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California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread


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CGA would absolutely be a great park for any type of Mega-Lite, from any manufacturer. Of course, the Intamin one is the best one, but I would could also see something like a Chance or Mack Mega-Lite being great for this park. The sizes of these rides will not intimidate the average park-goer, but the forces would still impress any serious rider.

 

I cannot see any big-budget rides in this park anytime soon, but big budgets are not needed to make stellar rides.

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No modifications will be made to Vortex unless it's being removed.

 

I Defenately agree with this one. While it may be in the extreme realm of possibility that it could get floorless trains, it is very highly unlikely. Other than that, don't expect anything at all to happen to this ride.

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As far as the footprint goes, they can run the break run, station and lift along the alley as it is, maybe even extend it a bit.

 

 

They could easily have the ride hop over the midway into the mostly unused foresty area by the rapids ride and Top Gun's brake run.

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As far as the footprint goes, they can run the break run, station and lift along the alley as it is, maybe even extend it a bit.

 

 

They could easily have the ride hop over the midway into the mostly unused foresty area by the rapids ride and Top Gun's brake run.

 

Yes they could, didn't even think about that. That being said, a Hyper would be nice.

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As far as the footprint goes, they can run the break run, station and lift along the alley as it is, maybe even extend it a bit.

 

 

They could easily have the ride hop over the midway into the mostly unused foresty area by the rapids ride and Top Gun's brake run.

 

Yes they could, didn't even think about that. That being said, a Hyper would be nice.

 

Agreed, and they totally have the room for it as others have said. It may not happen right away, but I could easily see one being added sometime in future since the park could still use another major coaster or two. Imagine if they brought back that Morgan hyper with the elevator lift they were planning back in the 90's!

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As far as the footprint goes, they can run the break run, station and lift along the alley as it is, maybe even extend it a bit.

 

 

They could easily have the ride hop over the midway into the mostly unused foresty area by the rapids ride and Top Gun's brake run.

 

Yes they could, didn't even think about that. That being said, a Hyper would be nice.

 

That would be awesome. I'm thinking a steep lift hill in the alley, and then the drop goes over/under the path, and then airtime hills over by the lake. They could probably remove the Rapids if they needed to. A launched coaster utilizing both sections would also be awesome

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I thought California's Great America had a height restriction because of the airport nearby?

 

It does on the parts of the park that are in the flight path, which is not the entire park. I forget exactly where that would be.

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Is anybody else heading to the park on Saturday. They're having a pass holder preview day for Boomerang Bay

 

I'll be there HAHA...

Boomerang Bay has been open privately the past 2 Saturdays to (i think it was) Lockheed for their events. I heard management debating on doing this for the extra Saturday in-between the regular opening, should be good for the park.

 

I actually don't know much about the height restrictions yet, I'll have to see what I can find out.

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Is anybody else heading to the park on Saturday. They're having a pass holder preview day for Boomerang Bay

 

I'll be there HAHA...

Boomerang Bay has been open privately the past 2 Saturdays to (i think it was) Lockheed for their events. I heard management debating on doing this for the extra Saturday in-between the regular opening, should be good for the park.

 

I actually don't know much about the height restrictions yet, I'll have to see what I can find out.

 

WaterWorld is taking precautions during the drought. I wonder what CGA is doing

http://wn.ktvu.com/story/29019658/waterworld-california-makes-changes-to-park-during-drought

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Is anybody else heading to the park on Saturday. They're having a pass holder preview day for Boomerang Bay

 

I'll be there HAHA...

Boomerang Bay has been open privately the past 2 Saturdays to (i think it was) Lockheed for their events. I heard management debating on doing this for the extra Saturday in-between the regular opening, should be good for the park.

 

I actually don't know much about the height restrictions yet, I'll have to see what I can find out.

 

WaterWorld is taking precautions during the drought. I wonder what CGA is doing

http://wn.ktvu.com/story/29019658/waterworld-california-makes-changes-to-park-during-drought

 

I know that they use all recycled water with a big filtration system. There's the lake that Flight Deck flies over, as well as a reservoir attached to Rip Roaring Rapids.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I went last saturday since i have a platinum pass from my home park and i was nearby. I have been to great america chicago and was curious to see it's twin park. I also love B&M inverts so wanted to try top gun.

 

Thanks to a guy at the ticket booth! I asked if i could get a discounted pass for my friend and he got in for $20. Staff were friendly and did a good job.

 

The parking lot was pretty full but the park wasn't too crowded. They do a good job to hide their queue lines though, most of the people there were probably in line somewhere. Ride ops were 'stackin 'em like six flags could only dream of! I realize they have only been open a few weekends, but wow! it was about a 45 minute wait for anything.

