We'd been planning a trip to California for June, but with less than a week's notice, changed our minds and went to Texas for Easter instead.
On Friday, April 6th, we drove an hour North to process season passes to the Denver Six Flags park. Cpst was $47 per person. About 1:15 PM we were back on I25 headed South. We stopped for dinner near Roswell NM, where we didn't see any UFOs. We got a room in Carlsbad NM a bit before midnight.
Saturday we spent 5 hours touring Carlsbad Caverns, then drove to San Antonio TX.
Sunday was Seaworld for $150 for the family of 5. Better then $250 at DLR. In addition to the animal shows and the chance to feed and touch dolphins, they have a couple great coasters and a couple other rides. Their big coaster is 150 feet high with a 80 degree first drop that really takes your breath away. The other is an inverted VERY similar to Batman the Ride at Six Flags parks. Great day.
Monday we went into Mexico at Loredo for some shopping. Tuesday we visited the Alamo, and the Ripley's museum. About $60.
Wednesday we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was free with our Six Flags season passes. It was 95 with 90+ humidity, while at home they were having a blizzard.
Krypton Coaster is AMAZING!!!!!! No Disney Park has anything that comes close. It is a 160 foot tall floorless coaster, with most of the fastest parts of the track about 10 feet from a granite cliff. The sense of speed is amazing, as are the 8 inversions, including a loop, an in-line twist at the top of the second hill, and a couple cork screws bookending a boomerang turn......
They also have Poltergeist, a powered launch coaster with a launch much more powerful than Rockin RC. This is actually a bad thing, as the track that follows the launch has way to many flips, twists and turns for the speed and tiny area. I left this coaster quite motion sick (probly not helped by having ridden Krypton Coaster 2 times in the previous 15 minutes). I'd have preferred to just do the launch, then have to ride the whole coaster again.
Their big woody coaster is the tallest in the world(higest point to lowest point), but the first hill only comes part of the way down, (remember that granite cliff?) so it doesn't have the tallest first hill (but close). As with most fast woodys, it's rough. Glad I rode it once, wouldn't do it again. I far prefer to ride their smaller woody over their big one.
Their Boomerang, was.... Well, it was a Boomerang. Been on one, you've been on them all.
They have a shoot and drop tower called Scream! The best non-Tower of Terror, tower ride I've been on. The log flume was okay, if under themed, and the raft ride left me far too dry.
After Fiesta Texas, we drove to Houston. Thursday we did the Natural Science Museum because a duahgter wanted to check out the Dino display. After the museum, we went to Galveston to the beach.
Friday we did Six Flags Astroworld. The one coaster I really wanted to do, Texas Tornado with 4 circular loops and max Gs of 6+, was closed. The other coasters were running at very low capacity (1 train), resulting in long lines. Didn't even go on their stand up becuase the wait would have been 3 hours.
The woody is smaller than many (meaning smoother), the inverted is okay and the suspend was kind of neat for how different it was from most other coasters. The indoor coaster was VERY LAME!!
The park was in VERY bad shape, with peeling and/or faded paint nearly everywhere. Very disappointing, but it was also free with the Six Flags season pass! We ended up leaving earlier than planned. After astroworld, we drove to Dallas.
On Saturday, we did Six Flags Over Texas. (Yep, included in season pass). We were there early, and high tailed it straight to Gotham City.
Mr. Freeze is Awsome!!!!!! It is a shuttle coaster, with a unique loading system that allows them to run two trains on the same main track. You board the train, then the moves left or right to align with the main track. The LIM launch is more powerful than RnRC. You then turn up a 90 degree hill, twist 90 degrees, roll over backwards 180 degrees so that you are traveling straight down, twist back 90 degrees, then flatten out for a high G, 270 degree corner on a hill. You then scream back up a 90 degree cliff. There are LIMS on the track here, so you keep going up for awhile after you feel like you should have stopped. After you finally stop, you do it all again, backwards. It is a bit of a rough ride, so it only ties with Krypton Coaster for my favorite coasters ever.
After Mr Freeze we did Batman the Ride. Did I mention this was similar to the inverted coaster at Seaworld. It is. Glad we got both of these done within the first half hour, because they had long lines all the rest of the day. Mr. Freeze was down for long portions of the day.
Mine Train gave a bit of a sense of coaster history (it is older than me). Snockwave was a cool steel looper, if a bit short. Texas Giant is a fast woody, read way too rough. The bobsled coaster was cool, again because it was so different. Didn't even go on their Boomerang. After all, if you've been one one boomerand, you've been on them all. We skipped the indoor because of how unimpressed we were with the other six flags indoor. Skipped the small woody because of the lingering pain of Texas Giant.
We also skipped the log flume, raft ride, and splash boat flume. How many of these can you do in a week?
By 5:00 PM we were on the road headed home. We arrived at about sun up on Easter morning after a 15+ hour drive.
We did the whole trip for about $2000. That includes about $300 for 200 gallons of gas, about $400-$500 for 8 nights in hotels, $550 for all passes ($250 for Six Flags season pass, $150 Sea World, $50 for Carlsbad Caverns, and about $100 for the museums and such), $500 for food and shopping, and even $150 for boarding the pets.
Beats the $6500+ we spent on WDW last November, but we did have to do way more driving. The theming was way better at WDW, but the rides were way better at Six Flags. I'd rate the vacations equal in fun, so for 1/3rd the price, I'm already planning my next vacation to St. Louis, Cleveland, and Chicago. Six Flags, here we come!
