So I've been knocking around a roller coaster tour this spring and fall to ride some of the great ones. I hauled ass down to San Antonio to blast through SF Fiesta Texas just to see if I could still ride them. Concern was lap bars banging the bejeesus out of my kidney. As it turns out the kidney and lap bars are no problem at all. The rest of it's a bitch, though. I'm gettin old.
My plan was to hit 6 Midwest and East Coast parks in the Spring and five NE parks in the fall. After Friday evening I've realized that's stupidly optimistic. Looking like the Spring trip will just be Cedar Point, SFGAm, King's Island. Maybe Holiday World just to ride The Voyage. King's Dominion and Busch Gardens will have to be a different trip. Fall would most likely be Canadia's Wonderland, Darien Lake, Knoebel's, and SFGAd. Between all of these parks that covers a massive chunk of the best coasters in the US.
What I will say is that now is a great time to be doing this. Six Flags is limiting capacity with a reservation system (though that'll probably be axed before too long), and right now they're only open evenings on Fridays. All of the rides save for one were essentially walk-ons when I was there. Want the front seat? Wait one extra cycle. Moreover, SF is offering free parking at all parks with their season passes this year. With the already discounted admission costs, a season pass cost $5 more than a single day ticket+parking, and will get me into 3 of their other parks this year. So basically, dirt cheap (relatively speaking), and very little waiting in line. I'll probably hit SSoT this Friday just because there'll never be a better time (and I need to ride two I skipped in SA).
For what it's worth, Fiesta Texas is a nice park. It's built into an old granite quarry, so two thirds of the park is surrounded by a sheer 90' rock face. Several of the coasters go up, down, and through the cliffs.
3D map view Really quite scenic. They've got a great B&M floorless that takes great advantage of it, and the Iron Rattler is every bit as good as advertised. I wasn't sold on the RMC conversions, but now that I've ridden one I think it's a marvelous idea. You get the creakiness of a wooden coaster with the smoothness of a steel track. I didn't much care for the roughness of the Texas Giant, but now I'm really keen to ride the RMC conversion.
On the downside is the single track coaster. Phoenix posted a picture of the [still] upcoming Jersey Devil, which is the same ride as Wonder Woman at SFFT (one of the prototypes). Everybody seems to love the thing but I didn't like it a bit. It's so fast but compact you can never really tell what's happening, and the new style of restraints are just barbaric.* That was the second coaster I road, and it took half an hour before I wanted to get on another ride, and my collarbone was sore for days. There aren't many rides I have no desire to ride again, but any RCM single rail will make that list. It's like being tossed into a Cuisinart.
*The Jersey Devil picture makes them look so minimal and comfortable. They're anything but.
Topic: Amusement/Theme Park, County/State/Country Fair, and Overall Ride thread (Read 17983 times)