California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

[robman]

I might be going to the park tomorrow for day time operation only. No Haunt for me this weekend but I do plan on going the last weekend on Saturday. I will definitely be doing the Boofet that weekend as I expect it to be very busy!

[Angry_Gumball]

I won't be there tomorrow but planning on being there all day on the 29th. I know it's going to be a madhouse there once evening hits. Boofet is definitely a huge help, can get 3 mazes in before they stop pulsing everyone and just let everyone just go.

 

Something I noticed earlier on a CGA facebook post (from CGA, not a GP/fan):

Did you know that you can purchase a 2012 Gold Pass and receive admission to Haunt in 2011 and 2012?

Haunt 2012 anyone? My guess is that if this is so, it could follow identical operations to what we have now so it will still feel 'haunt-ish'

[robman]

^If they can't keep the Halloween Haunt name they might as well just call it Haunt Fest, half of the GP already call it that anyway. I would still continue to call it Haunt anyways. In all serious I hope that Cedar Fair will just let them use the names, to me its not that big of a deal they sold the park they have been wanting to get rid of so the least thing they could do it just let them use the names.

 

 

When i went they scared a baby and the scary person just walked away and didnt even care

 

There's a little of GP gold right there, that was posted on the parks facebook. I guess people will never realize that its their JOB to scare people if you don't like the idea of your child or other peoples children getting scared then don't go. Or tell that person they shouldn't bring their children along.

[CoasterBeagle]

Random question: does anybody know the name of the werewolf canyon song?

[Angry_Gumball]

^If they can't keep the Halloween Haunt name they might as well just call it Haunt Fest, half of the GP already call it that anyway. I would still continue to call it Haunt anyways. In all serious I hope that Cedar Fair will just let them use the names, to me its not that big of a deal they sold the park they have been wanting to get rid of so the least thing they could do it just let them use the names.

 

 

When i went they scared a baby and the scary person just walked away and didnt even care

 

There's a little of GP gold right there, that was posted on the parks facebook. I guess people will never realize that its their JOB to scare people if you don't like the idea of your child or other peoples children getting scared then don't go. Or tell that person they shouldn't bring their children along.

 

just posted my 2 cents... *now prepares for GP attacks and flames*

[Flagg O'Dim]

Random question: does anybody know the name of the werewolf canyon song?

 

Skip James - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues

 

I remember hearing this song in my music class last year, and images of werewolves and chainsaws popped into my head...

[robman]

I was at the park for a little while today and it was dead! Very little waits for all of the rides. Im going to go back tonight for Halloween Haunt, I was able to buy Boofet tickets for tonight so that should be helpful as I expect crowds to be like last weekend. I will be wearing a TPR shirt so don't be afraid to say hi if anyone is going/working their tonight!

[CoasterBeagle]

Random question: does anybody know the name of the werewolf canyon song?

 

Skip James - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues

 

I remember hearing this song in my music class last year, and images of werewolves and chainsaws popped into my head...

 

Thank you. I'm reading the lyrics while listening and I still can't understand what the heck he is saying lol.

 

Also the day time is usually pretty dead but haunt is going to be crazy busy. Also to let you know yesterday they didn't allow boofet people to ride flight deck before the GP. So I don't know how it works with mazes but I think because its getting close to halloween thats why.

[robman]

Random question: does anybody know the name of the werewolf canyon song?

 

Skip James - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues

 

I remember hearing this song in my music class last year, and images of werewolves and chainsaws popped into my head...

 

Thank you. I'm reading the lyrics while listening and I still can't understand what the heck he is saying lol.

 

Also the day time is usually pretty dead but haunt is going to be crazy busy. Also to let you know yesterday they didn't allow boofet people to ride flight deck before the GP. So I don't know how it works with mazes but I think because its getting close to halloween thats why.

 

I didn't even know they allowed the Boofet people to ride Flight Deck early. Every time they just directed us towards the Gauntlet. What they do for the mazes is they give us a green sticker with the date on it and we get to go into CarnEvil and Club Blood before the GP can.

[Angry_Gumball]

Last weekend I noticed that there was a rope blocking off the Gauntlet area from the carousel plaza, confining us to the Gauntlet area. I'm sure many (VIP/Boofet guests) slipped through the ropes to catch the Overlord's show. I have not attempted heading down the Orleans/Boomerang Bay side of the park during this time but since everything else is not open yet, it would be useless to head back there.

 

It looks like I'll be finishing my season next Saturday (both day and Haunt op) to catch some ERT-like sessions during the day and brave the possibly even larger crowds (than the 15th when I last went) for Haunt. With larger crowds, let's hope that things don't get violent with stupid guests and talent. But I'm sure we'll all have our GP stories to share afterwords .

 

Wait...they (at one point) allowed Boofet guests to snag an early ride on Flight Deck?

[Flagg O'Dim]

I'll be visiting CGA for the last time this season tomorrow. I've decided against going to Haunt one more time, mainly due to the crowds. I want to be able to go on every ride one last time, because you never know what's going to be removed next season.

 

I went to the park in the day around this time back in 2009, and it was the day I set my record for most rides in a visit (40). Ten times on Drop Tower! I'm expecting the same tomorrow.

