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California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread


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One thing they have been doing is painting the wood panels...certainly looks more 'finished'.

Figured I'd share some pix while waiting in line for Flight Deck!

 

Side note: you think we are itching to ride this, the park is itching to get this running even more! So I'm honestly not sure what's going on but I can say it will open when ready.

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Covered and partially Wall'd brake run

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Walls, raw wood.

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Walls go down to the bottom

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Painted walls on the 'middle finger turn'

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Those walls look kind of dumb & ugly. Let's make the nice new ride look so ugly thanks to those complainers. All their fault. Now we can say "Take The Wall!"

How are things running in Boomerang Bay -Jackaroo Landing are all those slides open finally or is only that 1 green one open?

 

Oh come on now, its not that bad really and when you ride it you won't care about the walls.

 

Its interesting that the brake run is covered, I was not expecting that.

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Honestly, the painted walls look pretty decent in my opinion (see walls on middle finger turn). I'm sure the rest of the walls will receive paint as well.

It's not so much the fact that they aren't painted, mostly it just looks odd because the walls are scattered here and there, with inconsistent heights. Looks really tacked on (which it is I guess). Oh well, I can't wait to get some hand-chopper action, still waiting to get my first hands up ride since we weren't allowed to do that during the photo-shoot.

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Judging that uneven height, I have a feeling they aren't done yet, as the panels are almost what seems like RCT3 walls (different heights)

I noticed some panels on a saw horse just to the right, telling me that the walls still need to be finished and will remain an even height along the track.

 

My whole outlook. They are definitely strange, we aren't used to seeing these kinds of things on wooden coasters. The track layout itself will still completely kick butt And agreed. I can't wait to ride this (more) with the hands up as that's how this coaster was designed to be ridden.

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Those walls look kind of dumb & ugly. Let's make the nice new ride look so ugly thanks to those complainers. All their fault. Now we can say "Take The Wall!"

How are things running in Boomerang Bay -Jackaroo Landing are all those slides open finally or is only that 1 green one open?

 

Oh come on now, its not that bad really and when you ride it you won't care about the walls.

 

Its interesting that the brake run is covered, I was not expecting that.

 

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The walls immediately following the first drop tunnel look to be the exact height of the handrails that align the side of the track. I don't have an issue with that. The walls on the turns near the buildings are higher however it looks like they are encasing those with some type of roof structure with only the side nearest the buildings and the roof enclosed. That leaves one wall open... I don't have a problem with that either. If anything it should increase the sensation of speed when riding. For me, I don't bring my camera into parks and snap hundreds of photos so I'm not really that worried about the fact that from the queue line the view of riders coming out of the tunnel is changed. What matters is that the ride is still awesome which it will be!

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I composed a list of June coaster openings around the USA & a lot of them we all love & are great ones too!

 

Cedar Fair

 

Iron Dragon 6/11/87

Flight Of Fear 6/18/96

Jaguar 6/17/95

 

Busch Gardens

 

Gwazi 6/18/99

 

Sea World

 

Kraken 6/1/00

 

Six Flags

 

Apocalypse 6/7/12

Batwing 6/16/01

Superman Ultimate Flight 6/30/12

V2 6/8/01

Mind Eraser 6/2/97

EL Toro 6/12/06

Colossus 6/29/78

Cyclone 6/24/83

American Thunder 6/20/08

River King Mime Train 6/71

 

Hoping this list will make us all feel a bit better about Gold Striker's late opening.

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You know people are having withdraws when there is a multiple page discussion about sound walls going on...

 

I guess that just goes to show how deprived Northern California really is when it comes to coasters.

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Switching gears here from the Nor-cal bashing and soundwall complaints... Here's how my visit yesterday went.

 

So yesterday was a busy but fun day at the park. A good chunk of the morning was spent in Boomerang Bay as there was nobody there (water slide marathon). I think we did Down Under Thunder 5 times before we decided we were soaked enough. Highlights of the day included:

-Down Under Thunder

-Opening ceremony, we all got little flags when getting in the park...too bad there was only 5 of us otherwise we would have had...Six Flags!

-Fireworks show was neat, very patriotic!

 

Other randomness:

-Firefall is definitely showing its age...when inverting I could feel the gondola want to slip. The final 'face first rotation' over the water/fire was more of the gondola just sitting upright gently lowering (think of a ferris wheel). Later though it seemed to hold...so we must have gotten the 'dud' ride

-Stupid kids playing piñata with the trees. You hear a "Stop hitting the trees!" coming from somewhere when you hear the father say "They can do whatever they want!" SMH...

 

And the holy grail of yesterday's events...Down Under Thunder airtime! (Part of this was shot last season with my cousin and I, courtesy of Blue Fire Guy)

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Other randomness:

-Firefall is definitely showing its age...when inverting I could feel the gondola want to slip. The final 'face first rotation' over the water/fire was more of the gondola just sitting upright gently lowering (think of a ferris wheel). Later though it seemed to hold...so we must have gotten the 'dud' ride

-Stupid kids playing piñata with the trees. You hear a "Stop hitting the trees!" coming from somewhere when you hear the father say "They can do whatever they want!" SMH...

 

Does not surprise me that it is starting to slip again at the end, where one faces the fire and water there, it did it all too often in the year and a half I operated that ride, usually accompanied with a squealing/screeching noise as the brakes slid during that portion of the ride. It seemed unpredictable with when it would do it, sometimes I'd wait one or two rides before calling it in, as it would not slip constantly, but if it did it again, I called it in to the mechanics. Not to alarm or scare anyone over Firefall, but there was another time that the mechanics were cycling the ride (sometime around after the gondola had been returned from it's long rehab) and at the end of the ride, the gondola actually got stuck upside down in the loading area, the holding brakes did not release it for a few minutes, I had never seen it do that before.

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I haven't visited this park since 2001 (back when it had roller coasters), and I was planning on visiting to check out Gold Striker in early June...I'll be out of the country for the rest of the summer and fall, so it looks like I may have to wait until next year?

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^Honestly it's hard to say if it will be open by then. I really hope it is because it's killing me not being able to ride it more. I know for a fact that the park is trying to get it open as soon as they can, it seems they are just running into some roadblocks.

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This whole Gold Striker on strike thing is reminding me of the InvertiFiasco of 2010, when our former beloved Vekoma didn't open until August. Obviously that was a completely different situation, but it still feels the same when I see the huge lawn ornament sitting dormant (or in Gold Striker's case, gravel ornament).

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:|

 

This whole Gold Striker on strike thing is reminding me of the InvertiFiasco of 2010, when our former beloved Vekoma didn't open until August. Obviously that was a completely different situation, but it still feels the same when I see the huge lawn ornament sitting dormant (or in Gold Striker's case, gravel ornament).

 

 

I know the park's working hard on getting this gravel ornament up and running, crossing fingers that it will be soon! I'm just curious what's up with first rider auction...

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Would it solve this entire fiasco if Great America simply built a 20' tall cmu block wall along the property line between Gold Striker and the Prudential Building, much like Caltrans does when their freeway cuts through a neighborhood? Great America could put landscape in front of the wall to further soften the noise, and eliminate all of these tunnel and sound walls that they keep having to install.

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