Goliath513

Here I am at the Denver airport on their wireless during my 3 hour layover before my final flight home from traveling. 7-26-08 No credits here, but just a few photos from the Wisconsin Polk County fair. Being a northern California native, these midwest fairs are almost like culture shock for me. I left my camera at home, so these are from my phone. Taco in a bag and cheese curds are some of the many foods unique to the state and the fair itself. Cheese curds are a popular food in Wisconsin which basically are deep fried pieces of cheese. Heart attack waiting to happen, wet dream for an ACEr - these are some of the names for cheese curds. Taco in a bag (my favorte) is basically taco ingredients in a bag of chips. I decided to pass on the credit because it's not on Coaster Counter for me to add to my official count. SFMM's Spin Out has been reincarnated as a carnival ride. "Don't piss me off. I'm running out of places to hide the bodies." Slide of death. Nick Universe photo TR to come soon.

I have an obsession with the former water park Manteca Waterslides. Even though I never got a chance to go before it closed, this unique park interests me.

Dude, take it easy. My first coaster didn't even last 5 years. Windjammer is long gone and you don't hear me badmouthing Cedar Fair about that. Other things I dislike about Cedar Fair - yes. But for Windjammer, no negative feelings there. Yep. Now if only Predator, SOB, J2, GhostRider, Voyage, etc. would join Villain in the coaster afterlife. OK, out of all of those, I've only been on Villain, Ghostrider and Voyage. If you're going to insist on putting Ghostrider and Voyage in the same category of hell as Villain, then I shall be forced to refer to you, sir, as a nincompoop. Maybe I caught Ghostrider on a good day. Yes, Voyage is too intense to ride 4,000 times in a row. But I wanted off the Villain before I even got to the lift. It was so bad it made me mad. My teeth ache thinking about it and I had low expectations to begin with. Where is Mean Streak on this list? Have you not forgotten how terrible this ride is. I like what you said about wanting off the ride even before clearing the lift hill. I felt the same way about Mean Streak. Trimmed to death combined with insane levels of jackhammering make it a ride not even worthy of Cedar Fair having to pay money to demolish it. They could invite all us anti-Mean Streak people to pay them to have the chance to destroy it for them. As for Ghostrider, I disagree about it being a bad ride. I actually enjoy it. Although it is very intense, it is fast too unlike Mean Streak. It provides that real out of control thrill which woodies are known for. Mean Streak, well lets just say I got more of a thrill waiting to ride it than I did on it.

I have had my share of water parks. My dad got me into water parks after he talked me into riding the big tube slides at my home park Windsor Waterworks in nor Cal when I was 5 years old. That place closed down in 2004 after some kid drowned there during his school's end of the year field trip. It was nothing special of a park. Just 3 big tube slides, a small generic swimming pool, and a kiddie section. The only thing I miss about it was they let you bring food into the park and had a barbeque area for picnic lunches. There was also volleyball courts, an arcade, and a group area near the back of the park. This was part of a KOA campground located on the other side of the hill where the slides were. If I can find pictures, I will scan them in and post them. I remember my dad always saying our family should do a trip down to Manteca Waterslides which he said was "a bigger and better Windsor Waterworks" that he visited in the 70's. Sadly, because of the 2 hour drive to Manteca, we never got around to going there and it closed the same year as Windsor Waterworks. Other parks I have been to include Waterworld (Concord, and Sacramento before it became Raging Waters). Both were pretty generic parks with no character to them at all. Though the Sacramento park is located in the State Fair at the Cal Expo center. Elitch's water park is basically a smaller version of Concord's Waterworld with colors other than white for the slides. Nothing special about that park. GCA's Boomerang Bay is nothing special either. But my favorite water park of all, hands down, is Denver's WaterWorld. The park is huge. Much of it is situated on a hill and the slides have terrain layouts, so there are no large ugly free standing structures like at chain parks. They also have three downhill family inter-tube slides in the main section carved into the hillside, so it has more of a feel of a river than a slide. "Ragin Colorado" has an underground section. There are also several larger, themed version of these family innertube slides on the other side of the park. The most famous of them being "Voyage to the Center of the Earth" (themed to the book which the movie is based on). Another is a giant enclosed dark tube with strobe lights and sound effects inside called "Storm" The last of them is Lost River of the Pharaohs which looks like one of the three main ones, but has a large Disney-quality underground Egyptian themed section! Guys, bring your girlfriends on these rafting slides! I know I will once I'm living out in Colorado in a few months just 45 minutes from this park! They also have 2 wave pools. The larger of which has waves of epic proportions. Of course, the park has some standard water rides like bowls, drop downs, and a halfpipe. For the most part, these are all located at the bottom of the hill. There are also some small generic tube and body slides near the themed rafting rides. One of the bowl body slides dubbed Space Bowl has a cover on top and disco lights mounted on the ceiling. There is also a kid's play area down there too. My favorite is the Flat Lide drop down body slide, an 80 foot high, 70 degree drop speed slide. Other attractions at the park which I almost forgot to list are the Screamin Mimi. You get a sled, take it to the top of the hill and ride it down the track like a roller coaster and glide across the splashdown pool at the bottom. I'll be there are those out there who would count it as a credit. (*coughjeffjohnsoncough*) I love this ride. They also have an innertube rapids ride which is basically a bunch of pools carved out of the hillside connected by "rivers" New for this year is the 8 lane turbo racer slide. The park has so much I would never be able to explain it all. Here is my photo TR from last month at the park. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=603494#603494 One more unique little park, hidden away on the eastern border of Minnesota, is Wild Mountain. They have a few fun slides. Although the place is old and looks run down, this ghetto park is quite fun. My favorite slide there is the Black Hole - an enclosed body slide where you drop down a long steep drop into a sharp right turn underground at the bottom and into the splashdown strip. There's a chance I might go to Wild Mountain next week when I'm visiting family out there. Here are some pictures. http://www.wildmountain.com/waterpark/waterpark_photoContest-wp.html

