ECZenith's Huge California Photo TR

[ECZenith]

Part 1/4 - Old Friends, New Coasters

Knott's Berry Farm

May 17, 2006 (Wednesday)

Weather: Fair, Warm

Crowds: Moderate

 

My girlfriend Ali and I arrived at LAX approx. 11:30am from Providence, RI the previous day (Tuesday). After checking into our Days Inn right in Beuna Park, it was time to check out Knott's. This was my first trip to California, and also my first time even out of my time zone... so I was pretty psyched. The hotel was within walking distance of the park so my friends Tim and Veronica joined up with us and we headed across Beach Blvd and under Ghostrider to the front gates.

 

Ghostrider was unfortunately closed for the week for maintenance and we didn't get to ride. I heard the coaster has seen better days and being mostly a steel coaster fan, I wasn't too bummed out with a B&M inverted as well as an Intamin accelerator jutting into the sky up ahead. We headed right for Silver Bullet and apparently so did everyone else... It ran one train while we waited the half hour in line. As soon as it was our turn to board, they added the second train which only took 10 or so minutes and made the line shorter later in the day. We sat around the middle of the train for our first ride and were pleasantly surprised by a smooth, fast coaster ride with a unique overbanked turn and one of my favorite elements-an inverted cobra roll. I really like Silver Bullet's placement over the water with the cobra roll over the entrance gate... but I still can't believe the ride is called Silver Bullet with no trace of silver on the ride itself.

 

Moving on, we hit Jaguar!, a long but tame Zierer Tivoli coaster. The theming around the ride was pretty cool and the second lift was a nice surprise. Also hit in this area were Montezooma's Revenge and La Revolution (Chance Revo) Montezooma was my first Schwarzkopf shuttle coaster and I found it to be just OK... The lack of OTSRs was a relief and it's neat how Jaguar! crosses through the vertical loop. Revolution was a nice flat ride. I like these better than the KMG Afterburners. Neither of these three rides had any line to speak of so they were done pretty quickly.

 

After Tim took a dramamine break... It was time for the real reason we came to Knott's-Xcelerator. I've been on the other three American accelerator coasters and was looking forward to something more than just a launch and a bunny hop on this rocket coaster. There was about a 25 minute wait plus another 10 to add and test the yellow train for any seat but the front. The trains are REALLY nice on this ride and the car parts scattered around the ride are a nice touch and a decent attempt at theming the coaster to drag racing. Xcelerator surpassed my expectations and is definitely one of the more interesting rocket coasters. The launch is so intense and the view from the top hat is stunning. We ended up getting a couple rides on this coaster as it was more than worth the short wait.

 

While my friends ordered lunch from Johnny Rockets and we were waiting for our food, Veronica and I stepped out for a quick ride on Riptide, a Huss floorless top spin. Being a huge flat ride fan, I couldn't wait to try out this remake of one of my favorite flats. They ran a really great program where I got 4 and a half consecutive flips. It's run much better than my home park's Twister, standard Huss top spin. The fountains are cool under the ride structure but seemed to be for show only as I did not get wet at all. It did get very close though! While I really love this flat ride, it's too bad they had to get rid of the Hammerhead (Zamperla Roto Shake) I believe all US installations have been removed recently and I was hoping to ride one while I could! Are there any left on the planet?

 

It was starting to get hot out so decided to cool down on Perilous Plunge, an Intamin giant flume with an extremely steep drop. They were only running one boat which resulted in a 20 minute wait. I found it odd that you had to strap in as well as wear a lap bar before dispatching but I understand this must have been because of the accident some years back. We were seated in the front row much to the displeasure of everyone else in my party. This thing is huge and the drop is pretty insane for a water ride! We were completely soaked and completely thrilled. This is one of my new favorite water rides, I'd love to try out the UK version which I believe is taller.

 

Calico Mine Ride was next which was a walkon. This unique dark ride takes powered mine trains on a long, twisting course through a mock mountain complete with animatronics and some pretty impressive scenery. Towards the middle of the ride, the train climbs a bit of a lift hill and goes down a little speedy ramp which was a surprise to me. I was actually pretty impressed at how much ride they squeezed into the mountain so long ago. This ride is one of a kind and should not be missed when visiting Knott's.

 

On the other side of the mountain was the log flume which was also a walkon. This ride also featured some cool special effects and scenery and lots of dark tunnels. The big drop gets you slightly wet but not completely soaked like Perilous Plunge. Another unique and extremely fun attraction.

