CycloneMan

Don't mind me, just sneaking through

Don't mind me, just sneaking through

The gang heading up to Georgia. Left to Right: Myself, Lauren, Joy, Matthew and Jackie.

 

We left Orlando at 3:30am to get to Six Flags Over Georgia for opening. Here's Matthew adding up his coaster count so he can figure out what coaster to make his 100th.

 

We made a pit stop a long the way.

 

Joy showing off the classiness of South Georgia.

 

We arrived at the park a little bit after opening.

 

Batman - The Ride

 

Mindbender. My personal favorite steel roller coaster.

 

Look at those sexy Schwarzkopf curves

 

From the plaza you get some nice angles of Goliath

 

Time to try out our new season passes.

 

It's a little strange not having our photos on the pass anymore.

 

Jackie using the bio-metric scanners

 

We started our day by heading the British section of the park.

 

First ride of the day was Georgia Cyclone.

 

The line wasn't terribly long.

 

The gang in line for Georgia Cyclone. All of us on this trip, except Matthew have been to Six Flags Over Georgia.

 

A couple of the coasters were trying out a Single Rider line. ...it made absolutely no sense. It was just one of the rows in the station, and the attendants would sometimes pull people from it.

 

We saw a lot of your typical first day of operations problems. Such as hitting any sort of dispatch interval. It was 5 - 7 minute dispatches.

 

We were pleased to see that Georgia Cyclone was running with the trims OFF!

 

Matt's very excited for his first ride.

 

The airtime on this part of the ride is ridiculously terrifying.

 

Seriously, Georgia Cyclone was kicking total butt!

 

My cousin Joy in line for the Dahlonega Mine Train.

 

The crew here was doing a great job sending trains out on time.

 

Next, the kiddies went and rode Canyon Blaster. I watched

 

One of Six Flags' greatest gems.

 

Monster Mansion is one of my favorite dark rides.

 

Matthew and I ready for the picnic.

 

Lauren, Jackie and Joy are also ready to go to this monster picnic.

 

The operator was letting us know that humans are allowed.

 

If you have zero idea what I'm talking about, click here.

 

 

We were impressed to find that they were giving out actual cups of water.

 

Ugh...Matthew needed the credit.

 

Joy and Lauren for their brutal ride on Ninja.

 

They came back claiming it wasn't as rough as it has been. Note: These are Arrow trains on the track from Scream Machine at Great Adventure. I'd like to point out the random left-over Arrow restraint on it behind Joy. Also, they were running only one train and dispatching every 8 minutes.

 

Next was on to the Great American Scream Machine.

 

GASM is a beautiful and fun coaster.

 

Almost our turn to ride.

 

Yup, that's Superman - Ultimate Flight. Yup, we rode it. ...yup. Moving on

 

Hanson Cars, Up Up and Away and the Riverview Carousel.

 

Lickskillet.

 

Time for some Sky Buckets.

 

Matthew on the Sky Buckets. It's a little higher than the ones at Busch Gardens Tampa that he's used to

 

Still not as terrifyingly tall as Great Adventure's.

 

Goliath.

 

Monster Mansion from the Sky Buckets.

 

This is the only photo of Georgia Scorcher I took on this visit. It was decent. I actually enjoy it.

 

Goliath towers over the front of the park.

 

Some more photos of Goliath.

 

Time to head down to Gotham.

 

Crime Wave was not having the best day. We saw this multiple times throughout the day.

 

Matthew in front of his 100th roller coaster. Mindbender!

 

This coaster is pure perfection.

 

It's filled with airtime.

 

And it's very forceful.

 

Generic Batman The Ride. But still fun.

 

Open door leading to restricted area fence. ...this is how people get beheaded!

 

Batman / BatMobile / BatMatt

 

Oh Dare Devil Dive...

 

It's really not that thrilling.

 

The capacity is pretty terrible on it too.

 

Seriously...

 

Goliath is a really fun, smooth, airtime filled ride.

 

Time to hitch a ride! (Oh yea, gotta love lame captions)

 

 

Mindbender

 

Dare Devil Dive

 

Goliath

 

Georgia Cyclone

 

 

Great American Scream Machine

 

Ninja

 

The girls went shopping, so Matt and I rode Monster Mansion again.

 

Sky Screamer. The only ride in the world that literally terrifies me.

 

The Riverview Carousel is always a must.

 

 

In typical fashion, Acrophobia was down most of the day.

 

But it did open, and we got to ride it.

