Sean Menefee Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Thanks for taking the time to post a TR Josh. The connection between the park and the dolphin fountain up front is that SFDK used to be called Marine World before/after the park moved from Redwood City. It's a bit of a relic from the MWAUSA days. From the every trusty Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_World/Africa_U.S.A.,_California Marine World/Africa U.S.A., was a tourist attraction located in Redwood Shores, California. The park was named Marine World when it first opened. Marine World/Africa U.S.A. The Marine World/Africa U.S.A. site occupied approximately 66 acres (270,000 m2) of reclaimed tidelands of San Francisco Bay within the confines of Redwood City. Numerous shallow sloughs, which have long been filled in, are known to have meandered across the property in its natural state. The general area of the site was diked off from the bay about 1910 and was used for pasture until about 1946 when it was converted to salt evaporation ponds.(Earth Metrics, 1969) The site was then cleaned and leveled, and between 1964 and 1965, received about two feet of fill. Construction of Marine World took place between 1966 and 1968. Available topographic surveys indicate that surcharges of two to three feet were placed over some of the old slough areas prior to construction of the animal park. Marine World opened in July 1968. The park was owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company. Ralph Helfer bought out Marine World in 1972 when it went bankrupt and added a wildlife park and "jungle theater", renaming the park as Marine World/Africa USA. The park moved in 1986 to Vallejo, California, to eventually become Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. The land of the former Marine World/Africa U.S.A. is now occupied by the world headquarters of Oracle Corporation. -Sean The original Marine World Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 I must say it is a very nice park for what it's worth. Oh yeah, something I forgot to add, when we were at the Jelly Belly factory (and this is a true story) I did ask the nice lady at the desk After the tour what hours the Oompa Loompa's were rostered on this week, but she couldn't find the roster sheets. (Ok, the last part wasn't quite true, but I don't think I've ever laughed (or made anybody else around me) laugh so hard before in my entire life. It was a very funny moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 ^^ lol, I was being sarcastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Menefee Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Oops... Well in that case, my post above was for anyone not in the cool dolphin fountain info club then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansrubens Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Oompa Loompa's. I never heard of the Oompa Loompa's before but after a little research a finally found it out and indeed it is hilarious. ----Hans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 You don't know about the Oompa Loompa's? Off you go to the Sin Bin hans to learn your lesson. Well atleast you know a out Fawlty Towers, that's something. "Oompa Loompa Doompity Dee". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printersdevil78 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Josh, I love this TR! The continuing SkyMall saga alone is worth it! Great "artsy bird picture," too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwm1444 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 '..remember Kung Pow?' Yes..yes, I do Josh *sighs at lost early teens* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U2Rox Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 "I've got another puzzle for you"....... Thanks for posting Josh!! I was tempted to buy some stupid gadgets from skymall one year but I didn't!! I absolutely LOVE you photos of the Otter!! Soooo Cute!!! Thanks for the Info Sean I thoroughly enjoyed that piece of history as I was curious about that park! I was Educated (Edutained, Is that how it would be said?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Clinksalot Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Great stuff Josh. Can't wait for more. It was awesome to meet you and hang out in the Bay Area. I wish we could have done the entire trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Menefee Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Thanks for the Info Sean I thoroughly enjoyed that piece of history as I was curious about that park! I was Educated (Edutained, Is that how it would be said?) Lol, glad to hear my nerdy history rant was not in vain then. Cheers, -SM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Wasn't it Edutainment Roxy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 ^Hahaha!!!! "Education through edutianment!