2016 US Theme Park Trip Reports (SF Fiesta TX & ZDTs))

[Gazza]

After Kansas City I drove south to Springfield MO to stay the night, before continuing further south to Branson, MO for Silver Dollar City.

 http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Branson/Silver_Dollar_City/

Silver Dollar City is another Herschend park like Dollywood, and that carries through in terms of the look and feel of the park, the quality of the theming, food choices, and certain attractions which are similar between the two. Kinda felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, so its funny in the car park seeing a  big B&M looper just rising from the trees.

 

 

The park was started as a small historical village type thing to entertain people visiting the Marvel Cave, and over time grew into a theme park.

 

So  @djrappa  its Dollywood with a cave, so therefore you should go Though maybe Dollywood have a fraction more polish, and the coasters were a nose in front too, but they are both great parks. 

 

The other main difference is that SDC has more young people working there compared the senior average age at Dollywood.

Free parking too!

 

As was a running theme on this trip, the place wasn’t very busy. The main entrance to the place seems quite small considering the attendance:

 

 

Lots of old buildings demonstrating everything from making baseball bats to ironwork.

 

The first coaster I did was down in the Grand Exposition area, which was an area of Zamperla flat rides with ornate 1800s industrial revolution type styling. Basically it’s supposed to be a like a World’s Fair sort of thing demonstrating new machines and Technology. Like the Country Fair at Dollywood, it was a way of making an area of ordinary flat rides look good.

 

 

 

I just did a lap on the Grand Exposition coaster, which was a bog standard Zamperla Kiddy.

 

 

Spongebob at SW is still better

 

I then continued around having a quick look in the new Fireman’s landing area (Herschend love fire fighting themes!), which again was more flat rides, but more kiddie sized ones, as well as a really cool fire station themed ball play area with heaps of thematic details like hose drying racks, old fire engines and so forth. A smaller model S&S space shot was there too.

 

I got a few pics before any families or kids were in the area, before moving on, headed for Outlaw Run.

 

I got there....not open yet.

 

I’ll touch on now perhaps the only bad thing about SDC, but the park layout is not a “loop” like most, but lots of little dead ends. I guess it’s maybe unavoidable due to the terrain (or maybe they could build connecting pathways, but that probably would interfere with some BOH areas), but you’ll do a lot of backtracking.

 

So the next one to try was Wildfire, a B&M sitdown looper. It was a very standard affair. Immellmann, loop, cobra roll, corkscrew, helix. It ticks the boxes, but it did feel a bit generic in terms of layout. What did make this one cool was being right on the edge of a hillside, with views for miles. It’s a quick and too the point ride.

 

The theming was fun, basically a crazy inventors workshop, but the style of theming felt a bit cartoony and plastic compared to the look and feel of the rest of the park, and the ride building. I really liked the huge viewing deck for the ride.

 

 

Powder keg is right next door. A family launched coaster, but actually pretty intense. It’s not as intense as Superman, but its up there with Jet Rescue for example. The launch system is a horizontal version of the spaceshot system, but instead of moving a gondola, its moving a launch catapult and hook. The side effect of this is that the launch catapult continues to crazily “bounce” back and forth (just like a spaceshot!) along the launch track after the train has long left and going through the course, rather than gently travelling back like on hydraulic launch coasters with their winch system. The ride has some good air on the hills and maintains a decent speed through the turns.

 

The other interesting gimmick is the way the train slides sideways up to the launch track ona transfer.

 

 

This one is tough to get good pictures of.

 

The ride that was previously here was a premier rides water coaster and when that ride become too expensive maintain they demolished most of it, and connected this new coaster to bits of the remaining  track.

It is a bit weird that they bothered to do this, because all it is this big long sweeping turn (Like Macks Storm Coaster, I guess the Premier version cant do tight turns either) and then a lift hill. And then after the lift hill its basically one helix and a drop and youre done. It’s cool but odd.

 

The highlight was watching someones phone fly up on the first hill, then get caught by the rider on the way back down. Store those loose items kids!

The one thing I’ll deduct points for is that a lot of the concrete troughs and infrastructure for the rides previous life as a waster coaster is still all there, which looks a bit fugly and old with puddles of water and weeds in empty concrete troughs.

 

 

Nearby was Fire in the Hole. It was incredibly similar to Blazing Fury at Dollywood, and my exact same thoughts apply on this one (Scroll up if you care about my opinions )

 

The bad guys that start the fire are called "Baldknobbers" lololollololo

 

 

I did the Lost River of the Ozarks up next, which was a  rapids ride that got me bad, so I was walking around wet for much of the day. It was odd because it had an indoor queue, and a strange feeling station with skylights. Most of the ride was outdoors, but you entered a building for the last part. From Google Earth it looked pretty sizable, so I was expecting a bit of a dark ride bit, but there was nothing. It was literally just rooms with rockery and washed over with coloured lights. Missed opportunity considering how much show buildings cost.

