I don't know for certain but I would wager money that they don't have a choice and are under an obligation to "open" this year - either to their banker or to the county. I know it isn't the popular opnion around here, but personally I am impressed that they have gotten as far as they have given the fact that they were late starting and the state has completely screwed them around on well over half the funding for the project. I am pretty confident that the Schlitterbahn folks will continue building this thing out steadily until its on the scale with the rest of their projects. The reason it is still "surrounded by dirt" and construction equipment is that they are actively working on the areas they will be expanding into all around this initial core. Personally I think what they have done looks pretty high quality. That water coaster thing looks like a blast.chrizow wrote: they should wait until it is complete before garnering all sorts of bad will through such a rushed "opening."
Of course none of this means much on a site where the majority of folks have been predisposed to hate the project from day one if for no other reason than its address.