 

We had to hit Xcelerator one more time before the place started really getting busy so we hit that again as well as get our credits on Boomerang. Boomer wasn't too rough, not as bad Flashback aka Vampire at SFNE. The last new ride of the day was Bigfoot Rapids which had a about a 10 minute wait. It had some scenery and was set nicely in the trees. Very good for a rapids ride but not nearly as good as Grizzly River Run which I rode the next day at Cali Adventure...

 

The crew spent the rest of the day checking out the buildings in Ghost Town and the dormant Ghostrider. The very last thing Veronica and I did was hit Silver Bullet one more time, in the front seat. Ali decided to sit the ride out and missed out on an even better ride experience. Definitely preferred the front seat. Overall a great first time at Knott's. It's great to see such nice theming balanced with a nice selection of flat rides and coasters.

 

Not many photos for Knott's but there will be tons for the other SoCal theme parks.

 

Check back soon for Part II: Disneyland

Fastest acceleration of any Chevy out there.

Xcelerator dropping down from the top hat. Serious airtime in the back seat.

Riptide, an unusual Huss floorless Top Spin.

Silver Bullet's cobra roll arches over the park's entrance.

Sean, Tim, and Veronica drying up a bit after Perilous Plunge.

[coaster_type_of_person]

I actually enjoyd reading that one. and you are definetly right about the insane airtime in the back seat!!! Going down that drop in the back car is amazing because you are ejected from the seat. Great TR, and I seriously can't wait to read and see Cali Adv. and Disney!

[Noobitizer]

I remember you guys! LOL. I was the ride opp at Riptide. If that one pic was about an inch over then you would had me in the shot. Nice to here you had a good day in the park.

[rollermonkey]

You heathen!

 

You just now finally found your way on a shuttle loop?

 

You only found it OK?

 

How can you consider yourself an enthusiast?

 

 

I forget is that a weight drop or flywheel example? One is much better than the other.

 

I can't wait for the rest of your pics, you actually have a couple in there that weren't the 'standard shots'.

[socalMAN123]

I can't agree with you more than with the airtime on the back seat on Xcelerator. It's total ejector airtime, whenever I ride it, I'm practically standing up. Anyways, great TR and photos, can't wait to see the DLR ones!

---Brent

 

EDIT: Chris, it is a flywheel shuttle. I don't know what the difference between that and a weight drop is.

[ECZenith]

That's funny you were my ride op. Need to get myself one of those TPR tees so I can meet more of you by accident.

 

Rollermonkey, glad you enjoyed the pics. You can thank my girlfriend Ali for the unusual shots, we like to make sure we get some original stuff in.

 

Y'all are gonna like the other ones, I assure you.

[rollermonkey]

Hey! Wait a second! I know that sign off line!

Are you on Rollercoaster Talk at Yahoo?

[ECZenith]

Nope, this is the only theme park website I really go to. The saying is from the "No Fear" apparel brand.

[ECZenith]

Part 2/4 – The Original Theme Park

Disneyland

May 18, 19, 2006 (Thursday/Friday)

Weather: Fair, Warm both days

Crowds: Moderate/Heavy

 

I just wanna say thanks a ton to my girlfriend Ali for taking all the great photos...

 

First off, I really like the way the entire resort is set up. While I appreciate WDW's spread out layout and infinite room, DLR has Downtown Disney, the hotels and the theme parks all adjacent to each other without the need for bus/monorail transport. Downtown Disney was OK but not nearly as good as the Orlando version. I was able to pick up some theme park ride pins while in DD while my girlfriend Ali bought some pearls from a nearby stand. So before even entering the theme parks, my wallet had suffered a little damage. I also got to experience for the first time-Wetzel's Pretzels-and they are bomb.

 

OK, now onto theme park goodness...

 

 

Finally... the wait is over. I'm a huge Disney fan but I've only been to Walt Disney World. I had an idea of what to expect but there's something special about this original Disney theme park. I ended up liking it a lot more than WDW's Magic Kingdom for multiple reasons as you'll read below. Thanks to tips from SoCal TPR members, we headed down main street and down to Adventureland for Indiana Jones and the Temple Of The Forbidden Eye. The wait time was about 15 minutes so we decided to keep our fastpass access for the next ride. I had heard great things about Indy and I had been on AK's Dinosaur which I really enjoyed. To start with, the queue was incredibly themed and rivals Dueling Dragons'. The line moves very fast, winding through the temple, past skeletons and booby traps until you reach the bridge where you cross over to the loading platform.

