Bake & Jen's USA West Coast PTR

[rollermonkey]

As much as I used to love MM, it's faded for me. Partly because of how the operations has fallen off, and partly because of how much there doesn't work or has been removed.

Seriously, are they EVER going to do something about the monorail? Where did all the flat rides disappear to? There used to be a variety of food, including table service places.

Yeah, it's a great collection of coasters, no doubt, but aside from that, it's become absolute crap.

Still trying to wrap my head around them 'stacking' at Colossus, in ONE TRAIN OPERATIONS!

Yes, the ops were arguing with each other about who had to take out the trash while we waited in the brake run until they got around to bringing the train in. (Oh, and that was this year, so it's not the 'bad old days')

 

[Ben]

OK, time for my thoughts on California's Great America. It sucked. That's about all there is to say. It's not a terrible park on paper, despite lacking decent attractions, and some areas are nice (the area by the Log Flume and Rapids is very nice!), but, when there's only one ride there worth doing, you know you have problems! A new coaster could REALLY help them, but, I just get the feeling it won't be there for THAT much longer anyway.

This is also going to be pretty short, since I was kind of scared someone would knife me for my camera whilst we were there.

The walk into the park is OK I guess.

As was the actual entrance booths.

Yep, this is where we are.

Heading to our first ERT coaster, Flight Deck!

Which I have no photos of, so here's Robbie drinking Ice Water to entertain you whilst I drabble on about Flight Deck. It IS a good little coaster, but, it IS very short. The loop, great helix thing and Zero-G are all pretty good. The helix and corkscrew are also great, and then that's it... It IS intense and cool, but just a bit too short.

Then over to Runaway Repta', the gang* kiddie coaster

Well, not really kiddie since it's MASSIVE

And has this amazing RCT-style 25 degree drop.

So, what next? OH, there's another Kiddie? So there.

Hi whores

Yay, cred (I made sure I got it first, JUST IN CASE )

Yeah, that kid made some serious cash that day. Like, $45 or something

Whilst others just abused much cheaper Mexicans

Yeah, we all had a go on it (like your mum)

These were the rubbish and un-snappable Flyers

OK, that's it. I'm actually just gonna write up SFMM now, cause I still have like 30 minutes until MegaVideo stops spiting me and nothing better to do, so that'll be up v. soon.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

^ You guys are SUCH whores.. But I still love you both .

 

[Ben]

OK, MAGIC MOUNTAIN.

This is going to be long. VERY long. Maybe even two posts long. We'll see when I get to the end.

Let me just sum up - Magic Mountain is AMAZING. Absolutely AMAZING. I love it. It's VERY close to being my favourite park in the World, with only IoA being in contention with it. Though I probably would give it to Magic. There's not only some really, really, really kick ASS coasters, but, some amazing water rides, and uh, I hate flats... so... ALSO. It's REALLY, really, REALLY nice! The park was spotless, the "mountain" itself is gorgeous, and it actually has some great theming (we're not talking Disney here, but, high-end of what Six Flags do). Maybe just because I'm not jaded to the park, or I'm too used to terrible parks, or whatever, but, Magic is a park EVERYONE HAST TO GO TO.

PS., X2 is ****ing amazing.

OK, so early morning (I've also skipped the AMAZING night before, which will go down in my own personal history. X2 at night is STUNNING. Goliath is GREAT. OMG), and everyone else is ready for the best park of the trip!

Ugh, Revolution deserves a picture which is as good as it is (but, still, when this is the worst coaster, and it's miles ahead of an SLC, or death woodie... says it all!)

Why hello there Mr Best Flyer in the World, what's that? Air sucks? Oh, I know

OK, I made no secret walking up to this that I thought it would suck, I don't like Flyers.

And I made bitchy comments like "ugh, that'd be SO not worth it"

"Lets go ride McDonalds then..."

BUT HOLY CRAP

This ride is AMAZING. We'll get back for more Tatsu porn later, because it ROCKS

So, it was back over to X2 for some ERT (five times <3)

This is the only part of the coaster that I'm not CRAZY about. But, it's still better than any part of ANYTHING at Thorpe or Knott's

It has a LOT of supports, but, this part is COOL

I see you babes

The line RIGHT as we were leaving ERT. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Yeah. Do a TPR trip.

This is the only picture of the sign I have, so just ignore the Northerner, k?

The Tatsu queue we also DIDN'T have to wait in.