 

 

 

Flooded Mine was a better effort. I’m guessing it was a slow boat ride, and they  added laser targets and remarketed it with the interactive aspect at some point in the past. You sit in a long line of boats that are dispatched, and you gently float through a mine, with various prisoners caught in situations due to the rising waters….You know how in thunder river in the tunnel there is that scene with the two miners? It’s basically a whole ride of that, with more moving bits and pieces like mine carts on tracks and so forth.

 

 

 

 

I did a lap on the Frisco Silver Dollar Line. The locos are the smaller type since it's narrow gague (No behemoths like at Dollywood)

On the way you stop for a bit for your typical bumbling train robbery sequence.

 

 

 

Things weren’t looking promising at Outlaw Run! There was a cherry picker and guys working on the track. Perhaps my luck in getting on Lightning Rod meant missing outlaw run haha!

 

Tom n Hucks RiverBlast looked cool, but too wet for me at that point.

 

 

I stopped and grabbed a bit of lunch, having a skillet with beans, chicken and rice.

 

 

Heading up the hill I grabbed a ride on the other remaining operating coaster in the park, Thunderation. This was a bit like the mine train at Kings Island in that it started at the top of the hill and went down, with a lift hill at the end. This was a bit better paced than most mine trains because it just got faster and faster, and a nice hilly setting too. What set this one apart from the KI mine train is that it didn’t end abruptly at the top of the final lift hill….There was one more drop back down the hill before coming up again and finally hitting the brakes.

 

 

I then did the Marvel Cave tour. They run every 30 mins, included with admission, and  50 people per tour. This struck me as odd. Means only a fraction of visitors  can do it per day, and it did mean a bit of a wait if you missed being counted into a tour group and have to wait for the next one. You wait in a queueing area off to the side of the main department store at the entrance. They entrance to the queue is a wooden cut out shape that is the same size as the narrowest bit you have to go through.

 

 

 

You can see in the pic above the scale of the place relative to the lift tower on the left.

It’s a great attraction. You head down through a hole in the ground, sown some steps on a tower built into the huge cathedral cave, and then down deeper as you work your way from the top of a big pile of rock. It was strange because they played the Dr Who theme booming through the cavern as you worked your way down these initial steps. WTF?

 

 

There’s some interesting formations like the sentinel. Down there they have those photo-takeyourpictureandchargeyouheapstoretriveitlater-graphers.

 

 

Things progressively get tighter/steeper/narrower as you go. A lot of these pics are too blurry for the gallery, but give you a sense of what it was like. Well worth the wait.

 

 

To get back to the top you ride a funicular railway back to the top.

 

 

I headed back over to Outlaw Run. Still shut, so I did more rides on Powder Keg and Wildfire.

 

 

Then it started to rain, which meant everything else shut..Except for Grandather’s mansion.

This one is a crooked house, with tilted floors, wacky mirrors, pool balls rolling uphill. I love these sort of things…Young Einsteins homestead I can still remember quite vividly for example, despite only being four when I rode it.

 

 

I think I bummed around while the storm passed....Miked the cow and cranked the frogs and watched them watering the bitumen.

 

I downloaded the wait time app and kept and eye on what rides were opening,. Giant Barn Swing was one of the first. Yay, fun, like all of these Screamin Swings.

 

 

Then I noticed that Outlaw Run had changed its status from being “technical delays” to “weather delays”…I might be in luck?

 

 

I asked a staff member (Who was kind enough to phone a supervisor when I didn’t even ask!) . They confirmed they were indeed going to try to re-open, even though it was only 90 mins till closing time. Service!

 

 

So I planted myself at the entrance, and then finally about 15 mins later we were in business.

 

 

I tried various seats over the course of about an hour… There was no wait to speak of other than the time taken to get around from the exit back to the entrance. No train went out full. I guess most people left during the storm, so it was just a few hold outs who had discovered the ride was open.

 

 

All seats were awesome. Admittedly having ridden both Twisted Collossus and Lighting Rod days before this one probably overshadowed this one a bit, but it's a fantastic ride by any measure. Very fast paced.

 

 

I’ts got the typical “its so steep I’m gonna die” first drop.

 

 

It’s got the crazy zero g stall that twists all over the place.

 

 

One bit I liked was about halfway through where you go through the lift structure and do this sudden twist, which put the transitions on Maverick and Jet Rescue to shame. Really cool.

 

 

The barrel rolls at the end are surprisingly dizzying.

 

 

So, everything went better than expected, and it topped off the day well.

I headed for the exit, but had just enough time for a lap on Powder Keg, and the last train of the day on Wildfire.

 

 

The main exit store had funny religious T shirts because this is America. Dissapointed I didn't see the computer game theme ones like "Call of Duty Ulimate Sacrifice". They did have 'Jesusman' ones though.

 

 

 

I was feeling lazy, and went against all my beliefs and took a  shuttle back to the car rather than walking.

