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California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread


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Anyway, if CGA never had a dark ride, I think it's time they got one... At least a prototype of Ghost Blasters would do... because let's face it, mostly ALL the good theme parks have at least ONE dark ride... (except Six Flags... so they're in dire need of dark rides as well...)

 

CGA isn't completely devoid of dark-ride goodness. The Demon could be classified as a dark ride of sorts. It's got the creepy (well, at least it's trying to be) voice in the first tunnel, and the "demon face" last tunnel. The waterfall at the end used to be colored blood red (bring it back for the Haunt!).

 

But yeah, they desperately need a true dark ride, especially since the Boardwalk built their new one. That Pictorium building has so much potential...They need to make it a permanent dark ride, rather than just use it for Club Blood.

 

Now I have the Ghost Blasters theme song stuck in my head...

 

Yup. Dark rides seem to attract crowds... even though the New Haunted Castle isn't scary, it offers somewhat of a Disney experiance at a Boardwalk price which makes it even more irresistable... And yes, I agree, the Pictorium has a LOT of potential, as do a few other old buildings in the park.

If CGA did get a dark ride, what should the theme be?

Mansion, House, Asylum, Funhouse, Hotel...?

The possibilities are endless!

 

*singing* Boo, boo! The mighty BOOCIFER!!! (ah, gotta love those Ghost Blasters song lyrics)

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Great update Justice--Kudos for conquering those long lines. Saturday is always the busiest day of the week. I shudder to think how long the Invertigo line was.

 

It seems that Corn Stalkers is moving to a new location this year, I noticed on the Haunt website that it will be located "adjacent to Psycho Mouse." Perhaps it will be in the picnic area? It also seems that Barney Oldfield's Speedway will also be open for the rest of the season with this relocation. It makes sense, that ride always attracts a lot of families.

 

Lastly, has anyone noticed the bulldozer parked next to the Flight Deck swamp area? A few weeks back there were also some cars parked in the dirt area. hmm...land clearing for something? or am I just getting my hopes up? Yeah, likely the latter...

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Lastly, has anyone noticed the bulldozer parked next to the Flight Deck swamp area? A few weeks back there were also some cars parked in the dirt area. hmm...land clearing for something? or am I just getting my hopes up? Yeah, likely the latter...

 

 

Interesting. Well, that is within the park's boundaries...what could possibly go there? Maybe it was just for some landscaping or swamp maintenance.

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^Or possibly the new floorless wooden inverted Intamin Mega Lite Aqua Trax coaster. I can dream, can't I?

 

Anyway, I just got back from CGA and didn't pay attention to the area by Flight Deck as much as I rode 4 consecutive rides to end the day, and a couple other rides as I made my rounds. I did notice however as Parkthoughts posted, the old Wild Thornberrys van has some kind of makeover. No pictures as I was in line for one of the water slides. It's been painted a black/grey and has teeth on the front. Didn't notice any other Haunt stuff as I didn't do the star tower. Today was lightweight warm (Warm enough for me to Boomerang Bay but the rest of the GP was toned down a bit). The Rapids was nearly walk on while ironically the log ride's line was nearly full all day. Crowds were semi light, my longest wait was probably for Invertigo which was probably a 1/2 hour. The line earlier in the day could have easily been 45 mins to an hour. Invertigo seemed to run for the most part smooth. It had a couple moments of roughness but nothing worth complaining about. The rest of the rides were only 5 minute waits that I did.

 

Demon, however has gotten rough since my last visit about a month ago. The yellow train's magic seat jolted me around through most of the ride while the red train (I believe this one was rehabbed) was for the most part smooth. Next time, I think I'll let people pass so I can get the red train. Speaking of which there was a minor annoyance/hiccup as some idiot tied those redundancy seatbelts and we could not get it to pull out (you know how car seatbelts work with its ratchet setup).