My love <3

The part to the left of this photo? That swish? See it? Better than the whole of Air.

And over to Superman

Which I actually thought was fun!

And whoever said they removed the Monorail? It's still here, they just inverted it and called it Ninja.

More Tatsu photos are needed.

Over to the rather fun little Arrow Mine Train

Riddler's <3 Which I thought was GREAT!

By far and large my favourite Stand-Up

OK, that's not saying a lot, but, still!

See? NICE!

This transition was well good.

Yum

I heard once they wanted a Cobra Roll, but B&M were all "Puhhllleasse, no. Have two of these".

Perfection, no?

And then it was time for lunch, where a few special guests dropped in to say hi, and we got very excited! (Jay Thomas, done a lot for the park...)

Yeahhhhh boy

SFMM's own personal airport.

"Yeah, what a dump. It's SO full of trash"

SCREAM! I'll back up what Jake said, THIS is a Floorless Coaster. And it's GREAT!

Also really good! "The hill" is one of the most blissful moments of airtime I've ever had the pleasure to experience. And the drop and helix are great too! It's not EGF, sure, but, it's certainly no PMBO either!

Generic shot 1

Cred.

Still a cred.

And I'm going to end on this photo of Viper, I've done like, half the Facebook album and my eyes are bleeding, neck aches and fingers hurt. I'll try and do the rest tonight, but, understand doing these now involves going ALL the way into my University, sitting and THEN typing. Yeah. Appreciate that...

 

[Brookes]

Woah SFMM really does look amazing, what are the queues like in summer? Do you think you could get all the coasters done (without ERT) in two days? Great trip report by the way.

 

[Ben]

^Yeah, you could get all coasters done in two days. I would say, get a Q-Bot! They could all be done without (maybe even in a day... maybe), but, a Gold Q-Bot is God's gift to the World - use it!

 

[Dave]

Im jealous, I want to ride X2. Maybe after I'm 21 and have money.

 

[Jake]

LOL Ben, are you spiting CGA, or did you forget?

 

[Ben]

^It's like, halfway down this page

 

[Ben]

OK, time for part two of Magic Mountain (and yes, I've come to sit at Uni AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT, to do this. APPRECIATE)

We start with a "special" dance. You've all seen the Mr Six dancing to Venga Bus adverts right? Yeah, this is Chris. He saw that advert once too often...

Yeah, shall we move on?

Blegh.

It's ironic how they DO have some of the greatest coasters ever built, but they certainly aint those ones.

I never even noticed the Japanese-ness of that archey thing on Tatsu's station. Cool though, huh?

And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have an example of horrid, hot steel death.

I REALLY don't do... A. Heights. B. Lifts. C. Old metal towers that WILL collapse. So, for me, the combination of the three was not my idea of a picnic.

I must say though, the view is second to none.

One good. The other... not so much.

Bleh. All you DESERVE is this horribly light photo.

Heya babes

I like the reflection. It really adds to how amazing I am.

Hey Riddler's. It says it all when you're the park's WORST B&M, and you're still amazing!

Oh look, the Monorail's still there.

Two AMAZING coasters.

There's also some cool history stuff up there, like this.

Yeah, the person this is for knows it's for them. The rest of you - here's some buttons.

Back on a ground which won't suddenly drop from underneath us (cause the land under Tatsu never goes ANYWHERE you see), we get to spend more time around her highness, Tatsu.

These don't need text. They DO need a tissue...

I see you amazing swishy bit.

And just in case anyone wants the reference, just show me those last few photos, and you'll see my orgasm face.

Talking of which...

*WARNING NERDOM LIES AHEAD*

Yep, 400.

And I couldn't have picked anything more perfect <3

I AM thrilled to be about to ride the best thing Vekoma have ever done, I promise!

Yay!

It was then time for water rides and water park ERT (which rocked), so, here's a photo after that, on the way back to dinner.

At dinner a balloon artist came around and made these adorable things out of the little pieces of Satan's ball-sacks.

Which, admittedly, some of us got a little TOO attached to.

Like, really attached to (OBVIOUSLY, I was kind of cowering half under the table. In fact, I didn't even TAKE these. You can tell because they're not all blurred where I'm shaking from the vast amounts of terror I was under)

Yeah, SEE!?!?!

