Associated parks:
None
Rating System is on a scale of 1 to 3. 1 means it did not excite me, 2 means I would ride it again and 3
means a definite must ride again.
My home park is Six Flags America and I have never been to another Six Flags Theme Park so I was so looking forward to my vacation which included trips to Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Fiesta Texas with a possible stop over at Schliterbahn. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my flights or anything like that. I will tell you though, don't fly into Dallas Fort Worth Airport, by the time we got on the road, my wife and I spent $200 in passenger facility charges and services charges between flying into DFW and Renting a car. We will split that $200 the next time and fly into a cheaper airport.
We arrived on Saturday June 28th and spent the night in a town 45 minutes northwest of Dallas (seeing some friends) and then on Sunday June 29th we head to Six Flags Over Texas arriving about 10:00 as the gates were opening. Parking is $10, this was our first reaction, who pays $10 for parking? We have a season parking pass for SFA and don't really feel the sticker shock. Then we see the price for Lexus Parking (a.k.a. Premium Parking) is $12. We quickly analyze the parking lot and feel the $10 parking is just a few more steps and decide to stick with the $10 parking. We only parked a few more spaces away from Premium Parking.
We entered security and quickly had our bags searched and were granted access to the park. We checked out the Q-Bot and decided we would wait and see, turns out, it wasn't needed. I quickly get my picture taken with Wiley Coyote who seemed like he was a little afraid of big 33 year old man approaching him to have his picture taken but eventually relented. My wife and I walked around the park for the first couple of hours just to get a glimpse of the layout. We found the park to especially well themed and the layout was pretty good, I'm not sure why Superman: Towner of Power (S:TOP) was not put in Gotham City and not sure I ever will.
While exploring the park, I noticed Flashback had a 5 minute wait. Having done my research on the internet I new this is one of the rides I wanted to ride. I never rode a Vekoma Boomerang coaster before and since this was a shuttle coaster, I decided to give it a try. I take my position in one of the middle cars and then notice, this coaster has no lap belt. I found that odd. So I pull the lap bar snuggly against my stomach and before I know it I'm backing up the track. As I get further and further up the track, I suddenly begin to feel the sensation of me slipping forward a little more as we inch up the lift, till I'm almost vertical with the ground. I quickly begin looking for the non-existant seat belt. Then the release kicks in, I had down the track, through the station, into the boomerang, through the loop and up the other side. Then the
second click kicks in and I get this vertical sensation again that lasts all the way through the loop, then
boomerang and then we return to the station. I have to admit, I was extremely concerned I was going to fall
out, but enjoyed every moment I was on this coaster.
After walking the park and taking some pictures we decided to eat lunch at Chubbies. This was about 1:30 and we were extremely hot (I believe the temps were in the mid 90's on this day) so we were looking to cool off a little bit before I begin my coastering. Chubbies is a nice little 50's style diner locating in Gotham City. The food was pretty good and we were able to cool down. Both of us had the sirloin cheeseburger and fries which was prety good and didn't seem to bother my stomach.
After finishing with Chubbies, I decided to ride the mine train coaster. The line for this coaster was about 20 minutes. They seemed to be running two trains with two on the transfer track and from the looks of the transfer track they haven't used those two trains in years. After waiting for 20 minutes, I board the train and never really felt any air time. Had I known this particular mine train was so boring, I would have elected ride something different. Coaster Rating: 1
Once finished with the mine train, I headed to Judge Roy Scream. Without a park map, the average person probably would not realize how to get to this coaster. This coaster is a classic wooden roller coaster, almost as classic as they come. I take my usual middle of the train seast and looked again for the lap belt. But there wasn't one. After pullling the lap bar against my gut, the train began to move within a few seocnd. You start out creepng up the lift hill at a slow pace and left wondering if you are ever going to get to the top. After ascending the lift hill, you go through a series of hills and turn around for the station. The return to the station is just as uneventful as the first half of the ride. This coaster is perfect for the family. You get no pops of air and you don't feel like you are going to be bucked out of your seat. I enjoyed this coaster, I just put my arm on the back of seat and enjoyed the ride. Coaster Rating: 2
