The Rob and James show. PT.3

Woo, Magic Springs & Crystal Falls, or.... 

 "now the closest park to me I've yet to visit is Six Flags Over Texas!"

Waking up... way to early in Branson got us on the road early to Hot Springs, Arkansas by way of Little Rock and a lunch stop. The drive itself was pretty long at 4 hours but it wasn't bad. For the most part it was on town roads / county roads / going past small villages with a population less than any given Disney hotel...... But it gave us the chance to see part of America we'd never see otherwise.  Pulling up to the park we were met with some light rain and the idea of running to what rides meant the most to us, just in case of thunder or whatever rain policies the park had... So pretty much... as long as I got on Arkansas Twister, the only woodie in the state.... I'd be happy.

Anyways... onto some photos.

Welcome to Magic Ghetto Springs.

The parks luxurious entrance, Arkansas' only real park. 

 Once inside the main gate the parks waterpark, Crystal Falls is to the front and left of you.

 Walking quickly to get to Twister you have to pass into the waterpark itself 

 The waterpark was fairly large and was clearly where the new investments for Magic Springs were going.

 We has originally planned on spending the second half of our day going on the slides but due to the weather outlook we opted to get as many coasters in as we could... just in case.

On our way to Twister I couldn't help but watch people failing on the Flo-Rider

(I've tried it... twice... elsewhere.... never again!)

The parks layout is pretty poor. We found more than a few paths that have been closed off or blocked with benches. Also, the placement of Arkansas Twister is slightly bizarre. The water park has slowly cut it off from the rest of Magic Springs so it ends up being on the complete opposite side of the park from the rest of the other coasters and dry rides...

 But its a fun little ride, even with its G-Trains its very rerideable and not rough at all. We must have ridden it 10+ times.

((annddd it was relocated from Florida!))

After both front and back seat rides on Twister, Rob and I quickly made our way over to the other side of the park for X Coaster, the only other ride here I *needed* to ride to make this park worth it. (Rob was insistent on riding Big Bad John too, solely for its name!) 

 In passing we saw the parks Miler kiddie coaster, Diamond Mine Run, running.

In the past I had seen the park had no issues with adults riding it but a few reports coming from this year had indicated they were now turning away taller/adult riders... So I was questioning if we'd even be able to get on it.... Not that it would really be a big loss...

Luckily, no problems were had 

(and I'm 6.2 as well)

+1!

 Climbing up the hill to get to X Coaster we passed a sign that said....

 I was informed we must ride it, now.

So we did. Big Bad John, uh... the most oddly named Mine Train I've ridden?

Originally this was located at Six Flags St. Louis and paired up with the remaining side of what is the incredibly boring River King Mine Train. I guess Magic Springs ended up with the "better" side, if you could call it..uh.. better. 

With Rob happy we rode the stupid named mine train.. it was off to the only Sky Loop in the states... woo woo

X Coaster! Maurer Söhne goodness!

This was my first time getting to ride the "standard" SkyLoop

(I've ridden the extended version, Abismo. As well as the bastardized G-Force model... and the terrible non-inverting Rip Ride Rockit)

Based off Maurer's 50/50 record with my experiences and their "X-Car" rides... I was slightly nervous it would beat me up.. but it ended up running fantastically.

Over the day we rode it some 20 times, most of the time we were riding it 2 or 3 times in a row.

While I think Abismo is better, X Coaster was still a lot of fun.

 (rumor says its days in Arkansas are numbered)

Ah... the slow rollover inversion... Some 150 feet off the ground with just a (clunky) lapbar. <3

I'm a big fan of the whole... vertical lift that brings you into the inversion, while still on the lift

Slowly creeping upside down waiting to roll over and over again into the drop...
Each time reminding myself that this happened... :D

After our first few rides on it we decided to pretty much...skip.. Gauntlet, the parks SLC in favor of a few flat rides (see, I guess I'm not a credit whore, a skipped new-for-me coasters to ride some crappy Zamperla flats!

I'm not a fan of the Zamp Hawk... but it was ridden, twice oddly....