 

The vehicles are Disney's very own EMVs, known on this attraction as “troop transports”. After we were all strapped in, and a quick seat belt check, we screeches off into the ruins ahead. According to the storyline, an idol inside the temple will grant visitors unearthly rewards as long as you do not look into his eyes. Of course, within the first few seconds of the ride, someone has broken the rule and the idol sends us on a doomed journey deeper into the temple. My favorite part of the ride was the bridge, where the idol blasts at you with a laser, the EMV rocking with the “impact”. There's some awesome animatronics including Indiana Jones and a massive cobra which looked incredibly realistic in person. The rolling ball trick at the end left me scratching my head as to how they could reset such a huge trick so frequently. Indiana Jones ended up being one of the best rides I had been on-period. I'm a fan of the movies and the EMV ride system so this was a real winner. We ended up with a total of three rides after two days at the resort. This ride is absolutely not to be missed.

 

Also thanks to tips, or rather warnings-we left Adventureland and booked it to Tomorrowland for a ride on Space Mountain, recently reincarnated as Space Mountain: Mission II. We fastpassed it two out of the three times we rode it due to the line getting up to 40 minutes on Friday. I like how you wait outside around the middle of the mountain itself high above Tomorrowland. The queue inside is also pretty cool, I noticed that some of the images showed Mission: Space's shuttles flying around Space Mountain. The trains are pretty nice and seat two across unlike the Florida version. Also unlike WDW's SM, there is only one track inside this mountain. This ride was VERY dark, fast, and never let up from the top of the third lift to the final brakes. The special effects and music went along perfectly with the coaster. Vekoma did a great job redoing a Disney classic, it ended up being Ali's favorite ride on the entire trip and scored very high points with me. We didn't get to try out Rock-It Mtn. As we weren't around at night but there's always next time. While we were in the area we checked out the Nemo Subs which haven't changed much from the last photo update I saw posted here. Can't wait to come back and try them out.

 

On Friday we hit Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. We have both at WDW and they were both pretty much the same ride. Pretty cool and worth a visit. For the next coaster rides, we hit both tracks of the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The exterior is highly impressive with the waterfalls and snow and it's neat to see the coaster cars buzzing around inside it. Both tracks are almost identical aside from some different turns. They were both very good and deserved multiple rides. I'm a little spoiled seeing Everest's yeti on the travel channel so it made the old yetis inside Matterhorn a little unimpressive. Overall a cool attraction with a short wait (5 minutes) well worth it.

 

Also in Fantasyland, my girlfriend wanted to ride It's A Small World, and I promised I would go with her. Seems longer than magic Kingdom's version. Not much I can say about this one-really never cared for it much but I did think the exterior was a lot nicer on the DLR version. While we were in Fantasyland I had to ride Alice In Wonderland as it's my favorite animated movie of all time and my favorite childhood movie. The ride wasn't too bad and had a lot of appearances by my favorite Disney character-The Cheshire Cat. It was neat how the cars went outside for a bit as the caterpillar cars slide down what looks like giant leaves. Definitely glad I experienced this odd little ride.

 

For a shameless credit, we headed into ToonTown and waited 15 minutes for Gadget's Go Coaster. Typical Vekoma junior coaster but Ali liked the “cute” theming. While we were in ToonTown, we also did Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. I was actually a little let down by the scenery in this ride but it was unique and worth the 25 minutes we waited for it. We wanted to ride some of the other Fantasyland dark rides but by the time we left ToonTown it was an absolute mob scene. Leaving Fantasyland was when I noticed how different the left side of DL is different from MK's. We were expecting to bump into Haunted Mansion next but to our surprise Big Thunder Mountain came into view. We waited about 10 minutes and took a spin on another great Disney classic. I liked WDW's version alot better as it has its own area and more track near the water. I hear Paris has the best one.

 

Now we were starving and treated ourselves to some McDonald's fries before finally reaching Haunted Mansion. HM was actually a walkon on Thursday but had about a 20 minute wait on Friday. Very good, seemed almost the same as WDW's. We didn't get to ride Splash Mountain until Friday and it was the only other ride at DL where we needed FastPass. On Thursday the standby wait was 40 minutes and 60 minutes on Friday-which was actually the longest line I saw at the entire resort. While waiting for Splash, we rode Pooh which fits nicely in Critter Country. I didn't care for the ride at all but at least Critter Country has another ride. SM is nearly identical but they have an extra scene at the end before the big drop that WDW doesn't have, making it slightly better. The scene is kind of dark story-wise and I can see why they may have cut it from MK. DL also seats riders in a single row rather than the two seats across that WDW has.

