coasterfreak80 Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Last month, we took a week long trip to San Francisco, CA. Rob (coasterbear30) and I (coasterfreak80) decided that, while in the San Francisco Bay Area, we would visit some of the nearby theme parks: California's Great America in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. That Friday, we started with CGA and took a local friend, Rhett, along. The park had absolutely no crowds and each ride was a literal walk on. We soon decided that, according to us, the reason may have been due to the lousy selection of roller coasters. Don't get us wrong, the rides were okay but certainly not up to par with the larger Cedar Fair parks. Vortex was uninteresting, Invertigo was a tad painful, Grizzly was the most boring coaster EVER, and Demon was one of the most painful steel coaster in existence. On the other hand, Psycho Mouse was surprisingly fun and Flight Deck was (although not as good as it's sister at Carowinds) great. Survivor The Ride was awesome; in fact, the entire assortment of flat rides were kick-ass! We missed both kiddie credits due to one being closed and the other due to ride ops nazis who refused us to board the trains without children. We hit every credit in this park that we could in less than two hours. More to come.... Go catch! HMS Endeavor Scott and Rhett about to scream. FKA Drop Zone Rob loved Delirium...all four times. Hip-smashing goodness. Rob and Rhett love spinny-go-pukey rides. POS Die, Demon, die! The power of Christ compels you! Lift hill porn. Not as good as your sister, Afterburn, though. YAAAWWWNNN! IAM SOFA KING WE TODD ED! Vertical loopage with a side of Vekoma head trauma! Sleeping before we even rode it! Looks like we're in the right place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpxtreme Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Did you guys ride The Orbit, or get any pictures of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 On Saturday, we took a drive over to the coast for a half-day at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. It was a beautiful California day, perfect for a day near the water. The park, for our first boardwalk, was pretty clean. One thing we must mention is that this park employs THE HOTTEST security guards we have ever seen! We decided to start our day towards the end of the boardwalk with a kiddie credit and worked every ride on the way back to the front. Plenty of suspending, spinny-go-pukey, hip-smashing flat rides to choose from! Especially one called Rock-O-Plane, which had spinning metal baskets of near death. We definitely felt like the rickety thing was going to fall over at any moment. I (coasterfreak80) earned my 100th credit and Rob (coasterbear30) earned his 75th credit, both on the Giant Dipper. We felt this historic coaster was fit for such a momentous occasion. The ride itself was, on average, a good one; not as rickety as some other (considering it was built in the 20's) but not as smooth as a few. Hurricane, the park's other "big" coaster, totally sucked. The banked turns were side-splitting, the drops were gut-wrenching and the 80-degree curving drop was excruciating. Aside from this, the park was fun and offered plenty of good flat rides. More to come... OUCH! Has anyone seen the Lost Boys? interesting... 75 100 Holy $h|t dude, we're gonna die! This is the scariest ride ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 Did you guys ride The Orbit, or get any pictures of it? No. This is one of the only flat rides that we didn't hit. We have one here in our home park SFOG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DallasAlvey Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 I just was at Santa Cruz Boardwalk. We got to go twice on Big Dipper because we rolled right through the station. It was pretty cool because you get a lot of air time on it. We also waited about 15 to 20 minutes for a lame train ride. Not only that the lines are ridicules! We were there on a Thursday in Febuary so what's up with that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 And finally, Sunday we drove to Vallejo for the last park on our trip, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. We unfortunately missed Tony Hawk's Big Spin by a couple weeks so there will not be any photos here of that ride. This was Rob's second trip to this park and my first. Unlike the other Six Flags' parks, this was a great mixture of thrills and animal exhibits...similar to a small Busch Gardens Africa/Sea World. Roar was our first coaster of the morning and was the longest line in the park both times we rode. This was my first time riding Millennium Flyer trains and they are the most comfortable wood coaster trains. Every wood coaster should have them! We hit V2 several times in a row as it was a walk-on. Although I have argued with several people, including the web master of www.rcdb.com, I consider the heartline roll on this coaster to be an inversion. I was definitely INVERTED during this maneuver! This was Rob's favorite Intamin inverted coaster. My favorite is still Volcano. There were several more coasters to mention throughout the park, including the popular B&M Medusa (with the unique Sea Serpent inversion). Of note on this ride, a swarm of bees had overtaken the start of the lift hill and had us all scared of being stung. The train literally parted the swarm as we went up the lift! Boomerang, as with all other boomerang models, was terrible and barely worth the credit. We missed the Roadrunner kiddie credit, again because of not having children with us, even though we stood in line for 10 minutes