Roar also has only one train running so the line will be even slower. Kong also runs only one train, but the second one was on the transfer when I was there 2 weeks ago. And yes, Medusa is a must. Even on crowded days, the line still moves along very fast and the queue is shaded for comfort. Medusa, Kong, Roar, and Tony Hawk have the locker policy. Don't think you can leave your stuff on the top fo the locker and it will be safe. My friend tried that with on Tony Hawk and not even 10 minutes into line, a worker came by and took it away. Don't wait in a full line for Tony Hawk, Boomerang, or Kong unless you really want the credit. Cobra, being a family coaster, never gets long lines. Make sure to check out Looney Tunes Seaport, Tava's Jungleland, and Thomas Town with your child, as well as some shows. I recommend you see the tiger show, dolphin show, and Shouka (killer whale) show. I'm sure you will have a great time at my home park.

For those who don't already know about my unhealthy obsession with the Final Destination movies, here is my recreation of the coaster. Now I know you have probably seen many attempted recreations on youtube, but this one is based on the layout which I was able to get from here, as well as CGI images of the coaster shown on the DVD special features and technical stats about the coaster spoken in the commentary on the DVD by the director. This is a Vekoma, so don't expect it to be any-what smooth. Instead of creating a whole new topic just for my recreation, I figured it should go here with the main discussion. Devil's Flight.nltrack

That's correct. No headache nor pain! - At least on CGA's Invertigo and SFMM's Deja Vu. My friend who works at the park said operations are very smooth. According to him, it brought in record attendance for a Monday. I guess there's no turning back for this small park now. They built a big coaster, so now they will be expected to build more. Could this possibly be the next SFMM within the next 20 years? There's quite a few of his off-ride videos of Aftershock from opening day here.

I extended the ride to make the second half of the ride. More twisty now. Low turn. 94 degree turn Airtime hill ending. Video to come in a few days.

Wasn't that also the kid that said Roar (SFDK) has a loop on it? Another classic, featuring Boomerang at SFDK. Kid: "Remember when this got stuck upside down and they had to get the fire department out to rescue them?" Me: "Uh, it didn't stop upside down. It valleyed right up there." *points to middle of the cobra roll where the stairs are* Kid: "If so, then why did the fire department have to come get them?" Me: "See those stairs? They were not there at the time of the incident. They put them in afterwards incase of another valleying." Kid: "No they didn't. I saw it happen" Me:

You could probably get everything in without flash passes when it's crowded. We didn't because we go to the park so often and it gets boring really quickly when you go there all the time. But if you want to have time for shows and other stuff, you should get flash passes if it is this crowded. As long as you don't go on a Saturday (like we did) or a holiday, you should be fine. I'm not doing the add on, but the official trip begins three weeks from today! If all goes well, I should be getting my 100th credit on Cyclone at Astroland (meaning if I can get all 14 credits at SFGAdv during the "pregame" trip the day before and ride the wacky worm kiddie coaster at Astroland before Cyclone).

