hyyyper Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Hi TPR reader, in this topic you will find a complete literal and photographical report of the 2009 ThemeParkReview West Coast Tour. Below is a day by day overview, just click on the links to go to the report of that day. Have fun reading! Bas Day -2, Day -1 Outbound flight and sightseeing http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=798925#798925 Day 0, Day 1 Driving to the Bay Area and Discovery Kingdom http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=800951#800951 Day 2 Gilroy Gardens and Santa Cruz Boardwalk http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=801936#801936 Day 3 California’s Great America, driving south and Six Flags Magic Mountain http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=803385#803385 Day 4 Six Flags Magic Mountain (Part I) http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=804249#804249 Six Flags Magic Mountain (Part II) http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=805166#805166 Day 5 Universal Studios Hollywood, Scandia and Incredible John’s Pizza http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=806140#806140 Day 6 Seaworld and Belmont http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=807159#807159 Day 7 Legoland, Castle Park and Disneyland Resort http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=808771#808771 Day 8 Knott’s Berry Farm, Adventure City and Disneyland Resort http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=810005#810005 Day 9 Disneyland Resort http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=811692#811692 Day 10 Disneyland Resort http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=812988#812988 Day 11, Day 12 Return flight http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=814341#814341 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted August 25, 2009 Author Share Posted August 25, 2009 Bas does TPR West Coast Tour 2009 Day -2, Day -1 Outbound flight and sightseeing After waiting almost a year since the East Coast Tour, I was finally ready to head out to California to start the West Coast Tour 2009. I drove away from our little house at 3 in the morning and crossed to border into Germany. Once I got to Köln (Cologne) Airport, I got on the Germanwings flight Stansted in London. From Stansted I had to take to bus to Heathrow and from there NorthWestAir would take me to Minneapolis-St. Paul and eventually to Los Angeles. I arrived at the first hotel just before midnight, meaning I travelled 30 hours in total (!). Some of us hung out in the lobby for a while, but eventually went to bed. The morning after a lot of the trip-goers had signed up for the sightseeing day. For the majority of the day we ‘enjoyed’ getting stuck in LA traffic, but we occasionally stopped to see some random things. The first stop was at Rodeo Drive, where (we think) we saw Paris Hilton (we’re not sure), looked at a Beverly Hills sign and Mike ate a burger. After spending totally nothing in overpriced stores, we hopped back on the bus to visit Hollywood Boulevard. We saw the usual Walk of Fame, Celebrity footprints at Grauman’s Chinese theater and the Hollywood Sign (which I first thought was just a billboard on a building). But as we walked along the boulevard, it appeared that Jamie Foxx was being filmed for a movie. The third stop was Venice Beach, which was, as expected, a beach. There was very little going on and after we walked to the pier and back, we headed out for the bonus credit stop, Santa Monica Pier. The little park on the Santa Monica Pier, called Pacific Park, had just a single coaster, a few flats and a small ferris wheel. The roller coaster wasn’t all that spectacular. It has two helixes and some little bunnyhills, but it’s a credit! As the sun slowly sank to the horizon, more and more rides were taken over TPR-style. Eventually it was time to get back to the bus and make sure we got some sleep before the long drive up to the bay area the next day. LA! I made it! Some artsy "plane vs. boarding passenger vs. terminal window" Hmm...is this the prototype Delta outfitted with warp drive? "....To your left you can see the Atlantic Ocean....FOR THE NEXT 6 HOURS!..." Are we in the Matrix? Without any (major) traffic violations, I arrived at the aiport Attention people driving towards Köln Airport: Get out of the way, I've got a flight to catch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted August 25, 2009 Author Share Posted August 25, 2009 Part II Santa Monica Pier . . . from the Venice Beach pier! And mr. Walt not-so-hidden Mickey Re-election campaign? Hey look, it's me and 9 random letters on a mountain! Jamie Foxx getting filmed I first thought this was just billboard! Are we in Disney Studios? Yay, Hollywood Icebat in progress? Rodeo Drive Neighbourhood Sign Photo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted August 25, 2009 Author Share Posted August 25, 2009 Part III They had some nice moons in California too Nerd shot Yup, we're still at Pacific Park Beautifull sunset over the pacific A rollercoaster....IN THE SHADOW! Overview of the little park from the ferris wheel Some TPR-peeps waiting for the scrambler Swing ship takeover "Yes, I do believe your photo turned out exactly like mine" It may not look like much, but it's a credit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 YAY! Annother West Coast PTR! Nice Report Bas. I really liked your Pictures, they were really well done. Although I thought you lost your first camera... