Double0Kevin

Take that description losely, It won't be anywhere near Shouka and even farther from the Tigers. Skycoaster is staying but sadly another ride is on it's way out to make room and it's not one that, in my opinion, should be leaving.

That is EXACTLY what I thought when I saw the video. It has a total Expedition Everest feel. The drop looks pretty cool though, I like that it fakes you out with a little one then throws a bigger one at you. I don't think this one is giving Nemesis or Rita a run for their money in thrills but it's definitely a thrilling looking family ride.

I know we at the park had a blast with you guys coming and hanging out for the day. We look forward to next year but I don't know if we can top the Tony Hawk Challenge... We'll definitely try though. Great update as always, Hope the rest of the West Coast trip was enjoyable.

One thing to remember and take note of, anything that was "normal" in the past no longer has any relevancy. The park has been MUCH more crowded this year with less popular rides like Boomerang having lines up to an hour throughout most the day on weekends. The Dolphin, Shouka(whale) and Tiger shows take people off the midways for about 30 minutes which isn't enough time to ride just one coaster before dumping 3,000+ people back onto the midways and into the queue line. Also those shows are worth seeing if you haven't. Q-Bots will help but if you really want to see everything you would probably have to stay later than 5:20. I would say avoid the fears of driving and rent a car. It's only about a 1.25 hour drive on a Saturday as there is never any traffic and its a relatively simple drive as SFDK is one of the easiest parks to get to from the freeway.

Carnivore Cafe, And no... no beer. The upside to have J Rocks in that location is that it's actually open more than just holiday weekends during the summer. Good update Goliath513. We at the park are very excited for the TPR trip to the park this summer. We have some fun surprises in store for everyone. Check back at the park soon for some fun stuff at Roar to celebrate it's 10th Anniversary this year.

^ I don't know how to explain it, and i really don't want to or intend to start a fight. SFDK's cats just genuinely seem to enjoy the water. Odin actually began swimming on his own I believe and the meat is only something to entice him to do it at that time, ya know? And Fedor does it now cause he watched Odin do it. I just got the vibe from the SFGAdv video I watched that the cats didn't want to go in and they were anoyyed once they were in.

The tree was the tallest in the world last year. This year it's just the tallest in NorCal. If your avoiding HiP cause of the crowds, don't worry bout that, it's a fairly tame event with moderate crowds. Enough people to make it seem like it's not pointless, but slow enough for everyone to enjoy. Not like Disneyland where they reach near sell out levels.

I believe it's going to be a lot like the SFGAdv one. I've watched a video of theirs though and I'm not a fan of how they make the tigers swim, they actually trick them into it by having them chase a stuffed animal on a stick into it. Odin and Fedor at SFDK jump in willingly to get some meat thats thrown in. The difference is the SFDK tigers don't care that they are in the water and the SFGAdv tigers act like they don't like it and rush to get out. Either way, the SFGAdv show looks pretty cool so I hope SFDK's turns out just as nice.

^the weather has been great this year with the exception of this weekend. Today was pretty bad. Last year, Holiday in the Park was fairly nice with only a few days of rain. Mostly it just gets cold. We had nights with temps in the low 30s. But if your waiting for late November, make sure you wait till the start of Holiday in the Park on Nov. 28. It's a great event that is lots of fun and this year will be even bigger then last.

The original post I made seems to have disappeared in all the chaos with the boards the last 2 days so here it is again. Nice to see the park improving it's animal offerings too.

I definitely prefer Tony Hawk of Sierra Sidewinder, I never really liked SS to be honest. I think THBS is a fun little ride though. As for one train op on roar and kong, you guys have to realize the park is only closed for a 6 week off season this year, that is not enough time to rehab 2 trains. You gotta cut a train from a ride at one point, better to lower capacity and keep it open rather than have it down for a few weeks entirely. Plus those rides aren't like Medusa where there are 3 trains and you can run 2 while one is going through rehab. On a side note, the park updated their holiday in the park page to list rides being open for the event. Better get in your last rides on Boomerang and V2, they didn't make the cut this year. Makes sense with them being the 1 train rides.

