Photo TR: Coast to Coast (including Oregon!)

Just returned from an 11 day business/fun trip. The business was playing piano for some shows in Boston and Portland. The fun would be the 5 days in between gigs where I managed to hit 6 parks!

 

Started off on Sunday April 14th. Got a ride to Logan Airport in Boston where I rented a car for the day. Drove to Six Flags New England for some credits and to process my Gold Pass. Now, I don't live anywhere near SFNE, but with the pass, I get free parking, so I figured it was a good deal.

 

The weather SUCKED! About 40 degrees and windy Luckily, I was bundled up and ready to ride!

 

Season Pass processing took some time since they had about 20 computers set up to enter in your information, but only 2 people inside the building to do the processing. Luckily, more workers showed up, but not before a huge line formed down the midway.

 

Bizarro. In my opinion, eh. The trains since they were modified for the sound system seemed tighter than other Intamin hypers I have been on. So after being stapled into my seat, I was not looking forward to any negative g's. It was fast and decent, but not what I would call the #1 coaster in the world. Plus, the train rattled a lot. AND if you are going to have the #1 coaster, you may want to run more than one train on it.

 

Did Catwoman's Whip, Gotham City Gauntlet Escape from Arkham Asylum (way too long a name for a basic wild mouse), Batman - The Dark Knight, Great Chase (yay! A kiddie credit!), and Flashback, your basic Vekoma boomerang.

 

Goliath was not running due to the new trains, but the park was thoughtful enough to have signs to this effect posted at the entrance of the park AND the ride itself. NOTE: this same decent gesture will not be in effect once I get to California).

 

All in all, a decent day at the park. I had not been there since 1998, and it seemed to be in good shape considering this was opening weekend and the weather was cold.

 

Got back in my rental car, drove back to Boston, and flew that night to Long Beach for 5 days in California!

 

MONDAY:

Disneyland Resort. I had not been to DL since 2000, and DCA was not even open then.

 

Due to the fun of jet lag, I was wide awake at 5am! I took my time and headed over to Downtown Disney and the hotels. As a cast member of WDW since 1999, I am very familiar with the layout of the Florida parks, and I was really looking forward to seeing how CA compares.

 

The hotels were very nice. I opted to stay off property to save money, and I am glad I did. The Red Lion Hotel was awesome! Very close walk to the park, a great rate ($59/night due to Priceline), and they played awesome 80's music in the lobby! Plus, when the park closed, all I had was a short walk home instead of dealing with the hassle of traffic, the parking structure, and crowds.

 

Quick analysis of DL resort since most people have been there: GREAT! The parks were immaculate, CarsLand is awesome, and I was able to ride everything I wanted multiple times. Of course, I never did get my Soarin' or Space Mountain credits due to the DOSH issues, but that just gives me a reason to go back.

 

PhotoPass. We have all seen this at the Disney parks. After I got a few pics taken, I was informed that as a cast member, I would get my cast discount on the basic package. End result: I bought the CD with 171 pictures taken of me at the two parks! Using this system enabled me to not worry about handing off my camera to them since I knew their pictures would turn out great. I highly recommend this if you are in the parks for a few days and want to get as many pictures as possible.

 

I ended up back at the parks on Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday, and Thursday til about 3pm when I headed down to Long Beach airport for my flight to Portland. This airport is also great since it's NOT LAX and it's only about 15 minutes from Disney. JetBlue flies into here from most west coast cities and Boston, Austin, NYC, and DC. Cannot recommend this enough!

 

TUESDAY

Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott's

Or as I like to call it, a tale of two extremes.

 

Got up early to avoid the LA traffic and get to SFMM when the gates opened. Didn't really need to since there seemed to be little to no crowds coming to the park.

 

It was sunny but very windy. I have only been to SFMM twice before: 1st time in 1980 and 2nd time in 2000. Both times I had a great day being able to ride everything I wanted.

 

Being a Gold Pass member, I was allowed in the park 10 minutes before the rest of the crowd. I was hoping to get a jump on X2 or Tatsu since I heard their lines can be long and slow.

 

I got to X2 and was told it was closed due to "wind."

 

Hmmm

 

Walked over to Tatsu: closed due to "wind."

 

Double hmmm

 

Oh well, maybe I can do Ninja.

Oh right, closed due to "wind."

