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Maybe someone can find out tonight why they extended the shoot to one final day Friday -ask if it's from guest email suggestions or if they needed more footage or just to satisfy happy riders.

 

They did not extend the shoot because of your email. They are also not having this event to "satisfy happy riders,", so no one is thanking you.

 

Also, There was only one downtime yesterday. Every time the train stopped on the lift was so the camera can get different angles.

 

 

Are you sure about that? Why would they keep stopping the train on the lift to try different camera angles when they could just wait to dispatch it? Tuesday it was having real technical difficulties and stopping on the lift was the result, so maybe those were actual 'mini' downtimes because this issue has not yet been resolved, would not be surprising or bad, it's still a brand new ride and things need to be worked out.

 

Doesn't make sense to dispatch the train only to stop it on the lift to move cameras around when they could do that before they dispatch the train.

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Maybe someone can find out tonight why they extended the shoot to one final day Friday -ask if it's from guest email suggestions or if they needed more footage or just to satisfy happy riders.

 

They did not extend the shoot because of your email. They are also not having this event to "satisfy happy riders,", so no one is thanking you.

 

Also, There was only one downtime yesterday. Every time the train stopped on the lift was so the camera can get different angles.

 

 

Are you sure about that? Why would they keep stopping the train on the lift to try different camera angles when they could just wait to dispatch it? Tuesday it was having real technical difficulties and stopping on the lift was the result, so maybe those were actual 'mini' downtimes because this issue has not yet been resolved, would not be surprising or bad, it's still a brand new ride and things need to be worked out.

 

Doesn't make sense to dispatch the train only to stop it on the lift to move cameras around when they could do that before they dispatch the train.

 

It makes perfect sense from a photography standpoint. They need to move as the day light moves to eliminate shadows or the shots won't work. They probably also wanted to get some solid stills without any movement. I remember only one mini downtime, after that they cycled the trains without riders to make sure everything was cleared up. I would imagine they wouldn't need so many days to do this if the same amount of riders were available during the early afternoon when the sun is over head rather than 5pm-8pm.

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Maybe someone can find out tonight why they extended the shoot to one final day Friday -ask if it's from guest email suggestions or if they needed more footage or just to satisfy happy riders.

 

They did not extend the shoot because of your email. They are also not having this event to "satisfy happy riders,", so no one is thanking you.

 

Also, There was only one downtime yesterday. Every time the train stopped on the lift was so the camera can get different angles.

 

 

Are you sure about that? Why would they keep stopping the train on the lift to try different camera angles when they could just wait to dispatch it? Tuesday it was having real technical difficulties and stopping on the lift was the result, so maybe those were actual 'mini' downtimes because this issue has not yet been resolved, would not be surprising or bad, it's still a brand new ride and things need to be worked out.

 

Doesn't make sense to dispatch the train only to stop it on the lift to move cameras around when they could do that before they dispatch the train.

 

It makes perfect sense from a photography standpoint. They need to move as the day light moves to eliminate shadows or the shots won't work. They probably also wanted to get some solid stills without any movement. I remember only one mini downtime, after that they cycled the trains without riders to make sure everything was cleared up. I would imagine they wouldn't need so many days to do this if the same amount of riders were available during the early afternoon when the sun is over head rather than 5pm-8pm.

 

 

That's awesome, I wasn't there yesterday, I hadn't considered that, thank you.

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Another great day at the park today, was able to reach my goal and get 50 rides on the coaster! Being able to marathon it on Tuesday helped me out a ton! Found out today that all the tops on the lift are various maintenance tests that they are completing before the ride can open. Although there still isn't a set date, I feel that it is very near.

 

On another note, everyone that's in the area should try and come out tomorrow for one final day of rides, Gold Striker will be running from 5:30-8:30! We should be able to get a few dusk/night rides in,makes the tunnel somewhat dark!

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As Rob said, today was a pretty solid day, even though the crowds were present the entire night. I got in 6 laps, boosting my count up to 47, now 3 away from hitting my big 5-0!

 

Cars were stopping on the lift again, due to safety checks and camera repositioning. There was probably a good 10 minute delay however towards the end of the night where several empty trains were being cycled. Well, we actually did get to start riding before 5:30 and lines were averaging 30 minutes with 80% full switchbacks. I'm really surprised how quickly the line moves even with the periodic stops on the lift.

