RAWKIN_coaster38

Wow! That's amazing! How did you learn to sketch like this? What's your plan for the final drawing? It looks like you've put a lot of work into this and I'm curious to hear what your plan is for the finished project! Mind=BLOWN.

I don't think I'll be going to any of them this year, but in the hopefully-not-too-distant future for my first Halloween park event, would you all recommend KBF's Haunt over others in CA?

I've never gone to a Halloween event at an amusement park but I've always wanted to... this Haunt looks insane! I've always wondered... are all the mazes included in the price or do you have to pay separately?

Yeah, maybe I can go next year to both days. It looks like I might actually have a job this year so I can save up hopefully! During the Q&A they said that in the past the Six Flags top guys would tell each park what they will be getting new with no say from the actual park officials, but now the park officials propose their ideas to Six Flags. The SFDK officials said they really didn't need or want Thomas Town (surprise surprise) and that they have too many kids rides as it is. I'm pretty sure they won't put any more kiddie sections and they may even take out one of the kiddie areas in the near future for something else. I agree that Pandemonium shouldn't be removed, but I think if they did remove it, they would put another coaster in it's place. The question is... what kind?? What do you all think they should get at SFDK if the plan was for a new coaster for 2012?

I feel like someone's going to hate me for this, but the first thing I thought of was Bizarro/Superman at SFNE. I rode it like a day or two after riding the coasters at SFGAdv and a few days before riding the ones at Cedar Point. Honestly, I thought Millennium Force was way better. We had a Six Flags season pass and not a lot of time at the park, so we pretty much just went in and stood in line for 2 hours, rode the coaster, and left. After hearing all the stuff about it being the best coaster in the world, I wasn't extremely impressed. Sure, it was a fun ride and I'd ride it again, but I still thought Millennium Force was better. Another really epic overrated coaster was Zonga at SFDK (Marine World). I think it was only hyped up in my mind because I was new to the coaster enthusiast stuff and SFMW hadn't had any new coasters in a while and it was my favorite park. Needless to say, Zonga was a huge letdown in more ways than one. I think it's best moment was when it sat in the parking lot and people drove by it to film the "parking-lot coaster".

I can't remember if I posted in this thread before or not but here I am... I don't get scared from coasters very often at all. If I do, it's only for the first time when I'm in line, strapped in waiting for the ride to start, or going up the lift hill that I feel a fluttery nervousness in my stomach. Deja Vu did that to me, X2, Top Thrill Dragster, I think El Toro, but that nervousness just makes me more excited to ride them! I always get super nervous moreso than the above on drop rides, sky coasters, vertical speed-slides, etc, but it's never stopped me from riding them, although I don't run to these rides first thing in the day like I do with extreme coasters and other rides. This isn't a ride, but I'm pretty much terrified to go to Fright Fest or any similar Halloween thing and go into the mazes. I know that I'd probably be super pumped and laughing/hyper/happy after I did them, but it would take me a lot of mustering to do one. Last year I went to a pretty well-designed maze that some people built in their home and it was my first time actually doing one. I had fun and ended up doing it again another time, but it made me super nervous. I think it's the idea of having people jump out at me unexpected/grabbing or touching me in the dark that terrifies me. A coaster is the same every time you or someone else rides it, so it's pretty easy to know what to expect even if you've never ridden a particular type of ride. A haunt maze? Gives me the hibbi-jibbies just thinking about them.

Yeah the Six Flags 1ocker policy really is obnoxious. SFDK wasn't always like that, but when they got them it was a pain. However, I can tolerate it because the 1ockers near the coasters are only $1 for about 2 hours and you can rest assured that your stuff is safe. We ended up going over our time because we put our stuff near Pandemonium and then ended up going over and riding Medusa and was in line for Kong when we realized our time was out. Thankfully, our 1ocker was still closed when we went over and we were able to use the receipt to open it and get our stuff. It's great to hear a TR from someone who has never been to either park. I grew up going to SFDK (always Marine World to me) every year and it will probably always be my home park. It deeply irritated me when I went to CGA a few years back because I noticed all of the negatives compared to SFDK and the two parks are pretty close to each other and I didn't think CGA could even compare.

