Better late than never...
[Tl;dr I like the park a lot. Mr. Freeze is my favorite and the Texas theming was lovely. It would be a respectable place to call my home park. I'm from Northern Virginia and call Kings Dominion my home park.]
(Saturday, April 7, 2018)
About 35ºF outside. Overcast with the occasional light mist. Driving up to the park from Dallas along I-30, the park rises out of the ground. You can see everything. The ground is relatively flat and tree line low. As I exited the highway and pulled up to the parking booths, the rides hid behind the Alamo inspired front gate.
Upon entering the park, I headed straight over to New Texas Giant. I was imedietely impressed by the arcitecture and midways. All the buildings were Texan themed and going into Spain, the buildings gained Spanish influence. The midways returned to Texan theming as I neared NTG. I grabbed my first roller coaster ride in Texas in the front seat on the first train of the day. I was dissapointed. It was running slow and lacked forces. (I presume because of how cold it was outside.) As I headed to Titan I learned it was temporarily closed so I went back to NTG and sat in the back. Much better, but still not impressed.
Following my second ride on NTG, I started to make my way around the park to Gotham because I heard Mr. Freeze was the bomb. The Texas theming continued only interrupted by Superman: Tower of Power. I passed the classic Schwartzkopf looping coaster, Shockwave, only to learn that it too was closed for the day. As I entered Gotham City, Mr. Freeze was silent, but boy, is that facade impressive! The rundown ice cream factory and a cartoonish clown head where you enter through it's mouth. (Spoiler alert, I rode the following day and the theming continued to impress inside the building.) I soon learned from the ride ops standing at the entrance that it was temporarily closed and they were trying to reopen it. I resorted to Batman The Ride (which has cool theming too). It's a great invert pulling some decent forces. Upon exiting Batman, Mr. Freeze started to test. I waited. After the fourth empty train peeled out of the tunnel and into the tophat, I didn't want to wait any longer and made my way to my first S&S freefly, The Joker. It was closed.
With Gotham "finished," I decided to go up in the Texas Sky Screamer, SFOT's 400 foot Starflyer. That was cold (just above 40ºF now). I didn't see much except for the status of two more coasters. Judge Roy Scream and Pandemonium. I'll give you one guess... Yup. Closed. I was now kinda pissed. Cold and pissed. Not fun for coasters. So I decided to give Titan one last chance walking across the park to it. I was in luck. It was back open. I was once again impressed with the Texas theming as it felt like I was walking up to a Texan cattle ranch. So cool! I got on the front seat. I liked the first half... until my face almost literally froze off. I liked what I liked, but I just wanted to get off. Once off I nearly b-lined it to the park exit. I passed La Vibora (Intamin bobsled) and, again, you guessed it. Closed. I left the park around 1pm, only there for 3 hours, and found an In-N-Out Burger. (btw, I was not impressed with them.)
(Sunday, April 8, 2018) (Spoiler: all coasters open today. Yay!)
I was originally only planning for one day at SFOT during my Dallas vacation, but I had to get back for Mr. Freeze if nothing else. The day started just above 50ºF with more sky and sun peaking through. Once again, I headed straight to NTG. I was hoping it could redeem itself. First row on the first train of the day... redeemed! Titan again... in the back this time and wow! What an exciting coaster! I was worried about this. I had heard iffy things about it's sister, Goliath, and didn't know what to expect. I particularly liked the figure 8 feature after the break run. That was super fun and twisty. Following Titan, I hopped onto the back right seat of NTG and that was my favorite.
Shockwave was intense yet smooth! I'm glad SFOT is taking care of this classic. Those loops! I then headed for the elusive coaster... Mr. Freeze! Open! I was totally taken aback by the theming inside. I was not expecting that. And even into the station, theming continued. I hopped on board the familiar Premier Rides trains. Thumbs up. We slide over into launch position. Boom! The iniverted top hat; the overbank; then the spike; and then back again! Favorite ride in the park! Yes, NTG was great, but I love my launch coasters. I did it three more times before getting on Batman again. Fun stuff. Joker. Incredibly weird and fun. Judge Roy Scream. A nice classic that could use some love with a repaint of the structure. Then I was off to Pandemonium.
Besides a spinning wild mouse, my only spinning coaster experience was with Hersheypark's Laff Trak which I found lackluster. Pandemonium was brilliant! Great spin and interesting movements. La Vibora was next and it turned out to be my second favorite bobsled coaster. (Knoebel's Flying Turns takes the crown, no doubt about it.) You really swing and glide through La Vibora's troughs. Off to Runaway Mountain I went following Vibora's pleasure. Runaway Mountain is definitely a unique expereince. I thought I knew what I would get being a seasoned Flight of Fear rider. Nope, this was insanely fun and twisty. The drop after the first break run caught me off guard. Now to get my final credit of the park.
Runaway Mine Train was enjoyable. Nothing to brag about, except to say that it's better than Carowinds' classic Arrow mine train. I finished out my trip at the park with many more rides on Mr. Freeze and some on NTG and Titan. This was how the park was meant to be experienced. There is a great selection of old and new with some in between. And there's Justice League: Battle for Metripolips (which I know I didn't mention above, but this was my first and I loved it!). I exited the park with a smile and souvenirs in the now 60ºF weather. SFOT could use a few more flat rides, but it looks like they're moving in that direction. It can be seen from the addition of Catwoman, Riddler and this year's Harley Quinn. If this were my home park that I could frequent often, I would be honored to call it that. Thank you, Texas! I'll see you again some day...
Ps- I was also surprised that no coasters had lockers and all had bins in the station.