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speeddeamon128 Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 Nice first update Bas I'm looking forward to seeing your updates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 Bas does TPR West Coast Tour 2009 Day 0, Day 1 Driving upstate and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom In order to get to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and other parks in the bay area, we first had to get over there. So, we all hopped on a bus and started driving north. Unfortunately we only got 2 blocks before we bumped into the wonderful standstill that people call LA-traffic. Thankfully, there were lots of things to keep us occupied. While our ‘tour-bags-of-not-necessarily-crap’ were handed out, we experienced a Q&A with Robb. I won’t go into details, but after the session, everybody on the trip knew a lot more about Papier-mâché-volcanoes, lending out laptops and Jezus fixing coasters. As we passed by Six Flags Magic Mountain, Robb opted to play a game they usually play when driving alongside parks: How many coasters do you see operating? The results: X2: not operating Viper: not operating Tatsu: not operating Superman: not operating Déjà vu: not operating Riddler: not operating Batman: not operating Scream: not operating Goliath: not operating Colossus: not operating So, 30 minutes after opening all of the visible coasters weren’t running for a good 4 minutes we had SFMM in sight. Anyways, we tried not the think about it all that much and after more miles, snack time and other randomness we stopped to get some food. But after the food stop it was SHARK ATTACK 3 that kept us entertained for the rest of the drive. And believe me, entertaining it was. Eventually, we got to our awesome hotel. Why awesome? It has coaster-mosaic-murals, space invader room keys, an IHOP and a decent pool. As soon as everybody got themselves a bit settled, the pool area was invaded by snacks from almost every place on earth. And while eating all those snacks, I failed to take any pictures, sorry. The next day we went to the West Coast Bash at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, which was essentially a lot of people joining in on the West Coast Tour for a day. We started our day with EAT, exclusive animal time, where some animals were served, uh, brought for us. Soon after, we were put in the new tiger theater were a lot of people told lots of things about tigers. But onto the important stuff! Because after the tigers, it was time for Medusa ERT. The coaster was awesome, and my favorite in the park. The straight drop is just as awesome as the dives on other B&Ms, and the rest of the ride is just great. However, I do prefer the other Medusa/Bizzaro, and that’s basically because of the cobra-roll. The rest of the morning consisted of getting all the coasters in that weren’t open for ERT that evening, looking at animals, shopping for random souvenirs and defining the way of life. Cobra was just a regular kiddie, except that the snake in front was one of the coolest coaster trains I’ve ever seen. Boomerang wasn’t that bad for a boomerang, and Kong wasn’t that bad for it being an SLC. At lunch we got an Q&A session with a marketing guy and an operations guy. And while the marketing guy was acting like he was presenting for the home shopping channel, the dude from operations was able to tell us some cool things of how the park and coasters are run. After the lunch I joined the ‘bonus activity’, the jelly belly factory tour. Having never heard of jelly belly’s and no worries of getting all the credits, I figured I’d join up. The whole tour turned out to be a walkthrough-jelly-belly commercial and I discovered that I hate the candy and requested to visit an M&Ms factory next year. We got back in the park in the afternoon and did some of the flat rides. The topspin was the worst topspin I’ve ever been on. I don’t know why, but it ran only half a regular cycle (3 flips) and then broke down. We also got the remaining credits while everybody else was playing TPR-trivia. After the trivia was over, the ERT begun. With something special going on at the Tony Hawk Big Spin. The game was to fill a cup of water at the beginning of the ride, and trying not to spill water during the actual ride. Tony Hawk itself