Tag: Airboat

The Steel Eel

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History of SeaWorld San Antonio

What hasn’t one already heard about SeaWorld Parks. The park in Orlando has been one of the most famous amusement parks in the world since the 1970s, and the park in San Diego, California, has been offering a successful – albeit still rather critical – mixture of animal and amusement park since 1964. The most exotic park in 1970 was the one in Ohio, which, in agreement with the nearby amusement park Geauga Lake, only featured marine animal shows. Shortly before the takeover by Anheuser-Busch, the fourth and last SeaWorld Park in San Antonio followed in 1988.

First of all, it is important to note that only people who come to the park especially for the marine animals will be satisfied. Thanks to the current expansion offensive on the part of the amusement park, this may change at some point, but without the shows, SeaWorld San Antonio undoubtedly offers far too little for the extremely high admission price.

Tour of the park

Super Grovers Box Car Derby

Now that that has been cleared up let’s start our tour through the theme park. Right at the beginning we come across the large children’s area Sesame Street Bay of Play. Here you’ll find an oversized playground and a handful of selected children’s rides, including the Super Grovers Box Car Derby roller coaster. Known as the Shamu Express until 2018, it featured an orca-shaped train. After the recent rebranding, Grover guides us in his soapboxes through the oval-shaped layout by the manufacturer Zierer.

Steel Eel

Since some areas of the park were closed for annual ticket holders, I was forced to head for the park’s biggest roller coaster, the Steel Eel.

This roller coaster from Morgan has been in the park since 1999 and features the typical out & back layout of the manufacturer. The Steel Eel is the smallest representative of its kind – which fortunately doesn’t mean anything, because the steel eel knows how to entertain its riders very well.

After a short dip out of the station, the train immediately enters a curve, which releases the train into the lift. Arriving at a starting height of 46m, you immediately rush down the increasingly steep first shot. With a speed of65 mph and a good pinch of positive G-forces, the train goes straight through the valley. On the following camelback hills we are lifted out of our seats twice in the most beautiful floating airtime manner, before we head for another valley close to the ground. Immediately afterwards we are already approaching the intermediate brake. With noticeably reduced speed we turn into a steep turn, which serves as a prelude for the brilliant bunnyhop finale. The speed rush takes us over several smaller and smaller hills, which can tear you out of your seat. Last but not least we cross a supply track in a wide S-curve before we reach the braking track of the layout.

The Steel Eel is a great roller coaster with a good amount of floating airtime, which probably gets even more when the coaster is run in and under the (more normal) Texan temperatures. At least I had a lot of fun on this ride, but unfortunately the dispatch was very slow, because first the seatbelt and then the bar are checked, which means you only saw the train rolling over the track every 5-10 minutes.

Wave Breaker – The Rescue Coaster

At the nearby Wave Breaker, fortunately, things looked a bit different and after a short wait, it was possible to go on a rescue mission sitting in the first row. After a short turn you get your mission briefing in a hangar, before you accelerate via a friction wheel launch. Immediately you go up a hill in a slight turn, which you leave in a wide steep turn. After two ground-near swings, you’ll make a right turn, followed by some ground-near maneuvers. A steep left turn leads us to the second launch section, which presses you into the backrest as usual. This is also followed by a high hill, which you leave in a steep left turn. Once again on the ground, we whizz across the lake in slight swings before we make our way back after a left turn. This takes us over a multitude of very flat hills and pressure-laden passages before we even reach the braking section of the layout.

Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster is a very cool roller coaster with a beautiful pacing and a good flow. It is a lot of fun to ride over the high hills and ground level passages. Of course the ride is not comparable to Djurs Sommerland’s Juvelen or Le Pal’s Yukon Quad, but this roller coaster is an excellent and welcome addition to the otherwise rather meager portfolio of the amusement park.

Great White

A good nine years after the amusement park opened its doors for the first time, SeaWorld San Antonio presented its first roller coaster to visitors. The Great White is the seventh delivery of the popular Batman layout from the manufacturer B&M and at that time the only ride of its kind in Texas. Compared to the rides at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags Over Texas, the Great White is the one where the park took the most effort and adapted the terrain to the ride’s layout. The result is a wonderful ride, which even after more than 20 years of operation is largely without any parallel. The ride through the two loops, the Zero-G Roll and the two corkscrews is simply timeless and mercilessly intense.

Rio Loco

An equally timeless classic are rapid rides. The ride through the rapids is always a refreshing experience, especially since there is also a waterfall here that catches everyone in the boat. The Rio Loco was my first rafting ride through a waterfall and is therefore especially memorable. As well as the Arab family, who entered here with a big suitcase. I have seen a lot of things in amusement parks, and it remains a mystery to me that the employees let them ride.

Sea Swinger and Riptide Rescue

This year, a new area is being created with Turtle Reef, where the rescue of sea turtles will probably be the theme. However, the aquarium was still under construction. The two associated rides Sea Swinger and Riptide Rescue could already be tested. These are a Zamperla Discovery and a HUSS Airboat.

