Hey guys!
I recently took a quick trip to Houston and was able to check out the brand-new Schlitterbahn Galveston Island, the world's first "convertible" water park. Here are some photos of the park, and below I've copied my commentary about the new park that I wrote over at TPR. Enjoy!
Entrance pool with lazy river access
Now over to Wasserfest, the eastern side of the park:
Lazy river and Wasserfest, the year-round section
Body Slide tower in Wasserfest
Now, over to Surfenburg..
A schlitterbahn specialty, the Boogie Bahn
There were a lot of nice, shaded cabana-style huts great for the picnicing
Surfenburg is home to two very similar Master Blasters...
... and two family raft rides!
Too bad they only allow a max of 3 per raft
About 1/3 of the park remains under construction, scheduled to open "summer 2006"
Anyways, thats about all I have as far as photos to show off the park goes. Now for a look at the attractions and an overall glimpse into the park.
To start the day, we entered the park a little later than expected, but it wasn't that crowded at all. You could still see a lot of the work that still had to be done, but still there was a lot to keep us entertained as it was. Our group of seven proceeded into the park and found a spot over in "Surfenburg", one of the three main areas of the park. Surfenburg is home to some of the park's biggest slides, including their dueling Master Blasters and a pair of family raft rides. The other sections are Blastenhoff, which remains closed as they were still constructing most of it, and Wasserfest, the "convertible" part of the park. The latter section can be used year-round and it is pretty interesting to see all of the ways that they open and close the structure.
The park itself seems a lot bigger than it really is, a few city blocks at most, but it does take a bit of time to get around. Of course, you don't have to walk - the park's lazy river system is massive in size. It wraps around the entire park (and will continue to do so once Blastenhoff is complete) and the journey can take 20 mins I'd guess. Plus, it cuts away where you can stick to the indoor part if you please. The indoor part is where the wave pulses are created as well, which unfortunatley causes a traffic jam in the tunnel near the three-way merge point - other than that, just a fantastic attraction. It keeps flowing pretty well and I really liked the added element of a random wave here and there. I'd recommend using this as your transpotation if you're not in a hurry, because its both relaxing and a way to avoid those hot pathways.
OK, back to Surfenburg. The two Master Blasters feature similar-yet-mirrored layouts that are unforunately quite short. I personally enjoyed the one at SF New England better... still, one of the better rides in the park, even if short. The rapids rides were very different from one another. The one featured a triple down sort of run that produced some high speeds and decent thrills, wheras the other flume (the more popular one too!) was more windy and based on the high-banked turns and spinning. Fun ride, and a nice people eater, if there ever is such a thing at a waterpark (note: they say they seat 4, but won't allow more than 3 in the raft at a time..). The only problem is that the tower needs to get some better signage since there were two lines.. instead of being one per chute, they were one per loading side of the longer chute. The triple down chute wasnt very popular, and on top of that, people who did want to ride had to try to navigate through the masses of people looking to ride the better side. Oh well, hopefully they pick up on that.
The rest of Surfenburg included a couple of "beaches" to access the lazy river, a kiddie play area, and a trio of smaller body slides that were actually pretty fun.Oh, yea... and it was called Surfenburg for a reason I suppose, they had their BoogieBahn in the area as well. A rediculously long line prevented me from trying it out, but it seemed to bring a lot of smiles out and sure looked great.
Now lets talk about the stuff in the middle of the park, mostly food and shopping establishments. The park doesnt offer very many options in terms of food, and while pricey, there is some decent value. The BBQ Haus had all sorts of selections - pulled or sliced beef, pork, brisket, chicken.. all sorts of varieties. However, while the sauce was pretty good, the meat was cooked to "bleh" standards.. wouldnt be bad if not for the $8/plate price tag. The pizza was provided by Papa Johns at $4.50 a slice Im not sure if they are any cheaper than SFI (I didnt get to see the size since they were out of pizza when I wanted to give it a shot). Finally, they also had a burger stand back in Surfenburg, but I cannot testify about it much other than I know my cousins enjoyed their meal and raved about the fries. Souvenirs wise, there is one shop near the gate that seemed to specialize in surf gear, and another under the main pavillion that sold more Schlitterbahn merchandise, and while prices were fair, the selection was weak. Very little park-specific stuff =(
Getting back to the good stuff, the Wasserfest is really funky looking but still pretty cool... I can only imagine what it looks like all zipped up. This part had another neatly-themed kiddie play area (right near the swim-up bar for the parents), along with a tower that had four tube-in-tube slides. Well, at least two of them are fully enclosed, I think the other two also were convertible. These were the biggest suprises, as they were really sweet little slides. The Wasserfest also is home to the tallest tower in the park, a structure that has two enclosed, twisty body slides and a sort of double-dip slide that is the current steepest in the park. I believe the tower in Blasenhoff will both be taller and feature a truly steep drop. Still, these slides were pretty darn sweet and got big thumbs up from my family.
So, that's about it for now. Even though 1/3 of the park is missing, Schlitterbahn Galveston Island is still really cool. There is a good bit to do, and its pretty much all quality, plus its a Coke park which makes things even better. This park will be really sweet once they finish it, and I am eagerly anticipating my return to the "completed" park. Thanks for reading =)
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