^^Dang! That would have been awesome to have one of those. But it's good I didn't go, a family emergency came up literally right when I got to the motel from SFDK and I had to change my Sunday plans around that. SFDK day was amazing, though! I had a great time, and I'm thoroughly convinced that I need to start saving for this event next year. I need to try the Medusa water challenge again and WIN!! Hopefully it won't be so cold next time... I was glad that we had the Q&A session (I didn't originally see it on the online schedule) but that was great. I'm excited to see what's going to be announced in the next month for the 2012 season! It did seem like they were alluding to the possibility of a new coaster in replacement of another one, but I wasn't expecting that Pandemonium was the one on the chopping block. I personally was hoping (and still am) that Boomerang will get demolished and that between the space from Boomerang and the 3D theater they could get a new awesome coaster. Boomerang is super old, breaks down often, doesn't have high rider per hour capacity, and it's pretty much adjacent to the old 3D theater. I think they should keep Pandemonium for now since it's still new and it maintains the title as one of the few "family" coasters in the park. But I'd only be upset about Pandemonium's removal if they DIDN'T get something much better... Overall, great trip! I'm glad I decided to go.

There's a LOT of coasters I haven't ridden yet that I'd really want to... but for the sake of brevity I'll say this: Kingda Ka (or one in the future that's taller): just to say I've ridden the tallest coaster in the world Formula Rossa (or one in the future that's faster): just to say I've ridden the fastest coaster in the world Also, I want to ride other record-breakers as they crop up, and the coasters voted "best in the world" as they crop up. There's no official Bucket List, it's more of an ongoing thing.

^^I agree with Chroniq and BaMiTsPat I'm not embarrassed to talk about it with my friends and family, but I KNOW it goes wayyy over their heads a lot of the time. I think I've explained the concept of X2/4th dimensional coasters like 100 times to my friends and family, and I'm pretty sure they still don't get it. When I took a coaster road trip to the Eastern US with my dad a few years ago, even after my babbling on and on about certain coasters, we'd be in line for said coaster and he'd say, "So what coaster is this, and why is it important?" I just hope that the more I talk about it with them the more they'll start to understand my babbling a little and will share my joy or frustration when something new happens in the amusement park industry. Otherwise, there's no hope for us at all.

When I did this last year, the park was pretty good about making sure the GP were out of the park at 9. There's always the chance that a few people could sneak in, but it was pretty much just TPR. They closed off the entrances to other parts of the park before the official closing time and only let TPR people through to the ERT area. One question: I know there's no outside food or drink allowed, but can we bring an empty water bottle into SFDK and fill it up at a water fountain inside?

We weren't planning to go to both days, mainly because of cost for the tickets (we don't have season passes) and food, gas, and lodging. Do you know of any good places to stay near SFDK? We're looking for $60 or cheaper for one room for two people.

Sunsplash in Roseville has one. I haven't been to Waterworld is soooooo long! I didn't know what happened to it. I'm actually kinda disappointed by the rides they have now. I used to go every year when I was a kid. Those Cliffhanger slides were the best! The two slides came straight off of the top instead of easing their way down. It honestly felt like you lifted off for the first second of the slide. It appears that they've really tamed them down. Also, I remember there being these twisty aqua blue slides, a white slide, and I believe a purple and a green slide all coming off of this one structure. I think they all had shark names. What happened to those? I didn't even recognize the park except for some of the similar names and those cannonball slides. A lot has changed. I guess I'll have to revisit it sometime and see for myself. The funnel slide looks cool, the half-pipe looks sorta tame compared to other NorCal half-pipes, but maybe it's different.