 

Last ride of the day (Friday) was Jungle Cruise which had no wait time. I still laugh at the skipper's jokes even though they aren't any different. Our skipper Jeff was really good at what he did, makes the ride so much better with a great cast member. I noticed the new piranhas which seemed a little cheap... spinning around on a wheel, but it's better than not getting any updates at all I suppose. I think I remember WDW's version having an indoor temple scene that DL didn't have, making me like WDW's slightly better. My impressions on Disneyland-Better than I expected it to be. Miles ahead of Magic Kingdom with just Space Mountain and Indiana Jones... Friendly staff, great atmosphere, perfect selection of rides.

 

Check back soon for Part III: Disney's California Adventure

Spiffy 50th Anniversary Park Hopper

Splash Mountain, can you spot the "hidden" 50th emblem?

Jungle Cruise departs the loading dock

Haunted Mansion was pretty much "dead" all day... harhar

Best Disney character ever-The Cheshire Cat!

Alice In Wonderland's outdoor section

These incredible mosaiics were everywhere!

Sean in front of Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

No shame baby...

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage construction site with Matterhorn Mountain in the background

Matterhorn Bobsleds

Space Mountain Mission II brought shiny new Vekoma trains to this Disney classic

Satellite hanging over Space Mountain's loading table

Space Mountain as seen from the outdoor queue

Wow, I actually took a photo for once! Ali in the Indy queue

Sean with Indy stuff

Indiana Jones EMV Ride

Sean & Ali in front of the tiny castle

Blue monorail in Tomorrowland station

Entrance to Downtown Disney

[ECZenith]

Part ¾ – Not too shabby...

Disney's California Adventure

May 18, 19, 2006 (Thursday/Friday)

Weather: Fair, Warm both days

Crowds: Light/Moderate

 

To sum up California Adventure in one word, I'd have to say underrated. This was my first visit to the entire state and most of the rides at Cali Adventure were new to me, so I was completely pleased with my visit on both days. We headed all the way to the back of this little park to Paradise Pier and one of my most anticipated rides of the entire trip: California Screamin'. Where do I begin on this ride? A unique-layout Intamin with a boardwalk theme, LIM launch and an LIM lift hill, vertical loop halfway through the ride, some slight airtime in the back seat, single rider line... Damn near perfect. Tied for best attraction at DLR for me along with Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. I ended up with exactly 10 rides on California Screamin' thanks to the single rider line. My girlfriend wanted to go on the sun wheel rather than join me for the screamin' marathon. It took here about a half hour to get on leaving me plenty of time with this crazy Intamin. The launch is pretty mild but its setting right on top of the water is excellent. It's got a couple of good drops and after it swoops around Maliboomer, it does this great carving turn I haven't seen anywhere else.

 

Also in Paradise Pier, we hit Orange Stinger which was pretty neat, “very cute” as Ali said. Orange Stinger is a basic swing ride enclosed in a giant peeling orange. Best swing ride ever just because of the theming but ride-wise nothing special. The Golden Zephyr was a neat old-school rocket ride with some great views but the ride cycle was SO short. Ali really liked the Sun Wheel and took two rides on it. In case you don't know, Sun Wheel is a very rare “coaster wheel” that has cars that slide down and around rails as the ferris wheel turns around. Completely bizarre. The whole Paradise Pier area was my favorite “land” between both of the Disney theme parks. I love boardwalk amusement piers and the theme really did it for me. I wish I had seen the place at night.

 

I also hit Maliboomer, the park's triple space shot. It had a single rider line which helped as Ali was still waiting for Sun Wheel. I love Space Shots and it was themed pretty nicely as a carnival strength game. They were only running one of the three towers on Thursday but had another one up on Friday to keep the lines going. Time for the biggest surprise of the day... Mulholland Madness was running! MM was scheduled to be down the week that we were in California but we were happy to see this bonus credit cycling around without any signs of closure. It was a nice little mouse but the hills were very rampy compared to some of the Mack mice I've been on. Not really a Disney quality ride but a credit nonetheless.