 

Final run tomorrow and I can confirm that Gold Striker will NOT be ready to run this weekend. I am however still going Saturday to hang with the group and catch up on all the other rides that have been forgotten since riding Gold Striker. Should be a busy but fun day!

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Final run tomorrow and I can confirm that Gold Striker will NOT be ready to run this weekend.

 

So that's a little disappointing, although not unexpected. First trip on Sunday and I still get to ride a stack of new-to-me coasters, GS would have been a bonus anyway. Are any of the shows worth checking out?

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Final run tomorrow and I can confirm that Gold Striker will NOT be ready to run this weekend.

 

So that's a little disappointing, although not unexpected. First trip on Sunday and I still get to ride a stack of new-to-me coasters, GS would have been a bonus anyway. Are any of the shows worth checking out?

The shows are definitely worth checking out though the only shows that are currently running are Team Charlie Brown in Planet Snoopy & The Magic Hat in KidZville, also there is a Peanuts Party in the Plaza that happens at 5pm behind the Columbia Carousel. The other bigger production shows won't be opening till Summer next month. There is always Karaoke if you're brave enough!

 

On a side note, I'm 2 away from 50 rides on Gold Striker, glad they added 1 more extra day of the promo shoot to ride again, woohoo!

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Had a great second day of riding yesterday. As others have said, while busy, they keep that line moving very quickly. I also got e-stopped on the lift hill a couple of times, providing for lovely views of the park, our friends at the Prudential Building, and the impossibly huge 49 stadium. I would also like to take this moment to award Angry_Gumball with the Good Guy Greg Award for the day. Our group of 8 was assigned to the first 4 rows on one particular ride. I was assigned to row 3, and was grousing about how I had yet to be blessed with a front row ride. Angry_Gumball, who was in the front and who had gotten the privilege of a front row ride before, offered to switch with me...an incredibly generous gesture. Happily, I finally got to experience an unobstructed view of Gold Striker's undulating curves. So, thank you, Mr. Gumball, you are indeed a very awesome person.

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Had a great time at the park yesterday evening and managed to get my first 3 rides in on Gold Striker! First of all, I'd like to give a huge "thank you" to the people at California's Great America who made this series of photoshoots possible, at no cost to anyone wanting to participate. The ride itself is solid. I particularly liked the pacing, and I love that it keeps the speed up all the way from the lift to the brakes. I would probably rank it somewhere in the middle of the GCI's I've ridden (Apocolypse, Renegade, Prowler, Roar and Gwazi). Overall, it won't drastically affect my wooden coaster rankings, but I really enjoyed it. It's a great, much needed addition to CGA, sure to be a hit with all of the guests this summer. Most people's reactions to the ride were very positive, from what I could see.

 

Congrats to GCI on another winner!

Edited by dippindotsguy8
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^So if you were only able to pick one row, one row only to ride this in until the end of time which row would that be?

 

Hmm...that's actually a really tough decision...it really depends on what I'm on the mood for. I love either the very front or the very back (give or take 3 rows). In the front provides very nice UPHILL ejector airtime (into the first turnaround, midway turn) while the back provides more of the downhill airtime (coming out of turns). I guess in the end, I'd have to say row 12 is my favorite all time as the non turnaround moments of airtime are the strongest (coming into Prudential/Middle Finger turn, the sudden drop/double down after Middle Finger turn, etc...) Not to mention, you actually come out of your seat as you "TAKE THE SHAFT!!!"

 

Something I like to do on Gold Striker...assuming you aren't stapled hard and have a little wiggle room, I like to actually lift my feet up a bit as I get true airtime rather than feeling like I'm just standing up. It however ends up with my feet slamming down and often stepping/stomping on my fellow rider's feet.

 

So my little blurb of how today went:

I got a somewhat late start getting out there as I got off work at 5. The coaster (from what I heard) started taking on its first riders today promptly at 5:30. I got out to the park around 5:45 after dealing with hit and miss traffic on 880...gotta love random Friday afternoon traffic. Getting out there, I expected it to be very busy as it is Friday and the park also had Physics, Math and Science day. A lot of teens were there today and built upon the initial crowds...line consisted of using all switchbacks and spilled out of the entrance. When we got there, I had to wait for the rest of the group to get off so we were kind and brought snacks to the exit for everyone

 

Getting in line... It took us about 40 minutes to get through though it seemed as though the operations were a bit slow at first. It did pick up and we were back through the line (using all switchbacks) at a much quicker pace. After 2 hours into it, some of the crowds waned a bit but line still was present. In the end I got a total of 5 rides in.

