Angry_Gumball

Want to see something even more neat? One of the enthusiasts was able to fly drone inside the park and captured some amazing shots of Gold Striker!

. Photoshop Killer

Yes, that is correct!

'twas confirmed today Spongebob is out Blue Fire Guy: Nice photos! I still can't believe you actually kissed the coaster Can't wait to see the rest of the waves of photos!

I just came back from an amazing 'sneak peek' tour of CGA today, which included a comprehensive presentation/Q&A of the park, a tour of park happenings, and most importantly, a hardhat construction tour of Gold Striker. The icing on the cake was being able to ride Xtreme Skyflyer, free. Some important notes from the video: (Video now live!) • 3 NEW Haunt mazes, one will exist in a new structure, the other 2 in existing structures. My guess is that 2 will be swapped out. • Confirmed, AFX is getting a NEW show. It is not white water rafting, we can only continue to guess what will go in. • Confirmed: River Adventure (Kid's inflatable boat mini river) is leaving but can see something new in the future • Subway is coming • New locker system using an all digital POS system (Point of Sell) and digital entry as opposed to the existing keyed entry • Parking lot revamped • Food venders including carts accepting debit cards • 3 NEW shows: Pop Fusion, On Broadway, and Team Charlie Brown. Happiness is Snoopy will return this year • Show schedules will no longer be those cheap-looking xerox copies but actual nice, printed material much like how the park maps are • Lots of buildings being repainted • Lot of dormant buildings are being revitalized, including where Subway will be located • Different areas will now have their own background music based on theme...Action Zone will feature electronica/high energy-like music, 50's music by Firefall, etc... • Last but not least, they are really focused on theming of Gold Striker. We will not be riders, but prospectors The park feels that Gold Striker will provide a very unique coaster experience with the elements it features along with the added tunnel (which was not required of them to put on, was an after thought. • Gold Striker's opening date has not been said yet Without further ado, here's the photos from the amazing tour! And I would like to thank CGA and the team for arranging such event for the coaster enthusiast community! Hats off to CGA! So before the park opened, we headed into the Prudential/office parking lot And then took a trip to the new parking lot across the street to see the CGA skyline Gold Striker construction can't happen without a little stadium construction It's still GWW at CGA? From outside the park, workers inside the tunnel The Carousel received new paint during the off season, it looks beautiful! Part of the TPR group, thanks to CoasterPalooza for taking the photo! Jeff and Snoopy...Snoopy made his rounds! Wide shot from inside the park. This looks absolutely amazing/sexy/whatever you want to call it! I'm juiced! Tour coming soon...until then, presentation! (See notes in report above) They showed us a mockup of GS's signage (pop quiz: where is this coaster in the photo located?) And the trio (Ryan, Roger, Tyler) move the presentation along Presentation ended with a little info about Coasting for Kids. I am going to sign up for it. CGA really wants to improve the event this year And the park tour begins! This is where Subway will live. A little hard to tell but the lower turnaround was done this season, and they reprofiled the track coming into it as it was a sharp jolt. Maybe they'll shave off some seconds in runtime Gone is the confetti pattern that's lived there 15 years (That Coca Cola had designed) and in with the fresh new paint! Drop Tower with the dormant Cabin 1. No worries, they are looking at getting this back up and running...CGA read our discussion about this Psycho Mouse is getting some new composite roofing material up, and the giant mouse head...where'd it go? It's getting touched up as CGA's Clayton tells us Haunt Hearse go kart? I'll race that! Centrifuge got new paint and new coating on turntable platform. Should be less slippery now! River Adventure...GONE! Spongebob...GONE! This will be the last time you'll see this sign. Outback Shack is no longer bubblegum pink! Another building getting some work done...was a game, now it's a character meet and greet location 27 more days...and we'll be flying again! Upon completion of the loop, it's time for our group to take the hardhat tour! First we venture back behind Xtreme Skyflyer skycoaster Blue Fire Guy savors the moment of being under our favorite water ride at CGA. Now for some gold...Backside of the so-called "Prudential Turn" Looking back to where the track heads to the midway turn...this hill after crossing under the first turnaround should provide some nice floater air! Heading back toward Carousel, where we suit up for the hardhat portion Dude...how on earth am I supposed to put this thing on?? Hmm...maybe like...this? Ah, screw it...yolo! I'll wear it twisted Aright, here we go! We'll take a pretend queuing stroll as this is where the line will begin. Back here will be a set of switch backs where you can get some nice views and photo ops of Gold Striker. OMG...this is going to be amazing! Ryan tries to brace the structure from falling over And we got some up close and personal action! Sexy laminates This is where the train will come screaming out of the 174' descent tunnel. This is the bottom of the first drop, leading to the speed hump/flyby Probably my favorite shot of Gold Striker's drop! 1 last look in this area before we exit the switchback area The line will come back out and go through the backside of the former Carousel Souvenirs shop. This path will be themed. ... Next up was taking a look at the station platform. They should have the roof trusses up now as they had them assembled, just need to get them in place. Looking back at the lift. The chain return trough has been installed Looking at the midway curve...85 degrees! And a final look back out at Gold Striker before we go for our flight! Rolercstrluver and RawkinCoaster38 take their flight View of Gold Striker from Sky Flyer area And then there was a raffle...what's that on the lower corner? Now, now...who would have done that? And this was the prize being given away. I'll have to get one of these to add to my wardrobe A final view of Gold Striker before we leave And a final look at Carousel Columbia...still looks pretty! Can't wait to ride GC Triker! Thank you California's Great America for putting on an event! It was thoroughly enjoyed, glad to see my local park reaching out to the coaster enthusiast community! Thank's for reading

(Haven't done this thread in a while, it's time to keep it going again!)

