day I drove Downtown where I saw the Alamo and the Hemisfair Tower of the Americas. I then drove to Sea World where I purchased their Two-Year Season Pass. Why did I do that? Because their Pass has the same benefits as the Florida Sea World. (Admission to all the Busch Garden, Sea World, and their Adjacent Waterparks) and its A LOT CHEAPER! The Florida Sea World and Busch Gardens charge :( $360.00 :( for their two-year Season Pass, the Same Pass at the San Antonio Park is :) $200.00 :). A much bigger "Bang for the Buck".

The San Antonio Park is HUGE, this park sprawls ove a large area. The First Coaster I hit was their SHAMU EXPRESS, a Vekoma "Credit Coaster. GREAT WHITE was next. A B&M SLC its ride was smooth. STEEL EEL was FANTASTIC! AIRTIME on all of its hills, It mad it to the No. 5 Position on my Top Ten Steel Non-Looping Coaster over 100' High List. I didn't go on their JOURNEY TO ATLANTIS, it was a tad too cool to do this one, but I'll have another chance to do this, mor on that later. I also saw their Sea Lion, Dolphin and Both the Regular and Halloween-Themed Shamu Shows. During the Evening they had some Halloween Themed Walkthroughs to go through, It was "Spooky" Fun.

On Saturday I went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The First ride I hit was ROAD RUNNER EXPRESS, a Mine Train Coaster. I was short, but had its moments. next was SUPERMAN - KRYPTON COASTER, a B&M "Floorless" Coaster. it put on a Good Ride, and "Squeaked" into my Top Ten Steel Looping list as the Number 10 Looper. POLTERGEIST was next, a LIM-Launched Looper, it put on a a rather intense ride, but not too rough. GOLIATH was next, a B& M SLC It is, literally a Mirr image of the ride at Sea World. I finished up with TONY HAWK'S BIG SPIN, a "Spinning Mouse" Ride. I also saw three Halloween-Themed Shows, the best was their tribute to Deceased Singers such as Elvis, Karen Carpenter, Janis Joplin and, of course, Micheal Jackson. I disn't ride RATTLER or ROLLER SKATER, but I did do both of them during my 1993 Visit. No Loss there. (Whenever I re-visit a Park I give priority to those rides that opened since my last visit, if time permits, I'll then ride the "Old Favorates") Unfortunately this time I ran out of time before I could get to them.

On Sunday it was off to the Dallas Metroplax to visit Six Flags over Texas. TITAN was my first ride. I was Dissapointed. It has a great First and Second Drop, but then you hit a Trim Brake that brings the Train to a HALT, then the rest of the ride is somewhat lame. Then we had a Power Outage, it stopped ALL of their rides, it took TWO HOURS to get everything up and running again. Once everything returned to normal, I hit their Spinning Mouse Ride, also called TONY HAWK'S BIG SPIN. I then rode RUNAWAY MOUNTAIN, their indooe Steelie, it had a few good moments in it. MR FREESE was next. an Intamin Shuttle Coaster with a layout simular to thye one at the Six Flags park in Missouri. Next was BATMAN, another B&M "Clone" SLC. I thought I had done all of Six Flags Coasters (The ones not mentioned I did during my 1993 Visit) but whenb I went up the Tower I spotted a Coaster I didn't notice at first, GRAND CANYON BLASTER is a little steel "Credit Coaster" that finished my day at Six Flags over Texas. I also show a Couple of its Halloween Shows.

On Monday I toured some other Sights including Dealy Plaza in Downtown Dallas before returning to Killeen Texas to catch my return flight to Florida today. During the trip I had something else happen to me. I managed to acquire yet ANOTHER :) FREE AIRLINE TICKET!!! :) The Flight from Melbourne to Atlanta was Overbooked, so I Volunteered and got on, get this, An EARLIER Flight (Which then got delayed as mentioned above). I plan to use this ticket next Summer when I'll return to texas and descend upon Kemah Boardwalk and add their Woodie to my list, as well as visit both Schlitterban Parks in Texas. (If the one in New Braunfels is half the park I her it is I should be in for one heck of a trip!) :) But that will have to wait until next Summer!

Funny how you capitalize all the names of the COASTERS! Kinda like making a grand announcement.

How did the Texas Giant refurb look? I heard it looks awesome in person.

The park in New Braunfels is TWICE the park you've heard it is... ;)

Steel Eeel *is* as good as Jeremy indicated it would be. And Runaway Mountain is the best indoor coaster outside of a Disney park (apologies to Skull Mountain). Can't even begin to figure out why I see no mention of...SHOCKWAVE... :)

I rode SHOCKWAVE during my previous Trip to the park in 1993, and did not get to ride it again during this trip. (Remember I was concentrating on those Coasters and Shows that had been built since my last visit.) The TEXAS GIANT refurbishing seems to be going along at a good pace, but bear in mind it will now be a "Steelie" instead of a "Woodie" which means JUDGE ROY SCREAM will be the ride that, IMO "Rules" the Park! ;) When I return to Texas next year I will spend a minimum of three days in New Braunfels, as it looks like there's a lot to do there. :)