TR: Two Last Visits to Astroworld 10/14 & 10/21/05

Two last visits to Astroworld

While the amusement industry and enthusiast community has seemingly come to grips that Astroworld is no longer, I thought I'd take a minute to reflect back to two Friday nights this past October in which I made my last two visits to the park.

Friday October 14 had an added element to it by me being accompanied by a first time Astroworld visitor- Jim McDonnell. Jim and I had discussed hitting the State Fair and Six Flags Over Texas the weekend following PPP.

Following the September 12 announcement that Astroworld would indeed cease operations at the end of the 2005 season, I made it a priority for him to visit the park. You see, Jim is the source for everything Coney Island (New York). He rides the Cyclone dozens of times a year, and has often told me of his dream to eventually settle down on that famous spit of land in lower Brooklyn.

How could it be then, that one of the biggest Coney Cyclone fans could go his whole enthusiast life without riding the Bill Cobb interpretation in Houston? It simply couldn't happen, so with a little reorganizing, Houston was the first stop on a tiring but rewarding tour of Texas flags.

Arriving at the park for opening, we walked across the bridge spanning loop 610 and made a beeline for the Texas Cyclone. We walked through the clown's mouth, through the 1970s era queue house and up to the station before queuing up for 6.2 (or 3.4 in Coney Island). The Morgan train was hardly warmed up, so our first ride was more of a scenic tour of Cobb's masterpiece. Jim was dazed, confused, and somewhat pleased in that the ride had to offer. Texas Cyclone has always been a well-maintained ride. It has not always run rider friendly rolling stock, however. Or perhaps I should say the rolling stock has not always allowed riders to fully enjoy what this ride has to offer. Since 2001, the 6 car trailered Morgan trains have run sans headrests. A simple move to be sure, but one that has raised the ride experience up several tiers.

Cobb followed the Keenan/Baker blueprints closer than any of the other CyCLONES have. While it is missing Coney's magic carpet section, the Texas ride packs a few stellar drops and turns into its mix (granted most have been tamed beyond recognition from the 1976 version). Still, the end result is a ride full of wonderful forces and visuals. It will be sadly missed.

During the course of my evening with Jim at Astroworld, we systematically rode every coaster at least once (with the exception of Serial Thriller), and even caught a pair of rides on the vastly underrated Bamboo Chute log flume and Diablo Falls.

Being that I was fully familiar with what Astroworld is all about, it was great to see the park through a first timer's eyes, within two weeks of closing. I was sure the two Schwarzkopfs would do their thing, and true to form, they did. Ultra Twister is another ride like the Cyclone that will be sorely missed. Unique, fun, and actually quite intense.

After six hours and three laps around the park, we finished our night with two rides on the Cyclone. By this time, the ride had picked considerably in the speed department and was delivering the goods in spades. Jim left after his first and last visit with mixed and random emotions- bewilderment, sadness, who knows. To this day, I still don't think he gave me a firm answer to the "So what did you think of Astroworld?" question. I know it was something along the lines of it not being anything he expected.

A week later, I wrapped up my trip to Texas with a solo trip to the park to bid it farewell. As it would turn out, Friday October 21 was to be the last Friday night of Fright Fest as the park cut back on finale weekend hours to just 10-6 both Sat and Sun, canceling Friday's hours.

I arrived at the park around 3 hours prior to opening to meet with Kent Maulsby. Kent has been with Astroworld for most of the past 27 years, starting with the park the year Greezed Lightnin' launched into the Space City. A great guy with a true passion for his park, Kent was gracious enough to spend a few hours with me in his office and out in the park, affording me one final photo walk through of the facility before its imminent closure.

Seeing the start of demolition in Waterworld was not easy. After driving through an empty wave pool, we ventured over the Mayan Mindbender where I got the first sight of the ride with the lights on. Essentially a first generation Roller Skater with an unusual tandem seat bobsled like train, this little sucker packs a lot of track in a very small footprint. When Kent went to work in prepping the park for opening, I had a chance to venture around the boneyard and warehouse. The Astroneedle sits in pieces awaiting a new home that never came to be. Random ride parts from an Arrow Antique Car to a Togo Ultra Twister car sit on blocking waiting for nothing to happen.

I guess my goal for the night (if I had one) wasn't to ride all that much, but more just to walk the park taking in the atmosphere one last time.

