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The Official West Coast Bash 2012 Update Thread!


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First of all, thank you to everyone that made WCB possible! I had an amazing time, and found some wonderful people over the few days!

 

Now, I can't really compare this WCB to the previous ones, because this was the first one I attended. But I can say that from the trip reports I have read from Magic Mountain, this year was sort of a disappointment. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but...it was lacking. I've been going to Magic Mountain over ten years now (I may not remember some things clearly from those times though...), and I was looking forward to going on some tours...which weren't there. Granted, I paid for my ticket and still went when there wasn't any confirmed tours, but I still had some hope that there would be a surprise tour. I know that they had one tour, which was a select group...which I guess, is better then nothing.

I don't know if I would go next year to Magic Mountain if there isn't any tours. The ERT is nice to have, but when it comes to Magic Mountain...I'd rather go for the tours.

As for the lunch...it was okay. Nothing too special about it, and it was edible.

 

For Knotts....I don't even know where to start. It was just an amazing day, and so much better then Magic Mountain. I don't really have anything bad to say about the day at all.

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Robb -

 

Thanks for the responses. Just a few things to go along with what you had to say:

 

Some really nice feedback! Was a good read...glad you had a good time. Let me just address a couple of things...

 

I loved the available Behind the Scenes tours, I elected to do just the Montezooma's Revenge tour, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I would have liked something to do while waiting for my turn at the tour, however, other than just mill about near the front gate. Having just one ride open during that first hour would have made a HUGE difference.

Keep in mind that I did announce to everyone that if you didn't have a ticket to the two other tours, to please try the stand-by lines. As it turned out, anyone that wanted to get into a tour, had no problem getting into them. So by electing to just do one tour, you kind of also elected to stand around and not do anything. While it's very easy to sit behind your computer keyboard and say "Just one ride would have made a HUGE difference..." you're right...having one more ride open during that extra hour WOULD have made a huge difference... in the PRICE of the event! Do you have any idea how much it costs in both operations and early morning maintenance that is required to get a single ride open at 7:30am? Because having a maintenance and ride inspection staff come in for one ride would have been totally cost prohibitive. We might as well opened another 2 or 3 rides, but then again, the majority of people were all in the tours, so it would have been a total waste. Seriously.... We had 4 rides and 3 tours going that morning, and you wanted MORE!?!?!? C'mon!

 

I personally think we offered plenty that morning. Can't even believe someone would be complaining.

 

I totally get that opening a ride during that time would have changed the price, considerably. As a matter of fact, i did stand by for a tour, and managed to get in the second round at Montezooma, even though I wasn't "scheduled" until after ERT began. My only thought was that, all things being equal (which obviously they're not), a ride during that time would have been a good thing.

 

I liked the creative way that they solved the "The park is now open during scheduled ERT" issue; though I would really have liked actually ERT. An elegant solution that, while not perfect from anyone's point of view, was probably the best solution for all.

Had we done ERT from 10:00 - 11:30, I guarantee you not many people would have participated. That's a VERY long time to ask people to stay in the park, especially after a long weekend. The park did a spectacular job with dealing with that curve ball. It was a *bit* rocky at first, but I personally went to each ride that evening, spoke with the ride operations staff, and made sure that it would only be a one train wait for TPR members during that ERT/front of the line session.

 

Agreed that the 10-11:30 thing would have made it too late. I was trying to express that I thought it was the best balance that could be made between TPR's desire to have 8-9:30 ERT and the park's desire to stay open for all until 10. Sorry if I fumbled that comment a bit the first time.

 

I would have liked to have had ERT on GhostRider in the evening (either as well or instead).

GhostRider has traditionally been our least attended ERT session during the Knott's day. We offered it in the morning since our evening ERT lineup was already a bit top heavy, and there was NO WAY I would have replaced more time on Xcelerator with GhostRider. I think most people will side with me on that decision.