was a fun ride, and if you were lucky with the weight distribution, got could get an insane amount of spin. V2 (or V1.5) was not as fun as its full-size bothers, but it was different and during the sunset you could get a spectacular view of the park. Roar was a very decent ride, powerful but a little slow on the hills and high turns. One funny note about the Roar operations, though. Now, first of all, I am not a racist, and I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes, but it was too stereotypical to see 3 black female operators chatting loudly in the operator booth, while one white girl had to check almost all the restraints by herself. I rode Roar about 5 times in the back row and then went over to Tony Hawk to do the water challenge. I failed miserably at the game, but it was a lot of fun see to others fail as well. But when I got off the ride to take some more pictures my camera had decided to commit suicide and do nothing except for displaying ‘lens error’. So there I was, half a planet away from home with can $250 camera not functioning… Apart from the disaster with my camera, I really enjoyed the day. I’m sure that lots of people liked all the animals, but I was really positively surprised by the coasters in the park and the way the event was set up. Thanks to everybody who was even remotely part of it, Thank you. (And, managers, if you are reading this: Get that Topspin some decent programs!) Smack my tiger up! And tiger-training-people! Tiger! EAT with otters Good ROAR!, or should I say 'Not so bad ROAR' So, three days into the trip, we arrive at the FIRST (official) park of the trip Hi KerryB! And here is a bridge and prison island, you know the names. Hey look, it's San Fransisco. But then trough a bus window, miles away and shot with a cheap lens. Now, while I was enjoying watching the awesome motion picture that many know by the wonderfull name of SHARK ATTACK 3, I totally forgot to take pictures. So from SFMM, we suddenly are at the Avatar hotel with the mosaic murals! ...and Scream! Bummer and neither were Goliath, Superman, Colossus Hey look, there's Tatsu, and it's...not operating And this is what it looks like when to take the effort to stand up. This is what the bus looks like if you suspend yourself from a seat in the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 Part II Gnaarlggh...Me Eat Qbots! Icebat vs. SharkHat SharkHat! Paul look out! It's mega shark! Hi Tyler! Me&M&Ms Upside-down-ish-ness Chris, stop that death stare, you're spending too much time with Mike Austin ...whores More happy (disturbed) riders Happy (and some disturbed) riders Enough with the animal and animal people, time for some cool coasters 3 other pretty important animal people and a quarter of John's head Our host: EDGAR, thank you dude! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 Part III And here we are, the last picture taken with my good old camera. After this picture, I got on the ride, only to find out my camera was busted when I got off.....to be continued V 1 1/3 V 3..2..1..launch More V 1.999 Tony Hawk can give you a lot of spinage (spinage not spinach) More V 1.4159 V 1.56833678 'Better than the other 'roar', ROAR' They should make this a valentine's card Artsy zero-G shot Time for coasters, here's some Medusa-porn for ya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printersdevil78 Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Awesome TR! That Jamie Foxx picture came out really good, as did the ones of the Hollywood sign (among others). Amazing moon shot, too! Your recollection of the trip sounds much like mine, minus the drive to Germany and 30 hours of traveling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Bas does TPR West Coast Tour 2009 Day 2 Gilroy Gardens and Santa Cruz Boardwalk Beach So, after a night of grieving over my busted camera, it was time to head out to the next park. Gilroy Gardens is a beautifully landscaped park and EVERYTHING in the park is either a vegetable, or pretending to be one. As soon as we got to the park, we were walked back to Quicksilver Express, a very odd, but very awesome mine train. Hidden in a valley and surrounded by lots and lots of trees the ride is awesome as you fly down the track. Everybody got plenty of rides in thanks to ERT. After ERT, it was time to leave the park. At least, it was time for me to leave. I had called a cab to take me to the Best Buy at the other side of the city to buy a new camera. It took me about an hour, but finally I got back at the park with a brand new camera! I met back up with my group and we did some of the random stuff that the park had the offer. Stuff like a monorail with lap bars, a banana-shaped-pirate-ship, a rattlesnake-kiddie-coaster and a mushroom-wave-swinger. After the group lunch we took part in the hilarious Rock Maze takeover and soon it was time to depart and head for the Beach! Later that afternoon, we arrived