Typhoon Twister - NOW OPEN! (HHSTL)

It has been a long time coming, but Typhoon Twister is now finally open to the public.

Enter under the main arch and join the queue line.

You wait in this line for a raft.

The setup for the queue to retrieve rafts is extremely smart.

Next you get to carry the raft up to the top of the slide.

Typhoon Twister features two distinct components.  The first is a mega bowl that sends your raft around like a toilet.  Once you go down the hole in the middle you enter the next section of the slide.

Here you navigate a large wave turn sending you soaring up the slide wall.

Finally you go through a short tube section before hitting the splash pool.

Typhoon Twister is now open daily with Hurricane Harbor.  The waterpark will operate daily through Labor Day weekend.

Typhoon Twister (HHSTL)

Well Typhoon Twister is still not open.

They have a sign at the entrance saying that it is is "temporarily closed" but don't believe it, there are zero chances of it opening today.

I sure hope that when they do reopen it that they plan to add some shade to the queue area.

So long story short, a woman decided to not hold on to her raft and got flung off of it.  She hit her head and received a possible concussion.  She is now pressing charges against the park. This happened within a few hours of what supposed to have been opening day for the slide.

So because of her stupidity, no one gets to ride the slide while the legal team decides how to proceed and what it will take to reopen the slide.

So thanks to this woman, you don't get nice things.  I hear they are working on getting it cleared to reopen with massive testing, but at this point we are unsure how long that will take.

Typhoon Twister (HHSTL)

It has been about a week and a half since our last Typhoon Twister update and we are sad to report that the ride is still not ready.

With that being said, they at least have all of the pieces of the slide in place now.

They are setting up the queue area now.  We are hoping that the raft there against the fence is because they plan to start testing soon.

They've added fence along the drop off by the catch pool and put posts along the pathway to the stairs to the load platform.

Looks like the pump house is getting closer to being ready to operate.

Here's a good look at the first part of the slide that leads to the bowl.

Who is excited to carry their heavy rafts all the way up those stairs.  It appears that they finally have all of the railing in place on the stairs and platform.  I would imagine that they will put a shade covering on top.

Finally here is what the slide looks from the other side.  The run out tube from the fan wave turn is now in place.  So what is everyone's guess on when this will finally open?  We guess maybe the 22nd at the earliest.

Typhoon Twister (HHSTL)

Construction is still on going for the new Typhoon Twister water slide.

Here is an elevated view of the new complex.

Forms for the queue line to the stairs have been created.

This is where the run out for the body slides used to be.

They were in the process of cutting holes in the pavement for those wooden poles.  I would imagine that they will probably be used to mark the entrance and exit pathways.

Here is a closer look at the complex.

The hole at the top of the platform is where the entry slide parts will be placed.

Here is the wave turn.  You can see where the water sprayers will be located at towards the tip of the wave turn.

This is the catch pool for the slide.  It looks like you will get to carry your raft up to the top for this slide much like over at Tornado.

They were working on the tube portion that connects the end of the wave turn to the catch pool today.  I believe there are a total of 3 sections that need be placed still for this part of the slide.

This gives a better size comparison to just how big this slide is

They still need to place some more lip parts on the wave turn area and obviously they have several sections at the top that still need to be placed.

Thankfully the parts in the parking lot are getting fewer.  The big section here is the section that will connect to the catch pool at the end of the slide.

Here you can see the entry point for the slide and then the other section will lead you to the bowl section of the slide.  I would imagine we still have at least two weeks minimum before the slide will be ready to debut for the season.

Typhoon Twister (HHSTL)

Some major progress has been made on Typhoon Twister, though it is still pretty hidden from inside the main park.

From the parking lot you can see that most of the bowl element has been installed already and the frame for the wave turn has been built.

Here is a better look at the bowl element and the support structure for the wave turn.  You can also see the large tower which will be for the loading area and stairs.

Zooming out we can get a good look at the construction area.  There are more slide pieces staged over by the tower which I assume will go up later this week.

There are still a few large slide pieces out in the parking lot, but definitely fewer than our last visit.

Hurricane Harbor opens for the season Memorial Day Weekend.

I would personally look for a mid-June opening for Typhoon Twister