Wasn't lying bout the operator making out with the girl, it happened. Made a formal complaint and everything. Your right, it's not fair to make the statement about all operators... in fact the other 2 guys at the ride looked mortified that this guy was doing what he was doing. One guy was even telling him to stop(he didn't). I had a few other things with other ops, but no need to go into it. Baaaaack to Halloween events. I didn't mean for this to become a bash one or the other park post. I guess looking back on it, it does look like put down CGA. My history with that park goes way back, that was really the park that kinda got me going since we didn't have SFDK when I was a kid... well not with the coasters at least. Demon was my first roller coaster even. I love that park. I just felt that this event was hyped more than it delivered. But it IS CGA's first year and that is why I am not too worried about the event and I'm sure it'll get better and better. Hell, look at SFDK's Holiday in the Park last year. Sure it was a fun event, but there were definitely things that were under-done and things that could have been left out. But it was our first year, and you best believe it's going to be better this year, and I'm sure even better next!

Well as some of you know(and the rest are about to) I work at SFDK, I have for the past 6 years. So I'm sure I will get some of you CGA fan boys mad if I claim anything is better at SFDK's Fright Fest over CGA's Haunt, but be warned, there is quite a bit. I'll break up my comparisons in parts and then give an over all opinion of both. OVERALL ATMOSPHERE: SFDK - Upon arrival to the park you are greeted by massive spider webs over the entry plaza and a huge spider making his home over the turnstiles. Once in the park you see spider webs covering all the buildings and trees. Directly behind the Kingdom Stage, we find path ways blocked off to create this year's Graveyard complete with smoldering ground, skeletons, sleeping vampires in the trees, and an open grave that plays home to the Jimmy in the Hole attraction. The dolphin fountain has been removed for FF and replaced with a large torch(lit at 5pm just before parade) with skeletons impaled on metal spike sticking out from it. Elsewhere in the park there are spider webs EVERYWHERE, Looney Tunes Seaport is decked out with black light lit houses with spooky images in the windows(kid friendly). In the old Zombie Zone you can find nearly 1,000 pumpkins lining the path way. In Lakeside Pavilion the Justice League stage's backdrop is replaced with a larg graves stone that says "Fright Fest 2008." Even little things help too like at night Medusa's station is very dark and you hear hissing and screaming coming from beneath the floors. CGA - Entering the park there is few visuals to look at other than a few webs here and there. The park sound does play spooky noises and a recording plays over and over telling us that it's the biggest halloween event in norther california. Once in the park, the Columbia Carousel looks awesome with huge webs and spiders on it, all around the pond there is the Skeleton Beach themeing which turned out very nice. The water in the pond was up lit as red(too bad they didn't follow SFGAm's example and dye it). The whole park had a ton of fog which was cool and it all seemed to linger. Elsewhere in the park, other than scare zones and houses, I couldn't find much themeing to say it was a halloween event. HOUSES: SFDK - 2 houses, Kamp Khaos and Tinseltown Terror. For anyone who visited FF last year, you will be completely surprised and happy to know that Kamp Khaos has improved 400%... with a larger layout, better sound, and more scares it's become a great house. Tinseltown Terror has a more suspenseful feel with longer and disorienting halls between scenes and features a clown room that gives one of the best frights I've ever seen in a Haunted House. CGA - 5 House, This is where haunt shined. The houses we VERY well made, with great themeing and long lengths. Club Blood and Slaughterhouse(especially Slaughterhouse) stood out as the good scares. In my opinion, the talent in these 2 houses were the most into it. CornStalkers and Werewolf Canyon, though both themed very well, were disappointing. Both of them felt under staffed(maybe a bad night?). In CornStalkers, we saw maybe 10 actors in what felt like the largest house. It was even worse in Werewolf, there were only 4 actors in the whole thing and NONE even tried to scare us. As for CarnEvil, well I'm not a good judge for this one, 3D mazes just don't do it for me. I'll throw Camp Gonnagetcha in this one. This was to me the scariest attraction, I jumped more at the talent on this ride than all the houses combined. Great enthusiasm and great themeing. ENTERTAINMENT/STREETMOSPHERE: SFDK - They knocked it out of the park this year with a great dose of entertainment for everyone: Dracula for Kids - A funny show for the little ones Morty the Mortician - A insult puppet show that is just hilarious. Time Warp/Thriller - Zombie Dance in the main plaza Twilight Funeral Procession - Small Parade that marks the start of Fright Fest at 5pm Zombie Zone - Large Scare zone now in Oasis Plaza The Chili Shack - Small Scare zone featuring inbred rednecks with chain-saws Cornstalk Man - Small Scare zone featuring a corn wall with a surprise. Jimmy in the Whole - Interactive talking grave Twick or Tweat Trail - chance for the kids to get candy Hay Maze - Small Maze for kids Harley Newman's Scandalous Sideshow - You just have to see it. and themed animal shows including Shouka Show, Dolphin Show, and a Sea Lion Show. CGA - Hypnotist(only one I saw of the 3 shows sadly) - VERY Entertaining Comedy show in GA Theater Ed Alanzo Magic Show 4 Scare Zones - Gauntlet was the best, the 2 bridge ones were a little lame and the one near CarnEvil had 3 zombies. Jack in the Box - A cool animatronic that is fun to watch. Electric Chair Man - Animatronic that would be cool if we hadn't seen it in Brutal Planet for 8 years at SFDK. OVERALL IMPRESSION: I hate to say it, I think Six Flags wins. I've always felt that the mazes are the icing on the cake but the event shouldn't be just about them and that's what I felt Haunt did. CGA's houses did blow away SFDK's but i felt the talent inside wasn't as good as SFDK's. I hope this is just a First Year problem and look forward to CGA putting on a great even to come and SFDK continuing to bring Fright Fest back to it's original glory days of the 99 and 2000 seasons. On a side not, CGA's operators are HORRIBLE! Unfriendly and I just don't feel safe with them. PERFECT example, while riding Demon, the attendant on the Exit side would check restraints real quick, barely making contact with the restraint as he passed by. He would then go to the exit and proceed to make out with a guest and put his hand down her shirt. This is not an exaggeration. We watched this for 2 or 3 cycles.

