California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

[laqueefa]

Fast Lane — I have some questions about Fast Lane, and I’m not necessarily expecting an answer. It’s obviously a great perk for those who have it, but at what cost? Should a 5-6 hour event have a Fast Lane line? Does it make sense that for such a short event that a high majority of the guests have to wait extra? I’m looking at the entire guest experience. I would have been a lot more satisfied waiting 30-40 minutes for Gold Striker, as it would have enabled us to ride one more ride. And, what is the priority that Fast Lane riders are given? Should they all be let on immediately (this is what I witnessed taking place), or should those riders be given a 5-10 minute wait to discourage re-rides and create a short standby line?

 

After purchasing Fright Lane tickets for Saturday the 18th, I would have rather spent the money on Fast Lane. Talk about a waste of money I was hopeful, given last years Haunt seemed to step it up, but this years Scare Actors were horrible. Unenthusiastic, and no where to be found! We walked through at least 3/4ths of the mazes without seeing one scare actor. That is not an exaggeration. One of the maze attendants held us up for the skeleton key room at Doll Factory for 10min, then waved us through without access to the special room. What a mess. If it wasnt for Gold Striker and Flight Deck I wouldn't have purchased a 2015 Gold Pass, because those rides and Haunt are my only reasons for purchasing them.

[sfmman2000]

^ Sorry about your bad time. I think we experienced a similar level of overall quality of the scare actors.

 

I hadn't realized there was a different between Fast Lane and Fright Lane. I thought it was all-in-one.

 

The event has great attendance.. why aren't they able to do a better job?

[cgaridesman]

Fast Lane — I have some questions about Fast Lane, and I’m not necessarily expecting an answer. It’s obviously a great perk for those who have it, but at what cost? Should a 5-6 hour event have a Fast Lane line? Does it make sense that for such a short event that a high majority of the guests have to wait extra? I’m looking at the entire guest experience. I would have been a lot more satisfied waiting 30-40 minutes for Gold Striker, as it would have enabled us to ride one more ride. And, what is the priority that Fast Lane riders are given? Should they all be let on immediately (this is what I witnessed taking place), or should those riders be given a 5-10 minute wait to discourage re-rides and create a shorter standby line?

 

I've worked a CGA the past two summers and the only real instructions we got when working the Fast Lane lines was to alternate between the Fast Lane line and the standard line. We weren't instructed to have them wait for any amount of time, simply "if there's Fast Lane riders, let them on". If there's a ton of people in the Fast Lane, I would only allow about 1/3 to a 1/2 train of Fast Lanes per cycle. If there's no line for Fast Lane I would just let them on the next cycle. I'm not saying that's the right or wrong way of doing things, that's just what we're instructed to do.

 

Just from my experience at Flight Deck, assuming there's no line for Fast Lane, you could get in about 8 or 9 rides per hour with a Fast Lane pass if you kept getting back in line.

[sfmman2000]

If there's a ton of people in the Fast Lane, I would only allow about 1/3 to a 1/2 train of Fast Lanes per cycle. If there's no line for Fast Lane I would just let them on the next cycle.

 

Interesting, thanks.

 

I wonder if it makes sense for the park to have to more procedures about how many Fast Lane riders per cycle. 1/3 to 1/2 sounds like a lot (which is what I witnessed at Gold Striker), especially when the standby queue is full. Letting on Fast Lane riders so quickly could increase the standby wait time by 50-100%. On a higher capacity ride like flight deck, I'm sure it makes less of a difference.

Edited October 23, 2014 by sfmman2000

[CGA_88]

^Although Flight Deck does have 4 additional seats per train, Gold Striker can push out more cycles than Flight Deck, so they are about the same in terms of riders per hour. One of the reasons for this is Flight Deck struggles a lot more with large people not being able to fit, where Gold Striker is able to accommodate them better.

[cgaridesman]

1/3 to 1/2 sounds like a lot (which is what I witnessed at Gold Striker), especially when the standby queue is full.

 

I should have also mentioned that VERY RARELY did the Fast Lane line at Flight Deck ever exceed 10-15 people. The vast majority of the time Fast Lane is empty and people just walk on. On the weekends in an average hour on Flight Deck we would do about 24 cycles with about 600 riders, 20-30 of whom were Fast Lane.

 

The most Fast Lane riders I ever got in an hour was somewhere around 60-70. I think there was a promotion where Gold Pass/Season Pass holders were given Fast Lane vouchers.

 

One of the reasons for this is Flight Deck struggles a lot more with large people not being able to fit, where Gold Striker is able to accommodate them better.

 

Oh man, having to tell people they can't ride because they can't fit was my least favorite part of working there. I worked on Vortex and Delirum my first year and we had to kick people off all the time. Delirium is the worst, not only because it's very restrictive, but also because everyone else watches as you push to try to fit larger guests in.

[jray21]

That definitely is one of the worst parts about the job. It's always tough to have to tell someone they are too big to ride.

