Huge Photo TR: West Coast Bash 2015 with TPR + Disneyland!

[singemfrc]

I apologize if I repeat something you've already read in the WCB/SFMM/KBF threads, I'll try to summarize here and you can search there if you want to read more detail.

 

DAY 1 - DISNEYLAND PARK

 

Originally my plan was to head down to Santa Monica Pier on Friday afternoon and just quickly grab what is an elusive credit for me on the West Coaster, but it ended up proving elusive still as I found out a few days before the trip that my friend Lori (Jello_Biafra on TPR) was heading to Disneyland Park on Friday and she talked me into doing the same. That meant that when my flight landed in Burbank at 1:20, I had to immediately hit the road and fly as fast as possible through LA traffic from Burbank to Anaheim. Thanks to my Waze app I got there about an hour sooner than I probably should have!

 

I had never had the pleasure of visiting DLP during the Halloween overlays before so that was a nice bonus. I know DLP regulars I've talked to tend to not care for the NBC layover on Haunted Mansion, but it was interesting for me to see once. I too prefer the original. I LOVE THE HATBOX GHOST. Disney says it's for a limited time only, but I think they're just saying that to drum up ticket sales, I'm betting they will either end up keeping it, or just make it seasonal. Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy was pretty enjoyable for me, but then I just love Space Mountain so much it would be pretty hard to do anything that for me would ruin that ride. Every time I ride I just have a stupid grin on my face throughout the entire circuit. Side note: I haven't ridden in several years and didn't realize before that SM has the most comfortable seats I've ever experienced on a roller coaster.

 

I had previously bought an afternoon flight and wasn't able to change it at the last minute so I couldn't get to DLP until 3pm, but with strategic use of fast passes and the park being open until midnight that night, I was still able to pretty easily get everything done that I wanted. Throughout the whole busy Friday night only once did I want in a line longer than 10 minutes, I waited for my first lap on Space Mountain about 40 minutes. It also helped having my human DLP map Lori with me who knew all the shortcuts and where all the best food was. I know SFMM and SFDK but she knows far more about DLP than I. In my approximately 8 hours at the park I got done: Space mtn x2, Splash Mtn, Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn (Left), BTM RR, Teacups, Pirates, Finding Nemo (I hadnt ridden this since like 1994 so I still hadnt seen the Nemo upgrade - and I liked it!), and I even did Winnie The Pooh while waiting for my Splash Mtn reservation. Had to leave DLP at about 11pm so that I could hopefully get back to my hotel in Valencia by around midnight and if I was lucky get about 5 hours sleep before SFMM the next morning.

 

DAY 2 - SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN

 

We got to SFMM right on time at about 7am and checked in excited for our first really long serious ERT session. My plan was to head to YOLO first since everyone else would head to Twisted Colossus, but that kind of backfired when a good portion of other people had the exact same thought. I got one lap on it, and coming off the exit I saw the line actually start to reach the switchbacks; with a finite amount of time for ERT we decided to skip subsequent laps and move on to Goliath. I got two laps in on Goliath in a short amount of time thanks to using the Flash Pass que to come back to the station instead of going all the way around. Next up was Lex Luthor which was great as usual. We decided to skip Scream because we've all done it so many times (as well as Medusa) so again with a finite amount of ERT we moved on to the main event, Twisted Colossus. It was everything it was cracked up to be and we got lucky that we dueled on both of our morning laps. Due to an aforementioned software issue the blue train was topping the lift slightly before the green, but it was mostly syncd so we still loved it. After the breakfast graciously provided us and knowing that we had night ERT on TC as well, we then decided to try and get another lap in on YOLO before the park opened to the GP..this was a good call because by then everyone was on TC and the YOLO station was empty, and that's where we ended our ERT.

 

When the park opened we started working on the rides that weren't on the ERT. I wanted to do Viper first in the morning because for one I knew no one else in the entire park would think to do Viper first (and I was almost right, only one other TPR member was on it with us) and secondly I tend to usually ride it in the evenings when I'm sore and it makes it worse, so I wanted to remedy that and ride it early. Unfortunately it was so incredibly painful I just may never ride it again at all. That's the first time a ride actually physically hurt me. I didn't notice at the time, but when I got back to my hotel I noticed the restraints had actually cut into my shoulder and made some pretty deep cuts that left some blood stains on my shirt, which was a first on any ride for me.