 

We continued clockwise to Golden State, noticing that there isn't much in between here and Paradise Pier. Ali skipped Grizzly River Run not wanting to get wet. Once again I took advantage of the single rider line and hopped right on. This was hands-down the best rapids ride I've ever been on. One HUGE lift hill and two good sized drops, along with geysers and waterfalls make for a great ride experience. Add to that the fact that it's built onto the beautiful Grizzly peak, DCA's sole mountain. Grizzly was another great surprise on the trip, just plain fun-perfect setting in typical Disney fashion.

 

We didn't get to Soarin' until Friday (wanted to save something to do that day!) and enjoyed it thoroughly. For some reason I liked it better than Epcot's. Must have been the fact that the exterior and surrounding themed area of Condor Flats was really nice where Epcot's seems a bit out of place squeezed into the land pavilion, and themed to California in the middle of Florida... Seems like I noticed the smells better at DCA because I don't remember them working at Epcot. Easily the best simulator type ride I've ever been on. It really seems like you're VERY high off the ground inside that building. Good to see Disney still coming up with completely new ideas for rides.

 

A Bug's Land/Flik's Fun Fair didn't really interest us at all and we passed right by it on the way to the other side of the park. We had already been on Animal Kingdom's “It's tough to be a bug” and it was just OK... Next up was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror-comparison time... I like DCA's exterior better for some reason but WD Studios has the whole street leading up to it. The shape of the building is pretty nice, Disney Sea's looks the best out of all the one's I've seen so far though. Ok, now that we're inside. The lobby was done pretty well. Cast members/bellhops didn't seem as “into it” as they do in Florida. They were just kind of standing around talking to each other at the ride's entrance. After the library, there are six loading areas, three on the bottom of the boiler room and three upstairs. WDS definitely has the better boiler room-DCA's seemed kind of cartoonish with the boiler with the face and the weird lighting.

 

There were some good bellhops in character once inside the Tower to add to the ride experience. I now notice what everyone's saying about “the hallway”. The doors opened and there it was.. yuk. After boarding the elevator and the doors close, the car pushes back and there is the one scene WDW doesn't have-the mirror trick. The rest of the ride is the same aside from the lack of the 5th Dimension hallway. Doesn't have the random drop sequence of Florida yet, and the lightning effects didn't even touch WDS's. Still a great ride, one of the best at the park, but I agree with most of you in that it's not even close to Florida's. Disney Sea's should be interesting with the new storyline.

 

Last ride of the Disneyland Resort was Minster's Inc. - Mike & Sulley to the Rescue. Actually better than I thought it would be and the necessary dark ride that DCA so desperately needed. The animatronics were pretty good, and there were some cool effects like the doors, and Randal changing colors was pretty impressive. This ride, along with everything else beside the Sun Wheel and Soarin' had no wait. So yeah... I loved DCA but agree it needs a few more quality rides to bring it up to where it should be. Hopefully the rumor of them getting the “Cars” version of test track is true as I can't think of a better ride to be put in DCA. Also, I should add that I really like the California theming of the entire park, you have to admit they did a great job consistently theming the place.

Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror

Sean with the cool changing sign

Soarin'

Theming in Condor Flats

My new favorite rapids ride

Golden Zephyr - Retro rocket ride

Scream shields are a little silly...

Maliboomer triple space shot

Bunny hops have a little air in them, despite the brakes

California Screamin's LIM run

[ECZenith]

Part 4/4 – “Alvey Encounter”/ERT on Tatsu and X

Six Flags Magic Mountain

May 20, 21, 2006 (Weekend)

Weather: Hot(20th)/Cool & Rainy(21st)

Crowds: Heavy

 

I don't know how the hell you Californians deal with the I-5... After 2.5 hours and 50 miles we were at our hotel in Castaic. LA traffic for the first time... Anyways, SFMM really has a beautiful skyline from Route 5. First the Sky Tower comes into view, then Superman, and then BAM, a huge mess of coaster track chillin' in the Santa Clarita Valley. We knew it was crazy to hit SFMM on a Saturday but we had an ERT event on Sunday including 4 hours of Tatsu and 2 hrs of X so it was all good. The ERT event was the sole purpose of me joining ACE this year, as SFMM had to be squeezed in on the weekend. The $50 dues and $25 event fee was worth practically owning Tatsu before and after the park's normal operating hours.

