You're Joking....The Joker's laughing gas is everywhere and black light designing accounts for some creepy effects.
But not as creepy as climbing into the yellow and green trains situated on royal purple track (the Joker's signature colors) and then being dispatched.....backwards......
It can be a little disconcerting, and unique too, as it is the only backwards steel coaster in North America. As you watch the station receding into the distance, you're aware of a tugging as the first drop leads you into a huge teardrop loop, and over 80 feet into that first element backwards is one of the oddest experiences in the world!
Out of the loop and up a bit of air-time inducing grade, an arc to the right eases riders comfortably through a double spiral before entering into a real snappy double helix and whisking into the exit trims.
Built by Vekoma (boy, these guys are busy), this is a family style coaster that delivers more than a fair share of good time thrills.
On this particular day, however, the lords of weather were not with us. As deep, dark storm clouds gathered about, we scampered into the Guest Relations building just as a thunderous downpouring of rain materialized out of the huge Texas sky. Everything in Texas is big, even the rain drops. After thanking the staff for their courtesy (even going so far as to drive us around in a little cart), we ducked back into the convertible and set our sights upon Houston. May I add, at this point, that you cannot get through Texas in a day, and though we had three specific stops to make throughout the state, it was still quite a lot of all-night driving stints in order to make our deadlines. Perhaps a future note to make in planning of more suicidal journeys like this one.
With the windshield wipers rhythmically working to the beat of a young Country station, we unwrapped a few candy bars and looked forward to another in-room sauna as the lone star state fell victim to frenzied tourists with a mission to boot. It was simply Astroworld or bust.