DIY Bay Area Bash - updated with the report (mostly text)

[PAL]

My son and I missed Bay Area Bash - darn out of the country work travel, coaster-less even. It wasn't all bad - free tequila!

 

So we're going to embark on our own BAB, minus the cool factor of the Party Bus, Manly Poses, Backstage Tours, ERT and general TPR zaniness.

 

Does anyone have the inside story on V2? Its been down for several weeks. All the park will do is confirm said info. We love that twisted thing. How's the backstage animal tour? It isn't very expensive. Peak lines on any given Friday? That one's for Flashpass planning.

 

Also, CGA's Invertigo was testing during BAB. Any chance it'll be back in the next week or two? Any can't miss aspects to the water park?

 

How long should I budget for Gilroy Gardens? I'm thinking two hours should be plenty to gawk at the trees and collect a few credits.

 

What's the best fair food at SCBB?

 

As long as we're pestering the world with questions, how about some restaurant recommendations from the locals? Anything special?

 

We'll sport our TPR gear. Please say hello if you spot a middle aged coaster geek and an improbably tall 13 year old.

Edited June 28, 2010 by PAL

[cal1br3tto]

Not sure about how gawking at the trees will affect your timing, but for a credit whore trip you could most likely get Gilroy done in 45 minutes or less. At any rate it's a very "quick" park for that sort of thing. Although it is incredibly beautiful, so slowing down to take in the unique aspects is totally understandable. Be sure to ride Banana Split; it's a small but crazy swinging ship.

[Jew]

How old is your son? Gilroy Gardens is a very family friendly place, with lots of smaller things to kill time.

[rcg19]

Deleted by user

Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19

[PAL]

^I can't help but wonder what happened with V2. Early summer? That's not likely scheduled maintenance, at least I don't imagine so. We'll just have to save it for BAB 2011!

 

The last time we were up there was mainly to collect the Roar credit. It was down, but between Medusa, V2, and Tony Hawk, we logged plenty of fun laps.

 

How was Demon running during BAB? We're slightly disappointed CGA closes at 8 most nights. Last year Sundays stretched to 10 pm. Flight Deck was delivering great night rides. This time we'll get them on the old wood at Santa Cruz, even cooler.

 

Thanks all for the updates. My son is 13 going on 25, nearly 6ft 1 of full-fledged coaster nut. Thank-goodness! He enables my adrenaline addiction.

[PAL]

Short version: Goliath and Viper beat stop and go LA traffic; if the 86 year old Giant Dipper rocks, there's no excuse for crappy wood; CGA stands for California's Grumpy America (except the lifeguards, they rule); Discovery Kingdom for the win even minus V2; and Gilroy Gardens is twisted (trees). This is a photo poor report. I bring a small point and shoot, but it stays forgotten in my pocket most of the time. I identify lugging a camera with being outside the action (I shoot for work). Coaster time is for fun.

 

Off we went last Wednesday, leaving home plenty early for the dash around the suck that is LA traffic. Our goal was simple. 4 Bay Area parks in as many days.

 

Day 1: The plan called for a credit dash at Gilroy Gardens, followed by an evening at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was the first day of SCBB's Pepsi promotion - $10 and an empty can was good for an all-rides wristband from 5pm. The joke was on us. 4 and a half hours of LA stop and go later (one accident scene after another), we pulled off to collect my shattered wits and grub some Denny's just south of Magic Mt. Well, the Mt was about to open, so why not?

 

We ponied up our $10 for early entry ERT wristbands. What would it be? X2 or Tatsu? No - that day at least a ten spot bought laps on Goliath and a couple of kiddie rides. We hopped the 255 ft identity challenged steelie and didn't get off until we'd logged 5 laps. On 3 of those, we had the train to ourselves. We checked in at Terminator (down at open), rolled straight into the station and onto Tatsu, then jumped on Viper (I still love it) before bailing for I-5 at 11:30 as crowds and more crowds were streaming in. SCBB bound!

 

(to be continued)

Bonus! Viper beats stop and go traffic any day. Now if it was GASM... Check out the kid's OG Indy shirt, salted away from the ride's inception.

Edited July 3, 2010 by PAL

[PAL]

After droning on and on through the central valley, we finally hit the cut-over and wound our way to Santa Cruz. Before we knew it we were pulling into the parking lot under the shadow of the Beach Boardwalk's Giant Dipper.

 

What a cool place! This is San Diego's Belmont Park as it could have been, but hey, I'm glad the not quite as old nor anywhere near as thrilling southerly Giant Dipper survived. I've been around long enough to ride it both pre and post its new lease on life. Aside over.

 

It was the first night of the Pepsi pay one price deal, where $10 and a can got one all rides access from 5 pm on. Foot traffic was fairly heavy, but the queues weren't bad at all. We hightailed it immediately to the brand new Haunted Castle. Excellent! This isn't a scare-fest; its a family friendly and light-hearted dark ride. We loved it.

 

Then it was off to the bumpy goodness of the Giant Dipper. This 86 year old piece of wooden loveliness puts many modern rides built with computer-aided design to shame. If a small to medium seaside park can keep their centerpiece running well, there's no excuse for mediocrity. No air gates, queue interaction (high fives coming into the station), single lap bars. Simply outstanding; we piled on the laps.

 

We don't credit whore kiddie coasters (that's the alcoholic's version of settling for Bartles and James - gotta draw the line somewhere), but there was one compact steelie for our first new credit of the sojourn. James dubbed that twisted little thing HurriPain. Not so much for one particular neck-snapping transition, but for the insane head choppers.

 

After committing James' reaction to pixels, we pounded some fair food, hit up the better flats, then rolled into San Jose around 10 pm. CGA was up next.

Look at those curves! Vintage but still sexy at 86.

HurriPain, so named for the duck-inducing head choppers that had our chins on the lap bar.

[fatdaddy]

Why is there a picture of Mc Lovin doing the Home Alone pose.