 

We went on goldstriker first. It was a solid cgi woodie (gci? cga? vga? whatever...) fast paced and lots of nice banking all the way through. I wanted to ride one of their coasters while still sort of new since they seem to et beat up badly over time. The last one i had been on was gwazai in january a week before it closed. I really enjoyed it but my friend who is not a coaster nerd but is a good sport screamed the whole way through. I didn't want to ask if it was screams of joy or fear or a bit of both... It was kinda cool that you could look into people's office windows while coming up the lift hill.

 

I got a lap on bayern kurve (or whatever they call it now) for nostalgia .

 

Demon seemed way smoother than it's gurnee cousin. ridiculous long wait for a third rate arrow looper, but by the time we realized how long the lineup was we were half way through it. It looks like they had a train track with tunnels behind it that have been ripped up.

 

My friend had fond memories of grizzly so we went to go on it until we saw the lineup, but he wondered if my platinum pass worked as a fastpass, so we went up the back, and the ride op said no, buy we managed to get through on a " can you let us through just this once?" thanks! It is not a really challenging coaster but it was running well and we had fun. it was more my friend's speed.

 

I had a look at the arrow wild mouse, which was neat to see since it is unique, but i wasn't willing to wait an estimated 45 minutes. We also skipped the skyride due to long lineups. as it turns out it took less time to walk than the line would have taken...

 

Got a ride on the schwarzkopf enterprize and noticed that it had cobwebs on the support arms. Really? would it kill you to brush them off let alone pressure wash before season opening? Fun though.

 

We next went on Top Gun. Maybe someone can correct me, but is this what Wonderland would have gotten if it weren't for cedar point's supposed 100 mile ban. instead, slc headbanger.... damn you whoever made that call! Even the themeing is way better. "flight deck" as wonderland's is now called looks like a decommissioned air base in comparison. It did seem like it was a shorter track than many Beemer inverts i have been on. Paramount legacy? Montu at bush gardens has got to be one of the best, and of course the original Batman @gurnee!

 

And for the sucky part. after waiting through the hidden que lines, and the realization that they were actually running 2 trains, despite stacking the second train for what seemed like 5 minutes, we made it to the station. I sat in the seat and brought the restraint down only to find the seatbelt would not fit. Im not skinny, but not that big and have been on B&M inverts at at least 6 other parks. I asked if they had any rows with larger belts but they had never heard of such an idea. They mentioned something about not having a belt extender yet.

 

sucks to be me. the one coaster i wanted to ride didn't fit. walk of shame... Maybe an in'n'out burger 4x4 animal style will take the sting out...

 

 

I was going to try the B@M standup, but it was getting late at that point, and my friend had been a good sport up to that point and i didn't want to send him home with a concussion.

 

so we went home. been there done that, don't really need to come back, no t shirt.

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Got a ride on the schwarzkopf enterprize and noticed that it had cobwebs on the support arms. Really? would it kill you to brush them off let alone pressure wash before season opening? Fun though.

 

For some reason we get a TON of spiders/spiderwebs at our park. I have literally brushed off full cobwebs on photo eyes on our daily inspections multiple days in a row. That said, maintenance only focuses on cleaning what is required for the ride to function, the rest is up to operations, and they honestly don't have the best operators at Orbit...

 

And for the sucky part. after waiting through the hidden que lines, and the realization that they were actually running 2 trains, despite stacking the second train for what seemed like 5 minutes, we made it to the station. I sat in the seat and brought the restraint down only to find the seatbelt would not fit. Im not skinny, but not that big and have been on B&M inverts at at least 6 other parks. I asked if they had any rows with larger belts but they had never heard of such an idea. They mentioned something about not having a belt extender yet.

 

sucks to be me. the one coaster i wanted to ride didn't fit. walk of shame... Maybe an in'n'out burger 4x4 animal style will take the sting out...

 

Dude, that really sucks to hear man... I don't think we do have any "larger size" seats like i have seen on other b&m's for whatever reason... truly sorry.

 

I was going to try the B@M standup, but it was getting late at that point, and my friend had been a good sport up to that point and i didn't want to send him home with a concussion.

 

so we went home. been there done that, don't really need to come back, no t shirt.

You really, REALLY didn't miss much of anything on vortex... layout is shorter than top gun, your friend WOULD have likely had a concussion from the headbanging...

 

 

aside from the experience on flight deck [ours is also called that now btw], it sounds like you had a really decent time.