at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk Beach. It was really crowded at the place, yet the lines for the rides weren’t all that long. The park was about half a mile long and was directly at the beach. As soon as we arrived, we hit the Hurricane. The Hurricane was a very intense ride and really surprised me for being so small and so cool. Almost right next to the Hurricane was the Giant Dipper, a pretty old woodie, but a pretty good one too. The ride was pretty smooth, even in the back seat. The entire ride was the opposite from what I expected it to be. The coaster still had good airtime, survivable laterals and a lot of speed. When we got to the third credit of the park, it seemed that the line at the kiddie coasters would take us too long, so we decided to skip it and have some food first. For some reason, TPR was given a beach pavilion, right next to the park and almost IN the ocean. After the food, something very disturbing called TPR-volleyball took place. I don’t have pics of it, as I was an participants, but I’m sure photo’s or footage of that crazy game will show up eventually. Following the volleyball, we got a backstage tour to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and although the our guide worked at marketing, he was actually very cool. He showed us the area underneath the (ancient) carousel/merry-go-round and the ride area of Giant Dipper. After the backstage tour, the sun was down and the night was slowly setting in. For the remainder of the day I bounced from group to group, riding some coasters and other random rides. I also walked to the sea, which provided an awesome view of the illuminated Boardwalk. This brings me to the point where I want to thank everybody at Gilroy Gardens and Santa Cruz for having us over and letting us have a kick-ass time at the parks. I also want to thank the Gilroy Taxi company and the Best Buy Gilroy just for being there, thank you! Giant dipper closeup As crowed as it looks on the picture...well, that's about how crowded it really was. Lift hill chain enthousianst, this one is for you, I know you are out there! And without any notification, we are in the Hurricane queue at Santa Cruz Little of the quicksilver express is visible. The monorail took us trough some of the parks gardens, including it's greenhouse Aparantly, there are Ents at Gilroy More lost people in the maze Since I had no camera on the first half of the day, here's the rock maze! New camera! The safness from the previous day was converting into nothing but positive energy when I got this baby up and running! (photo taken by Ben) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Part II But almost as important, we went backstage to Giant Dipper We got some real interesting stories about the history of the Boardwalk Giant Dipper flying by Our awesome guide, I forgot his name, but he was awesome! Everybody was crammed into the little maintenance area. Ever wondered what a carousel looked from the underside? Then you can stop wondering now. On our way to the beach pavillion The end of the boardwalk was very pretty More Hurricane A kiddie pretending to be Mantis Hi Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Part III Boardwalk Panorama, large version: http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/512/santacruzsmall.jpg Giant Dipper The log flume As did the pendulum-thing The shot tower also has a lot of swoosh-ness The old swimming and diving pool was coverted into a pirate's themed minigolf area. Hey..it's me (god I look terrible) Swoosh Santa Cruz knew Robbie was coming and painted his face on the wall, just for him In the area, you could get some awesome shot of the Dipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hang And Bang Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Great TR so far, Bas! This is obviously the work of a guy who knows the way of life (and his way around a camera). lol So where's the color version of the B&W photo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U2Rox Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Bas, Bas, Bas!!!!! I really enjoy your photos! Thank You!! LOVE the Medusa and V2 Photos!!! Glad I wasn't one of the ones that got stuck in the Rock Maze at Gilroy!! That really was funny!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printersdevil78 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 That panorama is awesome! That scene alone makes me happy you bought a new camera. I'll add my thanks to the Gilroy Best Buy on your behalf! