While Spring Break in Texas has finally come to a close, park updates and new construction are still very much in season. This week we'll be taking a look at El Diablo construction, Aquaman Splashdown's possible removal, Judge Roy Scream's retrack, Chop Six progress, and more.

Construction on Chop Six is progressing quickly, and the building is now getting all-new paint. Kitchen equipment has also arrived outside of the restaurant and is waiting to be installed. 

Great news from the El Diablo construction site! Foundations have now been poured and are currently drying. It should now only be a couple of weeks until the ride goes vertical! Additonally, the photo kiosks for both El Aserradero and La Vibora have been relocated. The El Aserradero location is already open (though it wasn't the night that we visited) while it will still be a little while until La Vibora's is. Either way, it's great to see that both of the photo kiosks were saved and moved to new locations. 

Aquaman Splashdown remains closed at the park, and there are still no signs of the ride being repaired to reopen. It's looking more and more likely that the ride will be splashing it's way into history, but only time will tell. Stay tuned!

Judge Roy Scream is now open after it's major retrack, and we had the opportunity to ride it this week. The coaster is now incredibly smooth and re-rideable; something we never thought that we'd be able to say. If you're at the park anytime soon, be sure to give the new and improved Judge Roy Scream a ride! You won't regret it. 

​That's all for this week's park update. The 2019 season has been off to a great start, and it seems that it'll only get better as the year goes on. Be sure to come back every Monday for new park updates, and the first Wednesday of every month for new posts on the Thrill Time Blog. Thank you so much for visiting OverTexasThrills.com and have a fantastic week!

While this week's park update will be a quick one, there are still a few new things to report on in the middle of the park's busy Spring Break. This week we have some news on the new Smith Street Ice Cream parlor, a slide repaint at Hurricane Harbor, and an interesting Aquaman rumor.

Great news for ice cream fans! The Smith Street Ice Cream Parlor is now open in the Old South section of the park. Serving up delicious Blue Bell Ice Cream, this new location features a wide array of flavors available in cups, cones, and as a float or shake. Many of the menu items are available on the Dining Pass (though some are a $1 or $2 up-charge) so be sure to go give it a try and let us know what you think. 

An interesting rumor out there is that the Aquaman Splashdown may be set for demolition later this season for a new 2020 project. While nothing has been confirmed by the park, it seems possible as many parks have recently been removing their water rides in favor of new coasters and other more modern and popular additions. Stay tuned in the coming months as we're sure that if true, removal could begin soon. Again, nothing is official yet, but it is a strong rumor.

Across the street at Hurricane Harbor, it looks as if Geronimo will soon be getting a fresh coat of paint. The slide has been powerwashed back down to it's white fiberglass color, and we expect that new paint will appear on the slide in a couple of weeks. We're not yet sure what color it may be, but stay tuned as we'll update you as soon as we do!

This past weekend was a cold and rainy one which led to the park closing early both Saturday and Sunday. Despite this though, we were able to get our weekly update and ride some rides in the process. There is a lot to cover, so lets take a look!

Last week we reported that a brand new Blue Bell Ice Cream shop would be coming to the Old South section of the park. Not much visible progress had been made at the time, but much to our delight that has changed this week! The location is now officially named the Smith Street Ice Cream Parlor, and much of the interior infrastructure is already in place. Blue Bell coolers have now been installed, and the Coke Freestyle machines are still in there from Holiday In The Park. We are extremely excited to see this new ice cream shop progressing, and we couldn't be more pleased with the beautiful vintage sign. We wouldn't be surprised to see the location open in the next 1 or 2 weeks, hopefully in time for Spring Break.

Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast features my favorite queue in the park due to it's 2 story design and elaborate theming, and it continues to get better and better. Much of the thematic lighting has been repaired, and the Mr. Freeze animatronic is back in the station as well with blinking lights and full movement. The figurine was uncovered this past season, but it is now 100% working. It is GREAT so see small things like this being restored as it really adds to the guest experience.

Spring break is almost here which means that preparation for the 2-week celebration is well underway. A photo op has been installed near the parks front gate, and the Live & Local stage is looking better than ever. The park will be open daily from March 9th though the 24th, so be sure to brave the crowds to come out and visit.

I like to describe the crowds this weekend as "the calm before the storm," as due to the 30-40 degree temperatures and drizzly, wet, weather, the park was absolutely dead. We didn't encounter a single line during our visits, and we were able to ride some of our favorite rides and attractions multiple times in a row without leaving our seats. The park did close early both days this weekend (5:00pm instead of 8:00pm on Saturday and 2:30pm instead of 7:00pm on Sunday) due to the lack of crowds, but that didn't stop us from having a great time.

Now that Batwing is the only family ride in the Gotham City section of the park, it has seemed to grow in popularity. It's quite normal to see the line for this family favorite extend across the pathway, so the park has added new fencing to wrap the line around the ride instead of in the way of guests trying to walk to and from Batman and Mr. Freeze.

While colored lighting has been in Runaway Mountain's station for awhile, many of the light bulbs burnt out last season and were replaced with basic white LED's. This season though, the park has installed all new lighting in the queue, station, and exit to add to the ambience of this exciting indoor roller coaster. 

For quite some time now, Pandemonium has had "left Twix" and "right Twix" ads wrapped around all of it's 8 trains. The ads were quite an eyesore, so when we saw that they were removed this weekend we were quite excited. Ads still cover the rides queue and station, but we wouldn't be surprised to see them taken down before the weekend.

Ma Hunkel's Famous Chicken, which opened this past September, has now gotten a bit of love. In addition to the new tables and shaded seating, the wall that wraps around the back of the restaurant has received new blue paint that compliments the formally bland gray quite nicely. 

When the old Boomtown arcade was demolished before last season, it was planned that a sports bar would take its spot. However, due to the area being in a flood zone, the park decided to cancel the project and instead just pave over the cleared land. Because of this change in plans, Macho Nacho's back area was exposed and was just hidden by an unsightly chain link fence covered in tarps. Over the off-season the park finally installed a new wooden fence around the restaurant and gave it a new paint job too. We would love to see some new seating added to this area as the wide open space looks somewhat odd in a park that is otherwise pretty full of buildings and attractions.

With the new Smith Street ice Cream Parlor soon opening up in the Old South section of the park, the area has received a bit of love and attention. One of these projects includes the repaint of this park storage building to make it much more visibly pleasing. While it isn't the biggest news, it is still great to see the park giving some older buildings attention and making the area look much nicer to guests. Keep up the great work, Six Flags!