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Great TR so far guy, you have the most amazing shots of the adorable otter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted September 16, 2009 Author Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yeah, sooo..... I think you realize it's been a while since an update or even the conclusion to my SFDK section. I've got some news (bad or good depending if you hate this TR) Which is I have started my senior year and it blows!!!! Well... actually allot less that last year, but besides that, this means I won't be getting to updates as often as I would like. However I guess that means I get my thread to last forever where most people are more than halfway through! So I guess you can view it as me making the fun last longer or the pain last an eternity!!! Muhahahahah!!!! Here's the rest of my crappy SFDK update: Okay, There's the money shot! My camera literaly died three or four seconds after I took this, Thus concluding the SFDK pictures. Next...Gilroy Gardens!!! The theme park built by a mainiac! Next update coming....... NEVARH!!!!! (or whenever the **** I feel like) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share Posted October 2, 2009 Update: Gilroy Gardens, circus trees, produce themed rides, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk& Coaster and carousel walk back. Day two started with Gilroy Gardens, which I thought was pretty bizarre, but at the same time pretty awesome too for a park of its size. Robb told everyone that the parks designer, Michal Bonfante, was a complete maniac or something, which I thought was totally awesome as all great theme parks should be designed by maniacs. The main credit we had ERT on and the most memorable part of the ride was on the first drop there was a palm tree that was honestly less than three feet from the train. That was disturbing. They had one other credit, excluding the moral credit dilemma Matt and I debated (which I will discuss the patheticness of later) Other than that, The park was really nice looking and well designed, and the circus tree thingies were disturbing. Michal Bonfante said he talked to them. There were also lots of spinning flats themed to produce and lots of garlic stuff. My non-coaster highlight was the rock maze. That was awesome, well at least to me, because I am easily amused by mazes, playgrounds, IKEA and other random things in no way intended for my age group. That being said, the maze was AWESOME!!!! Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was nice, I wouldn't say it's better than Blackpool like the golden (biased) tickets claim, but it was still a great boardwalk park. I thought the Giant Dipper was totally awesome, and was amazingly smooth for a ride of its age. Oh yeah, and Matt broke the screen of his phone on our first ride. I was also the only one on the entire trip who loved the Hurricane, because it's fast, curvy and intense, or in other words everything you wouldn't expect from a tiny boardwalk clone. Everyone else trashed it. The park treated us really nice, and we had a great meal and beach party, as well as a photo walk back of the brass ring carousel and the Giant dipper. That was really cool. Other than that, the park had a kiddy credit, lots of random flats and allot of annoying dark rides. I say annoying because I hate dark rides unless their really well done, or not like the kind that smell like weird latex and paste. I got dragged on the haunted house by Matt and Paul. For me, the scariest part was at the end of the ride when the ride opp was screwing with me and told me that the security was going to take me away because I was carrying my camcorder on the ride. I was really glad he ended up joking. Ok, that was better. I think I'm getting better at not wasting my time writing a bunch of stuff. Now I just have to find a way to update more often, and work on my videos. BTW, I have in the works videos for all of the parks so far, I am just really slow and meticulous with video editing. I'll post some as I finish, but I have virtually no free time with applying to college and SATs and boring stuff like that. Meh. Next Up! Santa Cruz! I tired talking to this tree on the way out, but it didn't say anything back. Maybe because I'm only a sycopath when I'm around IKEA or Disney stuff. There's no end to funky trees Look! Annother waterfall! Pink flowers Not only can you walk through the garden and go through it in the monorail, The train even goes through it! Now that's creative! But it was real awesome how it went through the butterfly garden greenhouse. They also had a sketchy monorail thing. It was made of plastic and shook allot. Ok... Maybe it's not THAT great... BUT it's still awesome to me. Parks need more non-opp attractions like this to keep guests occupied. It's like happiness inside a pipe bomb or something!!! This almost arouses me. This is a POV shot. After lunch there was a TPR takeover of the rock maze! We had a box lunch of sandwhiches. The Cookies inside were heavenly. Ooohhh! look a waterfall!!! Matt is filming me, fliming him fliming me filming uhhhh...... While we were on the ride, Matt, Paul and I had an interesting conversation about "Birdwatching". Long Story. The rafts go close to the lake. Dinosaurs in