Time for shopping after that. We were meant to ride Tatsu at night, but, someone wanted to spend 45 minutes in a shop because some of them had threads hanging off them. I'm not blaming anyone, but, there's a Northerner who owes me. But, we did find a shirt designed by your mum.

And here we have the amazing Tatsu dragon. I actually bought two.

Robbie's a Scream Queen.

I ALMOST got this because it would be BOTH a Wicked AND Magic reference, but, I thought it might be a bit too obscure for anyone, so I didn't.

Now, I won't, but, IF I wanted to point fingers as to why I didn't get to ride Tatsu at night, I'd post the next photo and immediately point. I'm not going to. But, just IF I did, just so you know, this is the photo I'd point at.

I've actually had sex dreams which have involved something VERY similar to this. Still with Q-Bots.

And then, time for Terminator ERT! WHICH ROCKS!

Next up is Universal, which I'll do soon since I want to power through these so I can do Germany!

 

[Ben]

OK, the over-whelming response has prompted me to do another part!

Now, this day was Universal Studios, and I took a LOT of photos. Because of that, this will be over probably two parts, depending on how arsed I can be.

First, I'll post a real, real, real highlight of the day - BACKSTAGE MUMMY TOUR.

This was amazing. A. M. A. Zing. We got to walk around everything, lights on, touch the track, then ride with lights on, and then off! It was amazing to say the least.

OK, so, does this look early to you? Is that DAWN you think you see? Well, it is. It was EARLY. Like, 6 in the morning EARLY. Worth it? Pfft. Yes.

They hadn't even rolled out the red carpet yet!

That massive building about 1000ft below us is our destination!

"Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges"

Good morning, trains!

Getting a talk on the daily maintenance of the cars.

Just so they can make sure this Mummy is happy with her "monthly"

Sadly, they'd removed the animatronic Victoria Beckham for some rehab.

Getting up close and personal with the trains now.

Oh, we will.

Ooooooh, and through this mystical door we shall go!

Yummy station!

The back side of the yummy station!

And off into the dark ride portion of the ride we go.

Theming.

Rah.

Those hands were silently moving for the whole tour. Really quite freaky.

Hi train

Haha. Skeletons in provocative poses are fun. BONEr? HAHA.

Into the gold room. Anyone know why they have a huge gold statue of
Sarah Jessica Parker in here?

This scary guy guards the launch. And yay Imhotep <3

These make the train go woooosh

Then it does some very funkay stuff!

Rah. I'm scary beast with track.

"Why yes, this area is the part with the kick ass airtime"

<3

Although, for some of us, the coaster enjoyed it a little TOO much

JUST in case Alton try and pull this off on us, it's BEEN DONE.

Back through the Gold room on the way to t'station

Some of it was actually pretty loose! I didn't take any though... It's cursed you see.

Heading back towards the station so we can get some ERT!

Panel <3

This makes me laugh for reasons I've STILL not figured out. It's the fact they have to POINT OUT that there's a MOP in the JANITOR'S CLOSET. NO? Really? I wouldn't have even THOUGHT to look there. Thank you sign, you've saved me hours if I ever make a spill in here.

Layouts and stuff

Control room!

The panel is pretty awesome. And it gets a bit geeky ahead...

Yum

For viewing pleasures

See, WHY did they feel the need to theme even this? Don't ask me, but, it's awesome. You just know if this was at Thorpe this would be scribbled in someone's blood on a post-it note.

And we'll end with the empty queue we didn't have to wait in!

There's still a LOT to come from Universal, but, I want this to be a post in its own right because that was just AMAZING. Seriously. I've done quite a bit as an enthusiast now, but, this probably takes the cake for the coolest thing I've ever done. Not only getting to get up close and personal with a coaster, but, something as inaccessible as this was just amazing. You can really, really tell they care for their ride as well, it's just flawless. The actual experience isn't QUITE as good as Florida's, but, only, IMO, because it's shorter. What's there is better than what's on Florida's, and the coaster section's a LOT better, but, sadly it's just that much more confined by space.

But, awesome.

 

[marc]

Yes I agree with you there that the coaster section is better than the one at Orlando, but as you say its just to short and you are left wanting more. It just ended and you feel robbed, hard to explain really.

 

[rollermonkey]

Universal rocks.

I have some buddies that work/worked at Mummy USF, and I got a similar walkthrough of that ride after hours, plus one ride with the lights off (Surprise! Fire! ) and one with the lights on.

F'in SWEET.

Oh, and the operator's room is awesome.