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California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread


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^ Whats with all this talk of Grizzly being "Painful"? I never found it to be that rough, its just so.. BORING!

 

 

What about the extra seatbelt that only allows about 3 inches of slack?

 

Slack? Where'd you hear about slack in the seatbelts? I wish it had 3 inches of slack. With the noodles as far down as it goes, the belt *just* makes it to the buckle. Definitely could use some new trains, if it's cost effective to do so when it's time the Morgan trains reach the end of their life.

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I've wondered what CGA will build next. In my opinion, I could see a Zamperla MotoCoaster (fits in the Invertigarden) or EuroFighter (Rage/Untamed layout might work with adjustments) coming in 2014 or so.

I am willing to bet CGA will not get a coaster back to back years. Be happy you're finally getting the wooden coaster.

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More realistically, once this coaster's built, I can imagine a couple flats or maybe something for Boomerang Bay (which I wouldn't mind seeing some more slides to come in to make Boomerang Bay feel more complete) to come in and overall park improvements (repainting rides, new shows, Haunt, etc) before the next big one comes. Cedar Point, CF's baby doesn't appear to get a new coaster every year so why would one of their smaller parks get another one back to back?

 

In the mean time, let's all kick back and enjoy the coming of the 2013 attraction! Speaking of which, I'll be sure to continue getting some more progress photos as I've heard about some foundation work going on for the first large turnaround just after the flyby bunny hill (which I'm hoping that element provides some nice air).

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I've wondered what CGA will build next. In my opinion, I could see a Zamperla MotoCoaster (fits in the Invertigarden) or EuroFighter (Rage/Untamed layout might work with adjustments) coming in 2014 or so.

 

As far as coasters are concerned, given this park's past record, come back in another decade or two and we can have that discussion. Of course by then they will have removed 3 coasters.

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I've wondered what CGA will build next. In my opinion, I could see a Zamperla MotoCoaster (fits in the Invertigarden) or EuroFighter (Rage/Untamed layout might work with adjustments) coming in 2014 or so.

 

As far as coasters are concerned, given this park's past record, come back in another decade or two and we can have that discussion. Of course by then they will have removed 3 coasters.

I think it will depend a lot on how this coaster does. If the reception is astronomically positive, I can't imagine Cedar Fair not wanting to follow it up with something.

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While I don't have the insider info or numbers, attendance this year as opposed to last season seems to have jumped a lot! I've actually had to wait in 20 minute lines consistently this season on a Sunday, as opposed to my 2-3 train waits last season and the seasons before. I'm sure this will wane a bit once school starts but even starting around Spring Break started feeling like what I'd see during the summer season. I can assume that once this coaster is just as much announced officially there will be a strong buzz. When they build it, they will come! Word will get around as well.

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Alright guys, I'm back with another CGA Sunday Update as I spent the day out at a very busy CGA today. I met up with JeffyJosephNorcal (and was also to join up with Rolercstrluver but didn't quite pan out) and later a surprise meetup with Flagg o'Dim and his bro for some water park and water ride action! Starting off with the day I noticed some signs/a frames mentioning about the Island Reggae Festival that was going on July 8th. *Checks phone calender* Oh wow, we're in for a nice treat of crowds today! After getting in at park opening we headed right to Flight Deck where we got a walk-on front row. After my ride, I met up with Jeff where we then hit up the Flying Eagles, Firefall, and Psycho Mouse with virtually no lines. Grizzly and Drop Tower were pretty short as well as with Grizzly I didn't have to do the 2-point stop...got to head right up to the station for a 3-train wait. Again, dispatches are a hit and miss as far as timeliness goes. Our dispatch was pretty quick while others had oblivious guests forgetting their lapbar seatbelts (which we found to be a humorous, redundant-sounding word). When we got up by Demon, the line was already headed almost to the cave tunnel. This was a clear indicator of what to expect for the rest of the day. We skipped Vortex as the line was just almost reaching the switchbacks and decided it was time to hit up the Star Tower for a construction update.