 

We ended our day by riding Mindbender.

 

Unfortunately Mindbender was only running 1 train all day.

 

Matthew and Jackie love Mindbender just like the rest of us.

 

We'll end this PTR here. Everyone exhausted at the hotel.

 

Overall, we had a great visit.

 

-Dainan "Wishes I was still riding Mindbender" Rafferty

My friend Matthew and I decided to get some use out of our SeaWorld Orland / Busch Gardens Tampa Bay annual pass and head out to Busch Gardens for the day.

 

Montu greets us in the parking lot.

 

Here's Matthew and I on the parking lot tram ready to head into the park.

 

Oh no! Not the Watering Hole!

 

You know it's a busy day at Busch Gardens when...

 

We decided to wait in line for Gwazi anyway. Why? I don't know, I really don't have an answer.

 

So, Gwazi use to be two sides. But they now have the Tiger side permanently closed.

 

As Matthew shows here, they are now using the Tiger station as Quick Queue. Rumor is that Busch Gardens closed Tiger and is only keeping Lion open till they have the budget next year to take the entire coaster out. It's a shame really, the park has tried so hard with this ride. And now they're just letting it go.

 

After Gwazi we headed over to Walkabout Way.

 

How can you not love kangaroos?

 

Just chillin

 

Pretty blunt

 

My fingers are not food! Go away!

 

We then went over to Sesame Safari of Fun so Matthew can get his only needed credit at the park on Air Grover.

 

Success!

 

and of course we played around.

 

Oh...I guess SheiKra's open. It had a full queue so we decided to come back later.

 

Stanley Falls was very popular on this hot summer Floridian day.

 

Sleepy tigers.

 

Still the best coaster in the park.

 

Just gorgeous!

 

Attempted to get a fly by shot while in the station.

 

Okay, last photo of Kumba!

 

Alright, let's check on the progress of Falcon's Fury.

 

It's coming along.

 

Um...what happened to Scorpion's sign?

 

Schwarzkopf Silver Arrow

 

The new logo has been on the train for a while now. But it's the first time I've taken a picture of it.

 

Such a little ride packs such a big punch. I love it .

 

Walking from Timbuktu, through Nairobi to Egypt, you can get some pretty great shots of Cheetah Hunt.

 

 

In the Edge of Africa, you can get pretty close to sleepy hyenas.

 

I really do love this park.

 

Montu is the staple of Egypt.

 

Still one of the best B&M Inverts out there.

 

Budget cuts are starting to spot up all over the park. Here's King Tut's Tomb closed with all the scenery taken off it.

 

Here's the lovely Crown Colony. The top floor is a sit down restaurant which is scheduled to close in a few weeks.

 

Now onto a random photo of Cheetah Hunt's awkward overflow queue. We got in line and it shut down for weather, and then like a good little Intamin, shut down for technical difficulties. But we waited it out.

 

After an hour and twenty minutes of waiting out downtimes, we got to ride.

 

When we got off the ride, a guest handed us her Quick Queue - Handicap Access ticket she got for the ride that she decided she didn't want to use on it, so we got to ride again.

 

Matthew's freaked out by the elevator in Cheetah Hunt's station that we had to take.

 

We decided to wait for the front being it was only a 5 train wait.

 

Cheetah Hunt through the trees!!!!

 

We decided to take the Skyride over to the other side of the park so we could ride SheiKra.

 

Cheetah Hunt from Skyride.

 

Nice dyed mullet dude!

 

SheiKra...yea, can't really think of a clever caption. We rode it. It was alright. Loses the novelty after the first 40 times tho

 

After SheiKra we took the Skyride back to the front of the park.

 

Kumba <3

 

This cheetah's had enough for today. And so had we.

 

On the way out of the park, I saw some kids dancing with some very enthusiastic Busch employees.

 

Back at the car, we found some nice shoes for us next to our parking space. Stay classy Tampa Bay.

 

-Dainan "Till next time" Rafferty

Hey guys. It's been a while. Long story short, I was on vacation for 16 days in NY staying with my family and stuff. I moved to Florida in 2009 and have been there ever since. While I was home I did go to all the local parks (more PTRs later). The park I was looking the most forward to was Six Flags Great Adventure of course. I was able to go twice while I was visiting and got to meet up with a bunch of old friends. The park's changed quite a bit, but also stayed the same. Either way, on to the Photo Trip Report!

 

6/21/13

 

After three long years, I've finally returned home.

