Mechanic

Ghost Rider and Pysclone both beat me up to the point that I had no desire to reride either of them.

We didn't get passes for CGA this year and so far I'm not regretting it.

Tatsu is probably my favorite, but I really like Viper, Goliath and Ninja as well. Gold Rusher in the dark at WCB was something I'd never done before and it was surpisingly cool.

Turn of the century at Marriots Great America. I rode it in 1976 when it opened. The double corkscrew was the only upside-down part of the ride at that time. After the addition of the vertical loops and theming, it is now Demon at CGA. It used to have some pretty nice airtime where the loops are now. I think it was a better ride in its original configuration.

Very nice trip report Robb. Thanks for putting it together. I'll be remembering this event for a very long time and can't wait for the next one.

Thank you very much. That's exactly what I needed to know, particularly the part about the packages. We'd have surely fallen for one of those if I hadn't asked. Target and Best Buy, here we come! Well, here my wife comes at least.

Nice video! I'm already wishing we were back at the park.

My youngest son's 12th birthday is coming up and he's been wanting a Wii for some time now. His grades are good and his chores have been kept up for the most part, so I figured we'd surprise him with the Wii. That leads me to some questions: Where would I be most likely to find a Wii console in stock in the Sacramento area? I'm more than willing to call around or check store web sites, but having some idea of where it would most likely be in stock would be a big help in saving me some time. Does the price vary greatly from one store to another? And finally.. With the searching that I've done online to this point I've seen a few different "packages". Which is the best value when considering that he'll most likely be interested in the Mario series of games? Please excuse me if this has already been covered in this thread, but it's currently 143 pages long and I honestly just didn't want to read every page. I know next to nothing about video game consoles so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

No doubt about it. It's completely fair.

Cool! A "random people shot" with people I know. That's one of my sons, my daughter and their friend. Thanks for posting up the pictures. The kids got a kick out of being "random people".

We did that also and it was really a blast. I agree that the restroom issue could have been brought up a little more politely, but since the person that asked the question has already apologized for coming off a little too abrupt, I think it's fair to treat the matter as water under the bridge. For what it's worth, I personally didn't have any particularly negative experience in any restrooms that I used, nor did anyone in our group make a comment to me about the restrooms one way or the other. Maybe I was just lucky and hit the restroom right after it had been gone over by the custodial staff? I felt a little tension in the room when a few different questions were asked, but what was very impressive was the manner in which the park management addressed the concerns presented to them. They stood up straight and acknowledged that things hadn't been as they should be and that it had carried on that way for far too long. Tim in patricular struck me as a really stand-up guy that recognizes that moving forward in correcting whatever shortcomings there are is far more important than looking backward to place blame. I don't think the lessons of letting the park fall into the poor state that it was in are lost on any of the current executive staff. These guys didn't take the easy way out and hide in their offices during the event. They were visible, approachable, personable, and came across to me as proud of what they've accomplished so far, as they should be. They're enthuasiastic to get out the message about what they're doing to make the park a place that people will want to come visit. I can't imagine what more they possibly could have done to make us all feel welcome and to show us that the guest experience is their priority. Plain and simple: These guys "get it". I think Magic Mountain has a future that's brighter than even the best days of its past. The down years shouldn't be forgotten, but they shouldn't be dwelled upon either. The focus going forward is trained in where it belongs, and whether or not anyone could absolutely agree on what should be done in exactly what order, the fact that the things that need to be done are getting done is what progress is all about. The IBU strategy that they've employed is working well and I think we should all feel fortunate to have been invited to "Celebrate success". I wish the park and the company continued success. SFMM will definitely be in the plans for our summer vacation. Besides saying "thank you", I can't think of a better way to thank the park than by visiting it and supporting it with my $$$.

Our group at WCB closed out our evening with mutiple rides on Viper. Fun fun fun!

We had the best time ever! Everything about the whole day was great. It's really great to see management in place that has identified what was wrong with the park and has a plan in place to fix it. Making themselves so accessible to us and sharing their enthusiasm for their jobs is just awesome. I fully understand that they can't lay out every detail of what's planned for the future, but what I've seen so far sure has me believing they're going about things the right way. The park looked great. I knew they'd been painting things and doing paving work and general "spruce-up" maintenance type work, but there was something beyond that and I just couldn't put my finger on it. Then, during the Q&A at the theatre, it hit me when Jay said they were picking up all the leaves in the park. That was it! That's what I'd noticed but couldn't put my finger on. It may seem like a relatively minor detail, but it makes a substantial positive difference in the appearance of the park whether or not you realize "why" it looks better. Just the fact that they'd recognize and correct some seemingly small issue like that tells me that they're genuinely interested in the quality of the experience that guests have in their park. That's really the sort of thing that has an effect beyond just what's obvious. Keeping up the appearance of a park has a positive effect on guests and employees alike and I believe Tim illustrated that pretty well while telling us about Gold Rusher's recent station work. Tim related a story about the Gold Rusher sign where an employee took it upon himself to repaint it so it would look as good as the newly repainted building now does. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. When the park managers are as enthusiastic about turning a park around as this team is, it filters down to everyone. I believe everyone that hasn't visited the park in a while (like me) will almost immediately notice a changed atmosphere and that change is most definitely for the better. Hats off to TPR, rideworld and the entire six flags staff and management for showing us a great time. The entire event, from start to finish, was absolutely enjoyable and well beyond what I expected. Night time ERT with all available coasters and the sky tower was just - WOW! - awesome. Thank you very much! to all involved.

