Angry_Gumball
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Posts posted by Angry_Gumball
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Wish I had seen it myself but opted not to go down the right queue of Superman Escape from Krypton at SFMM, but during WCB there were apparently raccoons hiding out in the trash can. Playing things safe we headed down the left side instead for our nighttime ERT session.
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Why did everybody hate Dick Kinzel, anyways?
From my experience...I preferred Kinzel not to run Cedar Fair as my home park (CGA) was pretty much on its death bed when it was nearly sold to JMA (which I feel like they'd just use the park for money for their other properties. Kinzel was close-minded and was an element to why we didn't see Gold Striker or any kind of improvements, was unwilling to work with the neighboring stadium and eventually gave up with the park.
Ouimett on the other hand...this park has made a huge directional change for the better...bigger budget for park improvements and park upkeep. I feel like if JMA were there, many of the rides would begin to run poorly...Grizzly would return to its former painful self
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Bumptasticness!
It's time for my 'end of the season' recap followed by next season's predictions...let's take a look.
-Gold Striker will either be ready to greet us opening day, or perhaps spring break. I don't see a "Six Flags" happening here.Neither, but it did begin testing after Spring Break and literally opened the last day of May spontaneously.
-Coasters will get fresh coat of paint/coasters will get the rest of their much needed paint (Demon, Flight Deck)Nope. Buildings however did receive fresh paint.
-More sprucing up on the property (Parking lot signs are pretty faded, had a hard time finding where we parked the other night during Haunt, letters hard to read under the amber lighting)
CGA's lot was reconfigured and outfitted with new and very bright LED lighting. It looks like an auto dealership!
-New Haunt maze and/or scare zone, and a maze revamp2 new mazes (one replacement). Due to the other new maze, one existing maze (Cornstalkers) was drastically re-configured. The 2 new mazes were Zombie High and Dia De Los Muertos. Toy Factory got some sprucing up as well (RIP "butt cheeks")
-Madame Marie's Massacre Manor soundtrack gets released on Soundcloud for our listening pleasuresYup, now waiting for the Zombie High 80's rock and the Dia De Los Muertos ambiance
-Hint at a new rideNope, not yet...
Wishful thinking:-New attraction for Boomerang Bay, could use a speed slide complex...those drop slides are pretty nice
Nope
-Firefall gets new/improved program, earns more flipsNope
-New show to replace the aging SpongebobYup, twice...Happy Feet (which got old fast) and the more enjoyable Funhouse Express!
-2 ride limit gets lifted, highly beneficial if any kind of ERT sessions are going to happen.Well, I marathon'd Gold Striker 19 times back-to-back so...what's that say?
Highlights:
- Pre-season behind the scenes park and hardhat tour
- Gold Striker opening (duh!)
- Gold Striker Promotional shoot and being on one of the first trains to cycle the general public
- Hanging out with the gang
- Haunt, and being invited to their VIP opening night
- Haunt improvements and options (Madame Marie's Voodoo Chophouse)
- 5-man run with the group, which this time lead to us beating each other up...Blue Fire Guy's head smashed into my shoulder, Flagg o' Dim and his brother collided (nose smash into shoulder)...not to mention the crazy wall time
- New, great shows...being Blades of Horror (Haunt) and On Broadway (Summer)
- CGA rolled out some nice season passholder perks during the summer being the "Thank You Thursday" ERT sessions during the summer. This worked out great as I work on weekdays but was able to head out to the park for a few hours after work to ride Gold Striker.
Letdowns:
- No hint at any attractions for next year, not even for a flat or water slide. There's still hope but I'm not counting on it
- Crazy 'no photos' rules now being applied in Haunt scare zones...fortunately I was granted permission to do such as I was doing work for my blog
- While I don't mind the tunnels on Gold Striker, the delays between the promo shoot and it actually opening were pretty long
Looking ahead at my 2014 predictions
-New show to replace Happiness is Snoopy, On Broadway will return
-More sprucing up of the property, painting more buildings and hopefully some of the coasters. Vortex looks pretty bad.