 

Random tidbits/highlights/lowlights:

-Line jumpers...ugh!

-Vandalism again...usually happens in the dark mine shaft portion of the queue as the GP think that 'nobody will ever see this.' Nobody cares if you were here anyway so knock it off GP!

-Metal detector area...felt like I was getting a thorough inspection, more than ever. Like, I had a gum wrapper in my pocket that I threw out as it was tripping the wands and I was being questioned on what I threw out...it's garbage, that's all that matters

-Saw some GP with wrist-mounted Go Pros on the ride...really? Can't you follow simple instructions?

 

-Got 2 back-to-back rides, and rode the last official train of the promo shoot. What happened was that when we did our lap, there was just a little over enough people to fill the next train so when we got back into the station, there were about 4 rows worth of people to board. The rest of us got to stay seated as nobody was in our row.

-2 very awesome dusk rides, and as it was pretty much the end of the night, we were able to go hands up!

-Heard ride ops over the loud speakers telling the GP going up the lift to "PUT YOUR CELL PHONES AWAY!" I'm glad they're enforcing this as I really don't want to get struck by a loose article (or potato as we say...you'd have to be there to get the joke)

-As shown above, I hit my 50 and am now at 52 rides..many more to come when it officially opens!

 

I will be back at the park again tomorrow but sadly, no Gold Striker to ride...it will be there to tease us in the best ways possible. But I'll get to reunite with the 'forgotten' rest of the rides at CGA including my beloved Flight Deck and Flyers.

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Jeff and a fellow, new TPR member (RCTbrony) struck 50...I loaned them my sign :)

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An overstuffed Cedar Fair trash can...that's blasphemy! The queue can (if they can fit) use more trash cans in all seriousness...not trying to pull a Cedar Fair trash can joke here :)

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Well, the moment has arrived...

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NERD!!!

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And after my 50th, it was time for my neighbor to hit her 50th lap! And yes, one of the guys at the park signed my "50th sign" :)

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And I'll end my random photos with a Goldy nerd shot :) Everyone loves lift chain mechanisms, right?

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Happy 50 rides! Overall I was able to get 54 rides throughout the 7 days of promo shoots and I still can't get enough! Again I want to sincerely thank CGA for their great hospitality and the opportunity yet again to be able to experience Gold Striker for yet another week before the grand opening, you guys are awesome!

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Quoting my Facebook status:

 

"What an AWESOME 7 days of the promotional shoot for the brand new Gold Striker coaster! Got a total of 54 rides during those days and it is for sure the best ride in the park and my personal best wooden coaster! Seriously, Gold Striker NAILS it! Also, I got to meet some new people. Thank you California's Great America for putting on this amazing promotional shoot! Hope you guys have the shots you needed!"

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Line cutters are out of control!!! Great America NEEDS to do something other than just postings everywhere around the park. It makes me not want to visit with a whole bunch of line cutters. They should have like 3 staff members patrolling the lines & if they see such behavior then one of them can grab hold of the cutters & throw them out. Somebody needs to tell management this problem is getting way out of control. Yes I noticed them Tuesday first day of the shoot - some just walked right by me in line to catch up with their group. This is not fair to the rest of us who wait patiently in line.

& Many congrats to those who made it past 50 rides on Goldy. WOW. Management should have honored you guys on the loud speaker yesterday.

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While I agree these morons need to be stopped the logistics and cost of what you propose is really not feasible for any park.

 

Yeah they piss me off too and sometimes I will do something about it but I look at it this way, I'm not going to let something dumb like this ruin my experience because really how much longer does it make you wait... five minutes or less? Is that something you really want to let bother you and ruin your day? If you can grab security so they can eject those morons then awesome if not then just move on and enjoy the rides.

 

I'm sure they are well aware of this and are doing what they can about it but they can't have hundreds of extra employees around just to patrol for line jumpers and they can't be everywhere at once..... its just one of those things.

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Well yeah your right I've been going to Great America for so long every summer since 1991 except 2007 & 2009 that I can't let it bother me now especially with the nice new Gold Striker I have to enjoy. I'd rather focus on Gold Striker anyway than worry about the stupid line cutters.

 

That's it exactly.

 

We FINALLY have this beautiful, kick ass roller coaster to enjoy... focus on that and you'll be fine.

