robbalvey Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 (edited) GREAT AMERICA INTRODUCES PATRIOT FLOORLESS COASTER FOR 2017 SANTA CLARA, CA – Today California’s Great America announced that for the 2017 season, it will introduce Patriot, the first floorless coaster in the park’s 41-year history. Patriot will emerge from the soon to be retired Vortex coaster, the oldest stand up roller coaster in the United States. Patriot will take riders to a 91-foot height before plummeting them into a 360-degree loop at 45 miles per hour. Patriot’s position in the park makes it a dynamic visual from three different sections of Great America. The inspiration for the coaster’s name was taken from the fact that the ride is nestled adjacent to All American Corners within a park whose name celebrates America. The transition from a stand up to floorless ride will include state-of-the-art blue and white trains positioning guests with their feet dangling above the blue and white track. “With the track visible beneath their fee, Patriot will create unique and exciting new perspectives throughout the ride,” said California’s Great America Vice President and General Manager Raul Rehnborg. Guests can take their “Last Stand” on Vortex through September 5. Then work will begin to ready Patriot for the 2017 season. Great America’s season continues weekend operations through Oct. 30, with Halloween Haunt running Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Sept. 24-Oct. 30. WinterFest debuts and takes center stage Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Nov. 25-Dec. 30, with daily operations Dec. 19-23 and 26-30. Guests can ice skate in front of the iconic Carousel Columbia, admire magnificent displays of lights and décor, view spectacular live holiday shows, experience 18 rides, see Santa’s workshop and Mrs. Claus’ kitchen, and enjoy scrumptious holiday foods around the park. Season Passes for the 2017 season go on sale today at the lowest price of the season, offering unlimited admission for the rest of 2016 and all of 2017. 2017 Gold Season Passes are now on sale for 9 easy payments of $9.75 and include unlimited visits during the rest of the 2016 season, admission to Halloween Haunt, WinterFest, Gilroy Gardens (excluding Lumination), unlimited admission during the 2017 season, and more. More details: https://www.cagreatamerica.com/what-s-new/2017-announcement Edited August 18, 2016 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterkid124 Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Lol, I'm so glad that I opened this thread. While the bickering and bitching continues in the other Cedar Fair threads, this is actually a solid addition, and is space friendly for the park. Wait until the KD and Dorney fanboys find out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grsupercity Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Yay no vest. That is a win in its self Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaellynn4 Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Excellent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluestreak Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 The best thing about this announcement is that it came from absolutely nowhere. Great addition though. I feel like it'll probably be the best new addition to the Cedar Fair chain announced today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Looking into going to the park on 30 Oct. I assume the park is going to be packed for Halloween but how packed is it going to be? Should I skip it (I'll be based in Sacramento) or chance the crowds? Any park planning would be nice as well. If packed was the best word to describe it, then I would have to say it's going to be packed. Stupid packed. This. Easily the busiest day of the season. Buy Fright Lane, Fast Lane, any line skipping passes you can find, you'll need 'em. That's the Sunday before Halloween which is on a Monday, so most people will be out partying Saturday and Sunday instead. If you're based in Sacramento you could do what I usually do which is to hit CGA early in the morning when it opens, and then drive the extra hour down to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to relax later in the day. CGA is less likely to be busier at opening since most people will be coming for Haunt at night, and SCBB, though probably still to be busy because of the holiday weekend, won't have the stupid level night crowds that CGA is likely to have. You could also go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, it will still be busy, but it's a shorter drive (50-60 min versus 120 to CGA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanTPM Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Love it, that looks much, much better than Vortex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djackson Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Hopefully this is is one of the last standup coasters to get the floorless conversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFOGdude25 Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 (edited) Surprise! Vortex is going floorless! Looks great! Happy for all you NorCal people! Edited August 18, 2016 by SFOGdude25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DILinator Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Great addition! The name is a little rehashed, in typical Cedar Fair fashion... But at least it's not called Patriot Hawk! Also, hard to say this is out of nowhere, as this was discussed en masse for last year's addition. People were just a year off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluestreak Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Great addition! The name is a little rehashed, in typical Cedar Fair fashion... But at least it's not called Patriot Hawk! Also, hard to say this is out of nowhere, as this was discussed en masse for last year's addition. People were just a year off! I