 

The skyline's changed a bit since my last visit in 2010.

 

Started the day with my old best friend Dan and Jackie. Yes...Jackie and I planned our trips home to overlap that way we could go to Great Adventure together.

 

At least they're nice enough to warn you.

 

God I missed this place so much.

 

New to me was Green Lantern.

 

By principal I strongly didn't want to like the ride that replaced GASM...

 

But it really wasn't that bad.

 

We got there first thing in the morning and got to ride it a bunch of times. There's Jackie and I in the back.

 

I've been on 4 other stand up coasters. Mantis at Cedar Point, Riddler's Revenge at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Georgia Scorcher at Six Flags Over Georgia and Le Cobra at La Ronde. Honestly, this one ranks right in the middle. Scorcher being my favorite stand up. This is right below Riddler's Revenge and way above Mantis.

 

And all I heard was negativity about it.

 

My friend Joe operating Green Lantern.

 

Hey, look what's actually open.

 

Kingda Ka was actually running way better than it did before I left for Florida.

 

Our group started to grow at this point. Matt (right) and Chris (center right) joined us.

 

Still the tallest

 

But not the fastest.

 

Group photo before riding Ka.

 

One of the best sites in the world

 

On to the new Safari Off Road Adventure.

 

While in line we ran into my old friend Eric.

 

This was the longest wait of the day. About 40 minutes.

 

The queue and station weren't really finished yet.

 

The trucks are nice and open. I don't have any photo's of the actually safari. So there you go.

 

Bizarro number meh. I'm sorry, I'll always loved Medusa, but I now live within an hour of Kumba which is way better

 

No more speakers. Bad dispatches. Sigh.

 

Up next is El Toro, ole!

 

El Toro was running a bit rougher than it used to. And it didn't seem to have that kick anymore (it may have been because I rode Skyrush a few days earlier). It was still a great ride tho.

 

Three former Rolling Thunder Leads return home

 

They were running all four trains and doing a decent job at their intervals. Tho when Chris, Matt and I worked there, we did spectacularly

 

We then had lunch at Best of the West.

 

While there I ran into my friend Peter (You'll notice this trend a lot through the PTR).

 

Be grateful Great Adventure kids that you still have this.

 

So...I rode Sky Screamer. As predicted I hated it. I cried...no really...I did. I HATE these rides.

 

Jackie's diggin the old logo.

 

As am I.

 

How I missed this ride.

 

You never realize how much you miss a great thing until you're away from it. Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia is good, but it's no Nitro.

 

Batman

 

It's still going forward!?!? What gives!?!?

 

Dark Knight Coaster. To be honest, I do actually like this ride.

 

It's nice to see Houdini opened full time again.

 

Now if only all the effects will work.

 

All so strange to me. Chutes is the wrong color. Where's ErUPtion and GASM?

 

Finally getting to meet some of the new Great Adventure people. Here's Rob.

 

Here's Matt (left) and Kevin (right).

 

Jackie and I's none Great Adventure friends joined us. Hayley (right) and Stacey (middle right).

 

Rob at work.

 

From one Rob to the next. Got to see me other friend Robbie a couple of times. Some of you on here may know him

 

Unfortunately El Toro was having some problems that day and didn't re open.

 

We rode Ka again. Why not?

 

Some Green Lantern love.

 

Last photo from this day is me on Deja Vu. Overall it was a great day. We got to do every coaster and most flats multiple times.

 

Honestly they both have their pluses and minuses. I've been on both MANY times and I like Ka better for the speed hill but Dragster better for the restraints.

 

That's my exact opinion

Batman

Nitro

Superman

Kingda Ka

El Toro

Green Lantern

 

That's it I believe

Batman

Chiller

TDK

Nitro

GASM

SUF

Green Lantern

Medusa/Bizarro

Viper

Toro

Ka

Flume

Back in April, GM's Test Track at EPCOT was closed for good and was planned to have a major renovation. Test Track now sponsored by Chevrolet, is scheduled to reopen December 6th to the public. Today (12/1/12) the attraction soft opened for Walt Disney World Cast Members and their families. The attraction has been doing testings the last few weeks with volunteer Cast Members as riders (myself included). But today we were allowed to go in and take pictures. So I present to you, one of the first looks at the new version of Test Track.

 

The new entrance for Test Track 2.0

 

Couldn't gen a picture of the area entrance due to us entering behind the construction wall ;)/>

 

Into the new queue. The entire building is unrecognizable.

