California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

[DBru]

On 10/14/2020 at 10:28 AM, KIEnthusiast said:

That sounds like something someone made up for sh*its and giggles. Has there ever been anything like that happening before?

There are only a few (heavily rumored) examples I can think of off the top of my head, such as:

• Two Vekoma Flying Dutchmen being intended for Kings Island and Kings Dominion, only for Paramount to dump them onto Six Flags after the issues with Stealth
• DCA's Rockin' Rollercoaster being canceled last minute and picked up by Six Flags Holland

The only example I can think of that can be verified is the last minute switch of Chang being moved to Six Flags Great Adventure instead of Six Flags Great America... of course, being a relocation, this is kind of a different situation.

There are definitely other coasters that were rumored to be designed for a different park than they ended up in, but I can't recall any of them at the moment.

[KIEnthusiast]

On 2/10/2021 at 8:08 PM, DBru said:

There are only a few (heavily rumored) examples I can think of off the top of my head, such as:

• Two Vekoma Flying Dutchmen being intended for Kings Island and Kings Dominion, only for Paramount to dump them onto Six Flags after the issues with Stealth
• DCA's Rockin' Rollercoaster being canceled last minute and picked up by Six Flags Holland

The only example I can think of that can be verified is the last minute switch of Chang being moved to Six Flags Great Adventure instead of Six Flags Great America... of course, being a relocation, this is kind of a different situation.

There are definitely other coasters that were rumored to be designed for a different park than they ended up in, but I can't recall any of them at the moment.

But just because something is rumored does not make it real.

[BigJoe123]

Psycho Mouse is being repainted! Supports are brown and Green Track
Credit goes to u/The_Gaming_Alapaca on reddit

[KIEnthusiast]

good

[thrillseeker4552]

Looks nice!

This reminds me that many parks that never opened last year and are still closed could've taken this time to repaint some coasters. I know Carowinds did with Intimidator. I really wish Knott's repainted Xcelerator or SFMM repainted Tatsu during the last year. It would've been the perfect time with no people in the park to deal with. But I'm sure they weren't anticipating being closed for a year, and of course $$$ as well during an already difficult time.

Good for CGA!

[WolfBobs]

20 hours ago, thrillseeker4552 said:

I really wish Knott's repainted Xcelerator...

Sadly, If Knott's didn't use Xcelerator's extended downtime a few years ago waiting on the catch car repairs to re-paint the ride I doubt that they would've even considered a year long closure to re-paint with almost zero revenue coming in.  

But agreed, hopefully there will be a few park beautification projects done that will surprise a lot of guests when gates re-open at parks throughout the country (and Canada).

[KIEnthusiast]

https://www.cagreatamerica.com/blog/2021/the-detailed-backstory-of-south-bay-shores

wow, I’m very

impressed

[DBru]

I love how Cedar Fair has been incorporating story lines with their new attractions. The "radio station" playing "local commercials" sounds totally brilliant and so much fun.

[KIEnthusiast]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CM-LBffr4wo/?igshid=11pfe2lfses7p
looks cool. Could this be

the best Cedar Fair waterpark now?

[CoasterGuy06]

On 10/14/2020 at 11:58 AM, RAWKIN_coaster38 said:

Speaking of CGA hyper, I heard a weird rumor yesterday. Take it with a grain of salt. My coworker's second job is at KI and he said he heard Orion was supposed to be CGA's hyper, but it ended up as KI's giga. According to my coworker, KI was originally supposed to get something much taller and more extreme.

Honestly, I could easily see Orion fitting perfectly at CGA but it's underwhelming because it's at KI and we all know they *could* have gone more hardcore with it.

So as an update to this...it turns out it's true. In the new book "Kings Island A Ride Through Time"  there are multiple quotes from several CF execs that confirm it. CGA was going to get a B&M hyper in 2020 with the name "Megabyte." Eventually the projected costs became greater than what they wanted to spend at CGA so they decided to build the new B&M at KI instead.  Based on the interviews it seems corporate essentially called up KI and said "we're sending you a B&M in 2020. Let's figure out what we want it to be." That project eventually became the giga coaster Orion.

