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3 Epic California Parks, One Week!


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Park 1: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom offered a great day. There were no lines all day. However, both Medusa and Kong opened two hours late; Kong due to a prolongued breakdown, and Medusa due to "weather." However, the weather was the same as the previous time I had visited, and Medusa was operating all day! Oh, well, at least they opened it eventually.748638923_DSC02022(1024x768).thumb.jpg.e461728ddc07b6883d36809f728a0256.jpg

What's this?

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Noted! But, this can only mean one thing...

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Sky Screamer Construction Update!

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A closer look at the half-finished globe

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Did I mention we were the first ones here? The only ride they were testing was Cobra.

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And when I say "testing," I mean they simply send it up, and ran it down the lifthill a million times! It was quite funny to watch.

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See! There is no one else here.

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At least from the entrance you can get some good shots of some of the coasters.

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Here is another Roar shot. The ride was running very rough that day. However, it is good that they FINALLY got the second train back. (After many years)

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A shot of Medusa

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The first three inversions

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And when I say "testing," I mean they simply send it up, and ran it down the lifthill a million times! It was quite funny to watch.

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V2's 45 degree spike. The main reason for going from a 90 degree spike to a 45 degree one was due to a failure to abide by local height restrictions. However, now I do not see why more parks did not try out this new element.

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Damn it! I was going to bring my scissors today!

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Upon opening, a stampede rushed to Medusa.

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Crap! It's closed! Let's go find an open ride.

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Yay! Trains are going around empty! This must mean there is no line! This is great! (Too great...)

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Crap! This ride broken down! It is still good for Six Flags to add the (long overdue) second train.

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Finally! A ride that is open! (I also rode V2 after this, but I forgot to take a picture.)

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Tony Hawk is also open!

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Woohoo! I am about to have three successful attempts at riding coasters!

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Almost there...

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Boomerang time.

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Oh, look! The other Vekoma is now carrying riders!

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After two Vekomas, I need to go for something smooth. How about a B&M with a mostly empty queue?

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I rode Medusa five times that day; twice in the back, three times in the front. The front provides the best overall experience, while the back provides the best pop of air on the drop.

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Now for Hammerhead Shark! When the otsr came down, a girl's head got caught outside the restraint! This was the funniest thing I've seen at any theme park!

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This ride had a whopping one ride op working it. This was also the slowest ride op I have ever seen.

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Hammerhead Shark doing its thing.

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WOO! I broke it! I did come back later, though.

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After I had done every ride at least once (most of them twice, as there were no lines) I decided to do one more lap around the park. This was something interesting I found in the Boomerang queue. No one could pry these pennies out!

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Here you can see the Stride Rainbow train!

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Here is an interesting story. I asked the ride op who was sending groups of people into the station if I could film a pov of Boomerang. She said it was OK. So, I rode in the front row, and pulled my camera out. Suddenly, a different ride op said into the microphone "NO ELECTRONICS!" I explained to her that the other ride op gave me permission to do this, and she did not believe meand made me put my camera away! WTF?

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Now this was quite funny. Someone threw up on Roar, but they allowed people to ride in that same train just seconds later! I was one of them.

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On my way to one last ride on Medusa, I decided to do some credit whoring on Cobra. (Aww crap. Now I have to redo my signiture banner. I will get to that later.)

 

 

Disneyland" coming soon!

I am not sure how one of the above images got posted twice, or how this one got down here. I am working on this!

 

Park 2: SFMM Plus Road Runner Express construction update!

After seeing no lines at the other Six Flags, I did not plan to spend much time here. Big mistake. As it turned out, Tatsu, Deja Vu and Apocalypse all had waits of over an hour, while the wait for X2, at one point, was over 2 hours! Th line did die down to 45 minutes, later, though. Anyway, since I was bolting from ride to ride to get done as many as possible, I did not take many pictures. However, I was glad to see Tatsu running two trains and Deja Vu open. The only thing SFMM has to do now is get the second train running on Apocalypse.

