Gary's 2013 TPR Mexico Tour Trip Report

I agree, I would love to do TPR Mexico 2015, just depends on when it is and what my employment situation is at the time as I am currently trying to get back into teaching again so if my time off matches the trip dates I definitely want to go again.

Wow looks like a really classy trip! Great photos and updates Gary

I was shocked that this hotel was part of the Holiday Inn chain!

 

 

Gor-geous. The lobby alone was worth the price of

just walking into the place, LOL!

And the rooms were amazing, too!

Hello everyone!

 

Thank you all again for checking out my Theme Park Review Mexico Trip Report. I have really enjoyed being able to share this experience and to see the comments, as well as to help serve as inspiration for those who want to visit. Today I have the day off, and instead of waiting until later to work on this next update, I decided to hop right to it! The first half of the day in the Guadalajara area, we went to Selva Magica, and the second half of the day we were given another great cultural experience as we went to the Jose Cuervo factory in the Taquila region of Mexico. With that being said, here is the next update.......

 

Day 5: Coaster and Cultural Drinking!!!!

Part 1: Selva Magica!

 

Selva Magica is more of a traditional park like that of La Feria, but a little more spread out. It is also part of a complex that also has a zoo next door. This park is of high interest to our nerdy coaster enthusiast community because of the history of their coasters. Our first ride of the day, Titan, is the former Sky Streak from Boblo Island in Canada. The second coaster we rode, Tornado, was formerly at Busch Gardens Williamsburg as Glissade (It was located on the current spot of Curse of DarKastle until 1985) and at La Feria as Tornado. While neither of these two coasters are the kind of rides that people flock from all over the world to experience, they were still fun ride. The park itself had a lot of charm to it and was fairly well kept. The park also earned bonus points for some of the quirky aspects like the "Alicia" walk-through attraction (if you don't know what this is, you will see below), and for having a sky coaster that was fairly low priced to experience (I want to say the regular price was 100 pesos, and that we were given a discount of half off, meaning we got to experience a sky coaster for a little less than $5!).

 

So let's take a look at how the day went down.

Here we have arrived to the parking lot, and if you look through the trees, you can see Titan.

A neat sculpture that is on the way to the park and the neighboring zoo

"I see you Titan!"

Another neat mural outside the park that I believe gives a depiction of the nations history. Didn't quite look at it enough to know for sure as we had other things to do......

...like going to our last park of the trip, Selva Magica!

You know, while these meeting locations are a great idea, I can't seem to find anyone who I am waiting for at them.

Welcome to Selva Magica!

Upon entering the park, our guide would lead us to our first credit of the day.....

....Titan!

While not exactly an extreme ride, it was definitely a fun old ride.

There goes the train out of the stations

While others prepare for the ride, Cliff is ready to roll!

First lap on Titan!

Here we see Robb doing what he does best, getting the footage that makes TPR videos what they are.....awesome!

After the first lap, many of us changed around seats to experience a different row.

Weeeeeee!!!!!

And the quirky strait-away!

Now, this was the one bummer of the day. Their coaster called Catarina was closed, and had been closed for sometime (maybe even multiple years). I completely understand that these kinds of things happen and cannot always be helped......

.....but the credit whore in me is sad

Again though, not really a big deal, especially since it was one of the minor coasters and not something more major. Plus they have something better up their sleeve which we will get to momentarily.

While we would get a chance to ride this a bit later, it was decided that a better coaster was to come next......

.....Tornado! Another Schwarzkopf classic. This was a really fun coaster to ride, and my first of this style.

And if you looked behind it, you could see the old Bullet that used to be at Flamingoland in the UK, as well as Boardwalks and Baseball in Florida....but we will see more of it a bit later.

Tandem style seating for Tornado. Notice the lack of seatbelts and lap bars......never in the US.

And here is our first group of riders

The spiral lift actually takes a while to get to the top of. I would say it was on par with Shockwave at Kings Dominion as having one of the lifts with a long time to get to the top.

Here they go down the first drop.

This had some nice curves

And they all approve!

JoAnna and I ready to take on the Tornado. But this won't be just any other ride....

This will be a POVoJ.....or a "Point of View over JoAnna"!

Up the long lift over JoAnna

Josh approves of the new POVoJ experience!

More lift over JoAnna

And here we go with the first drop.....over JoAnna!

And back up......over JoAnna!

And the brake run......you guessed it....over JoAnna!

And here we have more coaster nerds doing what coaster nerds do......watching the ride and taking pictures of it.

Now that we have ridden two of the credits, it is time to earn that last credit in the park...Jubile!

Although I have to admit that I am not so sure about this....for one, the shoulder restraints, and two......

....talk about a lack of leg room!!!

So as we follow Robb and Derek, one very important question comes to mind.....

....would my insurance cover a visit to a Mexican hospital?!?!

A nice view of the coaster from the top.

As it would turn out, it wasn't so bad!

Cliff is definitely ready to ride!

Up they go.....

...and down!

Another group of happy riders!

And thus would be the last new coaster to sit upon for the trip.....or would it?

While we had already ridden Tornado, we were actually heading somewhere else...

....a magical place where really big coaster fans always dream of going.