 

Fair enough. That though probably also came out of the fact that I managed to miss the morning ERT session because of the soft open, and given how well it was running, I would have liked to get in a few more rides without the ridiculously long line that develops for it, especially as it was only running one train. Given the leanings of the group here on TPR, I can't say that I think trading the evening Xcelerator ERT for more GhostRider ERT for would have been a good choice either.

 

As a WCB first-timer, I thought the event was nearly everything I expected, and more in some areas. Huge thanks to both parks and to Robb and Elissa for being the winch that pulls the whole thing together. I know I've written a novel here, but wanted to get my thoughts out there. Oh, and by the way:

You are very welcome. Appreciate the candor on your comments. Hope you can in turn appreciate mine!

I do appreciate that you took the time to respond, very much. Again, I had a great time, and look forward to my next event!

See you all again soon, I hope!

Hopefully at Deep South Bash again!

 

Hope so - looking forward to hearing the date!

 

-Frank

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First off let me say a big thank you to Robb, Elissa, Magic Mountain and Knotts for an awesome weekend. I missed last year, and no way did I want to miss this year and I am looking forward to next year already. It's a nice escape to get away from the midwest and enjoy some nice weather in the middle of winter.

 

This was my second WCB (first one was back in 2010). I thought the event 2 years ago was just awesome. We had lots of tours, ERT and it was a pretty jammed packed day full of fun. I still had fun at MM this year, but I have to agree with everyone's comments about the day. I understand the reasoning behind not doing any walkbacks or tours of rides. I believe Tim mentioned that they really didn't have anything going on, and they were only moving the stairs on Superman at the moment and no major construction was going on with Lex Luther yet. I do want say that the MM staff was awesome at check in. Neal helped me out greatly by getting a ticket for me since my season pass wasn't processed yet.

 

Two years ago I thought MM did a much better job than Knott's - but this year I feel differently. Knott's had t-shirts made for us, free photos, ERT on awesome rides and some great tours. I liked how Knott's gave us ERT on Windseeker and Log Ride. It's nice to have different types of rides thrown in there besides just coasters. I really enjoyed our group photo that day too. It was awesome to be on the stunt show stage and have part of the cast in the photo. Oh, and the little "demonstration" at the end was awesome! I didn't mind that the park extended their hours either, I know it was something done last minute and honestly the waits for the coasters during that time were not bad at all.

 

I'm looking forward to next year already. Thanks again for a great weekend!

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I think that maybe I’m out of the norm with my thoughts on this year’s WCB.

 

We only attended SFMM. We have been doing this for years. I thought that the ERT was set up very well. I know that they had construction going on and I understand how Neal explained it at the Q&A session for the reason why we didn’t get any backstage tours. I have no problems here.

 

The way the ERT was set up worked well. We had one side of the park in the morning and the other side in the evening. Yes, it sucked not getting ERT on Apocalypse, but we ended up back there from 6:30pm-7:30pm and rode it 4 times. That didn’t suck. We went to Tatsu next and finished up the night on X2.

I’m glad that they kept the ERT in the areas instead of having Goliath, Batman, Tatsu, and X2 as night ERT (not saying they did this, but that wouldn’t be as fun running to each side of the park for 2 hours).

 

We had a great time this year! I hope that they do a similar ERT session next year. I wouldn’t mind having all the coasters open for night ERT, but it isn’t the end of the world if they don’t!

 

Thank you Robb and Elissa and thank you Six Flags Magic Mountain!

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I really enjoyed myself on both days with very few complaints. The limited ERT at SFMM did not bother me one bit. Mainly because the WHOLE DAY was pretty much ERT, with some VERY light crowds. I did appreciate them extending the X2 ERT, that was a nice touch. I kinda got the feeling that that there was just so much going on behind the scenes, from construction to ride rehabs to limited staff, that they just weren't operating at full strength like in past years. Not really an excuse, but an observation.

