NinjaTurtle

Mass Effect won't be open. The ride label would have been there if it was a listed attraction.

It's definitely employee only status at the moment, but employees may have been able to bring a +1. Either way, with employees riding now, it will be open very very soon. I got a free unlimited rides wristband voucher for SCBB tonight at the SF Giants game which is awesome, as I was planning to visit SCBB at the same time when I go down to CGA to ride Railblazer. That will save me $40! It was strictly employees (we had to show our IDs to get in line, many of us were on our day off so we weren't in uniform (like myself). Scored 6 rides yesterday. It is insane.

No chaser lights, what you may have seen were the anti rollbacks being installed (as they were mounted after the lift went up) or recently installed were these evenly spaced brackets below the lift for the catwalk and chain return trough. Update, came across a close up pic of the lift :

Seriously. I have to do a double take at the live picture because my brain wants to believe it's a CG. Seeing it in person is even more strange...especially with the lift now being up.

Lift hill, block brakes, transfer track, turn into station, station itself, and the rest of the pre-lift.

The parts have definitely gone up in different order. I believe GLC began with the final turnaround before the brake run while RailBlazer started with the upward helix leading toward the mid course drop, followed by the midcourse drop...then they began going "backwards" to build the off-axis airtime hill. I guess different contractors... As long as they can get the track pieces in without another interfering/being in the way, then probably doesn't matter too much. I see construction (in person) practically every day and has been fun seeing it go up. With this said I've nearly memorized the order the track segments went in. Part of the raven turn went up this morning, followed by putting up the cutback. RailBlazer has yet to have the vertical drop installed which I look forward to seeing soon. Yesterday, the off-axis airtime hill was finished and base of the "coming out" of the raven turn was done.

For those knocking on CGA/Cedar Fair's theming, sounds like they haven't been to the park in a while. The park has been ramping up its atmosphere the past couple seasons. Last year they introduced Taste of Orleans, a special festival with food tasting and live entertainment. Their first WinterFest event blew SFDK's long-existing Holiday in the Park out of the water. This year continuing the trend of improvements, the park added Red, White and Brews to the mix which was yet another great event with some fun atmosphere. Once again, WinterFest continues to raise the bar (especially with being ranked among the top 10 holiday theme park events in the country). Food and live entertainment has grown a lot since Cedar Fair purchased CGA. Maggie's Smokehouse underwent some changes and has become a go-to restaurant for many as it tends to get busy. Shows like Hot Rhythm Nights (was new this year, consisted of a live band and a pretty cool stage set complete with video wall panels) was what I felt was a game changer for theme park shows as it was very well put together. Can't forget the other shows that were a hit this summer like Vertical Impact and Nytewalkers (during Haunt). Moving forward with the rezone, we can expect much more improvements down the pipeline.

As said looks like supports arrived this morning and track at some point during the day.

Foundation work too (go to 2nd image)...good timing with that RailBlazer live stream.

Here's yet another small update - Tidal Wave was added today. Also looks like that concrete fountain and planter boxes in front of First Aid has been demolished. Lastly, that "Invertiglo" game is no more and had its canopy removed.

Lots of tree and greenery clearing at the SR1 site: Seems they're wasting no time clearing this area out...and the area in front of First Aid and the Hometown games feels very open now that most of the trees are gone.

More walls sprouted up overnight, near the Hometown Square games and First Aid/Smoking area. Looking like it will take a 3rd of the "Invertigarden" and all that unused area behind it leading up to the Hometown games near Maggie's.

Looks like so in this CGA opening day trip report (have to scroll down to see photo)

I wonder if CF is just going to continue to neglect CGA and not invest much capital into it while they try to unload it? Enough with the neglect talk. The park is currently fighting to get rezoned so it can obtain permits to add to the park. Remember all the bs and delay that Gold Striker had? Yeah, they don't want to go through that again. For a second I thought this thread got caught in a time warp and went backwards, back to 2011. ...moving on.

My first hand experience with this is being in communication with the park and even attending media day for Haunt. I had asked ahead of time as I wanted to respect the park's rules and was strictly told that "no photos are allowed in any of the mazes." Further down the line I had actually set up a time with park staff (and got escorted through the maze) to take photos for my website only to have just about every blackout telling me to put the camera away regardless of having park management walking with me.

Actually, the park does not allow photos inside the mazes, period. Flash or no flash, it's just not allowed. I know this first hand and getting photos inside mazes requires authorization/special arrangements with the park.