 

For dinner I ticked off another American chain…Steak n Shake. “Famous for Steakburgers” apparently, but I couldn’t see how it differed from a normal burger

 

 

Heading out of Branson, I drove down the main strip, which is indeed like Las Vegas, if It were run by Ned Flanders, as the Simpsons have taught us. Music theatres and mini golf courses as far as the eye can see.

 

 

WhiteWater Branson is SDCs water park, located a few Ks away, but it looked pretty standard to me.

 

 

Overall I enjoyed SDC. It has a nice leafy setting, and a good variety of fun things to do. Just wish the coasters were easier to photograph. They just need to keep doing what they have done, though a modern dark ride of some description wouldn’t hurt.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Gazza

[downunder]

I really liked Silver Dollar City and thoroughly enjoyed Outlaw Run. The caves were so cool, even though it was partially flooded the day we went and couldn't go all the way down. Definitely a park to revisit.

 

[rappa]

The reason for the low numbers for the Cave tour would be that's the max people it's been determined the Cave's ecosystem can handle without causing damage. 

Those sort of caves are very fragile and just people breathing out CO2 and dead skin cells/clothing lint can do incredible damage. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^Correct.

I've visited Jenolan caves in NSW on a number of occasions, and seen the damage toll taken on some caves - especially those narrow sections where people can't help but touch the walls. Many of the caves are 'dead' and they have to resort to fancy coloured lighting to make them look good.

It is unfortunate, but necessary for the protection of the area.

[rappa]

Only one cave at Jenolan has coloured lights which is the Chifley as it was the first in the world to be lit with electric light and the coloured section is kept as a bit of a historical piece from what they used to do back then. There is a tiny section in the Lucas cave also. 

 

Much has been done at Jenolan in regards to cleaning some of the areas affected by humans over the years when they weren't as protected. What happens in the oils from the skin turn the crystal black. It's not 'dead' but until new crystal forms over the top it will stay black. 

The problem is the crystal growth rate can be as low as 1mm every 100 years. 

 

#somewhatofajenolanexpert

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

#YesItWouldSeemThatWay!

I knew about the 'first with electric light' thing but that was about it. I'm glad to hear about the cleaning. I haven't been in some time and I look forward to taking my family down there for a visit next time we hit Sydney.

[nitrofan]

Cool write ups. Universal Hollywood has changed a lot since I went. Was no sign of Potter and no Transformers. Is there a full Springfield area there like Orlando? When i went i think it was just the ride and the Kwik E Mart.

 

When i went on Acrophobia in Atlanta i had no idea it tilted forward. Guess i didnt pay much attention while waiting in line.  Scared the absolute shit out of me when it tilted i did the face down one at Busch in Tampa and was a little disappointed tbh.

[Gazza]

Six Flags St Louis was the next park on my trip. The road from Springfield to St Louis essentially runs along the old route 66 (When i checked into my hotel the night before they asked if I was a tourist doing that road)

 http://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-137-Six_Flags_St_Louis

Anyway, the park is on the western outskirts of the city.

 

First impressions is that it is a bit of a 2^nd tier Six Flags park. Everyone says Six Flags America is the worst but I reckon this one is. At least SFA had better coasters, and notional efforts to maintain distinct themed areas.

The whole place just felt a bit run down and weedy, and wasn’t aesthetically pleasing.

 

That all said, there are a few worthwhile attractions at the park, which I’ll get to.

 

I headed straight for Ninja, which has had VR added. Signage said the VR is offered from 2pm, and they had two different queues depending on if you wanted to ride with or without.

No objections from me for it being offered from 2pm, the experience on offer was the alien fighter jet one I’d already done at SFMM / (and could have done at SFOG) and it meant I could get my ride in without encumbrance.

It’s an arrow looper with a  loop and sidewinder, and a couple of corkscrews. Felt a bit RCT with the fixed size of the elements and the first couple of loops being high in the air. Transitions were a bit too sudden for comfort. But overall, like most arrow loopers it wasn’t that bad.

The most interesting moment is coming out of the sidewinder when there is a very close headchopper under the lift chain return.

 

Nearby was Batman the ride, which was filling up fast, probably due to being one of the best ride there. No intention of buying a flashpass, so I waited 30 mins or so.  It’s much the same as other installations (so quick, forceful, exciting) except more weeds growing underneath.

 

I crossed over the park to a surprisingly short queue on Mr Freeze Reverse Blast. This ride follows that short trend we had where rides had their trains reversed, so like TOT2 you end up looking down towards the ground at the apex of the ride. Basically you launch out of a tunnel, around an inverted top hat, then an overbanked turn and up into a vertical bit of track. LIMs at the top actually grab the train as it starts to lose energy and pull it the rest of the way to the top, but then release and you go back the way you came.

 

A good ride, I wonder why more parks haven’t expanded on this sort of shuttle, with airtime hills etc…it would be amazing.

