Gazza
Giga Poster
I've been meaning to do trip reports for this for a while, but mid last year in the height of the northern summer I did perhaps my largest theme park trip in a while, taking in
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Great America
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Knotts Berry Farm
Disney California Adventure
Canadas Wonderland
Darien Lake
Waldameer
Cedar Point
Kings Island
Kentucky Kingdom
Beech Bend
Holiday World
Rainbows End
Highlighted parks are new to me.
I got a Cedar Fair season pass, and a Six Flags standard pass, which worked well for my purposes.
In particular, the early entry and free parking offered by the Cedar Fair one made things much easier.
I'd been wanting to do some of the really big US coaster parks, but the thing that holds you back is the prohibitive cost of car rental when you're under 25, but when that stopped being a problem, combined with my sister who lives in Santa Barbara having her first child (She's been an expat over there for 8 years), as well as graduating uni and not being broke, the time was certainly right.
I've never managed to get to San Fran, defaulting to flying into LAX (With one trip into Dallas shortly after NTG opened when Qantas started flying direct there)
Thought it was a great city, I think having a proper level of density, and a CBD that people go to makes it a bit more enjoyable, and it felt more comfortable for me in terms what a good city should be like (Well, with respect to Australian and European cities).
Transport was pretty good too, BART runs straight from SFO right into the heart of San Fran, right near to where I was staying.
Being the ever energetic person I am, I did Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on the full dayI had there.
Quite a nice park, and in some places looked as well presented as Busch/SeaWorld (Shocking, I know!).
I was treated to light crowds all day, I think the longest I waited might have been 20 mins for Medusa?
Getting there you can take a ferry from Downtown San Fran to Vallejo, and then a bus to the park. Be aware the last 30 mins of the trip is a slow crawl up the river to Vallejo, though the view of the SF skyline is excellent. Getting home I used a bus from Vallejo to Cerrito Del Norte BART station, which was slightly quicker.
First up did Superman Ultimate Flight. I found it Better than the maurer skyloops, such as Buzzsaw at dreamwork. Because it "loops" twice (two high points in other words) you don't keep covering the same section of track over and over during the ride sequence, so it feels more varied and unexpected (Or maybe in my own mind I had the maurer skyloop layout memorised and was subconciously expecting the same lol, The launches are good too.
V2 Vertical Velocity was my first impulse coaster. The LIMs sound terrible, like an old washing machine, but pretty cool ride with a powerful launch. The way the track barrel rolls over the entrance plaza is a nice touch.
I think I did a couple of laps, front and back.
Roar was a mixed bag. Some parts ran better than others since its part way through retracking.
I think I've realised that many GCIs feel the same, but it was a good length ride, and the crews were really fast, getting the one train onto the lift before the 2nd was back in the station. The net effect of this was that you'd get a stack on every 2nd train, because a fast dispatch for one would lead to it being back a bit too soon. Again, I think I did a couple of rides, trying the front and back, but found it much the same.
Kong, well run of the mill SLC without a helix, still beats you up so I'm thankful my local SLC, Arkham Asylum has the Kumbak seats that dont beat your head up. I think the area under the ride looked pretty drab, with red coloured gravel....Seems like it would have been prime to plant up with palm trees and so forth to really give a king kong feel to it.
Medusa was a typical solid B&M floorless, a lot of fun in the front seat with your legs stuck out in front of you. I returned to this one several times throughout the day. Best bits were the zero G roll, the rollover, and that sequence at the end with a couple of fast consecutive corkscrews and turns.
I got an uncreative ORP...me sitting on the far right:
Cobra was this Zierer kids coaster with a hillariously long train like the one at Southend on Sea, it didnt go very high, and the steel support structure looked like it was made out of sticks, but still decent fun. Some of the supports had padding...Im suprised any ride gets through the design process with obvious incursions into the safety envelope (The turn on Mack mouses next to the lift hill being another example that confuses me)
I went down a notch again and did RoadRunner express....These Zamperla kids coasters sure are bumpy and brake quite harshly for something aimed at kids.
The Boomerang.... well they're one of the few ride types that makes me slightly queasy that I kind of just force myself to ride, so once was enough.
The animal exhibits were nice enough, with the exception of the seal one with its crappy seaside cardboard cutout backdrop. They were scattered around the two ends of the park, and had everything from dolphins, sharks, elephants, tigers and even one of those humid butterfly enclosures.
The park had coke freestyle machines in a couple of places, basically its a postmix machine with a touchscreen with 20 or so products on the main menu (fanta, sprite, cokes, Mr Pibb, minute maid, Hi C, Dasani, powerade etc) picking a product then brings up a submenu with multiple variants of a product, Eg picking coke brings up the lemon, lime, cherry, vanilla, but also unique ones like orange coke. I liked vanilla orange hi C myself.
I did the Skyscreamer, a star flyer type ride (first for me), not particularly scary or thrilling, but a nice view. I liked how during the cycle when it reaches the top it raises and lowers a few meters a couple of times so you get the sensation of spiralling up and down, rather than just sitting around at the high point.
Highlight of the day was waiting for a bus at the end of a day when a triple car rear ender happened. Relatively low speed knock between the first two, but the 3rd, innatentive driver came through and really caused a mess and petrol started leaking onto the road #rekt .