-More retracking of Grizzly
-Another new maze for next year, some existing maze revamps (as the park is truly never complete with mazes/mazes are always growing), and a maze to be replaced
-Jam packed parking lots on Sundays in the fall
-Gold Striker will receive more tunnels/walls/infill
-More single rider queues to be combined with Fast Lane
-With the opening of Levi's Stadium and football, I can only guess that CGA would be open on a limited op during the winter months...plus with their competitor up north being open year-round it only makes sense. North Bay gets worse weather than the south bay or even the east bay (where I'm at) so I don't see why this couldn't work.
Wishful thinking
-New Boomerang Bay attraction
-Announcement/hints for 2015 attraction
-Something will happen with former River Adventure attraction, whether if it will just be part of space for something bigger (as Invertigo's grass sits near it)
And a brief writeup on my closing out of the season. I went Friday and Sunday. Friday was moderately busy with the typical 30-minute wait times. Sunday however was probably the quietest I've seen Haunt all season. I never waited more than 15 minutes for a maze...average waits were 5-10 minutes. I think that the crummy weather combined with being a Sunday kept people at bay. 2012 Haunt on a Sunday was much more packed. Daytime Sunday was actually decently busy, though most of it was families with kids. You know it's busy when the AFX theater has a full line. Delirium during the day was also full...thankfully there's single rider lines! Gold Striker averaged 20 minute waits, probably the longest I've seen in a while. 2013 was a great season, and easily one of my favorite park seasons so far! Let's see if CGA can top this season!
And I shared this a few weeks back but I'll share it again for those who missed Haunt or want to relive it.
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I know tonight's going to be busy but realistically I don't anticipate it to be as crazy as last night, but more like Friday. Speaking of which, I went Friday and stayed til their 1AM closing. It was neat having that extra hour but at the same time I felt like the park had its balls cut off as all of the rides were closed after midnight...even the smaller flat rides. Within that time I ended up visiting Werewolf Canyon (Probably the most lackluster experience of the night and of the season...why were talent just singing and just standing there?). There was very little talent in the maze and very little effort. Zombie High was still kicking strong at 12:45 and we finished the night with Slaughter House.
Other highlights from Saturday was waiting 75 minutes for Gold Striker, got on the ride at midnight...ended up dealing with line cutters who threatened us/said that they'd be waiting for us at the exit...and other cutters who got pulled back out of line by park employees. Both groups of cutters' plans were foiled!
CarnEvil after midnight was a walk-on as well as Zombie. Werewolf was only 10 minute wait. We also waited 15 minutes for Dia De Los Muertos, and started the night with the 4 mazes in back (all walk-on). It was my brother's and bro's friend's first time doing Haunt and we ended up doing the Chophouse meal for Goldy ERT...and they loved it! We later managed to ride a randomly violent-swinging Orlean's Orbit, a nice ride on Flyers, and a near walk-on for Drop Tower (caught the ride early).
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Ooh, sweet! (Let the childhood memories commence...not that I have actually ridden it but I remember hearing this ride in action and it's high pitched "Whirr" noise it did.)
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I just beat Pokemon X! Just in time before I get the red light of death on my DS...now for some post game action and continuing to level up my 'mons, learn strategies and do some post game stuff and perhaps competitive stuff.
I also have Pokemon Y, really thinking about doing a Nuzlocke run through this game as it will literally force me to learn just about every type of pokemon I encounter and force me to work with what I have available. Mean time, I don't want to lose everything I worked on with X, hence the reason on picking up the other version...too bad individual Pokemon games didn't use multiple save files much like the Zelda series...
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McDonalds secret ingredient
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Current team, with 7 badges in tow:
Xerneas - Mild, Lv 50 (To be alternated with my Lv 57 timid Jolteon)
Salamence - Adamant, Lv 57
Delphox - Sassy, Lv 56
Lucario - Bold, Lv 56
Clawitzer - Relaxed, Lv 53
Aegislash - Lonely, Lv 58
All of my 'mons in my team are EV trained!