No flash photography allowed + camera which takes horrible pictures in darkness = no pictures.

^ Never even heard of it. ^^ Not talked in to. He said no, then looked around to see if any kids were entering the line, then let us in when he saw none.

Don't worry, I won't. In fact, thanks for the advice. I just thought a different ride op might have been more lenient about it. I did not know that what we did was against the park rules. And I will not even think about trying that on the east coast trip in 3 weeks.

Day 2 I didn't get nearly as many pictures yesterday. Here they are. The best show ever. In case you forgot where we were. Crowded. Don't I already have this photo? Fail Failure of a name for a great ride. Demon is the best landscaped ride in the park. Or all of northern California for that matter. The lift hill has some major pumping though. It can really be felt when riding in the back. Demon's station doesn't quite live up to the typical Cedar Fair quality coaster station. That's all for CGA. Next stop, SFGAdv on the TPR east coast trip in 3 weeks exactly!

^ Fixed. Yeah you read that correctly. We rode the Manteca Waterslides that were brought over to CGA's Boomerang Bay today. For me, the Manteca Waterslides fanboy, this was quite a thrill! Monday and yesterday, Adam and I went down to CGA so he could go there for the first time and get new credits. I already got most of mine back in 2002 when I was last there. The park was empty enough that we got a walk-on for most of the rides throughout the day, and never had to wait more than 10 minutes for anything. 7/14-15/2008: CGA New credits for Sam: 1 Day 1 This is where we are. This area will look VERY different next year! Peering over the wall towards Firefall and the old Greased Lightnin station. Pain: The Ride For all you abandoned amusement park structure enthusiasts. CGA has many more remnants of the past like this! This one's for you Derek. Drop Zone, er...Drop Tower. Bad Cedar Fair name Please burn this down. Here's a shot that can be bashed. Vekoma at a Cedar Fair park with trash cans. Bring on the negativity! Rough, but considering it's a 70's Arrow, its okay. TV Show: The Ride We didn't even see any ACErs around. There used to be a coaster here. "If the restraint fails, I'm dead" I see you, Manteca Waterslides. We also got a Geauga Lake ride credit. Quite possibly, one of the worst color schemes for a B&M. This is all that was changed for the ride. All the Paramount era theming was still there. Not quite as lame as SFMM's rapids ride. All three of the main park's water rides are very Dan friendly. A Great America classic. Time for credit whore credit number one. I went up in line, only to be rejected because I did not have a kid to ride with. I thought if I could get on Jr Gemini without a kid last month and successfully get the credit, I could get anything. Wrong. We came back several times in the day when there were different ride ops only to be rejected again. The following day we even tried to accompany Adam's little brother on and have him tell the ride op it would be his first roller coaster and wanted us to accompany him for it. They wouldn't buy it because he is over 54" Because of this lost credit, my #100 will have to be the crappy wacky worm at Astroland instead of the Cyclone. With the failure at Taxi Jam, we headed over to Runaway Reptar for an attempt at the credit. The ride op there told us we were to tall. But we were able to talk him into letting us on since there were no other kids in line and we would be the only ones on. New credit brings my count up to 83. Yey! Success, success, success Another Dan friendly water ride. Peering over another fence at Boomerang Bay offers a new angle of Top Gun. First up, we got the Manteca Waterslides' Thunder Falls credits! This was a joyful day for me. We also rode each of the main slides once. Nothing special about any of them. Lets have a moment of silence for Stealth, who can no longer be with us. *tear* More remnants of Stealth. There are many more scattered throughout Boomerang Bay too. Logger's Run from the waterslides queue. After Boom Bay, we went back into the park. With nothing better to do, we decided to see the "Endless Summer on Ice" show at the Great America Theater. Let me just say, THIS SHOW IS AWESOME (for guys). The ice skater girls were hotter than any other girl we saw in the park both days. You have to see the show in person to see why! Even as a hardcore coaster enthusiast, this show is Sam approved! Lol Very secluded. Adam has a picture of me taking this picture. I'm sure he will post it. Berserker. Flat ride that goes around on a track = a Jeff Johnson credit Flying Eagles and Orbit Firefall is quite impressive at night. (Photo by Adam Miller) Enough light is enough. Night shot of the opening picture! Overall, Drop (Zone) Tower is awesome. Got many re rides on that. Firefall is much better than Voodoo at SFDK in terms of ride thrills, and theming. CGA needs a better collection of coasters. They have quantity, but certainly not quality. I'm really looking forward to the new coaster (I read somewhere it will be called "Santa Clara Stampede"). No signs of construction yet. Day 2 to be posted shortly.