 

Justice League is a 4D dark ride like our justice league, but with a different storyline, and “spiderman” style vehicles that can tilt and spin. It was a really good attraction. The queue was very similar to ours, except they didn’t have that impressive hall ours does with the marble statues.

There’s a few street scenes where you are shooting little lex bots and a near head on with a truck, and eventually you make it into lexcorp where the justice league is being held captive, more shooting and you are released, and from there it turns into an all out street chase with big curved screen. This bit I felt was too fast paced so it didn’t feel realistic. There was also a random black room between two scenes that didn’t make sense…Basically green lantern makes a car jump and you  smash into the 2^nd floor of an office building, drive through the office then land back on the street…they could have done office interior theming to bridge the gap between screens.

 

 

 

I did a lap on the ferris wheel and the train. The train in particular didn’t show off  the parks best side :/

 

Nearby was American Thunder, a GCI. Ran pretty well compared to most, good pacing and a decent length.

 

 

Boomerang was shut, but I had already ridden it a few years ago at SFOT.

 

River King Mine train is a typical arrow mine train with small drops and awkward transitions.

Screamin Eagle is a big out and back wooden coaster. Much like the racing woodies out there, its mostly straight, so it wasn’t too bad, and had good air.

The Boss was the final Woodie and coaster for me to ride. The thing is enormous, reminded me a bit of Ghostrider, so a bit rough, but a lot of fun. The first drop was a double down and I didn’t know that beforehand, so a bit of a surprise. Basically the drop dives through a structure, flattens out then goes downhill again. The last part of the ride is an out and back section through some trees along the side of the hill, with a helix for good measure.

 

Fireball is a super loop ride. I’ve never actually been on one of these. It feels a bit cramped, but in terms of ride experience, we’ve all ridden doomsday/ranger/kamikaze right?

With everything done I did another go on Mr Freeze, Justice League an American Thunder before heading to my hotel.

*******************************************

In St Louis, there’s also the City Museum which is big architectural museum/art gallery/playground in an old shoe factory. The place is immense, and makes you realise how unfit you get as an adult trying to go on play equipment. The place is obviously popular with families, but they have night sessions where they are open till midnight with DJs etc, so a different  crowd then. Well worth a look, but don’t wear jeans or else you get stuck on the slides. Heaps of crawl spaces, including really narrow spaces between floor slabs. Other random places are throughout too, such as caves, an aquarium, a giant hamster wheel and so on.

 

 

 

[downunder]

Another great report. I was fortunate enough to go to City Museum, I'd love to know how they can afford insurance with all the dangers that lurk. Such a great experience, and so unique.

[Gazza]

City Museum truly exists in its own liability universe it seems.

***********************************************************************************

After a bit more time in St Louis, a horrendously delayed train trip to Chicago which saw us sitting in the middle of Illinois for 4h, and a few days exploring Chicago, the  next park was Six Flags Great America.

 http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Gurnee/Six_Flags_Great_America

(A couple of hundred pics are in there)

The Park is actually a solid 55km north of Chicago. I didn’t have a rental car, but a Metra commuter train runs to Waukegan, and a 10k bus/taxi/uber trip to the park.

It’s one of the more loved properties by SF management it seems, with regular additions of decent attractions, and signage that regularly proclaims “the worlds cleanest amusement parks”. ( it was clean compared to the other CF parks, but there are cleaner ones out there)

 

Inside the gates the first thing I did was head up to Demon which has recently had “Flight of the Gargoyles” added in VR.

The ride is a standard arrow looper similar to the one at California’s Great America (Both of these parks are very similar due to being owned by Marriot at one point). A couple of loops, a couple of corkscrews, and a helix.

The ride starts in a similar manner to the alien attack storyline on the other VR coasters, with you in a fighter jet rising out of hammer, but soon gargoyles appear and rip the head off your co-pilot with lots of gratuitous survival horror FPS game blood. The rest of the way you are looping around a destroyed city with gargoyles attacking. It was ok, the operations were horrendous as you might expect. The set up was so bodgy:

 

 

Nearby X Flight was broken down, so it was onto Goliath, which I believe was the first “new” coaster built by RMC.

In summary, it’s really big and tall, and has some cool elements, but it is very short.

Basically, it’s a steep first drop, overbanked turn, airtime hill, dive loop, zero g stall, turn, dip and brakes.

Nothing wrong with anything technically, the first drop is insane, the zero g stall is one of the coolest inversions ever, but it lacked the epic length of ones like Twisted Colossus, Lightning Rod or New Texas Giant.

The huge steel arch lift hill and zero g stall structure is pretty impressive engineering, as is the dive loop held up entirely by a wooden cathedral structure.

 

My usu al strategy at major parks is to do VR, “new” and low capacity rides early, so next one was Vertical Velocity, an Impulse coaster.

