Schlitterbahn

Day 4 would see us leaving our San Antonio base and heading north to Dallas. From now on until the end of the trip it would be a different hotel every day. Today's theme was Waterparks as we'd hit two today: the very popular Schlitterbahn and the not so well known BSR Waterpark. Helping to pad out the day we'd have two small parks.

But first we'd spend the morning at Schlitterbahn. I'm not a big fan of waterparks, I feel I burn too easily if exposed to the sun for too long but this park continues to win awards for being the best waterpark so it would have been silly to not give it a visit, which is exactly what happened in 2008 as it was a coaster trip, not a holiday.

We arrived in good time and tried to figure out how the place worked. If this was a crystal maze challenge we'd have run out of time before winning the game. Not wanting to get thrown out the camera remained in the locker until it was time to leave and I then ran around and took some photos before going.

The park consists of two smaller parks joined by a footpath and lazy river. 

The wake rider board was pretty popular. I don't have the bottle to do this, I just know I'd flip out immediately.


At one end of the park is a tower from which a number of slides run including the first installation of the Masterblaster water coaster. These are rides with water jets that can direct boats up hill so that the ride can run for longer. It also had the longest queue, for about an hour which wasn't fun. The thing I remember most about this ride is how much water would pour over you from behind whenever you crested over the top of a hill.

Dragon's Revenge is a second masterblaster installation found right up the other end of the park. This one has good lighting effects and other theming which made it the most fun of the two in my opinion.

The park has a number of lazy rivers. We spent most of the first hour going around the longer and faster one, which featured some fast rapid type sections making it a lot of fun. There were also multiple paths which meant frantic paddling as you approached. It was during one of those I failed to make the turn and found myself separated from the rest of the group.

There is plenty to do here and you could easily spend all day here. We only did the few major slides and lazy river before heading on. The park is not overbearing with their rules, which is perhaps why people like it so much. There are bigger parks with bigger slides so I'm unsure what it is that makes this place so special. A question that can remain unanswered for now.

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