My friend and I are going to the SFDK day. We're driving down really early in the morning but I know for a fact that we're going to be too tired after the event to drive 4 hours back. We're trying to book a cheap motel tonight. I wanted to know where other people are staying and if anyone has suggestions about inexpensive motels. We were looking at the Relax Inn for $20 for the two of us for one night, but that motel and the other 2 or 3 cheap options are in the same part of town and had some bad reviews about seedy people hanging out in the parking lot. We don't really care if the hotel is nice or not, but being two single young ladies on our own, I just want to make sure that we're not going to get raped, mugged, or have my car broken into for the one night. We've never stayed at these hotels before (all of the times I've gone in the past my dad was driving and we drove an extra hour or two to his mom's house). I'm not good at driving when I'm tired and I've never gone to an amusement park for a day and wasn't extremely tired by the end. Any suggestions? We're up for anything. We're even willing to sleep in my tiny 2-door car at a rest stop if it seems a better option than a motel. We really don't want to pay more than $60 or so.

Any else watch 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show last week? One of the placing questions was "How fast is the fastest roller coaster in the world?" The closest guy said 138, which really wasn't bad. The lowest guess was 100 and the second-lowest was 108 or something. Honestly, I expected the guesses to be a lot worse, but I still am surprised that a lot of people don't know that coasters can go faster than 100, or the other extreme when I hear people thinking they go way faster than they actually do.

Wood: El Toro. Steel: Top Thrill Dragster. Would have been KK (on the same day as the above) but it was closed most of that year because it got struck by lightning.

I don't really get scared ever on coasters. The most I feel is a slight excited/nervous combined feeling the first time I ride a coaster that's different/intense compared to others I've ridden. However, drop towers still make me really nervous. For that reason, I love riding them. But that feeling when you're at the very top and it's sitting there and you know any second it's going to fall out from under you? And then the split second that you're free falling before you gather your bearings? That.

For woodies? Probably El Toro because it's awesome! For steel? I'd probably say Medusa at SFDK. It was my first ever coaster and I never get tired or it no matter how many times I've ridden it! It's pretty long, not too rough or dizzying, and good to take newbies on it. Idk if any of you thought of this, but if we could only ride one coaster the rest of our lives we'd have to think about which coaster we'd want to ride when we're old/have young kids/with non-coaster enthusiasts/don't necessarily want a super intense ride, etc. For me, Medusa covers all of those bases.

You have a good point, but he's one of those people that losing weight comes very difficultly for him. Last year he was in football and worked really hard and only lost a little weight. He really should develop better habits, but my question was more along the lines of, "Until he does lose the weight, how can I encourage him to still go with me to amusement parks/which should we give up on going to together?" As for myself, I'm probably just worried for no good reason. I'm no where close to being morbidly obese and I'm a vegetarian whereas my brother is a meatetarian. But thanks everyone for the suggestions. Hopefully him and my (together) coaster-riding days aren't over!

You just said free parking if you register by this weekend, but the page says "July 22nd" which was friday. When is the official D-Day for the free parking? I just might be able to make it! Paid lunch + ERT + free parking? Sounds good to me! Only problem is getting there by 9:30am... Google says it takes 3 hours 44 minutes to get there from here and I can't leave before 6am because I work for the crisis line on that Friday. It'd be a close call. I *could* call and reschedule the crisis line, but then again, if it works out to go to SFDK the coasters might be a great follow-up to my first night of the crisis line! Decisions, decisions.

Is the coaster no longer operating?

I can't remember if anyone asked this already... does the coaster have any inversions?

This would be really cool if it actually happened. I sometimes wonder how Knotts is faring with all of the hype about SFMM... certainly Knotts is more of a theme park and more family-oriented than SFMM, but it's also in an area that has a lot of great other theme parks nearby (namely Disneyland). If this is true (I really hope it is), it could be Knotts' attempt to gain more of a name for themselves again. If the ride does go throughout the park, I hope they add theming to several parts of it instead of just slapping the metal down amongst everything else in the park.

I really hate the cost of parking at these parks but it's one of those almost-unavoidable costs. Either you find somewhere else to park and walk, risking a $50+ towing cost and potential damage to your car if it's a bad area, or you pay the fee.

I think I remember that they have Wifi. But I've never brought my computer into the park to test it out. It might be Wifi with a fee though....