itnotfair

^You make some good points there. I think implementing some of those changes would improve guest experience more than a Scream! re-theme or even a Tony Hawk clone. But how can you market something like that?

Awesome TR so far guys! I really like how you guys brought shoes for the kids out there. I'm sure they appreciate it! Don't get hooked on the coco leaves.

OMG how did I miss your Termination Day TR?? That was genius! Hope you kids have a great time during your Bay Area shenanigans! If you're looking for some tasty food at SFDK, we had some surprisingly good ribs towards the back of the park by the lake (towards the shark exhibit).

Anyone else miss the Wacky Soapbox Racers?

^ See why I love this girl?

^You and RCDB are going to have to have it out, with fisticuffs if necessary! ^^ It's really my obsession. I'm totally dragging Laurice down with me... ^^^ Awesome, Larry. Glad to fill out the archive some. If you're interested, I have more signs and more photos of rides that I didn't include.

Yes! Thread saved from obscurity...many thanks, Bebes! We owe you one. Glad to provide you guys with a preview of the park. Really, they had tons of stuff there, we were very surprised. Plus, the two credits there got me up to 60 coasters! Thanks again for the comment.

It's been a while since we conquered a local park, so I convinced Laurice that a trek inland towards Riverside was in order. Why? Because Castle Park is a massive minigolf/amusement center with credits yet to be conquered. Though it may be small compared to the big boys in Anaheim and Valencia, this park has a lot to offer. In fact, there is so much stuff going on here, I can't in good conscience post all of the pictures I took! We bought our tickets online, which, with processing fee, were only a dollar cheaper than buying them at the park, but at least there was a discount. Parking is $6. Like Scandia, it's a bit of a drive from my house, and I'll probably only visit again if they add some more credits, but if I lived in the area, I'd probably have a season pass. We really had a good time here. Siege on! Edit: Special thanks to Larrygator for condensing our threads into one superthread! I'll end this TR with a testament to our enjoyment. Thanks to Castle Amusement Park for some fun rides, a nicely kept park, and a great crew! Laurice took this ride very seriously. Very nice dragons painted on each flyer. Another reason today was great: Our first flyer ever! Looks tame, right? This thing was pretty out of control. Laurice and I kept bumping into each other, and I imagine this was not too different from Kick-boodie! Back to the rides. This was a chair swing themed to look like a tree. Hence King's Crown? The arcade also featured this classic! As per usual, I gave Laurice tons of useless advice, only to be the first to die. She got to level three! Highlights include cool theming and a spiral lift mid-ride. Shooting stuff is also fun. The arcade held this awesome shooting dark ride. The mini golf area is huge and themed to the hilt. Here's one shot of it. We next decided to survey the golf course and arcade, as the latter held a dark ride. Hmmm...no comment. Here it is unwrapped. This park is really much nicer than I expected. Check out the enclosed carousel! Here's an idea of the layout. It was a tight fit, but the cars moved swiftly, and the course was nicely themed. This car had a REALLY loud siren. We refrained from using it in the station (unlike all of the children), and the ride ops thanked us profusely. We liked this one. Everyone likes to be photographed on rides! Here's a shot of the cool train that winds through the park. We booked it, but when we got there, it was closed. The best part? We saw it running through the fence as we left. Oh well, no whoring today. After the flume, it was closed. Then, as we were eating corn dogs, I saw it running through the fence. Okay, here comes the sob story. I swear, it was open when we were in line for the log ride. Photo of our faux fear, check. Rockwork and theming, check. Entrance sign, check. We enjoyed this flume. It had two drops, some nice theming and rockwork, and kick-butt banjo music in the station. As it was pretty hot outside, we decided to get wet before it cooled down. Thanks S&S, you provided our favorite ride of the day! See? Not very tall. Still, it delivered some nice negative g's, and we are now ready to try some bigger ones! Up until now, we've chickened out when it comes to these, but this was a good first step! Today was great for many reasons. Here's one of them. Our first S&S tower. OMG I forgot the park map shot. Here it is in its splendor. Random lamp shot. Laurice loves lamp. And granola bar. I'd like to take this time to say, the employees at Castle Park are awesome! Just shows how a really friendly and attentive crew can add to a visitor's overall experience. I liked the screamin' demons painted on each car, however, and it had an acceptable amount of spinning. Overall, the coaster wasn't a winner. A little herky-jerky, and sometimes painful. This is a Fabbri spinning madness model, and according to RCDB, "the Screamin' Demon was previously the 'Pole Position' owned by 'Butler Amusements', a traveling amusement company." Big signage. On to the next credit! Why? Because the cones get the back. End of story. The back is not available today. We're waiting for the almost back, listening to the Harry Potter theme playing in the station. Everyone likes to be photographed on rides! Entrancing, isn't it? Merlin's looking a bit dehydrated. The fountain around him is on the fritz. It's not particularly thrilling, and it's a little short, but it makes two circuits, and finishes with a decent helix. This is a Vekoma junior coaster. No head-banging here! First credit of the day! Meager defenses and small crowds today, almost everything was a walk-on. As you enter, you walk under the flume ride's lift hill and largest drop. Park Entrance. Bask in its glory.