Good stuff Rick. It was good to see you guys at SFDK, to bad big mike had to leave before the Fright Fest stuff started. The park is really proud of the event this year and we love to show it off to you guys. Haha. See ya soon.

Haha, my name's Kevin. Glad you had fun... We're all really excited for opening day... good to hear you'll be back.

This thread seems to have become "Why I hate CGA vs. Why I Love CGA" Overall, I used to think CGA was an amazing park. This was back when SFDK was still Marine World Africa USA and we didn't really have any other park in the bay area. Demon was my first ride, hell I was so coaster illiterate at the time, i thought Grizzly was fun. Now that I'm older and have visited more park across the US, Yes, I consider CGA one of the worst parks I've been. However I don't think it's a bad park. It has it's old time charm(Orbitor, Barney Oldfield, Centrifuge), some fairly thrilling rides(Top Flight Afterburn Gun Deck, Invertigo, Delerium), and Family stuff(Boom Bay, Psycho Mouse, and Survivor). I guess what I'm getting at... The park is moving too slow. It has great assets but isn't getting more fast enough. Hopefully CF can step up the pace like they have with Canada's Wonderland or Kings Island.... Even Kings Dominion is getting a GREAT used coaster... CGA receiving a ride that their competition has had for 10 years, not good enough. X2 is to X as Firefall at CGA is to VooDoo at SFDK... Same ride, new effects. I hope it improves greatly... sad to see a park i grew up with get forgot in the world of fast expansion.

