Photo TR: California Whorin'

[milst1]

After flying AMS-LHR-JFK-LAX in a single day, Cheryl and I got us a cheap little car at Hertz and started bouncing around the Southland for some crappy parks and credits. It was a blast, of course, especially hitting 5 different "parks" on the first day.

Hidden in the trees is the clue to our location.

First stop: Riverside, California. We're still not sure if the pizza is incredible, or the company.

Of course, this Wisdom coaster was incredible. Cheryl insisted on the usual 9 circuit ride.

The salad bar wasn't incredible, but it was pretty good.

Next stop, Castle Park, also in Riverside.

This sign at the entrance was a bit disconcerting. Not typically found at family entertainment areas.

Sadly, Screamin' Demon, the Fabbri spinning mouse, was down.

But Merlin's Revenge, the Vekoma Junior, was in operation.

A nice surprise was the Dentzel carousel, built in 1904 or 1907, depending on the source. It was built for Hersheypark, then moved to Knott's, and finally to Castle in 1985. Apparently 2/3 of the animals are fiberglass repros, but it's still a nice menagerie carousel, which we commonly see in Europe and not so much in the USA.

We also whored Little Dipper, this Miler kiddie.

They also have a Ghost Blasters, a decent shooting Sally dark ride. They have essentially the same ride at Nick Universe at MoA, Elitch Gardens, and it's called Ghost Hunt at Lake Compounce. Any differences between these? They're all pretty similar. And fun.

We moved on to Ontario, California, to the oddly themed, Scandia Amusement Park.

Scandia Screamer was our first stop.

Little Dipper was the next stop.

We were also somewhat amazed by this travelling version of an S&S Screaming Swing. Anyone ever seen one like this before?

Our next stop was Adventure City in Anaheim, notorious for not allowing adults w/o kids, but show your enthusiast credentials, and they'll give you a discount.

Treetop Racers is fun because the little kids riding can't even see out of the car. This model can be found also at Lakeside, Funtown Pier, and Wonderland.

Cheryl wouldn't be smiling after this ride. She felt something crack on a sharp turn and complained for the rest of the trip that she'd bruised a rib. She's the doctor, so who can argue? Ride defensively, folks.

Our final stop of the day was Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier.

Little did we know...

These bumper air boat things were fun.

And the West Coaster was fun. Two circuits! Thanks for joining us on our West Coast Whore! I mean Tour! More tomorrow.

[simon8899]

We were also somewhat amazed by this travelling version of an S&S Screaming Swing. Anyone ever seen one like this before?

 

Well looks like the small brother of the BoosterMaxx by Fabbri....

[Andrewoplis]

Thanks for posting this! Castle Park looks like a nice little park, same with adventure city! I'm going to socal very soon so maybe I could check them out.

[milst1]

We were also somewhat amazed by this travelling version of an S&S Screaming Swing. Anyone ever seen one like this before?

 

Well looks like the small brother of the BoosterMaxx by Fabbri....

 

Is that the model that failed at Tibidabo?

[milst1]

Our California adventure continued with a trip to Valencia during the day, then a brush with Hollywood stardom at night, then more Disney fun the next day, and then a swing up to San Francisco.

Magic Mountain! You can see the giant spider on Colossus in the distance. In true whore fashion, we rode both sides (one backwards) so that we can count Colossus twice. And sadly, this photo was no help in finding our car at the end of the day.

Here's the SFMM cellular tower. And sadly, Log Jammer's demise is confirmed. I would miss these staple log flume rides, so I hope there's no trend at SF starting here.

Here's a big reason we're here, for Green Lantern. It's also very cool to say that we've been on all four of these (the others are in Spain, Finland, and Sweden). They're actually pretty fun, albeit a bit violent.

Another big reason we're here is for this coaster. You may find this hard to believe, but nothing comes up in rcdb if you enter "Mr. Six's Dance Coaster".

We stopped for a sunset drink at my cousin's place in Upper Bel Air.

The 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Modern Family, "Halloween") also joined us for wine and cheese.

Here's a more flattering photo: Me, Michael Spiller, my cousin Melanie Spiller, Cheryl. Ah, Lalaland. We were a little star struck.

