KGA29

Basically from someone who goes to CGA a ton and SFDK once a year... CGA has: -A decent waterpark -Better flat ride selection (some classic ones too) -All Wheels Extreme stunt show and ice skating show SFDK has: -Better coasters -Lots of animals -Killer whale, dolphin, tiger shows -Better kids areas (probably not that important) -Standard Six Flags l0cker policy -Easier to get discounts Both are very clean, have decent food selections, and will have very short waits if you go on a summer weekday.

Lines are usually pretty short for most rides. Flight Deck, Grizzly, and Survivor might reach 15-20 minutes. Invertigo and Psycho Mouse might even get up to 30 during the busier parts of the day. Also Logger's Run and Rip Roarin Rapids lines can get lengthy if it is warm outside. Other than that, you should not have a problem with lines.

So I decided to head out to my home park from about 2-5 just me and my camera. I took a bunch of pictures and rode a couple rides. Basically I just wanted to do whatever I wanted to do. Let's start with the tour: Classic entrance shot: Some more of the Carousel Columbia: The Star Tower is also by the entrance Next up, Celebration Swings Continuing around the park in a counter-clockwise direction, the first coaster is Vortex. While it's bumpy, it's still a classic and has some intense moments Xtreme Skyflyer, the park's skycoaster Whitewater Falls Berserker, an old Bayern Kurve The next coaster on the list is the Demon. My first looping coaster. I don't know why I took so many pictures of it. The cool vine tunnel over by Invertigo/Demon Invertigo The next big thing is the Grizzly in the back of the park. It got some retracking this offseason, but it still felt as bumpy as ever. And sloooooow too. Super short lines today POV Also in the back we have Drop Tower. This is where I saw Angry Gumball! Survivor: the ride. A fun ride, but it was down the other day. Next coaster is Psycho Mouse. I didn't ride, but it didn't look like it had its usual long line Heading back towards the entrance the next ride up is Centrifuge, a classic scrambler type ride. In Nickelodeon Central, there is a giant water maze for the kiddies And also a breakdance, Spongebob's Boatmobiles Kidzville is right next door, with a bunch of rides for the young ones. Logger's Run runs right through the water park And the Endeavor (formerly the Revolution) is also in the water park Now for some pics from around the water park. It wasn't very crowded even on a Sunday afternoon. Usually the big slides have massive lines, but it wasn't too bad when I was there. Random Boomerang Bay theming Delirium right across the way Heading across a bridge, you enter a spot with 4 rides to choose from. First, the newest CGA ride: Firefall that opened last year Second, right in the middle of the area is Flying Eagles. I tried to snap it, but wasn't as successful as I have been in the past. For a fun water ride, Rip Roarin Rapids is a good choice After getting soaked, to take a quick spin dry, the Orbit is the last of the 4 rides in that area. The new Game Day Sports Bar was open, so I checked it out Making our way around the park we come to the last roller coaster, Flight Deck Then I checked out the new addition this year: All Wheels Extreme stunt show. It was really good, and funny at some times. It's only about 20 minutes, but it was definitely the right amount of time. The stage is very impressive and the stunts were amazing too Rue Le Dodge, the park's bumper cars. Too bad they make you go around in a circle. Also the park has a skyway ride that goes from one side of the park to the other. I used it to get some of my pictures. Here's a shot of the station by Flight Deck I'll end with some shots of the Halloween Haunt advertising that has started to show up. I'm so excited for the park's 2nd Haunt. Hope you liked the short tour around the park!

I saw you and rode Drop Tower with you!!! I will upload all of my pictures tomorrow.

I can see where you're coming from and the actions that the park took were probably too harsh, but I also understand that Speedo type swimsuits are not very well socially accepted (at least in the states). I'd recommend purchasing a normal shorts style swimsuit, but if it's a question of comfort, try board shorts with the speedo underneath. Then there's less risk of others getting offended/uncomfortable.

Dollywood and SDC used to (still?) do this. They would have kind of a survey thing with a bunch of different ride options and see what people thought of them. Actually, now that I think about it, Paramount Parks did it too. That's how the Italian Job coasters were built.

Bingo! The park claimed that the ride was 150ft when it wasn't. Later investigations made them change the ride.

It's very possible that you had a bad program. Since there was no line, I'm assuming your ride wasn't very full. The ride experience when the gondola is full is much better than just a few people. It has to do with the weight. Maybe you have big shoulders? It seems like everytime that I go I see someone get kicked off. The operators do everything that they can to try and fit the riders, but it doesn't work every time. If you thought that the front row had a lot of head banging, I'm glad you didn't ride the other rows. The front is the smoothest on Vortex. These uniforms are new this year and in my opinion, they do look great! Maybe you just had an unlucky day for the food service because usually they are pretty good about that. I'm sure you could have gone to one of the restaurants or the Food Festival to grab a Coke.

Pinocchio's Daring Journey at DL. Never a line and such a great ride! Also Yosemite Sam's something Adventure (or something like that) at SFoT. It was fun (albeit a little old and basic, but still classic) and I had never heard anything about it.

The ride looks great and it seems to keep a really fast speed throughout the entire course. Almost open....

Psycho Mouse was 2001..... I've been to CP and in no way does CGA match up with the ride standards of the roller coaster capital of the world. I'm sure there are only a couple in the world that might give CP a run for its money. As for competition, even though they are both in the Bay Area/Nor Cal area, they do cater to very different crowds. SFDK gets a lot of visitors from San Francisco and CGA gets the San Jose visitors. Did you know that San Jose has a larger population than San Francisco? They both cater to big cities and there is definitely room for both parks in the market. Some people go to both, but I highly doubt that SFDK brings in a huge portion of its attendance from the San Jose area. No longer does the park have a "gang park" atmosphere. I remember going once a while back and there was a fight. Now, that reputation is almost completely gone. The "newer" family atmosphere has attracted a much larger amount of families over the past couple years, which is really good for the park.

