CrazedZooChimp

The Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk! Still a really good ride even after 92 years. Someday I want to go ride the 1 year younger Giant Dipper one down in San Diego.

I swung by the festival on Sunday, it was really good stuff. Lots of fun and seemed to get a decent crowd of people wandering through it. The line for sweet tooth seemed to be there the whole 4 hours I was at the park, and lots of food stands were running out of items (although they were quickly refilled), so I hope it was a success for the park! I wrote a full review of it over at www.coaster101.com/2016/07/26/taste-orleans-californias-great-america/ but thought I'd share a few pictures with you guys. The gumbo and red beans and rice. The gumbo was the definite winner for me, really nice kick. Lots of lovely chalk art throughout Orleans place. Oh man, that sign. Creole meatballs. Could have used a little more spice, but they weren't bad. One of the cool projections they had after the sun went down.

I'm so jealous as I experienced Mardi Gras for my first time last year in New Orleans and have been craving some good NO style food since. They would do it the weekend I'm in Florida I finally had free time to use my platinum pass for the first time next weekend which makes it even more bittersweet. Anyone have any sweet pictures of the food?! I'd love to drool over them. It's going on next weekend as well if you're back in town then.

V2 is open now. Hooray! Are there any obvious changes? It was down for an awfully long time it seemed.

Anyone planning to go to the Taste of Orleans event this weekend?

It is, lots of good call backs and references to the game and appearances by favorite characters. I got the feeling based on how much people around me liked it that you didn't need to get the inside references, but for anyone who enjoys the games they should love it. I was also really impressed by how good the live actor was. I was very skeptical of it as well until I rode it a couple weeks ago, I think it was right up there with Star Tours (I was also really impressed by how good the images were). That's my favorite thing about GS and why I love it, it feels fast for the entire ride.

Out of curiosity, what GCI(s) do you like more? I've enjoyed every GCI I've ever ridden, but Gold Striker is by far the best for me.

Stopped by the park this morning for a brief visit on my way to things on the peninsula, it's pretty empty right now. Short wait for mass effect, no wait for flight deck except the first row.

These are awesome reports, thanks so much! I'm shocked that the cast members don't all speak Mandarin, moreso I think than that the park is less English friendly than others. I would think that at least after the initial opening rush the majority of the guests are all going to be Chinese. Seems so weird to have less English signage than, say, Tokyo Disney, but also not have everyone speak Mandarin. Was it because they brought in a lot of CMs from other locations, or just happened to be locals that only speak Shanghainese (I sort of assume most people in China these days speak at least decent Mandarin, but maybe I'm way off)? Still, sounds very cool. Hopefully the incidents of fist fights will go down!

because neither train has been repaired on LR or WF. I mean, obviously not? If SFDK is running one train with restraint problems and fixing the other one, then wouldn't the other parks be able to do the same? Because you don't run trains with restraint problems? Mind you, Kolmården haven't found any problems at all with their trains, but they still won't run Wildfire until they get the parts replaced. Always safety first! This was posted earlier in this thread... Have you read the previous page? I assume the green train has been fixed and that is why it has started running. Assuming it actually was the same problem (obviously we don't actually know that), then the green train on Joker was probably the first one fixed, and the others have not been repaired. As they get repaired they'll open up one by one. I'm just speculating, though. I assume it takes a few days for RMC to make the part and replace it.

Nice! Is it running both trains? Just the green train right now and their restraints are being extremely temperamental. I don't know why they're not opening the purple train because the queue is practically full it's easily 60 + minute wait. Must be something wrong with it. Maybe the recall will reach Joker as well... I assume this IS part of the recall. It would explain why Joker was closed last week, and could explain why they're only running one train (the parts have been replaced on the green train but not the purple train).

Nice! Is it running both trains?

Simple. Screw Disneyland. Go to Knott's. Have more fun for less money. I have an already paid annual pass, and are going with a bunch of hot girls to Disneyland. It's going to be fun, regardless. Hmm, that does sound enjoyable, can I come on your trip?

Man, thank goodness I went on Sunday. I think it was running all day (we rode it twice in the morning, shockingly short lines!), but we left in the early afternoon so hard to say for sure.

If I were building a new park the Phoenix area would be my choice, no question. It's a huge city, with lots of land (ie. relatively cheap), and year 'round good weather (yeah, really hot in the summer, but probably not much worse than Texas or Southern California). I don't understand why there isn't a park there. My other first thought is Pacific Northwest, somewhere either between Seattle and Portland or Seattle and Vancouver (or I guess just near Seattle, since Portland and Vancouver are both only about 3 hours from Seattle.

