Bake & Jen's USA West Coast PTR
- Thread starter Jake
- Start date
OK, Discovery Kingdom! I'll basically echo what Jake said, this is a GORGEOUS Six Flags park. Not the best because the ride selection isn't *quite* there (still great!), but, I'd say a strong second for me after... well... just wait a few days :wink:
On the drive, you'll have to take my word for it that that IS the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
Which, transforms into credits!
The fab Medusa <3
The Dive Loop
Tony Hawk! Now, I will say the spin on this was INSANE. INSANE. I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever spun like I did on this ride.
The sign! It is behind them, I promise.
Yay, so close to the park!
Oh, maybe not. Cause the car park is a century and a half away...
So, you get a tram! And here's a POV photo. Just. For. You.
Yeaahhhh
Oh look, your mum turned up at the park...
V2 just lloooomms over the entrance, being fab
Ugh. You can just see it.
Yay, time to go in!
We got some EAT in before the park opened (Exclusive Animal Time)
Oh, you are mature.
A furry... thing.
It was cute. A desert... something...
And then some tiger time! Which was great!
Tigers rock, btw
Rah.
It was grrreeeattt. Oh God...
The amazing, 100% woman-loving park guy
And there's something that's probably MORE painful than being eaten by one of those tigers...
Next? Medusa ERT!
The first train returns with happy riders (cause, it rocked)
Kiddie!
Then Natalie played with my big one.
Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Trust me, you CAN'T have too many photos of Medusa!
Btw, I will marry one of these.
We then got, like, molested.
I just spent lunch going "I WANTTT V2!". So, people gave in <3
Sooooo fab
There'll be lots of this, cause it's amazing.
Jake and Neil enjoying their front row ride (btw, at the front, at night, in ERT, this thing was AMAZING!)
Everyone (other than Mike!) looks happy post-V2!
We then got the rest of the creds and went to the Whale show. Here two whales are meeting.
It jumped and stuff.
BTW, it looks like we had great seats, we didn't. We were RIGHT at the back...
Ugh.
Chris (Sawyer actually, and DON'T ask him that question, he's not that one!) demonstrates why all the water rides in a row may not have been the best idea ever...
Back to Medusa because it rocks!
Yay for the amazing Zero-G!
Yep, everyone loves Medusa, it's official!
I can't even sum up this photo in words, but, it was ****ing hilarious.
Yeah, I'm going to hell...
Everyone LOVES ERT!
See? Loving it.
Yes, we see you Jake.
Epic coaster
Yes, they ARE holding cups. We got to fill them with water and see if ANY survived. Yeah, none did...
THIS is how wet we got. That's ONE person's footprints
Overall SFDK was VERY cool, and VERY nice. They treated us VERY well too. I recommend the place! Next? Well, flick back and see
On the drive, you'll have to take my word for it that that IS the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
Which, transforms into credits!
The fab Medusa <3
The Dive Loop
Tony Hawk! Now, I will say the spin on this was INSANE. INSANE. I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever spun like I did on this ride.
The sign! It is behind them, I promise.
Yay, so close to the park!
Oh, maybe not. Cause the car park is a century and a half away...
So, you get a tram! And here's a POV photo. Just. For. You.
Yeaahhhh
Oh look, your mum turned up at the park...
V2 just lloooomms over the entrance, being fab
Ugh. You can just see it.
Yay, time to go in!
We got some EAT in before the park opened (Exclusive Animal Time)
Oh, you are mature.
A furry... thing.
It was cute. A desert... something...
And then some tiger time! Which was great!
Tigers rock, btw
Rah.
It was grrreeeattt. Oh God...
The amazing, 100% woman-loving park guy
And there's something that's probably MORE painful than being eaten by one of those tigers...
Next? Medusa ERT!
The first train returns with happy riders (cause, it rocked)
Kiddie!
Then Natalie played with my big one.
Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Trust me, you CAN'T have too many photos of Medusa!
Btw, I will marry one of these.
We then got, like, molested.
I just spent lunch going "I WANTTT V2!". So, people gave in <3
Sooooo fab
There'll be lots of this, cause it's amazing.
Jake and Neil enjoying their front row ride (btw, at the front, at night, in ERT, this thing was AMAZING!)
