32 Hours Of Road: SFOT-Holiday In The Park

jimths08 · #1 12-13-2005, 06:42 PM

This was my first trip to SFOT and Texas at that. Half the coasters were closed. (Mr. Freeze, BTR, Flashback, and

Texas Giant)

Friday November 9th-7:30pm: After watching the annual Chevy Chase: Christmas Vacation, my aunt Gail-43, and 2 cousins (Keith-13 Barbie-19) arrived at my house in HighlandIllinois which is about 30 minutes east of St. Louis. I grabbed my bags and hopped in the back seat of her Dodge Dakota. We talked for about 3 hours through Missouri until we hit Rolla which is 1 hour west of SFStl. Three of us fell asleep and Gail kept drving. Next time I awoke, we were just getting out of Oklahoma City and heading south for the Texas border. It being my first trip to the Lone Star, I had 4 criteria to meet; 1-hear a texas accent 2-see a group of cowboys in the middle of now-where 3-get poked by a REAL cactus 4-ride at least 3 coasters to get my yearly total of 175.

Saturday November 10th-8:30am: We took 35W into Ft.Worth and then 30E to the park. Most of that means nothing to you guys... 30 minutes later we got our hotel, La Quinta, at 9:00am which was about 0.5 miles from the parks front gates. Our window looked out at the park and we saw Mr. Freeze, Batman: The Ride, and Flashback. The park opened at 3pm so me and my cousin Keith roamed around the park for awhile and took video and pictures from outside the gates. A few follow here:

jimths08 · #2 12-13-2005, 06:44 PM

SFOT-Raising The Bar

The view out of our hotel window.

Stalker Shot

This part of the ride looks pretty sweet.

This shows just how close the coasters come to the boundaries.

Then entrance less than 100' from our room.

jimths08 · #3 12-13-2005, 06:46 PM

I figured you guys would want to see the grass...

and ducks.

Yay! Heartlining!

You never want to see this after you drive 900miles...

jimths08 · #4 12-13-2005, 06:48 PM

Apparently, the log flume is closed. BTW, SFOT had the first log flume.

This part of Titan has awesome laterals in the front.

Note the Mr. Freeze cars, all 5 are there.

Random Mr. Freeze track... I've always wondered the thickness of the steel.

The loops have great positive gs on Shockwave.

If that doesn't tell you anything, re-boot your brain.

jimths08 · #5 12-13-2005, 06:50 PM

Oh no! Keith is going to eat Mr. freeze!

I wonder why they call them 'flat spins.'

Saturday November 10th-2:30pm: After waking Gail and Barbie up back at the hotel, we packed up and started the walk to the park. 20 minutes later we were through the gates and standing in LooneyToonLand under the water tower waiting for Bryant, SFOTsource, but after 30 minutes, he never showed. We made our way to Runaway Mountain. They weren't even letting people queue up so we blew that off and headed to Shockwave.

Shockwave-7/10

No theming but since there wasn't a line, that was just fine. We got the front row so I could get a POV and some pictures. The lift was about as fast as a mine train especially at the top. I really wasn't expecting much from this even though people had told me it was an 'awesome' ride, of course those were complete fan-boys. The first drop seemed as steep as the lift and really wasn't nothing to yell about. The loops were pretty awesome with the positive gs, though they didn't have that signature airtime at the top that I love. The rest of the ride was pretty blah with only foater air until we got to the hill that runs parallel with the station, the last hill; it had some pretty sweet ejector air that got my attention. The brake run was hard and the banking transistions were reminesent of NL noobs. After that we rode once more in the back row, less airtime than the front but still fun. I have to say that the support structure shakes like crazy, some parts sway a good 2-3 feet.

After getting our first two coasters in, we went over to Superman: Tower of Power. This ride was pretty neat as it was my first S&S space shot. Though it did more than the Intamin drop towers, it didn't have as much air and was too controlled. It felt like the air system was controlling the airtime. I liked the single rider line as it allowed me 3 rides in about 20 minutes. The view was great and I'd give it a 8.5/10.

With that out of the way we headed over to Mine Train

Mine Train-6/10 The ride was pretty fun and had some nice theming and head choppers. Don't put your hands up though, it doesn't pass the tunnel test. I chipped my nail twice. The third lift out of three was the neatest as at the top there was a little saloon with 4 or so wax dudes in there messing around. The drop afterwards was a steep one into a tunnel. The banking transition was horrible though, the worst I've experienced. It banked before it even started to turn.

After this we headed over to Runaway Mountain and waited about 1 hour in that line. It broke down once but a deck of cards passes the time nicely.

Runaway Mountain-8.5/10

This was my first dark coaster, so it was pretty thrilling. We sat in the back so on the drops we had a really nice whip. I couldn't put my hands up out of pure scared-ness. I couldn't see the supports or nothing. Only drawback was that it was really short, only 45 seconds long I'd say.

By the time we got out of that it was dark and someone told us that Titan was open, so off we went! We ran through the crowd all the way to Titan which was a huge blast with the air in the park. When we got there, the line was about 1:30 minutes long but we waited it out. Here I got to see my cactus, even though it was a lighted yard one... Keith and I took front row in the station and 15 minutes later hopped on.