 

We continued to hit rides strategically and using Single Rider on rides such as Riddler to avoid it's ridiculous queue. If you look at average standby wait vs average single ride wait Riddler by far has the biggest disparity and thus the greatest value for Single Riders. Most of the time if you have a party of 2 you still end up riding together and almost always get loaded on the train currently in the station. Green Lantern was another ride where single rider line helped me avoid the hour+ standby que. Lori no longer lets me drag her on that one, but I'm not going to let that stop me from riding. As I detailed in the SFMM thread I rode it three times getting a tame ride, a "rip your face off" ride, and a holy grail ride where I was completely unbalanced going face down on the lift and flipped about a half dozen times. That holy grail ride was worth the two other lesser ones for sure!

 

Lunch was even better than expected. In addition to hot dogs and chili they were serving up some BBQ Brisket that was surprisingly tasty. The "Management Hello" gets a lot of slack because it is definitely more low key than KBF's full scale Q&A, but to give SFMM Park Management a bit of a break, they did ask for questions and also made themselves available during most of the lunch for anyone who wanted to walk up and ask a question or just chat with them. I still enjoyed it.

 

TPR then raffled off a host of prizes including pairs of tickets to a Fright Fest Maze Tour, one of three Twisted Colossus backstage tours, pieces of Colossus, and some cool custom cups. There were just about enough prizes for everyone, but with my usual bad luck I figured I'd probably end up with a cup. When it started to feel grim one of the TPR members near us was kind enough to give us his extra ticket to the first tour. Lori thanked and hugged him and then remarked "Watch now watch them call our name" and sure enough not 10 seconds later I was pleasantly surprised to hear my name called when there were still TC tours available. Not only did I score a pair of tickets, but I got the second tour giving me time to go back to the hotel to shower and change before the tour. It was incredibly muggy and hot in Valencia on Saturday. When the TC tickets were gone Rob asked if anyone had an extra they couldn't use (We did, the one given to us) and if anyone needed one and we gave it to a gentleman who was a friend of Alan Schilke who said he wasn't able to get there in time for the morning ERT..I couldn't possibly have thought of a better person to have given it to!

 

It's hard to put into words just how amazing the Twisted Colossus backstage tour was. That's the first time I've been able to do any kind of backstage tour, and this was kind of a three-in-one almost as we also got some really great unique shots of Scream and Goliath from the area we were in. They took us around the entire perimeter of Twisted Colossus and everyone got all the photos and video they could have ever wanted. I got this great shot of Goliath spinning around my head:

 

We had met a couple of great people from TPR and hung out with them most of the day (I never did find out their TPR screen names) and we took a break after the tour and had dinner at the Newhall Refinery, which was really nice. Well more accurately, everyone except me had dinner. After having what was for me a late lunch of quite a bit of brisket, I just couldn't stomach eating again so soon...so I just had like 6 Dr. Peppers. Sorry guys, I didn't mean to be a wet blanket, the thought of eating at that time just made me feel ill - I still had a great time!

 

Night ERT was decidedly more hectic than the morning due to how far the selected rides were from each other. Also our planned ride order was foiled yet again as when we went to Superman at 9pm we found an approximately 45 minute line of GP left in the queue and decided we weren't going to waste that much of our ERT, so we skipped it. This stung a little bit more because after having ridden Gold Rusher right before the park closed to the public, we had walked up the hill after having heard incorrectly from an Orient Express ride op earlier in the day that it would not be running during ERT. Oh well, burned a few more calories! It was predetermined that we were not riding Viper anymore, so we then headed to Tatsu since it was nearby. I love Tatsu but if I have one complaint (and granted it's a picky one) it's that it is hard to hold things in your pocket without them breaking, the restraint comes down in just the right place to crush everything in your pocket. I was holding glasses for Lori who had no pockets and I was terrified of them being crushed as I rode, so I sat out while the rest of our party took a second lap.

Our friends were from the east coast and one hadn't ever ridden X2, so we wanted to make sure he didn't miss out and quickly headed there next. It didn't take much to convince him that the front row was the way to go for the first ride and that it was worth waiting a few more trains. Riding X2 with a train full of TPR members was so awesome..everyone was singing along with all of the audio (which surprisingly was working!) all the way up the lift hill. To me X2 is getting even rougher, but currently it's still worth it for that first drop that is second to none. Thank you Mr. Schilke!