 

OK, now I was getting pissed. I ended up getting my Apocalypse the Ride credit 1st. It was ok though seemed kind of rough.

Headed down to Green Lantern: First Flight and rode that once. Again, decent ride though I was getting a headache already.

Thought I would get a ride on Gold Rusher, but it was closed as well.

 

Now remember, not one sign at the front gate said any of these major coasters would be closed.

 

Got my Scream credit, and headed over to Superman. Rode that twice, and actually had a good time and the ride op seemed to really care!

Back down the hill and lo and behold, Lex Luthor is closed as is Colossus. Also, the tower (whose name I forgot) was also closed. I have been to the park 3 times over the last 30+ years, and I have never been up in the tower. DAMN!!

 

Then I heard some screams and looked up to see Tatsu running. Now, it was just as windy now as it was when I got to the park, but the coaster was now open. When I got to the queue, I found a full 1 hour wait and one train running. F U SFMM! Not going to waste any more time here.

 

Walked over to X2 but it was still closed due to "wind." I think the term wind means "we don't really care about our guests, and it's cheaper to not staff coasters and just tell people it's too windy than to actually deliver good customer service."

 

I left the park vowing to NEVER return. They had just come off Spring Break weeks, so there was no reason for all of these closed coasters. I flipped off X2 and said, "Cedar Point kicks your ass and will ALWAYS kick your ass." Well, maybe I didn't say it, but I thought it!

 

Down the road I went and luckily found an In and Out Burger which was the highlight of the day!

 

Ended up at Knott's which was also a highlight. Clean grounds, great rides, friendly staff. This is how parks should be run!!

Xcelerator was awesome! It was a little brother to TTD, and I got two great rides on it.

 

That night, ended up back at Disneyland Resort and spent the new two days there.

 

SUNDAY

When in Portland, you MUST go to Oaks Park! They have two coasters: a kiddie one and a looping wild mouse. Both were decent, but the real star in the roller rink. It was built in 1905, and on Sundays features a live organist at the Wurlitzer! Totally worth the trip if you are in the area.

 

And now.............. the pictures!

Welcome to SFNE in April! Brrrr

Bizarro

DCA and Goofy's Flight School

California Screamin'

Awesome PhotoPass picture

Awesome PhotoPass picture of CarsLand at night

RSR

Definition of a douche bag: guy who cannot wait til he disembarks Matterhorn to whip out his cell phone.

As close as I ever got to X2

$17 to park. No thanks, SFMM

The massive crowd anxiously awaiting the impeccable guest service at SFMM

Superman logo still screwed up

Closed

Closed

The empty parking lot at SFMM when I left.

Yay!!

Coast Rider looks ready to roll!

Silver Bullet

Windseeker was not running. Shocker!

Looping Thunder at Oaks Park

The train

Ready to ride!

Kiddie Coaster at Oaks

A credit is a credit!

Wheeeeeeeee!

One of the awesome animals on the carousel

the roller rink

Thanks for sharing your trip. Sorry your experience at SFMM wasn't the best and I'd be lying if I said I was surprised.

I'm a Disney CM as well and the Photo Pass CD is a great deal with our discount. Out of curiosity: What kind of shows were you playing piano in?

This is the show I was doing:

 

http://www.wakeupyourweird.com/

 

And we have a full week of shows coming up in Austin, TX May 8-12th

 

Austin Scottish Rite Theatre (map)

207 W 18th St

Austin, TX 78701

 

I wrote some of the music for the show, I music direct it, and I play piano for it!

I hear more and more how much operations sucks at Magic Mountain. It sucks when the park almost demands you get a Flash Pass if you want to ride anything.

I hear more and more how much operations sucks at Magic Mountain. It sucks when the park almost demands you get a Flash Pass if you want to ride anything.

 

Except in his case the rides were all closed!

I hear more and more how much operations sucks at Magic Mountain. It sucks when the park almost demands you get a Flash Pass if you want to ride anything.

 

Except in his case the rides were all closed!

 

Yeah, that makes SFOG's opening weekend operations look amazing. At least SFOG will have everything open, although usually with only 1 train.

Nice pics!

Did you go on the bumper cars at Oaks? They're some of the best you can find; yes, better than Knoebel's (IMO). What about the travesty that is Lewis and CLark? It is hands down the worst dark ride ever, lol! Completely incomprehensible.

Oaks: the best bumper cars and the worst dark ride...