 

Towards the end of the day, I decided to pay a visit to Berserker as we had been discussing it on here...and to pay a visit to Sunfire as he was on duty. A few other random notes to add is that Drop Tower now has 4 cabins functional, a month ago it only had 3. A new shop also opened up by Vortex selling Snoopy gear (The old Fire house next to the arcade). And last thing, thanks to TPR and their SFGAm trip, each time I crossed one of those bridges I immediately kept thinking "Bridge Party."

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Cornstalkers is staying in the same place. When it says "adjacent to Psycho Mouse," it means the entrance to the maze is right next to Psycho Mouse through the Picnic Grove entrance, and continues to Barney's Oldfield Speedway.

 

Thanks for the clarification!

 

Interesting. Well, that is within the park's boundaries...what could possibly go there? Maybe it was just for some landscaping or swamp maintenance.

 

I could totally see an Intimidator clone fitting in that little dirt patch. haha. But you're right, it was likely for landscaping purposes.

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^Just went to the park on Wednesday, and you were right, I did notice the fireworks setup while going up Flight Deck's lift.

 

A few other random notes to add is that Drop Tower now has 4 cabins functional, a month ago it only had 3.

 

Interestingly, the Drop Tower was running five cabins on Wednesday, yet they were only letting people ride on four of them. Cabin #1 was going up with the rest of them, but it had the "Please choose another seat" sign on it. That cabin was working last week, although it was really slow going up, and coming down.

 

I've also been wondering what the deal is with Cabin #4. I've never seen it running. After doing some Youtube research (you could say I'm obsessed), I found a video from 2006 with that cabin running, yet videos from 2007-on it is always closed. I've seen people try to get on it, but the ride operator always says "That cabin is out of order."

 

Well, that's my random Drop Tower report of the day. lol

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Back in 2007 Cabin 4 was taken offline due to the fact we needed the spare parts to fix other cabins and Cabin 4 metal framework needed to be replaced. Between 2007 and 2009 it was used for spare parts and sat there collecting dust. We planned to open all six cabins in 2010 since all the parts were ordered and replaced and we just need a state inspector to take a look at it, but we were at the time more concerned about getting Invertigo up and running. After the 2010 summer comes to a close and Invertigo is now up and running, we were setting up the inspection but as you know things break and we want as many cabins running as possible so we used Cabin 4's parts again for replacements. lol so currently its just sitting there and collecting dust with parts being used for Cabin 1.

 

This is not a official report from CGA, this is what I have gathered threw questions (From Mechanics) and observation. (Since it was my ride from 2006-2009)

 

As always You TopGun (I Mean FlightDeck) Supervisor

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So what are the rumors for the 2011 attraction? Are there any? (coaster...coaster...coaster). I hope to god the park gets a good thrill ride this time, please really, or at the very least something to draw in huge crowds, they really need something big to start bringing the crowds back...obviously a roller coaster or three is way overdue. I hope its something that really benefits the park. I'm also wondering how much time Demon has left. Since its been there for thirtysomething years in one form or another I wonder when it will reach the end of its useful life, I hope not anytime soon. There is a good sized plot of land between the Pictorium, WWF, and all around that area just screaming for an awesome coaster to be built on it.

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As far as Demon goes, I hope it doesn't go. Not sure what you all think of Demon's red train but I found it to be quite smooth. I think just a little TLC with this ride, bring back some of the lights in the tunnels (could use LEDs) and spice the ride up again can rejuvenate Demon again. Imagine some nice strobe lights flashing at night as you enter the Demon's mouth before the corkscrews...or even in the corkscrews.

 

If the park doesn't get a coaster within the next few years, even a 'major' flat ride will draw crowds. I think that CGA can very easily benefit off of a star flyer-like ride (or like the one CP's getting as it can get breezy here in the Bay). Perhaps, depending on its size, it could probably very well fit right where Triple Play lived...only thing is that it would not be able to begin spinning at full speed until it got above the buildings and Vortex's loop. Or, something like the Gerstlauer Sky Roller ride. I've always liked the idea of interactive rides where you can control it's behavior (like Tea Cups, flying scooters, and even Break Dances). This would be a good 'replacement' for the former Sky Hawk (Intamin Flight trainer?) ride. Could live in Triple Play's spot or get rid of the 3-point shootout and stick it where Sky Hawk stood.

