What is so terrible about SFAW?

Why does everyone complain so much about this park? It has 3 nice looking Schwarzkopf coasters, an SLC, a good woodie, the only heartline coaster in America, and a total of ten coasters!

While it doesn't sound like an amazing track record, it does not sound too bad at all. So what is the problem?

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Don't look down-Oblivion

Well, for one thing, all of the coasters except the newest one have desperately needed new paintjobs for years, but only Greezed Lightnin' has received one so far. For another thing, almost all of the coasters are either used rides that were transplanted here from somewhere else, or clones. Six Flags corporate NEVER builds anything EXCLUSIVE for us, despite the fact that Houston is the 4th largest city in America, and the park supposedly makes MORE THAN ENOUGH money to merit PLENTY of exclusives! Serial Thriller was the first NEW coaster that we've gotten since Six Flags bought the park about 20 years ago, and it's a CLONE! It's also the last new ride that we've gotten since it was built. Plus, we only get a new coaster once every 5 years or so. Meanwhile, Magic Mountain gets a record breaking new coaster EVERY SINGLE YEAR, and they're even getting EXCLUSIVE new coasters THREE AT A TIME now! Meanwhile, the only Six Flags park in Texas to receive ONE new coaster this year was SFOT, and as cool as the Titan is, it's only a slightly improved CLONE of Goliath, so apparently corporate is WAY too busy pampering Magic Mountain TO FILTH to care about ANY of its parks in Texas, and it most certainly doesn't care about AstroWorld at all, because they won't even paint their existing rides, much less build some decent new ones! It may look very enticing to someone from out of town, but if you live here, it's the absolute WORST. We ALWAYS have to drive to SFOT or SFFT to ride some decent NEW coasters, and even then, they're still so much old news to the rest of the world! Texas NEVER gets anything FIRST anymore, and that makes us VERY ANGRY too, especially considering that SFOT is the ORIGINAL Six Flags park, and the whole Six Flags empire began right here in Texas! We're not amused with the way that corporate has ABANDONED our state in favor of California and the rest of the world at all! They dazzle the heck out of just about every other park that they own, while they literally let SFAW just rust away like the scrap heap that it is! That's why we HATE it, dude. It's cool that we have an amusement park here in Houston, but it's very UNCOOL the way that Six Flags has been neglecting it, ever since they  bought the place. They might as well just close it, it really is THAT BAD!
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http://www.gayrollerride.com

*** This post was edited by irondraggon on 9/21/2001. ***

Houston might be the 4th largest in size, but its metro area is tenth in the nation with about 3.6 million people in the area.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

Whats wrong with Astroworld you ask. Keep in mind we were only there 4 hours as we where just passing through but lets see if we can sum it up.The park was VERY dirty(could have just been a bad day), the signage was almost non existant.We had a difficult time deciphering ride entrances from the exits, and had a very hard time finding specific rides, even using park maps.The one ride we really wanted to ride(Texas Tornado)was SBNO and has been virtually all year. The railing for the que's were in very poor shape. The park in general was a disgrace. I have visited 8 different Six Flags parks this year and this was the worst of them all. We definately would not go out of our way to return. On the other hand, as Irondraggon mentioned, SFFT was wonderful. It was clean, nothing was broken, and the only non operating ride was Boomerang, not a big loss if you know what I mean. 

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Just a couple of G-force junkies!

Wow, you guys sure are spoiled.
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Don't look down-Oblivion

Well I myself visiting SFAW this year with the other two SF parks in texas can agree that it is not the better of the three.

But I can say that I had almost no complaints of astro world, the only major complaint being the status of the texas tornado. I enjoyed all of the coasters they had but XLR-8. The park did not seem dirty or confusing to me.

I agree the park has been neglected for years on new rides and improvements but astroworld was not as bad as I think everybody makes it out to be. A few of the coasters at AW are great rides.. Cyclone(Best Wood In Texas), Ultratwister(Only one in US), Greezed Lightning(One of very few rides Left), Viper(Classic Scwarzkopf Looper). To me the park has a great lineup of coasters especially if they get the tornado running again.