meant out of nowhere as in, nobody expected their announcement today. All the focus was on the other Cedar Fair parks making their announcement today! I probably should've made that clear in my original post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JordyC Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 While the bickering and bitching continues in the other Cedar Fair threads, this is actually a solid addition, and is space friendly for the park. Wait until the KD and Dorney fanboys find out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DILinator Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Great addition! The name is a little rehashed, in typical Cedar Fair fashion... But at least it's not called Patriot Hawk! Also, hard to say this is out of nowhere, as this was discussed en masse for last year's addition. People were just a year off! I meant out of nowhere as in, nobody expected their announcement today. All the focus was on the other Cedar Fair parks making their announcement today! I probably should've made that clear in my original post. Got it! And yes, it did really fly under the radar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Geek Mojo Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Rode Vortex this year for the first time...I actually liked it better than Carowinds version even though their pretty much the same ride. Never been a fan of stand up coasters...Glad that CF is getting rid of them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Outstanding news!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grsupercity Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Adds new life to an aging ride Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcoaster Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Good for GCA. I always wanted to visit when I eventually get out to Cali. This will just push me even more to make a trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 Guys - while I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm for wanting to post park announcements and news, if all you're going to do is post one sentence and a link, please don't bother. Please wait for someone either officially with TPR or someone who is actually willing to put effort into a post instead of being lazy and just posting a link do the work. Example, this is not a good post and not how we want new ride announcements represented on our forums: THIS is how we would appreciate an announcement post to be made. Again, if you're not willing to make a post like that, please wait for someone else to do it, because if you're going to be lazy about your post, we just have to do extra work to clean up your crappy post. Got it? Thanks everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 I'm sure it'll be a big improvement over Vortex. That ride was wretched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazedZooChimp Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Great addition! The name is a little rehashed, in typical Cedar Fair fashion... But at least it's not called Patriot Hawk! Also, hard to say this is out of nowhere, as this was discussed en masse for last year's addition. People were just a year off! I meant out of nowhere as in, nobody expected their announcement today. All the focus was on the other Cedar Fair parks making their announcement today! I probably should've made that clear in my original post. Yeah I don't really know why they didn't hype up their announcement at all like the other Cedar Fair parks did (or Six Flags is doing), weird. It is an exciting upgrade, though I was hoping the ride was going to be moved to a different location in the park (which would open up more room in the middle). Still, it hopefully adds a 3rd good coaster to the park, which is all I can ask for. Wish it was somehow getting longer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livai Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 I want to pass off this coaster as a new ahahahahah Marketing cedar fair is becoming worse than six flags Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mater Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 SO excited to not have to spend money on a Great America pass two years in a row now. Thanks for the savings, Cedar Fair! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 I want to pass off this coaster as a new ahahahahahMarketing cedar fair is becoming worse than six flags SO excited to not have to spend money on a Great America pass two years in a row now. Thanks for the savings, Cedar Fair! For all intents and purposes, this is just like getting a new coaster. For example, we usually go to Cedar Point for a long weekend every year but we never rode Mantis. As far as we were concerned it may as well have not existed because it's only benefit was keeping people out of the lines for the much better rides. Even if it was a walk-on we wouldn't have ridden it. Now that they have Rougarou we absolutely love the thing. It's another solid ride in Cedar Point's lineup, it has great capacity so lines are generally manageable and all they had to do was switch out the trains to make a complete waste of a coaster into a fun ride. I fail to see how anyone can be disappointed by this news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mater Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 I'm excited for the paint job and improvements to the station it'll probably end up getting, but you gotta realize it's a different situation for us out here in norcal because we've had access to Medusa for so long. Not to mention Vortex is a decidedly shorter and more boring version of Rougarou. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grsupercity Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 But it doesnt have the horrid new vest restraints so be happy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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