Next day, Disneyland and DCA!

I love the new mouse ears series.

Haunted Mansion Nightmare Overlay is so awesome. I missed the normal Space Mountain, but the Halloween overlay was still cool.

It was actually one of those days where FastPasses didn't save you much time...just not too busy, which was great.

And look who we ran into, thanks to the miracle of Facebook place tagging and texting! Ashley from Brisbane (ash.1111) from the Middle America 2010 trip! We had fun with him on California Screamin', Toy Story Mania, and...

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure. I was sorta hoping to be blown away by this (first new major Disney dark ride I've been on in a while), but I was slightly disappointed. I know, I'm not the target audience and this wasn't Disney's answer to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. They're using a new rubbery skin for the animatronics that works well in some places (Ursula was amazing) but not in others (Dancing Ariel in the party room is already falling apart - her back is coming apart - and showing wear). Oh well.

Very anxiously awaiting Cars Land.

Do you know the Disneyland Corn Dog story? Check it out at

on YouTube. The one I had was pretty darn good.

Unfortunately, we would miss World of Color on this trip. Still haven't seen it. We had other evening plans.

We visited Hollywood Horror Nights at Universal Studios that evening, but my camera is so bad at night (as you can see), that I will let Robb's excellent report satisfy you on that front, although Robb is missing the Terror Tram, which was incredible. You can find the official TPR report, definitely worth visiting, at:

http://bit.ly/t16wiW

We had one more day at Disneyland Resort, mostly shopping and hitting a few attractions, such as Bad Tower and Indiana Jones. I gave Ariel's Undersea Adventure another try. Meh.

All in all we had a great time.

Then, whores that we are, we flew to San Francisco, hijacked my sister and her car and drove to Roseville, on the wrong side of Sacramento, to hit another John's Incredible Pizza Co.

Yes, we are whores.

Then we drive to Funtown at Micke Grove State Park in Lodi.

Woe is us, the credit is down. They think the guy who fixes it is on vacation. They can't get him on the phone.

Not to be deterred, we zip back south to the Oakland Zoo and score Tiger Express!

The next day we drove all the way to Concord to find Pixieland closed (this is *after* we called to verify they were open, which a live person on the phone did), so we then went to San Jose to find this charming zoo, Happy Hollow.

Credit. The Pacific Fruit Express. They had cool animals too, like a jaguar, meerkats, and lemurs.

This was also Dias de Los Muertos and Cheryl and my nephews marched in the procession through the Mission District. We had a great dinner with family and friends at Cha Cha Cha afterwards.

My nephews.

My Cheryl. I didn't attend the procession as I was still reeling from the after-effects of a flu shot at the Valencia Rite Aid. That's it! Thanks for checking out our report!!!!

[cfc]

I remember going to someone's birthday party at Micke Grove back when I was 9 or 10. They didn't even have a coaster credit back then.

[gisco]

Wow, You picked up some awesome credits there Martin!

[milst1]

I can't tell if you're serious or not, Bob!

[amyzoo]

Looks like a fun trip. Lots of kiddy credits! I'm still missing the mouse at Castle Park, wasn't open when we went.

[gisco]

I can't tell if you're serious or not, Bob!

 

I'm not sure either, but I have a lot of those credits too!

[cfc]

Was the Flying Dragon at Funderland in Sacramento on your itinerary? My brother's family lives in Sacramento, and I don't even have that credit.

[6flagsbrad]

I noticed in the Adventure City pics that Treetop Racers has a new color scheme. I saw that while driving over to Knotts the other day, and had to blink a couple of times before realizing it was real. Blue and pink just does not do it for me, but great trip report!

[milst1]

Was the Flying Dragon at Funderland in Sacramento on your itinerary? My brother's family lives in Sacramento, and I don't even have that credit.

 

Funderland is only open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in November, and we were there midweek. But even some of the "open" parks weren't open.

 

Thanks for checking it out, Chuck and 6flagsbrad!

[cfc]

^I should've known you'd be on top of things, Martin.

[milst1]

^^^

Giving credit where it's due, Cheryl was the quarterback for this trip.