dmax11

Perhaps you mixed up the theming of railblazer or demon there? Patriot has no rock theming or any other theming other than its in hometown square and they converted it to a floorless and called it patriot. the more i ride it the more i kinda wish it was still a stand up but i'm kind of a sucker for stand up coasters i guess lol. Demon is rough entering or exiting transitions like many arrow loopers, it's the oldest coaster in the park but its not too bad in 3rd row from the back seats like most arrow loopers. Goldstriker is in dire need of a retrack its a ton of fun but the faster it runs the worse the jackhammering gets i already had a slight headache one day i was there with a fastlane and stayed till near close to night ride most of the coasters and rear seat goldstriker at night on a warm day was something else, lot of a fun but maaan it was rough lol in the morning when its running slower its not too bad esp first dozen or so trains our probably, 10 years ago grizzly was the roughest thing in the park by far but that retrack GCI did to it some years ago made it smooth for sure, so smooth its now just boring after the first two drops lol

Good review and as a local i agree with your sentiments. the supporting cast of coasters is nice but not good enough to bother re-riding (demon, patriot and of course boring slow loading grizzly) CGA actually sent me a survey to fill out today in my e-mail while i was at SFDK (lol) and i gave em high marks everywhere but thrill rides and stated they should add a hyper and RMC the grizzly and it'll be hands down the best park in northern California bar none. On GS, i agree its getting rough but if you make sure to not get stapled so you can get air out of your seat it is still a really fun coaster but easily ghostrider is well above it, its smoother, has more solid airtime and those laterals in the helices are crazy too

Superman is great for sure, The Joker is a solid coaster as is medusa. I agree completely on the animal sections of the park they need to redo it all phase out animal attractions slowly because a bunch of them are next to useless and the animals don't appear to be happy in many of them. I went today just got back its like idk the 5th time for me there this year probably? the usual issues I have with the park joker was up and down all morning and medusa was single training in the morning but fortunately by afternoon they had two trains back on and Joker sorted its issues out and was solid the rest of the day running two trains. Harley Quinn CC tested and actually opened for once albeit just running one train (i mean the 2nd is always there but they never loaded it) man that thing is noisy and rough i rode it just to see how it was and i think it might actually be worse than Kong and that is saying something! on the new Zamperla spinning coaster it looks for sure to be slated to go where the old elephant area is that was converted into a once or twice a month toyota off road buy our trucks attraction so for sure a good thing to add at an end of the park that draws nobody at all anymore because its rundown and mostly just a few random flat rides some working, some not and animal cages.

The Boomerang at SFDK uses second gen Vekoma trains not Arrow trains. oh indeed, i just recalled them looking a lot like an updated arrow train when i rode it a few weeks ago, makes sense then!

only one i have done is the one at SFDK, it wasn't bad and it does have the old arrow style trains but i'm kinda used to those by now anyhow but overall i mean the boomerangs are easily much better than SLC's

Yeah renaming it to a local theme South Bay Shores. tons of additions and changes beyond just the major drop slide complex https://www.cagreatamerica.com/explore/south-bay-shores as for the Hyper, there was plenty of Hype over it because CF did request and get granted planning permits for a 210 foot rollercoaster and even went as far last year as starting up a building permit for the Hyper but then canceled the building permit, mind you this was all after Railblazer as well. best guess at this point is the Hyper probably will be re-started in a year or two I think they were trial running it to see if they could get past red tape sense getting the park rezoned to planned development and really besides space and possible minor complaints from neighbors i think it can happen still but zoning change is what has allowed them to start fast tracking changes to the park in the past 3 years.

I'll throw out first giga in Texas perhaps? i mean CA and TX don't have one still the other states he listed of course don't either

Yeah i heard it was back on two trains (maybe by you elsewhere?) but if it was its back on one and has been every time i have gone this year so far.