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwm1444 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Great TR, Bas..I didn't realise the Giant Dipper was actually that..giant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 4, 2009 Author Share Posted September 4, 2009 Bas does TPR West Coast Tour 2009 Day 3 California’s Great America, driving downstate and Six Flags Magic Mountain “Wow, I can’t believe were only at day 3, so much has already happened on the trip and happened to me. I can’t grasp the fact that this trip is actually 10 days.” Today we visited California’s Great America. The park was very close to the hotel, if you tripped over the sidewalk, you would fall against the park’s gates. Ok, I might have exaggerated, but it was real close. Our day started with ERT sessions on the parks B&Ms, Top-After-Flight-Burn-Deck-Gun and Vortex. On the days before the trip, I did look up some of the coasters, and for some reason Flight Deck seemed the ugly duck of the B&M inverts. It was really short and only had 3 inversions. But o boy was I wrong. This was a perfect example of “size doesn’t matter”. The ride was simply incredible. From drop to brakes you get exactly *one* moment to catch a breath, the rest of the ride is either pushing you in your seat, or it’s pushing you even harder in your seat. It’s like an avalanche of element falling down on you, in the best way possible. After some amazing rides on Flight Deck, we all headed over to Vortex. And while most of the group got the credit and left with a headache, I really liked the ride. People complained about headbanging, while I got none after my first run, simply by ‘hugging’ the elements, just like you would ‘hug’ a turn while you ride a motorcycle. Vortex was my first stand-up and the feeling of riding a B&M while standing up didn’t fail to amaze me. To my opinion, when you are seated, you are more relaxed experience the coaster to a lesser extend. So after the ERT we had a lot of time to kill before lunch and apart from Grizzly and Demon opening later (but not even close to the displayed time), we had no trouble getting all the credits in. Some people actually borrowed the kid from a TPR-member that joined us for the day (I forgot your name dude, but you ROCK). Alright, a quick overview of the coasters. The medium-inverted-boomerang was the first of its kind that I rode and I really like the concept of being able to see each other while riding. As just like on Vortex, everybody but me was headbanging and hated the ride, while I got none and thought the ride was fun. Demon was a fun coaster, until the first corkscrew. I don’t know who designed that lead-in, but I think he was taking LSD, weed and 5 pounds of Prozac in a valium cocktail. The ride was fine, really, but going from the drop into the corkscrew was painful as hell. Grizzly was pretty rough, yet very slow at some points. The ride’s pretty bad, but KD’s Grizzly is worse. Psycho Mouse was pretty weak for a mouse and Survivor the ride (great name! (NOT)) was making me a bit dizzy with all the spinning and spine-crushing. During our lunch (which also wasn’t that bad a people will tell you) it was decided to leave the park early so we could make good time when heading back downstate and get some sleep for the next day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Thankfully, I could get some rides on Flight Deck before leaving the park was we got on our way back down to Valencia. Our in-drive entertainment thing time was Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, and once again, I was too busy viewing the movie, instead of taking pictures of it. So there are no pictures of it. At all. Anywhere in this PTR. Ok, now for something really cool. As we were approaching our hotel for the night, it was only 8:30 and Robb asked us if we would like to get into Six Flags Magic Mountain for just one hour. So as the bus went crazy Robb explained that he called with SFMM and actually got us in that night, and while a few really wanted to sleep, the majority went up to Magic Mountain. As we were about to enter the park, Neil, the awesome dude who was going to let us in, made a simple accouchement that, and I quote “just make sure you are at Goliath when the park closes”. How awesome! Nearly everybody went up to X2 straight away, but it seemed that because of the long queue line, we wouldn’t make it to Goliath until 15/20 minutes after closing. I had heard that X2 was super at night, but Matt and me played it safe and got out of the queue to ride something else and be on time for the ERT on Goliath. Besides, we had morning ERT on X2 the next day. That ‘something else’ ended up being Superman: The Escape. Because it’s a launched Intamin, it breaks down a lot, so if we could get it out of the way, it wouldn’t hurt us if it broke down the next day. Superman proved as much as fun as I remembered from the Australian Tower of Terror. The launch and the insane amount of zero-gravity is simply amazing. After Superman it was decided to try to hit Déjà vu, but as we got it line it was clear that the line was too long, operations terrible and Matt and I were seriously outnumbered by line jumpers. Instead, we took an easy walk up to Goliath. When we got to Goliath, it ran a few times with guests before closing. All the guests cleared out and all the TPR-members…..were