It’s an inverted coaster with vertical tracks at each end, one twisted, one not. Decent acceleration, and the sense of speed is enhanced when you breeze through the station a few times during the ride. Cool stuff.

 

Next was a bit of coaster history with Batman the Ride, the first B&M coaster ever, and running very well for a coaster built in 1992.

 

Continuing back around the park I headed into Raging Bull, saw the huge wait, and decided it was time to get a Flash Pass.

 

Booked in, then headed up to Justice League, which has single rider.

This one was much the same as the one in St Louis, except the building was a bit bigger, and they actually had a proper scene of an office interior between the two big screens that I complained about re the STL version. A really good dark ride, and I’m quite happy that SF are rolling them out across all their parks.

 

X Flight was re-opening, so was able to grab a front row ride with minimal wait.

I quite like wing coasters, and this was no exception. Except the only issue is that the first drop just felt a bit too small for the rest of the layout, so it lost a lot of speed during the inversions.

With the wide trains, the feel was more like what you get on an El Loco (Which is cool, but not very “B&M”)

Otherwise, the near misses were well done, and the layout had a good amount of variety. If they cloned this layout, but with a few extra meters on the first drop , and perhaps dropping a row off the train to make it less lumbering, it’d be perfect.

I returned a few times during the day to try the various seat options. With wing riders, I try to ride in all 4 corners of the train.

 

My time for Raging Bull came up. It’s a hyper coaster, but its mostly got overbanked turns and curves, but a couple of airtime hills, except that’s a bit of an exaggeration because they have trim brakes so you just cruise over the top with no actual airtime.

 

The next ride I reserved was Superman Ultimate flight, but whilst wating for my slot I tried out the Condor, which is like a scrambler ride, but rising up a tower. It was quirky enough, and a nice near miss effect with the way each group of pods rotated against each other and swung out.

 

I also headed up the observation tower and got lots of photos, and had a grilled chicken burger at a token healthy food place in the New Orleans area.

 

I would have done the train, but not open today.

 

My time for Superman Ultimate Flight rolled around. So that’s all three Superman flyers I’ve been on now. I reckon enthusiasts can be a bit harsh on flying coasters in general, they have good forces in the pretzel loop, and flying is fun. It’s just a shame this one is over a field of grass. Even a few trees along the track would make the flight more interesting.

 

Next door was the Dark Knight Coaster. I booked a time for that

then went up to ride Spacelys Sprocket Rockets which is a medium Vekoma roller skater, but with a Jetsons theme, complete with sound effects from the original show. Nostolgia overload! why hasn’t this show been rebooted?

All the rides in this area were Hanna Barberra themed, and it clicked that this SF park had no Looney Tunes rides. It’s probably some historical quirk as to why this is the case, anyone have any ideas?

 

Next was  the Whizzer, an old Schwarzkopf masterpiece, where you sit in trains that have seats like a log ride, and just a seat belt. The lift hill is a spiral the train powers up itself, and from then on it’s a a few long drops through trees, and forceful turns at the bottom of the drops. Very smooth considering its age, and very enjoyable.

Whilst Arrow was pumping out crappy mine trains, Schwarzkopf was building quality like this

 

Heading back to the Dark Knight, it’s a standard wild mouse, but indoors, with a Batman theme. You might even say it’s a truncated version of Scooby, without a vertical lift or backwards drop.

 

The preshow involves you watching a Harvey Dent press conference on a news ticker screen in a train station, but the broadcast is hacked by the Joker, who has taken over the city. The room goes dark, and when the light comes on again the words “ha ha ha” are plastered over the walls. You are then hustled into the station, and board little wild mouse cars that look like half destroyed subway cars.

The track is standard wild mouse stuff, with Gotham city building facades between the zig zags. On the big drop is a near miss with a truck being driven by a baddie with flashing headlights and horns. The theming didn’t really seem to convey the storyline, apart from just being a dash around Gotham, but it looked nice enough.

 

American eagle was up the back, and had no flash pass, so I booked in for X flight then joined the queue. One side running and a break down made this a bit painful. It’s a racing wooden coaster with a whole bunch of straight hills, and a very long helix halfway through. Not bad actually for something out of the 80s.

 

Normally I don’t miss anything when doing parks, but in this case I missed both Little Dipper and Viper, two other wooden coasters. In the case of Viper I got as far as the station, but it broke down.

Little dipper always seemed to have a long  line whenever I walked past.

I ran out of time because of having to leave early to get the train back, and partly because I was more interested in re-riding X flight and Goliath.

 

This was a failure anyway because my uber turned up late, so I missed my train and had to bum around in a Waukegan McDonalds for an hour waiting for the next one.

 

Ah well, my sister lives an hour away from the park, so I imagine I’ll get back in the future.

 

Overall, I thought the park was one of the better SF ones out there, and has a good variety of coasters, with the new Justice League rounding out the place well. There’s plenty of stuff I skipped, but looked great, like the drop tower and the water park.

