Memorial Day at California's Great America

[toxicphreke]

On Sunday May 24, the Mrs. and I decided to roll out of Stockton after work for a night at Dave & Busters and then a day at CGA. We haven't been to Great America since 2001 and had many reasons for not returning. In 01 we found the staff to be slow and lazy, park cleanliness poor and just overall not worth the time.

 

We took advantage of a package rate at the Hilton which shares the parking lot with CGA of $150 for the room and two tickets to the park. Since we didn't get into Santa Clara until about 7pm we decided not to use the "after 3pm the day before" feature of the tickets. I would have allowed us to get into the park after 3pm the day before we use the full day ticket for just $10. Since this isn't a Dave & Busters review I'll just say that it was great and move on. Oh and that it is about a 15 min drive from the park/hotel. The hotel too, was nice. Clean, friendly and with free parking which we were allowed to use the following day even after check out time.

 

On to the park! We lined up at the gate at about 9:30 am when the park was to be open at 10. The cloud cover broke and the sun came out just as the park opened about half of the gates. First impression of the park, very clean with the plants and flowers looking very nice. We had our picture taken and then move to ride Flight Deck (which I last rode as Top Gun). I think there may have been 1 train dispatched before us or we would have been first ride of the day. Very smooth and fun and the pond didn't smell bad as it has in the past. Rode Flying Eagles for the first time ever. Much more fun that it looks. Again no lines yet. Noticed that Firefall had no wait at all so I rode that with out the Mrs. she saw too chicken for it. This ride looks a lot more fun than it was...perhaps I had a bad program, but it didn't do much for me.

 

Time for my first complaint...Delerium. While it had no line at all. I learned that "the light didn't come on. sorry, bro, you cant ride". This is the first time I've ever no been able to ride something based on my size. That is to say i'm not a very big guy. I'm about 5'10" 205 lbs. The guy really tried to pin me in, almost to point of pain so perhaps it's good I didn't ride. I don't blame the ride op, he really did his best to allow me to ride.

 

Had about a 5 min wait for Psycho Mouse. The underside of the ride has seen much love since I rode in 2001, then it was all weeds, now it's grass and gravel. Not a bad little coaster. Very short 2 cycle wait for me to ride Survivor the ride. Very smooth and fun. Next had about a 3 train wait for the front of Grizzly. Seemed a little slow, but I was riding it early in the day. The Mrs. chatted up the girl working near our waiting zone and I found her very polite and professional.

 

I decided to ride Invertigo for the first time since it opened way back when. I remembered not enjoying it in the past and wanted to see if it had changed. I has not. I think my ears are still bleeding from it. Almost no wait for the front of the Demon and found it showing its age. Much more jerky and shaky than I remember. The Mrs. summed it up with "ouch". The park was still at this time (about noon) a lot more empty than I had expected.

 

Mrs. Toxie want to eat at Nicktoons Cafe since she really wanted the hot roast beef sandwich. So we hopped on the Delta Flyer and rode across to the back of the park were it would be a shorter walk. Get to Nicktoons Cafe and learn about the biggest flaw in CGA, food service. This place is a buffet/caffeteria style restraunt. The line stretched nearly out the door, we got our food, drinks, and kept waiting...to see why this was taking so long. The had just one cashier working at lunch time near a kids area of the park. We find some seats after paying for the food and see trash bins overflowing and a LOT of debris on the ground.Total time from getting in line to first bite about 30 mins. We finished up just as they found more help by opening 2 more cashiers and cleaning up the dinning room. Mrs. Toxie finished up her pudding near the exit of Endeavor. From this seat it was clear the legacy of Cedar Fair parks. I counted 9 trash cans withing about 20 yards.

 

Next rode Sponge Bob 3D with no wait, a lot more fun than I expected. We walked around the water park area since that was new since we last visited. The Mrs. told me that we could try it next time (shocking since I know she hates water parks).