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So the Madame Marie package, you get a dinner at CGA, a skip the line pass on any maze, and 1 hour 30 minutes of ERT for how much money?
If you're a season pass holder, you're looking at roughly $22. It includes an all you can eat dinner, a single maze Fright Lane (Good for any 1 maze), and Gold Striker ERT from 5:30-7:00. Due to how busy it's been though, the ERT session was cut short 15 minutes to let guests standing in plaza in line...in turn, (a bit of a hassle) we could get back in line via the Fast Lane queue...just an inconvenience having to get out, go around, then get back in...where you can easily have had another 5 laps... I still got in 12 or so laps this past ERT and my record was 19 laps due to the insanely fast crew!
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Many highlights and lowlights...let's start, shall we?
The Good:
-My home park finally gets and opens a major new coaster, that was, Gold Striker!
-Gold Striker was easily one of the best coaster experiences I've had so far!
-First time to SFMM since 2001, many missing credits
-First time to KBF and Disney since 1998...lots of Knott's credits to be picked up!
-West Coast Bash, both SFMM and Knott's days
-Hanging out with my friends (coaster enthusiasts) while doing these parks, has become a normal routine!
-First time to Gilroy Gardens, a nice little park!
-Carnival Credits and new death machine experiences
-Special Gold Striker backstage tour and 2013 season preview that CGA invited me to
-And the Gold Striker promotional shoot. I was on one of the first public trains on Gold Striker (First public ride in their Train B)
The Bad:
-Nearly got in a fight with some belligerent line jumpers...was best to let them pass after initially speaking up/reacting naturally to being shoved aside...in turn, they got ejected from the park.
-Watching my home park's new coaster take on endless delays before opening the absolute last day in May, within the last 2 hours of the day
-Not being able to attend the Gold Striker media event/having to decline the invite as I had to work that morning...I went out to the park right after work though to join the rest of my friends who did make it.
-Encountering probably one of my worst coaster experiences on Revolution...was my 'credit ride' and didn't realize how much defensive riding I had to do until it was too late...I exited the ride and had to finish my SFMM day with a throbbing headache. I avoided that ride on my next visit 3 days later.
-A lackluster opening day experience at SFDK...insanely long lines combined with the park allowing double rides all day...and a huge chunk of the day spend in line just to process season passes... Visits after opening day were far more successful however.
And to try this format...
Best moment - Promotional Shoot, being one of the first riders on Gold Striker and having 50 laps in before it opened to the public
Best individual ride - Gold Striker!
Funniest moment - 5-man run with the group on the family raft water slide...had friends' heads slamming into shoulders while having a quite intense ride down the slide
Scariest moment - Nearly getting into a car wreck on my way down to WCB...proven that riding coasters are safer than traveling to go ride them. Some car cut us off and quickly put on their brakes while traveling down the I-5
Strangest moment - Walking around my home park during the off-season on a special invite event
Favorite individual park visit - Knott's, West Coast Bash and Knott's visit in April
Nerdiest moment - Keeping track of my laps on Gold Striker, stopped counting after 204 laps
Best non-coaster related thing to happen at a park - Getting a free ride on the sky coaster at my home park on our off-season backstage tour, Timber Mountain Log Ride flume tour and ERT that evening...amazing to see everything come to life!
Favorite new experience - Doing my first distance trip with my friends, though it was only SoCal, it's a start. I don't travel often but I see this as a gateway to doing such...in fact, we're already planning an upcoming trip to Cedar Point and KI and ??? in the coming years.
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Undertow will stay open throughout the limited operation schedule, and a grand opening event is scheduled for spring:SANTA CRUZ, CA (October 21, 2013) – The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk announced that Undertow, its new spinning roller coaster, has passed inspections and will be running weekends on a limited schedule for the remainder of the year. An official opening will be scheduled for Spring 2014.