The new Joker 4D coaster will complement the place well too.

If I were to add anything, I reckon a full circuit launch coaster would be excellent, but it seems at least for the present time, SF are out of the business of big coasters for a few years…

 

[Gazza]

SeaWorld San Antonio was my next park..That’s every SeaWorld visited now J

http://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-146-SeaWorld_San_Antonio

 

This seemingly used to be the main entrance.

 

But the addition of 2^nd and 3^rd gates means the main Sea World park entrance is a little further in.

 

I would have liked to have checked out the Aquatica water park, but that wasn’t open.

 

 

It’s quite a spread out park, centred around a water ski lake, which wasn’t operating. The park was actually rather pleasant, with acacia trees shading the walkways, well maintained gardens and buildings and so on.

 

 

The park has four coasters.

 

Journey to Atlantis is my first Super Splash. Basically it’s like a glorified shoot the chutes, except it has coaster track for the top part, and turntables. You sit in a big 16 person boat, so double the size of the storm coaster boats, but as a consequence this model of water coaster can’t do turns.

You head up a lift hill, a turntable a bit like the one in WWF turns you backwards, and you go down a backwards dip (again, like scooby/WWF). Then a second turntable rotates you straight again and you go down a big drop to the splashdown, and float in a channel back to the station.

There was a bit of theming in terms of some Atlantis style buildings for the queue house and the open air station, but for the most part it’s a bare structure.

It’s good as a way to get dabbled with water, but otherwise it’s hard to see why you’d build this instead of a proper water coaster.

 

Steel Eel is Morgan mini hypercoaster. A pretty standard out and back design, about 3 big hills  one way, then a whole bunch of smaller hills the other way. The trains are quite spacious, and run quite smoothly.

The airtime is kinda funny, decent amount at the top, but at the bottom of each hill the positive gs are really strong, so you get but-slammed a bit. A cool ride, that I did a couple of laps on.

 

 

 

Great White is a standard “Batman” layout B&M inverted coaster. No need to review this one other than to say that the park was dead, so I got to do a few front row re-rides that are otherwhise too time consuming if you’re at a busy SF park dealing with queues.

 

 

 

The final coaster is the diminutive Shamu Express, a small kiddy coaster with an oval layout and cute Killer Whale themed cars.

 

The new Rescue coaster they are building should be good, but no signs of work on site yet.

 

The only other ride was Rio Loco, which is an Intamin river rapids ride. It’s mostly not too bad (Compared to Shipwreck Falls in San Diego for example), except right at the end is a huge waterfall that juts halfway over the course, so a couple of people on each boat will end up utterly saturated.
I quite liked the decorate limestone walls and acacia trees which gave it a nice south western feel.

 

 

 

In terms of shows, we saw the Sea Lion show (Two actually) and the Killer Whale show.

 

The first Sea Lion show just showed off things like Walruses, Sealions and Otters, and spoke about how they are trained. Apparently if an animal doesn’t want to co-operate on a given day they just ignore it for a few seconds, then move onto another activity rather than pressing the issue.

 

 

The 2^nd show was Sealion high, same animals, but they had a couple of Sealions that apparently had to finish their subjects to graduate. This was a bit more cheesy, eg for Dance/Drama class they had the seals dancing and flapping fins, for debating they were barking over each other etc.

I probably preferred the first show, it was easier to watch and more informative.

 

 

Outside the arena is a sea lion area called Pacific Point Preserve that is a bit smaller than Seal Harbour, but with nice looking Californian style timber buildings.

 

We didn’t see the main Shamu Rocks show, but we did see the educational one. It’s still all the same tricks/ behaviours, and the crowd still gets wet from tail slapping, but the format is a presenter answering various pre-recorded questions about killer whales (how much do they eat? How do you train them? Why is their fin floppy? Etc) It wasn’t bad, and probably a better format anyway than the theatrical shows they have run previously,

 

I would have liked to see the Beluga whale show, but it was on too late in the day and we didn’t feel like sticking around for a couple of hours for show time to come around.

 

I found this unintentionally funny:

 

I felt the park was a bit light on with the animals overall compared to the other SeaWorlds, and our Sea World. Maybe it was just the spread out nature of the park making me feel that.

The exhibits were well done however.

 

The penguin encounter exhibit had a few types and really big colony. You moved past on a travelator, so it was easy to get a good view. There was also a smaller secondary area with some cute puffins.

 

 

Alligators had their big swampy type area. About as interesting as you’d expect.

There was a fish food dispenser! My favourite.

 

 

There was also an indoor Animal Connections exhibit with a few quirky animals like snakes, cockroaches and armadillos. This exhibit felt a bit older, like a traditional natural sciences museum.

 

 

No pelicans, but lots of flamingos.

 

And that’s the extent of the animals in the main SeaWorld park. At the other end is Discovery Point, which in Orlando is known as “Discovery Cove” which is a smaller exclusive park where you can swim with animals.