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I arrived at the park 1.5 hours after opening, and took a few pictures.

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It is time for that one unique picture no one else has.

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First I headed to X2. Since the wait was about two hours, I decided to skip it and head to Tatsu. (Wait was about 45 minutes) I was glad to see them running two trains, even though they forgot to remove the sign at the entrance, saying they were only running 1.

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Next, I headed to Superman. They are now down to one side, even though the wait was 30 minutes. Still a fun ride, though.

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Next, I took a lap on Deja Vu (Yes, it is finally open!), and two laps on Goliath(since there was no line) I skipped Apocalypse (hour wait with 1 train), Riddlers (hate standups), Batman (closed for Green Lantern construction), Scream (because I just rode Medusa two days earlier), and Colossus (waste of time) I did take some pictures on the way, but these were accidently deleted. Here is a construction update.

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Here. Have another construction update.

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This was really the only angle I could get good pictures from. What a shame.

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It still has the same basic colors from when it was going to be Mr. Six's Dancecoaster, except some of the supports have been pinted different colors.

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Since the line for X2 was significantly shorter than before, I decided to brave it.

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Hello X2 riders. Ready for a nap?

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The weakest part of the ride. I think it needs to do another rotation here.

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1st drop maddness!

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Final X2 picture. Too bad the audio was switched off today. At least the flames were working.

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Oh, and you can get some really awesome Viper shots from X2's queue as well!

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Viper...through the trees! (Somewhat)

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And I leave you with probably my favorite picture of this TR. After X2, I headed for one ride on Viper, and one more on Tatsu. (Line was only 30 min.)

See you at Disneyland!

 

Day 3: Hinnington Beach (Of which I have no pictures) and Downtown Cedar-Fair-Land!

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Disney's California's Adventure is undergoing some major changes. I took this on the way to Downtown Cedar Fair

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The Disneyland Monorail will no longer pass over the Golden gate Bridge! (Meh, I never really liked that prop anyway)

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Does this name remind you of somewhere else?

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Time to head into the Lego store! (Wait... now Disneyland is turning into Legoland! Why does every Disney location have this store?)

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I decided to see if they glue down the Lego bricks. THEY DON'T!

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Trains!

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It looks like a robot, but its actually a donkey!

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Noted! This was directly under the Monorail!

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Can anyone guess where this picture was taken?

 

Cedar-Fair-Land, and Cedar Fair's California Adventure coming soon!

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Finally, they began to actually test Cobra

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One of these seats could have been mine, but the people riding insisted on riding by themselves and holding up the line.

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Edited by MrSum1_55
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Ahaha, that picture with the girl and the otsr reminds me of a time at Psyclone at Canada's Wonderland. A girl was tying her shoelace when the otsr came down. I look over, and there's this girl with her head jammed between her legs, laughing hysterically.

 

Anyways, nice pictures! Keep 'em coming!

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Well this is an awesome trip report,but was Kong smooth,becuase I rode Face/Off at Kings Island on opening day it was smooth. Could it just been an lucky ride or just smooth becuase of opening day. Mostly Face/Off isn't smooth at all.

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^No, Kong is not smooth. Even though a Vekoma Invertigo has similar restraints, it gives a very different experience from an SLC. I am sorry to say you are probably not lucky, but that is simply how the ride is. On Kong, not even a leprechaun could score a lucky ride; it is just that rough.

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They weren't doing that to Cobra for fun. Because the train is so long and moves so slow that is how they warm the bearings in the wheels. It has to roll a certain amount out of the back of the station before you know the wheels are warm enough to get the train all the way around. When it's cold it takes ridiculously long, I'm talking 20 to 30 minutes.

 

It's pretty hard not to suck at Hammerhead. Since that thing is a prototype that have an annoying amount of steps you have to do just to insure the restraints are locked and if you do one thing out of order the ride errors. Plus it's supposed to be a 2 op ride but since Six Flags loves budget cuts, they cut the 2nd op position almost 10 years ago and only sometimes use it on extremely busy days like 4th of July.