“We surprised our guests with a sneak preview this past weekend and the response was fantastic, ” said Boardwalk spokesman Kris Reyes. “People are very excited to discover that every ride on Undertow is different. We think this is a great new ride for our park.”
Unlike most roller coasters, which carry an entire trainload of riders, Undertow uses individual cars each holding 4 riders, with each pair of riders facing opposite directions. The ride experience changes every time, depending on the weight and position of riders in the car.
Manufactured by German coaster specialist Maurer Sohne, Undertow is the only spinning coaster in Northern California. Undertow took over the location previously occupied by the Hurricane roller coaster.
“As is the case with most new amusement park rides, there may be some unexpected ride delays during operating hours for the first few weekends,” added Reyes.
For more information about Undertow, the Boardwalk’s new spinning roller coaster, visit http://www.beachboardwalk.com/undertow
This sounds like it could work out then if I decide to hit up the 'Walk in November, and hit it up again in February (like I did last year). I had a feeling that this would just be a soft opening being this late in the season and it would officially debut 2014...this is essentially a sampling for what we can now call a 2014 attraction.
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My take on yesterday and last night. The park was naturally dead during the day (except for Gold Striker which had 10-15 minute waits all day), and even Grizzly was only a 5 minute wait so we decided to take a ride on that for kicks...to be fair, Grizzly isn't really that bad...It's just dull. We still somehow managed to enjoy ourselves and the crews seemed to be moving a little bit quicker than we anticipated.
Haunt, polar opposite. The place was jam packed. As said above, we start at the back and work forward. We saved our VooDoo Chophouse front of the line passes for Dia De Los Muertos as we had a friend with us who had never experienced Dia yet. Good thing we did as the line stretched all the way to the park's entrance gates. In my mind, the only sounds I can hear in my head were the 'ka-ching! ka-ching!' sounds from RCT. Haunt is a money maker for the park for sure! I never really timed our waits but I'll take a rough guestimate of what we experienced and length of lines...This is also the order we did the mazes.
Zombie High: <5 minutes, waited for 2 groups to go in and we were in
Toy Factory: 5 minutes, used 3 sets of switchbacks
Corn Stalkers: <5 minutes...was a walk-on. They disabled the multiple entries and kept the entry to the far right open. I'm actually a bit glad for this as this usually created traffic jams and getting split from your group as everyone's trying to merge.
Madame Marie's Massacre Manor: 5 minutes, used most of switchbacks in front of facade. We once again got line cutters kicked out
Blades of Horror...there was actually a line forming to enter theater...a nice, near single file line rather than everyone crowding at the doors.
Dia De Los Muertos: Walk-on, used our single-use Fright Lane pass. There was a huge backup and took us 10 minutes to actually go through the maze! Oh well, more time to actually look at all the eye-gasmic props! Once we got past the hanging skeleton bodies (near end of maze) traffic was nonexistent.
CarnEvil: 30 minutes...line moved like every 10 seconds. I had brought my 3DS and Pokemon X as these long lines would be great opportunity to battle friends and progress in my game but with how fast paced the line was, it was hard to focus.
We skipped Werewolf as the line wrapped around 80% of the circumference of the Flyers...in fact, we opted to ride the flyers instead as it had just about no line!
AFX theater/Funhouse Express's line stretched all the way to the action arcade/exit. I'd rather ride this during the day when we can walk right on. It is a hit for families though so I recommend riding it early and lines can still fill up.
Final visit back at Zombie High: 25-30 minutes. Line started at Tiki Twirl's entrance. At this point they were just letting everyone in so that they can keep things going in a timely manner.
For the most part, guests were pretty well behaved! There were the 2 people we called out and supervisors immediately responded and escorted them out of the line, or the group of 5 that passed everyone at Zombie High. Other than that, everyone (from what I saw) were pretty well behaved.
Other highlights of the night: Madame Marie spotted me near the chophouse/Maggie Brown's, called me over, and had Blue Fire Guy and my cousin help participate in one of her crazy rituals of stealing people's souls She then took my cousin's soul.
