California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

[rcdude]

Get your rides in on Gold Striker while you still can ...

 

Rec'vd two copies of revised drawings for additional sound tunnel & calcs

 

From the permit site, dated today. http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=BLD2012-28623

 

If Gold Striker has to close for this, hopefully it is only briefly. I'm planning a trip up there in mid-July and I'll be really disappointed if Prudential's complaints cause me to miss this ride, as I have no idea when I'll get another chance to visit the park (plus this is the main reason I'm doing a Northern California trip this year).

 

I seriously hope this is a one time thing for CGA, and they won't face heavy opposition every time they try to build a major new attraction. I don't understand why anyone would have an office near a theme park and think they wouldn't have some noise effects, and I'm even more clueless why they're concerned if the noise level is slightly high on top of the parking garage. It's not like someone has a car that will explode if subjected to 0.001 dB excess noise or something. If there is a legitimate reason that noise from the coaster interferes with business, that is one thing, but otherwise Prudential just needs to quit complaining and deal with it.

[JJnCFL]

Bring on more tunnels, if it will shut the Prudes up, i'm all for it...

[peetnik]

More tunnels could actually enhance the experience.

[singemfrc]

Tunnels would certainly be better than those one sided sound walls.

[TyRush]

Why not tunnel the entire ride

This seems a bit crazy to me, but at least its one last modification!

[singemfrc]

I'm so happy that I was given the opportunity to ride this amazing coaster before all the Prudential add-ons.

 

Also I still chuckle when the Gold Striker commercial comes on TV and the coaster is shown not only with no sound walls it doesnt even have the tunnel, which is basically confirmation that the tunnel was done as an (unsuccessful, apparently) appeasement to the Prudes.

[Blue Fire Guy]

This IS a coaster themed to gold mining after all, so I agree that more tunnels could enhance the ride experience. The Prudential turn itself is actually a very effective placement for a tunnel (even if there weren't any Prudes to deal with), as it hides the section I call "airtime alley". Just as you exit the tunnel (especially if you're in the back), you'll have no time to react as you'll already be out of the seat.

 

That said, this is absolutely ridiculous. It amazes me to no end that the Prudes are still unsatisfied, I too hope that if it goes SBNO come Monday (which I expect it will), it will be for a short time.

[Angry_Gumball]

I don't mind more tunnels but at the same time I feel like Prudential has complete power over CGA. In the end money talks...

 

No, all of this BS has to come to a stop. The city needs to put their foot down. It really should have been that way from the start. I know CF and Prudential came to an agreement but it seems like CF agreed to something a bit overboard. Here we go with endless incoherent rants now...why were they testing noise outside? Last I knew they work INDOORS in a INSULATED BUILDING. I know I said this before but inside the Star Tower I can faintly hear GS as it plunges down...and that is with being in a non insulated building/cabin. And that's with being right next to the drop! Those offices are much further away...

 

End Saturday morning rant.

[singemfrc]

^ According to the last comment on that permit page, Prudential are using a city ordinance against CF..there is apparently a set decibel level that is required, and Prudential are just holding them to it..there's no way the city could do anything about it short of getting rid of that ordinance, which I don't think there's any chance of.

 

You're right though, thats the first thing I thought when you posted that photo of the guy on the roof with the boom mic..completely unfair because it's obviously going to be much more audible from the roof outside..this is clearly a grudge match, regardless of the actual effect on their workers, they're going to cause as much trouble as possible out of spite because they just don't want a roller coaster next door. Whether it's actually bothering them or not they're going to keep pressuring CF until the decibel levels are under the limit or the coaster is shut down.

 

I really hate these people..not just because of their attitude..they're like the neighbor who keeps calling the cops on you not because your music is unreasonably loud but just because they can tell that it's on. I'd like to put them on a 24 hour Kong marathon and see if I can shake a few screws loose.

[Angry_Gumball]

^ Kong would be too easy...lets take them down to SFMM and let them ride Revolution in its current state for eternity. Now that is a true experience!

[singemfrc]

lol..yeah I was debating whether to type Kong or Revolution, went with Kong because its closer and when Kong is bad its bad for your whole body, not just the head.

