Ongoing Photo TR: Cedar-Mount's Great America

Angry_Gumball · July 16, 2007

I just purchased both my brother and I some WOW cards for GA and got them activated today...so why not get some missing coasters in as well, right? Being a weekend, I was a bit concerned with the crowds and lines...but again figured: it's Sunday, many people are going to church, visiting family, or running errands as that's their only time off. Actually, crowds were pretty light. (Not sure if it's because of the whole Boom Bay incident) so off to get the cards processed and hit up the first ride: The Sky Tower. I felt like I was suddenly in RCT-Land as we got some nice overviews for about 3/4 of the spin. The rest of the view was some random businesses. We then headed towards the Vortex and had a nice 5 minute wait. My bro decided he wanted to be crazy and ride the B&M floorless style. That was so hilarious as he was screaming the entire ride and hearing "Ow-ow-ow!!!" as I'm shouting out my usual "Yeah's." Next on my list, another missing credit: Demon. I don't care what anybody says but this ride was smooth! Seriously, only rough spot was the beginning of the corks but the corks were as smooth as glass! Again, another 5 minute wait. We were then going to hit up Invertigo as my bro hadn't ridden it yet but the line was long so we just got some photos. Drop Zone was broken and was scheduled to open in 1 hour but never did. So we headed over to Nick Central and rode the Spongebob Boatmobile (Breakdancer type 4, SCBB Wipeout clone). Again, we got it to spin like mad. The operators even encouraged spinning before the ride and spun random people's cars by hand...We didn't need that assistance though. Got a nice spinning POV on it. Next up was Top Gun. Slightly longer wait of 15 minutes that we were fine with. Only downside was these random idiots making comments to my bro's style. (I know you guys poke fun at that style as well as I do...Even my bro does as well!) but these guys were doing it to be annoying. Top Gun was really fun, especially the very back row. Didn't even come remotely close to blacking out like many seem to do. Back over to the other end of the park, we attempted Invertigo again...Kinda wished I didn't as the wait spread out to an hour and moved slower. We bit the bullet and rode the half smooth, half rough Vekoma. Fun ride, a bit rougher now that it's been around. Forwards was actually smooth..Backwards was quite a jerky ride. Demon broke down so we hit up the Vortex once again, floorless style. (Not me!) This thing feels rougher towards the front by the way. 5 minute wait once again. We then were going to reride Top Gun but my bro wanted to go elsewhere...Probably overwhelmed with the short lines and didn't know what to go on. Same with me. Sure enough, we see these carriages being pulled up and dropped. We booked it over to Dropzone only to find out it was only testing and had it set to open at 7:00. Unfortunately we were leaving around that time so no Dropzone for us. We ended it with a nice relaxing ride on Spongebob 3D. It was quite enjoyable to see that yellow block of sponge in 3d.

I'll end it with an almost decent shot of Top Gun's best parts: The helix! Thanks for reading and feel free to post comments!

Themeing?

Artsy fartsy lifthill shot of Top Gun, one of the most forceful B&M's I've ever been on!

How to you fix a Vekoma? Duct Tape! It always works!

Vertical Loopage!

After looking at this closeup, I was convinced that I actually took a pic of a Coaster Dynamix model. This actually looks like some toy coaster!

RCT Shot 3: The back end.

RCT Shot 2: Carousel

RCT Shot 1: Top Gun!

One of many Paramount-isms present at P..I mean GA! The voice-over said that this is taller than Drop Zone when Drop Zone is much taller.

Vortex traveled so fast that the trains couldn't be seen. Ok, I took the shot again without the train for the artsy-fartsy side of things.

Almost had the whole train...but then my bro, Photographer of coasters in training distracted me.

Yay! We arrived to Para...... Ok..Great America! Has tons of Paramount-isms still present including the voice tracks for the rides.

My bro wanted me to post this as well as we both thought this was quite funny. Ok..now thanks for reading!

coasterdude5 · July 16, 2007

Awesome TR, looks like a cool place, I thought SfGam's Demon was pretty smooth compared to other Arrows I have been on.

KGA29 · July 16, 2007

Woah, you totally stole my name for the park (see my location)! BTW, the park is never really crowded. It has nothing to do with the accident. The only time the park brings in crowds is on summer Saturdays and any special events.

Homer · July 16, 2007

I cant wait to ride The Emo at SFGAm. Its wrist-slitting awesome!

