Having left Zuma's, the plan was to drive to our hotel to San Antonio but as we were running well ahead of time we decided to drop by ZDT's a day early as it was on the way.
Prior to 2015 this would have been a park that most enthusiasts would have driven by and not given a second look, with a small selection of rides and the main attraction being a go-kart track. However during 2015 they announced they were going to get a new wooden Gravity Group shuttle coaster, immediately putting it on the radar of most enthusiasts. I love that Escher like lettering!
Already winning us over at the ticket booth, this park has a reduced entry rate for people who arrive late like us, win! We decided to celebrate that by hitting the coaster first, after all the first rule of ride club is you don't ignore a coaster you've not ridden that is running.
This is the coaster, a beautiful looking train on a bizarre track arrangement, which starts off like a conventional coaster with lift hill, tight turn around and great first drop. The ride then whips around a 90 degree banked curve before hitting a near vertical spike, which slows it down and then sends it back the way it came in reverse. It eventually reaches the first drop which slows it down a second time returning it to a normal direction where a piece of switch track brings the train back into the station.
The coaster is great, and the park have played a blinder of a move in being the first to get this model of ride which could easily benefit a large number of parks. Quite a bit of our chat at this park was debating where we think this ride could be added and a lot of places were mentioned.
The other rides in the park, whilst exciting to the kids that were in the park we missable to us. The coaster was the main draw to us.
Such a good ride, but a little tricky to photograph well. It would be great if you could get within the ride structure especially on the ridiculously banked turn.
The go-kart track is great and after riding the coaster a few times we thought we'd give this a go too. The queue, whilst not long, did take a little while to get through due to each race being allowed to run for a decent amount of time. Featuring a long spiral climb and a surprisingly steep drop back to ground level, the race was wonderful but didn't offer much overtaking opportunity, not that I minded because I was in front :D
A large part of the park is taken up with a number of water slides. These close earlier in the day than the rest of the park, and had closed when we got there. However the park staff were very kind in allowing us to enter to climb the water slide stair cases so we could try to get some better photos of the coaster.
Such a great coaster.
So we really liked ZDT's and whilst I'm not sure we'd ever pass by this way again we do encourage anyone considering a coaster trip to Texas to include this in their route. The park is super friendly, not busy and is worth a few hours of your time.
For dinner we stopped by at a buffet restaurant where they were offering these.
The idea of someone putting their hand into your milkshake was an interesting one, and mine was made by an old friendly lady who charged us less for our meals because we'd arrived late here too.
Our hotel for the next few nights was the Om Ort Suites, and it was undergoing some maintenance. When we got their our receptionist was crying whilst trying to deal with a couple of customers. As she served us, still distraught, she was asking for help to someone on her mobile as she had just been told, literally minutes before that her husband had died. How terrible!
On a much lighter note the waffle machine here makes Texas shaped waffles!
Coaster of the day had to be Switchback.
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