My family and I have been really excited ever since the first email that Robb sent out. Just ERT, meals and a t-shirt are worth WAY more than the $20 registration fee. The backstage tours, presentations, and the surprise(s) (whatever it/they may be) are icing on top of an already awesome looking cake. We have literally been counting the days this week, waiting for the weekend so we can be on our way. I can't even imagine how much work has gone into this event and we're very grateful for all of it from everyone involved. We're looking forward to a great event and some great fun.

It's a very nice little park for families. I absolutely agree that a flume or river rapids ride would be a great addition for the park. If they were to ever add another coaster, I think a terrain hugging suspended coaster would be a great fit as well.

Thanks for the advice on the traffic. I'll give it 45 minutes and hopefully be on time or a little early.

We're staying in Simi Valley the night before WCB. Yahoo maps lists the travel time to Magic Mountain at just over 1/2 an hour. Is that realistic for driving early on a Sunday morning? I was pretty much figuring on leaving about an extra 15 minutes early just in case, but I'd hate to find out when it's too late that it actually takes longer than I'm anticipating. I've found that driving time estimates for southern California are NOT EVEN CLOSE to being accurate a majority of the time. Any insight from the locals on what to expect in the way of traffic coming that way would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

They don't have a single day admission price listed on the website yet.

These 2 parks are the closest to what I can call our "home parks" and I give the nod to SFDK as well. Looking at it from strictly a "rides" point of view, the parks are relatively equal. Beyond that, CGA includes the water park with admission, whereas SFDK includes a zoo and oceanarium with a number of live animal shows and interactive animal attractions. SFDK is a more immersive experience overall in my opinion, and it's where I'd go if I could only choose one or the other. We've had season passes to both parks for the past several seasons and when I ask the kids which park they want to go to, they usually choose SFDK / (used to be Marine World) as well. So, from everyone that's voted so far, and me, and my kids, it's SFDK. Have fun!

Without getting into a "when does life begin?" debate, it could be argued that he actually was a "survivor", although not technically a "passenger". I'll be interested to see if he actually ends up counting as one of the six, or not. I'm inclined to think he won't be, but you never know. In any event, I enjoyed the episode tonight and I'm really looking forward to the next one. The preview looked pretty action packed.

I bet my my kids will love this. Discovery Kingdom has really made some great strides recently at improving the "family friendly" aspect of this park and I hope this trend continues. The 2007 season was great and it looks like 2008 will be even better. I used to bag on six flags to some extent, and it was primarily because I felt they deserved it. Not anymore though. They're really heading in the right direction as far as I'm concerned and I can' wait to see the changes at Magic Mountain as well when we head down for WCB.

After considering this a little more, I think a ride based on the ARES I emergency escape roller coaster would be an awesome fit in tomorrowland. Link The storyline could have you setting out on deep space adventure only to have your launch aborted for some reason, at which point you'd board the coaster and "escape" the launch pad. From the pictures in the link, it looks like the vertical track of the coaster would provide a pretty good thrill. Of course, that'd be only part of ride experience if done right though. The queue for the ride would actually have to be part of the whole experience (much like ToT). They could have all sorts of pre launch checks taking place (Sort of like Star Tours, but more real-life NASA type stuff) that build into some emergency situation as you near the loading zone. To build in some re-ridability, they could have different scenarios that result in the aborted launch, with associated special effects in the queue that are specific to whichever reason the launch is aborted. I'm sure that if anyone could pull it off in reasonably convincing fashion, it'd be Disney.

I'm 6' 2" and a bit over 250 lbs and I fit in Tatsu's seats with plenty of room to spare. You can clearly see where the restraint locks in position on the ride and there were 2 additional "clicks" that it could have moved outward to accomodate someone even larger than myself. They were also some of the most comfortable restraints of any ride that I've ever ridden. Oh yeah, and the ride itself was awesome!

I heard on the radio today that they're doing a new version of "the house of the future" for tomorrowland. (Click for article) Not exactly my first choice for a new attraction, but I'll withold judgement on it until I actually see it. As far as what I'd like to see, the empty people mover track has bugged me for a long time now. Since there's almost no avoiding a Pixar tie-in with any new ride, an Incredibles pod ride on the people mover track would be ok with me. The people mover was a real "people eater" back in the day and I would hope that any new attraction on that track would also be high capacity.

They could reopen it as-is and rename it "Blair Witch Park".