Billy Hill

LMAO! Can you imagine someone coming to this site for the first time and reading that? ROFL! By the way, nice report.

Check out the movie "Rollercoaster". There are plenty of others that peeps will surely list.

Robb, I'm curious as to why you're surprised by people having found the site via google? It would seem to me that google would be the most likely way that people would find it. Or is there something I'm missing? No disrespect intended, I'm just genuinely curious as to why you'd be surprised. In any event, I'm certainly glad to have found the site. (As posted earlier: via a google search on Bonfante Gardens) Billy "just wondering" Hill

Although I didn't actually count heads, I do remember noticing that it seemed there were A LOT of people operating, assisting, etc. on California Screamin' during our visit last summer. If I had to guess, I'd say that there were at least a dozen people. I don't remember noticing so many on previous trips.

He may be able to ride the "White water safari" river rapids ride and the "Monsoon Falls" splashing boat ride. I'd guess he could go in the "Stargate 3000" theatre deal, although he may have to sit in a stationary seat if the seat belt on one of the moving chairs isn't big enough. They also have a spinning "tea cup" ride that's got a Monkey theme to it. The door that opens up to get into the seating area isn't real wide, but he may fit. Despite the fact that he'll definitely be very limited as to what he can ride, there will still be plenty for him to do and see at the park. There are several animal shows and walk-through animal exhibits. It's kind of like a zoo and a theme park put together. Have fun

The old "Greased Lightning" shuttle loop from PGA was stored in the parking lot of SFMW the last time I was there a month or so ago. Maybe that will go in Zonga's old spot? Just a thought.

This particular park really won't be much of a loss. It definitely leaned toward the ghetto side of things. The place was run down, had grassy areas that would get muddy from water splashed up by the rides, had grass and mud floating in the lazy river and wave pool, etc, etc.. All of that is in addition to the crappy location, funky parking and access situation and a more, shall we say, "inner city" type clientel. Sunsplash, just up the freeway about 20 minutes in Roseville, puts Water World to shame and I believe Water World's closing clearly reflects that. I won't miss Water World a bit. It was ghetto 20 years ago, and a visit last summer to see if it had possibly improved only reinforced my perceptions of the place. Good riddance.

I was looking for some info on Bonfante Gardens theme park and found a video of a TPR trip to the park on this site. The forum was up and running a while after that, so I joined. I've picked up quite a bit about coasters and parks from the site. I think this site is a great resource for anyone planning a trip to a park. Thanks Robb and Elissa, and to the many other members that have shared their experience and/or answered questions for me. Billy "I got lucky with google" Hill

As of yesterday, it was Top Gun at PGA.

The same super hero trio pictured in the original post were walking around SFMW last weekend. Our Wonder Woman had WAY too much junk in her trunk.

Well, "Survivor, the Ride" was carrying passengers at PGA today! Here's my review of the ride, with pics: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23864

