Photo TR : West Coast Trip - Benny's view

Groteslurf · August 30, 2009

My first TPR trip.

We decided to fly into SFO so that we didn't have to do the busride btwn San Francisco and L.A. twice. This gave us time to explore San Francisco and do some shopping before meeting up with the group on Thursday.

Day 0 : exploring San Francisco.

My soda can versus some of the skyscrapers.

Let's shop.

Obligatory picture

Too bad the 'needle' building didn't have a tourist level.

The evening we arrived, we were already surprised how dead the Fisherman's Wharf area was, but also in the morning on a weekday, there was not really that much to see. So we decided to walk to the city centre.

View on San Francisco from Pier 39.

There are sealions too

Thank you.

... and some random bridge.

From where you have a great view on Alcatraz ..

Early in the morning, we were already at Pier 39.

After a very long flight, we arrived at our hotel at the Fisherman's Wharf. Due to the jetlag, we woke up very early. This pic was taken in front of the hotel at 6 am.

Groteslurf · August 30, 2009

Day 1 : Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Final shot at SFDK. Day 2 to follow in a few days.

& Tony Hawk with the great water challenge.

& Roar

ERT on V2

After buying some Belly flops, it was time to return to SFDK where group dinner and more ERT was waiting for us.

Silly hats were required.

In the afternoon we visited the nearby Jelly Belly factory

During lunch, some more animals showed up.

Lots of animals at SFDK.

But the ride itself was quite nice.

Some weird coaster.

Me on the frontrow (pic taken by Bas)

I got 4 rides on Medusa during our 15 minutes of ERT.

Medusa is a great coaster.

A view we would see a lot during the trip.

The GP had to wait to enter till we had our ERT on Medusa.

I couldn't resist taking a picture from the GP waiting to enter.

Pussies that swim.

A pussy show

And an introduction to their newest show.

But no worries, it was a GREAT day. First we had close encounters with some of their animals.

I only new a few people of the group in advance, so with the additional 100 people on the bay area bash, I really didn't know anymore which people were in the WCT group and which ones were only there for the Bay Area Bash.

Bay Area Bash at SFDK.

Jds03 · August 30, 2009

Nice Report! It's good to see new WCT trip reports coming in every day!

printersdevil78 · August 30, 2009

Great report, Benny! I especially like the San Francisco pictures since that's one place I didn't get to go myself this time around. Looking forward to more!

Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess · August 31, 2009

Looks like you had a great time in the Bay Area. I was just down there myself last month. Glad that you enjoyed Medusa too, it's my favourite coaster at the moment. What do you think of the hangtime on V2?

Can't wait to see more pictures!

Groteslurf · August 31, 2009

Looks like you had a great time in the Bay Area. I was just down there myself last month. Glad that you enjoyed Medusa too, it's my favourite coaster at the moment. What do you think of the hangtime on V2?

Can't wait to see more pictures!

You mean the hangtime on V2 in the twist ? It's very weird but I liked it.

Hangtime on the straight track like they have at Dorney park would be great though.

I'll try to upload the next part tomorrow or Wednesday latest.

Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess · August 31, 2009

You mean the hangtime on V2 in the twist ? It's very weird but I liked it.
Hangtime on the straight track like they have at Dorney park would be great though.

I'll try to upload the next part tomorrow or Wednesday latest.

Yes, I mean in the twist. I sat in the middle closer to the back I think and I got quite abit of it. I liked it too, it helped me officially overcome my fear of hangtime. It is kinda weird but thrilling at the same time, the feeling that there's no moving forces keeping you in.

SFDK looks so cool at night. Too bad I didn't stay there long enough to see all the beautiful sights.

hobbit · August 31, 2009

Medusa looks awesome!

it was a long time ago when i saw one picture of the Medusa in SFDK.

medusa the Coaster thats on the parking zone

Groteslurf · September 1, 2009

Day 2 : Gilroy Gardens

See ?

No idea why I didn't take more pictures of this small but amazingly beautiful park.

There are really beautiful spots in the park.

Great oldtimer ride.

Garlic ride

Monorail ride

Small overview

Quicksilver express is a nice coaster.

Getting ready for ERT.

Gilroy Gardens is an amazingly green park.

Our first TPR hotel had this building at the otherside of the street.