Astroworld's problems are largely due to a reluctance of Six Flags to invest in keeping the place up to date.

There are some good rides there, but no big steel coasters like a B&M or a hyper that really stand out as world-class: the best being a worn out Schwarzkopf touring coaster that didn't even run this year (TX Tornado). 

If you can get past the fact that the park doesn't contain the latest and greatest, there's some decent stuff: Texas Cyclone's an excellent twister, Dungeon Drop is the tallest free fall ride in the state, Ultra-Twister is one-of-a-kind in the US, there's two other Schwarzkopf coasters that loop with just a lapbar, plus we've got a massive overturned duck.

As far as cleanliness goes, they kept the park in decent order this year.  Yes everything needs to be painted and washed and there are broken attractions that need fixing, I'm told this is going to finally happen for 2002 in lieu of a new ride - still they did keep the trash and graffiti under control this year (no easy task since this is Houston). 

I'm not real happy with the way the park was run this year, and if anyone's to blame it's Gary Story because he gave the park staff next to nothing to run on this year.  The park really has a lot of potential if only Six Flags would breath a little life back into the place.

BTW, that's not quite true that Six Flags never put any new rides in the park: Greezed Lightnin', Texas Cyclone, XLR8, and Serial Thriller were all built new for the park while SF managed the place.  True though, all the other "recent" coasters are used transplants.  Several rides that were actually designed for Astroworld ended up in OTHER parks (ahem, MR FREEZE)!

http://sixflagshouston.com

Don't forget the Mossie's. God did I itch!

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Let the world know your Top 10 Coasters at http://www.coastergrotto.zzn.com

how is the intamin stand up at SFAW?

     It's extremely sad for me to look at pictures of SFAW's coasters. They all look real fun, but all look real neglected. Almost everyone seems to need paint jobs real bad. Don't attack SFMM for getting so many coasters in one year. The coaster market is obviosly bigger out there then in Texas. SF has to do what makes more sence economically, it's just that simple. I wish they would pay more attention to SFKK, SFEG, SFAW but if the market isn't big enough there then they just won't add on more. They invest in SFMM so much because it has the potential to become a destination park, a world known park. SFWoA is being invested in heavily because it needs to compete with CP, and PKI. Paying tons into a not-so-popular park to refurbish every ride would be much appreciated by us, but would be very costly.

sethman, Batman the Escape is a B&M standup...Intamin has never built a stand up to my knowledge...
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ROLLERCOASTERS....BETTER THAN OXYGEN BABY!!!!!!

hey vacoasterfreak Intamin has built a few stand-ups including one at Le ronde in montreal  (now a six flags) and i believe the one at SFAW if you check out bolliger-mabillard.com, you see they have not built one at SFAW. No sweet though, I just want to know if it is a good ride, i believe it is similar to the stand-up in Le Ronde.

My fault the site is not working but check out the sites on coaster, they have a good site for B&M.

http://www.sillynonsense.com/subdivision/" target=_blank>Watch the grass grow!