We ended our night appropriately with some great night rides on Twisted Colossus. This time the software glitch had been fixed and the trains were perfectly in sync. It's amazing how infinitely better the experience is with perfectly matched trains versus even trains that are just mostly in sync! At 11:01 pm the ride operating crew asked if we wanted a double shot and, what are we going to do, say no? So they sent us off again, on the blue track by ourselves, and then on the green track to duel with an empty train which was kind of eerie in a cool way. Upon returning to the station we took a group photo with the ride ops to end a fantastic night!

 

DAY 3 - KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

 

After leaving SFMM at about 11:30 and driving straight from there to the Knotts Berry Farm Hotel I didnt get in until about 1am, and found my room to be at about 85 degrees, so it took a while to cool down and couldn't get to sleep until around 2 which only gave me about 4 hours sleep. It should have been even less, but I inadvertently slept through my alarm and woke up at 6:12 and had to race down to the park to check in. I also discovered the shower in my room didn't work, so it was a rough start to day 3. Fortunately I had thought ahead to bring extra changes of clothes so I just had to head to the park with remnants of last night's funk still on me and deal with it later. Luckily the hotel is so close to the park I just came back after checking in and had them send someone up to fix it - after morning ERT I came back to find it fixed and was able to finally shower and change again so I wouldn't stink the whole day.

 

With the schedule stating that both the Sierra Sidewinder Tour and the Ghost Rider photo op being 0700-0900 I was hoping we wouldn't be forced to choose, and I should have known better. They were both done in small groups and when you checked in you were assigned a certain time slot. This was a fantastic way of doing it, and why Robb gets "the big bucks". The Sierra Sidewinder tour was fascinating to me since unique mechanics like that are just as interesting to me as roller coasters, so this was a double whammy. The mechanics explained exactly how the elevator system worked, why it was used there, and why it probably won't ever be used anywhere else. I was interested to hear that recently they had figured out how to do SS rehab directly in the lower transfer room rather than having to crane the cars out and take them to the large shop.

 

The Ghost Rider photo op was my highlight of the day for sure. The guy running the tour was the same rides VP who was on the Q&A panel. I believe his name was John, but I didn't hear his name used a lot so I may have heard wrong, I'm not sure. Anyway, this may have something to do with a lot of the charter/long time club TPR members being on my tour, but he was amazingly forthcoming with all kinds of information about Ghost Rider, it's creation, and it's maintenance. In hind sight I wonder if he even may have said more than he wanted to or should have (since he then refused to say them in the Q&A), so some things he said I don't feel comfortable repeating if they might still be confidential. One thing I loved was his detailed explanation of how and why GhostRider became so rough. I detailed this in the KBF thread, but long story short they used a huge amount of wood out of an over abundance of caution against earthquakes making the structure overly rigid. That plus it's 364 day per year operating schedule.

 

Morning ERT was a little rough around the edges for me since I was still kind of feeling the effects on my feet from last night and having not really slept or showered since SFMM, but I was determined to not waste this awesome opportunity and still had a great time. I started on Silver Bullet knowing it would probably keep a healthy queue during the day and it wouldn't be on night ERT. After that I headed to Jaguar. I had not previously taken the time to ride it, so that was a new credit for me! I actually enjoyed the queue more than the coaster. From there I took a spin on the classic Montezooma but skipped Supreme Scream knowing I'd be able to hit it on night ERT. I then worked my way around to Xcelerator, so glad we had ERT on this since it will be on one train ops for the next year! From there I made my way over to another new ride for me if not a coaster credit, Voyage To The Iron Reef. I certainly enjoyed it but seemed to be pretty bad at it. Most of the people in my cycles were scoring around 100k but I was averaging around 60-70k and was consistently coming in last.

 

Because of the hotel issues I decided to forego the group photo so that I could go back to the hotel and shower and change and get off my sore feet for a little bit before lunch. Fortunately all was well and I went to lunch all nice and refreshed. Much to my delight I found that lunch was all you can eat Mrs. Knott's chicken dinner and Boysenberry pie with unlimited drinks and berry punch! Surely this must be a dream! TPR Quest was extremely entertaining, congratulations to all the contestants and others who won those prizes. I hope the baby doesn't have any permanent emotional trauma.

 

After lunch was the management Q&A in the Charles Schulz theatre, which I had never been to before. I couldn't believe they took the time to read every single question that was submitted no matter how seemingly random....but no guarantee you would get an answer, especially from rides. During the Q&A one of the questions was if there were any tips on how to score higher on Iron Reef. They said to make sure to get as many medallions as possible, be the one to strike the final blow on the last boss, and always aim for things far away instead of things that are closer. I made a note for night ERT later on.