Trip report for California's Great America this past saturday 7/27. This is my home park and i have gone 3 times previously but never stayed all day my typical routine is go in for ERT and leave once the lines get too long, this time i decided sense i had nothing to do to do a full day so I was there from ERT opening at 9 AM till near close at 10 PM. ERT was Top Gun (Flight Deck) and by 1 PM it was packed so i bought a fast lane which sealed the deal for me staying all day. Rides and experiences in no peticular order. Goldstriker (4x) Early morning rides seem smoother to me, it was really flying by late afternoon but roughness factor also increased. i got in a front seat trip once a near back seat once and mixed middle rest of the time. I never realized before today how much airtime potiental this ride has probably because before today i never made sure to not let them staple me. what i did was i slouched a bit so when the lap bar went down and hit my stomach i left it there and stayed that way till they checked restraints. laster on in the day on a ride the ride op even acknowledge what i was doing and just made a wew sound when he checked me lol. i also found that in order to keep my freedom of movement in the car i had to keep a hand on the bar and keep it pushed up so i had those few inches of free movement or it would ratchet down on me half way though the ride and i'd be near stapled. this method though greatly improved ride experience as I got lifted out of my seat at least 6 or 7 times throughout the track and it was awesome! I did one night ride and it was great. Operations are doing what they can to speed things up there from what i saw but sadly its still running one train so if your not getting fastlane get on it EARLY if its a weekend as the line can be 1+ hour easily. Railblazer (5x) I mean its Railblazer, the ride really seems to speed up as the day goes on and i did rear so much my shoulders are hurting from the restraints and that insane ejector. it was running 2 trains solid all day Ops in the morning were a tad sluggish but by afternoon onwards they were dispatching trains before the last one was ready to pull into station but fast laners like myself i'm sure were killing the normal queue at that point and the normal wait i'm sure was brutal. Top Gun (aka Flight Deck) i lost count but i think 7 rides. did it 3 times during ERT including a front row zen ride on the 2nd train to go out first thing in the morning. did a sunset ride as well. Still my favorite B&M invert but only other one i have done is Batman at SFMM. its just so intense and whippy and slams into the brake run at high speed its always a great ride. I think rear left seats might be slightly better than anywhere else but front as the forces and effect of swinging over the pond at the end are a bit higher but no matter always a fun one. Demon (3x) the old Arrow is running nicely with two trains wheels look near new on both trains and its a smooth as ever outside of the typical jerky arrow transisiton points. if you know arrow loopers you know how to ride em Drop Tower (3x) I'm somewhat afraid of heights and only rode this once when i was a teenager peer pressued by friends but i decided that it was time to see if it really scares me still or not and after one ride i knew i had to come back to it again later on in the day and did so twice! such a great drop. i belive it briefly went down middle of the day and after that another car on the tower was closed so its currently down to 4/6 4 person cars in operation as of yesterday, additionally each car has a weight limit so if your planning on doing it with friends make sure there is not 4 of you if your all full size adults in the 200 lb range or they will make someone move to another seat on the tower if one is open. Patriot (2x) it went down when i was in line for it early on in the day, looked odd like it got E-stopped right after dispatch and the train was only 1/3 way out of the station. upon riding it later i saw the floor light curtains i forgot where there so likely the cause was someone tripped it when the train started leaving stopping the ride. as usual not the best ride in the park but far from the worst ride. its short but the drop is decent and you do get some airtime in the middle transition after the overbank turn and right before the corkscrew that jerks your head sideways as it always has lol. Grizzly (1x) went out on the first train of the day front seat. boring as usual the entertainment is hearing ppl on it actually scream on the first two drops lol. Tiki Twirl (1x) Neat flat ride, i took the advise i read from someone to ride in the 2-3 o'clock position seats facing the county fair picknick area as those always end up facing up at the ends and indeed it did was quite fun if your into moving spinning rides, somewhat freaky when its going full speed over the middle hump because it seems to move a bit like it might fall off its rails but i'm sure it wouldn't lol. Psyco Mouse (1x) starts off kinda slow and boring with the switch backs but makes up for it with the mini hills after that, overall a solid little compact coaster though and something everyone of all ages can and do enjoy i'm sure. Rip Roaring Rapids (1x) weakest rapids ride in the west as far as wetness factor goes probably. it also broke down while i was on it but they got it back up and going within 10 minutes so it wasn't major, sense its kinda boring on thrills they really could do some themeing on this to make it much better than it is. mid day i went to the waterpark to cool off and did the wave pool and ripsnort ridge slide, even though it was very busy over there it was a better experience than raging waters in sacramento was the previous weekend thats for sure but i'm not a huge water park person so won't really add more than that. Atmosphere: in general very good, the summer weekend events they put on are good, this month it was taste of orleans. i think this one was possibly a bit better than the red white and brews one last month, they had many different music stages, lots of costume performers out and about and sidewalk chalk artists doing their thing and of course the best part an abundance of beer and food tasting stands. i skipped the food tastings based on red white and brews experience knowing i wouldn't get my 35$ worth most likely so just bought beer and grabbed some pizza for lunch. Shows: i decided to catch the 7:30 showing of Elevation Extreme and it was a very good show! I had on a previous trip did the mass effect 4D show as well and have to say i'm quite impressed with how good of a job Cedar Fair is doing with these sorts of things, to cap the night off they did fireworks and i headed out of the park after getting off a goldstriker night ride during the fireworks so i could beat the rush of people leaving the place. all in all a great time solo at my home park but i sure am paying for it today but thats ok no work for me on sundays Bonus: image gallery of the waterpark expansion progress