a theme park! Someone call John Hammond!!! Oh wait... I just realized that's a bird. This is the Rainbow Garden. It is NOT a slow raft ride for families. The purpose of the ride is to spin the raft as fast as you can!!! That's part of the mushroom swing. More Produce flats. Now THAT, is what I call unique!!! As whorish as it may be, It's still worlds away from what Matt and I just did. Ok, Now it's time for an ACTUAL credit. Here's Matt in the front. This is my backwards POV of the Apple and Worm. Just thinking about this makes me want to cut myslef or something. Robb's review was "It makes an Awesome Noise" He was right. It went EEERRRREEEEERRREEEEERRRRHHH!!!! Matt and I saw Robb and KT riding the Apple&Worm, which Robb gave us the notion that it could be a credit. So I don't exactly know what was going threw my head, but after Robb and KidTumms got off, me and Matt decided to ride and debate weather it was a credit later. Looking back, I can't belive I even concidered counting that as a credit. Maybe I was too distracted by waterfalls or retarded looking trees. Oh boy... This is the sad and pathetic part of our visit.... Garlic Spin. It was more like "slowly turn inside a twelve ton concreete cage." They had some sort of water play thing that made toad noises. This is a picture of...something. oooooooooooooohhh....Ahhhhhhhhhh And it was surrounded by mountains. There's a big lake in the middle of the park. The water kindof looks like green Jell-O There were also waterfalls in the middle of the park. I took lots of pictures as a stared in awe. They had this one really big waterfall thing at one end of the park. Bird. Birdy Birdy Bird. This was a water playground or something. This park had lots of nice things like this for kids. I loved all the streams and ponds around the park. Critter Bushes... Yeah... I am facinated by waterfalls. I forgot to add that to my list of things which distory my attention span. Dr. Susse wuz hear Time to check out the rest of the park. Shweet. No lines. Praise thee, ERT. XXX is for PORNO!!!! this is not a family theme park!!! Oooooooooh Track. "Everyone Clench and Squish!" Yeah, screw the trees, there's a credit ahead, ZMOG!!!! It's the Roller Coaster Tycoon trees!!! Alright, enough landscaping. Lets head to Mine Train Roller Coaster One. Shrooms. This represents the tension of a fragile society and is stunning work of moder art. I made that up. Kill me. Cube thing. Just warning you now, incase your religion opposes pictures of circus trees or something. When you make a GG PTR, half of the pictures are of the circus trees. It's a rule. Empty parking lot. Yes that's right. No cheesy "cars with cloaking devices" jokes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share Posted October 2, 2009 Part two: Santa Cruz Beach Boarwalk That's it for this update! Next up is Califorina's Great America. Coming whenever I feel like it! (altough I wouln't reccomend reading it) One last view of dipper at night. "You are not allowed to skateboard while carrying roller skates" To allot of the trip participants over 21, the park after our beach party looked something like this. This ride had very strict rules. No Smoking food, meaning the cooking of beef jerky or other smoked treats while riding is strictly prohibited! I hated this ride. It smelled like old latex or parts of detroit mixed with grandma perfume. We see you dipper! Whoosh! I didn't even feel bad about this one, after the apple and worm! Kiddy Kredit. (no comment) I love this ride! Stop all the hate! This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Alright, now were all leaving Dipper. NOTED!!!! Now that's a big weel!!! main power motor. Motor room! Que the angelic chorus! This, however has nothing to do with soft drinks. These are soft drinks. They have nothing to do with the big dipper other than being next to it's moter room. It was even nerdier when we all waited for the train to catch on and then gasped in amasement as the chain wiggled. NERD SHOT!!! We are currently looking up the skirt of the big dipper. Ahhhhhh Blurry picture!!! Sorry, Video files don't reder into pictures too well. Now it's time for a dipper walk back! Shaws is probably a greek resturaunt on boardwalk or something and this must be where the meat for their gyros come from. This is the machine which brings the brass rings up to the riders. I always thought carosles were spun by magical unicorns. If you've ever wondered what the underside of a carosel looks like, well, here you go. Going down.... After Dinner we got an awesome backstage tour of the Brass ring carosel and the Giant Dipper. Success!!!! Tyler and mayo square complete! This is where we had our first TPR beach party of the trip! Paul and I got a really good laugh out of this. zoom! The station is inclosed. This ride is really photogenic. There was a caveman on the gondola... Logger's revenge. I don't know what I did to the logger that pissed him off so much. The darkride section of the park was under the log flume. Rock-o-Plane was amazing. I was the only one in my group who did it, and