 

After Q&A was the tour of one of this year's Scary Farm mazes, Voodoo, led by two of the designers Gus and Daniel. Photos were forbidden in most of the backstage area, which is understandable being that there are a lot of elements still under construction and unannounced. We were allowed to photograph one room which turned out to be the one I'd want to photograph anyway, so that worked out nicely! Not being a frequent attendee of Haunts and Fright Fests, I enjoyed seeing all the elements in the daytime light and seeing what went into making them.

 

For night ERT my plan was to start on Coast Rider, but my plan was once again foiled when the ride went down just before ERT started. No biggie though, I just headed over to Xcelerator and rode the last public and first ERT trains of the night. This turned out to be a very fortuitous occurrence as Xcelerator then went down for good about 90 minutes later. Coast Rider was another new credit for me as I hadn't bothered with it before now. It, like Jaguar, was kind of underwhelming.

 

My second round of Iron Reef was decidedly different than the first. In the morning my highest score was about 75k, but using the tips from the Q&A my next run netted me 235,900 and a couple runs later I improved it to 236,500. If I had done that in the morning I might have won the contest...I think the winning score was somewhere around there. Since there was hardly anyone at Iron Reef and I was riding by myself I decided to see what happened if I played two at once. Though your score suffers overall since you're splitting scores between two players, I found that to be a heck of a lot more fun. Anyone else try it? Playing two at once my best was 139,500 on my left hand and 166,800 on my right hand. I ended the night and the trip with a marathon of Timber Mountain Log Ride..I lost track of how many laps I took, I think it ended up being 6 or 7. It was a refreshing way to end a long trip. I thanked every Knott's employee I encountered for working past normal park hours, they seemed all too happy to have us there.

 

I had such a great time, I can only hope there are more in the future, maybe even a resurrection of the Bay Area Bash when Joker opens at SFDK! Without any further rambling on my part (well maybe the captions), here are the photos:

Flying to Burbank, so definitely sitting in the back of the plane. Laughing at all the people fighting over seats in the front.

Saw this huge fire after taking off from Sacramento. Heard later it is still burning.

The only reason I don't visit DLP more often..man it's expensive. Not overpriced, just expensive.

Made it!

Lori posing with the Dapper Dans.

Tomorrowland from Space Mtn's queue.

Something simple like a drinking fountain in the queue (instead of $5 sodas from a vending machine at CF and SF) make DL a more enjoyable experience.

SM's beautiful theming.

Lori and I with Mickey and Minnie in Tomorrowland. Sure beats standing in line in Toontown!

"How do I pull up Facebook on this thing?"

Dizzy

No selfie stick was used in the making of this selfie...

This steak gumbo at the Royal Street Veranda. It was AMAZING. Some of the best food I've ever had at a theme park. Highly recommended!

After dinner we of course had to get some Dole Whip floats! Accept no knockoff substitutions!

Coaster stop #2 - BTM RR! Loved the new effects, still an outstanding ride after all these years.

Permaneser sentados, por favor. First time in as long as I can remember that I've gotten a night ride on Matterhorn.

I couldn't stomach eating one, but I was told these tigger tails are really delicious.

I never remember to pose, lol...

I quite like this shot I took of Haunted Mansion while we were waiting for it to reopen from downtime.

I ride so seldom I don't remember where the camera is on SM!

I love this panorama I took right after arriving at Magic Mountain. Not a soul around yet!

Time to check in!

Check-in-orama panorama!

Insert Dr. Who quotes here.

No, I don't know what that is either.

I think he's waving to the person behind me. Also, hey Robb! Didn't realize I photographed you there! Could have used that in the TPR Quest!

Some happy TPR riders enjoying their ERT as I wait for my first ride.

Time for grub!

Daffy was really hoping to win some Fright Fest tour passes.

OMG I actually won! I can't believe it!

The "rear end" of Twisted Colossus!

We got a couple good shots of Scream, too!

Such twisty goodness!

Airtime!

Dueling airtime!

After being slightly off and being shut down, the trains started dueling perfectly!

Watch the birdie!

Seems welcoming. Let's go in!

A great shot of Goliath's tunnel that would be impossible to get under normal circumstances. I wish I had thought to stand there long enough to get a shot of a train coming out.

Too bad this run didn't duel!

The train is empty because this is where they were trying to reprogram and resync the lifts.