Of course, I started off with a pair of rides on the Cyclone followed by one last Ultra Twister ride. Passing up Batman the Escape, I headed back to Greezed Lightnin' as the crowds had not yet gotten back there. Up until last year, Astroworld required there be two riders in each row on the two Schwarzkopf coasters, which limited the amount of rides I would personally get on them. With no anti-single rider rule in place anymore, I planted it in the last row for the first of what would end up being 6 consecutive rides. I never really "got" what the big deal was regarding Schwarzkopf shuttle loops. But on this day, I think I got it. Partially the amazing genius of Anton in how he was nearly 30 years ahead of his time, and partially the amazing launch, and air on the reverse spike after racing unchecked backwards through the station. During the course of the night, I also took rides on Serpent, Viper, SWAT, XLR-8, Bamboo Chute, and Dungeon Drop.

A real treat for this night was that the park was running its Steam engine. Two locals with an enthusiasm for steam trains were the engineers. Several old time Astroworld employees opted to sit up towards the locomotive nearly all night as the train circled the park. They periodically pointed out tid-bits of history to passengers behind them (like a Mini Golf Course that once existed where the Mayan Mindbender sits today).

The park was quite crowded, and queues were very full. Eventually, a second train was added on Cyclone and Viper, which helped quite a bit. With about 40 minutes left before closing, I entered the Cyclone's queue. I boarded somewhere near the middle of the train 30 minutes later with hopes of walking around for one last ride. Beating the queue closing by mere seconds, I got back up to the loading platform and got in line for 6.1.

After re-arranging with other folks so that they can ride "together", I was sitting in 6.2 for what looked like would be the second to last train of the night. Seeing me sitting alone, one of the seasonal attendants who had never built up the courage to ride the Cyclone jumped in with me for what was to be her first ride on the legendary coaster. As an added bonus, we arrived back in the station (after an amazing ride full of the best that the Cyclone had to offer) to find two people waiting for the front, so off we went again for what was ultimately my last ride at Astroworld.

The realization hit me as I walked down the exit one last time. Astroworld would be no more. This once historically significant park has been reduced to a teenage hangout, where families stopped going. The sadness I felt wasn't so much that of "I'm going to miss this place", but more of what could and should have been. Astroworld had everything- amazing location, huge population base, and no competition.

The "what ifs" (owned by another company, built further from downtown, etc) continued to mount in my head. The whole closing of Astroworld is tragic, despite the current state of the park. It's sad that Houston no longer has a theme park. It's sad that one of Houston's largest seasonal employers is no longer. But above all, it's sad because the park didn't have to close.

I'll remember Astroworld as a quirky park with a unique, lived in atmosphere. It didn't have the best of anything, but it also never had the worst. It held up with pride against the odds. Above all, the faithful management that stuck with the park through the years showed their class in going out with a bang.

In the end, Astroworld served Houston well. It will be missed.

-Mark

Nice Report Mark...

This is not directed towards you AT ALL

...but just after reading all of these reports about how amazing the park is and how sad everyone is that it's closing I'm in shock! I can't help but remember how EVERYONE Bitched and Complained about 'Six Flags A**hole World' and awful names like that! How the place was terrible, had no good rides, etc.

Wow, I mean if everyone thought the place was closing every year it looks to be the most popular park in the world!

I never thought the park was as terrible as most. I've had 3 very nice visits there! Which was even more of a shock since everyone complained about the place constantly!!!

Does anyone get what I'm saying?

Again, Mark, sorry to hijack your thread here, but I just couldn't keep silent anymore!!!!

I totally hear what you're saying, Elissa.

The biggest shame in all of this (this being the Astroworld situation), is what potential the park had, but was never met.

I mean, think about parks like Disneyland. Just *think* how much money that nice little parcel of land off the 5 in Anaheim must be worth. Yet, they somehow find a way to make it justifiable to run a theme park!

On a smaller scale, how about other parks like Canobie Lake? That piece of land is primed for residential development on the shores of a beautiful New England lake, yet the park continues to strive on- drawing well over half a million people a year!

I was never a *huge* Astroworld fan, but I was always intrigued by the quirkiness of the place. I can think of tons of themers that I'd much rather lose- that lil' park down the street from you guys in Valencia comes to mind...

-Mark

Those were some great TRs, Mark. Thanks for posting.

I'll admit I have not been totally following this story, but I thought one of the main reasons the park was closed was because they were going to be losing much of their parking facility. Was that not the case? Seems like if you have no parking, it's going to be tough to run a park.

