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California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread


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Am just arriving now, traffic is crazy. Wish I'd got here earlier!

(Am wearing a gray Instagram shirt and blue shorts, if anyone sees me stop me and say Hi)

Yeah it got crazy when people started showing up en masse for the stadium. My plan of showing up early for CGA and just staying parked and walking over to Levis Stadium worked GREAT though. So much so that if I go to a non-49ers event there in the future I will try to visit CGA the same day even if I wasnt otherwise planning to. We parked right in front of the FD lift by the #4 parking marker which was equally close to CGA and Levis and were able to get out of the parking lot immediately after Wrestlemania..I was blown away how easy it was.

 

Overall as long as you arrived at the park before the traffic got bad it was a fantastic day at the park. Everything opened on time, everything was running two trains except for Vortex, the weather was perfect, even the Grizzly crew was hustling. Lines were as short as I could reasonably expect - we started off heading straight to SP processing since I knew that would be the nastiest line of the day (and it was by far) and we got in and out of there in about 90 seconds flat, went to Gold Striker, about 2 train wait the first time and 20 minute wait the second time.

 

Next we headed over to Grizzly and timed it perfect so that we just had to wait about 10 mins for them to open up which is perfect cause a station wait is usually longer than that anyway. We then hit up Demon which was about a 10 min wait, walked over to Eagles Flight and skipped over to Flight Deck which was about a 5 minute wait, then walked over to Vortex which was a 15 min wait due to 1-train ops and line jumpers, then walked over to Gold Striker again and got a third lap in with a 15 minute wait.

 

Very bearable crowds and queues all around, couldnt have asked for a better day really.

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I didn't have any big problems with lines Sunday, although only stayed for a few hours in the morning. By far the longest wait was to get a hot dog at Schultz's Wieners. No idea why it was so slow, the food was ready, and it went plenty fast when I got up to the front and ordered, I have no idea what the people in front of me were struggling with. Season pass processing was probably the second longest wait (but it moved quick enough). Grizzly still seemed to have incredibly slow load times, although the crew seemed to be trying hard. Is there a reason they can't replace the trains on it with ones that would be easier to load quickly? It seems like that would be limited investment to fix a recurring issue.

 

I'm glad I went in the morning, when I left the parking lot was already a bit of a mess (although I did see lots of WWE fans walking or taking transit instead of driving). All in all the park looked good, can't wait to get back.

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I am trying to make a trip report from Saturday, but every time I try to upload pictures they will load all of the way and then disappear. I do not know the problem. Should I make the files smaller? I have tried one at a time and multiple files at once.

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I am trying to make a trip report from Saturday, but every time I try to upload pictures they will load all of the way and then disappear. I do not know the problem. Should I make the files smaller? I have tried one at a time and multiple files at once.

 

If you don't have any luck, you can upload your pictures to photobucket (or similar site) and post them that way.

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Finally! My trip report from opening day!

 

Sorry it is so late, I was having technical difficulties. The problem with the pictures was sorted out (it was a formatting problem) and so now I can show you them. I Photoshopped some to make them look better.

 

The park was great, and Fast Lane was unimaginably awesome. Probably going to get it every time from now on. I rode GS 7 times, and I would have rode it more if it wasn't breaking down so much. I ran into a TPR guy at the park too; that was cool.

 

Another high point of the day were the $1.40 hot dogs, drinks, and popcorn. I got a hot dog and soda for $2.44 because of this plus the 20% Gold Pass discount.

 

Here are the pictures; I hope you enjoy!

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Well, they seem to be enjoying their ride.

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Ultra Vibrant Looking Gold Striker!

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Vortex, dropping through the trees....

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Gold Striker was up and down throughout the day; Here are some people being evacuated from the brake run.

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Grizzly goes up.....

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Grizzly goes down. Grizzly isn't a bad ride; it just doesn't do much.

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Here is where, for no wait, I got a hot dog and soda for $2.44!

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Gold Striker From The Air! (the photo was taken from the bucket things. I don't know what to call them.)

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This pic was taken from the Gold Striker line.

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DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN! GOLD STRIKER GOES AROUND THE BEND! RUNNING EMPTY TRAINS! BECAUSE IT IS BROKEN!

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Flight Deck lift hill.

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A Super Vibrant Photo Of Flight Deck!

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Loop. Enough said.

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ZEROOOOO-GEEEEE!

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Corkscrew

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Another corkscrew; but of the demonic sort.

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Psycho Mouse was the best Fast Lane ride of the day. It was a walk on, LITERALLY. We walked up and sat on a train. Which is awesome because it is sometimes a horrible wait.

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Here's an old-fashioned-looking picture of Demon!

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And finally, a shot of the best ride in the park: Star Tower. (Just kidding)

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Nice pictures! I had forgotten they had repainted Flight Deck so when I first saw the pictures I was wondering for a few seconds what rollercoaster it was as I could not recognize it...

 

I have always been a bit fascinated with the corkscrew on this ride. It seems to have a rather vicious snap and a funky exit transition which I have not seen similar on any other B&M's. How is the ride experience through this element in terms of rider comfort?

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The corkscrew and end helix are the best parts of the ride. The corkscrew really whips the train through the element while staying glass smooth. Then the final turn pulls quite a few Gs. Flight Deck is outstanding and my favorite invert outside of Dragon Challenge.

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Is there enough money in CGA's budget to RMC Grizzly,or make Great America a bit more lively. To me it's starting to look a bit bland, but I haven't been there in a while.

 

I'm sure if they wanted to they could since RMC treatment's aren't all that expensive, but I don't know why they would do something like that. Grizzly is a popular attraction with families and even though it is a bit boring to coaster nuts, the "GP" seem to enjoy it the way it is. What they could do is build is a brand new RMC coaster in the invertigarden area, but since they just opened a crazy wooden coaster, I doubt it will happen anytime soon. And about the lively thing, that has been one of the park's main focuses in the past couple of years, which is why we finally saw the new woody and lots of much needed painting done around the park.

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People need to give it up on Grizzly being removed or RMC'ed. As much as I want it gone too, they just upgraded the track. I doubt they would have wasted their time and money on Grizzly if they had other future plans.

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Is Demon a coaster that's up for a replacement, or is it hear to stay. If not replaced, could they update the ride so it's more comfortable because I don't remember Viper's cars being as tight an cramped as Demon's.

 

It's one of the older Arrow coasters in the chain (and also is still running original trains, SF Great Amerca's Demon's trains are from Shockwave) but all of the Arrow loopers are under observation because they're getting up there in age and a lot of them are unsure how much much longer the tracks will still hold together and stay safe. I'm not saying they're going to get to the point where the track will break, but if it gets to the point where the non-destructive testing reveals that the track is in bad shape, the coaster may not last past another season.

 

But since there was track work on it in 1980 when it went from Turn of the Century to Demon, that could help it last longer. It's mainly the big Arrow loopers that they're really concerned about, but the smaller ones are also being kept an eye on as well.

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