Got back mid week from a weekend and early week trip to the Texas Gulf Coast. We knew going into it that not everything was going to be accomplished and that's alright as there's always the next time but the things on our radar were:
Kemah Boardwalk
Downtown Aquarium
Galveston Pleasure Pier
Shlitterbahn Galveston
Moody Gardens
Houston/Johnson Space Center
Free Ferry to Bolivar Island
Other area attractions like those on the Houston City Pass.
We hit the Downtown Aquarium around noon on Sunday. It's nice, maybe I've hit too many cause I'm kinda numb to them these days but I will not exclude them cause it seems each one is the kids' new favorite. The glass tunnel feature of this place is the train ride through it instead of a walk through. There's other attractions like a white tiger and a few other non water creatures and some rides outside. The standard touch a stingray upcharge. There's a county fair sized ferris wheel, a carousel, a frog bouncer and a smaller shot tower themed to a light house. There's water spouts to get wet in and if you want some expensive food surrounded by even more fish behind glass there's the Aquarium Restaurant part of the place.
Spent about two and half hours and had fun.
Next, we got to Galveston before check in so we toured the downtown Strand area. Two Cruise Ships were at the terminal, a Carnival Magic and a Royal Caribbean. Kids saw the ropes course and water slides on the Carnival and that convinced them they wanted to do a cruise. A sidenote on this, Galveston is in the process of doubling the boarding capacity of it's existing terminals for the larger ships and possible add a third. I believe Disney sails out of there as well. Houston's terminal up the shipping channel that it built right at the beginning of the recession and sat there empty for years is now hosting Norwegian and Princess lines. Considering the economy and growing size of Texas this all makes sense. We ate the Joe's Crab Shack down there where my wife and I shared a good sized shrimp platter and the kids split a slider plate. We have expensive tastes but are cheap.
While here I noticed the fresh fish markets with the fresh gulf shrimp and found the place to make sure the cooler didn't go back empty on Wednesday. Here's the kids from the patio of Joes with the Offshore Platform museum behind them
Hotel called and the room was ready. Stayed at Best Western Plus. It's right across from Stewart Beach. It's nice for what it is and had the breakfast included. We had stayed at another BW+ in Corsicana te night before and it was nice as well. We had a good stay at the BW+ in Village West last fall(that one has an indoor pool with a slide). Tripadvisor didn't steer us wrong here.
From there, we got settled in and things in order and set out to the Pleasure Pier. We had buy one/got one free coupons for ride bands so it was 50ish for us and we had a buy one, get one free funnel cake coupon. Those were about 8 bucks for two. It's 10 dollars to get on without the rides, I can see why they do this, to make sure there's no just hanging out and it's a confined space. It's laid out well. Kids rode about everything. There's a CC like fireball ride, another frog jump, a Himalaya type flat, a swinging ship, a swing and the star flyer on the end of the pier is a blast. Iron Shark is the coaster, It's a very compact Gerstlauer Eurofighter with lap bar only restraints. It has the beyond vertical drop and several inversions It's very quiet and my rides in the front and the rear were smooth for the most part. It's intense for it's size. I can see one that size easily fitting into a building for a complete dark coaster experience. The drop almost screams a silo or feed mill theme. My daughter has a good commentary video from the ferris wheel on my facebook page. If it interests you PM me and I'll invite you to watch. They had both small kids bumber cars and big kids bumper cars. They had a live band playing 80's synth rock at the end of the pier. nothing like some Journey Separate Ways, Aldo Nova Rock n Roll Fantasy, and LoverBoy where riding the Ferris Wheel.
After the sun set on the Pier, we went to the Rainforest Café down the road to use our wristbands for it's boatride but we didn't eat there. We ate a Jack in the Box for the first time and called it a night after a little swim at the hotel pool.
Tuesday was slow to start but we got going to Kemah Boardwalk, again we had coupons for 1/2 price wristbands, here there's no entrance fee at all so the wife just shopped and watched. There's some repetition of rides here, with another Pirate ship and looper, ferris wheel, frog hopper but the drop tower is taller than the Downtown Aquarium and the observation tower is a must because....air conditioning.
The Boardwalk Bullet was why we were here. It's had some recent retracking and it's an intense little booger we rode about 10 times. It's a bit rough but it's a minute worth of woodie on an acre of land and I've been on much worse. May the Rocky Mountain Gods visit this one in the future for a complete retrack.
Finally, the kids won out and we actually ate at an Aquarium Restaurant. The boardwalk is a collection of Landry's Restaurants and touristy shops as well.
Now that we are done with Landry Properties, I think there's a bit too much repetition with the rides between the three we visited. It did advance my theory that any redo of Celebration City should be an open concept of eateries, shops, entertainment attractions other than rides and rides with ala carte or wristband pricing. The Boardwalk Bullet was 6 bucks on it's own for a ride.
Tuesday was Shlitterbahn. 6 hours spent there, this is one that partially open in the winter month so 1/3 is geared to be enclosed to it tended to have lots of shade structure and the torrent river is part of the inside section and mostly shaded or filtered light during the summer, the whitewater rapid river is completely in the sun. most slide structures offered good shade for most all of the climb to the top. the water coaster are ok, a bit short, there's two that are twins.
We didn't get to Moody Gardens, that place is an entire day 12 hr day and we are saving it for the next trip.
We planned on the Space Center on the way home on Wednesday but it was monsoon season that morning.
If Adventure Pointe at Texas City comes together in the next couple of years, thats a good cluster of activities for another visit along with the Wet and Wild in Houston and possibly the Grand Texas thing.
And for goodness sake if it's not the weekend when it's an hour or longer wait, take the free ferry and watch the dolphins swim along side you and take in the Fort Travis and the lighthouse
Oh we did hit the beach a couple of times