Titan-9/10

This ride was pretty neat. The lift was really fast and the view even better. The first drop had floater air but even that died when we hit the straight section. The fastest I had gone before this was 74mph on Raging Bull and I figured 10mph more wouldn't be that much, boy was I wrong. It was ALL the difference. Blazing fast into the tunnel and up into the hammerhead, in the front this element has some crazy laterals and being 150+' in the air makes it even scarier. Down the hammerhead and into the camel back was fast, the camel back had nice air but nothing to brag about. The helix after this was pretty tight with some strong held positive gs and huge headchoppers. Into the MCBR and BOOM, dead stop... Then we crawl forward slowly, into the drop with overbanked laterals 150' in the air. I looked down and was like

. It was high, the rest of the ride was fast and pretty neat but not near the adrenaline as the first half, the MCBR really kills this would-be-great ride. We got off, bought a photo and next did it in the back, not much difference on the drop but hearing the upstops on the camel-back was pretty sweet.

After Titan twice we headed over to La Vibora, the bobsled coaster. We got in line and waited about 20 minutes and just before getting into the station, it broke down. We got out of line and walked over to Judge Roy Scream. On the way we saw the Looney Toons gang doing a show on the main stage and a crap-load of christmas lights. They also had a snow hill set up for the kids to slid down.

Judge Roy Scream-4/10

This coaster puts woodies to shame, minimal air and no real thrill. I even rode front row! Headchoppers I didn't notice, speed I didn't feel. I liked the mine train better than this. One good thing, you get a neat view of the park since its seperate from it.

That was the last coaster of the day so I went and got my two standard souvenirs; a shirt and cup of my favorite coaster. We left the park and walked back to the hotel. As soon as I got inside I turned on my camera to watch the movie I had taken. BAD IDEA! Going from 30* outside to 75* inside was not healthy for it. Water condensed and the tape stuck to the head, as I took the tape out it bent the head and scratched the tape. The head I fixed but the tape is pretty much lost as of now. I got good pictures though, as you can see.

Sunday November 11th-10:00PM: I woke up and took a shower, packed my bags and we left the Lone Star. On the way home I saw my cowboys, they were at a gas station in the middle of no-where. I also saw the worlds biggest McDonalds!

jimths08 · #6 12-13-2005, 06:52 PM

Here are a few of the park pictures I took from inside the park. Sorry for the quality, I've only got a 3.2mp digi-cam.

SFOT's Mr. Freeze is rustier than SFStl's!

jimths08 · #7 12-13-2005, 06:53 PM

Water slides Gail rode when she was younger. Scared to death she says she was.

I hope you enjoy this TR, its not the best but it does it. Overall SFOT was the 2nd best park I've been to. SFGAm still tops it out not just because of the rides but because of the people and air of the park. SFOT was just not the best IMO, nice theming but thats it. 32 hours of driving for 6 coasters and 8 hours at a park. Was it worth it, yea! Better than being in 12* Illinois. BTW, it got up to 71* down there. As we were driving down, it was fun to see the temperature reading in her trucks thermometer steadily rise from 10* to 65*.

pipesdrums · #8 12-13-2005, 07:08 PM

Great reports and pictures! Sucks that everything wasn't open.

sfft_2108 · #9 12-14-2005, 10:05 AM

Nice TR. Did you not know that all some of the rides were going to be closed?

jimths08 · #10 12-14-2005, 04:43 PM

I knew they would be closed, even though they opened Judge just before we left. Titan was due to be opened but as you can see in the pictures, they must have been doing maintenace or fixing something. It did open after dark though.

jimths08 · #11 12-14-2005, 05:54 PM

Ummmm, there were 9 hours of daylight before the park opened to do that. They were up there for 4 hours before the park opened and the train was halfway up the lift for about 6. It doesn't really make a difference if they got it done before opening or not, as long as it DID open. It really could have been anything, they were hammering on the train while it was on the lift. I don't think routine maintenance requires pounding but ok...

HAHA, the saftey system works well, maybe if they didn't kill the speed with the brakes they wouldn't have to toil over them.

SFOT Source · #12 12-14-2005, 06:15 PM

If they didn't kill the speed with the brakes, then the ride wouldn't still be open and there would be some people 6 feet under the ground. The error was a prox switch error and it could have happened anywhere. It has nothing to do with brakes.

jimths08 · #13 12-14-2005, 06:46 PM

The speed has not always been as killed as it was I know, but it has been so for some time. It wasn't like last night was the only time the brakes completely stopped it. The rides are built so they don't need the brakes, its just the park that turns them on. Otherwise it wouldn't be as banked out of the brakes. If it was to be the best it could, it would only act as a block.

SFOT Source · #14 12-14-2005, 06:51 PM

The brakes have been turned on ever since media day. If the ride were to go right through the brakes, the G-forces would be too much to handle on the bodies of some, obviously.

jimths08 · #15 12-14-2005, 07:07 PM

When they design it, they make the gs so that they are comprable throughout the ride when its running at its max. If they made the ride dependent on the brakes, then the gs would be 7 or more on the final helix. They know that short little kids will ride it so they make it work for them and set the gs accordingly. The transitions are too flowy for it to be running at its max anyways, theres no whip or anything. The brakes being on is just SFI being the money saving people they are.