 

I think the most interesting part is the CGA ride was going to have the same staggered seating that Behemoth, Diamondback, and Intimidator have instead of the inline seating the most recent B&M hypers have returned to having.

[thrillseeker4552]

^Very interesting. I may have to buy that book just to check out that information! lol

It makes sense though. Hopefully one day CGA will get their new B&M Hyper - even if it's a "mini" model that's 200 feet or less. Or Knott's. Or literally anywhere out West...

[KIEnthusiast]

1 hour ago, thrillseeker4552 said:

^Very interesting. I may have to buy that book just to check out that information! lol

It makes sense though. Hopefully one day CGA will get their new B&M Hyper - even if it's a "mini" model that's 200 feet or less. Or Knott's. Or literally anywhere out West...

I read the book.

and recommend it

Greatest read

[Manic Monte]

Damn....how many times is Great America going to be denied a hyper? If they don't want to spend that much...the hyper idea may be done.

Gerstlauer Infinity instead?

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

1 hour ago, KIEnthusiast said:

I read the book.

and recommend it

Greatest read

Nope, 4-5-3 isn't the haiku pattern, try again.

[leqant]

On 4/22/2021 at 7:54 PM, CoasterGuy06 said:

So as an update to this...it turns out it's true. In the new book "Kings Island A Ride Through Time"  there are multiple quotes from several CF execs that confirm it. CGA was going to get a B&M hyper in 2020 with the name "Megabyte." Eventually the projected costs became greater than what they wanted to spend at CGA so they decided to build the new B&M at KI instead.  Based on the interviews it seems corporate essentially called up KI and said "we're sending you a B&M in 2020. Let's figure out what we want it to be." That project eventually became the giga coaster Orion.

 

I think the most interesting part is the CGA ride was going to have the same staggered seating that Behemoth, Diamondback, and Intimidator have instead of the inline seating the most recent B&M hypers have returned to having.

"Megabyte" sounds really fitting for the Silicon Valley, which CGA is in.  Especially with all the SV offices next to the park.  Though I wonder where would the coaster have been placed if it was built?

[grsupercity]

I really wanna see a park like this take a crack at a new Vekoma Hyper. The one that was proposed for Engerylandia looked really good. You would assume it would be a lot less then a B&M hyper

[leqant]

To be honest I'd take a next gen Vekoma (or a Mack) launch coaster over a B&M hyper

[leqant]

A bit late but I went to the Passholder Preview on Sunday 16th of May 2021

In order to enter, you mush reserve at the CGA website for a certain time.  You can enter later than the time specified but not earlier.  Park hours were 12 pm to 6 pm and you had to wear a mask at all times outside of eating areas.  The park was not crowded though the lines at security were a bit of a bottleneck with initially only 2 lines open.  While I was queueing for security, 2 more lines opened up and that made security much more quicker.  Season passes were made (and my picture was taken) at the entrance gate rather than at the regular season pass processing place like normal.

After entering, my first ride since the whole Covid thing was the Gold Striker and the line started from where I took this picture.  The ride was still quite rough and was aged but also still very fun.  Each group were separated by a row. 

The Whitewater Falls was closed for what looks like maintenance.  It was not the only ride closed that day though. 

After passing by the WWF, I tried to go on Bezerker but it was closed too.  Instead, I went on the Barney Oldfield Speedway.  The line was quite slow and the operations seemed a bit unusual from what I remembered.  The next ride I went on was Tiki-Twirl, where it was a shrt wait and they kept 2 empty seats between each party.

