Grsupercitys quest for coaster credits

[boldikus]

7 hours ago, grsupercity said:

Our second coaster was Goliath. I had the highest hopes for this ride. I love long sustained g's like the death helix on Titan at Over Texas. Goliaths downward spiral turn around looked great. This ride really looks great over the midways and throughout the park. Its placement in the middle of the park really looks good. Goliath has a good layout. Some nice floater airtime. Some actual whip near the end of the ride. The spiral helix turnaround was really good. Unfortunately this is the bumpiest B&M hyper I have ridden. It even has more rattle then Diamondback. I had multiple rides in the very front and very back and all the rides had the rattle. It was still a great ride though. Can the regulars tell me if the trains just need some love and new wheels or is the ride just getting old?

Great report. What a difference a week makes? I was there on the 17th and got a dozen+ rides on Goliath throughout the day, all over both trains - front, middle, back, wherever, and thought it was running like a dream - much better than my visits in 2016 and 2018. Super smooth and ludicrously fast. No rattle at all that I noticed. People always rave over SFOG's Goliath as the best B&M hyper but I think after these rides I finally got it. Actual texts to @coasterbill raving about it:

[grsupercity]

We escaped the frigid cold of Michigan to go to the chilly cold of San Francisco. We spent a full day in the city. We did a big bus tour that drove us around so we could the top attractions. It was a lot of fun but the open top bus got chilly out of a while. The Warf was my favorite part of the day. The Golden State bridge was cool but our Bridge in Michigan is larger and longer. Plus it was so foggy it was hard to see across!

 

Onto what you guys care about. California Great America. We jumped this park to the top of our lists after hearing of its potential demise. Crazy to me how much smaller this park is then its Divorced sister in Gurnee. We had a lot of fun in this little park. Park was looking really run down for Cedar Fair park. Not sure its February is off season or if maintenance budget was shot because they stopped caring? Dispatches were also crazy slow. Our first coaster of the day was Patriot. Way better then its cousin Vortex at Carowinds. I consider the floorless conversion on this coaster a success. We found our way over to Flight deck. This was a very fun little invert. If it were 1000 feet longer it could be one of the best. I really liked the helix over the lake. I wanted to save Railblazer for my 200th credit but got scared and jumped the gun and make it my 198. Between RMC reliability and the rain in the forecast I wanted to guarantee a ride. This was my first single rail. The ride has incredible pacing. The restraints were way better then I feared. It kind of felt janky though. When the coaster when over the booster wheels the trains would rock side to side and when the operator checked restraints the train would rock. It was crazy the movement those things had. While actually on the course though it was smooth. I was glad I jumped on when I did cause two trains after we got off it broke down. After getting our refillable bottle and walking around we rode Demon next . My wife said this is the worst ride she has ever ridden. Even worse then Ninja at SFSTL. Woodstock express was the next one to check out. Pretty smooth for an old family coaster. Area around the ride was looking rough. We backed tracked to GoldStriker to make that my 200th. Very solid ride. Reminded me a lot of Kentucky Rumbler. I like the first drop with the tunnel. It just didn't seem to have all the little pops of airtime I am used to seeing on a GCI. Otherwise it holds it speed well and is a very fun experience. Thanks to fastlane we got 2 rides on this beast. I would say this is the best coaster in the park. Grizzly had big shoes to follow. It was what I was expecting. A meandering ride that didn't do much but didn't beat me up so a decent ride. I walked past Psycho Mouse earlier to make GoldStriker my 200th. That was a misstep since at this point it was raining and we missed out chance on it. We were hungry at this point. Most shops and food places were closed. So we got panda express since it was open. After Panda we see saw Railblazer testing. We were able to snag a rain ride. This rides blistering speed made the rain feel like bullets to my face. Another lucky break since it went down again a few laps later. We were able to snag rides on the observation tower and the skyride. The skyride didn't open until about halfway through the day. I kept trying to ride Delirium but it got having restraint issues. This is the ride I would love to see at my home park MIA. Can locals tell me if its a maintenance nightmare? The maintenance director does not like complicated rides lol. We got a few more rides in on stuff including the beautiful carousel. At this point it was raining good again. We decided to grab some merch on the way out and call it a day. This felt like Cedar Fairs smallest park. I am sure VF or MIA are physically smaller but this one felt very compact. Considering the size of the parks surrounding metros this park could have been huge. Seems like every company that has owned kept it bottom of the list. Will be sad for me and the local area if it does indeed close. 

[grsupercity]

So we took the SS Badger car ferry from Michigan to Wisconsin. We headed up to Bay Beach in Green Bay. Zippin Pippin is a great little ride. For a coaster that is only around 70 feet it sure packs a punch. It was one train ops on a very busy Saturday. Locals told me they have 2 trains. I am assuming the 2nd was still in off season maintenance. The park had a great selection of kids rides and family rides. Their train ride takes you through the graveyard of chance rides past. You can see remnants of the old SeaDragon and Falling Star. Ticket prices were dirt cheap. Most rides only costing 25 or 50 cents. Even Zippin Pippin was only a dollar. I would have liked more than one ride on it but the line was an hour long. The operations were a little slow. They would walk the train. They would then check seat belts. Lar bars release and lock and the attendants would do a third pass. Made the whole process slow. Food was also very inexpensive. Park lacks a smaller family coaster or kiddy coaster.

Next day we headed over to Marshal to visit little Amerricka. I love little janky parks so I was excited for this one. To my suprise the park was very clean and in very good shape. I have a 2, 4 and 6 year old and this park is perfect for those ages. My first ride was the swiss toboggan. I am only 5 foot 9 and had zero issues with the cage. Ending bunny hills have a nice couple little pops of air. Next my 30 inch tall daughter got to ride her first coaster in the Little dipper. She loved it and the operator gave us multiple laps since she was giggling so much. This park has a huge collection of classic flat rides. Most of the rides are 42 inches and under. A lot do not even have a height limit if with an adult. After the kids rode some various flats I was able to snag a ride on Mad Mouse. Still no lines.I had high hopes. It did not touch Wild Chipmunk as my favorite old school mouse. I love the no seat belts and no lap bar style rides. I walked across the midway to Meteor. This was a fun little junior coaster. Amazingly smooth little ride. The double down had a nice pop of floater. The highlight of the park for most people will be the train ride. It is around 30 minutes long. It takes you through farms, woods, past animals, around the campground, through tunnels and past an old west town. Long story short it is a vey long train ride. Food at this park was very inexpensive. Merch though left a lot to be desired. We like to collect park picture frames and magnets and they had neither. Just a couple shirts and visors. I would recommend Bay Beach and Little Amerricka any day for familes with younger kids or thoosies wanting to boost that credit count! 

We also stopped back at Great America on the way home. I wont get into a write up on this park since it is heavily talked about. Great park. Deep ride and coaster collection . Kidszopolis area is looking rough though 

[grsupercity]

I got to visit Worlds Of Fun for the first time. Park was larger and nicer then I was expecting. First I wanna say the landscaping is nice at this park. The park does not have a bad coaster in its line up. Patriot is solid. Timberwolf was running decent for a dinn. Spinning dragons was fun. Prowler is amazing and not talked about. We night time ert and that ride was running great in the dark. I got one ride on Zinger and it was fun. The 2nd half twisties were good and even a little snappy for a mini gci. Mamba was amazing. No trims and the mid course didn't hit. Those return airtime hills hurt the best way. Incredible ride. I would recommend this park