Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT) Discussion Thread

Speaking of the very well-done Holiday in the Park event, I uploaded a bunch of photos showing off the event, as well as a video of the pretty cool light show they have in the Texas section.

And for those able to visit the park, be sure and hit the SantaLand gift shop (in the Majestic Theater in Goodtimes Square). They're offering very cool Christmas tree ornaments made from the old Texas Giant structure! And for you unfortunate souls that can't make it, you can try and win one!

for those who were thinking of going to check out the progress of the giant today, I would highly discourage it at the moment. The exit ramp and highway 360 are jammed with cars trying to get in. Security is waving people around the corner to the far back lot to park. I came to town for xmas shopping and to screw off, so I'm reversing course and will come back tomorrow evening. It's just plain insane, never seen it like this before.

^^I would think the first option they would go with is finding a way to lighten the train to it's intended weight.

yeah just remove all the safety restraints that will lighten the load a lil bit lol

Houstonthrills and I made it into the park today and I got some great shots of giant. The park is a total madhouse. The flats are all boasting full queues. I haven't seen lines like this for most of these rides since the late 80s! Haha.

Houstonthrills and I made it into the park today and I got some great shots of giant. The park is a total madhouse. The flats are all boasting full queues. I haven't seen lines like this for most of these rides since the late 80s! Haha.

Awesome! Look forward to the update! Would make a great front page TPR story for a Monday morning!

^^ You're a brave man, I took one look and went on down the road. Thought about parking at the QT and walking up onto the center of the bridge looking over at Titan and the TG, but being as my frogger days are over, bypassed that as well.

I know SFMM was having a get in free day with a toy, but didn't see anything on it with SFOT so figured it'd be safe until around 4 or 5, boy was I wrong!

^ It was almost that bad on the Saturday after turkey day. The only things I rode were the train and the carousel, as those were the only things with queues shorter than an hour.

Here are a few shots of Giant today. I'll probably post the HitP crowd madness in another thread (since it's off topic)sometime and link it here.

Sexy curves baby!

they cleared out all the trees and brush in the infield... after over ten months of work??

these guys are still hard at work all over the ride. They also had two cranes in action most of the day.

These I beams were apparently wood on the old Giant and have just been replaced with steel.

Sorry for the stupid light in the way but you can see the chain is now working it's way up the lift.

And the thing that really made my day! They lit up Giant's little tree! They MUST have read my post yesterday!

I got some pictures of "that which we dont speak of" from Frosty's Snow Hill next to the music mill amphitheatre. And a couple from a friend on the structure itself...

^ Sweet! Nice Pics!! I'm probably going to be at the park everyday over the winter break now Can't wait to see the progress since I haven't been there since Fright Fest. I might do a full video trip report walk through thing at night and maybe a video construction report. But first... midterms

I still hope that they will extend the queue into the middle of the ride like Mean Streak, but they would probably have to since it is so short. That would call for some sweet offride vids!

On a positive note, those kinds of queues are a very good sign when it comes to the park doing better in terms of attendance and more importantly, future attractions.

The park was packed today. When we arrived, the park only had about 500 people in the gate. I stopped and asked a Jimmy in park services how many people were in the park around 7pm, they boasted about 19,000. Considering Gotham City, Flashback, all water rides, the oil derreck, and Texas Giant are all closed, plus next week is finals week at most of the local schools, that's a pretty phenominal turnout. The crowds haven't been this heavy in years. Looks like good things might be coming to SFOT. Hopefully they put as much effort into the rest of the park as they have on HITP.

Posted a Holiday in the Park TR in the Theme Parks, Rollercoasters, Sheesh section in the Forum. Check it out to see the great holiday lights around SFOT this year.

The crowds haven't been this heavy in years.

The park has had huge crowds during HIP over the last 4 or 5 years, especially on Saturdays and the 2 weeks when school is out. I've parked in the back of the overflow lot more than once on HIP visits in recent years.

I wish Italy still had a wooden roller coaster so they could turn it in something like this one!

I really hope to visit Texas one day!

I think I just came...

HOT!

Figured I'd throw in what I got today, the chain gang was still out at 4pm, they all packed it up and left around 5:15. Interesting to watch how they do it, I figured they just mount a winch at the top of the hill and start pulling, but as I saw, it's much more complex...

station shot, they had the lights on in the station, and a chair in place for the supervisor.

and several shots of the chain install

waiting for me

ok ok, and all of you too!!

there was a lot of welding going on on the transfer track. Looked like they were installing the drive motors

you have to look hard, but they are there

and for some classic ride shots to end the day.

sorry Texas, in Oklahoma we point longhorns down

New Texas Giant just looks completely freakin awesome. I can really appreciate the attitude that allowed them to try something like this.

Yep, I pretty much got the same pictures:

I did put together a poorly-stitched image of the view from the railroad here:

There's a higher-res version, along with various other images here: http://www.guidetosfot.com/features/giantreinvented/

Oh, I dunno... looks kinda frail to me.

P.S. This is Texcoasters Pic Not mine

Hey Tex quit focusing on the cons!!!

I'm so pumped for this... I might be coming in May!

Was out there yesterday and today and I noticed that there is a gap in the track, where I assume they're working on a joint. I wonder how many of those they're gonna need to fix. Also noticed some interesting stuff with regards to the queue, but I'll let Zingoman post that.

I am just wondering why the flying carpet finale to giant is referred to as "which we do not speak of"

Oh, I dunno... looks kinda frail to me.

Hey Tex quit focusing on the cons!!!

Sorry, not feeding the troll.

The only con I'm focusing on right now is CoasterCon at SFOT.

^^haha, why thank you sir Thrills! YES YES! Queue news everybody! Photos to come but basically it seems that Giant's queue will be consuming the current queue for Chaparral cars! There is a new entrance, exit, and queue being built for Chaps along the midway between the Lonestar Theater and the Oil Derrick. Here is a satellite mapout of what's being done and I'll show my pics tomorrow.

I am just wondering why the flying carpet finale to giant is referred to as "which we do not speak of"

Because we didn't want to jinx that portion of the ride for getting a total makeover because we loved it so much as it was.

I was wondering if they were going to expand the queue for the expected crowds or if they were just going to go Kings Island old school on it and paint a path on the ground with the TG logo in it or something.

If you stretched out the queue into a single file line, how far back would it need to go? Back to Spain, maybe, or would you run it towards Runaway Mtn and take that little cut through to Looney Tunes?

[edited to add:]

"Excuse me, sir, what are you in line for?"

"The New Texas Giant."

"But this is Looney Tunes Land"

"Yeah, I know. This is the end of the line. See the stripe on the ground?"