Cerberus

That's a really pretty photo. Well done. Have you got a hi-res version I could use as a desktop image? Cerberus

I don't think I even saw the Whip on my visit. I guess if it was covered with a roof, you wouldn't notice it unless you looked for it... Turtle chase I did see though! Up on a hill, rotting :? The wild choices of the management are probably half the reason why the park has so much unique charm. "Lets get a coaster!" - "Lets get a a weird horse riding coaster!" Cerberus

Okay, trip reports seem to be the 'in thing' here, so, being the sheep that I am, I'll follow the crowd and do my own. This bases on my last holiday, a week ago, to California. I visited four parks in total: Disney parks, Magic Mountain and Marine World. I'll focus on the latter because everyone knows Disney inside out, Magic Mountain is hated here and California Adventure... well.. Lets just say that after a great first visit last year, glazed with the joy of Screamin', this visit with the coaster closed really opened my eyes to how... crap it was Anyway! A friend of mine, who shall be known as Duncan for this report, offered to pick me up from Francisco and take me to the park for the day. Cool! Now, this guy is someone I met completely online, have never seen before and is a lot older than me. Amazingly enough however, the parents didn't care one drop about this stranger dragging my away in some foreign country! So, we get to the park quickly and are assured by the parking attendant (The one who robs you of some $!) that the day was going to be pretty empty. Much to our joy, he was right! We picked up some motion sickness tablets for poor, getting-old Duncan and were on our way! So what about the park? Well, its kinda weird. The layout is actually rather baffling, even to an enthusiast who's never needed a park map before in his life! You can often find yourself milling around the animal section for ages, trying to find signs of (Non fluffy) life! Maybe this situation is aided by days of higher attendance? In true Six Flags style, most of the flat rides were closed, and also one of the coasters, but we still found enough to do. Even if that 'something to do' involved dressing the attractions' CLOSED signs in flowers... Hey, we thought there wasn't even love in their sorry message! Worthy of a mention is Mr.Goosy the.. er.. goose. We saw him early in the morning, waddling around the paths all happy and content. Then, later in the day when we returned to his lake to see him again, HE WAS DEAD!!! We must have been the last people to see him alive! Poor goosy And what of the rides? V2 - Intamin impulse goodness. Actually, I prefer this style to the traditional vertical version. Get the right seats and you get some cool hanging time in the roll. Almost like a tradition coaster stalling in its inversion. Very cool. Roar - This was a decent enough woody. Not amazing, but not bad. Shame about the lack of airtime and the gritty rough ride. Kong - Vekoma SLC. This ride hurts you in ways that even your girlfriend could not recreate in a fun way =/ Boomerang - Wow, first time I've ever ridden one of these that is actually rather smooth! I really rather enjoyed it, hah! Medusa - Nicely done BaM floorless. I don't really like BaMs, even less those huge sprawling ones, but this was great fun. Probably most due to the fun straight drop. Much better than Scream, much, MUCH better. Well, I've written enough. The pictures will carry this trip report more than enough without words. So, here they are! (Unless of course I screw up the upload process. But that's obvious) Tim Marine World! (In case you missed the sign) Is this ACTUALLY the mascot of the park? This worries me... Medusa is clearly the star of this park. And like most females, she takes up more than one parking space Huge, curvy and gracefull with a hint of cruelty- Like the fifty foot women, I guess... Duncan and his motion sickness did NOT like VooDoo! V2 was cool. Rolling over the park entrance and hanging in the air was a nice feeling This is Roar. It swoops and turns and twists all fun like, but it keeps riders in their seat. No amount of steadycam could have made this video worthwhile Duncan testing his motions sickness medication with a whirl on Medusa! The rapids were broken. The maintainance guy got stuck in the mechanism and lost his arm! Which broke everything a little bit more. Glide around that loop. Nice comfy Vekoma Boomerang. And that wasn't sarcasm! :O Nice BaM floorless. Pretty colours, happy riders, and... Its generally cool Mr.Goosy =( First pic taken at about 11:30, second pic taken about 1:30 A decent Vekoma Boomerang! The crowds love it, and not even I could hate it, no matter how much I wanted to! I think there are more speach bubbles here than people on the train... Popular ride! We thought the 'Closed' sign wasn't saying it with enough love. So we dressed it in flowers

Mrs Ruffley, the British representative from Intamin directed me here. No joke! They apparently read it all the time down that coastery company place. I mean, you can't spend the WHOLE day bending pipes, can you? Cerberus

HAHA! That's great! It looks like a wooden Millennium Force. His eye for detail is good. Even constructing a little evacuation stairway. Can anyone (Of German nationality, probably) translate that article? Cerb- Looks better than a few real wooden coasters already -erus

Okay, one more, for the sake of it. And because I'm pissed off about the whole incident.

Don't bring up Space Mountain, I might actually start crying =( They raped that thing of all its uniqueness and now its just a spangly Vekoma in a hole with a Casio keyboard soundtrack. Cool new trip report. Where you complained about the 'Express' ride though, isn't there a load of newspaper company office theming in the queue? I assume that's just the best way they could tie that into the name without the Superman reference- some sort of express newspaper delivery or whatever. Cerb- I'd have called it "Rock'n'Roller coasting starring Superman" -erus

^ Actually, I found the Knotts staff to be quite good on my visit. The crew of the rapids ride were dancing to a radio that some guest left on the platform which entertained the queue for while, for instance. The only miserable gang I came across were the Ghostrider lot, which was likely half the reason for 6min dispatches, but eh. Magic Mountain I agree with though, but the staff still weren't exactly adding negative points to my day, just not adding any positive points either. They were just there, existing, which is innocent enough. So long as they aren't actually shouting at people, or slapping them with trouts or something…. Of course, this is me basing it on a single visit, so I might have had it lucky. You're welcome to let me join you for a day at the park and enlighten me to the crappy staff! Cerb- Hint, yes. Subtle, no. -erus