Coming up, some great shots of Goliath!

Going down!

Look how close I can get!

So twisty!! One of my favorite shots.

Oh man, it's GL time! I can hardly contain myself!

The GL crew was on point today, great job! (This is your view when waiting to be loaded as a single rider, by the way)

The evil Riddler train. I rode both and this one seemed to head bash where the other one didn't for some reason.

YAY! Me on Green Lantern! Of my three laps, this was the "rip your face off" one.

Lori about to fly at the speed of fear on Tatsooooooooo.

That is one happy first time X2 rider in the front row! (PM me, I'll send you a video of it!)

Fun stuff lined up for day three!

Sierra Sidewinder's plans on the wall of the shop!

Sierra Sidewinder's one of a kind vertical elevator

Sierra Sidewinder's one of a kind vertical elevator and shop

A working lap restraint mechanism which was demonstrated for us.

This is where our contest prizes come from...

Looking up Sierra Sidewinder's skirt.

Time for some unique access to a whole lot of wood!

Where wood meets...wood?

Happy to be standing here right now.

My artsy Ghost Rider sunrise-peeking-through-the-beams shot.

Informal Q&A, was actually more informative than the formal one.

WOOD!

Thank you Robb, Elissa, and TPR!

Aww, time to leave.

Morning ERT on Iron Reef!

WCB Swag! Love the shirt design!

Lunch with Mrs. Knott's at Gold Rush Camp!

Robb conducting the lunch entertainment.

Contestants getting their TPR Quest prizes!

Take a bow! Thank you to park management for being such incredibly good sports and answering as many questions as they could.

Silver lining of Ghost Rider being down is getting some great photos of it with no one around.

Silver lining of Ghost Rider being down is getting some great photos of it with no one around.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

The "Human Sacrifice" room in the new Voodoo maze.

Am I really crazy enough to ride Boomerang during ERT?

Apparently Viper knocked something loose in my brain, too. Surprisingly not as uncomfortable as usual!

Before Q&A I got 75k. This was my first run after using the tips given in the Q&A.

[singemfrc]

2/2

My best score of the day on Iron Reef.

My best score when playing two blasters at once. Anyone else try this? How did you do?

Hotel room TV ninjitsu. I'll bring my own shows, thanks!

Goodbye SoCal!

Holy crap, I seem to have landed in an alternate timeline where it rains in Sacramento. Who stole my DeLorean?

[jynx242]

Looks like you had a wonderful time!! What would you say your absolute favorite experience / ride was at WCB?

 

Thanks for taking the time to post!

[DoinItForTheFame]

Loved the photos, and your report!! Makes me really want to get out to SFMM!! Thanks for sharing!!

[singemfrc]

Looks like you had a wonderful time!! What would you say your absolute favorite experience / ride was at WCB?

 

Thanks for taking the time to post!

It'd be a close tie between the TC backstage tour and the night ERT on TC.

[jynx242]

^ Awesome.

 

I've been on 6 TPR trips, but I've never been out West. This is a crime that needs to be addressed . I absolutely must make it to WCB next year.

[marth555]

Sounds like a great time

[Superbatboy]

Great pics and report!

[Jello_Biafra]

That trip was so awesome. I did DLR (arrived at park opening). For the first part of the day, I was solo so I was able to pretty much walk on a good amount of rides within the first 3 hours. For a Friday, it wasn't bad. SFMM was so kick @ss! TC was the best thing ever!

TC Backstage. So awesome.

DLR The bakery at Critter Country.

This was delicious. All that sugar...

Enter backstage for the tour of TC.

I don't like apples but they do look yummy.

The lunch buffet wasn't bad. Thanks to the father and son who won an extra pair of tickets for the backstage tour of TC, and gave us their extra tickets. We were able to repay the favor.

It was so nice!

Edited September 18, 2015 by Jello_Biafra

[robbalvey]

Fantastic report! You were at DL the same night we were. It was PACKED on Friday night, but we also managed to get a lot of stuff done!

[Jello_Biafra]

More pictures of DLR Friday and SFMM Saturday.

I'm a foodie! Give me sugar!!!!!!!!

Riding Alice in Wonderland. Love the refurbishment. Very classy. All those feels...

Best thing ever!!!!!!!!

It's so beautiful...

Blue Bayou before opening.

Dapper Dans.

First Dole Whip of the day.

I saw Peter Pan walking alone. I asked him if I could take a pic with him. He told me, "Sure! Just don't tell anyone."