I agree that most coaster enthusiasts are hypercritical. The difference between Viper and Maverick is that they are not based on a very popular film franchise. I'm not one who loves hypercritical coaster enthusiasts, but I do find the theme of this coaster to be funny. Does that make it a bad coaster? No. Because the coaster itself is independent of the theming. Does that make it a bad attraction? It could, because an attraction is the coaster, theming, story, trains, etc. It's the same concept of when Universal announced their Transformers ride. If they announced it being an amazing wooden coaster, I would still think WTF?! But it's something else, that seems to make a lot of sense. Regardless, I am excited about the theming going into this and I think regardless of the chosen theme, it will sure beat the theming of most wooden coasters (which is none, that's a little redundant). I think magic has a decent point. You claim that the only difference is that this coaster is themed after a movie. What about FaceOff (now Invertigo at KI)? That's named after a major movie that has nothing to do with going forwards and backwards. The only similarity might be that the riders face each other on the trains. So the trains represent the theme of the movie (kinda). In this case, I think the trains of Terminator look great, and truly add to the theme of the coaster, wood or not. Another example is Survivor the Ride at CGA. In no way is a giant spinning disk related to the majorly popular reality show. The main point is that the ride can be adapted to the theme.

So I went today and it was crowded, but not really on the midways. A lot of people in the lines. I'll write a short report: My friend and I got there around 11:30 and we processed our Gold Passes. The line for the season passes was not long at all. Then we saw that Vortex's line was completely full so we skipped it and went to Invertigo (Demon's line was VERY long). Even though the line was a little long, the crew was cycling trains really quickly and it only took like 20 minutes. Good job Invertigo crew! Then we rode Drop Tower with only a 5-10 min wait. Even though most of the coaster lines were over 30+ min, Drop Tower's line never seems to get long. Grizzly's line was all the way out to the entrance so we skipped that too. Survivor only took about 20 minutes and we got good seats. We rode Spongebob's Boatmobiles and ate at the Nicktoon's Cafe. Next up was Endeavor, which never has a line, but we had to wait a ride cycle. Delirium was down so we kept going. We stood in line for Firefall for like 20 minutes (they were SLOW) and then one ride cycle, it flipped like 6 or 7 times (which is way more than it's supposed to) and it got stuck at the top. So we hit up the Orbit instead, which surprisingly had a semi-long line. Then Firefall opened back up and we walked right on, but the fire effects weren't working. Still a great ride! We kept going around the park to Flight Deck, which had a surprisingly short line because it apparently had just broken down. But we got in line and it started up right then. A quick ride in the 2nd row and by the time we got off, the line had doubled at least! Next was Rue le Dodge which was alright. Then we decided to brave out the line for Vortex which was still huge. After 45 minutes and many switchbacks we rode. The reason for such a long line was that they were only running 1 train....I'm not sure why though considering today is one of the most busy days of the season, but w/e. Overall it was a fun few hours. Not much has really changed since last season. The new sports bar is going to be a good addition. Some new paint here and there, and the new yellow uniforms for the groundskeepers looks good. Other than that, it was great seeing the park busy and doing well.

I think I might be going even though I know it'll be crowded. Since I go there so much I really don't mind crowds.

Yeah, usually the lines are short, but I do remember last year someone saying that lines on Spring Celebration were HUGE! I remember just a few years ago on weekends, the lines used to be somewhat sizeable. Now, there aren't many lines at all.

I like the addition. Much better than a bunch of games that I never play. I still need to head out to the park! I can't believe I haven't gone yet.

There's still an on-ride photo on Logger's Run too, assuming they didn't stop it there too.

Flight Deck has videos Vortex has photos Psycho Mouse has photos Logger's Run has photos Demon and Invertigo used to have photos like 4 years ago, but not anymore.

So the lineups aren't that bad even during July? There won't be 2 hour lineups? ~ Jess "Has no patience for queueing sometimes" Chan 2 hours? No way. On a busy summer weekend, Flight Deck's line MIGHT get up to 30 min. On a weekday, it's usually 20 min during the most crowded parts of the day. Invertigo might have a 45 min line, Grizzly and Psycho Mouse (depending on crowds) can also have long lines, but the rest of the coasters have short lines almost always. So since the coasters don't take up a ton of time, I recommend riding a bunch of CGA's flats. They really do have a good collection: Drop zone, Survivor, Firefall, Delirium, Flying Eagles, and classic rides like Berserker (bayern curve) and Centrifuge.

Just to let everyone know, the Inside Track blog has started up again. cfpl3.cagreatamerica.com/public/fun/blog/index.cfm?entry=61b43a4c-f8b9-4d75-b3d7-e622b70c7dd6

I really like how your pics show the vibrant color schemes of Nighthawk and Carolina Cobra. Sounds like a fun day.

Yeah, actually Flashback was surprisingly smooth, compared some of the Boomerangs I've ridden. But SFDK's takes the cake as the smoothest. I went on July 5th 2007, and I thought it would be really crowded because it was after 4th of July, but it was not that crowded plus it was pouring during the first part of the day, which probably lowered crowds. So I didn't need the Flash pass. Although a lot of rides were closed due to the rain.

Sounds like a fun trip (minus the First Aid trip). I had so much fun on my trip to SFoT a couple years back. They have some pretty good rides.

It looks nice, but the prices are a little too high IMO. Also, anyone else find it weird that in the "packages", they had Disney products offered? Isn't that a little strange to be promoting Disney Princess stuff at a SF haircut shop???

Yes, I agree with Noobitzer. SFDK's Boomerang is probably the smoothest I've ridden (out of 4)