I nearly puked because I keapt pulling the bar real hard. This was a nice Boarwalk park. Crowded, but nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansrubens Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Good update. I skipped the darkrides in Santa Cruz and chose for some extra beer time instead. I did the Rock O plane together with Mikel and we hardly fit but the ride itself was really awesome. ---Hans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speeddeamon128 Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Great update Josh. Gilroy was a lot of fun. I didn't like SCBB that much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyyyper Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 "If you've ever wondered what the underside of a carosel looks like, well, here you go." Caption stealer! And don't worry Josh, you are not alone in liking Hurricane, I though the ride was pretty neat. I'm looking forward to CGA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groteslurf Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Damn, that was such a great day. Great update. Loved the captions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Awesome photo's josh as per always (why is it that everyone here can take some very good photo's?). I'm glad you got a photo of the Apple Worm ride, it shows off the ride's naturistic wonders If only the world had more parks like Gilroy. Josh though, when will you realise that Hurricane was NOT a good ride? Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I wouldn't rate it any higher than the Galaxy Coasters that are around. At-least the hurricane has a somewhat thrilling layout. I'll give it that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted October 3, 2009 Author Share Posted October 3, 2009 ^ Hater!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Just Admit it Josh, it was not a good ride. Come-on, you can say it, just 4 words, just 12 letters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 Day Four: California's Great America: Roller coasters, pavement, FlightDeck, Drop Tower and Trash cans!!!! The day started with a "huge"drive to the park which was located approximately 25.6 feet from our hotel. Allot of people already got the credits the first hotel night, but I stayed because I didn't have a platinum pass this year. I actually considered paying for a starlight ticket to hang out with people, but in the end I'm glad I didn't, since we had more than enough time at CGA as is and ended up leaving early. The bus ride home was epic. I will probably give an update on just that ride alone, followed by our surprise SFMM ERT that night! So, I guess I could say Great America.... Uhhh.... Had a parking lot.... And roller coasters.....random flats and pavement. Oh yes! And the infamous trash cans!!! There will probably be in this update roughly 25 trashcan jokes. So I'll let the pictures do the talking, but I'll still add my annoying comments to retain this West Coast PTR's consistent low quality! Notice as everyone else is already finished their entire trip report, I'm on day four. Whoooo. Although, really, I'm trying to make as much time as possible for updates, only I've probably whined about how busy this year is for me already. Reality show ride... Ok... Grizzly was closed untill 12. Zooom! This angle was cool. But it also makes my head hurt. When I think about it too long, blood comes out of my ears. YES! Robb videotapes something! Bingo Square! TPR members board the train... "Here we go Loopty-loop. Here we go Loopty-lie" Stop! It's Arrow Time! However the importaint thing to note is that EXACTLY one day after we visted, this ride looked like this only with the train still. Actuly this was probably one of the smoothest boomerangs I've ever been on. What better way to follow up "Old B&M" pain than with Vekoma pain! This was annother stunning name job. Though, personaly, I would have liked "The Crypt Cafe" more These riders are about to have their innocence stolen from them. But I don't blame him... After all it was a Vortex... OF PAIN!!! We also had Vortex ERT. I learned some very interesting Australian vulgar phrases by riding next to Paul! Ok, Well, At least to me it looked like this. (I'm not B.A. enough to break the CF legislature) I got tunnel vision almost every time, getting progressively deeper vision each ride. After the fifth time I decided if I rode it again I would have serious brain damage...Not that that would change anything in me already... Seriously though... This part was freaking INTENSE!!! Shhh... Don't tell anyone...but here's a POV picture of this part below: TopDeck Signage. We got some preety awesome ERT first. I thought I was at SFGA... Yeah... Now I know where I am... There was something really overpowering about the entrance... Here's AfterDeck or whatever. Meh. Prefered parking... I find it funny that Six Flags and Cedar Fair, though copying each other, essentialy switched places in the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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