still at X2! Seriously, Matt and I had Goliath for ourselves for 10 minutes or something. After that, other members slowly joined us. Goliath is (now) my favorite coaster in the park. The drop is insane, the tunnel awesome, the helix extremely intense (and that’s the way I like it) and the speed amazing. After 45 minutes on the awesome coaster, it was time to head out and make a futile attempt to get some sleep. Apparently, instead of only dropping us off and heading back to the hotel, our bus driver Larry joined the event and so the bus was still parked and Larry drove us back to the hotel. Which should give you a pretty good indication of awesome this Larry-person is. So I hereby want to thank the people at California’s Great America for the awesome morning ERT and stay at their park, and I want to thank Robb, Neil and Larry for getting us to, into and back from Magic Mountain that night. Thanks guys. This one is for you 'predrop' enthousiasts Vortex (trough the bushes) FlightDeck going to hyperspeed Zero-G-roll More loopage Train coming out of the first helix Ah, more FlightDeck The inverted boomerang, which broke down the next day The Grizzly But I guess some people liked it Psycho Mouse was your average mouse Next up was Vortex Heh, there's me again Welcomebackguyshowwasyourrideonflightdeck? ERT started with the awesome Flight Deck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 4, 2009 Author Share Posted September 4, 2009 Part II ...wow, this might be one of my best pics on the trip. (Larry, if you want this full-size, it can be arranged) See that, those are happy people. You want to know why? Because of the awesome Goliath ERT! As we walked back, Tatsu was looking gorgeous. Thank you operators! Thank you X2 for keeping everybody away from Goliath And this is what the train looked like for a long time And then it was time for Bonus ERT on Goliath Superman Riddler's skyline at night Is it a bird, is it a pla....oh nevermind You can only ride superman if you're with 3 guys and a girl. As soon as we got back to the hotel, we threw the suitcases in the room, and went to SFMM, thanks to this guy! Bus-drive-onride-sunset-picture? But, more importantly: Flight Deck It seems we are at a CF-park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groteslurf Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 “Wow, I can’t believe were only at day 3, so much has already happened on the trip and happened to me. I can’t grasp the fact that this trip is actually 10 days.” I was thinking exactly the same that day. It seemed like the trip was already going on for 6 or 7 days while only 2 days had passed. The Goliath ERT was probably my favorite ERT of the trip. First because it came so unexpected and secondly like you said, 90 % of the other trip participants were indeed at X2 and we were riding Goliath during the first 20 minutes or so with only a few people. Also a big thank you to the ride ops for riding along with us those first 20 minutes as there had to be minimum 9 people on the train to ride. Your last picture is indeed a beauty. Great TR and pictures Bas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iplf Posted September 5, 2009 Share Posted September 5, 2009 Prachtige foto's man, amai! Very nice pics dude. I love em! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 7, 2009 Author Share Posted September 7, 2009 Bas does TPR West Coast Tour 2009 Day 4 (Part I) Six Flags Magic Mountain So here’s a little thing. The usual number of pictures that made it into this trip report has been around 30-40 per day. But, on the Six Flags Magic Mountain day, even when you take all the bad pictures away, I still ended up with about a 100 pics that day. So I’ll split the day into two pieces. After we got minimal sleep due to last night’s awesome ERT that lasted longer than planned, everybody was beaten down. But with about 30 (out of 46) of us wearing the ‘Take the tunnel’ and with a foresight of lots of coasters that feeling soon faded. We were once again escorted into the park by the very awesome Neil. As soon as we got to the good side of the gate there were four (yes 4!) coasters open to us. Because a lot of people got X2 last night, there was only 3 of us who headed out for X2 that morning. After arriving in the station, it was still the three of us. And after 2 rides (last row outside (ouch) and front row inside (less ouch)) some other people showed up and I took off on my own. I must say that X2 was an awesome ride, the concept of the rotating seats is awesome, the execution of it was shaky and painful. Nonetheless, the ride was awesome and it surprised me how good it was. Since Viper was right next to X2, I went over there just to get the credit in. For some reason, there was no one but be at the ride, and I left as soon as I got the credit in. From all the Arrow’s I’ve ridden, Viper wasn’t that bad, but it’s far from good. The next coaster on the list