 

Just throwin in my useless knowledge of that park. Good to see the employee quality is about the same as when I left when it comes to the whole camera on boomerang thing and the Roar throw-up. Some things will never change. Great pictures, at least that park has it's looks going for it. Haha.

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Here is an interesting story. I asked the ride op who was sending groups of people into the station if I could film a pov of Boomerang. She said it was OK. So, I rode in the front row, and pulled my camera out. Suddenly, a different ride op said into the microphone "NO ELECTRONICS!" I explained to her that the other ride op gave me permission to do this, and she did not believe meand made me put my camera away! WTF?

 

Nice to see a ride op actually doing their job and telling you to put your camera away! It seems ride ops don't care most of the time anymore...

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Here is an interesting story. I asked the ride op who was sending groups of people into the station if I could film a pov of Boomerang. She said it was OK. So, I rode in the front row, and pulled my camera out. Suddenly, a different ride op said into the microphone "NO ELECTRONICS!" I explained to her that the other ride op gave me permission to do this, and she did not believe meand made me put my camera away! WTF?

 

Nice to see a ride op actually doing their job and telling you to put your camera away! It seems ride ops don't care most of the time anymore...

 

Here was the situation in a nutshell: one ride op gave me permission while the other didn't. I would not have minded nearly as much had the second ride op not scoffed in disbelief at my story; it was not WHAT she did it was HOW she did it.

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They weren't doing that to Cobra for fun. Because the train is so long and moves so slow that is how they warm the bearings in the wheels. It has to roll a certain amount out of the back of the station before you know the wheels are warm enough to get the train all the way around. When it's cold it takes ridiculously long, I'm talking 20 to 30 minutes.

 

Interesting. I wonder how they must do that on Knott's Jaguar, with its two lifts. I would like to see that. (Too bad you cannot see it from the entrance)

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Ya know, I've never thought about that. I bet they have to do one train, then park that on the second lift to get the clearance and and do the second train, or Jaguar might be able to make it from the get go, cause of it's design. Cobra isn't exactly quick, even when it's all warmed up and full of people.

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Day 4: Cedar-Fair-Land!

 

What can I say? Cedar-Fair-Land is probably the best themed of all the Cedar Fair parks, and has the best dispatches of all Cedar Fair parks. However, operations are still very "Cedar Fair." I saw plenty of line jumping, rides breaking down for LONG periods of time, ride ops not filling single rider seats, abuse of fastpass system, and a really big WTF I have in store for you at the end of this trip report. However, I still managed to enjoy my day at Cedar-Fair-Land, almost like all days at Cedar-Fair-Land should be.

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In front of out bus, they wrer also doing busing to Knott's!

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Why did I take this picture? I really don't know.

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Were not even in the park, and I already have a construction update for you!

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Welcome to Cedar-Fair-Land! (No, I am just kidding)

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I really wanted to crush the tiny castle, but I didn't.

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When the park opens, it will be time to head for the first ride of the day-

Space Mountian!

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The Space Mountain crew was doing awesome today! I literally walked through the entire line!

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Oh, wait. No one is loading the trains at all! It broke down two minutes after opening and I got to take a tour of the line!

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OK. Time to find an open ride. Matterhorn was open.

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The Fantsyland side was running like CRAP today! It was very slow and rough. However, I did return to the Tomorrowland side later and it was running GREAT! Although the Tomorrowland side generally runs better than the other side, I was surprised to see this much of a difference.

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The capactiy was also pretty bad that day (as if it weren't already bad enough), since one in about every four cars was being sent out empty.

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OK. Space Mountain has been fixed, and I had a fastpass. Since I had not ridden the Tomorrowland side of Matterhorn yet, I was in need of a smooth ride.

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Time for a tour of the castle. (How do they even fit people in here?)

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Yay! The BTMR station is empty! Oh, wait. Its broken.