 

Construction: there are 2 'pads' that have appeared now: one we dubbed the "Drumstick" and the other the "Question Mark" or "Curly Fry" because of their shapes. The one pad we saw last week is now getting re-bar laid in. The other pad (Turnaround after station flyby) is just leveled out and has wood framing around it. Over in the fenced off lot, there are loads of saw horses lined right up. I can assume that this will be the assembly area for the bents will be assembled when things go vertical. Other than that, no other changes I can see. Elephant is still hanging in there.

 

Back to the visit, we skip by Flight Deck (*Shocker*) and opt to hit up Boomerang Bay when we randomly met up with Flagg o'Dim and his brother. From there we took advantage of the short-ish lines for DownUnder Thunder, Tasmanian Typhoon, and the straight body (Manteca) slide. It was fun watching different things happen in the slide's runoffs including seeing Flag o'Dim do an almost reverse somersault (all I saw was legs go up), his brother glide cleanly down the runoff, and Jeff hit the runoff hard, creating a nice-sized splash soaking bystanders. From there we hit up the Rapids while still in 'water park attire' since the waterfall finale was operational. From there, Flag and his brother split up and we changed changed back to 'dry mode' and grabbed a bite to eat.

 

Afterwards, deciding what ride to go on, lines were pretty long. Drop Tower was spilling into the overflow switchbacks, didn't bother with Grizzly, and Demon was out to the entrance. Since we hadn't rode Vortex yet, we got in line for that. After 15 minutes of waiting and hearing no announcements/spiels regarding the ride being down (took us making observations) we ditched Vortex and headed to Flight Deck for a second run. FD's line was spilling out of the entrance a bit but we decided to give it a shot. We were on within the half hour which was pretty good. That's where I saw CoasterBeagle working.

 

Making way around the back we hit up the log ride for a quick cooldown followed by Drop Tower where we actually walked through the switchback area (I haven't walked through that since 1999!). Wait wasn't too bad actually, probably 10 minutes. We then decided to give Demon another go where the line started in the cave tunnel, using all switchbacks...that was about 50 minute wait. Ending the day we head to Flight Deck for a final ride where....it's broken down! A small line starts forming just outside the queue where we joined. Within 5 minutes, the ride was back up and we got right up to the station for a 2-train wait. When we got off/when we did the whole flyover, I saw the line filling back up rather fast. So yea, it was a fun, very busy day at CGA!

 

Random notes:

-When the 5 of us hit the rapids, I could swear at one of the rapids we did a nice sharp dip and possibly rubbed the pipes that form the rapids. However, the ending waterfall was what primarily got us wet.

- Some new spiels are going on at Flight Deck and Psycho Mouse to make your welcoming to the ride more interesting. "Welcome to the big cheese, Psycho Mouse that is!"... (And don't quote me on this but...) "Welcome to Flight Deck where you'll be going 50mph and pulling 4.5 G's..." It ads a nice touch to the ride spiels and annoucements.

- The parking lot looked pretty well full as the day progressed.

-The grass around Star Tower is nice and green again...but for how long?

-Demon is now apparently White Water Falls, during a goofed speil "Welcome to White Water Falls..". *Laughter from us* "It's been a long day!"

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Early noon, parking lot's filling up.

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Some construction porn for you all!

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"Drumstick!" (The turnaround after the station flyby)

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"Curly Fry!" (Prudential turn, note the re-bar/metal rods being laid in/waiting to be laid in)

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Looks like something will be happening in this spot pretty soon!

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Last ride after what seemed to be a lengthy breakdown (the queue and station were completely empty before they reopened it).

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(Photo by JeffyJosephNorcal) Us on Logger's run, in the station :)

Edited by Angry_Gumball
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I had a great time today, and it was cool to meet another TPR member (Jeff)!

 

Good times on the Rapids and bottoming out. Didn't think that was possible!

 

Also, soaked Orbit ride = awesome. I feel bad for the people who sat on our seats afterwords.

 

It was the first time I tried the body slide, and I'm glad I did! That would have been epic if I completed the reverse somersault. Hitting the water at a high speed caught me by surprise...

 

I'm still disappointed that Didgeridoo Falls decided to break down just when we could've had a full raft. Next time!