Everyone (other than Mike!) looks happy post-V2!
We then got the rest of the creds and went to the Whale show. Here two whales are meeting.
It jumped and stuff.
BTW, it looks like we had great seats, we didn't. We were RIGHT at the back...
Ugh.
Chris (Sawyer actually, and DON'T ask him that question, he's not that one!) demonstrates why all the water rides in a row may not have been the best idea ever...
Back to Medusa because it rocks!
Yay for the amazing Zero-G!
Yep, everyone loves Medusa, it's official!
I can't even sum up this photo in words, but, it was ****ing hilarious.
Yeah, I'm going to hell...
Everyone LOVES ERT!
See? Loving it.
Yes, we see you Jake.
Epic coaster
Yes, they ARE holding cups. We got to fill them with water and see if ANY survived. Yeah, none did...
THIS is how wet we got. That's ONE person's footprints
Overall SFDK was VERY cool, and VERY nice. They treated us VERY well too. I recommend the place! Next? Well, flick back and see
oriolat2 said:No mention to Roar? Was it THAT bad?
YES.
I forgot to say, but Roar really, really, really was terrible. Not quite as bad as the East Coast version, but, still!
OK, the next park... Gilroy Gardens!
You enter on this weird decking with trees. Tress are a common theme at this park actually...
It's a little like Marineland from last year in that it's a long walk to the park for the coaster. BUT, unlike Marineland, there's trees, rides and things to look at!
Like the R(c)ock Maze
And a waterfall
Someone described this park like half-Epcot, half-garden centre. And I agree. Except it doesn't suck like both those places do.
Yay, lets all gather for some EST!
OK, then the ERT began!
Jake's face reflects my general feeling towards this ride. Fun, cute, but nothing TOO amazing. Cool though!
Yay for an empty cattlepen!
Natalie likes to chow down on her red sticky thing. That I donated. I may add.
Yep, it IS a Cedar Fair park after all!
It's a very pretty ride too!
Just not "stunning". Not that it needs to be. OH, and it's a better Morgan than Steel Force.
Mono.
The scary caterpillar going "why yes, I AM a credit actually"
The now infamous Garlic Twirl... I of COURSE mean jail
The queueline you must wait in to be incarcerated.
Garlic Jail was actually well violent. It's not easy doing time somewhere so dodgy you know.
Well, what a pleasant looking ride sign...
Wait... is that a... o... m... g... yes, it's an artichoke's vadge...
OK, after that um... I don't know what... CREDIT
And then you could ride a giant banana. Which wasn't actually a first for some people on the trip. Some of us had done the one at Thorpe. Wait... what were you expecting me to mean...?
We then went on this LIIGHHTTSPPEEEDD train.
Back past a place I have no intention of returning to.
And then the park HURT ME. OK, I hurt me on one of those cork guns. But, still. And that is STILL not faded
And you know you're in Cedar Fair Land when the monorail has lapbars AND seatbelts!
A tree. Yeah. I cared that much too... Cute, but, plants really aint me.
It did have COONS too! But, who are the coons?
And back to the important things...
Natalie models the amazing Garlic... things
Aw, prettiful!
And then Rock Maze time!
Followed by the THRILLING Spinning Boat Ride. This was the first of these I've actually done. Have a SLIGHT suspicion it may be the last too...
"Wait, why are there all those bunny heads on there? OH, they're bees..."
It's a sewer.
I like bears.
I miss Oblivion </3
Over to the Vintage Car Ride. And YES, that is plants on top of that queueline cover!
POV!
"Claudia's Lady Garden"
Mushroom Swings! Sadly, I don't ever want to ride Mushroom.
I don't think the Americans had seen a WaveSwinger before
And just to labour a point
Next part - Santa Cruz (Jake better hurry up
)^Nah, we didn't spend a whole day at Gilroy. Maybe five hours including ERT and lunch?
OK, next up, Santa Cruz! I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say this may be the single busiest park I've ever been to... (well, at this point, wait until I get to Disney :wink: ) It was packed! But, thanks to oodles of time we got in everything I wanted to, and still got to play volleyball on the beach (Mike lost).
