Angry_Gumball

Ouch...I wonder ,what exactly is holding it up? On the flipside, I find it crazy that it was one of the first CA coasters to have its trackwork appear complete yet it will be one of the last ones to open.

Our recent 5-man run (5 people, max capacity on a family raft ride) provided some fun moments...We had people almost flipping over, those of us hanging on for dear life, hoping not to land on friends below, and in the final splash down, had heads crashing into shoulders and shoulders crashing into noses. Sure all of this hurt but it hurt in a fun way. I've also had several body slam/head-knocking moments on Gold Striker especially towards the end of the ride. Again, hurt in a fun way

To answer one of the questions above, Gold Striker has 2 full tunnels. It also has a set of walls on one of the turnarounds, and sections of white styrofoam-like infill placed at some of the high and low points of the track. About football games, unless it's Monday Night Football, chances are that games will be on a Sunday when offices are closed. I am curious however to see how the residential zone will take to the stadium noise (and light pollution). The area where they put in that 70-foot-long tunnel was aimed right at the offices. What was once a middle finger to the offices is now just another section of the coaster... The tunnel should be a fun experience though!

Awesome, looks like a mini version of the initial descent tunnel I can't wait to check it out this Sunday!

^ Xcelerator rocks...the launch is just intense. Even though its only 1 moment of airtime, it's 1 moment of Intamin-made airtime...a moment where you're out of your seat all the way down until the track levels out with the ground. An elite steelie on my list I find that if you pull the restraints down onto your shoulders, you can keep your ears mostly clear of the restraints. I also stick my head forward. I did this last weekend, while fellow TPR member Blue Fire Guy kept his head firmly against the rest to endure the pain...yes, I heard lots of cursing next to me My last coaster I rode was what I thought would be my final ride for a while on Gold Striker, my 80th lap on it. I make it a habit to start and end the day on Gold Striker when possible now.

I have 2 on my list...in 2 different categories. The two categories are dull and painful/brutal. In the dull category would have to be CGA's Grizzly (which the slow dispatch times add the the already slow/dull factor). In the brutal category would have to be SFMM's Revolution...which left me with a throbbing headache when I got off...I seriously felt like I had just gotten in a fight with somebody and took all the hits. Glad I had ibuprofen on hand, so I can finish my day at SFMM.

In all seriousness, I'm glad they were able to get this resolved so quickly! Riding Gold Striker will be a fresh new experience to be had again...riders in row 12 should experience that nice pop of air as they take the Prudential Tunnel down toward the Prudential Turn I am happy to say that I've gotten to ride GS from the start, in just about every form...being no walls at all on the Prudential Turn to no walls on the inside of the first drop, to no half-covered brake run (in which our cheering at the end of the ride was too loud and exciting for the stone faces next door). In the end I'm happy that the ride will be back up and running (for a while now, hopefully), and didn't even affect my park visits, since I usually am never able to make it out on weekdays. As my brother (who saw the photos I shared on Facebook) said, it's starting to look more like a mine shaft!

http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=BLD2012-28623 ...at this time... (key phrase of that sentence) Translation: Something can and will pop up down the road.

Well, they did give out those free towels opening day

^

And that would be very costly to do and very unlikely. Hopefully the new "prudential tunnel" (or the STFU tunnel) will resolve the slightly above the limit issue.

Hmmm... Box: The Ride!

In that case, they should have just literally built another Grizzly in that spot. My last ride on Grizz was literally a moment of silence

How much longer until the ride uses those wheels that is used for Wodan It was not designed for PU wheels. Reason for the closure wasn't the coaster itself but riders screams.

Which all of this 'excessive noise' from us thrilled riders only proves that Gold Striker is in fact NOT another Grizzly And an update...again borrowed from some GP's Instagram Tunnel is taking shape pretty quick, will be fully enclosed as it seems.

Let's hope anyway. I'm keeping expectations low as the P's seem hard to satisfy. I wonder if we will hear anything officially from the park about it reopening? I'd like to be able to know before I plan my next CGA visit. I mean, the cat's out of the bag and has been made hugely public. I'm actually hoping all of this public exposure will make people finally wake up and realize how ridiculous this whole fiasco is.