I never made it to SFAW, as I've never really spent any time in Texas. I guess I should have made the effort, just to have experienced the Cyclone...

dt

I've never been to the park, so I can't really have an opinion on it besides what I've heard from others. I'm just sad I never got a chance to ride Ultra-Twister [have never been on a coaster like it, so would like to experience it], but I guess it's probably going to another park so there's still hope for me!

^ See, this is where I totally agree with Elissa (not just because she's my woman), because I too, actually liked the park for what it was, and out of about 10 visits only had 1 bad visit there.

BUT, it was nothing THAT special. At least not to me. It was a very nice regional park, and that's about it. Even the Cyclone, which I feel since the announcement has been over-rated, was only a "slightly above average" woodie IMO. The original, Georgia, Aska, and Viper were better versions IMO, and Psyclone, obviously worse.

Most of the coasters there were "dated" with the only recent new coaster being an SLC and the last "new" coaster before that was what, XLR-8 built in 1984?

The park itself I actually thought was nice, it just suffered from not having any stand-out attraction that would really draw enthusiasts from out of state to the park, unless they were there for a "Texas Trip" and made a stop by.

The fact that so many people I know who have been just about everywhere, but never made it to Astroworld kind of proves this point.

I feel that the people of Houston are the ones who really miss the park the most, because for a regional park, it was really nice, and I'm bummed for them. The place had a lot of potential, but for whatever reason, they never seemed to put much investment into it.

As for the rest of the world, and I hate to say this, but you're not missing that much. There really wasn't anything at that park you can't ride somewhere else. Think about it....

Cyclone - I can think of at least 4 better versions (Origina, Aska, Viper, Georgia)

Batman - La Ronde has one of these

Ultra Twister - You can't move in Japan without hitting one.

Mayan Mindbender - Just rode one of these this year at Bobbejaanland

SLC's - Are a dime a dozen

Shuttle Loop - IMO, the park's biggest loss, at least there are three more in the North America, one in Europe, and a few in Japan.

XLR-8 - Plenty of other suspendeds, and this really was the worst of them all...well, ok, maybe tied with Iron Dragon!

Viper - There's one at Frontier City

Don't get me wrong. I *AM* bummed that the park closed, especially when it didn't have to, and it really offered the people of Houston something nice. And this is what, the first "major" Six Flags park to close in probably the companies history? IMO, for that reason alone it's significant.

But if you never made it to the park, don't let people fool you into thinking you really missed out. And while I agree with Mark that there are a lot of other parks I would rather see close, I would have also sacrificed Astroworld to save quite a few others.

--Robb

I thought the park sucked ass, but...

Its sad to see millions of people now without a park. Sure, they can go to Japan or Quebec or Oklahoma, but most won't. Fortunately, I have a feeling Houston won't remain park-less for long, so that's not too big of a deal for me.

I am more or less pissed that Six Flags would close the park, and the circumstances that they cited as just cause to close the park. To me, the business side of it is where I get frustrated more than anything.

I'd delete this, but the little x in the corner is gone.

I am more or less pissed that Six Flags would close the park, and the circumstances that they cited as just cause to close the park. To me, the business side of it is where I get frustrated more than anything.

I'm right there with you!

Robb's thoughts pretty much sum up how I feel as well. I picked up my Astroworld credits while doing a "Texas triangle" trip, also picking up the parks in San Antonio and Arlington. I've been back to Texas twice and I've been close enough to go to Astroworld but I didn't. The first time I had time for one park and it had to be SFOT. The next time it was SFOT and SFFT as I had time to visit two parks. SFAW was a distant third option for me. Yeah, if I knew I'd never have another chance to visit the park again I'd have probably stopped by since it had an varied collection of coasters. But only a few of them were worth reriding.

Aside from the rides, the park itself didn't stick out to me. It seemed cramped for a Six Flags park. It wasn't ugly but it was average looking. I've never been the biggest fan of the look of SFGAm compared to SFOT or SFOG (or even SFGAdv) but SFGAm is nicer looking than SFAW was. Either way SFGAm has a much better coaster selection as do the other parks I mentioned.

SFAW reminded me a bit of Nagashima Spaland based on the caliber of rides, minus Steel Dragon. They had the same model Schwarzkopfs too. But Spaland was a much more attractive park. Another park I can compare Astroworld to is Canada's Wonderland. Clearly PCWo is a very attractive park that blows away SFAW for looks. But the coasters at PCWo haven't drawn me back to the park for 12 years. In that respect I think it is like Astroworld.

Regardless of how I feel about the park it is a crime that it closed down. The Houston market seemed to support the park just fine considering that only one brand new coaster was added over the last 20 years.