On Friday, April 6th, we drove an hour North to process season passes to the Denver Six Flags park. Cpst was $47 per person. About 1:15 PM we were back on I25 headed South. We stopped for dinner near Roswell NM, where we didn't see any UFOs. We got a room in Carlsbad NM a bit before midnight.
Saturday we spent 5 hours touring Carlsbad Caverns, then drove to San Antonio TX.
Sunday was Seaworld for $150 for the family of 5. Better then $250 at DLR. In addition to the animal shows and the chance to feed and touch dolphins, they have a couple great coasters and a couple other rides. Their big coaster is 150 feet high with a 80 degree first drop that really takes your breath away. The other is an inverted VERY similar to Batman the Ride at Six Flags parks. Great day.
Monday we went into Mexico at Loredo for some shopping. Tuesday we visited the Alamo, and the Ripley's museum. About $60.
Wednesday we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was free with our Six Flags season passes. It was 95 with 90+ humidity, while at home they were having a blizzard.
Krypton Coaster is AMAZING!!!!!! No Disney Park has anything that comes close. It is a 160 foot tall floorless coaster, with most of the fastest parts of the track about 10 feet from a granite cliff. The sense of speed is amazing, as are the 8 inversions, including a loop, an in-line twist at the top of the second hill, and a couple cork screws bookending a boomerang turn......
They also have Poltergeist, a powered launch coaster with a launch much more powerful than Rockin RC. This is actually a bad thing, as the track that follows the launch has way to many flips, twists and turns for the speed and tiny area. I left this coaster quite motion sick (probly not helped by having ridden Krypton Coaster 2 times in the previous 15 minutes). I'd have preferred to just do the launch, then have to ride the whole coaster again.
Their big woody coaster is the tallest in the world(higest point to lowest point), but the first hill only comes part of the way down, (remember that granite cliff?) so it doesn't have the tallest first hill (but close). As with most fast woodys, it's rough. Glad I rode it once, wouldn't do it again. I far prefer to ride their smaller woody over their big one.
Their Boomerang, was.... Well, it was a Boomerang. Been on one, you've been on them all.
They have a shoot and drop tower called Scream! The best non-Tower of Terror, tower ride I've been on. The log flume was okay, if under themed, and the raft ride left me far too dry.
After Fiesta Texas, we drove to Houston. Thursday we did the Natural Science Museum because a duahgter wanted to check out the Dino display. After the museum, we went to Galveston to the beach.
Friday we did Six Flags Astroworld. The one coaster I really wanted to do, Texas Tornado with 4 circular loops and max Gs of 6+, was closed. The other coasters were running at very low capacity (1 train), resulting in long lines. Didn't even go on their stand up becuase the wait would have been 3 hours.
The woody is smaller than many (meaning smoother), the inverted is okay and the suspend was kind of neat for how different it was from most other coasters. The indoor coaster was VERY LAME!!
The park was in VERY bad shape, with peeling and/or faded paint nearly everywhere. Very disappointing, but it was also free with the Six Flags season pass! We ended up leaving earlier than planned. After astroworld, we drove to Dallas.
On Saturday, we did Six Flags Over Texas. (Yep, included in season pass). We were there early, and high tailed it straight to Gotham City.
Mr. Freeze is Awsome!!!!!! It is a shuttle coaster, with a unique loading system that allows them to run two trains on the same main track. You board the train, then the moves left or right to align with the main track. The LIM launch is more powerful than RnRC. You then turn up a 90 degree hill, twist 90 degrees, roll over backwards 180 degrees so that you are traveling straight down, twist back 90 degrees, then flatten out for a high G, 270 degree corner on a hill. You then scream back up a 90 degree cliff. There are LIMS on the track here, so you keep going up for awhile after you feel like you should have stopped. After you finally stop, you do it all again, backwards. It is a bit of a rough ride, so it only ties with Krypton Coaster for my favorite coasters ever.
After Mr Freeze we did Batman the Ride. Did I mention this was similar to the inverted coaster at Seaworld. It is. Glad we got both of these done within the first half hour, because they had long lines all the rest of the day. Mr. Freeze was down for long portions of the day.
Mine Train gave a bit of a sense of coaster history (it is older than me). Snockwave was a cool steel looper, if a bit short. Texas Giant is a fast woody, read way too rough. The bobsled coaster was cool, again because it was so different. Didn't even go on their Boomerang. After all, if you've been one one boomerand, you've been on them all. We skipped the indoor because of how unimpressed we were with the other six flags indoor. Skipped the small woody because of the lingering pain of Texas Giant.
We also skipped the log flume, raft ride, and splash boat flume. How many of these can you do in a week?
By 5:00 PM we were on the road headed home. We arrived at about sun up on Easter morning after a 15+ hour drive.
We did the whole trip for about $2000. That includes about $300 for 200 gallons of gas, about $400-$500 for 8 nights in hotels, $550 for all passes ($250 for Six Flags season pass, $150 Sea World, $50 for Carlsbad Caverns, and about $100 for the museums and such), $500 for food and shopping, and even $150 for boarding the pets.
Beats the $6500+ we spent on WDW last November, but we did have to do way more driving. The theming was way better at WDW, but the rides were way better at Six Flags. I'd rate the vacations equal in fun, so for 1/3rd the price, I'm already planning my next vacation to St. Louis, Cleveland, and Chicago. Six Flags, here we come!