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Gold Striker at CGA, 10/19/13...ERT session
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It was indeed packed last night! Fortunately, I do what I've done all these Haunt seasons and starting at the back of the park first. Everyone jams to the closest mazes and you can easily get 3-4 mazes knocked out within Haunt's first hour.
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It doesn't exactly look like this but...this if the first I heard about the options edit...which actually can open the door for other cool things! *Fires up RCT3 and attempts YOLOcoaster*
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Yet another piece of software for me to purchase TPS and NL2 will be at my side!
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Sweet! It looks like I shall be down there possibly next month assuming that it will be up and running for limited op.
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You know you're a nerd when you replace the word "Full Throttle" with YOLOcoaster in real life...
Also, when you name one of your Pokemon after a coaster (Tatsu, as it's a dragon Pokemon)...Well, Bagon's Japanese name is Tatsubei...so it was inevitable
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^What I typically do: I usually let one person in our group do "bag duty" as in, putting our bags in the bin. 1 person retrieving our goods vs all 4 of us creates less traffic. If we're going on a ride that one person's going to sit out, they will kindly watch our goods and save us the hassle of the cargo bins.
Another peeve of mine: ride ops and park attendants who make up their own rules. I understand they have a job to do but when I'm being told that no photos are allowed at all inside the park, something is wrong...or when I go on 99% of the rides with no problems wearing my sunglasses (secured with a strap), then get on one (that I've done numerous times) where I'm told to remove them followed by the excuse of "well, guests think they won't lose them and end up losing them anyway..." As far as I know, my home park's policy is that you're fine with glasses as long as you have a strap.
Then you have Six Flags who could care less if you wear glasses on a ride, strap or no strap
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^This.
Totally worth it. I got in a 19-lap marathon this past weekend via the ERT session. Anyone doing Haunt (hmm...is anyone here even visiting CGA lately or doing Haunt this season? *crickets chirp*) I highly recommend the Voodoo Chophouse! Excellent food and awesome perks!
And food!
Awesome moments when the 4 of us have the train to ourselves!
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I spent the past 2 days EV training my 'mons! 'Twas a lot of work but it has paid off. Let's just say I'm already 21 hours into my quest and barely put a dent in my journey! My current team consists the following:
Honedge - LV 26, Lonely nature
Bagon - LV 22, Adamant nature
Braixen - LV 27, Sassy nature
Lucario - LV 26, Bold nature
Currently looking for a modest or a timid Eevee as I plan on getting Jolteon...So far, haven't found the right one, soft reset after the catch if it's not what I'm after. Good thing Eevee are common! After a quick powerful electric pokemon for my team. Slot 6 is undecided though I could use a water type.
I just finished off the 2nd gym leader (who was a breeze for my Honedge and Lucario).
Update: Any Pokemon X/Y players out there, I want to warn you about the glitch that can possibly completely ruin you experience with the hottest games. Apparently, there's a glitch where if you save in Lumiose Town and power off the game...then fire it back up later, the game save will be perma-screwed forcing you to have to start a new game. My guess is because of how complex this is for the game (I mean, it's like you're walking in a fully 3d-rendered city!) that's the reason for this glitch. None of the other cities/towns do this. Best advice for now if you're near the main hub is to either save inside a Pokemon center/building or better yet, just head to one of the routes branching off the hub and save there. There would be nothing worse than losing your 50-hour quest that you're still working on. Hopefully this is patched soon. It is known to happen on both physical copy and digital download.
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Having ridden all the California B&M's, I'm going to have to go with Flight Deck at CGA. It is the only B&M that has made me grey out numerous times, not to mention my feet going numb when sitting in the front row. I probably would not marathon this on a full stomach as a full stomach will feel like its getting crushed by the G's!
Post your milestone coasters
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
50 was Tatsu, SFMM...great 50th. Though not a real milestone but a nice number was having YOLOcoaster as my 70th