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Got a ride on the schwarzkopf enterprize and noticed that it had cobwebs on the support arms. Really? would it kill you to brush them off let alone pressure wash before season opening? Fun though.

 

For some reason we get a TON of spiders/spiderwebs at our park. I have literally brushed off full cobwebs on photo eyes on our daily inspections multiple days in a row. That said, maintenance only focuses on cleaning what is required for the ride to function, the rest is up to operations, and they honestly don't have the best operators at Orbit...

This is true. I used to look at the webs on Flight Decks brake run and think "Why dont they clean these, it looks terrible" and then I realized its one of those things, they can keep cleaning them but they get put back up just as fast. When the whole ride was repainted recently I went on the first day it was open after the paint job was finished and all the webs were still there. Obviously they had been washed away before the ride was painted, but skaunit is right CGA just has some seriously stubborn spiders.

 

buck yeah it sucks what happened on Flight Deck for you. It's a pretty tight fit for me too. if it was close you might have better luck on another day and/or with another rideop..some of them are more skilled at others at getting those things to click. Its close for me on B&M inverts and used to be on Intamin shuttles (like V2 and Wicked Twister) before they started getting new slightly longer belts installed. Sounds like they might be doing the same on Flight Deck some time soon too.

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Visted yesterday for the first time, and it's a really clean and well taken care of park. It's a pretty decent size as well, much bigger than I had anticipated.

 

The park was pretty dead, didn't wait more than 1 or 2 trains for any ride. Got there around 3pm after leaving Discovery Kingdom and was done with all the rides around 7 or so.

 

 

Goldstriker was first, definitely my favorite GCI by far. It's so relentless and out of control. I hope they take good care of it because it would be one brutal ride if it gets any rougher.

 

We headed to Vortex which I was expecting to be horrible but actually wasn't. Not a great ride but not a bad one either, headbanging was minimal and it wasn't as rough as Mantis. The ride definitely speaks volumes of the stark difference in g-forces between B&M's earlier rides and their later ones.

 

Flight Deck was very forceful and smooth, again early B&M, and is easily the 2nd best ride in the park after Goldstriker. I do prefer Batman when it comes to old school inverts. Just seems to have better pacing and the perfect mix of elements.

 

Psycho Mouse was a nice surprise, a great little wild mouse and probably my 3rd favorite in the park.

 

Grizzly was up next, the ride isnt bad but there's really nothing exciting about it either. Looks pretty with the old school morgan trains though

 

Demon was by far the worst Arrow I've ridden. I've been on several Arrow loopers and after a while you learn how to ride them. However not this particular installment. The double loop (particularly the 2nd) just about snapped my neck in half. Neck still sore as I type this

 

Was surprised by the amount of flatrides the park has, we partook in a few like the Top Spin, Inveter ship, and spinning disco...sorry their names elude me at the moment lol

 

We left around 8 after marathoning Gold Striker and Flight Deck about 5 times each.

 

I really like this park and will be back if they get a new coaster in the coming years. I know the park doesn't pull the numbers of other Cedar Fair parks, but really hope they get a small hyper or a compact launcher in the near future.

 

I'm not good at remembering to take pics, but managed to snap a few

20150529_200720.thumb.jpg.6772cb78d66055dfc25318c4f0f21fef.jpg

20150529_173210.thumb.jpg.99c1c53cb076cbcad67fdc69921faf9c.jpg

20150529_151204.thumb.jpg.03062beae9d9cfdb2485143dcdd20625.jpg

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buck yeah it sucks what happened on Flight Deck for you. It's a pretty tight fit for me too. if it was close you might have better luck on another day and/or with another rideop..some of them are more skilled at others at getting those things to click. Its close for me on B&M inverts and used to be on Intamin shuttles (like V2 and Wicked Twister) before they started getting new slightly longer belts installed. Sounds like they might be doing the same on Flight Deck some time soon too.

 

Despite the flight deck thing i had a good time and was glad i went. maybe they could pass the message on about the belts. I could get it to go in but not far enough to engage. The ride op tried to help and it was really close but no dice. Ride ops were friendly and helpful, but not very fast. Considering it was maybe the second weekend opening i guess they need more time to get experience.

 

Regarding arrow loops, i have a soft spot for them, since i grew up with the one at wonderland. I always found if you keep your head back against the headrest and look up into the loop it works well, and you feel the g forces strongly. I found this demon smoother than it's cousin in gurnee when i was there last june. I don't like arrow/ vekoma cobra rolls since you change from right to left ot right again and if you aren't careful you get a clunk clunk clunk against the otsr. The B&M standups i have been on were worse for this and i spent the ride looking up the track to see which side to brace to not get clobbered.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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