OK, onto the photos. What do you do when you realise a park is packed? Why, ride the kiddie of course! This was actually already a little while into the queue. Yeahhh.
OK, to be honest this didn't take that long, maybe twenty minutes? They were actually very, very good at dispatching across the whole park.
Look at it. I couldn't contain myself. In fact, I still can't.
OK, it was actually pretty good, for what it is sort of thing
See, Jake's enjoying it...
Yeahhh, we get to go on Beach Deck. It's a Cedar Fair beach party!
Yes, I took a photo of my dinner. Why? I'm not really sure... Everyone else was doing it. I wasn't very hungry apparently.
OMG, Hurricane. Which, sadly, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...
Booo to being not-so-bad.
The "grand" entrance to the park
Then we got something very cool, backstage tour!
Hai mom, I'm authowised!
We had to take this tunnel to...
OMG, the innards of the carousel!
This was seriously, seriously cool, as, as the more savvy of you may have guessed, this is a brass ring carousel. I LOVE THESE THINGS. So, for all of you that enjoy playing with rings (you know who you are), have fun.
This machine is taking the rings to a better place
Back above ground it's time to head to our next backstage area!
Yeaahh, the RCT woodie!
Which, surprisingly, was AMAZING. Blackpool, you paying attention on how old woodies are SUPPOSED to be looked after?
Yeah, no butts on seats for this ride!
Seriously, VERY cool woodie
See, Snoo there in the front agrees
Yeah, there's a lot of these...
I can't tell if the guy in front is gang* and has his hat on backwards, or if he's muslim and has a turban...
*(that's a star, btw)
Crappy photo, but, this little bump if f-a-b.
I really like this photo. Up to the point where there appears to be a Dutch person blocking it.
Yeah, this would do a Batman-the-ride-at-Six-Flags-Over-Georgia-or-Scream on me if the train came now <3
You see that really dark thing? That's a train!
See, it's gone now.
Then it was over to the dirty, filthy lift motor.
It looks like it's LAUNCHING. It's not.
Everyone loves a good screw
The inside of the lift motor
OK, the awesome tour ended, and then... UGH, THORPE?!?!
The fab house style entrance to Giant Dipper.
Then we got creds, the sun went down and NIGHT
Time to ride this masterpiece
It was a lot like some of Blackpool's dark rides to be fair. But, better. And better than Saw.
And then we rode an amazing indoor Breakdance, and a not-so-amazing Haunted Dark Ride. Then the Carousel. Then left. I did like Santa Cruz, it's not AMAZING, but, for a dumpy seaside area, it was cool. The worst part... the TOILETS. Lets just say, the cubicle doors were so low a ten year old very nearly saw... OK, next part of the trip is the QUALITY which is California's Great America.
OK, next up, Santa Cruz! I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say this may be the single busiest park I've ever been to... (well, at this point, wait until I get to Disney :wink: ) It was packed! But, thanks to oodles of time we got in everything I wanted to, and still got to play volleyball on the beach (Mike lost).
OK, onto the photos. What do you do when you realise a park is packed? Why, ride the kiddie of course! This was actually already a little while into the queue. Yeahhh.
OK, to be honest this didn't take that long, maybe twenty minutes? They were actually very, very good at dispatching across the whole park.
Look at it. I couldn't contain myself. In fact, I still can't.
OK, it was actually pretty good, for what it is sort of thing
See, Jake's enjoying it...
Yeahhh, we get to go on Beach Deck. It's a Cedar Fair beach party!
Yes, I took a photo of my dinner. Why? I'm not really sure... Everyone else was doing it. I wasn't very hungry apparently.
OMG, Hurricane. Which, sadly, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...
Booo to being not-so-bad.
The "grand" entrance to the park
Then we got something very cool, backstage tour!
Hai mom, I'm authowised!
We had to take this tunnel to...
OMG, the innards of the carousel!
This was seriously, seriously cool, as, as the more savvy of you may have guessed, this is a brass ring carousel. I LOVE THESE THINGS. So, for all of you that enjoy playing with rings (you know who you are), have fun.
This machine is taking the rings to a better place
Back above ground it's time to head to our next backstage area!
Yeaahh, the RCT woodie!
Which, surprisingly, was AMAZING. Blackpool, you paying attention on how old woodies are SUPPOSED to be looked after?
