coasterlvr

so thankful for a great POV. sometimes when i see the videos the parks get i wonder who the hell they hired to take these videos?

Small little trip report. Made a last minute decision to go up north from so cal to check out The Joker. Decided to try the bus that other friends have used and was a cheaper option last minute. so, my plan would be, an overnight bus, get a couple hours at a friends house, a quick trip to CAGAm to ride Goldstriker, then off to SFDK. ending with another overnight trip home. my bus left at 10pm and arrived at 4am. surprisingly got some good sleep on the bus. friend picked me up, and we went back to his house where i got a few more hours. had some breakfast his wife cooked us and we were off. we went to great america right around the 10am opening. buses galore, ugh. crazy packed to get into the park. i haven't been up north in a few years, before Goldstriker so i waited it out and got my one ride. my buddy was waiting for me outside since he doesn't have a pass. off to discovery kingdom to ride the joker. took a while with some traffic but finally got there around 2pm or so. saw more school buses. oh well, really all i cared about was riding the joker. we hadn't eaten yet and wanted to get food before the lunch dining pass hours passed us by. after eating headed on over to joker and got in line. really slow train dispatches. actually, i'm not even sure how many trains had riders on them. we ended up under the station waiting for a while before the line was cleared for the breakdown. was getting that feeling you get when you're not sure you're going to be able to ride the new hotness and need to leave that night. i didn't want to get stuck in a line somewhere so got an ice cream and we just hung around the area. that was when i saw alan by the lockers. i told my friend, alan is to coasters like george lucas is to star wars, the man. lol i think the ride was down about an hour and the operators waved us in. so, just kept running around and getting in line and was able to get a number of rides in various seats. i'm a back row guy and overall, it was still my favorite on the joker. the middle part between your legs seems a bit beefier than twisted colossus and the shin pads seem to be larger or longer on the sides. anyone else notice this at all? still super comfortable. i really like how fast the train leaves the station. alan said it could go even faster if they wanted it to. so many great elements but the ones i thought would be my favorites were. the two larger airtime hills, the mini double down like drop and the final one before the break run. and of course, still my favorite inversion, the zero g stall. only other ride i rode was Medusa. i've only been to discovery kingdom once. Medusa was pretty new and it was before the spike on V2 was chopped down. 01, 02? i don't really remember. i thought medusa kicked ass. those pre drop b&m's with straight drops are awesome. ran into a few really helpful and enthusiastic employees. that was nice. anyway, left around closing, got some food at outback and was back on the bus and got to union station in la at 6am this morning. should be able to get back later this year sometime. My ride to San Jose. Uh oh, Great America looks a bit crowded. Many school buses in the parking lot and getting in looks like this. Great looking skyline. Ha, Ha, Ha! Toyota Highlander on some IBOX Track. lol Loved Medusa! Back in LA Union Station 6am.

I was in the tunnel for 20-30 minutes when it broke down yesterday. but I think being in the shade and hearing the music is better than being in the sun and no music. lol

oh and it's been a long time since I e been to SFDK. I loved Medusa. I forgot how fun it was.

I got a bunch of rides in today. would have been more but I wasted a couple hours at great america for one lap on goldstriker. anyway, the joker is super fun. I still prefer TC, I just like larger elements. back row was my favorite seat. sat in front, 3rd, 10th, and back. nice meeting Alan too. told my buddy he is to roller coaster fans how George Lucas is to a Star Wars fan. lol

saw this guy wandering around today.

i'm gonna take the bolt bus up there friday to check it out. not sure i'll be able to later this summer or not. so screw it, i'm coming! lol also, i was watching the B roll again and i like how this dude in the second row is recording the ride.

some Twisted Wiches sandwiches on the dining pass now!

i'm curious how well they will only allow gold pass members on friday. the joker looks like a lot of fun on the B-Roll video. cool shots.

Unfortunately Knott's is the same way now. I went on weekday last week and all the roller coaster lines were close to a hour wait with mostly one train operations and super slow dispatch times. it should not take two to three minutes to get a train out of the stations. last week weekday? i was there a few days. never saw anything like you describe.

if anyone can use this, here you go. i'm not sure if you can input that code anywhere or not. on my email, there are buttons i click to end up buying. code is good for 3 GOLD Passes for 64.99. i also have one that is for 69.99. only good thru tomorrow.

i've never seen it go that high. but then, i'm pretty much never there that early.

how does it feel different to TC's? in the POV, it's looks shorter, but it also is flying through it, so it's hard to tell. I'd have to ride Goliath at SFGam again now after TC to see how they compare. Goliath's seems taller? seems it might be like that with the Joker? i still think that element is my favorite type of inversion.

sorry, old news. lol

POV on SFDK Facebook. sorry I'm dumb on mobile otherwise I'd link. looks awesome

"do it up right" and magic mountain don't go together.

that's obviously the start of the giga t-rex station.

It didn't feel sluggish at all to you? I can't quite put my finger on what's different but when I rode it a few weeks ago it was *crawling* around the track. I honestly thought it was going to roll back on that little hill before the final helix. I haven't tried the VR on Revolution because it was drizzly when I was there, and when they did have it working, the slow dispatches produced an insane line. I tried it in Texas and frankly have no interest in riding any coaster with a VR phone again, so I'm glad they've opened up the ride to a non-VR line. felt pretty slow to me with VR. need to ride without next time i'm there.

the day i went, phones went dead, over heated, and wouldn't focus. that was just happened to me during two rides. i have a feeling the equipment will make the decision over management.

thanks god for the parking. it's $25 there. i really like that park.

Let's hope it means at least there might be a new train there.

you can try calling the membership line and see what they can do, if anything. sorry, i had a number up there because magic mountain had given me the membership line before. of course i don't know where it is and the one i posted went to great adventure. i'm going to see if i can find it cause i need to call and cancel my dining membership. ****sorry, editing again. i just cancelled my membership dining pass over the phone. so i asked about upgrading, and like magicmountainman said, there's no way to upgrade a dining pass he said.

btw, when i was waiting for the second row, my headset activated and i was able to shoot at the targets until around the time the train left the chain. then it went to the calibration message, i think. a little extra fun. lol

i forgot to ask about a single rider line, or a line for the front. seems when i was there yesterday, and pics from the weekend that the front is almost always vacant.

i'm guessing the 420 is in full effect.