waiting to ride. We did manage to get the other kiddie credit on Cobra without a problem. Here there was also a great assortment of flat rides, including a top spin. Unfortunately, at least half of them were closed the day we went. I refused to ride Kong, a Vekoma SLC, because it wasn't worth the hour and a half wait just for a credit. Sorry guys; I'm just not that big of a credit whore. The worst top spin program ever. BANG-A-RANG!!! In the swarm... Inversion...period. Coaster horizon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechanic Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Nice PTR. Thanks for sharing the photos. Until reading this report I had no idea that V2 was listed on rcdb as not having an inversion. If that roll on the way up isn't an inversion then maybe I just don't understand the definition of "inversion". Oh... Wait... Yes I do, and that is an inversion no matter what rcdb says. I can see where there could be confusion because, in V2's original form, the twist on a vertical spike wouldn't constitute an inversion. In it's present state however, I can't see how there can be any argument. Well, I can, but whoever argues that it's not an inversion is simply wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpxtreme Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 It is definitely an inversion. If my legs are above my head, then it's an inversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 Mechanic and dpxtreme: Thanks, guys! I appreciate your support on the inversion matter but, to everyone else, let's please not debate it. Robb shut down my last topic due to arguing whether an element was an inversion or not, and I definitely do not want a repeat of that experience. Thanks again! Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pianojohn Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 On Saturday, we took a drive over to the coast for a half-day at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. One thing we must mention is that this park employs THE HOTTEST security guards we have ever seen! PICTURES! Seriously, thanks for the photo TR. I will be heading out that way in late July and needed to see what I would be up against as far as the parks go. Planning to hit SFDK and GA on a Thursday and Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 It isn't great quality and you cannot see the face but this dude was 6'4" at least and all muscle. WOOF! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Gumball Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 Great pictures & report. One thing SCBB does not fail on is a great collection of flats. By any chance, did you ride the Wipeout? (The breakdancer tucked under the boardwalk, has light show during ride) It is one of my favorite Spin & Pukes along with Orlean's Orbit over at CGA, Fireball, and Delirium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 29, 2008 Author Share Posted May 29, 2008 I just was at Santa Cruz Boardwalk. We got to go twice on Big Dipper because we rolled right through the station. It was pretty cool because you get a lot of air time on it. We also waited about 15 to 20 minutes for a lame train ride. Not only that the lines are ridicules! We were there on a Thursday in Febuary so what's up with that! We saw that train ride and couldn't believe that so many people were standing in line for it. Instead, we took another ride on the woodie. I really liked the curved loading station for the ride; I have never seen one in person like that before. I thought the trains were really ugly though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 29, 2008 Author Share Posted May 29, 2008 Great pictures & report. One thing SCBB does not fail on is a great collection of flats. By any chance, did you ride the Wipeout? (The breakdancer tucked under the boardwalk, has light show during ride) It is one of my favorite Spin & Pukes along with Orlean's Orbit over at CGA, Fireball, and Delirium. Thank you! No, I guess we missed that one. Doesn't look like it was too big of a loss though. I like Fireball at SCBB better than the Delirium at CGA though. The ride program was much better at SCBB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbear30 Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 I was the other guy on this trip and I liked Delerium better. It spun a lot more. I love spinney go pukey rides, Scott doesn't so much. The Fireball swung higher, but didn't spin as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laqueefa Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 You did yourself a HUGE favor by not riding KONG at SFDK. After riding I feel like..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak80 Posted May 30, 2008 Author Share Posted May 30, 2008 ^ That's brutal, dude! Nasty! They're all like that though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Gumball Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 ^^Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the ghost Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Nice Pics. If your ever in Cali again just PM me as I am always weilling o go to Disneyland. I would move there if it were not for school and lie in the haunted mansion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDedios432 Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 AND hot security guards, . If you guys ever find yourself in SoCal, we should definitely hit up the parks down here! Love Disneyland and Knotts especially Then we can have some fabulous martinis at the Abbey in WeHo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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