Journey to Atlantis

The last attraction on our trail along the central lake is the Mack Rides SuperSplash Journey to Atlantis. The water roller coaster is similar to the Atlantika SuperSplash from Europa Park, but does without the small hill during the final descent, making the ride more like a classic Shoot the Chute. The wetness level of the ride is however very manageable.

In the end, all that remains is the animal shows and show feeding. Since the combined entrance ticket with the water park Aquatica San Antonio was a little bit cheaper online than the regular entrance ticket, I was drawn to the neighboring water park until the show One Ocean.

One Ocean

Just in time for One Ocean I got myself a tasty beer at the Food & Wine Festival and then watched the orca show. Generally I’m glad to have seen a whale up close, but the show itself was a waste of time and largely consists of soaking the visitors in the front rows with salt water. This was well received, after all it has been part of the concept since the 70s, but honestly, you don’t have to see the show.

Pictures SeaWorld San Antonio

Conclusion SeaWorld San Antonio

SeaWorld San Antonio is a huge theme park, but it lacks attractions. Fortunately, the original concept has been heavily criticized nowadays, forcing the park to expand massively in order to survive at all. The animal shows will give way to another range of attractions over time, so you can look forward to the future of the amusement park with great anticipation.

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Click here for the next report of the Texas Round-Up Tour

SeaWorld San Antonio / Texas Round-Up Day 4

About the Freischütz and other roller coasters

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Bayern Park

Bayern Park is one of the more highly praised amusement parks in Germany, and has attracted the attention of roller coaster enthusiasts since the construction of the Freischütz. We arrived at the park just in time for the opening, after all we only had about 6km to drive that day, and the first impressions were quite positive, although the weather wasn’t quite as good as the day before.

As most of the rides hadn’t opened by this time, we enjoyed the Heege Comet Swings, which offered plenty of airtime. Unfortunately we missed the whole upper part of the park where the wave swinger, an arcade with a butterfly in space optics and the second butterfly were located. So we did not visit this part of the park until the end of our visit.

Froschbahn

The main part of Bayern Park is located further down the hill anyway and can offer the first coaster ride of the day in the form of the Froschbahn. This small coaster from Zierer opened a little late, as it had to do some test rides. Thanks to a small group of young people, the train was packed and took a few laps around the small oval layout in a great atmosphere.

Achterbahn

Lovers of extra-long coasters trains will find something to their liking on Zierer’s New Tivoli roller coaster, with the incredibly original name of Achterbahn. This coaster is identical in construction to the Green Scream at Adventure Island in Southend-on-Sea.

After the train has left the station, it climbs the lift hill after a left turn and the train shows its full glory for the first time. The first descent is very flat, but quickly gains speed in a right turn. This is followed by a left helix, so that the layout becomes a figure of eight. Above the station building, the ride picks up speed again and the next valley is a powerful one. Another helix follows, this time clockwise, and circles the lift just before it takes the shortest route to the end of the ride.

The coaster has a very neat layout and makes a good impression due to the strong forces, if it weren’t for the totally incompetent staff. It’s a big mystery to me why, despite the covered station that the train was completely wet. The staff standing at the other end of the station did not even think to clean the train before the first guests arrived. Funnily enough, even Karlo’s taxi in Denmark’s Djurs Sommerland was cleaned by an elderly gentleman before our ride. But as the day went on, it became clear that this competence was lacking everywhere in the park.

Schmetterlingstanz and the luge of the game park

After a meandering ride on the HUSS Airboat Schmetterlingstanz, we crossed a bridge to a part of the park with little significance. Not every park can afford a completely filthy lake with a steamboat ride and an artificial Bavarian castle at its edge. A small boat ride through its visually appealing garden takes you to a grotto where a fountain of youth awaits – the hottest temptation for Americans since the dawn of Europe.

In this corner you will also find the entrance to Bayern Park’s game park, which is probably the only reason why it is worth making the long way round. Lovers of luges may disagree, but charging extra for compulsory rides in a theme park where even the Heege rides are free seems a bit cheeky. There is also another luge in the upper part of the park doing the same. 

Thalon

Back in civilisation, we were able to watch the first test runs of the Freischütz, but it didn’t look like the ride was going to open any time soon. So we climbed up the mountain parallel to the track, because at the top of this way is the indoor drop ride Thalon.

The ride inside the former observation tower is a Zierer Family Freefall Tower, the best examples of which are Tikal at Phantasialand or Majas Blumenturm at Holiday Park. In contrast to these ingenious rides, however, Bayern-Park has tried to enhance the ride with an irrelevant backstory and illuminated scenes at different heights without any animatronics. The concept itself could be good, but the ride should be more dynamic and not run in toddler mode. The interior scenes make no sense at all and could be omitted, which would make the ride even better and also improve the look of the tower, as the extensions for the interior scenes do not make the tower very attractive, even if the ugly colour scheme has already retouched some of it.

Next to the tower is a Zierer Kontiki with a stone-like appearance, which doesn’t really have much to offer apart from the queue, where you’d better watch your head if you’re an adult. But admittedly, it fits in nicely with the Thalonia theme.