was Revolution, which was also deserted. The ride is actually pretty cool, flying through the forest and eventually the 1st modern loop. I can only image how good the ride must have been with lapbars. As I got to Tatsu, I wondered if I somehow didn’t receive my cloaking device, as for the 3rd time that day, I was the only person riding the coaster! Anyways, not that I’m complaining, but I just wondered where the other 45 people went all of a sudden. The first few rides on Tatsu I stayed in front row, but eventually moved to the (more powerfull) back row until ERT was over. Tatsu is an amazing coaster. From the ground, It kinda ruins the view, but while riding, the view is amazing. Then there are the cool twisting inversions and the motherf…. huge pretzel loop, which is extremely powerfull. When the ERT came to an end, we were given out Gold Q-bots and I teamed up with Jeremy. We quickly decided that we would take it easy, as there was plenty of time. Also the temperature was trough the roof that day, another reason not to rush things. The first coaster we rode was Déjà vu, as that one would be open with the opening of the park, and would have no line at all. Déjà vu wasn’t a bad ride. Typical of a vekoma, it was rough and shaky, but the height and the vertical towers really made up for it. Also, the capacity was really low. I wish they installed a MrFreeze-esque double loading station. From Deja, we walked up to the mountain to do Superman (Jeremy needed the credit), Ninja and Goldrusher. While Ninja wasn't as good as Big Bad Wolf, It was fun ride, especially with the short lift at the start and the long one being at the very end. And Goldrusher was just a minetrain, nothing more. From Deja, we walked along main path and got Riddler’s Revenge and Batman as we continued. Riddler’s Revenge is probably one of the best coasters I’ve been on. The standing-up gives a real boost and the inversions flow beautiful into each other. And of course there is the station music. If you have not heard it yet, do it now and you will see it is the best station music in the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCV-7gxJI0E&feature=related Batman really surprised me. I was expecting something just like B:TR at Six Flags Great Adventure, but somehow Six Flags Magic Mountain duct-taped a jet engine to theirs because the ride was a lot more powerful. Even the most boring part (long turn before corkscrew) was very up to speed. Then it was time for lunch. To me it was the best and worst meal at a park. The lunch was at Johnny Rockets and we got an enormous cheeseburger and ditto milkshake (way to go SFMM!). Now that was the great part. Why was it also the worst meal? I’ll continue in part II, but now, onto part I of the pictures! Ninja..sort of. And it's running pretty good too! Hey look, Superman is running The sun was very cooperative that day. More Tatsu The ride's a bummer, but I does look pretty. Hi Terminator, I'll be riding you tonight! (uhm, err, that's not what I meant) Deja Vu, awesome concept, but unfortunately build by vekoma. Hi Matt, Hi Josh That this is huge! (and the pretzel loop is pretty large too) Now, for some reason Viper didn't make me feel like taking pictures, so here is Revolution. "...Is everybody in..." Where is everybody to begin with? The queue had a pretty neat view down the mountain. Ride sign! X2 was testing as we walked up to the ride. Where's is everybody? Come on cowboy, let us in and ride your coasters! I wouldn't mind waking up to this every morning. Now how often do you wake with such a view? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted September 7, 2009 Author Share Posted September 7, 2009 Day 4 (Part I) Part II I guess Batman wants some SuperZoom too... Back to the batman While at Batman, Riddler decided to break down. Why it broke down is a mystery Superman: SuperZoom I got a different fever and the onl...Oh for god's sake, nobody read these anyways. People riding batman As you can see, operations where VERY fast today Batman station POV (?) Supeman was to be seen from about every spot in the park. I last Riddler picture, I promise. (at least for now ) I gotta have more Riddler! I got a fever, and this only prescription is: More Riddler! Riddler's paths made nice spot for taking Batman-pictures. More loopness! Art! How cultural of me, not? One of the dive-loops (can't remeber which) Ridder's first inversion, the lifthill looping, loop Back to the 'real' coasters Goldrusher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 Awesome Pictures. I found it kind of funny how you could see me and Matt all the way up to X2, since we were the only people who were sprinting to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groteslurf Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 Great pictures. Your camera is much better than mine. Some very impressive and sharp pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now