Yeah, no butts on seats for this ride!
Seriously, VERY cool woodie
See, Snoo there in the front agrees
Yeah, there's a lot of these...
I can't tell if the guy in front is gang* and has his hat on backwards, or if he's muslim and has a turban...
*(that's a star, btw)
Crappy photo, but, this little bump if f-a-b.
I really like this photo. Up to the point where there appears to be a Dutch person blocking it.
Yeah, this would do a Batman-the-ride-at-Six-Flags-Over-Georgia-or-Scream on me if the train came now <3
You see that really dark thing? That's a train!
See, it's gone now.
Then it was over to the dirty, filthy lift motor.
It looks like it's LAUNCHING. It's not.
Everyone loves a good screw
The inside of the lift motor
OK, the awesome tour ended, and then... UGH, THORPE?!?!
The fab house style entrance to Giant Dipper.
Then we got creds, the sun went down and NIGHT
Time to ride this masterpiece
It was a lot like some of Blackpool's dark rides to be fair. But, better. And better than Saw.
And then we rode an amazing indoor Breakdance, and a not-so-amazing Haunted Dark Ride. Then the Carousel. Then left. I did like Santa Cruz, it's not AMAZING, but, for a dumpy seaside area, it was cool. The worst part... the TOILETS. Lets just say, the cubicle doors were so low a ten year old very nearly saw... OK, next part of the trip is the QUALITY which is California's Great America.
Jake
Strata Poster
California's not-so-Great America.
I'm gonna start by saying that I didn't really like this park. Sure, it has a decent amount of rides, but the park suffers the same problem all the other ex-paramount parks suffer (or suffered untill recently, in the case of CW, KD and Carowinds) - NO 'stand out' coaster. The B&M Invert was good, but apart from that the coasters sucked.
Flight Deck, formally Top Gun, the only redeeming feature of the park.
It's possibly the shortest B&M Invert out there, with just 3 inversions, but it packs a punch.
Next up was Vortex, the B&M standup. Oh my god, this was the worst coaster of the trip. The headbanging was so bad I just wanted it to be over!
The colours were cool, but thats as far as it went...
This pic sums up how rough it was... how many people DON'T have their head against one side of the restraint? LOL.
Soooo Cedar Fair.
Invertigo!
This was my first one, after missing the one at SFA last year. Weirdly, the same thing happened to this one the DAY after our visit, which makes me feel lucky! Not that it was worth waiting for really...
Normal Boomerangs and GIBs are better. This kinda hurt.
It's nifty how you're facing other riders though, so that's a (slight) plus!
The drop tower was pretty standard, but one of the better all-sitdown Intamin ones i've done.
Peeps getting their Arrow loopscrew cred (there really isn't much to say about this coaster)...
Grizzly, the woodie, was TERRIBLE. It wasn't paticularly painful or anything, it was just BORING. It nearly stalled on the turns, seriously. It was lammeee.
All it consists of is boring, slow turns.
Mouse. Meh.
After the mouse we only had 2 credits left, both of which are kiddies.
Runaway Reptar was easy, as anyone can ride:
Final credit... TAXI JAM!
It's kid steal time... or in Bens case, kid bribe time (he paid the blonde kid 5 bucks, hehe).
Whilst I stole a mexican child... for free!
Lunch was at 2 and we'd agreed to leave afterwards for the drive back down to SoCal, due to the park being crap and us REALLY not needing any longer there. So, we had an hour to kill and rode the Log Flume, which was pretty decent. Ben agrees.
Delirium was alright, your average swing&spew.
The end.
Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm in this part of the TR, I just can't really talk about this park without wanting to fall asleep. I don't HATE the place, it's all just so average and theres nothing to go back for. Obviously it's worth visiting to ride the coasters, but you'd need no more than a few hours.
I'm gonna start by saying that I didn't really like this park. Sure, it has a decent amount of rides, but the park suffers the same problem all the other ex-paramount parks suffer (or suffered untill recently, in the case of CW, KD and Carowinds) - NO 'stand out' coaster. The B&M Invert was good, but apart from that the coasters sucked.
Flight Deck, formally Top Gun, the only redeeming feature of the park.
