California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

^ That's way too risky for a first time visitor and you may get burned with it.

 

In my mind there has to be a balancing act between riding rides early based on capacity and riding better rides first since you'd feel pretty dumb if you missed Railblazer because it had an extended breakdown while you were whoring the wild mouse and it didn't reopen.

 

If you don't get there at park opening strategy barely matters anyway so I'd just hit rides in order of how much I care about riding them.

Yeah by all means get there early if you can, I just meant thats a way to sneak on if you would have otherwise been out of luck.

I agree that Patriot is trash. I went to CGA in March on the fourth day of it operating season (I posted a mini TR on this thread on page 1146: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42682&start=11450) and finally rode it. While its slightly better than Vortex, its not by much in my opinion. I forgot how good Flight Deck is and was reminded when I rode it then. Gold Striker is my favorite though at CGA (at least until Railblazer opens), I could ride that all day. I also love their Intamin Drop Tower and glad they kept their sky ride (one of three Von Rolls left in CA I think). I haven't ridden Grizzly in a few years but the last time I rode it after Gold Striker was open I thought it was more boring than bad. The loading operations on it are horrible though and I find it pointless now at CGA since they now have a far superior woodie with the same height requirement. You can't agrue that Grizzly is good intro ride for kids or a family ride when it has a 48" height requirement and its layout isn't worth RMcing in my opinion. I think Grizzly has played its course and is ready to go as it's sitting on prime real estate for a future star rollercoaster.

^Funny you should compare Grizzly and Little Dipper. I'm not totally consistent, but sometimes in wood coaster polls I've ranked Little Dipper dead last because it's the smallest and tamest woodie I've ever ridden (other than its cousin Meteor, now). Often, though, I move up the kiddie and junior woodies ten slots and make my bottom ten out of the worst full-sized ones I've ridden. When I do that, Grizzly takes the honor.

Antelope at Gulliver's is the tamest I've been on. I like Little Dipper cause the trains are better and more airtime than Grizzly.

Been watching them test 3 trains on Railblazer on the webcam, they can really crank out those trains. It'll be interesting to see how it'll work with the slow moving GP

There still hasn't been any word of an official opening, has there? I'm trying to plan a trip there in June, but am awaiting an "official" announcement to be sure. Yes, I realize it's very likely to be open by June, but I also would've thought it'd be open by Memorial Day weekend, and here we are, 3 weeks away from that, and still not a peep. :/

I have some terminology questions about RailBlazer.

What is a 180-degree stall, a zero-G roll, a dive loop, a breaking wave turn, and a heavily banked turn? Also, what makes the 45-degree climb different from other roller coasters? Thanks.

I have some terminology questions about RailBlazer.

 

What is a 180-degree stall, a zero-G roll, a dive loop, a breaking wave turn, and a heavily banked turn? Also, what makes the 45-degree climb different from other roller coasters? Thanks.

-180* Stall - Going straight, track turns upside down and then right side up the same direction it came from, reversing rotation direction.

-Zero-G-Roll - Going straight, track turns upside down then right side up the opposite direction it came from, continuous rotation direction.

-Dive Loop - Track ascends, does a 180* roll, then continues into a half-loop, heading back in the direction it came from.

-Breaking Wave Turn - No clue

-Heavily Banked Turn - I would interpret this as to mean an overbank turn, which would be any turn banked greater than 90*

-45* lift - Special? Not really...most coasters have shallower lifts though.

There still hasn't been any word of an official opening, has there? I'm trying to plan a trip there in June, but am awaiting an "official" announcement to be sure. Yes, I realize it's very likely to be open by June, but I also would've thought it'd be open by Memorial Day weekend, and here we are, 3 weeks away from that, and still not a peep. :/

Yeah, I am going to be there on either the 24th or 25th of June and seriously hope it will be open by then...

There still hasn't been any word of an official opening, has there? I'm trying to plan a trip there in June, but am awaiting an "official" announcement to be sure. Yes, I realize it's very likely to be open by June, but I also would've thought it'd be open by Memorial Day weekend, and here we are, 3 weeks away from that, and still not a peep. :/

I'm surprised there hasn't been an opening day announced yet. I just checked the CGA website and nothing, just "New for 2018".

Wooden catwalk appearing on the turn off the drop. Image from insidecga on Instagram.

Image: www.instagram.com/insidecga

Very interesting. Given that it barely crests that drop, I bet it's there in case the train valleys.

Very interesting. Given that it barely crests that drop, I bet it's there in case the train valleys.

Very interesting. Given that it barely crests that drop, I bet it's there in case the train valleys.

Yep I bet you're right, makes sense why they'd have a temporary catwalk there for that until they dial in the controls.

I doubt that catwalk is temporary.

Any news on a potential “media/promo shoot” for Railblazer like they did for Gold Striker? Had a great time when they did this for Gold Striker (found out about it on this thread and registered online), although I remember there was a discussion about it being more for noise testing and less for photo/video materials. Maybe this isn’t needed for Railblazer? Thanks!

Hmmm, a little concerning there's no open date yet. Whether its WCB or my own trip I deff am getting to CA this year and an opening date for railblazer would be a relief, as its something Im really looking forward to.

^I have a feeling it'll open how Gold Striker opened. Was in the back of the park when they just announced over the PA system,"Attention, Gold Striker is now open. Have a wonderful day here at California's Great America."

*commense running of the bulls from psycho mouse to front of park*

Even though they have not announced a date yet, I can't imagine it taking much longer. Memorial Day weekend is my guess. I can't see this opening in June.

Very interesting. Given that it barely crests that drop, I bet it's there in case the train valleys.

Yep I bet you're right, makes sense why they'd have a temporary catwalk there for that until they dial in the controls.

 

I doubt that catwalk is temporary.

there is NOT one at Fiesta Tx (although as it's up against the Quarry wall, there is likely very little wind to deal with)

I honestly thought it would be open by now. Was hoping, at least. I'd be pleasantly surprised if it was open by next week (soft-open, pass preview, or promo shoot) but not holding my breath. I'll be in the area, but going to the park will be less of a priority without Railblazer open. Nothing new for me there except Patriot, which I have low expectations for.

You would have thought we would have some sort of information about an opening date by now...

I honestly thought it would be open by now. Was hoping, at least. I'd be pleasantly surprised if it was open by next week (soft-open, pass preview, or promo shoot) but not holding my breath. I'll be in the area, but going to the park will be less of a priority without Railblazer open. Nothing new for me there except Patriot, which I have low expectations for.

^Honestly, with the bump incident at CP with SV I wouldn't be surprised if they're just being a little extra cautious with their testing. Considering I believe I read Railblazer will also have the constantly in motion trains to speed up dispatches. Could be completely wrong but it's just a gut feeling.

It's cute how I was so naively optimistic about this opening fairly early in the season. Oh, well.

It's cute how I was so naively optimistic about this opening fairly early in the season. Oh, well.

It's actually kinda shocking that Six Flags opened the same ride before a Cedar Fair park. Then again, Knott's is opening their new coaster on Friday and SFMM hasn't even gone vertical with their giant Frisbee, which is more like I've come to expect. I wonder why CGA's raptor is taking so long to open? You'd think they would want to capitalize on the Memorial Day holiday weekend to drive guests to the park.

Unless I'm mistaken, I believe that Six Flags made an agreement with RMC that requires that they open Wonder Woman first so that SF can call it the first single rail coaster.

They're still wrong, there have been several single rail coasters before WW, including many of these rides as well as this wierd Pax ride

I also wonder if CA State regulations/OSHA makes them jump through more hoops that Texas.

Still, though... you'd think they would've at least announced an open date by now...