California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I'm so excited! I'm planning on going tonight after work and on Sunday after work! And SFDK on Saturday in between! Will be a perfectly awesome frightening weekend and I totally deserve it after all the midterms and homework and extra shifts at Subway!

[stricklandCC]

^I'll be going Sunday after work as well. Probably wont be there till 9-ish though. Shoot me a PM if you want to meet up! I made it to the park opening day, so why not closing night!

[Sunfire]

Had a great time at Haunt last night! Despite large crowds, we were able to do all 8 mazes, got to ride Drop Tower, Orbit, and Gold Striker, and watched Blades of Horror! If anyone is going to brave Haunt tonight (Saturday), be sure to start in the back first!

[skaunit]

Heading out to the park tonight with a group of 5, it was the only night everyone could go.

I know to expect heavy crowds, but am excited to hear they are staying efficient with the lines. Can anyone comment what mazes would be best to hit at the back of the park to be efficient? Should we wrap toward goldy, or flight deck? Anyone else coming out tonight?

[Angry_Gumball]

I know tonight's going to be busy but realistically I don't anticipate it to be as crazy as last night, but more like Friday. Speaking of which, I went Friday and stayed til their 1AM closing. It was neat having that extra hour but at the same time I felt like the park had its balls cut off as all of the rides were closed after midnight...even the smaller flat rides. Within that time I ended up visiting Werewolf Canyon (Probably the most lackluster experience of the night and of the season...why were talent just singing and just standing there?). There was very little talent in the maze and very little effort. Zombie High was still kicking strong at 12:45 and we finished the night with Slaughter House.

 

Other highlights from Saturday was waiting 75 minutes for Gold Striker, got on the ride at midnight...ended up dealing with line cutters who threatened us/said that they'd be waiting for us at the exit...and other cutters who got pulled back out of line by park employees. Both groups of cutters' plans were foiled!

 

CarnEvil after midnight was a walk-on as well as Zombie. Werewolf was only 10 minute wait. We also waited 15 minutes for Dia De Los Muertos, and started the night with the 4 mazes in back (all walk-on). It was my brother's and bro's friend's first time doing Haunt and we ended up doing the Chophouse meal for Goldy ERT...and they loved it! We later managed to ride a randomly violent-swinging Orlean's Orbit, a nice ride on Flyers, and a near walk-on for Drop Tower (caught the ride early).

[Angry_Gumball]

Bumptasticness!

 

It's time for my 'end of the season' recap followed by next season's predictions...let's take a look.

 

-Gold Striker will either be ready to greet us opening day, or perhaps spring break. I don't see a "Six Flags" happening here.

Neither, but it did begin testing after Spring Break and literally opened the last day of May spontaneously.

 

-Coasters will get fresh coat of paint/coasters will get the rest of their much needed paint (Demon, Flight Deck)

Nope. Buildings however did receive fresh paint.

 

-More sprucing up on the property (Parking lot signs are pretty faded, had a hard time finding where we parked the other night during Haunt, letters hard to read under the amber lighting)

CGA's lot was reconfigured and outfitted with new and very bright LED lighting. It looks like an auto dealership!

 

-New Haunt maze and/or scare zone, and a maze revamp

2 new mazes (one replacement). Due to the other new maze, one existing maze (Cornstalkers) was drastically re-configured. The 2 new mazes were Zombie High and Dia De Los Muertos. Toy Factory got some sprucing up as well (RIP "butt cheeks")

 

-Madame Marie's Massacre Manor soundtrack gets released on Soundcloud for our listening pleasures

Yup, now waiting for the Zombie High 80's rock and the Dia De Los Muertos ambiance

 

-Hint at a new ride

Nope, not yet...

 

Wishful thinking:

-New attraction for Boomerang Bay, could use a speed slide complex...those drop slides are pretty nice

Nope

-Firefall gets new/improved program, earns more flips

Nope

-New show to replace the aging Spongebob

Yup, twice...Happy Feet (which got old fast) and the more enjoyable Funhouse Express!

 

-2 ride limit gets lifted, highly beneficial if any kind of ERT sessions are going to happen.

Well, I marathon'd Gold Striker 19 times back-to-back so...what's that say?

 

Highlights:

 

- Pre-season behind the scenes park and hardhat tour

- Gold Striker opening (duh!)