^^ Look, this is the one place we nerds can display our exorbitant coaster knowledge with pride. Let us make fun of people who think they know what they are talking about, but don't spend the time researching and riding that we do. It makes us feel better about ourselves!

^^I got it, Josh. I think I'll be hitting Castle Park on Tuesday, finally get me those two credits...maybe three if I'm feeling whore-ific.

Ah yes, summer in Phoenix...so hot you could literally cook breakfast on your credits. I remember thinking Desert Storm was awesome when I was a kid. I wonder if it has gotten worse over the years, or if I just didn't know any better. Thanks for the TR, that arcade shot brought back a lot of memories!

I wish I was as cool as you when i was 14! Great TR, thanks for the inside look!

Awesome TR! MagiQuest warms my nerdy little heart, and I hope one day to play it! Can I just say that the picture of the wand display got me more excited than I should admit...not in a phallic sense...I just want a wand that interacts with things! Next Tennessee trip, I'll definitely be demanding a trip to MagiQuest.

^SB is fun. I rode it before reading about it, and it had been years since I rode B:TR at SFMM, so I had no real preconceived notion of how intense a B&M invert should be. I loved it. However, during my next trip to SFMM, I made a point of riding Batman, and I experienced the difference first hand. SB kind of meanders through its course, while Batman whips through the track. Both are smooth and well built, but the Silver Bullet doesn't quite live up to it's name or to its predecessors. As for Perilous Plunge, I know there are a lot of folks who wouldn't mind seeing it razed to make room for some airtime-filled track!

Cool TR! I've heard great things about Phantom's Revenge, and your report just enforced my desire to hit Kennywood in the future.

I've never felt the desire to go to Sea World until I heard they were building a new coaster for 2010. Now my desire has been replaced with dread.

The only thing that makes me nervous is motion sickness. I guess that's not the same as being scared of a ride. Still, if someone made me ride this right here, I'd be really worried about losing my lunch! Seriously, what kind of iron stomach do you need to ride Tango?

If it has airtime, I'm all for it.

For anyone who has ridden more than one of them, is there a difference in ride quality between the SFDK model and the others?

Thanks for the feedback. I agree for the most part that if a queue system is accessible, its not a big deal to be asked to wait in line for the full time. However, even Terminator, which has one of the most accessible queues, is nearly impossible to exit once a wheelchair has been wheeled in. If there is some kind of emergency, the person is out of luck, because the queue has no convenient exit points. Whereas most people can just sneak by the people in the queue or even hop the rails, a wheelchair is stuck in the queue for the long haul. I agree, if the park were more accessible, waiting in line would be fine. It's really not, though. The thing is, no matter how long you make a group wait on the side to board the ride, they will always be boarding before someone who waited in line. Personally, I've been in line on countless occasions and had to wait for a disabled person and their group. I see it as part of the way a park should be run. Since they will invariably be "cutting in" somewhere along the line, it might as well be as soon as possible, to keep the loading area clear, and to keep everyone happy. There will always be someone who thinks its unfair that a group gets on the train before them, but in my opinion, they should try to keep things in perspective. At least they can easily access all of these rides, and one train later they will be boarding. I must say Tatsu was much better. The Lead at the top of the elevator told us the line was so long, we would have to wait about 30 minutes. We were fine with that, and were just glad the elevator wasn't a dinosaur like Viper's (OMG slowest thing ever). A couple minutes later, however, one really nice ride op invited us on anyway. Sure, the teenage girl next in line yelled out "LOSER" as we boarded, but otherwise, it was cool.

