Today marked the reveal of the current plans for the Grand Texas theme park, which will be a part of the newly named Grand Texas Sports & Entertainment District. To be located near Houston, Texas, the complex will be spread out over more than 600 acres and include the theme park, a water park, amphitheater, retail and food outlets, RV park and sports fields.
Naturally my interest is in the theme park and water park (to be named Big Rivers Water Park) and happily for us detailed concepts related to these were released today. Well, at least for the theme park - the water park we will have to wait on I suppose. Above we see an image that shows off the themed sections of the park - all to different parts of Texas mind you - and their size. With names like Pecos Territory, Flint Ranch, and the Grand Boardwalk we can gather that both historical and modern themes will be utilized.
This look at the park's layout gives a description of all the rides and attractions, and there's an awful lot to look at! Picking out some of the highlights there are several coasters including a wooden, large steel, children's, mine train, and quite the oddity: Greezed Lightnin'. The ride clearly has the same layout as the coaster that stood at Kentucky Kingdom until recently, however that was chopped apart so I'm not sure if they have a plan to recreate it or what. Quite strange!
Lasso's Corral is a children's area packed with rides, and spread throughout the property are plenty of fun items. There's flats like a freefall, Carousel, Ferris wheel, bumper cars, disk'o, screamin' swing, and balloon race. More unique attractions like tractor and stagecoach rides are also included. Even bigger rides like a river rapids, dark ride, and splash battle style ride are also shown.
Some nice concept art of several portions of the park were also released - this is the main entrance area. The theming looks nicely done!
Here is the Grand Boardwalk area, located along the park's central lake. There's a mixture of flat rides and games in the area set among bright colors and appropriate theming.
And this is a most interesting view of the Pecos Territory, complete with what appears to be a wooden (or faux wooden?) mine train. The splash battle ride is in the foreground and again the theming that is being dreamed up for the park looks wonderful. I sure hope it turns out that way in reality.
A new website for the Grand Texas development has been launched, which can be viewed by clicking here. According to reports the current plan is to have the water park open for Spring of 2015, and the theme park by the end of that year. Plans also call for construction to start at the beginning of 2014 by clearing the land and laying down infrastructure.
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