Groteslurf · September 1, 2009

Day 2, part 2 : Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

End of day 2.

Day 3 to follow most probably on Friday.

It's like being at BPB. SCBB reminded me a lot of BPB.

There are many weird rides aswell.

Which is a great coaster BTW.

And under/through the Giant Dipper.

Taking us underneath the carroussel.

He showed us around at the boardwalk. At this place there used to be a swimming pool.

Although we had quite some beers by the time the other TPR travellers arrived, we still understood what the marketing manager had to tell us. This was such a friendly guy. (pic taken by Jason)

Luckily there was Mexican beer aswell. Or is that Belgian beer too in the meanwhile ?

Belgian brewed beer : I'm living in Belgium but never saw this brand before. Well, maybe it's because I normally prefer to drink wine.

We even had our own security at the beachdeck.

Beer was included so me happy

And also the TPR beachdeck was simply amazing.

But this view made me relax immediately.

Having been at Gilroy Gardens earlier that day, arriving at SCBB and facing crowds like this, was quite a shock for me.

Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess · September 1, 2009

Nice pictures of SCBB. That place sorta reminded me of Morey's Piers more though (even though I have never been to Morey's, just seen the pictures).

Did you like the airtime on Giant Dipper? I loved it. Too bad Giant Dipper can't be considered an ACE classic because of the seat divider... Other than that, it's still on my top 5.

U2Rox · September 2, 2009

YAY for Benny!!!

Great memories of San Fran! I had an Amazing time when I was there!!! Loved Pier 39, it was fun riding the carousel and eating some very good salmon!!!

Great shot of the swimming Kitty's!!!!

Miss You!!! Can't wait for more!!

Groteslurf · September 2, 2009

^^ Yeah, loved the airtime, actually the complete ride on Giant Dipper

^ Miss you too Roxy !! Visiting San Francisco was certainly one of the highlights of my trip. I really enjoyed the city.

Groteslurf · September 3, 2009

Day 3 : CGA & SFMM evening visit.

I had my 9 rides on Goliath so I only took pictures of the last rides.

This unexpected evening visit to SFMM and on top of it the Goliath ERT, was for me one of the highlights of the trip.

By the end of ERT most of the X2 riders arrived.

Most of the others were still in line for X2 obviously because on the first rides most of the ride ops had to fill up our train. A minimum of 9 persons was required to ride we were told.

Time for ERT on Goliath

After we were told SFMM even arranged a surprise ERT on Goliath that same evening, I was really happy. Most of our group went to X2 for an eveningride, we went to ride Superman, Scream! & Colossus.

At lunch it was decided to leave a little bit earlier since everybody had all credits and the park really didn't had that much else to offer. So we were on the bus for the long drive to L.A. at about 2 pm and thanks to our amazing busdriver Larry, we arrived at about 830 pm at the hotel near SFMM. Robb asked us whether we wanted to visit SFMM still that evening. Hell yeah

With weird rides in it.

There is a waterpark too.

And TPR members on the rafts

And some other TPR members

Some TPR members on the train.

After that, we rode Psycho Mouse and Demon which were open by then. The mouse was a mouse, nothing special. Demon was better than expected. But for some reason didn't take any pictures of both rides. Grizzly was announced to open 1 hour after park opening. It was delayed by another half an hour eventually.

At the opening time for the GP, I went to Invertigo. The ops were already there but looked very surprised when I wanted to ride immediately after parkopening. After a few testrides, I got my ride on Invertigo.

I really liked walking in the empty park during ERT.

Me on the backrow of Flight Deck (pic taken by Jason)

Flight Deck was very good however. A bit short though.

Vortex is now my least favorite B&M. The ride was a bit painful, both on front & back row.

and Vortex.

ERT on Flight Deck

The entrance is beautiful.

Early morning arrival at the park for ERT.

Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess · September 3, 2009

NIce to see the pictures comming along. Did you find that CGA's Flight Deck and Vortex ride times are just too short? Because of those two rides mostly, I give CGA the name "Mini Carowinds". I took a back seat ride on Flight Deck too and I don't think it made that much of a difference. I don't find it really that exciting except it was my first custom invert.

How was Grizzly? It's number one on my "worst" list but I guess roughness is all subjective.