 

Also, I have to use my free game coupon that came with my Gold pass at Costco. I'm thinking I'll try the basketball game next to the Gametime bar.

 

I'm reading the lyrics while listening and I still can't understand what the heck he is saying lol.

 

haha yeah I can't make out anything either. I don't know if it's his accent, 1930's recording technology, or a combination of both.

[Angry_Gumball]

 

I went to the park in the day around this time back in 2009, and it was the day I set my record for most rides in a visit (40). Ten times on Drop Tower! I'm expecting the same tomorrow.

 

Back in 2007 when I first started going to CGA, I did my personal best of 19 rides total on Drop Tower alone. I may have done close to 40 rides that day. I did 7 different rides spread throughout the day, and at the last half hour we were too tired to walk around so we just did a nice little ERT session on Drop Tower, only got up to change views otherwise, we just rode until it was time to close up.

[robman]

Haunt is very busy tonight! Flight Deck's line stretched almost to the entrence of the Gauntlet! Also on my second time threw CarnEvil, the music turned off and some of the emergency lights were on. Not sure what happened but it made the maze a lot different. It is packed tonight and I expect next weekend to be worse.

 

 

Robert "Thank goodness for iPhones." Ingle

[Angry_Gumball]

Entrance to Gauntlet...you mean the carousel side entrance or starting in front of Delta Flyer? Either way, I will make use of the day visit next weekend and get on as much as possible. I wonder what happened in CarnEvil, must have been really awkward with the house lights on instead of the 'show lighting.' That's when I would have started playing CarnEvil on my phone

 

Speaking of iPhone, do you know if the Boofet area has wall outlets? So that way I can charge my phone...I didn't like walking around in the park with a dead phone like what happened last weekend...especially in crowds and if I got separated from my group.

[robman]

Sorry I should of clarified, it was the Delta Flyer side. Still a long wait considering the line during the day was about 1 train depending where you sat at. My brother and I were the first and only people to go through Club Blood which was very cool! I had never got experience any of the mazes like that. It was a nice perk with the Boofet VIP sticker which allowed us to do that.

 

 

 

 

 

About the wall outlets I saw a half post right outside the door for where you get the food at and it looked like it had a couple covered outlets on it. Other than that I'm not sure where any are.

[Angry_Gumball]

I remember last year, being the first people in line for Toy Factory, was a nice way to start off the night, nobody ahead of us, nobody behind us, could take our time through the maze. I also remember snagging a ride on Invertigo with nobody else, then heading to Toy Factory to be first and have a small line behind us. This was the 3rd week into Haunt but was rainy that evening so the rain did damper a nice chunk of the crowds.

 

With how busy it's getting, it's tempting to go big and check out the VIM package...backstage Haunt operations plus front of line access to each maze sounds worth it, especially if you can't make it to all the mazes. Other than that, with Boofet, you atleast get 2 mazes in with little to no wait. I think my plan of attack next weekend (which didn't quite pan out last weekend as we were waiting a bit for a member in our group) is to do CarnEvil, CB, then head straight back to Toy Factory, Cornstalkers, then Black Widows. By this time I'm sure lines will be growing. From there I can hit up Werewolf Canyon and then Slaughter House. I'll make best efforts that my group stays together next weekend so we can get the most out of our visit since last time we had to wait about 10 minutes or so for another member of the group to show up, had to wait a cycle due to group splitting on Demon, then finding each other after getting out of Toy Factory.

[Nibbler]

ahh I love this weekend, My Gauntlet won zone of the night for Fri and Sat, we shall rock it again tomorrow

[robman]

I remember last year, being the first people in line for Toy Factory, was a nice way to start off the night, nobody ahead of us, nobody behind us, could take our time through the maze. I also remember snagging a ride on Invertigo with nobody else, then heading to Toy Factory to be first and have a small line behind us. This was the 3rd week into Haunt but was rainy that evening so the rain did damper a nice chunk of the crowds.

 

With how busy it's getting, it's tempting to go big and check out the VIM package...backstage Haunt operations plus front of line access to each maze sounds worth it, especially if you can't make it to all the mazes. Other than that, with Boofet, you atleast get 2 mazes in with little to no wait. I think my plan of attack next weekend (which didn't quite pan out last weekend as we were waiting a bit for a member in our group) is to do CarnEvil, CB, then head straight back to Toy Factory, Cornstalkers, then Black Widows. By this time I'm sure lines will be growing. From there I can hit up Werewolf Canyon and then Slaughter House. I'll make best efforts that my group stays together next weekend so we can get the most out of our visit since last time we had to wait about 10 minutes or so for another member of the group to show up, had to wait a cycle due to group splitting on Demon, then finding each other after getting out of Toy Factory.

 

 

That's what we did last night but instead of going straight to Toy Factory/Cornstalkers, we just decided to go straight for Slaughterhouse. (Which was a good choice, because the line later on was very long. Longer than it was last week, they actually had set of switch backs before you entered into the building and then went into the set of even more switch backs.) By the time we had gotten to Toy Factory and that area the mazes had a 5 min wait which was nice.