So I took my first ever trip to a non-US park last month, going to DisneySea. I was amazed at how wonderful this park was (mostly how immersive everything was). Luckily managed to be there during StormRiders last week, so go to enjoy it before it disappeared for good (which is sad, since I loved it and imagine a Finding Nemo ride won't have the campy adventure fun). Anyway, if you're curious, I posted all my thoughts and a ton of pictures up over at Coaster101 (in two parts, since I was pretty much amazed and wanted to write about everything). I never know what the policy for linking other sites is here, hopefully I'm not violating any rules by linking to reports elsewhere. Mostly, since you guys are the experts, tell me what I missed! I can't wait to get back there again (hey, flights aren't too expensive from SF). Enjoy! http://www.coaster101.com/2016/06/01/tokyo-disneysea-review-part-1/ http://www.coaster101.com/2016/06/08/tokyo-disneysea-review-part-2/

i just went on it for the first time friday, and the guy let me sit in the back. If you've been getting row preference on Gold Striker you've been unusually lucky. Due to the small station size they almost always mandate seating. In my experience they kinda go overboard with it mandating seating even with no line and practically empty trains. On the popular rides like Gold Striker there has to be assigned seating. I remember Flight Deck used to have assigned seating until they changed it. I've been riding GS since it first opened in 2013 and have never gotten the front row. If you do then consider yourself lucky. Yep, I've also never gotten the front row (or the very back) on GS despite many many rides on it. I dream of someday it being less popular so I finally can. I really need to get out to the park soon to check out Mass Effect, it sounds so good (especially for a huge Mass Effect fan).

Oh man, those post make me so excited to try to make it down to Knotts sometime this year. I loved GhostRider back when it first opened and have dreamed of its return to glory

Nice, this kind of makes me think I should get a photo pass, haha. Is that the same stranger in the last picture as in the first? (Also, I might agree with the two red headed guys on part one, but I'm going to give it some more rides before I actually judge. They're definitely wrong on part 2).

It was still down for rehab last weekend and it didn't look close to being ready...train in pieces. ...that was how it looked when I was there back at the beginning of March. Have they done anything? Seriously. I'm wondering what the heck is going on with that ride. It's been down for most of 2016. I kept hoping it was partly closed because of the Joker construction next door, but I guess that wasn't the case.

Does anyone know if V2 has reopened yet?

I would imagine that Vortex will get the same deal as Mantis did in the coming years. Does anyone have an idea of what the timescale for a project (the whole thing, not Vortex) like this would be? The SV Biz journal article mentioned the rezoning plan was for roughly 20 years of development, and I read somewhere that Ouimet (or maybe it was Rehnborg) said one new ride per year for the next 10 years (presumably some of that is stuff like the re-branding of Vortex).

I know that they know certain rides that are "designed" to work in the rain and others that aren't, so they could post those. I was there in December when it rained part of the day, and like FT closes completely in the rain, but one employee told me (when I asked) that TC is designed to work in the rain. Of course, it also kept breaking with small "minor difficulties" (I assume one sensor that didn't like being wet), but it was at least trying to run. I guess it's that there are some that definitely close and some that they'll try to run, making it clear which those are would be good. I'm sure there are other exceptions for high wind or lightning or hail or whatever too.

I hope the ride planners go ride Journey to Atlantis and come to their senses before considering that. I'm betting the "water" coaster will be a water propelled raft coaster as part of the water park expansion. No CGA is due for a full fledged steel coaster. And with Joker opening up the road, I don't see CF messing around... On the map the water coaster area is labeled ¨10¨ and is placed within the dry park. But it lists both Steel Coaster and Water coaster. Most of the others that list multiple things they are clear distinct attractions (like under #11). I wonder if the #12 where Whitewater Falls is is actually supposed to be a 10, seeing as 12 is "re-market attraction" under Vortex (although I guess it could be a remarket of Whitewater Falls). The Whitewater Falls area sure seems like it could work as a coaster, with the extra area behind it between Demon and Gold Striker... Either way, this is probably just a rough plan, things could change (like, how are they going to get 6 new rides over 200 feet based on that map ).

There is a theater in the middle of Flight Deck. I imagine they'll just repurpose that. Yeah, isn't it basically right where it's marked on the map? Roughly between the lift hill and the barrel roll? The entrance to the theater just becomes outside in the entertainment district instead of inside the park (or the entrance gets swapped to the other side). I wonder if the "re-market attraction" on the area that I think is Mass Effect means they're going to keep updating the Mass Effect ride over time or if they'll make something different in the other half (assuming Mass Effect uses just one half). There's a quote in this article from a VP at Cedar Fair that says "We do feel that dynamic content is an opportunity. This could include episodic content, non-linear storylines or seasonal variants." Could be cool if the ride gets regular content updates (assuming it's good to start with).