Not that I imagine it would go without someone shouting it out from the rooftops, but can people local to the park keep an eye on the ride and let us know when they start operating it again? I'm going to be there in about two weeks and I'll be thoroughly annoyed if it isn't operating. Might even skip the park altogether and try something new like Legoland. This is dumb- last year Xcelerator was closed a couple weeks before my holiday with that whole lapbar crap, now Screamin' closes down two weeks before my holiday THIS year! I'm cursing them all! Cerberus

This is open to thrill rides too, right? They always did remind me of something dodgy... Cerb- It was either this or "California Screamin' Orgasm" -erus Bouncing boobies

Who designed the current one? I like the idea of changing them with each passing season. Or course, I've no idea if the demand would make the hassle of printing new versions worthwhile, but it'd still be fun. Cerb- Ratums tribute t-shirts -erus

Fun stuff so far! Loup Garou looks so baddass. I'm surprised they went through the bother of balancing it on little concrete circles over a lake though. Glad you've decided to split this into daily updates! Gives us something to look forward to and probably goes a long way towards 'health-n-safety's eye-friendly screen usage suggestions Cerb- ^ Two furry posts now. Careful, don't want to make this another anthropomorphic forum –erus

Why does the forum have to be filled with such negative threads? Sure, a load of old coasters suck some serious ass, but whilst we're so busy moaning about how much we wish they would die, the praise that's due elsewhere is forgotten. Poor Vekoma, they're only providing the cheap alternative Cerb- But if I must answer, Goudrix -erus

Is their side-friction type water coaster (Lumberjack Falls) still operating? That's the only one I can imagine would actually fall off its rail in an accident. Disney's California Screamin' news made it worldwide- but this is a little beach park so we're unlikely to even hear which ride it happened on Cerberus

Great trip report! I can't imagine how odd all this stuff would appear to all you Americans About the plastic-sled-on-a-pipe-down-a-mountain coaster things- in all these alpine countries these are actually pretty common! I must have come across about ten different ones in Switzerland alone. Pretty much every mountain nature trail or hilltop restaurant had it's own! The pipe ones are fairly new. The more common type are like tiny Bobsled coaster with little stainless steel troughs where the sled banks higher depending on your speed. All made by Weigand, or something. A specialist slide company. SOOOOO dangerous. You'll fly around a corner and suddenly come across someone's granny using the brake too much in order to creep along. CRACK! A friend of mine actually fell off the sled and out the channel as a result of one crash. This one looks great though. Blair Witch Project: the ride! Lookin' forwards to more updates! Cerberus

I just can't believe I'm seeing pictures of mud excavation on TPR. I thought I'd never see the day Although I have to admit having a certain interest in this project. I heard 'Flying Coaster' from a guy that worked at the park almost a year ago now. And that’s pretty much been the constant rumour since then. A new custom flyer would be nice to see- let us see what they can do! Cerberus

Oh dear. I can see this being the big disappointment of my holiday. They have a month to get it going again before they have to deal with me clinging to the ride entrance in fits of tears. Or something... I also have a month to figure out how best to approach the task of making them feel bad for depriving me of my joy It looks to me like the red train got to the final brakes after the final helix and didn't move from there, allowing the purple train to slip up it's backside. As for the reason why the collision was only mild, perhaps the purple train hit enough of the brake section before shunting the red train to kill the majority of its speed. Cerberus

I've certainly had rides and parks appear in dreams before. Usually ones I know really well, but they'll be completely different in the dream by like, falling off the track and floating down a river or something. Dreams are creepy. I could do without dreams and all the related confusion. Cerberus

Yeah, that's what the 'mouse' comment was about. He clearly liked it loads because he was willing to wait in the loner queue (single rider) for an extra go I'm scared what sort of pictures he has of me. Although the still camera didn't make it through the day... maybe as a result of too many Bubbleworks fountains :o Cerb- I held that sign up for an hour before I got fed up with people staring at me oddly! -erus

I'll start off Robb's next trip report for him, since, I dunno, he wanted to check out that Brighton Pier place after Chessington and as such will probably delay his update till later tonight. First of all his flight was delayed due to bad weather... Then the traffic was bad... That left me waiting for THREE HOURS before meeting him Then I embarrassed him with a stupid sign. Great day, great guy, great fun when he tried to open the wrong car in the car park Cerberus Always with the camera... Um... yeah

Cool, I have such high hopes for this ride. Its like the first seriously major thing Disney have done for... well.. far too long! Mountains are where they excel! Interesting to see a train without the final artistic touches added to it yet (Imitation rust, grease smears, copper erosion. Disney-esque stuff). Looks very plasticky and bland... Much like how most other parks would leave it. Where do they draw the line at for a sensible clearance envelope? Do they simply care about people with their arms extended in simply rider joy, or does it also cater for the retards who actually attempt to touch the scenery? Cerberus

Well, well, well… Hmmm. I think might just have to slip by Chessington that day. I'll take a camera and dozens of spare memory sticks. The internet needs more photos of Robb Alvey, and I feel it is my duty to provide. You wont see me though. Ohhhh no. I'll slip amongst the crowds like a... part of the crowd! Be prepared.. bwua hahahah... (Uh, yeah, have fun! If I'm there, I'll say Hi) Cerberus

I'd say the biggest let down visually would be the people. Something about them makes them look like they should be in a different game. Not that I believe they should have been realistic... just... not like that. I actually really miss that world-dominating, black-haired guy. That was some of the charm. Cerb- I only joined to get the 'gifts for cool people' like 90% of the coaster fandom. But felt guilty so am starting to post -erus