Werewolf Canyon also had its long wait and it wasn't even worth waiting but I did. The chainsaw guy was gone and it seemed there were not a lot of talent through out the maze,i'm not sure if I had it on break time or what, but it wasn't very good.

 

Last night I witnessed some GP gold first hand at the Boofet. It was a teenager and he got his VIP sticker and while he was waiting for his parents he ripped the sticker up because he thought it was a souvenir,WTF! Luckily the ticket people at the front gave him another one but I don't understand people these days it says V.I.P for a reason and it's not some sort of prize for going to the Boofet.

 

 

 

I also will be ending my season next weekend 10/29 with a couple hours of daytime operation and then doing the Boofet and going to Haunt.

[Angry_Gumball]

So it still sounds like Werewolf Canyon's the weakest link of the bunch, since my experience there seemed like it was missing something, and other reviews also pointed out the same. With how dark it is back there, you would think it would be one of the stronger mazes, full of scares but perhaps its too long for its own good. Perhaps in the future, provided these mazes still exist next season, maybe they'll consider some improvements. and adding more talent and themeing along the exit path.

 

Looks like I may see you out at the park next weekend, planning on a nice long day

[robman]

That maze has the best atmosphere,yet has the weakest talent which is funny. From guest reactions it seemed a lot of them liked the maze. Another thing I had noticed is that when you exit the RRR turn table area you can see some of the talent on their break! They all just sit along the edge with their feet in the flume.

 

 

Yup, I will see you there next weekend!

 

 

 

Also the fog in the preferred parking area was pretty dense last night the picture I included doesn't really show that well but it was crazy!

Here's how crazy the fog was in parking lot from Club Blood!

[Angry_Gumball]

Oh yea, in that area, you can hear Club Blood's music blasting through. When leaving Haunt last night, was the parking lot a madhouse like it was last weekend? There were plenty last weekend who were forming double lines, zoning out, blocking intersections, etc.

 

Anyone doing Haunt/did Haunt tonight? How do the crowds compare since we're now a week away from the off season with only 3 Haunts left?

[robman]

Oh yea, in that area, you can hear Club Blood's music blasting through. When leaving Haunt last night, was the parking lot a madhouse like it was last weekend? There were plenty last weekend who were forming double lines, zoning out, blocking intersections, etc.

 

Anyone doing Haunt/did Haunt tonight? How do the crowds compare since we're now a week away from the off season with only 3 Haunts left?

 

We didn't stay until closing so it wasn't too bad but there was already people parked in front of the flag poles waiting to pick people up. I know last weekend the traffic was crazy and cars were backed up all along Great America Parkway, almost to that overpass near the Embassy Suites Hotel.

[Angry_Gumball]

The flag pole are was a mess last weekend, I was one who got a ride out there and waited in line to get out of the parking lot. We left around 11:00 or so, didn't get home until closer to midnight where it is only a 25 minute drive to get from Hayward to Santa Clara.

[Flagg O'Dim]

Great day at the park today -- it was pretty empty, but the crowds did start to pick up later in the afternoon.

 

Made sure I got plenty of rides in on Firefall (4). Something I noticed is that the gondola doesn't shake side to side anymore when it's under a lot of stress.

 

Grizzly and Delirium were closed all day, so I was disappointed that I didn't get my last rides in on them. Odd, though, that the blue train on Grizzly kept going by with the same few people, yet the red train was sent off empty each time. The "closed attraction" sign was at the entrance. Was there an ERT session that I didn't know about?

 

Let "Demon Watch 2012" begin. (yes, I know it was just a rumor from some random person on the Internet, but still...). While on Demon's brake run, I noticed that a bunch of trees had been cut down around the old train tunnel (the one right next to the Demon's second tunnel). Not sure how long ago this was, but the stumps looked freshly cut, and it really opened up the area. hmm...making room for the demolition equipment?

[robman]

Great day at the park today -- it was pretty empty, but the crowds did start to pick up later in the afternoon.

 

Made sure I got plenty of rides in on Firefall (4). Something I noticed is that the gondola doesn't shake side to side anymore when it's under a lot of stress.

 

Grizzly and Delirium were closed all day, so I was disappointed that I didn't get my last rides in on them. Odd, though, that the blue train on Grizzly kept going by with the same few people, yet the red train was sent off empty each time. The "closed attraction" sign was at the entrance. Was there an ERT session that I didn't know about?

 

Let "Demon Watch 2012" begin. (yes, I know it was just a rumor from some random person on the Internet, but still...). While on Demon's brake run, I noticed that a bunch of trees had been cut down around the old train tunnel (the one right next to the Demon's second tunnel). Not sure how long ago this was, but the stumps looked freshly cut, and it really opened up the area. hmm...making room for the demolition equipment?

 

 

Grizzly was closed all day yesterday as well. With the same "Attraction is Closed Today" sign I had noticed that the blue train was testing during the day and then both red and blue were testing during Halloween Haunt. About the trees, I know there is a weird fungus that trees can get and they need to be cut down so they don't fall over. I don't believe that Demon rumor but who knows.

 

Some one better make "sAvEs tHe dEm0n" fan page.