[Angry_Gumball]

Roar would be another worthy candidate if you want your spine realigned for you

 

In all seriousness, I'm hoping that the ride will continue to operate as normal, or at least weekends so that they can finish tunneling the coaster. Because of daily operation, it would be impossible to run the ride during the Monday-Friday schedule while assembling/installing the walls.

 

I'm now curious to see what the readings were when they did noise tests...to see how far above the levels it was. Also I feel that the city requirements for noise levels in that given zone is utterly ridiculous. It all goes back to the cliché airport story. May sound silly but whoever set requirements for noise levels in that given zone must have been thinking out their

[singemfrc]

^ I could be wrong but I think they're forced to go SBNO even on weekends because the temporary permit expires and they have to wait for the permanent one to be issued..it doesn't sound like something that would necessarily take a long time though, it just depends on the Prudes next door.

[gisco]

That would suck if they have to go SBNO come Monday.

[Blue Fire Guy]

I really hate these people..not just because of their attitude..they're like the neighbor who keeps calling the cops on you not because your music is unreasonably loud but just because they can tell that it's on. I'd like to put them on a 24 hour Goudurix marathon and see if I can try to kill them that way.

Fixed.

[Angry_Gumball]

^Kongoudurixolution! A perfect blend of 3 painful rides...though Kong is one of the better of the SLCs out there.

[singemfrc]

^ Yeah as rough as Kong is, I still enjoy it most of the time, I like the layout alot. Admittedly I do have a pretty high tolerance for rough rides, the only ones that truly bother me are Revolution and X2. I recently found a pretty foolproof way to at least stop the major headbanging, but it doesnt make the ride comfortable by any stretch of the imagination.

[Swornenemy]

Gold striker or no gold striker I'll be at the park Monday. Guess ill have to give flight deck a couple extra rides.

[thrillgeek]

I might be going on Monday as well. Or should I do SFDK instead? Decisions decisions....

[Jew]

You guys would all be doing the same thing if you were in Prudentials shoes. I agree like everyone else that there should be a fair compromise, but Prudential has to protect its business interests.

 

Here's the listing for one of the buildings in the office complex:

 

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16523611/4555-Great-America-Parkway-Santa-Clara-CA/

 

So $30/Sqft if a company leases for a year...

 

All three of the buildings account for 645,651sqft of office total space.

 

30x645,651=$19,369,530 in just the office space rent. There's additional revenue from the parking, building management fees, and all that other fun stuff as well.

 

And of course, there's property taxes to be paid on that as well. Plus the high tech jobs it brings to the city. So who do you think the city is going to side with?

[wyskraker]

You guys would all be doing the same thing if you were in Prudentials shoes. I agree like everyone else that there should be a fair compromise, but Prudential has to protect its business interests.

 

Here's the listing for one of the buildings in the office complex:

 

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16523611/4555-Great-America-Parkway-Santa-Clara-CA/

 

So $30/Sqft if a company leases for a year...

 

All three of the buildings account for 645,651sqft of office total space.

 

30x645,651=$19,369,530 in just the office space rent. There's additional revenue from the parking, building management fees, and all that other fun stuff as well.

 

And of course, there's property taxes to be paid on that as well. Plus the high tech jobs it brings to the city. So who do you think the city is going to side with?

 

I don't know that I agree that the city is going to side with Prudential based on the property taxes. Doesn't Great America pay something like $5mil in rent to the city every year? As well as the half-million in taxable revenue the park makes each day they're open. I would imagine the city would rather just keep both businesses happy and not severe either vein of income.

[Angry_Gumball]

Personally, I think the whole thing is just getting ridiculous...no need to restate the classic airport scenario again.

 

Aside from that, I was out at the park today with Blue Fire Guy, JeffyJosephNorcal, and my cousin...and had a surprise meet up with Flagg o' dim and RJvader. Initially when we got to the park, we made a b-line straight towards GS...only to find out it wasn't open/experiencing technical difficulties (which was NOT due to sound problems like some kid had sarcastically said as he left...). The ride did eventually open later in the afternoon with wait times of only 20 minutes! During this time we headed to Flight Deck for a walk-on ride in the front row and decided to hit up Boomerang Bay early before it got crowded...which it did!