I agree with this, I was surprised to see that when i was down at MM last week. Up at SFDK we removed the cubbies at locker rides the day the lockers started to be used. That wasn't such an easy task at Medusa if anyone has ever seen those cubbies. The guest get angry when you force them to put their loose items in these lockers and then reach the ride platform and see that there are cubbies to put their stuff in... but they can't use them. It's like giving away free candy that you have to pay for first.

I agree with you there, you just got to remember that Six Flags is broke and they can't always provide the best of tools. It's unfair to compare Raptor to... well, any other B&M really. They run Raptor on 9 operators at a time. 6 Attendants checking restraints, a panel operator, a greeter/height checker at the entrance, and a grouper as you enter the station... at least that's what I recall from when I work at CP in 05. Six Flags just isn't ready to pay for that much labor at one coaster... thus we have to deal with stacking hear and there. Overall I have noticed the SF parks have been pushing to get their crews aware of stacking and hurrying them along so it happens very occasionally.

You act like Six Flags is in the business to intentionally stack and slow lines down to a crawl. Sometimes stacking is an unavoidable evil. The thing most people who visit theme parks, but don't work at one don't realize is often safe operation AND speedy dispatch times don't always agree with each other. Believe me I would love to walk passed an entire train telling them to check their own restraints like on Space Mountain at DL... but the simple fact is, people are dumb... they take their time sitting down and often can't figure out how to properly buckle a seat belt, or don't even try to. But by throwing an extra train on the track and trying your hardest to keep the flow moving, you WILL move the line faster and if stacking occurs, the guests on the ride are at least content with waiting an extra 60 seconds to get off.

Yeah, I get that... I'm simply saying most people don't care if the park is getting more throughput. And in the long run, 3 trains will help out with a higher throughput, maybe not hourly, but your accumulative total for the day. But yeah, it really does come down to the operation of the ride... I'll be interested in seeing how SFMM handles it.

One thing I've noticed about 3 train operation at SFDK on Medusa, the only people who seem to care about stacking is enthusiasts and theme park employees... the GP doesn't really care if they are stacked up cause they got on the ride... and if you run 3 trains, you can have more of them on the ride to be happy. On X2, at least if you load and unload in the same spot, your cutting out that excess time in the unload station that it takes to tilt the seats forward, unload, clear the station, tilt the seats back, move the train forward, tilt the seats up again. Now we only move the seats forward and back 1 time per cycle.

No, that definitely looked like something is wrong with it. Huss rides are designed so the operator can change load settings is the ride is 1/3 full, 2/3 full or 3/3 full. I've watched VooDoo at SFDK flip 3 to 4 times empty on the 3/3 setting. It can do up to like 6 or 7 on the 1/3 setting. And yeah, this thing is running the same exact program as VooDoo at SFDK. So you can visit CGA and ride something that the bay area has had for 10 years or visit SFDK and get the same ride PLUS Tony Hawk... thus concludes my hating on CGA.

Holden, This totally does not surprise me that you did both in one day... haha.

That's how the ride was designed... it was perfectly safe. If you come up and ride THBS, it will be the same way.

^ I agree, when I worked at Cedar Point a few years ago, I worked at their Johnny Rockets(don't ask why, long story). The guests LOVED the experience of getting to sit down and order, watch the servers dance, and get to have a conversations with the people that worked at the park. People always have questions for tips on what to do and what not... they don't feel like they can do that talking through a window. I'm a bit disappointed that Six Flags hasn't cashed in on this Johnny Rockets deal and built some sit down restaurants at the parks. SFMM could really make a killing on another sit down restaurant. I know at CP when a guest came in and heard how long of a wait we had, their second question was always "Do you guys have any other places we could sit down to eat at?" so it's obviously something a guest wants. BUT, The SF focus right now is Add a little, Fix a lot... so we can't ask for too many additions. I'm just happy to see the parks being fixed up to be honest.