The gf and I brought our friend on his first trip to the park today. He's from Omaha, so he has only been to Arnold's Park, and DLR. He also has cerebral palsy. It only affects his legs, so he can ride pretty much anything. I was really excited to share my home park with a newbie. I was also very interested to see the park from a different perspective. I got more than I bargained for. I've defended SFMM a lot in the past few years. I know that recently there have been many positive changes to operations there, and I appreciate them. Sadly, we found their policies toward disabled guests to be substandard and even demeaning at times. First off, as my friend is visibly relegated to a wheelchair, we found it very odd that no one told us to visit guest relations before we attempted to ride anything. By the time we reached the Goliath station, we were turned away and told to get a special permit. This was not a huge deal, though rather inconvenient on a hot day, but I accepted responsibility, as I felt I should have done prior research. The permit mentions some interesting policies. We were surprised by this. My friend has been to DLR several times, and says that he and up to eight guests are seated with minimal wait time. We imagined that SFMM might have a similar policy, but instead, we often ended up on the ride later than if we had just waited in the line, and were apparently required to divide our party. Thankfully, many of the ride ops ignored this latter policy and allowed us to wait together. On Terminator, we were told to wait through the whole queue and preshows, which was fine, because though it was a long line, it was moving quickly and it was completely wheelchair accessible. Then, once we finished the shows, we were told to go around the side, and up the elevator, where "if they give you any trouble, tell them you've already been through the preshows." Why the heck would they give us trouble?? We just waited through the whole line like everyone else! Sure enough, the ride op viewed us suspiciously, and asked if we had been through the preshow. We then watched our preshow group board the ride. Then we watched them exit the ride, along with 4 more trains before we were allowed to board. Also, on every ride, we were told we could not ride in the front seats. I understand that the spot is coveted, and that some guests might get bent out of shape to see a group with a disabled person get on before them, but it's basically like telling the disabled that they are not ever allowed to ride a coaster in the front seat. On Goliath, the ride op even made an announcement on the loudspeaker as we boarded, apologizing to the guests "for the inconvenience of having their seats taken." That was really unnecessary and made us feel pretty awful. One ride op explained to me that it was unfair for us to board before others, who had to wait in line. I was so tempted to ask him what the crap was fair about not being able to walk. These are just a few of the problems we encountered today. Sorry if this turned into a long rant, but I was really disappointed with the park and its policies today. Though my friend was gracious and said he had a good time, I know he left with a negative impression of Six Flags, and I can't blame him. I'm interested to read other TPR members impressions of the SF policies toward the disabled, of this TR, and of their own experiences.

^Slut.

Is this the post to which you refer? If so, yes I managed to read all of it. Still, I'm confused as to which part of it makes my response any less relevant. I have not been to California or Knotts in 13 years. Now do you understand why I did not know they had a B&M? If you are going to comment on what coaster a park should build next, and you haven't been in a long time, may I suggest you look at RCDB.com before you do so? You will not find me on a KD thread suggesting a floorless B&M...like, say the Dominator. OMG I have never been to KD, how did I know you had one??

^Don't forget its atrocious capacity. So many reasons not to even bother riding it. I got the credit when it opened, now I ignore it.

^ Is this the post to which you refer? If so, yes I managed to read all of it. Still, I'm confused as to which part of it makes my response any less relevant.