Great TR, Angry Gumball, Looks like Para-knott's so Great America is still a park that just "exists." CF better pump some new rides and TLC into the place.

thefitness · July 16, 2007

^ "wrist-slitting awesome"

Great America doesn't look as nice as the other Paramount parks... or whoever owns them now.

c0sterfreek · July 16, 2007

Dude first off its weird to see my work in pictures. I'm in charge of the skytower and i think you misunderstood the spill. It says Skytower is 2nd highest followed by the Drop zone stunt tower. Its kinda hard to here it but Drop zone is 220 and skytower is 200. But good Trip Report!

See yeah at the park!

PS: Come vist me. Im in charge of the Carousel and the sky tower and the swings.

~Chris

hemmy · July 16, 2007

Not duct tape, looks like aluminum to me.

I see a lot of that stuff in construction.

IceDragon · July 16, 2007

Lmao! That last picture had me in hysterics!!! Why can't Englads parks have signage like that?

Ice 'oh yeah? Well we have Ranger C*nt!' Dragon

Loco · July 16, 2007

Great Pics!

I agree with you, the corkscrews on Demon ARE smooth as glass! but there is a slight jerk while exiting the last one.

Angry_Gumball · July 17, 2007

Dude first off its weird to see my work in pictures. I'm in charge of the skytower and i think you misunderstood the spill. It says Skytower is 2nd highest followed by the Drop zone stunt tower. Its kinda hard to here it but Drop zone is 220 and skytower is 200. But good Trip Report!

See yeah at the park!

PS: Come vist me. Im in charge of the Carousel and the sky tower and the swings.

~Chris

Comin' there this Wednesday! Managed to get the day off from work so maybe I'll be lucky enough to get my last (Well second to last) credit there. (The last one would have to be Taxi Jam...lol) How is Psycho Mouse's lines on weekdays?

EastCoastn07 · July 18, 2007

What day were you at the park because I was there on the 13th (yes Friday) and the park wasn't crowded at all that day either. It really didn't look like Cedar Fair did much to the park considering there was so much Paramount branded things still around in the park. The only thing I did notice about the park was the sudden rise in trash cans at the park, especially in the area behind the carousel. As soon as I saw that area, I said to myself, "Yup this is a Cedar Fair park", because there's was no less than 30 trash cans in the area no joke.

I'm glad you had a fun time at the park, my day was pretty fun mainly because of the people I was with. The last time I was there was 3 years ago and not much has changed. I did however get to ride Invertigo for the first time, and riding in the back was a big mistake for me because during the second part of the cobra roll I felt like I was going to pass out. My vision went all fuzzy and my legs got all numb, but other than that it was a pretty good ride. The rest of the coasters there were a bunch of crap, except for Survivor: The Ride even though it's not technically a coaster. I'm glad I have all the credits I need from that part because I don't think I would go back there over Six Flags Discovery Kingdom unless of course they installed a new coaster.

missingmusician · July 18, 2007

That "Emo" thing with the Emo kid was awesome. No really.

Angry_Gumball · July 19, 2007

Survived yet another day at Great America. We got out there around noon and got headed towards Demon as that was the only coaster we saw running. The line actually got long so we headed to Invertigo...Walk-on and ultra smooth today...or this morning. After that, we headed to DropZone which was nearly a walk-on. (I rode this thing 19 times today, more on this later.) My bro and his friend headed off towards Top Gun as I noticed Psycho Mouse had no lines...so I got on. Fun ride, faster than I expected and some nice pops of air. I then headed toward Top Gun as it opened. Sadly, only 1-train operation but the wait was only about 15 minutes. Some dude asked me "What's Theme Park Review?" and I explained about the whole thing of being a coaster fanatic...about 5 minutes later he turns to me after a conversation about "the belly coaster" or Stealth so they asked me if I knew where it went so I told them. After Top Gun I did a run on some classics like the Orbit and Flying Eagles. I wish I knew how to actually 'snap' them but I was going pretty good and almost spun all the way around. It was really humid & cloudy out there so I went on a not-so-Dan approved ride, Rip Roaring Rapids...I came off completely soaked. We headed toward Vortex so that I could dry off and then hit up Invertigo again...Almost a walk-on again. 2 more runs on Drop Zone also nearly a walk on and thought Survivor was open with no lines...then I noticed the hub of the disc was dismantled...told me that it has no chance of opening today. I then figured that being I'm almost dry, I'd hit up Logger's Run, or the Air Time Log Flume...I love that ending drop! Once again, I almost dried off on Delirium...short cycle, and a fun ride. We stepped out for lunch, which we just took along rather than shell out a week's paycheck for the same amount of food. Back in, we hit up Top Gun again, and zipped across the park on the Delta Flyer sky ride. A few more runs on Drop Zone (Which by the way, the people in line are so ignorant...they're waiting for Cabin 6 which is clearly posted above them and they jack our cabin. After the ride op noticing this, he released the harnesses and we finally got our seats...stupid people...) and then hit up Grizzly...Ouch...bouncy-bouncy-bang-bang! Only airtime was on the first drop which was barely any from the back seat. We headed towards Demon which was a walk-on. Rode the back, nice smooth Arrow coaster. I then hit up the Spongebob Boatmobiles to show kids how you really ride these things...My car was the only one spinning. We hit up Demon and Invertigo 1 more time and finally it was the last half hour before closing. We were so tired so we decided to marathon Drop Zone...I scored 12 rides in, ride after ride. It was then finally time to call it a day as they did their last cycle...

