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While everyone is shopping in Black Friday, I'll enjoy myself on a day trip to Orange County: Downtown Santa Ana, Downtown Disney, & Mission San Juan Capistrano.

2013 will not be a big amusement park year for me. The only vacation I'm going is to Hawaii which has no amusement parks. So, I'll probably stick with my local parks: Legoland & Knott's. I might go to my old buddy, CGA to check out Gold Striker. I might go to Disneyland after the Big Thunder re-hab to check out Cars Land.

Yes, I'm a bit bias. But, I think one of the best places for a coaster enthusiast to live is in Carlsbad, CA. Why you may ask? Well, Orange County & LA have that essence of bad crime & poverty and living there is the definition of city life. Carlsbad has a great community with low crime and low traffic. Though, everyone who is reading this thread wants to know the proximity of amusement parks, well Carlsbad is in close proximity to all the major amusement parks in Southern California. Legoland California: In my glorious city. SeaWorld San Diego & Belmont Park: 40 minutes Disneyland & Knott's: 1 hour Universal Studios Hollywood: 1 hr 40 mins Six Flags Magic Mountain: 2 hours (w/o traffic) The drive to SFMM usually isn't bad and for some reason I always have good luck with the traffic. It's a bit tough to do SFMM in one day but I usually spend two days there and I stay at a cheap motel overnight which is no problem. The drive to Disneyland & Knott's is very easy as I remember before I lived in Carlsbad, I used to vacation in Carlsbad and I had a 4 day pass to Disneyland and every day I would travel back and forth for a 2 hour round trip and it was no problem whatsoever. Also, San Diego Zoo is not too far away in Balboa Park and the Zoo Safari Park is just 30 minutes away. Plus, Carlsbad is a tourist-thriving beachside destination, so you're living in an area where a lot of people literally visit from around the world. So, that's Carlsbad for coaster enthusiasts.

I was thinking that CF was just going to sell it, I don't believe that SeaWorld will purchase CF's Soak City property in Palm Springs. I would be VERY happy if Busch Gardens came to San Diego. Big coasters in my beautiful county is something that I would extremely enjoy. Though, the possibility of that happening is basically 0.

Sierra Twist could use some new theming, perhaps pistachio-themed?

Flashback's paint job is a little "rusty".

I wouldn't be surprised if their Palm Springs Soak City will be sold in a few years.

I'm thinking about going to SFMM on Friday & Saturday. Has anyone been to SFMM in the past on those days? I'm thinking it's a bad idea already.

Not that this disproves your criticism, but believe it or not there is a "logical" method to the 1 train madness. The ride may have extra trains sitting on the transfers, but operates with one train on slow days because it is one less train mechanics have to inspect before the next operating day. Does it make guests wait 20-30 minutes instead of just walking on? Sure. But it keeps operating and resource costs low. It also keeps guests in the park later in the day to buy merchandise and food instead of just riding everything in the first 3 hours and heading back home. For example, it doesn't matter if a train cycled only one time with guests...that train cycled with the public, and will need to be inspected as if it were running all day. That is why sometimes you will see "empty" trains cycling in the beginning of the day. The train is there to operate immediately if the park gets busier than expected and ride central ok's it --but-- it cycles empty to avoid having to inspect the train the next day if they don't. Unfortunately the ride-ops at Magic Mountain are a bit below par on the efficiency level, and when one train operation occurs, many of us guests get the brunt of it. It can be very dependent on the ride ops whether you will be waiting 10 minutes or 30 minutes. The problem is slow day + one train operation + SFMM's operations = 45 minute waits not 20 - 30 minutes.

Well, being a San Diego County resident, this is a big deal. I'm not a water park person, though having Sea World own the park is MUCH better than Cedar Fair. I always thought that an Aquatica needed to open up in SD and this is great. I hear improvements coming.