Wildwasser-Rafting

Below these attractions is one of the highlights of Bayern Park: the abc rides Rapid River Splash Wildwasser-Rafting. At first glance, this beautifully designed ride does not look much different from the smaller rides from the same manufacturer, but the ride features a longer section before the lift hill and even a waterfall. Once you reach the top of the lift, the boat slowly but surely picks up speed and after the first combination of turns you will be spinning like crazy. The boats also have a very pronounced upswing, which makes the descent very entertaining. At the end of the slide, the obligatory splash awaits the passengers and, depending on the load of the boat, at least one person will get wet.

Freischütz

The second highlight of the park is right next to the rafting ride, but unfortunately the entrance is on the other side, so you have to walk a long way up and down again. Beautifully designed waiting areas have their charms, and the opera rollercoaster Der Freischütz certainly has one. A path under the inside tophat leads through two buildings with zigzagging paths to an open square before entering a maze. This is followed by a larger square before a series of smaller paths with various obstacles, but here only one path was open. At the end, visitors find themselves in a very modern station.

As soon as we board the train, the ride begins. After leaving the station we are launched into the first inversion. In the following valley we are pushed into the car with a lot of force, but we are also shaken quite a bit. The looping that follows is as intense as a looping can get. This is followed by an insanely intense bavarian curve with an equally intense heartline roll. This is followed by a more leisurely steep turn before the final inversion. Another right-hander later, we head through the station and, with a bit of luck, are sent on a second lap of the track. Most of the time the train is braked and brought back to its starting position.

The Freischütz is a very good roller coaster by the Munich coaster manufacturer Maurer Söhne, but it is notorious for its pronounced rocking of the cars, which is more pronounced at the front of the train than at the rear.

Pictures Bayern Park

Conclusion Bayern Park

Bayern Park is a well-kept amusement park with some good rides and good value for money, both in terms of admission and food. However, a park loses a lot of sympathy points if the staff turn out to be incompetent, unfriendly and, above all, unenthusiastic. Apparently this is quite normal in this area, as the staff at the premium partner hotel Schlappinger Hof were the same. Sure, Bayern-Park attracts tourists and you don’t have to like them, but elsewhere you’d at least get a smile or two on your face while serving your guests professionally and without grumbling – why they don’t do that here is highly questionable, even though it was only one day in the off-season.

 

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Bayern Park

Rides and animals in Thüle

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Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle

The zoo, which has existed since 1954, has managed to create a very well-functioning amusement park section through the additions of the last 20 years, which unfortunately robs the zoo of its visitors. While the amusement park part of the Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle was very well received, I could hardly spot any other visitor on my tour through the zoo part. This is more than just a pity, because this area was probably subject to some extensive renovation works in the last years.

The Heege Rides

The amusement park part of the park has its origin with the many small rides made by the manufacturer Heege, which is why you can find the classics Luna Loop and Sky Diver among others. But also a very rare Heege ride pleases every roller coaster fan with good taste, because here you can’t ride a normal Butterfly, but the large version instead. This one is not only longer, higher and faster but also more powerful. A special feature of this ride is that you can ride it with open bars. But there are also new types of rides in the park.

Drachen-Achterbahn

For the Zierer friends among us you can ride the Kontiki Swing Boat as well as a Force Two roller coaster model. I never saw this layout before, so I was really looking forward to the ride on the Drachen-Achterbahn, which had a decent track length for a children’s roller coaster and some speed.

Bobkartbahn and Storchenturm

I did not test the Wiegand Bobkartbahn in the Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle despite the appealing layout, because neither the queue nor the bobkarts moved significantly, even crept. Especially worth mentioning is the nearby Twist & Turn Storchenturm of the manufacturer Metallbau Emmeln, which offered a very good ride. Also the design of the ride catches the eye in a very positive way.

Spring Ride Tower

The Moser Tower Spring Ride Tower is similarly positive, but from the ride’s point of view it offers the worst possible ride for its passengers. Here, the kids stormed in without end, I myself left it at only one ride, as the tower braked rather unpleasantly, also the ride program was rather bad as mentioned above.

The water rides of Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle

For the soakers among us there is unfortunately not much to see except a Nautic Jet and an dinghy slide, so that one could only advise the park to order a log flume, or at least another tube, this time however with a curve, for their dinghy slide. The family audience of the park would certainly appreciate it, especially with the temperatures last Sunday.

Eiertanz and Airboat

Beside the funny Technical Park Apollo 2000 Eiertanz, which in my opinion could have swung out even higher, you could also board a HUSS Airboat. This ride was not as bumpy as the ride from the Danish BonBon-Land, but it was still appropriate for the audience.

Conclusion Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle

All in all, the Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle offers something for the whole family. The rides are already fun to a certain extent and even the roller coaster fan is well served here, which is also due to the large shuttle coaster. The entrance fee is very fair and also includes the quite big zoo, which one should not miss.

 

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Tier- und Freizeitpark Thüle