I just wish I had the actual font they used...Oooh, can't wait to 'shop the ride sign, or the ride vehicles (assuming they have the Full Throttle logo on it)

Yay, Full Throttle Porn! Sorry, I just had to do this, the photo was begging for it I present to you....the YOLOcoaster Bus! Live it... Be it...Ride it!

Joking of course, I can only see the future...people are going to have cameras embedded into their eyes. Now that would really mess with ride policies Most rides, especially at CF and SF parks inform you to remove prescription and sunglasses on rides where they're likely to fly off. Google Glass would be no exception. I hear this at CGA all the time: "Remove all hats, glasses, sunglasses, potatoes and flipflops and place them in the storage bin on the other side..." Not to mention, I've heard a lot of more general "Put your electronics away" shouts over the PA system when one pulled their cell phone going up the lift (yup, I've been on a ride where the lift was paused until the GP who attempted to call/record/text/whatever to put their gadget away. So many things have cameras these days, therefore generalizing it to electronics is the safest bet to enforce their camera policy.

Awesome as always I now just can't wait to see this wooden beauty in person again, next month

Coaster porn that is Maybe SFMM finally said "YOLO...let's get this thing vertical now!" We'll see how far YOLOcoaster gets when I come down in April...watch it be just 1 other track segment placed lol

Ready for some retro sadness? A fan on my CGA Insider FB page (to coincide with my blog) posted an interesting find. Who on earth would have ever figured out where the old trolleys went. It's a bit sad as they're just sitting in a random train yard possibly just rotting away. If anyone wonders, it is just a little bit past the Niles district in Fremont, just past the Alameda Creek (along the train tracks). Yup, I remember these things.

CGA posted a new photo of the Carousel with its fresh paint to their Facebook. It's looking nice and opening day seems to be just around the corner. They've also began cycling some of the rides, as we saw FD flying through the course. And unfortunately, on a video they captured of Drop Tower cycling, Cabin 1 is still down...so we kind of know what to expect with that ride

AngryGumball http://instagram.com/angrygumball

Looks pretty neat, I wonder how long it will take for me to figure this out.

I'd totally give that a whirl, not on a full or an empty stomach. I notice that I actually feel more sick riding hungry. A good example of me feeling sick was riding Tornado with my brother at SCBB. Immediately after we rode Rock o Plane. My brother was spent for the rest of the day, I felt sick for a while.

I've spun myself sick on some mini tea cups and had to stop spinning. After the cycle ended it took about a minute for me to reorient myself and was ready for the next ride. So I may feel sick during the ride but after the ride stops I'm usually fine again and ready to ride. I did have where a Gravitron left me with a nasty headache and longer lasting queasiness, so I was done riding that for the night. After that I took a quick spin on the flyers but that actually enhanced the feeling. Good thing it was the last ride of the night. When we had Invertigo, I couldn't do that ride more than twice in a row as it made me feel nauseous.

Just realized...Steel Eel's support structure almost looks like overkill...thick supports all within close range of each other. I'm not an engineering expert but the way the supports are reminds me of my first NL coaster (or anyone else's first NL coaster) where they just went support crazy.

Yes, run it backwards for Haunt...call it Fright Deck!

I honestly don't have many memories with the boats, other than on my 6th grade trip...I see "Scooby's Haunted River" only to find it's just a little play thing you watch inflatable boats go down. On the other hand, I miss the ever-so-massive (at the time) Fort Fun...the ball pits, cargo nets, suspension bridge, slides, and zip lines. That alone as a kid would have kept me busy for hours! So we were looking at the park maps comparing the 2013 to the 2012 map and noticed some adjustments that had to be made to fit Gold Striker. Star Tower and Pictorium were moved to the right quite a bit. The space where Celebration Swings sits now looks massive (probably doesn't help that the planter boxes and such aren't present on the map) Nevermind the fact that this is a 2003 map, the Star Tower area has pretty much been the same until now: And the now shifted over tower and pictorium: Not really nitpicking, just making some observations on what they had to do to get GS to fit in there

Just downloaded Google's Wii Street U app, pretty neat! Your tablet pretty much acts as a view finder and feels pretty realistic looking around...especially inside your home park

Yea, faded FD is one of the few coasters that still look great! I too didn't realize FD is going to be 20 this year. Runs great for its age

Why? It's still there. You're mad cause the map is accurate? The park posted this today on their Facebook. Was this section painted last year or is this fresh? The track looks great. Can't wait to get back on Flight Deck in a couple weeks. That was painted last year. The supports however look untouched/faded. Hopefully the rest of the coaster will get painted for the 2014 season.

^Mothers Day last year was also a 'bring a friend at a heavily discounted price' day last season, so I can anticipate that crowds may be a bit heavier than a normal weekend visit. We actually went on one of those discount days (and just so happened that a fellow TPR member was going to meet up with us for the first time, so I got him in at the discount price) and that day was packed. To be fair though this was mid summer, was also AAA day, and there were a dozen company events going on. That day consisted of an insanely packed park.