 

The line splits into 4 different design studios where you'll design your car.

 

The five of us will be riding a few times tonight. Left to Right: Lauren, myself, Joy, Jackie and Patrick.

 

The design studio. You are given a card, and you scan your card to activate the design station.

 

Lauren designing our car.

 

Patrick, Jackie and Joy.

 

After the design studio, you go down a hall way towards the station. ...don't mind Lauren jumping into my frame.

 

So the new design of the ride is you are in a computer based simulation automotive design.

 

The loading station is much smaller than it was before.

 

Pretty different.

 

Here's where you scan your card before boarding your car. During the ride, there are screens along the path that'll tell you how your car is holding up.

 

The next batch of photos will be blurry, being they're taken on my cell phone.

 

While you're at the seat belt check, you can tell the ride's going to be really dark.

 

The up hill incline.

 

The downhill slope is no longer a rough roads test. Now it's supposed to be an ice slope. So now you just slide down slowly.

 

Product placement activated!

 

The ride layout is EXACTLY the same as before. However, there is no real story line, nor anything to tell you what's going on in the ride.

 

Contrary to popular belief, this ride is NOT Tron themed ;)/>

 

Random city...? Well...it's pretty

 

What used to be the temperature chambers are now scanners.

 

Checking our aerodynamics.

 

The hill climb is basically the same, except now it's computerized.

 

After the truck gag (yup, still there. Updated, but still there), you get an over view of your tests.

 

Yea...it's blurry.

 

The launch track is pretty cool. It starts changing designs, and the lights along the ground start lighting up.

 

Outside is just like before.

 

However it is the most boring part of the ride. There's honestly nothing to it. There's no audio. No dialogue. No show elements. It's very underwhelming after all the enhancements inside the building.

 

Ride's over.

 

As you see on the exit signs in station, they've brought the original World of Motion logo back to the ride. Along with the new Test Track logo.

 

At the exit, you can check how your car tested.

 

In this room, you can take your car and make a commercial.

 

You will also be able to test drive it.

 

Just like the old Test Track, you can still buy a car!

 

The gift shop at the exit really didn't change that much.

 

Overall, we all have mixed feelings about the new Test Track. There really isn't any sort of story line. And with the story line it has, it's hard to follow. A lot of elements in the attraction were taken out for "pretty things" as we called out. The attraction feels unfinished. With that being said, the attraction isn't officially opened to the public yet. So we shall see how it does.

 

-Dainan "I enjoyed it" Rafferty

This is more of just photos than an actual Photo Trip Report. But if you have read any of my trip reports, you know I take photos of everything and then just put captions. So, I don't really need to do more.

 

10/26/12

First day of the trip

 

I chose this to be the first photo because...well, I knew the girls would kill me if I posted this. The trip consisted of myself, my room mate Jackie (left) and one of our good friends Lauren. Here they are putting air in Jackie's tires before we leave Orlando.

 

After about a 7 hour drive, we made it to our motel, which we dubbed "The Rape Motel," down the road from Six Flags Over Georgia. We chose this motel because it was cheap and in walking distance from the park.

 

As you can see, it was really for us to not get lost on our way from the Rape Motel.

 

The three of us ended up buying season passes for 2013. The 2013 season passes were discounted $20 off because we live out of state and included free parking and admission to all SF parks. It cost us a total of $45. Our original plan for the trip was to do SFOG Friday night and all of Saturday. Then hit up Wild Adventures (ugh) on the way back to Orlando, but because we ended up with the season passes, we just stayed at SFOG the whole weekend.

 

We first started on Georgia Cyclone (no pics) and then went on Acrophobia a few times.

 

There was no wait for it. In fact, the lines all weekend weren't really that bad.

 

Georgia Cyclone at night.

 

A view of the Promenade/Main Entrance area at night.

 

Dare Devil Dive

 

Lauren was excited to ride it, being it's the only coaster in the park she hadn't ridden yet.

 

Our first night group shot. Left to right; Jackie, Lauren, Me and Michelle. Michelle is a friend of ours who we've worked with in Orlando. She lives in Atlanta, so she took the time to come out and see us.

 

This was one of many stupid things we saw Six Flags Over Georgia employees do. It's hard to tell in the photo, but an employee was having guests go over the railing and walk through the trees to get to the other side of the path to open the queue. This was so the guests wouldn't have to walk around. ....what!? Between the four of us, we have worked at 9 different theme parks. We couldn't handle this

 

Kind of blurry, but here's a photo from inside Monster Mansion, Six Flags Over Georgia's dark ride. And yes, cameras are allowed on the ride

 

Lauren and I enjoying our ride.