I sure hope so, though I doubt Knott's will be recieving a giga. Pehaps Knott's will get a large B&M wing-rider or a B&M mini-hyper for 2014. If Knott's is getting a mini-hyper for 2014, I would be excited as Goliath (La Ronde) looks like a fun coaster. I could picture those airtime hills going along Knott's parking lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X22QHxrwp_E And in case you haven't seen it yet:

This is a great thread. Thanks cfc for creating this. Well, I have a good number of Pleasant/Unpleasant Surprises: Pleasant Surprises: GhostRider: I heard reviews that this would be a terrible woodie, but I rode the front and it was fun. The roughness almost went into the untolerable point of roughness, but it continued to be tolerable. I do refuse to sit anywhere else other than the front as I don't want a ride to kill me, I'll just gladly wait a little more for a fun ride. Revolution & Colossus: Reviews show that these are two mediocre coasters, though I actually enjoyed them a lot. Of the 14 non-kiddie coasters at SFMM, I rank Revolution & Colossus as #7 & #8. Montezooma's Revenge: For some reason my dad had a bad ride on it many years ago, so he told me it was really rough. I went on 4 rides on Monte in various seats and it gave a really fun and smooth ride. I rank Monte as my 2nd favorite coaster in Knott's after Xcelerator. Pony Express: I had no expectations for this coaster and I thought it would be painful like Survivor (CGA), but it was a lot of fun and it was surprisingly comfortable. Kong: I thought Kong would kill me, but I just got some minor headbanging. Unpleasant Surprises: Hammerhead (SFDK): All the SFDK locals said that this was the best flat ride at SFDK. I thought it was a very painful ride. Riddler's Revenge: Many SFMM fanboys claim this to be the best stand-up coaster in the world. I must say that if this is the best stand-up in the world, they are all terrible. Riddler gave me a good amount of headbanging right on my ears and while it isn't as bad as Vortex (CGA), I still avoid Riddler. Tatsu: Many SFMM fanboys claim this to be the 2nd best coaster in SFMM (after X2), though I really don't like the flying position as it is very uncomfortable especially in the pretzel loop and the brake run (waiting for SFMM's crummy operations). It is a bit fun and it was more forceful than I thought but I usually skip Tatsu if a see a long line which it always has. Sky Cabin (KBF): I thought Sky Cabin would be a nice ride with a really good view like Star Tower (CGA), but the windows were dirty and the cabin felt really old and not maintained well. I find it funny that the railroad gives a better view of the PP construction site than Sky Cabin.

I agree, it looks really faded now.

I saw the movie Lincoln and it was pretty good. The actors are fantastic as Abe Lincoln, Mary Lincoln, General Grant, Robert E. Lee, etc. all look like the pictures you find in encyclopedias and textbooks. I would recommend watching the film.

About 2 hours ago I rode Technic Coaster (Legoland California) twice without getting out of my seat and I was one of the 4 last riders for today.

From TPR's Mack interview, it's good to hear that Coast Rider will be "slightly custom". It's good that it won't be an exact clone to Technic Coaster and is why the length is 1339' not 1312'.

I do all my recreations without sketch-up as I want to do my recreations just with the stuff No Limits provides. So, I made the flywheel launch system out of small wooden beams and it was difficult to make a round object that small, so I did my best job.

Legoland California banned smoking from inside the park with just one designated smoking area outside of the enterance. I think parks need to implement this system as I have relatives who go with me to Legoland who are heavy smokers and they like how Legoland is a non-smoking park as they can't smoke for a good period of time. I think other parks should implement Legoland's system to ban smoking inside the gates as the smoking areas in parks that I have seen in various Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks can be easily smelled and isn't placed very well. For instance, while waiting in line for Revolution, I smelled smoke and I saw that there was a designated smoking area next to the former enterance to Revolution (next to X2 bridge) which was very close to Revolution's queue. When I went to the DC Universe restroom, there was a smoking area right next to the restroom's enterance. I believe that smoking areas should be a little better placed, or better, banned entirely from the inside of the park. From some observations, it's odd how a lot of the really good views of coasters are in smoking areas.

I thought you said you weren't going to IAAPA this year, A.J.? Anyways, it's good to see that you made it in there. Great photos and those Goliath trains look really nice.