 

The format here is that it’s included in your SeaWorld admission, but there are seemingly no gate controls stopping people who want to see some Dolphins and a free aquarium.

 

 

The dolphin area has some shallow pools where they swim up close. I presume you can’t feed them anymore

The underwater area follows that “whimsical sea” theme they first used at Manta in Orlando, but it seemed a bit depopulated down there sadly.

 

Explorers Reef was a very extensive aquarium actually, and probably my favourite animal exhibit in the park. Had several tanks of various sizes, so you got a good cross section of different under water environments, from sharks to sea horses.

 

 

 

So that’s the park. It was quite a pleasant and relaxed place. In terms of what I’d do with the place, an indoor attraction of some sort would be welcome....The new rescue coaster will certainly do them in the coaster department.

 

 

 

But more animals would definitely balance out the place better.

 

[downunder]

Yeah Sea World San Antonio seems like the most light on of the those parks in the US. Got San Antonio on the rough itinerary for next May/June might check it out for the new coaster, or just stay at Six Flags and ride Iron Rattler another 100 times LOL. 

[Gazza]

Lets finish this!

Last but not least is Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

http://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-102-Six_Flags_Fiesta_Texas

 

It’s a newish park about the same age as Movie World, with various Texas themed areas...An wild west type zone, a German settlement, a Mexican themed bit, a gulf coast boardwalk, and a roaring 50s themed town. Most stuff seemed to fit the zones, except for the two DC superhero coasters.

 

 

 

The park is easily the most pleasant and best looking six flags park. Well maintained, and a nice setting built in an old quarry with cliff walls forming the barrier around the park.

 

There is also a largish water park with a texas shaped wave pool, but I had no time for that.

 

 

The first ride I did was Superman Krypton Coaster, which is a huge B&M floorless, and probably the best one out there. Recently they have added VR to the ride, which seems sacrelige to do to your flagship high capacity coaster, but the VR was quite good, and seemed better managed than at other parks.

I got on the first train back row with VR and did an immediate re-ride front row, with no VR.

The VR was basically  that you were on some sort of high tech metropolis city suspended monorail (Like the Wuppteral Schwebebahn). Lex Luthor fires an anti gravity gun at you, and the track breaks up and everything starts floating upwards, along with cars, uprooted trees etc.

 

A cool touch was at one point you get grabbed by a lex bot, and in the refection of its lens you would see a person wearing a VR heatset, and if you moved your head the guy in the reflection moved their head too. Quality.

The rest of the ride you can imagine was a battle between Lex and Superman, looping around buildings, laser beams and heat vision fired at each other etc. Silly thing though was my headset had no sound, but others did, which probably made the experience more muted than it should have (Excuse the pun!)

Goggles off, the ride is excellent. The first drop runs up to the top of a cliff, then drops off, into a huge loop, then back up onto the cliff, around a helix, then off again. From there it’s a zero g roll, cobra roll, the mid course brakes, and a couple of interlocking corkscrews, all at a fast pace.

 

Moving along was Batman the ride. Still no idea why SF still uses the old 1990s batman design and logo.

You head into a small indoor batman lab themed area, but once you’re outside it’s classic six flags “theming” with a ride plonked in grass with pool fencing and a few themed signs.

 

Why does the ride booth look like a caravan park cabin. Shouldn’t it have metal trusses and old brick like a Gotham city building?

But, the ride! 

It’s pretty good, an S&S free spin. I know that the Intamin ZacSpin is pretty polarising. Some people love the intensity, other people find it very uncomfortable. This ride certainly improves on that. The axis of rotation of the seats is closer to your heartline, the drops are less sudden, and overall the experience is more accessible to more people. The ride was popular all day, and people stepping off seemed happy.

 

As for the ride, just heaps of quick flips, the drops seemed a bit more controlled with magnetic brakes. I’m not sure how much they cost, but they seem to be spreading quite quickly.

Nearby was Kiddee Koaster, which takes out the golden ticket award for the worst ride name.

After that I hit up Poltergeist, which is a premier launched coaster into a ridiculous tangle of track with 4 inversions.
It's a shame more of these don't exist, because they are up there with a hyper coaster in terms of visual impact. This one ran very well, and had no mid course brakes either, so I thought it was fantastic. Just a shame I had no time for another ride.

I jumped on the Ferris wheel to grab some photos before moving on.

By this point things were getting busy, so I picked up a flash pass, booked a ride, and then rode roadrunner express in the meantime.

This one is basically a big mine train on a hill, but actually a pretty decent ride...smooth, well paced, good helices and exciting. I guess I had to ride all the bad mine trains first before finally getting to do this one.

Next up was Iron Rattler, a pretty kickasss RMC coaster. The ride features an enormous steep first drop with a bit of an s bend kink on the way down, after that yo come up into a cliff with a "sideways airtime" turn.

