Northern California 2009

[CreditCrazy]

I went up to Northern California from 7/29/09 - 8/1/09 for quick visits to Gilroy Gardens, CGA, and SFDK. I've been to each of the parks before and had all my credits at each of the parks, except for Tony Hawk's Big Spin which I decided to ride even though I have motion sickness.

I know there have been a lot of trip reports from these parks in all of the West Coast Trip threads on TPR, so I'll try to keep this short.

Part 1 - Gilroy Gardens.

Gilroy Gardens is an amazing park; I can't compare it to any other park I've been to. I wouldn't say it is one of my favorites, just because it's hard to spend more than an hour at the park, but I always enjoy the place and it is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

Here is your view entering the park.

Ooooh

Ahhhh

This is probably my favorite part of the park.

Is that a Wacky Worm I see?

Awww...nevermind.

If you look to the right you can see a waterfall.

If you look to the left you can see the spinning boat ride of death.

Gave some really great views.

POV!

Quicksilver Express!

I used to love this ride when I was scared of bigger coasters, I even rode it 13 times in one day.

Didn't bother this visit.

K, I officially love this park.

I'm not stalking you.

A cool tree.

An interesting tree.

Trees.

Banana Split.

What? What's so weird about a banana shaped pirate ship flat ride?

"They're everywhere..."

And that's all for GG. I took a lot more pictures, but like I said before, most of this has been posted in the last month. I guess I either need to get quicker at posting my PTRs, or avoid going where TPR goes every year!

CGA is next.

 

[Ian]

Looks like a pretty park. That apple core ride looks awesome.

 

[Emmett]

Nice report, that park looks pretty scenic. It looks like one of those parks where you could just take it easy and relax compared to the more larger parks.

 

[CreditCrazy]

Part 2 - California's Great America.

This was my third visit to the park, and really, it's not a bad park! People like to think of it as a just horribly-run and gross park, like SFKK (and SFA and La Ronde I've heard) but it's actually really nice. Really the only downside to the park is the coaster collection. Flight Deck, by far the park's best coaster (which doesn't say much, but it is good) was closed during the visit, leaving only Demon, Grizzly, and Vortex for me to ride. The park actually has a pretty nice flat ride collection, including one of my favorite Drop Towers...Drop Tower. It'd be really sad to see this park sold or taken down, because it could be a great park with just a few more rides.

Pshhh, that was like, so yesterday.

Best shot I could get of the entrance, it's always crowded!

Too bad carousel's make me sick...

See? Nice grass. This park is good.

That's a...nice sign there.

Vortex actually has some force.

But that doesn't mean it's good.

This corkscrew was fun to take pictures of.

Flight Deck...

...Closed

I remember this part being really forceful.

Over to the other side of the park...

We have the rough-but-could-be-fun-but-it-isn't-cause-it's-rough Demon.

Invertigo

Which is my 126th favorite roller coaster.

Out of 126.

Are they stuck? Oh wait that's until a couple weeks later...in the future.

 

[CreditCrazy]

Then there's Grizzly...

Which is so rough/boring it's fun.

Okay...nevermind what I just said. Except for the rough/boring part.

Oh boy!...We're next!

Best ride in the park! Rode it 6 times.

I like KI's Drop Tower more because it's taller and faster, but for some reason CGA's felt more "powerful".

It is a Psycho Mouse.

I saw this...and went inside.

These were in there...funny.

Lonely?

Come join the party over here!

I think this is the most popular ride in the park.

A broken flat.

The park lake.

You know you're bored at an amusement park when...

...you go see Scooby Doo on ice.

A lot of empty space around the park.

Hi there.

POV!

Firefall

The Sky Tower...or was it the Star Tower...can't remember the name.

What? You don't see the GCI?

Didn't go to Boomerang Bay this time. Only thing worth riding is Down Under Thunder.

That's all for CGA.

SFDK next.

 

[divvie_dave]

OMG, I REMEMBER NERDS!!!

I haven't seen them in soo long!

I get the impression that you were... not impressed

 

[CreditCrazy]

Part 3 - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

My 4th visit to this park and it seems like every visit gets better! This park is amazing, and my favorite SF park. It is exactly what SF parks should/are trying be like; clean and family friendly. There are some really good shows too, and the coaster collection isn't bad at all.

Never got to go when it was Marine World...no Zonga for me.

My 125th credit. This coaster is definitely in my Top 120.

Moving on to a coaster in my Top 15...

Medusa was great! A lot better than I remembered it.

Smooth...fun...re-ridable...un-original...no, I did not just mean to describe B&M.

Pre-lift

I don't know why I rode Kong...especially since I already had the credit...and a re-ride...and a ride on it's terrible cousin in Kentucky...

Oh right I remember...I used to like it! Well not like it...but not hate it. It was in my Top 30 when my count was 70, so I guess it was okay.

It sucked, but it's still a lot better than T2.

Overbanked turn is fun though.

An overview of Kong...from the ground.

Didn't bother riding Boomerang after Kong.

But I do remember it being a lot better than KBF's Boomerang-with-Arrow-trains-POS.

The cobra roll (or is it called a 'boomerang' on a boomerang coaster?) goes right over the path.

Reflection shot fail.

This rapids is one of the best I've been on!

It's fast-paced, there's two waterfalls (one which half of the raft actually goes in) and after several turns and random ways of getting wet, you get SHOT with the water guns. And yeah...I know I used the wrong picture to describe this.

SOAKED.

But...sorry SFDK, I just have to take a moment to show how much better Disney is than Six Flags (even if this is a SFDK TR).

Here is SFDK's water.

And here is Disney's. Notice any difference? And if you're thinking SFDK's looks like chocolate milk, I agree.

 

[CreditCrazy]

Roar was good.

Not as good as my night ride in December though.

V2 disappointed me.

Twas once a Top 5 coaster...

Ahhh, so SFDK has M&M stairs too.

OVERRATED. I was really looking forward to this, and I kept waiting for something to happen, but it was simply just talking about the tigers and feeding them...

UNDERRATED. I didn't even know about this show. It's great, a definite must if you visit SFDK.

You were lame.

Butterfly house

Dolphin fountain

Since when are waves colorful?

Skyline from the parking lot.

The lake

That's all for this report, thanks for reading!

 

[Pokemaniac]

Amazing. You made me chuckle quite a few times. The parks look quite good, though I doubt I'll ever visit them. Still, nice to read about them, though!

Already looking forward to your next Trip Report!

 

[CreditCrazy]

Thanks!

 

[Jake]

Vortex is HORRIBLE! </3

I agree with you about Discovery Kingdom, it's awsome, although it ruins my life that you don't like V2 as much as you used to, I thought it was fab!