- Gold Striker Promotional shoot and being on one of the first trains to cycle the general public

- Hanging out with the gang

- Haunt, and being invited to their VIP opening night

- Haunt improvements and options (Madame Marie's Voodoo Chophouse)

- 5-man run with the group, which this time lead to us beating each other up...Blue Fire Guy's head smashed into my shoulder, Flagg o' Dim and his brother collided (nose smash into shoulder)...not to mention the crazy wall time

- New, great shows...being Blades of Horror (Haunt) and On Broadway (Summer)

- CGA rolled out some nice season passholder perks during the summer being the "Thank You Thursday" ERT sessions during the summer. This worked out great as I work on weekdays but was able to head out to the park for a few hours after work to ride Gold Striker.

 

Letdowns:

- No hint at any attractions for next year, not even for a flat or water slide. There's still hope but I'm not counting on it

- Crazy 'no photos' rules now being applied in Haunt scare zones...fortunately I was granted permission to do such as I was doing work for my blog

- While I don't mind the tunnels on Gold Striker, the delays between the promo shoot and it actually opening were pretty long

 

 

Looking ahead at my 2014 predictions

 

-New show to replace Happiness is Snoopy, On Broadway will return

-More sprucing up of the property, painting more buildings and hopefully some of the coasters. Vortex looks pretty bad.

-More retracking of Grizzly

-Another new maze for next year, some existing maze revamps (as the park is truly never complete with mazes/mazes are always growing), and a maze to be replaced

-Jam packed parking lots on Sundays in the fall

-Gold Striker will receive more tunnels/walls/infill

-More single rider queues to be combined with Fast Lane

-With the opening of Levi's Stadium and football, I can only guess that CGA would be open on a limited op during the winter months...plus with their competitor up north being open year-round it only makes sense. North Bay gets worse weather than the south bay or even the east bay (where I'm at) so I don't see why this couldn't work.

 

Wishful thinking

-New Boomerang Bay attraction

-Announcement/hints for 2015 attraction

-Something will happen with former River Adventure attraction, whether if it will just be part of space for something bigger (as Invertigo's grass sits near it)

 

And a brief writeup on my closing out of the season. I went Friday and Sunday. Friday was moderately busy with the typical 30-minute wait times. Sunday however was probably the quietest I've seen Haunt all season. I never waited more than 15 minutes for a maze...average waits were 5-10 minutes. I think that the crummy weather combined with being a Sunday kept people at bay. 2012 Haunt on a Sunday was much more packed. Daytime Sunday was actually decently busy, though most of it was families with kids. You know it's busy when the AFX theater has a full line. Delirium during the day was also full...thankfully there's single rider lines! Gold Striker averaged 20 minute waits, probably the longest I've seen in a while. 2013 was a great season, and easily one of my favorite park seasons so far! Let's see if CGA can top this season!

 

And I shared this a few weeks back but I'll share it again for those who missed Haunt or want to relive it.

Edited October 31, 2013 by Angry_Gumball

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I'm really glad I finally got to experience all of Haunt this year. Last year I only got to do Slaughterhouse, Club Blood, and Madame Marie's once each. This year I went through every maze at least once.

 

My favorite show by far was Blades of Horror. That show just blew my mind both times I saw it. I still can't believe how awesome it is.

 

My favorite maze was probably Carnevil, with Toy Factory just after that. I really really like how the music in Carnevil. They also got some really great scares on me (the last time we went through Carnevil especially, when one of the guys I knew was real was standing so still, and I kinda hesitantly walked up to him, not sure if he was going to scare me or not, but of course he did because I was an easy target. And then right after I screamed like a banshee, his friend saw the opportunity and scared me again), however, I didn't find it so scary that I didn't also have fun.

 

The scariest maze for me was definitely Corn Stalkers. Both times I did it I literally almost wanted to cry and leave the maze. It was the part with all the life-like scare crows that really got to me. I couldn't tell which ones were real and which ones were fake, so I kept looking back and forth at all of them and then the scare actors would jump out and scare me really bad. It literally was not fun at all. I really want to get over my fear of Haunt mazes and do Knott's and Universal next year, but my reaction to this maze makes me really unsure about whether i would have any fun at the more intense Haunts or if I'd just be scared to tears the entire time.

[Vonni]

Judging from the lack of any announcements as to what will be new for 2014, I'm going to assume it will be an infrastructure year, which I already expected, but I still expected something new like a new show or restaraunt.

[jray21]

Yeah, it's not surprising if that's true. I could easily see them use Gold Striker for another year or two or ten.

[vacoaster09]

Random... but I think Time Machine (aka Led Zeppelin the ride) from Freestyle Music/ Hard Rock Park would make a great addition to this park! Should be interesting now that its for sell. Could possibly be a good fit where the picnic pavilion currently is.. and they could move the picnic pavilion over behind gold striker, the theater, whitewater falls, and Xtreme sky Flyer

[Swornenemy]

^I was thinking the same thing. Or even the premier coaster roundabout would be a nice addition to the park.