That's right, Robb and our guide made an arrangement to take us back where the Bullet was being stored so that we could get a better look at it.

And there are two pieces of the loop!

According to what Robb told us that the park officials were saying, the Bullet had been awaiting approval to be built from the government, and was on schedule to be opened in 2014. This was a big reason for Catarina not being open as they decided that putting Bullet in the park was a better way to use part of their budget than to fix Catarina......and thus I am ay-okay with them not having Catarina open as I am sure this will be a far superior ride!

More Bullet pieces

More loop pieces

And more Bullet!

Wait, Cliff, they said you could step on them for pictures.....no, don't tell me......

......Uhhhh.....well, I guess some people have a different way to show their affection for a coaster.

Anth follows his natural British instincts and claims this piece of Bullet in the name Queen Elizabeth II, so that the Sun will once again never set on the British Empire.

Supports!

Yep, just hanging out on a disassembled roller coaster!

Even the loop was not safe from being climbed on.

....But Cliff and I don't want to wait for them to build it. We want to ride it now!

What our faces would look like at this point of the ride

This is probably my second favorite picture from the whole trip of myself, second only to the one looking at one pyramid while sitting on the other.

In a nutshell, we basically turned the coaster into our own personal jungle gym.

This was honestly one of the coolest parts of the day at Selva Magica. Thank you to Selva Magica for giving us a chance to check the coaster out and get some great pictures with it!

With that, we will check out some of the other rides. Didn't get a chance to see what this one did as it was down for maintenance related work

Not only did I see one of these for the first time, but I would end up seeing two of them!

This ride was really bizarre, as it didn't go upside down, but each arm was able to move independently of each other, and thus would move in some awkward directions. It was a fun ride though.

There seems to be a correlation between log flumes in Mexico and trenches they run though. While I didn't ride it myself, I did get a few other pictures.

Skloosh!

And the other side of Skloosh!

Now comes the Sky Coaster. I have done many of these including the ones at Kings Island, Cedar Point, Michigan's Adventure, Kennywood (Which is my favorite for the view) and the 300 footer at Fun Spot. This was probably the shortest one I have ever done, and it was the only one I have done where I did not pull the cord. I let Cliff do that!

The walk.....

Here Larry and Jim are about to take their flight. So let us see what happens as they experience a Mexican Sky Coaster

Going up.......

The point where the announcer would say "3....2....1....FLY!!!!!!!"

What was even cooler about it was that they had harnesses that were small enough to allow Kristen to ride as well! She is a lot braver than I would have been at her age.

TPR members approve of the Mexican Sky Coaster!

And now comes one of the most.......interesting attractions at the park. Known as "Alicia"

In a nutshell for those who don't know, you enter Alicia through her ear, and are given an anatomy lesson by a host, then exit through her........ummmmm.....pant leg?

Would it be safe to say that Alicia is High Maintenance?

Look at all of those people who were in Alicia!! She may rival Cartman's mom for the most people who have been in her.

So I guess there really is only one thing to do....let's see this for ourselves!

Here we have her teeth....and it looks like either she has a nasty cavity or chipped a tooth.

This would be her brain

The right would be her intestines, but I am not really sure what the other side is.....I wasn't very good at anatomy.

Jeremiah loves a woman with a big heart.

And this is.......uhh.....again, I sucked at anatomy. To be continued

Edited September 7, 2013 by carolinacaniac

And let us continue with our adventure through a woman......

So uhhh......yeah, she is knocked up too. Seeing as how so many people have been in her, we may never know who the father is!

Oooooooo, ooooooo!!!!! I know these! The tibia and fibula bones in your lower leg! BAM!!!!! NAILED IT!!!!!!

And here we exit out of Alicia......yeah, I am not sure how I feel about being in a woman that so many others have.

.....Moving on, let us enjoy more Tornado!

Spiral Lift Hill Enthusiast Rejoice!

Action/Sign Picture.....Check!

Quite a fun ride if you ask me!

And now a look back at another fun coaster of the park, Titan,

Out of the station.....

....around the corner.....

....up the lift.....

....first drop....

....a little bit of airtime....

...some more air....

...around the corner and heading back....

....another hill..

....the quirky strait-away....

...and it wraps up with another small hill or two.

Just so you can have a sense of how long that strait away is.

"Weee!"

And thus we say goodbye to Titan.

On our way out of the park, the party was just getting started from the looks of it.

Cliff can't help but get caught up in the madness.....

...and this was the end result!

With that, we wrap up our visit to Selva Magica. This was honestly one of my favorite parks of the trip, and I would love to come back again, especially when they get Bullet built! Thank you all again for checking it out! More to come soon!

Nice pics! And a walk-through attraction about an anatomy lesson? I'm not so sure about that.....

Selva Magica was a really nice park, and the management was fantastic to/with us.

And before the year ends - Happy 25th Anniversary Selva Magica!

 

And that was my first time on a SkyCoaster! The cost was sooooo reasonable

(ours at home is at least $20 vs. $5 w/cpn at Magica's!) I had to finally try

one out. And, for myself, it was okay.

 

Keep up with the great report Gary! You're almost done, LOL!

Dude. A year later and this trip report still is AWESOME