I envy you so much for getting to ride Psycho Mouse. Yeah I know I envy people alot... Even though Psycho Mouse you say is nothing special...It's one credit missed for me because it kept breaking down.

9 times on Goliath? Oh my! I can't even handle my 1 ride on Titan (Wasn't even back seat, it was middle). Was it intense?

Calicoasters · September 3, 2009

Awesome updates so far! All these West Coast/Bay Area Bash trip reports are making me miss SFDK a bunch! It's awesome to see all the animals you guys got to see at SFDK and that they came up with a fun challenge for THBS ERT.

By the way, the New Belgium brewing company is in Colorado, and has nothing to do Belgium. Of coarse it does say Fort Collins on the bottom of the can. Corona however is totally a Belgian beer!

Can't wait to see more updates!

Paul_Hollibone · September 4, 2009

How was Grizzly? It's number one on my "worst" list but I guess roughness is all subjective.

Grizzly for me (we were sitting in the middle of the train) was actually pretty good. There were a couple of "rough" patches, but nothing like I expected it to be. It was actually reasonably good in my opinion. The only reason it's my second worst woodie on the coast (first being the Giant Dipper at Belmont) is because there are other woodies which are better, not because it's a "bad" woodie (naughty boy, go sit in the corner!).

As always Benny, great shots. I think on the rapids picture, thats roughly around the area where I started to whinge about all the "cheapskates" because no-one wanted to spend a QTR to get us wet. It was a reasonably dry water ride indeed (nothing like the Rapids ride at Magic Mountain!) which is how I like it!

bspellx5 · September 4, 2009

Do any of CGA's coasters have covered stations?

CGA_88 · September 4, 2009

^Just Grizzly.

Groteslurf · September 5, 2009

NIce to see the pictures comming along. Did you find that CGA's Flight Deck and Vortex ride times are just too short? Because of those two rides mostly, I give CGA the name "Mini Carowinds". I took a back seat ride on Flight Deck too and I don't think it made that much of a difference. I don't find it really that exciting except it was my first custom invert.

How was Grizzly? It's number one on my "worst" list but I guess roughness is all subjective.

I envy you so much for getting to ride Psycho Mouse. Yeah I know I envy people alot... Even though Psycho Mouse you say is nothing special...It's one credit missed for me because it kept breaking down.

9 times on Goliath? Oh my! I can't even handle my 1 ride on Titan (Wasn't even back seat, it was middle). Was it intense?

Flight Deck and Vortex are short but I though Flight Deck was really good.

Grizzly was rough, I didn't like the ride.

The helixes after the MCTB on Goliath (which btw slows down the train completely) are quite intense.

Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess · September 6, 2009

Those Giovanola helices (yes that's the proper spelling) are quite intense indeed. The one on Goliath's brother coaster got me real good!

Flight Deck isn't really THAT bad, just too short and could have had more inversions, that's all.

metrock · September 6, 2009

Hey, great update! Looks like you are a lot of fun. And yeah, it was quite packed at Santa Cruz Beach boardwalk when I was there too. (I wasn't on the TPR trip and visited a different day).

Oh, and thank you for getting a picture of me during the Tony Hawk challenge. I didn't have one.

Groteslurf · September 7, 2009

Day 4 : SFMM

And the day ended with ERT on Déjà Vu and Terminator.

Nearly 5 hours of ERT (in 26 hours time) on 7 coasters and 2 waterslides. I still can't believe that we got ERT on 9 rides in 1 park. Thank you SFMM and thank you R&E.

Some dancing was taking place during dinner.

After some relaxing hours, I took a cab back to the park.

Thanks to our Gold Q-bots, we managed to ride all coasters before lunch. At 2 pm, I couldn't stand the heat anymore (it was our first day in the L.A. area) so I decided to go the waterpark. I wanted to wait over there for the waterslide ERT. First I had to rent a locker. Got all my stuff in the locker and then headed to the lazy river. WFT, do I have to pay to rent a tube ??? I've just put everything (including my money) in a locker !!! A lazy river without tube is not that much fun so I headed over to the wavepool. What a crowd. After walking around the park, I pretty much had it at the waterpark so decided to walk back down to the hotel. Over there I was the only person in the swimmingpool and I finally managed to cool down and relax.