Angry_Gumball Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Well, to start off, one of my coworkers purchased a season pass and was visiting today. I figured we'd meet up and hang out and make fun of Flight Deck and Drop Tower. I got out there a bit after noon and took on Demon for the first ride of the day. Usually it is Flight Deck but today we broke that tradition. Front was pretty brutal. Over to Invertigo (No Sunfire, too bad, maybe next time?) for a fun ride on that. By then we were getting hot and wanted to ride something that would seat 5 of us so we hit up the Rapids. Not wanting to mess up my new camera I had just bought, I stuffed it into a Ziploc bag and snapped some photos on it. (I bought a Canon SX100, first time using it for theme park photos) I came out soaked so we hit up Firefall. About FF: It seems to have a different ride each time. THe ride before us didn't flip once, we got a nice fast flip as it was more weighted. Later on in the day, we got a nice slow flip, was awesome. Unfortunately only the fountains were working, and the audio. No fire or water canons. We headed towards Flight Deck to find out it was down for the majority of the day. My coworker and his girlfriend had to head out so we headed back for another demonic beating, Drop Tower, and Grizz. Headed back over towards FD to see if it was running, still down. Short session on the Flying Eagles, fun ride and then decided to check out the Ed Alonso Misfits show. Was quite enjoyable and funny. We actually checked it out again as we missed the first 5 or so minutes the first showing. I'd probably go back and see it again just to watch peoples' expressions from the humor. Finally, FD was operating, only in 1 train mode. Lines got long after our 10 minute wait (Longest wait I ever had for Flight Deck btw). Ended the day on a Psycho Mouse ride. So onto photos! Chillin' out front of the park waiting for our ride to get us. Thanks for reading! CGA never got rid of their shuttle loop...they just shrunk it down and stuffed in in their offices! Yes, this is what you'd expect to be a closing photo for a CGA trip report, but think again... Empty swings..looks kinda creepy.. Sky Tower going up to it's parking position for the evening. *Sings* And I'm proud to be an American... Invertigo at closing...yes, it's that time... Manual exposure...didn't quite go as planned. Too light outside... Locked gondola, full speed swing-over, probably the best maneuver on FF Let's Fire Fall again! Maybe we should call it Water Fall as no fire was involved in this ride. Flying Eagles That was fun! Dropping on a drop tower that is named Drop Tower! Let's ride the ride that's name is what the ride type is! Drop Tower! Bay Area skies stuck in Poo-mode...the air quality sucked big time. Vortex is at it again! The 10-minute Turnaround! Did not ride today, had long lines... Just when you thought you saw enough FF, here's another. Firefall loading Let's zip back across the park and hit up Grizz...perfect timing as we passed Vortex's corkscrew. Yay! Some Fire Fall action! Yet, I did! Or them... Well, why didn't she get soaked? The aftermath... PWN3D!!11!!one!!1! "Psss!" Oh sh**! Is that an acceptable amount of wetness? Lake 2...Hey, what's that sound over there? Uh...this don't look so good! Rawr! I is cheetahmen...I mean woman. (See Action 52 title screen to see what I mean...just don't play the games or you'll be a crazy addict like me!) Enjoy your ride! Ready? Getting situated... Bag Vision testing-1 Grizz gots some stuckages Drop Tower? We'll do that later when the lines shorten down. Another angle, looks cool. Artsy Fartsy loopage shot As you should do on any Vekoma-made coaster, you should probably remove your ears! I totally did not see this get taken of me. I was afterwards saying "How did this picture get on my camera?" And...Enjoy your brutal ride! Hey Dan! Smile for the camera! Pi-Pika! Pikachu! Smoothly running Invertigo Yay, just got to CGA! Heading to Demon to meet up with my coworker.
TopThrill182 Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Thanks for the TR. I really enjoyed it and a lot of your photos had nice unique views. Out of curiosity how are crowds for the park these days? How long was the line for Firefall?
tkkyj Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Awesome TR. Love the bag-cam! Wow! I missed out on CGA's shuttle altogether... I wish the park had some kind of museum for past attractions and stuff.. that model would be perfect.
John Peck Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 That Tidal wave model was done by my buddy and he had it made for the 25th anniversary of the coaster back in 2002. Its a non-working model Here are more pictures of it: http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/tk173/modelsmenuindex.html
KGA29 Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Thanks for the TR. I really enjoyed it and a lot of your photos had nice unique views. Out of curiosity how are crowds for the park these days? How long was the line for Firefall? Weekdays the park is seldom crowded and lines, especially towards the evening are pretty much walk-ons on most attractions. Weekends, lines can build to about 30 (45 if it's a major or special event weekend) for major attractions.
Angry_Gumball Posted June 24, 2008 Author Posted June 24, 2008 I did totally forget to mention that the park was somewhat busy today, a lot of people yet lines weren't so bad. I think Boomerang Bay was where most of the wait was at, and Flight Deck when it reopened back up in 1-train mode. Most of the flats had a 2-4 cycle wait, except Firefall. That was just a 1 cycle wait as it holds 40 people. If it were hotter out, I'm sure the park would have been even moreso busy, mainly water park and water rides. We did do all the coasters except Vortex as my bro didn't want to have his spiky earrings stab his ear to death. And he didn't feel like removing them for the ride.
robman97 Posted June 24, 2008 Posted June 24, 2008 Nice trip report Gumball and I'm very glad that they never got rid of the Tidal Wave models makes me very happy.
koaster krazy Posted June 27, 2008 Posted June 27, 2008 looks like fun! im going in 6 days i cant wait!
rct3dt Posted November 5, 2010 Posted November 5, 2010 Most other Huss Top Spin's are pretty fun, but Firefall is weak. It only flips you twice (and sometimes only once!) and for most of the ride the unlocked gondola is just gently swinging back and forth. I know there are several different ride cycles for Firefall, and I've also noticed that the more people are on the ride, the more "extreme" cycle is chosen by the ride operator. Every cycle starts will a locked gondola doing a 360 at full speed, does a 180 so the gondola is upside down, then it unlocks, and from there it changes. Sometimes the weight of the riders (depending on how many are on it) makes the gondola flip once, but most of the time it barely makes a full flip. Even when Firefall used to be the Texas Twister at Six Flags Texas, the ride was wayyy better (proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQQ_D5cvJaE ). When I was in line once for Firefall I asked the operator to make the ride more intense, but he just said he "can't do that". I know there's a manual mode so the ride operator can control the ride, so next time I go to GA on a nonbusy day, I'll see if my friend's cousin is working at Firefall. Then if there's no one in line he will manually make the ride awesome just for me! But seriously, I used to be soooo chicken when it came to roller coasters (which was not too long ago), but right before I rode Flight Deck for my first time (which during the summer) I rode Firefall. And man, it was a waste of my time. Even though I was freaking out it was boring other than the first full speed revolution. Come on Great America why can't you: 1) Make Firefall flip more 2) Have Endeavor stay upside down longer 3) Have Delerium go higher 4) Get rid of Vortex (most painful ride at GA, even more than Grizzly or Demon, which are both actually not that bad rides) and put in an awesome ride 5) Get a ride cycle on Survivor to go longer 6) Have Bezerker go faster and longer Even though there are things GA can work on, it will always be my favorite theme park (yes, even more than Cedar Point, Six Flags Magic Mountain, or Kings Dominion) simply because I grew up with Great America.
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