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Great day with the group! But something was missing...but I can't quote put my finger on what it was...perhaps Gold Striker? Park was insanely crowded today but we had 12 hours as the park closed at 10:00pm. About line cutters, we dealt with some. I'd rather not let it ruin my day but at the same time it's rude. But what can you do?

 

Random highlights:

-Bumper Cars, some nice impacts while keeping from head on collisions

-Crowds remained pretty solid all day!

-Clench 'n squish on Logger's Run (5-person log, 3 in back half and 2 in front)

-Enthusiastic ride ops, really make your ride experiences that much better!

-Grizzly's line was too long and none of us even cared to ride it due to being hooked on GS

 

I really can't wait for Gold Striker to open now! Sure I will dread initial crowds but I kind of know what realistic wait times to expect.

 

Also I figured I'd share this for those who didn't get to ride Gold Striker, the so-called "Great Wall of Gold Striker." This actually produces some nice hand choppers as we were able to do hands up on the last train of the promo shoot. It's especially noticeable as you come out of the "Middle Finger Turn."

 

I'm definitely guessing that the promo shoot days were also the noise tests being conducted as the walls had gone up during the time we were riding. On the plus side for us riders, it block out a lot of the view of the neighboring offices (yay!).

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Reminds me ofBalder....but in the form of a GCI rather than an Intamin prefab...(Since Balder has a mix of tunnels and walls to be taken).

Edited by Angry_Gumball
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Had a great day at CGA today, seems like a fun park to just wander around (a welcome relief after the craziness of SFDK yesterday). Even with GS closed there was still plenty to entertain us.

 

Some thoughts/observations:

- CGA is a beautiful park, they've done a great job with the landscaping, water features and keeping everything looking nice.

- a lot of downtime in the morning - rapids broke just as the raft I was on was about to depart (didn't end up riding it, may have avoided severe wetness here), then Tiki Twirl was broken, and Firefall got stuck in the "up" position as well (at the time I was taking random pics, thought the long hang time was just part of the ride cycle, then got told off by a security guard for taking a photo of the broken ride... oops)

- Flight Deck was the highlight (after I squeezed onto it... just!), wonderfully smooth for a coaster that's been around a while

- can't decide if Grizzly is worse than Roar or the other way around. Roar might be slightly better because of the padded trains. Grizzly's seatbelt + lapbar + lapbar belt seems like overkill. I'm sure they'll add OTSRs soon.

- Psycho Mouse is one of the smoothest wild mouse rides I've been on, very good.

- Firefall and Tiki Twirl (they reopened eventually) are cool variations on the standard ride models. Firefall ride ops probably get high off those propane fumes.

- flyers are great fun! Thanks to rolercstrluvr for showing us how to "snap" and taking us around in the afternoon.

 

Seriously impressed by CGA, might not have the biggest or craziest rides (well, until GS opens) but would love to have something like this closer to home. I'll definitely be back at some point!

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Firefall got stuck in the "up" position as well (at the time I was taking random pics, thought the long hang time was just part of the ride cycle, then got told off by a security guard for taking a photo of the broken ride... oops)

Security seriously got after you for taking a pic of a ride? Sure it was down but that seems a bit...awkward. To be fair though, my first time doing Haunt, one of the security guys was really being a nazi and said I couldn't have my camera out, period. I obeyed for that evening but following weekend, I opted to pull the camera out and had no issues. In the end I guess it really depends on the security...some take their job a bit too serious and others come off as pretty cool people.

 

Speaking of security, I kind of had an annoying moment during the Friday promo shoot...while normally security checks are pretty brief, the security I had gone through wanted to meticulously check every nook and cranny of my bag, to the point of reaching in and moving things around...and then when I got the wand scan, I happened to have a foil gum wrapper in my pocket (no trash can near by when I opened my piece of gum) that happened to trip their wands...I go to throw it out as I'm asked what I just threw it out. Uh, it's called garbage...hence making way to the trash can. Finally after what felt like an eternity, I got in just in time to meet the rest of the group who was just about to get off Gold Striker.

rant>

- can't decide if Grizzly is worse than Roar or the other way around. Roar might be slightly better because of the padded trains. Grizzly's seatbelt + lapbar + lapbar belt seems like overkill. I'm sure they'll add OTSRs soon.

OTSRs, leg restraints, arm restraints....handcuffs.... Bondage: The Ride.

 

- flyers are great fun! Thanks to rolercstrluvr for showing us how to "snap" and taking us around in the afternoon.

.... 'nuff said...those who went last night know what I'm talking about haha

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