After Judge Roy Scream, I went over to Texas Giant. My wife pointed out earlier that she could see the coaster sway back and forth as the train passed by on the track. I heard of this happening with wooden coaster but have never seen it myself. The queue for Texas Giant is one of the longest I have ever seen, does this thing ever fill up? After about a 10 minute wait, I boarded the middle car of the train. I sit in the seat and again I realize there is no lap belt. This is when I realize that no matter what coaster I ride in this park, I'm not going to find a lap belt. The ride operators were doing an excellent job of loading the coaster and getting it out of the station before the next one returned. It was nice to see how rides ops are suppose to do their job. After reaching the top of the lift hill, I suddenly realized my fear of coasters is over as I raise my hands above my head for the first drop. We crest the hill, decend down the other side, get blinded by the on ride camera and eechh, ouch, ooch, eecch, oucchh, I suddenly realize I was going to return to the station a new man (or is that woman). The Texas Giant was one hard on your bottom woodie. I enjoyed the air time and the sharp turns of the coaster but it was a rough ride. Between the hot sun and the hard pounding I took on this coaster, I had a headache by the time I returned to the station. To me, Roar at my home park SFA is a far better and more enjoyable ride than Texas Giant was. Therefore Texas Giant gets a 2. What I find hard to believe is, SFA, a smaller park, takes better care of their wooden coasters than a supposedly bigger and better park like SFOT. SFOT really needs to do something to take care of the rough ride this coaster provided. Coaster Rating: 2
My last coaster of the day was Titan. I take one look at this beast and think S:ROS. However, other than the g's on your body and a little bit of air time, this coaster is nothing more than a pussy cat on steroids. I was expecting way more air time and after speaking with the people in the queue line who hyped up the g's on the double helix at the end, I thought this coaster wasn't anything great. You do get some air on the 2nd hill but that is about it. The coaster does run pretty fast and the themeing is good but other than that, nothing spectacular. Coaster Rating: 2
On the way out of the park, my wife and I decided to catch the State of Rythm show. We thought the production was an excellent production and the choreographer was great.
Overall, we had a good day at SFOT and hope to return again next year. We do however, agree, there have to be better water parks in the Dallas area than Hurricane Harbor. In summary, Hurricane Harbor needs some major sprucing up. We plan on visiting the water park in Richland Hills the next time we need to cool off.
To recap:
Flashback: 2
Mine Train: 1
Judge Roy Screm: 2
Texas Giant:2
Titan: 2
The thing that stood out in my mind most about this park: No lap belts. I thought all roller coaster had lap belts until I rode coasters at SFOT.
Park Positive: The fans in the queue lines keeping you cool and the misters in the park.
Park Negative: I can't think of one.
If you read this whole report, thanks for reading.
I have lived in the DFW area for nearly 4 years (my old home parks were Opryland and Kentucky Kingdom), and I do have a few suggestions.
Stay away from NRH2O in North Richland Hills. It has a total of 5 slides worth even getting in line for, and 3 of them are crappy kiddie raft rides. The Green Xtreme water coaster is decent, but even though it has the same layout as Master Blaster, it fails in comparison. The other decent one is a step black drop slide, with a turn in the end. There, you'll find yourself on the lazy river the most.
Screw NRH20 and go to Schlitterbahn, it is much better (it is also the best waterpark in the world). You will only need 1/2 a day to a day at Fiesta Texas, and Schlitterbahn is only 45 minutes away (I'm going at the beginning of August).
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WHAT'S THE MATTER COLONEL SANDERS? CHICKEN!?
Well, cut it some slack. It was the first ever, y'know. Ever.
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--Maddie--
What do I Listen-To?
I am stereotypical.
Everything as far as I could see was running with the possible exception of Ozark Falls.
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Am I really that shy?
Yes, Shockwave will be one of the ones I will ride the next time.
Actually, Mine Train, was the first mine train coaster I rode, ever, so I didn't know what to expect. But after riding Road Runner Express at SFFT, I still feel my rating of the mine train at SFOT was warranted. I might have edged it out and gave it a 2 had I realized at the time of my report that it was the first mine train. Will make sure I pay attention to the date of origin when doing my coaster research the next time.
*** This post was edited by coasterguts 7/9/2003 2:42:17 PM ***
I actualy prefer their woodie trains to thosse at SFA,the newer style PTC lap bars are just too bulky & not as stiff in the springs as those on PKD's woodies.
BATWING FAN SFA said:
Just wait until you go to PKD,there aren't any lap belts on their adult coasters at all,with exception of Scooby doo & possibly Ricochet.
Are you sure about that? I thought Rebel Yell had lap belts.
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Tease Alert!
*Something* wicked this way comes...to the west coast in 2004!
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Tease Alert!
*Something* wicked this way comes...to the west coast in 2004!
I do the same the thing with just about any kind of review. It is extremely hard for anyone to get a high mark from me on a review. Let me put it this way, If I were to review Disney, they would probably only be a two. Think of my scale as A, B or Fail
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