 

Rode Loggers Run after about a 10 min wait. Didn't get too wet but enough to cool down a bit. Decided to give Survivor another go. A little longer line now at about 15-20 mins. Still fun. At this point we decide we want a little snack. Go to the Coke stand near Drop Tower, order 2 Cokes and a churro. Was told that the registers tape was broke or something and I couldn't buy anything. We walked to the front area near Vortex to the next Coke stand that sells churros and was told the same thing. This is the first time I've seen an amusement park that DIDN"T want my money. Food service at this park SUCKS.

 

I then rode Vortex with no wait for the front row. A lot of head banging going on here. We then decided we had done all we wanted to do and since this park didn't want any more of my money to head for home. We had planned on getting the little key chain pictures like we had in 01, but I had a bad taste in my mouth from not having Coke in it so we just left. Had a nice walk across the parking lot to the hotel lot and rolled out at about 5pm.

 

Overall we had fun. For a holiday weekend the Monday at the park was very slow in my mind. This meant short lines except for food. If they can fix that I would score the place higher. It's not Disney but it was a nice little get away.

 

edit: They now have cheerful people who sweep up the park and hand out maps. The bright yellow shorts they wear are no where near as sunny as their personalities. Every one of the sweepers I was near had big smiles and they asked how my day was. This scored points with me.

[KGA29]

Noticed that Firefall had no wait at all so I rode that with out the Mrs. she saw too chicken for it. This ride looks a lot more fun than it was...perhaps I had a bad program, but it didn't do much for me.

 

It's very possible that you had a bad program. Since there was no line, I'm assuming your ride wasn't very full. The ride experience when the gondola is full is much better than just a few people. It has to do with the weight.

 

Time for my first complaint...Delerium. While it had no line at all. I learned that "the light didn't come on. sorry, bro, you cant ride". This is the first time I've ever no been able to ride something based on my size. That is to say i'm not a very big guy. I'm about 5'10" 205 lbs. The guy really tried to pin me in, almost to point of pain so perhaps it's good I didn't ride. I don't blame the ride op, he really did his best to allow me to ride.

 

Maybe you have big shoulders? It seems like everytime that I go I see someone get kicked off. The operators do everything that they can to try and fit the riders, but it doesn't work every time.

 

I then rode Vortex with no wait for the front row. A lot of head banging going on here.

 

If you thought that the front row had a lot of head banging, I'm glad you didn't ride the other rows. The front is the smoothest on Vortex.

 

They now have cheerful people who sweep up the park and hand out maps. The bright yellow shorts they wear are no where near as sunny as their personalities. Every one of the sweepers I was near had big smiles and they asked how my day was. This scored points with me.

 

These uniforms are new this year and in my opinion, they do look great!

 

Maybe you just had an unlucky day for the food service because usually they are pretty good about that. I'm sure you could have gone to one of the restaurants or the Food Festival to grab a Coke.

[Angry_Gumball]

About Demon, try sitting in the second to last seat (nose of last car for some leg room) for a smoother ride. The only part (which probably has nothing to do with age) is the bad transition into the first corkscrew...it's like banking a track about 70 degrees, then twisting it upward causing some painful laterals.

 

Also, about not being able to ride Delirium, I saw this one guy at Santa Cruz, a little on the larger side who couldn't ride Fireball (a ride very much like Delirium right down to the seat style and restraints). The operators kept trying to get the restraints to lock but couldn't. I kinda felt sorry for him as he left.

 

I've never dealt with their food service much other than the buffet during the Haunt, or filling up my souvenir cup, which those went fine.

 

Glad you had fun, I need to get my butt out there again soon, maybe when Finals are over...swamped with projects!

[John Peck]

On Delerium, as well as the other Chance Revolution rides, the end seats are a little bigger than the middles. Which seat were you in?

[toxicphreke]

i was on an outside seat..i guess i do have a bit of a barrel chest though. I'm not too sad about not ridding it.