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Indiana Jones is one of only two rides in Disneyland with a single-rider line. (There is also Splash Mountain, but that was closed) I think every ride should have a single-rider line. (Oddly enough, they were only applying the line to one side of the station!)

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Time for some corny jokes on the Jungle Cruise!

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ACErs!

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TPR Members!

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100% politically correct!

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Nerd shot! They were beginning to test BTMR, so I got in line.

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This was one of only three occations where I have been able to board an empty train! (And the only one where it hasn't been the 1st or 2nd train of the day)

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After an AWESOME ride on Priates, it was time to head for Disney's California Adventure!

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Screamin's single rider line is awesome! Its too bad, though, that they only load one side of the station (like Indiana Jones)

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Other than these little annoyances, though, there was nothing else today that I would consider below Disney standards. I really wish I could say the same about the next day! (More on that later)

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Call me crazy, but I think California's Screamin's trains look somewhat like Morgan wood coaster trains.

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When waiting in line for Toy Story Mania, I heard an unusual cound, like metal hitting wood. I turned around to see this.

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Wait a minute...these are MAGNETICALLY bound! I found this to be quite funny. I bet it will teach people a lesson about sitting on handrails!

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This 3d shooting dark ride is really kick A$$! The capacity leaves a bit to be desired, though.

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Ladies an Gentlemen, boys and girls. Today, California Adventure will open Trees: The Ride! Trees: The Ride is very exciting and thrilling experience. Trees: The Ride is located in the former position of Maliboomer. Please enjoy Trees: The Ride! (And also be sure to check out Fence: The Ride at California's Great America!)

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Even better than Trees: The Ride is Construction Update: The Ride!

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Do I see a retheme?

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Is it me, or do SFMM and Disney seem to be in a war for who can redo coasters the best? SFMM got X2 and Superman, while Disney got Space Mountain and this. I wonder if this pattern will continue. (And with some news coming out of SFMM, it probably will for them)

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Look! Its the rapids ride that thinks its a flume ride! (Seriously. A big lift hill and two large drops, but with the rapids a bit small make it feel like it is one)

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This looks like a nice place to stay. I hear it got good reviews.

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This was in the lobby of the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

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Noted!

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I decided not to stay at the Hollywood Tower Hotel. The place looked like it needed to be dusted, and the elevator was having some SERIOUS problems After another (2nd or 3rd?) Ride on Screamin, it was Soarin time. Oddly enough, the smells were off that day. (like how X2's audio was not on)

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This was the fence bordering the new entrance.

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Back to DL for BTMR. Did I mention the ride was running AWESOME today!? Actually, it was probably the best ride on the entire property (excluding Screamin) when I was there!

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Seriously! This ride was delivering some very good lateral G's, and even three or four good pops of airtime! Even the (normally pointless) bit after the 3rd lifthill was fun!

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Toontown! Now one of two (the other being Main Street) where you can actually get pictures with classic Disney characters (even so, you still have to wait in line)

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I rode the roller skater. Not because of the credit (actually, it was my very first credit) but for a taste of what Road Runner Express will be like (when I get the credit)

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I was leaning my knee against one of the theming rocks. All of the sudden, it started to burn. This was why!

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Night rides on CS are aweome! However, I did not get in a single one during the entire two days I was on property, due to Disney's horrible WOC policy. They do more than just close the ride and the line a bit early. I will get to the worst part later.

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Honestly, the Ferris Wheel is more fun to take pictures of than the actual WOC show. I think a better name for the show would be "World of a Bunch of Movie Trailers Playing on the Backdrop of a Giant Fountain". The show gets very repeatative after the first 10 minutes. The only thing that I thought was really memorable was the fire. (Yeah, I just gave away the best part!) Unless you are a HUGE fan of Disney movies, I recommend skipping WOC and seeing the firework show instead. Now THAT is awesome!

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One thing to note: The standby entrance for SM NEVER fluctuates! No matter when you queue, the line will always remain at a set time. Today, that set time was about an hour, and It was the same around noon as the firework show.

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Finally! The end is near!