 

We didn't go too crazy on Saturday as the crowds were pretty bad. Tatsu had a 3 hour line and I believe X was around 2 hours. We were meeting the Alveys for the first time that morning and Elissa suggested we hit Déjà Vu first as it gets crowded later in the day. After a loooooong walk to the back of the park, Ali and I got our first ride on a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang. I loved it but found it a bit rough. The vertical drops just feel weird in the inverted position. We lucked out as Déjà Vu has just recently been reopened. Psyclone was also running so we gout our credit in on that. It's a pretty painful coaster and I haven't been on the original Coney Island Cyclone to compare it to. I ended up giving it another try (alone!) on Sunday closer to the front but it was just as rough... and not having anyone next to you to break your impact makes it a bit worse. Should've listened to ya Ali...

 

As soon as Psyclone hit the brakes and began rolling into the station we saw that Robb and Elissa were waiting below at the exit ramp. They were nice enough to give us Magic Mountain virgins a tour around the north end of the park. We left Cyclone Bay and headed up the huge hill to Samurai Summit. Damn-this hill is huge! But it's worth the walk for the credits at the top-Superman The Escape and Ninja. We got lucky as the summit was completely dead... Ali, Robb and I jumped right into the front seat of Superman The Escape while Elissa opted for the back seat. The ride was just OK... Pretty nice launch and a nice float at the top, can't imagine when it first opened waiting hours and hours for this thing though. Still empty, we took another launch on this unusual Intamin reverse freefall coaster before heading over to Ninja.

 

Ali's favorite type of coaster is the arrow suspended, and this ended up being her favorite ride at the park, and her second favorite of the entire trip! We took the very front seats and The Alveys grabbed the very back seats. Arrow suspendeds are best up on mountain tops and Ninja doesn't let up dodging trees and barely missing the water at the bottom of the summit. Ali and I took a total of 6 rides on Ninja over the 2 days at the park, she really liked it that much! Nearby was the Sky Tower so Robb, Elissa, and Ali went up for the view while I zipped back down the mountain for my Goldrusher credit and a ride on Jet Stream to cool off. Goldrusher was a pretty fun terrain mine train. We also rode this multiple times for our stay at SFMM. Jet Stream was cool, the guys on Sky Tower actually saw me riding it from the top!

 

Once everyone was down from Samurai Summit we headed over to Riddler's Revenge where Robb & Elissa kindly gave us flashpasses to beat the line. They suggested we ride the rear of the train. We originally were originally seated (standed?) in row 6, but for some reason they moved us right to row 8-more great luck I suppose! The ride was fast and intense, lots of inversions. The standup is my least favorite in the B&M catalog but Riddler was definitely better than the other one I've been on-Mantis. This coaster would be even better if it didn't have the gimmicky standup configuration. The inclined loops are really cool and would be interesting on a floorless or standard coaster. Robb and Elissa brought us over to Batman The Ride, leaving us with plenty of flashpasses to survive the Saturday. It was very cool meeting the Alveys in person and the passes made impossible queues possible later in the day. Thanks for the help guys! We had a great time hanging out with you and hope to do it again sometime.

 

Batman had a 10 minute wait so we kept the flashpasses handy for later. We'd been on the one at SFGADV so we knew what to expect. Just as intense as NJ's version, and you can't beat that loop, zero-g, loop, 1-2-3 combo that just knocks you on your ass. I'm so glad they kept it grey and navy blue and hope they keep it that way. Looks more batmanish than NJ's yellow and purple mutant. Moving clockwise, we skipped Scream! and Colossus until Sunday and used our flashpass for Goliath which had a nasty queue time. On our way up the exit ramp, we were nearly puked on by a Goliath victim and noticed some acidy stains all over the ramp. Is the ride really that intense? We shall see...

 

Now Robb wanted to know what I thought of Goliath having Superman: Ride Of Steel in my backyard so here's my .02 ... First off, the slowing down at the very top is just wrong. I'm terrified of heights but suck it up for coasters and nearly coming to a stop before that massive drop just adds to the anticipation, luckily the fear is just part of the fun. The drop into the tunnel is great but the turnaround that follows is odd... Should be a camelback there or something. Second drop is cool, and the bunny hop that immediately follows is pretty heavy with airtime. I was disappointed nearly coming to a stop in the brakes but the helix still almost made me black out. I'm telling you the “widescreen bars” were starting to blur up my vision! So yeah... no Superman: Ride Of Steel but still a nice mega coaster with awesome looking trains. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, really nice colors but they look better on SFOG's B&M Speedcoaster by the same name.