I guess its not bad.. I was just spoiled with the Vekoma version at Riverside (SFNE) that's just SOOO much better.

We also rode the Zamp Power Surge, one of the few rides they make that I actually really like.

I think they call it Wild Thing here, its the first park model one I've ridden although I've ridden portable models at 4 other parks. woo?

Next to Wild Thing (CORRECTION! "Wild Thang") is the parks little S&S Double Shot, Dr. Dean's Rocket Machine

I think the sign for the ride is taller than the tower itself... But most double shots are fun so we rode this one, twice.

Walking across the covered bridge to the back side of the park I got distracted by this duck.. uh, DUCKSTRACTED!

quack quack quack

Ugh, lets get this over with.... GAUNTLET!

The biggest baddest coaster in Arkansas... or however the park over-hypes it...

Vekoma SLC goodness (it wasn't so good....)

Gauntlet is kinda... odd... the ride feels like its in time out or something.. its in a semi-abandoned area at the far end of the park. On the right you have a path completely blocking you from access to the rest of the park and to the left is an overgrown field of weeds... battle scars on the ground show where the On-Ride photo booth, was, and there aren't any other rides within a 5 minute walk of it.

When it opened back in 2004 Vekoma made a big deal that this ride was gonna be the first with their new redesigned wheel assembly that would provide a more comfortable ride.

......

it doesn't help.

OH RIGHT, and THIS happened too!

While the sun never really came all the way out for us, it did heat up rather fast. Although neither of us really wanted to do the waterpark at this point we opted for a few rides on the parks Log Flume and Splash Boat.

Old No. 2 Logging Company Log Flume.

The "2" is for how many logs were being used.... A line of maybe 20 people took us a half-hour of queuing but the ride itself was fun and had some rapids and a tunnel but sadly, only a single drop.  

Plummet Summit (not to be confused for Summit Plummet) was also ridden as well as a few cycles while standing on the bridge in the splash zone.

 Not really in the rest of the waterpark is Splash Island, the parks new for 2013 water play area. I believe this is where the parks old Wild Mouse "Twist 'n' Shout" stood until the end of last year.

On our way out of the park we took a ride on the parks Carousel

If I were the park I'd have been embarrassed at how poor the condition of the ride was. It almost made me sad.... but it was kind of the trend of the day. Magic Springs was rather nice overall.. but they need to invest on upkeep and remove the holes where rides once stood, now you just find large empty plots, some with queues still! The park could really be great if the owners put some money into it, but I guess without any real return on their investment they won't do much... sadly. In the end I'm still glad I got to visit the park and Arkansas Twister and X Coaster were both worth the effort. Before I keep rambling and conclude this update..... we had to make a stop at the gift-shop.

WHERE THEY HAD THIS GIANT GUMMY BEAR!!!!

And some of the most random yet park related shirts I've seen so far.

It's a pet peeve of mine when you can't find merchandise for a park at the park. Even if its ugly, I still like to see park branded stuff rather than junky crap you can find at Hot Topic or the Dollar Tree. Magic Springs excelled in park branded items showing off lots of different rides.... oddly enough, none of them were rides found in their own park. Lets take a look.

 Man, this RAPTOR shirt from Cedar Point is bitchin' 

Oh wait, it says Magic Springs on it, not Cedar Point.

 

And I must have missed it when both Silver Bullet and Xcelerator moved from Knott's to Magic Springs as well, or is that for the 2014 season? 

 GAME ON! 

 For the parks nonexistent Schwarzkopf Speed Racer!

(Whizzer, anyone?) 

And... while not showing other parks rides.... 

THIS....

needs to stop.

 YOLO!

 I don't know, I was kind of amused a park that had gone out of business and was closed for five years was selling crap stating "you only live once" YOLT isn't as catchy I guess.

So yeah, Magic Springs.... get here before it goes out of business again!

Bonus photo via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/361996651348512768

Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/361710123623784450
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/361909941709193216
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/361923374362001409

3 down, a lot more to go....