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.

IMHO, That is a prime example of what's WRONG with DCA. That Monetery Bay area is beautifully done from a theming standpoint, but what is there to do there? Nothing! (Except get tortilla and bread samples, and oh yeah, you can buy food there... Big deal!) Can you say LAME? Same thing for that farm area in front of "A Bug's Land" , and the wanna-be winery dealio over by Grizzly Peak. That stuff looks and feels so cheap and cheesy that it's hard to believe it's in a Disney park. I get the impression, from having read this site for some time now, that the majority of people here lean more toward the hard core coaster enthusiasts side of things than most fans of Disney do. Nothing wrong with that at all, but I believe the hard core enthusiasts may have a tougher time wrapping their thoughts around what Joe and Jane average family that goes to the DLR once a year for a week is really after. Personally, I love Disney dark rides. Even the goofy old school ones. I was disappointed by Pooh, but mostly because they could have done so much more with it. (As evidenced by the Pooh rides at some of their other parks.) To me, the Monsters Inc. / SSL deal isn't so much the deal with DCA. It's the fact that other than that particular ride, what do they have in the way of the "traditional" Disney dark ride? Nothing is the answer. They have Muppets, TTBaB, that Whoopie Goldberg movie deal, and Soarin'... All glorified movie screens. Disney can definitely do better. (Although I'll give Soarin' a break because it is pretty cool.) What DCA needs, from my perspective, is to be more "Disney". Feel more Disney, smell more Disney, etc... The park just doesn't have the atmosphere of a place where you're overwhelmed by how much there is to take in. Disneyland does, and that's a big part of what makes it so cool. If you look at some concept art for DCA, they have the park looking a lot more "busy" than how it turned out. If you ask me, they need to make it at least that busy, if not more so. Build the flume ride deal that has a big drop over the water in front of Paradise pier. Theme the living hell out of it like they usually do everything else. Build the rumored "Cars" movie tie-in ride that's supposed to be something along the lines of Test Track, but theme it to the LA freeways, or whatever... Do that, along with cozying the place up a bit with some trees, gardens, etc. Then last, but not least: Put some damn old school Disney-worthy dark rides in the place. Think POTC, or HM. Something that will become a timeless classic. Don't get me wrong, I like the park and there's a lot that's good about it in addition to what's wrong. It's just that it isn't anywhere near being the complement to Disneyland that it should be. I hope it gets there someday, but right now it's more like a red-headed stepchild than a sister park.

"The turn of the century" (now significantly modified and renamed "The Demon") at Marriots Great America (now Paramounts Great America) in Santa Clara, CA. I rode it in 1976, the year it opened. I'm not really sure that the addition of vertical loops to "The Demon" was necessarily an improvement. I liked "Willard's Wizzer" more though. I still miss that ride. It was awesome. They also used to have this three-armed ferris wheel type ride (I forget the name of it) that was really cool. I miss that one too.

So far, I'm the furthest north of the NorCal peeps.

My best would CA Screamin'. It may not be very intense, but it's just so smooth. I also like Top Gun, but I personally thought Batman at SFMM was a little better. Grizzly has got to be the worst. If it's not, then I pity whatever is. Even at that, I almost always ride the damn thing. (Yesterday was the 1st time I went to PGA and DIDN'T ride it) Maybe I'm hoping that it'll somehow get better? It never does. I think they should rename it something more appropriate, like "Terrible Termite". I've actually tried to think of ways to improve Grizzly and I always come back to the same solution: A match!

SFMW more than anywhere else, but only because it's the closest to home. PGA would be 2nd, and Bonfante Gardens 3rd. We've taken our family vacation the last 3 summers to the DLR and I'd been there several times before that. I wish the Disney parks were closer to home. If they were, they'd win this deal hands down. After a great, if short, time at SCBB yesterday, it may climb up the list.