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Yeah, right, and there's TONS more people living in Atlanta, that's why they got Acrophobia & Deja Vu this year, and we didn't get SQUAT. I am so TIRED of people trying to convince me that Houston doesn't merit world-class rides, just because parks like Magic Mountain are supposed to be better markets! SFMM didn't have SQUAT when Six Flags bought it, and it was NOT a tourist destination! But Six Flags corporate has gone out of their way to make it one, and they COULD do the same thing for SFAW, but they WON'T. Y'all make it sound like NO ONE ever goes to SFAW, when the truth is that we typically have higher attendance figures than SFOT & SFFT, but Gary Story obviously HATES SFAW, so the whole city of Houston has to suffer because of it. You wanna know what's so bad about SFAW? Gary Story is in charge of it, that's what's wrong with it! SFOT's money grubbing investors don't help either. So Mr. Freeze was PLANNED for SFAW, but SFOT's investors insisted that it be built at their park instead, so they got it, and we didn't. That's what SUCKS about SFAW too. Six Flags corporate could plan to build something that makes X look like a kiddie ride here, but SFOT's investors will NEVER allow it, so Houston has to suffer, just because the people in Dallas never get enough too, just like the spoiled little brats who hang out at SFMM all the time! So, why don't they just close SFAW, or sell it to someone who actually cares enough about it to put some money into fixing everything that Six Flags has destroyed here? I mean let's face it, if it can still MAKE more than enough money to operate on in the pathetic state that it's in right now, it should be able to make a killing if someone would fix it up, but the tourists are never gonna go to a park that doesn't have several world-class rides to choose from! That's the real reason why SFMM is such a tourist attraction now, because the rides are already there, and new ones get built there every year. If Six Flags corporate would just get off of their SFMM favoritism kick long enough to build some stuff like that here, we'd have just as many people coming to our park to ride our rides as they do, but who on Earth would want to come here when they could go to a park like SFMM? No one who doesn't live very close, that's for sure! If you build it, they will come, but if you don't, they won't. It's that simple!

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http://www.gayrollerride.com

BTW, if Texas is such a lousy market for coasters, then why did Angus Wynne decide to build SFOT here, instead of California? That's what infuriates me the most about Six Flags corporate! Ever since the founder died, they've completely abandoned his philosophies, and they only spend the money that they make here in other states, like California. SFMM has such awesome rides because WE paid for them, but THEY get to enjoy them all the time, even though SFMM doesn't make enough money to pay for them all! The new Six Flags corporate is EVIL and UNFAIR! 
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http://www.gayrollerride.com

Ok irongdraggon, let me get this right.  Six Flags corporate fails to make large investments in SFAW because "Gary Story obviously HATES SFAW."  I find it comical that you’d suggest SF corporate makes decisions about which park to invest its money in based on hate and favoritism.  Billion dollar corporations that have shareholders and creditors to answer to don't make investment decisions based on emotion.  I'm sure you've seen it here at the buzz before, 3 letters, ROI: Return On Investment.  Regardless of the external investors in the SFOT partnership, if SF felt an investment in SFAW would benefit their bottom line, they would certainly do so.  I'm sorry your home park hasn't been selected for a capital improvement, but I'm absolutely sure it’s for financial reasons, not emotional. 

Batman: The Escape IS made by Intamin. It says so on the bottom of this link.......http://www.sixflags.com/parks/astroworld/Rides/batman.html

Yes Batman: The Escape is made by Intamin, check RCDB. And further since the ride was built in 1986, explain how B&M could have built it years before they existed.

If everything was painted and cleaned up, and all the coasters were up and running on the same day at SFAW then it would be a darn good park as is. SFAW needs that more than a new coaster, IMO. When I went, 4 of the 10 coasters (Serpent, Ultra Twister, Greezed Lightnin' and Texas Tornado) were DDM, and this was in the middle of June. 60% of the coasters open... not a good percentage at all. BTW, what's up with that parking lot being across the freeway... odd, very odd.

Walt and Claude used to work FOR Intamin back in the 80's which is why old Intamin rides look "B&M-ish" (4 across seating, box spine track). Iron Wolf was B&M's first coaster as their own company.

BTW, Batman: The Escape has a pretty good layout for a small stander, and some fun turns, but the VERY uncomfortable "seats" and incredibly rough ride make it nearly unrideable. Much like another early Intamin coaster... Flashback @ SFMM.

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"X" marks the spot in 2001!

Not again! Intamin never made stand-ups, Giovanola did. I've said it a million times, as has Giovanola. Intamin was the middle man and usually got their names on the rides. Giovanola even has one of their standups, the Seven Up Shockwave, in their brochure.

Anyways, one thing I really hate is when people can judge a park that they've never been to.... I really didn't like SFAW except for Texas Cyclone, and that was it.

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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com