Though I was sort of sitting with my head looking at the ground due to tiredness so missed the best of it FML.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Great America
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Knotts Berry Farm
Disney California Adventure
Canadas Wonderland
Darien Lake
Waldameer
Cedar Point
Kings Island
Kentucky Kingdom
Beech Bend
Holiday World
Rainbows End
Highlighted parks are new to me.
I got a Cedar Fair season pass, and a Six Flags standard pass, which worked well for my purposes.
In particular, the early entry and free parking offered by the Cedar Fair one made things much easier.
I'd been wanting to do some of the really big US coaster parks, but the thing that holds you back is the prohibitive cost of car rental when you're under 25, but when that stopped being a problem, combined with my sister who lives in Santa Barbara having her first child (She's been an expat over there for 8 years), as well as graduating uni and not being broke, the time was certainly right.
I've never managed to get to San Fran, defaulting to flying into LAX (With one trip into Dallas shortly after NTG opened when Qantas started flying direct there)
Thought it was a great city, I think having a proper level of density, and a CBD that people go to makes it a bit more enjoyable, and it felt more comfortable for me in terms what a good city should be like (Well, with respect to Australian and European cities).
Transport was pretty good too, BART runs straight from SFO right into the heart of San Fran, right near to where I was staying.
Being the ever energetic person I am, I did Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on the full dayI had there.
Quite a nice park, and in some places looked as well presented as Busch/SeaWorld (Shocking, I know!).
I was treated to light crowds all day, I think the longest I waited might have been 20 mins for Medusa?
Getting there you can take a ferry from Downtown San Fran to Vallejo, and then a bus to the park. Be aware the last 30 mins of the trip is a slow crawl up the river to Vallejo, though the view of the SF skyline is excellent. Getting home I used a bus from Vallejo to Cerrito Del Norte BART station, which was slightly quicker.
First up did Superman Ultimate Flight. I found it Better than the maurer skyloops, such as Buzzsaw at dreamwork. Because it "loops" twice (two high points in other words) you don't keep covering the same section of track over and over during the ride sequence, so it feels more varied and unexpected (Or maybe in my own mind I had the maurer skyloop layout memorised and was subconciously expecting the same lol, The launches are good too.
V2 Vertical Velocity was my first impulse coaster. The LIMs sound terrible, like an old washing machine, but pretty cool ride with a powerful launch. The way the track barrel rolls over the entrance plaza is a nice touch.
I think I did a couple of laps, front and back.
Roar was a mixed bag. Some parts ran better than others since its part way through retracking.
I think I've realised that many GCIs feel the same, but it was a good length ride, and the crews were really fast, getting the one train onto the lift before the 2nd was back in the station. The net effect of this was that you'd get a stack on every 2nd train, because a fast dispatch for one would lead to it being back a bit too soon. Again, I think I did a couple of rides, trying the front and back, but found it much the same.
Kong, well run of the mill SLC without a helix, still beats you up so I'm thankful my local SLC, Arkham Asylum has the Kumbak seats that dont beat your head up. I think the area under the ride looked pretty drab, with red coloured gravel....Seems like it would have been prime to plant up with palm trees and so forth to really give a king kong feel to it.
Medusa was a typical solid B&M floorless, a lot of fun in the front seat with your legs stuck out in front of you. I returned to this one several times throughout the day. Best bits were the zero G roll, the rollover, and that sequence at the end with a couple of fast consecutive corkscrews and turns.
I got an uncreative ORP...me sitting on the far right:
Cobra was this Zierer kids coaster with a hillariously long train like the one at Southend on Sea, it didnt go very high, and the steel support structure looked like it was made out of sticks, but still decent fun. Some of the supports had padding...Im suprised any ride gets through the design process with obvious incursions into the safety envelope (The turn on Mack mouses next to the lift hill being another example that confuses me)
I went down a notch again and did RoadRunner express....These Zamperla kids coasters sure are bumpy and brake quite harshly for something aimed at kids.
The Boomerang.... well they're one of the few ride types that makes me slightly queasy that I kind of just force myself to ride, so once was enough.
The animal exhibits were nice enough, with the exception of the seal one with its crappy seaside cardboard cutout backdrop. They were scattered around the two ends of the park, and had everything from dolphins, sharks, elephants, tigers and even one of those humid butterfly enclosures.
The park had coke freestyle machines in a couple of places, basically its a postmix machine with a touchscreen with 20 or so products on the main menu (fanta, sprite, cokes, Mr Pibb, minute maid, Hi C, Dasani, powerade etc) picking a product then brings up a submenu with multiple variants of a product, Eg picking coke brings up the lemon, lime, cherry, vanilla, but also unique ones like orange coke. I liked vanilla orange hi C myself.
I did the Skyscreamer, a star flyer type ride (first for me), not particularly scary or thrilling, but a nice view. I liked how during the cycle when it reaches the top it raises and lowers a few meters a couple of times so you get the sensation of spiralling up and down, rather than just sitting around at the high point.
Highlight of the day was waiting for a bus at the end of a day when a triple car rear ender happened. Relatively low speed knock between the first two, but the 3rd, innatentive driver came through and really caused a mess and petrol started leaking onto the road #rekt .
Though I was sort of sitting with my head looking at the ground due to tiredness so missed the best of it FML.