PTR:Vegas/California/Vegas

[davidm]

It was a few mates' 40th birthdays this year, so a plan was hatched a while ago
to go off to Vegas to celebrate. Dates were picked and turned out to be a bit
before the dates of an IT conference I had been to a couple of times before, so
with a bit of negotiation at work I got agreement to go to the conference again.

There was a bit of a gap between the birthday-celebrations and the IT conference
so a quick tour around the parks and places of California seemed like a good use
of that time!

[ Those of you who might pay some attention to what I get up to, will recognise
some similarities (mainly the same IT conference and a visit to MM) to a PTR
about 18 months ago; viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28596 ]

And just a comment about the pictures, I have not really processed or looked
through most of the ones I took, so most of these are just a quick dump, indeed
I have not really managed to spend much time on a detailed TR either (but busy
with work etc at the moment), so sorry in advance for the lack of the usual detail!

--

Part 1 : Drinking (etc) : Thursday 27/10 thru Tuesday 1/11

Nine 30/40 something blokes in Las Vegas for 5 days. Stayed at the Tropicana
(which was much nicer that I thought it would be to be honest, being one of the
older hotels (mostly renovated pretty recently though)).

Anyway, you are not getting a report of this bit, suffice to say much drinking
was done and vague recollections of the night before were had.

Couple of pics though;

We did manage to get a few of us up the Stratosphere at the same time to do the
rides (not the jump though), so you can have some pics from there;

 

[davidm]

Part 2 : Tourism/Park-Going : Tuesday 1/11 thru Saturday 12/11

So after 5 days liver-damage, I needed a rest and so picked up a car and drove a
few hours to Palm Springs. Got there mid-afternoon and just wandered around the
town for a little while. Pleasant enough, probably not as “posh” as I thought
it was going to be but rather more relaxed and pleasant than Vegas.

Hotel;

Didn't really have much of a plan for Palm Springs, Joshua Tree national park is
nearby (but still 60 miles away) and it was rather hot, so I just spent the next
day up the local mountain taking pictures;

You get a rather cool aerial tramway ride up the mountain.

And are presented with some rather splendid views over the valley below.

So I gooned around the trails around the top of the mountain for a few hours and
retreated to the hotel in the afternoon heat.

--

Next day I drove south to San Diego, my hotel was in the downtown area so I made
sure to stop off at Mission Beach on the way to visit the old coaster (that I
had managed to miss on my last visit to SD about 10 years ago).

Was pretty good for what it is, worth a visit anyway. The place it is in was
quite cool too, a few little rides and midway stuff, right by the beach though
and a rather impressive wave-rider in the complex next door;

 

[davidm]

The next day was forecast rain (lots of it), and it didn't lie. Trouble was I
had planned to go to Sea World... so I got rather wet (and not just from the
water ride).

I quite like the Sea World experience, not all-out theme-park at all, but I like
the shows and I like wandering around the zoo-like bits too. Nice when they
have a ride or two as well, and the new coaster for 2012 was coming along as
well as Journey to Atlantis (which was not here the other time I had been here
before back in 2002).

Unlike Florida's version, there isn't the dark-ride stuff at the start, there is
some story-effort (mainly in the elevator section, but some stuff going on in
the ride soundtrack too) but I really could not tell you what the story was,
and I rode it a couple of times (in the pouring rain!).

Ride wise there isn't a lot more at the place, I did Wild Arctic, and it broke
down, (so I ended up doing it 1.5 times after they moved us to another vehicle),
the rapids were not running (which I would probably have had a go on given I was
soaked already) and the chair-lift was not running in the rain either. The sky
tower was open so that was cool (I like these and it was not running last time
I was here).

Other than that, watching lots of fish-shows mostly in the rain was about the
story of the day.

Some construction pics of Manta I've posted before;

--

Right the next day (Saturday), the weather is perfect, blue sky all day and
lovely and warm. There was some logic in my going to Sea World yesterday in
the rain, because my other entertainment option in SD was a trip to the famous
zoo and I figured that out of the 2 days, the better weather at the zoo would
be preferable; I think I was right?

I'm not a great fan of zoos to be honest, but San Diego's is good, many of
areas are really big and the animals look OK (having said that, there are still
a couple of places where the big cats are doing their stress-walk in a seemingly
too-small cage :-( )

So I took lots of pictures of the happy animals and tried not to dwell on the
unhappy looking ones (I'm sure that the zoo knows better than I whether they
are actually unhappy, just they made me feel unhappy.)