I rode it today. It's really pretty tame compared to what I thought it would feel like. I liked it though. Even my wife, who ordinarily doesn't care for spinning rides very much at all, liked it. And she liked it a lot! Probably more than I did. My kids, ages 14, 11 and 10, all really liked it too. Riding it is an odd sensation for sure. I kind of expected it to be similar to Tasmanian Devil at SFMW, and it is, but then again, it isn't... It's got more a "floating" feeling to it. That particular feeling is actually pretty hard to describe. This is really a ride that you have to experience firsthand before it'll make sense as to what I mean by a floating feeling. I guess I could have actually counted the number of times that you go back and forth, but I was too busy having fun to think about counting. If I remember right though, I think we made 2 trips back and forth in the loading area dip before we got up enough steam to make it over the hump. I believe we then went back and forth over the entire track a total of 3 times before it slowed us down and settled back into the dip for the loading area. The center hump itself is really gradual. Going over it does have a pretty unique feel to it. It's the main part that gives you the floating feeling. And when I say "floating", I don't mean in an airtime sense. It's just kind of a "skimming the surface" or maybe a "gliding" type of thing. Like I say, you'll really just need to ride it to see for yourself. This was a soft opening today and all the interactive queue effects are still being ironed out. The main gist of the interactive queue is that while you're in the final loading queue area (which are identified by different colors that correspond to areas on the ride platform) you stomp your feet, clap, and chant along with a video screen message that plays in front of you. Whichever team stomps-claps-chants the loudest will be rewarded by dousing the riders on the track via water jets from the mouths of tribal masks, and by fire shooting out of 2 torchs near the ride entrance. The timing of the whole interactive queue deal is still a work in progress. The guy that is on the current video was there in the queue, explaining the process and coaching people on how to do to the stomp-clap-chant thing. I can see where peeps will pick will pick up on it fairly quickly after a ride or 2 once it's all up and working. It looks like it could be kinda' fun. I personally found the theming of the ride to be better than I expected. I'm still kind of on the fence about the "Survivor" show being attached to the ride, but it kind of works. (I guess) It'll be a while before some of the plants and trees grow enough to where you get the full effect of what they're trying to accomplish with the queue, but I honestly thought it all looked pretty good, and came across very similar to what was presented in the concept art. Having some idea of what consitutes "theming" at the non-Disney parks I personally visit, I found this to be better than average at the very least, with the potential for it be reasonably convincing once mother nature does her thing with the vegetation. I could probably ramble on more about this, but I won't. My overall take is that it's a good ride. I enjoyed it, everyone in my family enjoyed it, and just about everyone that I saw ride it looked like the enjoyed it too. If you're an adrenaline junkie, then this isn't your fix. If you enjoy fun, family friendly rides and good theming, you'll probably like it just fine. It's not a worth a trip to the park all by itself, but I feel that it's a good addition. Billy "I survived" Hill P.S. The line moves pretty quickly for this ride. I didn't have a watch to look at, by I'd guess it was about 10-15 minutes from the time we got on the ramp (That's where the line started both times we rode today) until we were on the ride and underway. Not bad at all in my estimation. And, since they load a lot of people at once, you move forward a good chunk of distance every time the ride reloads. Here are the pics: Yay! We can actually ride it today! The kids and their swag. Here's what the bottom of the disc looks like. So shiny! Here's the disc docked in the loading area dip. A pyros delight! By the way, you can totally feel the heat from the fire when you're on the ride. It took me by surprise the first time I rode it. Here's another relatively random shot of the ride doing its thing. My humps, my humps, my humps! My lovely lady lumps. Uh, wait... I was thinking of something else... (My bad) Here they are near the top of one of the end sections. Here's a group starting to build up speed to get over the hump. Here's the ride track as viewed from the far end of the exit area. I think this is where they will sacrifice the losers of the interactive queue batlle once that deal is all worked out. Looking back at the peeps on the ramp. A little different view of the first part of the queue, taken from the ramp. The ramp that leads you to the final queue area. The first part of the queue.

Are "Technical Rehersals" anything like a soft opening, or is it the kind of deal where the ride is simply tested without riders? (Please forgive my ignorance)

My daughter and I took a "daddy and his girl" trip to SFMW last weekend. (My wife and the boys supposedly had better things to do. Whatever... Their loss!) We rode the "mighty" (kidding on the mighty part) Cobra! on our way to Medusa. Ok, ok... Give me a break! There was like no one in line! (Yeah, that's a good excuse...) Besides, we didn't really think about it at the time as Cobra being our official "first coaster" of the season, but there it is! Maybe I should get some T-shirts printed up that say, "Wusses R Us!" Anyhow, once we did get to Medusa, we found what looked to be at least an hour+ wait since they were only running one train. We ditched that idea and went to ride some other stuff instead. We came back to Medusa in the mid afternoon and only had to wait about maybe 15 minutes. Mucho better! I wanted to ride Kong (aka: Konk!) too, but the daughter has had her brains scrambled by that thing one too many times, and wanted no part of dealing with a headache for the rest of the day. I'll talk my boys into riding it with me next time. They don't care about the head banging. (Or just don't know any better.) Other than that, we won a few stuffed animals, watched a couple shows, had some chow, got her a fake tatto, and generally had a really good time. By the way, Roar was running pretty decent. I may not be any great roller coaster buff, but I know what I like, and I like that ride. I'm looking forward to PGA this weekend.

PGA this Saturday with the whole famn damily. I just hope the rain does actually taper off in the mid-morning like the weather forecasts say. I also hope that just maybe they have that "survivor" deal running, but I'm not holding my breath. As long as I can get my Top Gun fix, I'll be happy. I got my Medusa fix last weekend.