Before you drop down again and come up into a zero g roll (sort of, you finish much higher than where you enter so its sorta like a zero g meets barrel roll) at the top of the cliff again you muck around a bit doing a few turns / opposite banked turns. You can see how this was perhaps the nexus for similar elements at a much larger scale on later RMC rides.
Theres one last big drop off the cliff, and a unique turning tunnel that is mined through the cliff wall, before you hit the brakes.
This one sits towards the front end of the RMC pack, so I made sure I rode again later on.

I booked another coaster and headed over to Pandemonium. Its another standard Gerstlauer spinner, which I have reviewed previously.

There's also a Scooby Doo shooting dark ride in the same area. The paramount parks used to have these till they were rebranded as "boo blasters on boo hill". The sets were almost exactly the same, except for a few Scooby cut outs, and you were shooting money bags rather than bottles of potion.
The difficulty in shooting targets spoils the fun, but it was a nice escape from the heat for a few minutes.

My time slot rolled around for the Boomerang, and I snagged a front row ride which was nice.

Finally, I got around to Goliath, Another batman B&M inverted coaster in as many days.....so that's every B&M invert in the US ridden! Its positioned quite well along the front fence of the park.

With all the coasters ridden I booked a ride on Bugs white water rapids, and did a re ride on Iron Rattler and a lap on the train, which is great for getting pics of Superman.

Bugs whitewater rapids is a Hopkins flume like WWF, but with more lift hills and i guess a somewhat interesting layout that runs over and under itself in the middle of the park.

It has a 'roller coaster' drop:

And a few looney tunes sculpts, but not much of a storyline. But it was enjoyable.

I finished the day with one last shot on Batman. I was with family, who were borrowing the car for the day, so only intended a few hours in the park anyway.

Overall, SFFT is quite a decent park. Several good coasters with Iron Rattler, Superman, Batman and Poltergeist (And of course Goliath!)
The family coasters, Roadrunner and Pandemonium round it out well.

There's a good range of flat rides and water rides. too.

(I regret not riding the "billiards jail" ride)

And the place does look nice.

In terms of other rides, hopefully they get a Justice League clone at some point.

A hyper using the cliff edge would be amazing...maybe when SF start building big coasters again

So that's all the parks in this trip done.
 

****************

 

 

*********

 

Not quite done, after SF Fiesta Texas I hit the road to visit one last park.

 

About 50km of San Antonio in Seguin is ZDT’s Amusement park. It’s not a big place, but I wanted to go ride the new Switchback, which is a shuttle wooden coaster by the Gravity Group, running their timberliner trains.

http://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Seguin/ZDTs_Amusement_Park/

 

 

ZDT’s itself seems to be a realisation of many enthusiasts childhood dreams where you’ve driven past an old factory or vacant lot and imagined a theme park on there. This place seemed to be an old grain silo and distribution centre, so there are go kart tracks and other things winding through the buildings.

 

And grain silos that are rock climbs.

 

But it’s also nicely presented and kept, combining old with new.

 

The main indoor bit is the heart of the place with games, an indoor playground, simulators. Standard family entertainment center stuff.

 

But outside are actually a few decent rides. A couple of zamplerla family flat rides.

 

Somewhat untouched by certain safety regulations....

 

And a small water park area with a master blaster as the drawcard. All they need is one of those water play structures...It’d be perfect.

 

So, not a huge number of rides, but actual good choices.

 

But the best thing is of course the Switchback coaster, which is better than many full sized GCIs. An impressive investment for a park of this size, and would work well at a smaller park here in Aus IMO.

 

The way it works is that out of the station is a loop of track that has the lift hill, a very tight turn at the top, and the first drop. At the bottom of the drop is a transfer track that serves at the start/end point of the main shuttle layout. This transfer bit is also used to move the train to connect with the station again, or if it moves the other way connects with the maintenance track.

(Here the track is running straight through off the first drop into the main layout)

 

But from the first drop (impressively steep), you blaze through a whole bunch of quick turns and small hills, including even cutting under an awning of an existing building with a good head chopper.

The small train is quite nimble and maintains its speed, so it feels like it’s all done at a million miles an hour.

 

The 90 degree banked turn is cool too.

Eventually you reach a vertical section of track, a bit like a mini tower of terror, get almost to the top, then fall back and reverse through the layout, at still considerable speed. Eventually you get back to the transfer track, which has the brakes. You then get shifted over and fed back into the station.

 

 

One of my favourite woodies, and the shuttle design is quite flexible. There’s no need to connect the layout, so the track can just snake and thread through where it wants till it reaches a natural dead end.

 

 

 

The places is good and well worth stopping in. Check the website, but I got cheaper admission by arriving after a certain time (6pm?)

[downunder]

Thanks for the informative report, I've got San Antonio pencilled in for next year and hopefully I'll get down to ZDT. Iron Rattler was closed last time I was there due to the incident at Over Texas so I'm keen to get on that one.