And they do have a ride there (kinda);

 

[davidm]

Crap weather was back the next day, as I drove up from San Diego to LA it was
a huge storm, at least 3 different “car on roof” accidents on the freeway in
about 2 hours and terrible visibility at times; much more scary than any theme
park rides.

Scary weather rolling in (taken at La Jolla);

I was aiming for Long Beach, just for somewhere to go for a while (fancied a
look at the Queen Mary that they have tied up there). So, the morning's nasty
weather having blown over/south I wandered around Long Beach, took a trip out
into the bay on a boat then had a tour around the Queen Mary.

To be honest the Queen Mary self-guided tour was rather poor, there were lots of
blocked off bits and non-working escalators and lifts, poor signage and rubbish
directions, and it was $12 to park there on top of the entrance fee.

The boat itself was pretty cool though, not sure I'd have liked to be cooped up
on it for an ocean crossing though?

–-

OK, so I had booked a hotel in Anaheim so I could walk to the Disney parks and
downtown Disney in the evening (so I can have a beer or two). So come Monday
morning I'm off to Disneyland.

I've said in the past that the standard Disney-park experience (based on MK, DL,
TDL which I've been to, never been to Paris (or HK) though) leaves me a bit
cold, but I did have a good couple of days in Anaheim; maybe I'm just getting
used to them? Anyway I rattled around Disneyland for most of the day, getting
my missing Matterhorn credit (it was being renovated in 2006 when I was there
before) – really liked Matterhorn actually, much more fun than I thought it was
going to be for a 1959 ride. And I (shamefully) got the Gadget's Go-Coaster
credit too, being slightly confused that it was nothing to do with Inspector
Gadget but something else entirely (see I said I was not really clued into the
Disney mind-set – and I've been on the Tokyo one as well... “whoosh” is the
sound of a theme passing me by)

So making use of fast passes (and the SRQ which is excellent at the Indiana
Jones ride; walk-on past the 1 hour standby and ½ hour fastpass lines!), I have
myself a pretty groovy time.

Mid afternoon I cross to the other park, and work my way around all those rides
too. The park is a mess though at the moment with the construction; the way in
just dumps you into a load of boarded off areas, you have to walk around the
back of Soarin' to get into the park itself and then there are more boarded
off areas protecting Carsland. Great atmosphere there Disney – I can only
imagine how much worse it must have been while they were also doing out the
pier area which is complete by now.

Anyway, despite that, I quite like DCA and despite the only new ride for me
since 2006 (and a couple of ride removals as well) being Toy Story Mania (which
is fun and a much better queue line than at Orlando's version, despite being
basically a video-game) I have a good few hours playing around.

Hmmn nearly works, must come back with another camera...

Now its got all dark and the big show is going to start, so I get myself a beer
and set up to see the huge $75M evening show “World of Color”...

Anyway it was rubbish. Lots of tunes, lots of fountains, it just didn't work.
Dullsville.

 

[davidm]

Next day (Tuesday), I escape Disney for the day and head up to Knotts; much more
like my sort of place I think. And they had been nice enough to add a couple of
new rids since my last visit (but Montezooma's was not running, so I still have
that missing!).

The place was pretty quiet (unlike Disney), so I can happily wander around all
day without much planning. Couple of gripes with the place though, cheesy 80s
pop music blaring out everywhere (like in the Western ghost-town area – doesn't
really fit?) - Phil Collins not hurrying his love as you spin around at the top
of Windseeker just didn't work for me!

I must have been in a good mood since I even did Perilous Plunge and got rather
wet (I will tend to avoid those splash rides!). Oddly standing on the bridge
over the exit for PP some guy in a Man City shirt asked me to take his pic with
the ride in the back ground, turned out he lives about 2 miles away from where
I do ; small world.

After I played on all the rides (and got my new credits; Sierra Sidewinder was
good, Pony Express was rather useless) and lamented the fact that Silver Bullet
was under rehab I just spent a while taking some pics.

--

Wednesday I went back to Disney armed with my camera this time; so spent the day
taking pics rather than riding rides (had a few gos on some stuff though).

(oh yeah, new Star Tours is much better than the old one, had to ride a fair few times to get all the main segments)

Made sure I was back at the Pier area at DCA for dusk, kinda worked out?

 

[davidm]

Next day I was making my way North and stopped off up in the LA hills to take
some pictures up at Griffith Observatory of the LA basin, then I drove across
LA though the usual sights (Hollywood, Sunset Blvd, Beverley Hills) until I hit
the Pacific; where there was a coaster, which was a bit dull.