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Eventually, BTMR had to go down to only running one side. This is the last picture I have of that day. Aside from a few startup issues though, nothing too "sub-Disney" happened. I will say now, though, that the next day will be VERY "Sub-Disney"! I will get to posing that later.

Edited by MrSum1_55
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Day 2: Gotta love those Cedar Fair operations! Day 1 was a lot of fun and how every day at Disneyland should be. However, the next day, operations were not up to Disney standards, with reports of line jumping, extended breakdowns, failure to properly calculate wait times, and getting cheated out of a Fastpass. Read on.

 

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It is time for a FUN day at CA! (Or is it...)

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Right after opening, I fled to Screamin. They loaded one train, and immediatly decided to give up.

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Ok. It is now time to be patient. maybe a ride on HToT will help pass the time.

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Hidden Mickey?

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Everybody loves characters! This is one of the best ideas I've seen.

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I never quite "got" Cars. It just does not have the same plot nor characters as other classics such as Toy Story.

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The ride has been broken for an hour, and it still does not look like they have done anything.

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Toy Story had a huge line.

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As did the FERRIS WHEEL! Really? This place needs to open Screamin now!

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I took a ride on Soarin and came back to see if they had made any progress. The ride has been broken for 1:30, and no observable progress has been made yet.

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Two hours it has been broken down, and not a SINGLE train has been sent around yet. (Sorry about all the caps and stuff. As you can see, this was starting to get very annoying)

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Ok. Maybe a ride on Space Mountain will help make the time go by.

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What the hell is this? It was in a mailbox in the Haunted Mansion line.

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*Sigh* It looks like it will be a while before Splash Mountain opens.

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¡pǝʇou

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CA Screamin was open for business! (That day, the line went all the all the way back to the single rider entrance, and wound around itself a couple times.)

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They had 3x as many people as the day before, and only three trains running.

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Even the Fastpass Return line extemded all the way back to the on-ride photo distribution. (Good thing I had one)

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This is still the Fastpass line. Did I mention there was line jumping today? Kids who didn't even have Fastpasses could sneak through the bushes on the right, and be in the line! What was odd was that they were about 20 feet away from the nearest cast members, and they did not seem to notice. If they did, they did not check them for their passes. I was tempted to do the same thing they were doing, but, like any good Club TPR member, I resisted.

 

After queueing, I recieved a new Fastpass from another person who chose not to ride, and came back a little late, only to find...

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This! it was about 7:45 on a Saturday, and they closed the ride and all queuing entirely! There was only about 20 minutes worth of people ramaining. It just does not make sense, though, that when the Standby starts to overlap with WOC to close the Fastpass line as well. This is a really annoying problem that is easy to fix (simply close normal queuing, and keep open the fastpass line). Also, WOC shows do not even go until 8:30! Plus, although I did not check the schedule, it seems odd to be showing WOC as early as that time on a Saturday.

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Alright, let's recap. The ride opened at least three hours late, only three trains were running (that was forgivable, though) Kids able to queue in the Fastpass line who did not have one, and I got cheated out of a Fastpass. On the way out of CA, I asked a castmember why CA Screamin had closed so early, and even he was not sure why they did that! Is this really Disneyland?

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One last picure of C. Adventure, before heading back to the original Disneyland.

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Disneyland looking good tonight!

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Here. Maybe after a ride on Space Mountain will put me in a better mood.

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Since they had a limited number of cars running on Matterhorn, both of the sides were merged into one, faster-moving line. This system worked well, and I hope Disneyland does this more often!

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Alright. While I was a bit annoyed at the CS incident, the cast member at BTMR was AWESOME and let me trade in my CS Fastpass for a BTMR one. Apparetly, this side of the property did not have the "sub-Disney" curse!

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One thing to note: If you do not like crowds, do not watch the fireworks in front of the castle. Go to New Orelans Square, in front of the Haunted Mansion, instead. Here you have the same visuals as in front of the castle, but I pretty much had the whole place to myself, with only about ten people even in the general area!