i'm 5'11" 240 lbs typically. never had to walk of shame a ride yet, its tight for me on some seats on B&M Inverts i can always latch but sometimes the belt buckles are a tad short and the ride op has to staple me. also had similar happen on an intamin impulse, first time i rode it that day it was fine, later on when i took a back seat spot the Ride op told me i was too big and i told her i had just rode it earlier that day so she tried again and got the buckle to go. RMC's have never been an issue for me even with my pockets loaded with stuff and a belt on i have seen some people get denied on twisted colossus but they were very large, probably 270+ lbs range

after a 3rd trip this past sunday this time with my sister and her kids i can say for sure the place is quite hit or miss. day started off bad with joker down all morning, i took my two pre-teen nephews on superman because i knew line would be long later anyways and hoped they'd have the joker up and running once we got off but sadly they did not. at this point it was wonder woman or batman to go on over in that area and they were too intimidated / sacred by superman at that point to do either lol. so we headed to medusa and as expected it was operating great with two trains and a short wait and they loved it. we meandered some etc by early afternoon Joker was up and so we did that and as expected they loved it. In any event though we had a blast as the day went on and ended up doing the joker 3x medusa 3x rapids ride once, boomerang once, superman once and mixed in some of the flats and cobra Main disappointment for them was they really wanted to do The Flash : V2 (because of the character mostly) but it was closed all day due to "inclement weather" but i think the real reason is the park probably cannot operate it on hotter days due to power usage, it was up today when i checked and showed no signs of really being down when we were there. Things to Note about the park: its almost useless to come in at opening they are very bad at opening most major rides at opening. superman and medusa are probably best bets for rides that will open first as i have never seen either go down in all 3 visits but medusa is not gathering large lines because it has high capacity with 2 trains and the section its in is no longer popular, i've walked into the station many times on a weekend and at worst was at the bottom of the stairs to the station. they seem to have a lot of relatively minor issues with the joker, at opening maintenance was working on the brake run before the transfer station for hours, past visit it broke down right before i was to get on a train because one of the ride operators couldn't get a green light on his panel to allow them to dispatch and this last trip i think the same thing happened to them because we were on the stairs basically one dispatch away from waiting to board next train and it went down and the same exact situation was occurring where they had a train full of riders stuck in the transfer station and were unable to dispatch the train in station so maintenance shows up 10 min later force dispatches the empty train in station so they could unload the train stuck in the transfer station and then they proceed to dispatch 2 trains empty and re-open the ride to passengers.. as for ride ops in general there though I can say they are in general very good for the most part often trying to fill trains looking for single riders and smaller groups of 2 or 3 to pull ahead to get trains filled on many of the major rides there and often their ops are at least trying to entertain if there is a line or an issue or even if everything is fine so i do give them a big thumbs up, their main issues appear to be in getting the place going at opening properly and possibly some maintenance issues they need to figure out.

I am a fan of SLC's. I always found my best riding style on those was to hold my head all the way forward out of the restraint. You get zero head banging that way a pretty enjoyable intense ride. Ah i know what you mean i do that on CGA's Demon and Patriot due to the head banging as well i'll have to try it on Kong next time i go thanks for the tip!

You didn't find the back of Joker to have the strongest airtime? I found that row significantly better than the front when I visited the park last year. Glad they got 2 trains running for you. I believe he meant to say "any seat [is good], but the back will get you the most ejector....." Oh, the importance of a comma! Also, for the locals, has the Flash been running fairly consistently? I'm heading to the park on Monday and given that it was closed when I went last summer, I'm really hoping it's running that day. I know there's no way to tell now, but if it's been running fairly consistently since the retheme, I will *slightly* raise my expectations! Yes indeed missed comma made that come out wrong, the back is the best for airtime of course as for the Flash yes it appears to be up and running pretty consistently based off my last trip and also from checking https://queue-times.com/parks/33/queue_times i have not seen it down most days i check lately.