 

I can forgive them for an off year, the past 4-5 have been beyond awesome.

 

*Only one real complaint, and I hope management reads this. The food was TERRIBLE. Would it have hurt to at least add some bar b que sauce to the meat? It was bland and dull. Especially after the very good food we had the day before at Universal!

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Did I eat the same meals at SFMM as the rest of you??

 

Taking standard theme park food as the baseline, I thought that lunch was well above average, and dinner was top notch.

 

We're used to better food here in America!

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Thats awesome! Kudos to KBF for the nice touch! I think they understand that WCB is not just a corporate sales account, but rather an excellent marketing opportunity to put their best foot forward to some of their pickiest customers (who are usually the resident theme park experts for their friends/family).

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^I hadn't been to Knott's for 8 years despite living 45 minutes away. My father and I were so impressed at WCB that we've upgraded to annual passes and I'm basically telling everyone how great the place is. I'm not even sure if I'm going to go to SFMM and spend money there for my birthday over Knott's anymore (this wasn't even a debate until WCB).

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Plus, I have a premium pass to Disney, and I had no desire to leave Knott's just to stop by for a few rides. A few years ago, when I had a pass to Knott's (I do for 2012 because of WCB), I would stop at Knott's for a bit, then go to Disney for the majority of the day.

 

With the efficient operations lately, and the way the park generally looks/feels, I see myself spending a lot more time there. And since I have the tri-fecta of passes this year, SFMM will be in third place.

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^ EXACTLY

 

Even if they're not getting rich off of the event, it will benefit them through word-of-mouth referrals - I know firsthand how that is true.

I agree. They put effort into one day, and then the rest of the year we act as awesome free advertising for them. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

 

Thinking I should try to get down to Knott's this year, it's been a while for me.

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Plus, I have a premium pass to Disney, and I had no desire to leave Knott's just to stop by for a few rides. A few years ago, when I had a pass to Knott's (I do for 2012 because of WCB), I would stop at Knott's for a bit, then go to Disney for the majority of the day.

 

With the efficient operations lately, and the way the park generally looks/feels, I see myself spending a lot more time there. And since I have the tri-fecta of passes this year, SFMM will be in third place.

 

I totally agree with this.

 

And throw in Transformers at USH and it moves SFMM to 4th place. If they really start moving on the new ride in Log Jammer's spot then I'll most likely end up there more for construction updates, but time spent in the park won't be very high.

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To add to what I (and others) were saying, word of mouth is most definitely important. My friend and I have been wanting to go to SFMM for awhile to ride Green Lantern, but now that I know it doesn't flip combined with the underwhelming experience of WCB (didn't leave me impressed as in passed years---just walked away with that feeling they phoned it in), I told her "man I'm glad we didn't go. The ride was laaaaame." So they lost me as a potential repeat customer and also lost my friend as a new customer (neither of us have interest in the drop tower).

 

Knotts on the other hand already has me sold for WCB 2013. The combination of Robb, Elissa, and a park that seems to really care just cannot be beat!

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BWUAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

I can't say how much of a fun (and especially exhausting) weekend West Coast Bash was! Thansk to Robb, Elissa, and anyone else that made the weekend as great as it was From the people I got to meet and hang out with, to the staff of both parks for putting on such an event for us.

 

With that said, also toss me into the camp that KBF blew SFMM out of the water this year! I'm so happy Knott's is coming back up in quality and with last year's WCB being as excellent as last year's, I want to especially send a shout out to KBF's marketing team as they throw an absolutely amazing enthusiast event! I hope they are able to work with TPR to throw another Haunt event as well this year as I had a blast at last years event and would definitely do it again this year.

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So I have to give Kudos to the Tatsu crew at WCB. Instead of letting a train of people hang out in the brake run following a break down of train #3 in the station, multiple times, the crew hopped over to station #2, swapped the track, and unloaded train #1. I guess we know now the real reason they have that station...

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