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There is ONE major downside, though. You cannot hear the music. However, during and briefly after the show, you should be able to get on Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and BTMR with significantly reduced wait times.

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See! You have about ten feet of space for every person! Plus, it is right by an eating area, so there are plenty of chairs where you can sit down! And, after a long day at the resort, you will probably need them!

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Never underestimate the awesomeness of Disneyland's fireworks.

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Fireworks are not eaasy to take pictures of, though. This is why all of my images turned out crappy.

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*Sigh* I hope this Splash Mountain is not getting lap bars as well. (Of which I wonder how they will comfortably do that with inline seating)

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After an attempted ride on Matterhorn (broke down while I was in line) I headed for a ride on Autopia (sign said 10 minute wait, was actually 40 min.) and one last ride on Space Mountain at 11:30. I ended up leaving the park at 12:30.

 

Overall, since I hadn't visited Disneyland in a while, but I had had many Cedar Fair and Six Flags experiences over the years, I thought I would appreciate it more. Now, though, I have mixed feelings. Operations just simply are not as good as I remember them (that explains the (mostly removed) Cedar Fair jokes). However, the dark rides are still as kick a$$ as ever. One thing to note is that I believe theming in the actual park is a bit overrated, and 80% of it was on the rides. Also, of course, it is hard not to take into account how Disneyland is not exactly the thrill capitol of the world. anyway, I really hope you enjoyed reading this report. I guess the moral of this trip report is any park, no matter how well operated, can have an 'off' day. I presume these days were just 'off' days.

Edited by MrSum1_55
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I believe that is what determines the wait times for an attraction. Cast members hand out RFID embedded red cards on lanyards at the entrance to each attraction to select guests and before they are given to guests they are scanned at the entrance. When the guest get to the loading platform they are suppose to hand the cards to a Cast Member where they are scanned again. And the elapsed time from when the cards are handed out and collected is what determines the posted wait times for an attraction.

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Very thorough trip report, always nice to see the local parks I have to admit that I either did not get the Cedar Fair references or just found them redundant, but glad to see you had a good time...I think? Looks like you enjoyed the other parks but didn't seem to have a good time at DCA or DLR.

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^The main point of all the Cedar Fair jokes is to convey irony. Disneyland was really having some 'off' days, while the two Six Flags parks were doing quite well. In terms of operations Disneyland felt more like the "land of Cedar Fair" than the "land of Disney". It seems as if critics rant on other parks for their flaws, while ignoring the flaws in the system at Disney.

 

Even though I am not exactly the world's #1 fan, I still find it impossible not to enjoy a day at land! So I did enjoy my day, just not as much as the previous two park visits.

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^The main point of all the Cedar Fair jokes is to convey irony. Disneyland was really having some 'off' days, while the two Six Flags parks were doing quite well. In terms of operations Disneyland felt more like the "land of Cedar Fair" than the "land of Disney". It seems as if critics rant on other parks for their flaws, while ignoring the flaws in the system at Disney.

 

The only problem is your posting came off as more Cedar Fair bashing. A joke is not funny and irony is lost if you are the only one in on a joke, which was certainly the case here.

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^The main point of all the Cedar Fair jokes is to convey irony. Disneyland was really having some 'off' days, while the two Six Flags parks were doing quite well. In terms of operations Disneyland felt more like the "land of Cedar Fair" than the "land of Disney". It seems as if critics rant on other parks for their flaws, while ignoring the flaws in the system at Disney.

 

The only problem is your posting came off as more Cedar Fair bashing. A joke is not funny and irony is lost if you are the only one in on a joke, which was certainly the case here.

 

Agreed. I did not see it that way until now. It may take a while now to go back and reedit my posts. (What have I done!?) My worst fear was having this TR poke too much fun at Disney. However, I nearly did the complete opposite! It's like an unintentionally racist movie about racism!

 

Anyway, this TR has been mostly cleaned up, with a few harmless, stupid jokes here or there.

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