Update : visited again today to grab missed credits. crowd was decent but not excessive. The Joker was running two trains (finally) really did have a much better time though their operations do seem quite shaky at times still Joker was very late to open and broke down right as i got on it my 5th time (but really it wasn't broken they just needed to cycle the train again but made us wait over nothing heh) top rides there imho #1 The Joker: any seat but back will get you the most ejector as with any RMC i have ridden #2 Medusa : Front i have found is best overall experience on B&M floorless coasters and this one does not disappoint #3 Superman Ultimate Flight : Rode it twice today a really good launch coaster but i think full throttle at SFMM is better. after that it gets wishy washy to rank good rides: Wonder woman pendulum most SF parks have now is fun and relaxing. the flash: vertical velocity very good if its operating and it was today! Batman S&S freespin eh its good if your into it but i'm still of the opinion even after a 2nd ride that its a glorified Zipper, not a bad ride but not a great one either. meh coasters : Kong (SLC) if you know what your in for and keep your head pinned back and body stiff you'll survive the kong but its still hardly fun after exerting all that effort to prevent headbanging. Cobra: boring kids coaster that doesn't belong in the same area as the rest of the rides in that area. ride counts The Joker 5x (front, back and various middle seats) Medusa 3x ( Front, near back and middle) Superman 2X (Front of 2nd train and 2nd row in front train) The Flash V2 2x (2nd from front and rear) Kong 1x Cobra 1x Batman 1x Wonder woman 1x overall edge still goes to CGA for me. its a better rounded park and just needs another great coaster and perhaps a launch coaster to put it heads above SFDK its already slightly ahead of it overall to me with a nice mix of rides and a solid top 3 of coasters.

i went this past Sunday 6/30. morning started out good sense i hung out in DC area and they opened joker around 11 am and i got on pretty fast, then i went to medusa, about a 10 minute wait not bad then i headed back over to DC area and go in line for batman. about half hour wait wasn't bad. not a big fan of the ride though little to no g-forces its all just spin and scare you crap, i'll pass going forward its a glorified carnival zipper to me. so far joker easily best ride here (knew i would be) and Medusa is a great floorless B&M. after batman i debated waiting to get on superman but given the sour taste in my mouth from batman spinner and the long lines i figured it would just be a waste and a similar gimmic so i went back over to the medusa side of the "thrill park" if you will and to my suprise it was even shorter wait there nearly walk on so got on it again, it is a great coaster. after that i roamed the park for some beer and food and checked out the rest and animal exhibits a bit then thought i might get back in line for the joker again but line was ridiculously long and slow thanks to single training it. So I went back over to medusa side of the park and decided surely Kong wouldn't have a long line because its well known to be terrible right? wrong. line was about 45 min at least but i slogged through it and rode in 3rd car from the front and frankly it wasn't terrible to me, i would never wait in that long of a line for it ever again but it didn't live up to its head banging rep it has to me which is i guess so infamous even the ride OP was making side comments the whole time i was in line about how rough it was and they always joked when the train came back in about how amazing the ride was. of all the major rides only Medusa and Batman were running more than one train. worth noting that Medusa has 3 trains and the 3rd train was in the bay clearly not ready to go. Kong's 2nd train is easily visable and clearly not anywhere near operable there are no restraints on the cars at all on it it looks like its being used for parts. The Joker's 2nd train was there but had some plastic or something over most seats didn't look ready to go but surly its mid summer and this is the best ride there they should have it running two by now! the Flash was closed no sign of anything or any reason, Harley Quinn ride also closed and all the plastic seats have been removed and when i was walking in before open there was exactly one person working on the seat mounts with a drill at the time so it appears they are retrofitting new seats onto it or modifying it in some way but once again appear to not be in any rush whatsoever in getting it back up and running.. I'll not get into the status of many older flat rides there that are basically abandoned outside of the "thrill" sections of the park. overall i have to say the park is not terrible but comparing it to my real home park which is CGA its no comparison CGA is better maintained more coasters are running multiple trains, nothing is in disrepair in plane sight there and given Railblazers addition CGA has a better coaster lineup with more real coasters even though most are quite outdated and/or short. I wouldn't likely go back to SFDK and only bought a membership because i'm going to SFMM for a few days in the coming weeks and i was *slightly* cheaper if i got it there first.