[rolercstrluvr]

^^ I second that idea, it would fit in nicely and definitely add to the atmosphere.

[Angry_Gumball]

...and they could move the picnic pavilion over behind gold striker, the theater, whitewater falls, and Xtreme sky Flyer

 

I think that area behind Gold Striker's an emergency exit route and access point, probably why Gold Striker has that service road path running under it. That area leads to Patrick Henry Dr, where there's also a driveway/entry to the neighbor's parking lots.

[XYZ]

Perhaps move the Picnic Pavilion inside the Pictorium building?

[Angry_Gumball]

Since there's not a whole lot to discuss the happenings at CGA, I thought I'd bring this up, found on the permit page. (Gotta be excited about something, right?)

http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=PLN2013-10112

 

Status: Application Received

Address:

 

Application Date: 11/12/2013

Description: Architectural Review of modifications to existing Pavilion area

 

Modifications to the picnic pavilion area near Flight Deck...wonder what this all involves and if this has any bearing on the site's future...

[vacoaster09]

That area between flightdeck and the parking lot looks like an area that could fit time machine as well. In my initial post I didn't mention that area because I wasn't aware of what that building was (since I've never been to CGA). I just feel that the picnic pavilion can go basically anywhere and in my opinion since the area behind GS, Whitewater, Sky flyer, and the theater is one which no can be built without the moans and groans from the Prudes, they can instead plop down some pavilions and make it their picnic grove.

[CGA_88]

Since there's not a whole lot to discuss the happenings at CGA, I thought I'd bring this up, found on the permit page. (Gotta be excited about something, right?)

http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=PLN2013-10112

 

Status: Application Received

Address:

 

Application Date: 11/12/2013

Description: Architectural Review of modifications to existing Pavilion area

 

Modifications to the picnic pavilion area near Flight Deck...wonder what this all involves and if this has any bearing on the site's future...

 

I heard rumors that they are going to expand the Pavilion area, so it's not going anywhere.

[vertigomkie]

Since there's not a whole lot to discuss the happenings at CGA, I thought I'd bring this up, found on the permit page. (Gotta be excited about something, right?)

http://smartpermit.santaclaraca.gov/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=PLN2013-10112

 

Status: Application Received

Address:

 

Application Date: 11/12/2013

Description: Architectural Review of modifications to existing Pavilion area

 

Modifications to the picnic pavilion area near Flight Deck...wonder what this all involves and if this has any bearing on the site's future...

 

New CGA addition? Probably a Snoopy Meet n' Greet.

 

I wouldn't expect any major CGA non-water park expansion before 2016/17 (especially with Levy's Stadium opening next year). Though the last gap in coaster additions was over a decade (Stealth in 2000 and Goldstriker in 2013) for different reasons, expect the Bay Area market to be milked for at least 2-3 years on Goldstriker and any (if all expansion after the new Niners stadium opens across the way), to be to the feeble six-slide Boomerang Bay (not adding Time Machine ). The water park definitely needs expansion.

[cmullin]

^ I hope the next addition will be for the water park, unless it's a Huss frisbee, but I would imagine some improvements will be made this offseason.

[Vonni]

I'm surprised Cedar Fair does not have CGA go year round, especially now that DK has done so.

[gisco]

I'm surprised Cedar Fair does not have CGA go year round, especially now that DK has done so.

 

For DK it seems to make sense to go year round. It's like a zoo, you have the animals being trained every day anyway. Why not open on weekends and open a few of the rides that aren't in rehab. For CGA you have the water park which is a big draw and that won't be open so you just have rides. Not something a lot of families will want to do when it is cold and damp out.

[XYZ]

I wonder if it would work out if CGA was entirely open during Global Winter Wonderland (sans Boomerang Bay, of course).

 

 

Also, I created a new RCT2 park inspired off the Great Americas. I usually don't like advertising games threads on other threads, though I think that a good amount of the readers of this thread will enjoy it:

 

http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66585

[rolercstrluvr]

I don't think that could work, for 1 all of the coasters will be in rehab and most of the rides as well. So honestly, there wouldn't be a point, also GWW did its last year, last year.

[NAMTABSFGAm]

In this scene in Beverly Hills Cop 3

Was it filmed at CGA or somewhere else?

[Tmcdllr]

That was not CGA, don't even know if that is a real ride or not. It might have just been something that was done in a soundstage.