Shavethewhales Posted July 25, 2009 Posted July 25, 2009 Had an AWESOME trip to SDC last weekend. The park looks better than ever, despite nothing new to experience. In leu of a new ride, the park has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb and every knook and cranny has been cleaned and fixed up. Old effects and animatronics that I didn't even know existed before are working again. Parking is still free (unless you're a sucker for "premium spaces), food is still cheap (less than $12 for a full meal with dessert), and you still don't need any type of fast-pass system to enjoy your day, even with many thousands of people in the park. Speaking of fast-pass systems though, the park is dipping their toes carefully in those waters this year, with the introduction of the Trailblazer pass. For $20 you get 6 free cuts in line, essentially. Now many of you enthusiasts from the coasts may be wondering why SDC is going with such a soft system rather than a full que-bot sysetm such as DW - the answer is somewhat complicated. SDC has a very interesting base of patrons, a group with very different expectations than typical theme park goers. If a typical fast-pass system were to be suddenly installed, the park would have big boycott on their hands. So it's a careful experiment to see exactly how they can institute such a program without disenchanting many of their long-time guests. SDC has only been playing the theme park game for about 8 years now. I should also note that the Peter Gossamer Magic Show was fantastic as well. It's almost more of a comedy routine than a magic show, but there are a lot of great tricks too. I finish this off with bunnies. They actually sell these for about $20 I believe This was cool - it's some type of steam-powered saw they use to build birdhouses. This was all a parking lot 3 years ago. GE has really filled out. Lot's o rock has been dug up. Maybe it will be used as well. Station? That's the old ropes tower Looks like some of the old Landing novelties will be re-used in the new area. Oh yeah, construction. Heavy machinery has returned to the site. Believe it. mmmm Waits for Wildfire are usually pretty small thanks to the big B&M trains. Here's the view from the hillside the ride is built on. The condo's kinda ruin it some, but there's vast expanses of undeveloped land you can see from the top of the lift. The shot of Wildfire everyone has. There's very little to tell you about how big this ride is until you're about to enter the station and see this. That's a 155 ft drop off the side of a hill. Now on to Wildfire, the park's gargantuan steel coaster that launched them into the rides-based theme parks racket back in 2001 I don't actually know how the Trailblazer pass works. I guess you just walk down the exits and show them your pass. This is where the line for PK started later in the day - all the way down the hill from the station. Still, that's only a bit over an hour's wait with 3-train ops. Always start off the day with PK - it's usually the only ride with a much of a wait in the park.
CorkscrewFoley Posted July 25, 2009 Posted July 25, 2009 Wow, I can't believe how photogenic SDC is. I do hope to get there soon.
fisher1095 Posted July 25, 2009 Posted July 25, 2009 That's the cheapest theme park food I've ever seen, and it looks delicious...Go SDC!
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