[Mechanic]

I'm going to take my chances that the weather won't be too terrible and check out Haunt tonight. Wish me luck!

[CoasterBeagle]

To those complaining about haunt..

 

The ratio of actors to guests is low. Maybe if people on here applied and tried to get jobs as talent things would be better. Also the air room isn't gone just somewhere else in the maze.

[Coaster Palooza]

We had special behind the scene tours of Mirror Mirror and Wax Museum. CGA Haunt is a great event! You must do Voodoo Chophouse and Fright Lane Skeleton Key, if you want to fully enjoy every maze.

[laqueefa]

Maybe if people on here applied and tried to get jobs as talent things would be better.

 

I doubt that would be the fix it so desperately needs.

[CoasterBeagle]

Actually more talent would fix it. If you paid attention with how they were advertising for job fairs. Put in perspective, Knott has 1,200 talent then on top of that blackout. Cga 800 or less. They were trying to hit that target

[rumble]

I saw a lot of adverts and Facebook posts, and the like, trying to recruit monsters in the run up to, and even after, the start of Haunt. It did make me wonder whether they were struggling to find enough.

 

This weekend Toy Factory, Carnevil and Wax Museum all felt really light on monsters. It's especially noticeable in Wax Museum which has these name signs where the characters should normally be positioned and it feels really odd walking past and seeing these name signs in front of empty spots.

 

I'd love to be a zombie, and would gladly do that on the side at weekends, but sadly my work Visa wont allow that.

 

Unrelated, I witnessed a sad incident in the Gauntlet tonight where two guys tried to trip up the stilt walker clown, following which a bizarre stand-off occurred where several of the cast of the Gauntlet surrounded these idiots whilst a supervisor called for security. Unfortunately security did not respond in a timely manner and after about 10 minutes of this awkward situation the guys managed to get away. I chatted briefly with two of the Gauntlet cast as this was going on and they said that this kind of thing happens more than you would imagine, usually because a fully-grown Alpha Male feels humiliated in front of their friends for having jumped at a scare, and they try to look big again by taking it out on the high-school and college kids that work so hard to make the event fun. Such as sad state of affairs, and this particular incident was certainly a real failure on the part of Great America's security team for not keeping their performers safe.

[michaellynn4]

I know nothing has been officially released, but any rough idea on when you guys expect CGA to open for the 2015 season? I'm planning a trip to SF to visit my sister and want to try and incorporate SFDK and CGA into the visit. I tried finding old brochures to establish a trend, but wasn't having much luck and figured you guys would be able to help.

[Fire2box]

I know nothing has been officially released, but any rough idea on when you guys expect CGA to open for the 2015 season? I'm planning a trip to SF to visit my sister and want to try and incorporate SFDK and CGA into the visit. I tried finding old brochures to establish a trend, but wasn't having much luck and figured you guys would be able to help.

 

Late march 2015 if that it seems. I don't get why they aren't doing weekends all year like SFDK is though.

[laqueefa]

I know nothing has been officially released, but any rough idea on when you guys expect CGA to open for the 2015 season? I'm planning a trip to SF to visit my sister and want to try and incorporate SFDK and CGA into the visit. I tried finding old brochures to establish a trend, but wasn't having much luck and figured you guys would be able to help.

 

Late march 2015 if that it seems. I don't get why they aren't doing weekends all year like SFDK is though.

 

Maybe they are reluctant to do so since the 49er's home schedule take up some of the Sunday's that would be used? Just my speculation.

[Fire2box]

I know nothing has been officially released, but any rough idea on when you guys expect CGA to open for the 2015 season? I'm planning a trip to SF to visit my sister and want to try and incorporate SFDK and CGA into the visit. I tried finding old brochures to establish a trend, but wasn't having much luck and figured you guys would be able to help.

 

Late march 2015 if that it seems. I don't get why they aren't doing weekends all year like SFDK is though.

 

Maybe they are reluctant to do so since the 49er's home schedule take up some of the Sunday's that would be used? Just my speculation.

 

That never stopped them from closing the park for such games before.

[redfoot12]

I know nothing has been officially released, but any rough idea on when you guys expect CGA to open for the 2015 season? I'm planning a trip to SF to visit my sister and want to try and incorporate SFDK and CGA into the visit. I tried finding old brochures to establish a trend, but wasn't having much luck and figured you guys would be able to help.

 

I'm planning something like this as well and was wondering the same thing. I also might add on SCBB.

[laqueefa]

I know nothing has been officially released, but any rough idea on when you guys expect CGA to open for the 2015 season? I'm planning a trip to SF to visit my sister and want to try and incorporate SFDK and CGA into the visit. I tried finding old brochures to establish a trend, but wasn't having much luck and figured you guys would be able to help.

 

Late march 2015 if that it seems. I don't get why they aren't doing weekends all year like SFDK is though.

 

Maybe they are reluctant to do so since the 49er's home schedule take up some of the Sunday's that would be used? Just my speculation.

 

That never stopped them from closing the park for such games before.