–-

Right, if you had read the TR from 18 months ago, you might think this next bit
is somewhat familiar; I even stayed at the same hotel across the interstate from
SFMM, however I DID NOT eat at the same Mexican and instead my evening meal at
Denny's did NOT give me the runs. So come Friday morning I was up and fit and
determined to make up for the abortive attempt at a day at SFMM that I had had
18 months ago.

Well I managed that in spades.

I barely stopped riding coasters all day.

Longest Q was for Ninja (???), X2 I waited about 40 mins to get to the ride but
it then broke down for 15 mins or so. I made up for this by riding the front
row and then hopping into an empty seat on the next train out (I did ask the op
if I could do this). I think X2 ate my glasses though, they appear to have
escaped from my buttoned pocket at some point and I rather think it was on X2
than the kiddie-coaster I rode afterwards.

I was so preoccupied with the rides, I barely took any photos and even then just
with a pocket-camera.

I think I was on the penultimate Tatsu train of the day in the dark, lovely.

I even got a new credit, unfortunately NOT the Green Lantern since it was down
all day, but the Road Runner Express (not quite the same?). The only other
things new for me were Superman backwards (which was a better experience than
forwards I think, and the train was going much higher up the tower than I'd seen
it before (and this was the 4th time I'd been here).

Spited;

+1!;

Great day then, one of the best park days I've had I think.

Part 3 : Work-ish : Saturday 12/11 thru Thursday 17/11

Drove back to Vegas the next morning, pausing only to have a quick go on that
Desperado just over the Nevada border... I don't seem to have bothered to take
any snaps of it though, how odd? I'd been on it before about 5 years ago and
it was probably a bit better this time, really big and fast but some bad
transitions make it a bit useless really.


So then I went to my IT conference for a few days, which is not of interest to
any of you I'm sure!

I took some pictures during the down time, not that when the conference was on
there was any real downtime (they tend to have various “events” (aka piss-ups)
in the evening in the various nightclubs/restaurants/bars in the resorts); so I
did not even venture outside from the Sunday afternoon until Wednesday night!

View from my room;

After the conference was done, I had a few hours to kill, so I wandered around
the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay for a while (s'ok, not the best aquarium in
the world, but since its part of a posh casino/resort it does have the air of
somewhere with a lot of money thrown at it). Last time I was in the place it
was as part of one of the aforementioned piss-ups associated with the IT
conference last year. This time there was no free-beer ; boo.

So thats it, got a plane (direct flight to Manchester FTW) home and went back
to the cold, cold UK.

 

[davidm]

The final score;

Belmont Park
Giant Dipper (+1)

San Diego Sea World
Journey to Atlantis (+1)

Disneyland
Space Mountain
Matterhorn (+1)
Big Thunder Mountain
Gadget's Go-Coaster (+1)

Disney California Adventure Park
California Screamin'
Goofy's Sky School

Knott's Berry Farm
Boomerang
Ghostrider
Jaguar!
Pony Express (+1)
Sierra Sidewinder (+1)
Timberline Twister (+1)
Xcelerator

Pacific Park
Santa Monica West Coaster (+1)

Six Flags Magic Mountain
Apocalypse The Ride
Batman the Ride
Colossus
Gold Rusher
Goliath
Ninja
Revolution
Riddler's Revenge
Road Runner Express (+1)
Scream!
Superman: Escape from Krypton
Tatsu
Viper
X2

Buffalo Bills
Desperado


(and you'll note that even after spending 10 days in Las Vegas within sight of
it, I did not choose to ride the ride at NYNY again)

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Wow, I've never seen a cable car made out of wheelie bins before!!

Cracking reports David. I love reading peoples feedback, it helps me plan my next holiday

 

[Hixee]

Once again, a fantastic report David! I liked reading and looking through all your pictures. I was planning on doing that sort of trip in the summer of 2013 (I'll be 21 by then ), and this has really inspired me.

It seems like you had a good time at all the parks, and a good time travelling around and seeing the scenery and sights too.

With such a long report, I don't know what else to comment on really! Thanks for sharing and good work with some of the pictures, they look great.

 

[nadroJ]

Just makes me even more excited for my trip to California next year! Really good report =]

 

[bizarrofan10]

Great report! A vacation from work for a month, with a good cause, though.

 

[ECG]

Nice report with great photos (as usual). Glad you got a quiet day at Magic Mountain. Too bad about Silver Bullet, Montezooma & especially Green Lantern. I can go without ever riding Green Lantern again, but at least I got the cred when I went in September. I was only spited by the Plunge, so I'm still needing that POV. Hopefully it will be open when I head back there after Manta opens & thanks to this report I'll probably spend a couple of days in San Diego instead of just a SeaWorld hit & run.

 

[marc]

Great report and pictures as normal, would so love to go back.