 

We hiked all the way over to Viper and again flashpass saved our butts. I couldn't believe how long the line was for an Arrow multilooper. Viper was cool all the way until the very end, where it's like getting punched in the jaw by Sugar Ray Leonard. Worth the credit but once was enough. GASM at SFNJ is definitely in better shape. We used our last flashpasses and waited 15 minutes for the amazing Tatsu, but there'll be more on that later... don't worry. So we left the park around 4 and got some food, there would be plenty of time to hit the remaining coasters on Sunday... Guess now is a good time to review Scream! and Colossus before moving on to the good stuff. Sunday afternoon and the southwest corner of the park was completely dead aside from a family of geese. (see photos below for gosling photo) An empty Scream! train rolled up and we took our ride on the TRUE Medusa West. Shapiro, please dig up that concrete and plant a little grass, you're doing a great job so far but this should get taken care of in the near future! I kind of liked the colors on this B&M floorless, and it was just as good as it's east coast sister. We rode in the front seat and had the entire train to ourselves. Colossus was also a walkon but they were only running the track that dispatches from the right side, making racing impossible. This is another coaster that crawls at the very top of the lift before disengaging. Remarkably smooth for such an old woodie. Are you still reading, haven't lost your interest yet? Goood... OK now onto the interesting stuff...

 

X – The coaster Arrow Dynamics wish they'd never dreamed up. Morning ERT for Tatsu, X, Viper, and Revolution began at 8:05 am, 5 minutes late, enough to stir up a couple of scary ACErs into complaining at guest relations that they were “cutting into his ERT time”. This one guy just wouldn't stop complaining about the dumbest crap before and after the park was open to the public. Dude... ERT on some of the best coasters in the world, why aren't we appreciating this? OK... sorry... yeah... X. X was awesome, can't believe some people don't like it.

 

Since the locals all flew to the shiny new Tatsu we literally had X to ourselves for a part of the morning. We sat in the front (the back?) row. I let Ali take the smoother inside seat in hopes of rerides. Dispatching backwards hanging over the tracks is just weird and takes some getting used to. The lift hill is sloooow and offers a unique view of the surrounding areas. First drop is pure madness with the full flip and the rest of the ride is intense until the brake run. My favorite part was the half-half where the trains flip horizontally and the seats go the rest of the way. Raven turns had a bit of a rattle but not as bad as people make them out to be. Definitely a cool ride, and being from the EC I appreciated this unique machine even more. Can't wait for the TPR Japan trip to ride Eejanaika, count me in fellas! Full-full? Just the thought of it sends bubbles to my brain.

 

Now it was time for the biggest reason to jump on a plane and cross all the US time zones... Tatsu, the brand spanking new fire-breathing B&M flying dragon. First off, the lift is way up high above Rapids Camp Crossing, and to see it for the first time is impressive. Our first ride put us in the middle of the train on Saturday, but with the entire coaster up for grabs with only about 50 people... front seat baby! The lift, like most new B&Ms is fast and quiet. It takes about 15 seconds to get to the 170' summit before roaring to life down the 115' first drop. The Giant Corkscrew and Zero-G roll feel odd in the flying position but aren't too forceful. The “egg turn” is unique as well and is a pretty cool feeling. After the egg, A fast little banked turn dumps you into the single most insane element on any of the 206 coasters I have ever been on... The pretzel loop. Yo... This thing is sinister. Arching up with still a lot of momentum, Tatsu nosedives upside down producing ridiculous forces before arching back up and immediately flipping through an inline twist. The pretzel being at the end of the ride was a good move and makes the ride even more unique than the Superman triplets. A high banked turn and a little pop into the brakes finishes off one of B&M's finest creations. A+, bravo SFMM! And thank you for the ERT! We took a ton of rides in both the AM and PM ERT. It was raining at night so we only took a few rides then, but being in the pitch black dark in the front seat was a religious experience.

 

That about does it for the TR. Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed the photos!

Egg turn, that's all folks.

110' drop

15 second express lift hill

The reason for the 3 hour wait times...

The pretzel loop is one crazy element

Sean working off breakfast on the picnic grounds

Where is everybody?

Having the ride to yourself is awesome.

The 3 hour line, and oh yeah... giant flying flat spin.

Dude, X just kicks ass.

X's slow lifthill

Goliath as seen from Colossus' brake run

Scream was not quite as busy as Tatsu.

Lotta coasters you guys have here in Cali...

These geese run Gotham City

Batman The Ride

Check out that layout!

Robb, Elissa, and Sean heading over to Riddler's Revenge

Robb reading the rules of the tower

Thanks guys!