 

I wish CGA posted on their website about the reggae festival, I probably wouldn't have gone if I knew, but it still was a great water ride day. Never have I seen the entire parking lot 98 percent full. Feeling the effects of the stadium already?

 

Next Sunday looks to be busy as well, with another concert festival.

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It's great to finally see some progress on the construction. It's probably been explained before since they did the same thing with Apocolypse but why are they using a concrete pad instead of footers? Is it a stronger foundation this way or more economical in the long run as you won't have to worry about crumbling footers as time goes on?

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Had a great day yesterday despite a full crowd due to the concert/event, was great meeting AngryGumball and his cousin Heather & Flagg O'Dimm & his brother. Great progress on the new coaster, getting more and more excited!

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I haven't been following this thread closely, but It looks like the ride is going in right next to the defunct IMAX. This area is notorious for having unstable ground which is why the IMAX building can not longer be used. A concrete pad would make sense there.

 

I think they would have fixed that problem before putting this ride and and if that's true about the IMAX then why can they use it for haunt?

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Doing some digging and looking at some of the construction pictures of SFMM's GCI, someone asked a similar question as to why Apocalypse went with the slab setup as opposed to individual footers. One of the answers (which makes sense) was posted:

I think the slab technique has more to do with the quality of the ground than anything else. Building a slab for the entire ride spreads the weight of the ride over the entire area instead of concentrating all of the weight on seperate footers. If I remember correctly, one of the big problems with Psyclone was that the ride kept settling after construction was finished. If that was true, the easiest and cheapest way for SFMM to build a new coaster on the same site would be to use the slab design for the foundation which theoretically, allows the entire ride to "float" over any possible movement in the ground. The other options would involve either removing and replacing all of the dirt on the site to provide a better and more stable base or provide deeper footings that connect the ride to more stable earth below.

Maybe the land isn't the most stable in that area and actually I do recall hearing about the inability to dig tunnels into the ground due to a higher water table. I believe I heard the water table thing during the Q&A last season during the Bash. Seems to make sense to spread out the weight onto 1 large slab as opposed to hundreds of single footers (sinking GCI rumors anyone?). This is all just a guess. I'm also not quite sure yet if both pads will be joined as 1 or if there's going to be separate individual pads where needed.

 

And speaking of Haunt, it looks like GA might give some 2012 details tomorrow, as seen on their Facebook!

Who wants some Haunt 2012 details? Check back tomorrow...

Will definitely check back tomorrow

 

UPDATE:

Look what we stumbled upon... this doesn't look like anything anyone has seen before. It was unearthed this morning from a mysterious dark corner of the park, and even has the potential to make our Club Blood vampires cringe. Stay tuned for more...

From CGA's Facebook.

 

So my thoughts: #1: Either Club Blood's being replaced by a new maze in maybe a new location due to construction, #2: replacement in the same location using an entirely different route since the original CB route will not work in the current location's situation, or #3: CGA will have 2 different Vampire-themed mazes. I'm leaning towards #2 at the moment.

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After all the rumors over the years for this park it's great to see it actually getting something.

 

Great America is a great park, but one I never really go to since it's a bit off the beaten path for me. It has a nice collection of rides, but to me SFDK is better and Great America is twice as far from me. After this is built it will probably be time to go back.

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The latest Haunt news since its Friday the 13th:

It's Friday the 13th... We couldn't pass on this oppurtunity to release some new Haunt information and a new image from our maze.

 

We can tell you about three mazes you will enjoy again in 2012... The toys of Toy Factory will continue to torment visitors while the clowns of CarnEvil perform their unique circus acts. The unique tastes of Slaughterhouse Annihilation will also return. Stay tuned for more information on Haunt 2012!

 

Sounds like maybe a few new mazes, plus 3 favorites!

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Very excited for Haunt this year it should be awesome! Even better I may be apart of it as I applied for Talent today and going to the job fair on the 4th!

 

It's a lot of fun, but a lot of folks are surprised when they learn it's not as easy as it seems! Any thoughts on where you want to try and go? I'll be Supervising again, hopefully they bring me back to the same place as last year

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