A few notes to add:

-One of our friends said that they're making the coasters run faster on the track...I had to explain to him that it's all gravity and you can't alter gravity.

-The op said that this is the last cycle on Drop Zone. A rider asked "Uh, what is a cycle? Is it just going up?" and the op explained that it's a full run on the ride.

-I didn't bring my regular digital today, so these are all cell phone pix taken on a Razr V3xx. Not bad in my opinion.

Farewell Great America...See you in a couple weeks! Thanks for reading and comments always encouraged!

Evening Carousel

For some reason, this ride became like really yellow against the sunlight!

Demon Lift against the setting sun

And one more Vekoma

More Vekoma

Vekomaness

Well, the sun is setting and the day has come to an end. Enjoy my series of sunset cell phone shots! This made it as a wall paper on my cell!

*Sing along*

Drop Zone is falling down, falling down, falling down. Drop Zone is falling down, My fair lady!

Geeky shot of double-backbone Vekoma track!

Wii!!

Survivor...couldn't even survive 1 day of running... Yes, this is the "Haha, you can't ride me" sign!

Drop Zone is flying down.

Drop Zone is falling up?

Nut-Bustin' Headbangin' corkscrew from Delta Flyer.

Top Gun from the parking lot...Bleh...digital zoom...

Delirium spinning riders around. Looks like a giant spider!

Drop Zone is fully erect!

Yay! I'm all soaked! (Sorry for the dark shot.)

My first inverting ride, Orlean's Orbit...or just simply Orbit for short.

Just keep flying 'em and you'll be all good!

Fly your eagles!!!

It's starting to clear up? Oh wait...this is about Top Gun, not the sky.

Wallpaper shot of Top Gun's flyover from queue.

Credit!!11! My last needed credit at GA

The obligatory shot of the carousel once again

The arrival at GA...cloudy as cloudy can be...yet it was hot!

Tmcdllr · July 21, 2007

Not duct tape, looks like aluminum to me.

I see a lot of that stuff in construction.

Actually that is NOT duct tape, do you really think duct tape would stay in place??? That is actually metal, probably aluminum because it is easy to manipulate, that they bend around the bolts to keep them from turning loose on their own, kind of like a lockwasher. Duct tape....are you kidding me?

kennywood!007 · July 21, 2007

Great photo tr....The Emo....LOL

Tmcdllr · July 21, 2007

Funny pic...stupid emo!

Alpenguy · July 21, 2007

Man that made me miss my old home park.

Nice TR, thanks for a good read.

Angry_Gumball · September 17, 2007

Time to revive this topic (rather than pointlessly start a new one as it's the same park again). Today, we decided to take a visit back to GA (Or, 'Gaah' as I call it now). Firs ride of the day was Top Gun. It was a walk on for any of the rows except the back & front rows. From there, we took a long walk back to Drop Zone for a walk on. Pretty much, crowds were light as it's a Sunday, and a school night. Next up on the list was the coat-hanger masterpiece, Demon. Never again do I sit in a rear seat. I'll stick with a nose seat as there's some leg room. (Curse you Arrow trains!) After that, we did the first round on Vortex. (Ouch, this has gotten rough). My bro was feeling kinda sick so we hit up the sky tower. I discovered that the batteries in my regular camera (Which was just charged) took a total dumpage on me as I got in line and got the camera ready. Rule of thumb: Always keep a backup. Fortunately, I had room on my cell phone which takes some nice shots for a cell. My hopes were to get a nice panoramic shot of the park by taking multiple pictures and 'stitching' them together. After that, we took a spin on the carousel for old memories sake. (Last time I rode that was back when Top Gun first opened, when the line extended back to the carousel). We were getting quite thirsty so we bought a souvenir cup (to get 99 cent refills) and took a ride on the Log ride. I had some convincing to do to get my bro on it as he doesn't like getting wet. (Sound familiar?) Basically, to sum up the day, I rode Top Gun multiple times and Vortex multiple times with an occasional ride on Demon and Drop Zone. Was going to marathon Drop Zone as there was no line but the ops were being anal and said to go all the way around. (WTF? There's no line though) Oh well. Anyway, here's the pix, all via cell phone. If I don't get lazy, I'll do a MSpaint version of it within the next few days.