See that tiny blue speck riding Jet Sream? That's me. (Photo by the Alveys)

Ali and Elissa in the elevator (Photo by Robb)

Elissa's first ride up the Sky Tower in quite a while (Photo by Robb)

Ali, Sean, & Robb on Superman The Escape (photo by Elissa)

The top of Ninja's first lift

Ali loves her Arrow suspended coasters

Psyclone, still kind of painful despite the retracking

First ride of the day, Deja Vu

[jamesdillaman]

Disneyland refers to itself as the origional theme park? Why doesn't holiday world claim those rights? Isn't Santa Claus Land a theme? As in Chritsmas? Just wondering, other than that, awsome photos, I wish sky tower had been open the campout day that I was there. Although I was so tired I don't think my pictures would have been nearly as good.

-James

[rollermonkey]

Robb! Don't forget to take off your glasses before Superman launches!

[robbalvey]

Sean your photo TR is GREAT! Except for the picture of me...which are crap! But only because I am in them!

 

--Robb

[ECZenith]

James, you are actually correct. Upon doing some research Disneyland opened 9 years after Holiday World. I should have said, "on such a grand scale" I suppose.

[cfc]

^Thanks for the report--nice pictures. I'll be heading to Disneyland for the first time since 2001 in August.

 

As I recall, Knott's cliams to be "America's first theme park," too.

[ECZenith]

Knott's opened as a theme park in 1968 but had the ghost town section on display in the 40's, so it's kind of controversial I suppose.

 

Quick question-

 

Anyone have the new Mission 2 song for Space Mountain? My girlfriend loved it...

 

Also, is the "Rock It" Mountain track out yet? I saw the youtube video and heard what sounded like the band "hoobastank". Who does the song?

 

If anyone has either of these and they could send them to me, my email address is ECZenith@aol.com

 

Thanx

[arrowfanman]

Great Photo Trip Report! I think you did a pretty fair job at summing up what SoCal has to offer, so if any of you are looking at planning a trip here, make sure you read this!

 

Also...

Disneyland considers itself the first theme park most likely because, as storytellers, Disney was the first person to use actual themes within the park. Sure, people had been trying to decorate their attractions with scenery for decades already, but Disney used themes found within stories and literature. Adventure, Fantasy, Progress--those are real themes. Santa Claus is just a bunch of Christmas scenery.

 

Disneyland was also the first park to combine the idea of "themed lands".

 

So frankly, while Disneyland may not be entirely original, I do believe that it reinvented/raised the bar of the park. Disney combined all the right principals to create quite a legacy.

 

-Jahan "That song is on the way" Makanvand

[jamesdillaman]

Theme park, imo, just meant that instead of a bunch of different rides, the rides were all tied together by a common thread a "theme" if you will, such as a Christmas theme, or a Disney theme, etc. I just also like to think that a little family owned park was first before the disney juggernaut.... it makes me feel better about humanity, lol.

-james

[arrowfanman]

^ If thats the way your lookin at it, than like, the World Fair of like 1898 was one of the first examples of a theme park. And the Worlds Fair was like, the juggernaut.

 

-Jahan

[jamesdillaman]

darn you, jahan, lol

 

"I'm the juggernaut, bi&%*!" http://www.wimp.com/juggernaut/ (WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE!)

 

-James "okay, okay, I just like Holiday World" Dillaman

 

[robbalvey]

Disneyland considers itself the first theme park most likely because, as storytellers, Disney was the first person to use actual themes within the park. Sure, people had been trying to decorate their attractions with scenery for decades already, but Disney used themes found within stories and literature. Adventure, Fantasy, Progress--those are real themes. Santa Claus is just a bunch of Christmas scenery.

 

^ It's arguable that Disney considers itself the first theme park because they were the ones to put MONEY into the theming. Think about, all those "themes" you mentioned could also be at any other park, but without the Disney cash behind them (even in 1955 - just look at the early pictures of Frontierland) at any other park it would look like "Christmas decorations."

 

Having been to Holiday World many times since 1995, I would say that park is "themed." Maybe not to the budget or the immersion that Disney's themed areas are, but IMO I see no reason why it shouldn't count.

 

--Robb

[arrowfanman]

It is arguable.

 

I never said DL was the first. As far as I'm concerned, Disneyland was the right assortment of everybody elses ideas....and money, as you pointed out. Although thats not to say it wasn't built on a budget.

 

-Jahan

[Freefallbestrideever]

Awesome TR, i can't wait to go to DLR&DCA in June, i went when i was a kid, but i hardly remember anything except race cars and submarines lol