It's possibly the shortest B&M Invert out there, with just 3 inversions, but it packs a punch.
Next up was Vortex, the B&M standup. Oh my god, this was the worst coaster of the trip. The headbanging was so bad I just wanted it to be over!
The colours were cool, but thats as far as it went...
This pic sums up how rough it was... how many people DON'T have their head against one side of the restraint? LOL.
Soooo Cedar Fair.
Invertigo!
This was my first one, after missing the one at SFA last year. Weirdly, the same thing happened to this one the DAY after our visit, which makes me feel lucky! Not that it was worth waiting for really...
Normal Boomerangs and GIBs are better. This kinda hurt.
It's nifty how you're facing other riders though, so that's a (slight) plus!
The drop tower was pretty standard, but one of the better all-sitdown Intamin ones i've done.
Peeps getting their Arrow loopscrew cred (there really isn't much to say about this coaster)...
Grizzly, the woodie, was TERRIBLE. It wasn't paticularly painful or anything, it was just BORING. It nearly stalled on the turns, seriously. It was lammeee.
All it consists of is boring, slow turns.
Mouse. Meh.
After the mouse we only had 2 credits left, both of which are kiddies.
Runaway Reptar was easy, as anyone can ride:
Final credit... TAXI JAM!
It's kid steal time... or in Bens case, kid bribe time (he paid the blonde kid 5 bucks, hehe).
Whilst I stole a mexican child... for free!
Lunch was at 2 and we'd agreed to leave afterwards for the drive back down to SoCal, due to the park being crap and us REALLY not needing any longer there. So, we had an hour to kill and rode the Log Flume, which was pretty decent. Ben agrees.
Delirium was alright, your average swing&spew.
The end.
Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm in this part of the TR, I just can't really talk about this park without wanting to fall asleep. I don't HATE the place, it's all just so average and theres nothing to go back for. Obviously it's worth visiting to ride the coasters, but you'd need no more than a few hours.
rollermonkey
Strata Poster
^I'll agree with you on most of it. I only stayed at CGA as long as I did because I was so creeped out at the similarities and differences to the park I've worked at for the past 3 years; 6FGAm. I mean seriously, I was feeling deja vu (not the coaster) over and over as I walked around the park.
Top Gun was awesome, though.
Top Gun was awesome, though.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
I've actually never heard of Vortex in my life, so your trip report made me learn something and actually made the park somewhat worthwhile! Hhaa, nice report yet again, and Ben bribing the kid five bucks to ride with him is just soo something Ben would do .
.
Jake
Strata Poster
Six Flags Magic Mountain.
We were on our way back from NorCal, and at about 8pm there was an announcement by Robb that we were actually going into SFMM for the last hour, which was probably the best suprise of the trip. Even though we had ERT on X2 the following morning, most of us opted for a night ride, which was AMAZING. Then we had suprise ERT on Goliath from 22:00 - 23:00.
But yeah, there are no photos from this anywhere due to the fact that we literally rushed around for an hour
So... heres the report from the full day the next day.
Spot Ben on revolution for morning ERT!
I was sooooo dissapointed with Revolution. It could have been so good, and i'm sure it was before they added the OTSR's, but these restraints ruined the ride completely. It was awful.
Tatsu was next.
Hello. My name is Tatsu. I'm the best flyer evar.
I like how it's on a hill AND it's raised above the hill itsself. It's the first flyer i've ever done that actually makes me feel like i'm flying, and the path the train takes is similar to what i'd do if I could actually fly. It's fab!
Viper was horrible.
It even manages to get in the way of this lovely shot of X2 (which we had ERT on too <3)
X2 <3 <3 <3
Jakes #1 steelie
IS EVERYBODY IN?
Ninja sucked.
Superman was exactly what I expected... just funny and ridiculous.
It ACTUALLY sounded like a Jet taking off. NO JOKE.
This is about as high as it goes...
Mine train... not much to say really, apart from the fact that i'm SURE one of the headchoppers was a bit TOO close...
Riddlers was good, but I secretly expected a bit more... and I bashed my ears a few times.
Although, it made a change from Shockwave, actually having turns, hills and stuff.
...it also gets Kudos for the colours. Sexy.