 

Right, because they were being paid to. Not to also mention, they had Friday operations. Keeping the park open on just a Saturday sans Sunday due to a game doesn't sound too smart for business.

[Cgavisitor]

Halloween haunt 2014 review:

 

CarnEvil: This maze was ok not really scary this year unlike last year. Also it feels like this maze is really getting old and really needs to get replaced. The 3D glasses really helped make this maze feel scary but that's about it. Scares: 4.5/10 Detail: 7/10

 

Wax Museum: This maze was great and was really detailed to look like a wax museum . There were many scares in this maze and yes it's really worth the wait. There was just so much detail and the actors really stand still to make it hard to find out who was real. Scares: 9.2/10. Detail: 9.5/10

 

Mirror Mirror: This maze was really not scary at all. Also plan to do this maze first because the line is huge for this maze. Mirror Mirror was way to short for a 2 hour wait. The whole maze was about 2 min. Max. Visit this maze first(between 7-7:30) if you don't want to wait over 2 hours. Scares 2/10

 

Zombie High School: This maze was great! There were many pop up scares and the photo both befor the maze was pretty scary. The sets were really made to look like a high school with some really detailed sets. Also try to visit this maze early because the maze line can get long fast. Scares: 9.2/10. Detail: 9/10

 

Toy Factory: This maze was scary at times but also week at times. At times this maze really felt scary but then 10 seconds later it felt under staffed and lame. The best part of this maze was the strobe light set which really made you feel wired. The line for this maze does seem long but it moves much faster than you think. It took our group about 15-20 min. Waiting in a fully packed line. The fact that they pushed so may people at once kind of made this maze seem lame. Scares: 6.8/10. Detail: 8/10

 

Cornstalkers: This maze was great! It had many pop up scares. The best part was walking in a dark tight path with monsters around both sides. This maze was really scary until you get to the end. Once you get to the end there's really only like 5 monsters lest that don't really do much. The line moves pretty fast. Scares: 8/10 Detail :8/10

 

Massacre Manor: This maze was great and filled with detail. There weren't many scares In this maze but the detail made up for it. The line in this maze really moves faster than you think. This maze really made you feel like you were in an old manor. Scare: 7/10 Detail: 9.8/10

 

Roadkill Roadhouse: This maze was really bad and not scary. There are way to many people let in at a time and it really smells inside. The line is way to big and not worth the wait at all. ( skip this maze if there's a big line) Scares: 1.5/10. Detail: 7/10

 

Dia de los Murtos: This Maze was great and filled with detail. This maze was not really that scary but the detail really made up for it. The 3D glasses really help make this maze better and this maze really felt long. ( the longest one of the night) The line was about 30 min. long and it's really worth it. Scares: 6.5/10. Detail: 9.6/10

 

Best to worst mazes:

1.Wax Museum

2. Massacre Manor/Dia De Los Murtos

3.Zombie High

4. Cornstalkers

5.Toy Factory

6.Carnevil

7. Roadkill Roadhouse

8. Mirror Mirror

Edited November 12, 2014 by Cgavisitor

[Lareson]

Just a thought to you guys over in the SF area, but with Ouimet sounding like he wants to convert the stand-ups to floorless, would you want that done to Vortex? I know it's the second B&M coaster ever built, and it's been in the area for 24 years in March but to me, it seems like it wouldn't bring that much of a draw as if it was a new coaster. I mean, you do have Medusa, a much superior floorless coaster at SF Discovery Kingdom, so that's where the thought of Vortex leaving and being converted for another smaller park like Michigan's Adventure.

 

Of course you guys would have something to replace it, like a B&M hyper or something along those lines, but I personally think that Vortex's time has passed at CA Great America, and instead of scrapping the first B&M, I do see a high probable chance it'll get moved to a smaller park and converted to floorless. Would be a win-win for both parks in my book.

 

It'll probably be one of those situations where the park would close Vortex early in the season (much like Mantis) take it down, ship it, give it a fresh coat of paint, and install it at its new home with new floorless trains. Then as soon as Vortex is gone, construction would begin on the new coaster and ready to go for the following season.

[Mater]

I think the best plan of action at this point would be to toss it and install a hyper over in the area of the park with the higher height limit.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I'm all in favor of getting rid of Vortex. It has nothing going for it. Maybe another park might want it (I don't see why anyone would) but CGA just needs to get rid of it. It's painful and boring and painfully boring and SFDK has Medusa and no other floorless will compare to Medusa

[Mater]

One with an interesting layout could compare to Medusa. Would probably have to be built by a company other than B&M though for that to be the case though so it may be a self-defeating prophecy.

[Lareson]

Mind you if Vortex leaves, it'll probably be getting floorless trains to replace the terrible standup trains that are on it right now. I really doubt it if Cedar Fair would scrap it. It's not like there are structural issues, it's just running a terribly designed train and I think it could become a nice little floorless coaster for a park that probably would never get a B&M coaster otherwise.

 

I do see a big coaster going in at CGA in the future, probably more than likely a Hyper but we'll see when the time comes.