 

Yea, I think I'm dreaming too much with all of these above possibilities.

 

Right now, not trying to speculate but it seems like CGA's in a limbo as it's unsure how things are going to be with the 49ers. Why would the park pump in tons of cash for a ride if the future is uncertain? I think that once the 49ers thing is resolved things can change and Cedar Fair can finally focus on this park rather than the stadium. On the other hand, CGA seems to be treated like Cedar Fair's black sheep. All of these other parks seem to be getting something new. CGA is in a great spot that could potentially draw large crowds as the bay area's highly populated...which could be Cedar Fair's secondary cash cow as well if they play their cards right. Sure it's not the largest park but there's lots of people here in the bay area and it's only growing. Plus, they've got a park up north they need to compete with.

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My expectations are low for next year. If you look at CGA's recent history, new rides/attractions are added every other year (excluding additions in Boomerang Bay): Survivor in 2006, FireFall in 2008, and Planet Snoopy was this season.

 

I'm expecting something to replace Spongebob in the Action Theater next season. Honestly, I could live without the theater, half of it is closed, and it's taking up valuable space for another flat ride or two in my opinion. But it does attract a lot of visitors.

 

A step in the right direction would be for CGA to take care of the coasters that they already have. Vortex and Invertigo are practically white from fading. I think new paint jobs/color schemes are in order.

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Eventhough I don't like it, the stadium could actually be good for the park in bringing in more visitors.

 

...a bunch of line-jumping visitors... I went to the park Saturday and was yet again surprised at how even worse line jumping has become. I actually tried to hold some people back and tell them they had to wait like everyone else and they pushed around me and kept going.

 

Loved the Demon, though, especially at night. I hope it stays for a long long time.

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The stadium is a double-edged sword. It *could* bring in a ton more people on game days OR it could keep people away who don't want to deal with the crush of traffic that isn't able to be accommodated on city streets.

 

In terms of the "Proposed" coaster behind Pictorium - don't hold your breath.

 

Any MAJOR attraction would have already shown it's hand in terms of markings etc. so don't get your hopes up. I'm thinking new show in Action FX Theatre and that's it. (IF THAT) Anything more will be a bonus.

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I'm sure that coaster's coasted off into the sunset as we have not heard any more news on this. I really wish that this 49ers thing would just blow over so the park can carry on with it's business. It seems like the park is being held back due to this stadium, and is only hurting the park in the long run. I was really hoping that CGA would have been included in this Windseeker purchase as they could probably benefit from this. On the other hand, it wouldn't be so good if that's what replaced the sky tower up front as that's a CGA landmark ride. It just sucks to see that while the other Cedar Fair parks are getting some TLC, CGA's like the forgotten closet child.

 

If nothing new next year, I'd atleast like to see a new show in the Action Theatre and perhaps some new paint on some of these rides, and give some of these rides some TLC. Demon's got some bare "Turn of the Century" spots on it, and Flight Deck looks a bit faded...maybe not that bad though as it's always had that matte black finish.

 

Seeing that one of Vortex's trains are out of commission and have been for a while, does this mean it's being used for parts for the other train or could they be rebuilding it (to give a smoother ride) and swap it out. Demon's yellow train's a little rough too. Red train's nice and smooth, and hopefully the orange train that's out of commission's getting the same treatment as what the red train got.

 

Lastly, anyone know why the Jackaroo Landing structure only uses 1 slide while it's got tons of them to be used?

cgawood.jpg.48ff93ab5c03672640669bd3b26da66b.jpg

Just keep dreaming, Billy!

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I am going to CP next year and this Windseeker thing looks awesome but I am NOT HAPPY that we got the shaft, again! All I can say about this is WTF?!

 

Although nothing has been announced maybe that means something will be, trying to be positive, has CFs cap ex spending for 2011 been all accounted for yet? Maybe there's still some money left for us for something.

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