Anyway, here's the panoramic shot from the Skytower.

I'll leave you with an interesting find in the guest relations when picking up my bro's wallet chain. (Many of you may have seen this on the net before). It's a mini model of Tidal Wave, I believe for Schwarzkopf's birthday tribute.

Gettin' artsy-fartsy with coathanger track and the sun

As bad as the ride is, I think this photo came out nice.

Smooth as glass woodie

Never been taken shot before (Made it as the wall paper for my cell phone.)

Chillin' in the brake run (At the end of the ride of course)

Yay! Spongebob!

The cool lookin' horse from the carousel. Too bad people popped off some of it's fake gems.

View from Skytower.

coasterbilly · September 20, 2007

sweet reports, this is a park I don't hear much about simply because they haven't done much with it, hopefully CF can help this park out because compared to other parks in California, this one looks like it's going down hard even though it still has some decent coasters to offer

Angry_Gumball · October 22, 2007

Ok, so the season's end is coming near...(well, next Sunday) so why not get our last visits in? The highlight of the day was not the Carn-Evil, but some fat morbosity that put on an interesting preshow prior to opening the maze. (I'll get on this in a bit). So we first got in and I took some shots of the Halloween props they put up by the carousel and headed to Vortex. Delivered a nice smooth (Almost B&M smooth) ride with maybe 1 headbang. We headed off to Demon only to see that it was down, as well as Drop Zone so we hit up Grizzly...this thing gave us some airtime as it probably knows that it's fate is coming soon. After that, Survivor. Unfortunately, as the line was so short, no chanting...just get right on and ride. No fire but we got the high ends every time. Another highlight: Ultimate GP question that I heard and had to try not to laugh. "Does Survivor go upside down?" Wow....The person in their group replied "Well, it almost does..." *shakes head...* It's obvious that it has no inverting elements. After a spin on survivor, we headed toward the Gun for a ride on that. Time was nearing to the opening of the Carn-Evil maze which is the major highlight of the day. This scary morbosity (if you wanna call her a lady, you could) was flipping out as she was sitting on a bench *nearby* the entrance and the actual queue was empty. My bro and I get into the queue saying "Yay! first visitors of the day!" and the morbosity replies "No! I've been sitting here since 2:00" (It opens at 3:00) Being nice, my bro and I respected that and got out of the queue...but no. She had to carry on. I responded "Wow...never knew it was a crime to get in line." Technically, she wasn't in line as she's chillin' on a bench (which I originally thought...didn't even think she would fit through the maze...) A few other GP's walk by overhearing the screaming and seeing what happened and told her that she was technically not in line...everything erupted from there so I got the attendant to call park security so that nothing would arise...there were kids around for crying out loud!. So finally, the maze opened which was awesome by the way...it's definitely a step in the right direction for Cedar Fair. Just that morbosity...she was much more scarier than the maze. (Ok, sorry for going on about her..lol) After the maze, we hit up Orbit and then saw that Drop Zone was running. We rode that then hit up Demon, the "Loop-de-Loop" coaster. I was laughing the entire ride when these kids on the ride said "Heere weee go threeeew the Leewp-tee-leewp!" After Demon, we took 2 rides on White Water Falls, and saw that an operator recognized TPR...he wasn't a member, but visits frequently, I guess. Didn't get a drip...the seats still had my foot print on it. We headed toward Star tower so that I can retake my pano-shot of the park only to realize that my camera's CCD ribbon cable thingy got knocked loose...(So I now had to push on the camera to make contact). Afterwards, we took a brief brake from riding and checked out some of the nastiest-looking prizes from the game area. Totally phallic. After that, we headed to Survivor again only to find out it was down. Back over to Top Gun for another ride, then over to Delirium. Finally Survivor was working with fire. We got the face full of the nice warm puff of flame. The rest of the time consisted of marathons on Drop Zone and Invertigo. We ended it with a slapping the hands out of our face-fight on Top Gun at night. A night ride on Top Gun was definitely sweet. Now, the pictures.

Farewell Great America! See you next sunday with more pictures! Thanks for reading!

Our new mascot, "Jimmeh!" He rode on Psycho Mouse with us. (He's a sticky spike ball that was originally meant for Drop Zone as it's tethered but he never made it.)

Kind of hard to see, but the lighting on the tower looks cool.

Survivor looks like it's getting sleepy.