I'm actually pretty excited to take this tunnel (Yes, TPR catchphrase pun intended). It looks like an extension on the existing framework we saw at the base of the P-turn. I only imagine the bracing was put up ahead of time in preparation of possibly having to cover it up. On a different note (just uploaded), here's a quick vid I took of Flagg O' Dimm and RJVader taking a spin on Down Under Thunder (and catching some air!)

Given this, I wouldn't count on it. I have a feeling it could be ready be weekend though. Don't quote me on it however as its just speculation. I'm liking the tunnel add on by the way. This is one of the air pop spots (in back rows). Photo kindly jacked from someone's Instagram

^ I'm just amazed at how easily bored people get waiting on one of the faster moving lines in the park...so bored that they have to doodle on the walls (saw some people acting like they were writing on walls in tunnel), and squeeze the wire on the fence/bend it until it's fatigued. Part of me wonders that if they had monitors in the tunnel and the switchback part of the queue, playing back stuff about Gold Striker (stating the rules, stating about line jumping in an entertaining tone) that it may distract some people...but again maybe not. Or just install more cameras and hold to what they say on their signs (that they already had to replace...that are again getting chipped). I know what heavier gauge metal is more costly so covering that long of a stretch could be a tad difficult. On the flipside, they would probably never have to replace it again vs constantly having to go out and keep replacing the current (almost chicken wire-like) metal mesh.

^^ I was afraid of that.... Too bad you didn't get to ride it. Hopefully this "maintenance" (We all know what it is) will breeze through pretty quick. At the same time I think this down time is actually a good thing as now the park can address the issues in the queue...such as repainting the new canvas for more vandalism (You know, the wooden fences...as we all know its inevitable), and fix some of the broken sections on the wire fence (where you can now literally stick your head through). Some of the metal wires now have sharp welds on it from where the cross wires were popped off...and lots of stray wires hanging with sharp edges. With the ride not open, they can actually take the time and do the necessary fixes rather than the morning scramble before the park opens.

A few funny references I heard about rides over the weekend: "Let's go on the Flight Deck thing!" (Sister talking to me about her trip to the county fair and how her daughter/my niece wouldn't ride the Zamperla Energy Storm) "Yea, she wouldn't go on that twisty turny thing that holds you upside down for like 5 minutes!" And yesterday when we were getting in line for Gold Striker (was currently down but we were standing by in hopes that downtime was minimal), this obnoxious guy comes behind and asks "Why is the ride down? They should have had things ironed out already!" He then proceeds to whistle up at the ride crew up in the station and shouting up at them rudely. Seriously, we don't need people like this around. And one that got me laughing in agreement when in line for Gold Striker was hearing some GP saying that Grizzly sucks, and how Gold Striker is far better. Yay, smart GP!

I totally forgot to mention how fast the Psycho Mouse crew was cranking out trains this season! In the station, there's 1 train that's unloading riders, one loading riders, and one waiting to dispatch. If only another crew for a certain coaster not far from Psycho can take note (rather than having us sit in the brake run for 4-5 minutes while the ride ops perform standup comedy and attempt getting both Train A and Train B to do the wave). Also speaking of crews, the Gold Striker crew only seems to be getting better as there were many times (out of my 7 rides I did yesterday) we just went right through the transfer building into the station. When we did wait in transfer building, it was really minimal (maybe 10-20 seconds).

Nope. The wait time can vary depending on the amount of trains they have online, rows they are loading (in case one car has a bad lap bar or something), a technical delay, etc. I just thought it was a little odd to see something as low as a 15 minute wait from that point when it is actually a little longer when running both trains. We actually waited about 25 minutes on average yesterday (thanks to the lack of switchbacks and crowds). My guess from the point of where that sign is at, the queue using no overflow switchbacks, running both trains and all seats available is a good 30 minute wait. The max wait times on there however are pretty relevant as we've waited up to 80 minutes on the first couple weekends.