I'm just glad my home park (SFDK) got a new bathroom in addition to the THBS coaster. Three second hand flat rides will do great for the park. And considering CF is 2 billion dollars in debt, this is an economic friendly choice for them. With all the money being spent up the road at KI, not all parks are created equal. They all have their time. My other home park (CGA) is getting that new GCII woodie next year and will be the first coaster installed since 2001. Considering we lost 2 coasters from 2002 - 2004, this park is in desperate need of a new one. You guys in VA just got an awesome B&M floorless and are lucky enough to get more rides next year too.

98 degree first drop. Is it a loop or a corkscrew? Loopscrew! Station fly-by! That raised double inline twist like on Storm Runner.

^ Today, Adam (thrillgeek) and I met up at SFDK with some of his friends. I have all the credits here already, but this is another photo TR to add to my collection. Oh what a mistake this was to come on a Saturday. We should have guessed the crowds would be heavy like this. 50 minute wait for Boomerang, and 2 hour wait for THBS, we endured. Definitely not worth it. As season pass holders, we would normally come in the week, but it was either this, or reject the invitation to go. Medusa - 1x Monsoon Falls - 1x White Water Safari - 1x Tazmanian Devil - 1x Boomerang - 1x Voodoo - 1x Tony Hawk - 1x Note: Pictures were taken on my phone because I didn't bring my camera. CGA on Monday and Tuesday for the first time in 6 years for me and Adam's first time ever! Would not be complete without Tony Hawk's Big Spin shots. SFOG could use a few more of these. Bonus points for any non-employee who can name where in the park this is. We're not at Dorney, not for me yet at least. Boomerang got new paint for this year, but it's hard to notice with the sun in the background. Please tear down this waste of valuable land 4D theater. It's glory days as "Dinosphere" are long over and instead of remain closed indefinitely as it is now, replace it with something. Anything will be better. R.C.'s new bathroom is complete and open.

Same car as him too.

Manteca Waterslides 2 anyone? Recover the old slide track from the field, refurbish it, and clone the rest. Kinda like what Denver did with Elitch's back in 1994.

^Can you post the full article? It requires you to register to read it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manteca_water_slides It didn't exactly "go under" - it was simply becoming less and less profitable because of increased operating and staff costs. So even if the housing market was in a slump at the time it was decided to be closed, it still would have been closed. "To make way for houses" is not the reason for closure - high workers' compensation and health care costs were the primary reasons. Thanks again for posting everything! I owe you one, darklingscribe! It's always sad to see a park like this go. Much more saddening than losing a corporate owned park like Geauga Lake or Astroworld (though SFAW i was pretty saddened by, but not as much as this). This one really hit home. Last month when flying home from Cedar Point as we were descending to SFO, I could see the former site of the Manteca Waterslides from the plane. It basically looks exactly like the last satellite photo does whenever that was taken.

Darklingscribe, thank you so much for these awesome pictures. I sent you a PM with a few more questions.

Thanks alot! Looking at those pictures of the original slides, it looks like a very confusing and unique layout to that area. Could you maybe draw a diagram of where the entrance to this area was, as well as the splash down pools were located (I know there are at least 4) with the slides and where you get in at the top of the hill? Nothing fancy, but along the lines of this picture of what I have speculated some of the layout to be based on pictures. Looking forward to seeing your pictures!

Darklingscribe - Do you have any more information to offer about the park? I'm sure anything you have to say about this is great!