Is that a Batman clone I see?
YAY. Batman clones are fab!
All 3 Batmans I've done are up there with Talon and Montu. They really are fantastic.
After Batman we had a spin on Scream!, the Infamous parking lot coaster.
To be honest, I LOVED Scream!. Better than B:TDK, Superman in Madrid, and both Medusa's. It's up there with Dominator and Hydra, although i'm not sure how to rank those three...
After lunch we walked past Goliath, which we'd already done the night before but didn't bother.
Colossus was meh.
At least it didn't hurt, apart from the double up, but I can deal with that.
The Kiddie was amazzzingg. Ben thinks so too
On the way over to the final creds, we took the lift to the top of SkyTower for some views/pics.
This is where we were heading next:
B&Ms.
More B&M
Deja Vu <3
Stunt Fall is better, but this is still fun.
We then did the water rides, had some ERT in the water park and after a huge meal, headed back down here for Terminator ERT. Oh, we had Deja Vu for ERT too...
Terminator
Salvation
Kicks
ASS!
This park is SICK. So many coasters, most of which are a good representation of their type.
You should all go. Now.
We were on our way back from NorCal, and at about 8pm there was an announcement by Robb that we were actually going into SFMM for the last hour, which was probably the best suprise of the trip. Even though we had ERT on X2 the following morning, most of us opted for a night ride, which was AMAZING. Then we had suprise ERT on Goliath from 22:00 - 23:00.
But yeah, there are no photos from this anywhere due to the fact that we literally rushed around for an hour
So... heres the report from the full day the next day.
Spot Ben on revolution for morning ERT!
I was sooooo dissapointed with Revolution. It could have been so good, and i'm sure it was before they added the OTSR's, but these restraints ruined the ride completely. It was awful.
Tatsu was next.
Hello. My name is Tatsu. I'm the best flyer evar.
I like how it's on a hill AND it's raised above the hill itsself. It's the first flyer i've ever done that actually makes me feel like i'm flying, and the path the train takes is similar to what i'd do if I could actually fly. It's fab!
Viper was horrible.
It even manages to get in the way of this lovely shot of X2 (which we had ERT on too <3)
X2 <3 <3 <3
Jakes #1 steelie
IS EVERYBODY IN?
Ninja sucked.
Superman was exactly what I expected... just funny and ridiculous.
It ACTUALLY sounded like a Jet taking off. NO JOKE.
This is about as high as it goes...
Mine train... not much to say really, apart from the fact that i'm SURE one of the headchoppers was a bit TOO close...
Riddlers was good, but I secretly expected a bit more... and I bashed my ears a few times.
Although, it made a change from Shockwave, actually having turns, hills and stuff.
...it also gets Kudos for the colours. Sexy.
Is that a Batman clone I see?
YAY. Batman clones are fab!
All 3 Batmans I've done are up there with Talon and Montu. They really are fantastic.
After Batman we had a spin on Scream!, the Infamous parking lot coaster.
To be honest, I LOVED Scream!. Better than B:TDK, Superman in Madrid, and both Medusa's. It's up there with Dominator and Hydra, although i'm not sure how to rank those three...
After lunch we walked past Goliath, which we'd already done the night before but didn't bother.
Colossus was meh.
At least it didn't hurt, apart from the double up, but I can deal with that.
The Kiddie was amazzzingg. Ben thinks so too
On the way over to the final creds, we took the lift to the top of SkyTower for some views/pics.
This is where we were heading next:
B&Ms.
More B&M
Deja Vu <3
Stunt Fall is better, but this is still fun.
We then did the water rides, had some ERT in the water park and after a huge meal, headed back down here for Terminator ERT. Oh, we had Deja Vu for ERT too...
Terminator
Salvation
Kicks
ASS!
This park is SICK. So many coasters, most of which are a good representation of their type.
You should all go. Now.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
UGH I'm so jealous, Magic Mountain is a park I've always wanted (no, actually, NEEDED) to go to.. They have so many coasters, and a lot of them look awesome, plus they have a good variety, AND X2 which looks soo scary but fun at the same time.
Termy, X2, and Tatsu make me have to get there in the coming years.
Termy, X2, and Tatsu make me have to get there in the coming years.