The original plan was for the family to all go together for a day at PGA. Since the wife and the 2 oldest kids weren't feeling well at all, myself and the youngest one headed out by ourselves instead. We got there right when they opened and went straight to Top Gun for a walk-on ride. We then bypassed everything on the left side of the park on our way to Psycho Mouse. It already had a line, but it wasn't too long. We got seated in our car and ready to hit the lift hill, then the thing broke down. We got out and waited by the exit, hoping it'd only be a short shutdown. They cycled all the cars through the track and after just few more minutes we were back on and got our ride. Ok, that wasn't so bad... So we head over to Demon since it's the favorite of my youngest. It goes down right as we're entering the final queue. (Luckily we hadn't had to wait at that point) We gave it about 10 minutes, and they still didn't have it rolling it again, so we left. I kept looking back over toward the lift hill any time we were in that area, but I never did see it running again, so I don't know if they ever got it going, or not. I try and try to talk him into riding Invertigo, but that just ain't gonna' happen, so I give up and we go over to check the line for Vortex. It's not as bad as I've seen it, but it's still pretty long, so we pass on that one. Even though I know better than to ride that POS Grizzly, we still go over to check the line... Too long. Back to Psycho Mouse... Broken down again. We go do a quick spin on the Centrifuge ride and then go check the line at Delirium. Way too long. It's about this time that I'm starting to realize that, for whatever reason, the park is quite a bit more busy than I'd anticipated and just about everything has quite a wait. We rode a few more rides, then we went to the games area, won a couple of stuffed toys, looked over a few of the queue lines again, and decided that we'd had enough. It was only a little after 1 o'clock. Still having quite a bit of daylight left, I figured that we'd drive over to SCBB and see how it was. It'd been quite a while since I'd actually been there to go to the Boardwalk. My last experience there hadn't been that great at all, but we were pretty pleasantly surprised to find the place not all that crowded. We each got our wristbands and started riding everything in the place with no wait at all. It was my youngest's 1st time there and he loved the place. Providing that the rest of the family is feeling well enough, we'll go back next weekend. Since my last visit to SCBB a couple years ago (or maybe more, since I don't remember exactly when it was) I kinda' had it stuck in my head that the place was sort of a haven for the less than desirable element of society. This time however, there was a very noticeable security presence and a much more family friendly atmosphere. Who knows? Maybe I just caught the place on a bad day during my last visit, but I know I wasn't just imagining the ghetto factor. In any event, it looks to me like they've cleaned up their act. It was fun and we'll be back. Soon. Btw, The Giant Dipper was running much better than the last time I rode it. I could ride that thing over and over.

Giant Dipper at SCBB. I didn't take any pics while we were there. I'm sure that most peeps have probably already seen a pic anyway, or they can get one on rcdb. Fwiw, it seemed to be running considerably better than the last time I rode it a few years ago. In fact, the whole park was a better experience than a few years ago. There was a lot more security presence and a lot less thug factor. Props to SCBB for cleaning up there act. [/url]

The Discovery channel couldn't have picked a better source to research the show. I've found the information here invaluable. The enjoyment of many of our family trips to theme parks has been enhanced by the insight shared by the members here. On to the subject at hand... Like many other members, I most anticipate the opening of Expedition Everest. I'll echo many of the sentiments relating to the fact that it's a "Disney" ride and therefore we can expect detailed theming and an engaging storyline along with the ride itself. In addition, it's the ride that I'll personally be most likely to actually ride. Perhaps not in '06, but we are doing our best to plan to a Disney World trip within the next year or 2 (or 3). My perspective is from that of a "casual" coaster enthusiast. I'm more into parks for the overall family experience, rather than the impressive statistics or g forces of a particular ride.

IMO, Grizzly needs to go. I question myself as to why I ride the damn thing every time I go to the park. A wooden coaster more similar to Roar at SFMW would be a huge improvement. My biggest complaint about the coasters at PGA is that they're all just too short in terms of ride length. Something along the lines of California Screamin' is what I'd really like to see built. That'd mean losing more than just Grizzly though, so I have mixed feelings about a larger coaster.

I love torturing my kids on It's a small world. A few years ago, I had them convinced that Disney had cameras everywhere, watching their every move, (probably more truth than fiction) and that they kept track of each guest during their visit. If any guest didn't ride IASW, then they would never be let back in the park again. Although they didn't entirely believe me, they still grudgingly rode it based on that premise, and have on each subsequent visit, just in case. I don't know if I'd be able to talk them into a ride on "the lady gay" though.