 

In Boomerang Bay is when we ran into Flagg and RJvader. 5 of us decided to do the 5-man run on Didgeridoo Falls raft slide which proved to be wild, out of control! Being as the line was short we went for an encore ride before moving on. Down Under Thunder (DUT) was a must as well, where BFG and I got some nice airtime along with Flagg and RJvader. Poor Jeff almost wiped out as his raft was turning every which way over the airtime hump...wish I had caught this on video!

 

After grabbing lunch, one of my friends messages me telling me GS finally opened (around 1:00 I believe). Once we got there I expected a full queue but found that no overflow switchbacks were even being used. We did 4 rides back-to-back before taking a break and hitting up the rides en route to Drop Tower...all walk-ons. We finished the evening doing GS 3 more times. The last ride however had a longer wait as Boomerang Bay (people eater on hot days) was closed.

 

Highlights/lowlights:

- 5 man run on DF

- Finally doing most of BB for the first time this season

- SHORT wait times for most of the rides. Didn't bother with another certain wooden coaster though as even a 4 train wait would be 20 minutes

- Finally hitting my 80th lap on GS...final ride with a little wiggle room in row 2 provided some crazy uphill airtime! I'm still amazed at how forceful that first drop is too!

- GS now has a "Wait from this point" sign up. It has an adjustable dial pointing to wait times. A nice little addition however the GP like to rotate the dial giving false readings. I already know what to expect wait-wise so it won't mislead me but this can be a little frustrating for the GP.

Just a minor nitpick but shouldn't a 'wait from this point' be a fixed number and not a variable?

 

- Impatient GP when it came to GS's AM delay

- Getting spat on by some slobs while riding Flight Deck...effing 10-year-old punks...way too young to be wandering in a park by yourselves...Glad I had my sunglasses on as that would have been spit in the eyes...

- Not that it happened to us, but there was some friction between some GP and a group of line jumpers

- While the walls were fresh this morning (saw a worker get in the queue with his little disc sander, smiled when we mentioned graffiti cleanup) it all mysteriously reappears. Not as bad as what it was last week but definitely inevitable. The park will figure something out to get rid of this eventually...hard to do in mean time while the park's up for daily operation.

 

So now, the burning question. Today was June 30th...I believe this was the final day for noise tests to be conducted. Anyone going to the park this week want to chime in and let us know if GS is running? We did see some new lumber sitting in the back section of the park for the modifications to be done (per the permit center page the other day).

 

And something that made my day:

New banners at Carousel...wait, I see something...I spy some familiar riders!

I see Blue Fire Guy and I in the 'last row', RCTbrony and V2-Dude in front of us, and one of the other members we met during the promo shoot!

[Flagg O'Dim]

^We actually headed to Grizzly after riding Gold Striker. I don't know how a nearly empty station (2-train wait) can result in a 20-minute wait, but it did. The operations are just pathetic. Out of the 10 ride operators in the station, only three seemed to be working (checking seats, dispatching the train). Kudos to the ride operator at the control booth, having people do the wave while they were waiting in the brake run and giving high-fives as the train passed through.

 

Good, but busy, day at Boomerang Bay. Words cannot describe just how epic a five-man run on Didgeridoo Falls is. Let's just say I almost inverted on some of the walls.

 

Had an epic fail moment on Castaway Creek. I tried, a little too enthusiastically, to jump on my inner tube, but I ended up flipping over backwards into the water.

 

It was great to experience the rush of strikin' gold twice yesterday, for a total of 17 laps. I definitely need to beef up this number.

[Swornenemy]

Good news. At the park right now and was told by a park employee that the ride will be open later today.

[Domm]

Best news all week! Gonna get striking later around 6 I think It must have been crazy with the temps yesterday, I applaud you guys for braving the park on such a hot day.

 

You've convinced me to try out row 2 again... I've been such a sucker for row 4 lately, but I am not in any committed relationships so whatever