Next ride was Psycho Mouse, which had new paint not only on the tracks but also on the building.  Operations were bad on this ride as the did not dispatch a train until the train in front was at the final brake run.  Eventually, the started dispatching trains once the train in front was at one of the MCBRs.  Overall I waited 20-30 min for this ride

Parts of Camp Snoopy was closed for what seemed to be waterpark construction

The scenery for South Bay Shores looked really good in person, though I wish they kept the lighthouse or built a new one since it's in the logo.

Final ride of the day was Flight Deck and it was a walk-on.  They also turned on some of the theming displays, something I haven't seen in a long time.

Final view of the park.  Overall I had a fun day and it was a day I had been waiting for so long as my last time at the park was at Winterfest 2019, something unusual as normally I would go there quite often given that I live quite close to CGA.  Some other rides that closed (from what I saw) include The Demon, Star Tower, Orbit, and Delta Flyer/Eagles Flight, though the rides may have opened since I left.  The park seemed decently safe, although I did see a few people violate Covid safety rules

[VegasCoaster]

Went to CGA Monday and had a blast. Lines were a breeze right at opening. Managed to get 4 rides on RailBlazer and 1 on Gold Striker in the first hour and a half or so. This was my first time on RailBlazer, which was absolutely nutty, especially in the back. Gold Striker needs some TLC or topper track, but was still decently fun. Also got rides on Patriot and Flight Deck, both of which had decently long and slow moving lines due to training new staff or just slow ops (45 min and 1 hour+, respectively). My car on flight deck was a little odd as the whole thing vibrated just going through the station / up the lift, which I haven't had on a B&M. The park claimed that ride wait times would be updated on the app, which was 100% useless as the ride times were woefully wrong and had rides that were closed shown as open (and vice versa). Demon and Grizzly were both down, and I saw someone on a boom lift looking at the top of one of Demon's loops, so no idea when that'll open. Didn't go on any flats or the park's one operating water ride since the line was predictably long on a hot day (until Southbay Shores opens). They didn't seem to be selling FastPass (at least in the AM), which I found odd considering it'd be an easy way to make a bit more money, and we would have gladly bought it. COVID protocols weren't really enforced by staff except for a few. Distancing was probably the biggest issue, though there were definitely a number of maskless people in lines, on rides etc. along with the usual line jumping.

[KIEnthusiast]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPv5x0LLKIJ/?utm_medium=copy_link

looks

Amszing

[Bob325]

On 6/1/2021 at 11:48 AM, VegasCoaster said:

the usual line jumping

So, is line jumping a regular problem at CGA?  I thought it was just my unfortunate timing as there seemed to be a lot of school groups that day.  When I was there for my only trip in 2019, I experienced the worst line jumping I've ever seen.  I was line jumped in almost every line, including most rides, food and even the security line.  In the security line, several teen girls line jumped ahead of someone with clear disabilities.  Pretty shameless.  All the line jumping made for a very frustrating and disappointing day as I was excited to see CGA since SFGAm is my home park and I've been going there since it opened in 1976.

[michaellynn4]

I also went in 2019 but didn't notice any line jumping at all. Must've been the school groups.

[jjeerr]

im "working remote" today so I'm in line for railblazer (while on the phone vpn) , they are sending trains very well! 

[jarmor]

On 3/31/2021 at 11:49 AM, KIEnthusiast said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CM-LBffr4wo/?igshid=11pfe2lfses7p
looks cool. Could this be

the best Cedar Fair waterpark now?

. . .No.

Quote

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPv5x0LLKIJ/?utm_medium=copy_link

looks

Amszing

There is literally nothing to see but obnoxious close ups of signs and a roped fence. . .

[PKI Jizzman]

How's Great America these days? 

Flashback to December 2019. In town to visit a friend for his 30th and planned to have a perfect 3 hour window to get to the park to ride Railblazer, Flight Deck, Goldstriker..... and then the Bay area had historic flooding and the park was under water.

Now I'm back for his wedding and I'm looking at visiting on Sunday September 12th. Any notable rides closed? When it's open for weekends only on a Sunday how are the crowds? or is it just packed like every other park? They're open 11-7.

 

thanks!