 

Jackie and Michelle also love Monster Mansion

 

You can even sing along! Click

to hear the song.

 

We sure will. But not yet.

 

This is the only picture we got of it. But we got to see SFOG's version of Dead Man's Party which is very much like SFGAv's. However, the show is inside of the Crystal Pistol Music Hall. And the performers actually sing.

 

There it is, the beast of any Vekoma coasters, Ninja.

 

Ninja is currently running with two of GASM's old trains. However, it is still one of the roughest steel looping coasters in the world.

 

We'll end day one with a ride on the Dhalonega Mine Train.

 

10/27/12

Got in over 40 rides in one day

 

Welcome to the Guest Inn, our luxurious motel.

 

I...I don't even know...

 

You can see why we felt completely comfortable here.

 

This room was down from us.

 

Lauren and I showing of the room.

 

This was next to the building. This is where the Demon lives

 

We started our day on Mindbender! We may have easily ridden this about 20 times with out getting up. This is my number 1 steel coaster in the world.

 

This was also the last weekend for the Wheelie, the park's Schwarzkopf Enterprise.

 

Jackie loves her Enterprises

 

The girls posing with the beautiful entry to the Cotton State Exposition.

 

The time has come to the Ninja Challenge: Pain-A-Thon! What this consisted of was, we had to marathon on the Ninja until some one in our group gave up. The penalty was, the first one off had to buy the $10 Apple Pumpkin Spiced Funnel Cake later.

 

As you see, there is no line. Because no on in the right mind should ride this.

 

Hello there old friend. This Great American Scream Machine from Great Adventure's old red train painted black. Unfortunately they took the old Arrow restraints and replaced them with the hard new Vekoma restraints. ....sigh.

 

Lauren and Jackie seem pretty ready for the Ninja.

 

This facial expression is about right.

 

After 9 times on Ninja, Lauren and I gave in.

 

Which means this freak won.

 

Lauren driving us on the Hanson Ride.

 

Jackie and I enjoying the old vintage cars.

 

Lauren and I on the Review Carousel.

 

Jackie on her horse.

 

Alright, time to give in and buy this.

 

It was really good

 

The girls pose with their favorite drop tower.

 

This may have been one of the stupidest advertisements we saw the entire trip.

 

We gave there Haunted House a try. It was good. Not the best, not the worst. Honestly we have nothing to really say about it other than it was alright.

 

"Is it time to go back to the plantation yet?"

 

Monster Mansion used to be called Monster Plantation. In 2007 they gave it an upgrade and added some new effects. In this layover, they also renamed the ride.

 

The monsters were also dressed for Halloween.

 

Wait! Which Six Flags are we at again?

 

Six Flags Over Georgia had this strange simulator for Fright Fest called Last Ride

 

You get in a coffin...

 

They close it.

 

And everyone can watch you in it.

 

Lauren giving it a try

 

Jackie's turn. The attraction had some potential to be terrifying, but it was just...meh. Overall, we didn't like it. It tosses you around like you're in the back of a hearse. You get lowered into the ground. You hear them burying you. And finally you hear bugs crawling in. It smelled like dead roses and embalming fluid. Overall, not a good attraction.

 

Lauren and I will be hosting your Tommy-knocker meet and greet

 

Deep in thought. Is it about Big Thunder Mountain? Or is it about food?

 

Okay, it's food time.

 

This Jackie's favorite of the ridiculous Six Flags adds.

 

That's pretty awesome!

 

Vekoma coasters, so evil. Yet, so pretty.

 

A random shot of Wheelie at night. Why not?

 

The Great American Scream Machine is pretty awesome at night.

 

It may not be the smoothest coaster, but it's a whole lot of fun.

 

The bunny hills at the end create some awesome air time. It's a great way to the end the night.

 

Back at the Rape Motel, we got some new quality sheets for our bed.

 

10/28/12

Last day of our mini vacation

 

The next morning we woke up to this alarm clock on Jackie's phone. You have to know us to fully understand us

 

It's the last day of the season, and as you see. The Rape Motel is really poppin.

 

Relax, it's being held together by a rope. Seriously...

 

It was really cold for us Floridians. We layered up.

 

Back at Six Flags Over Georgia, we started off by marathoning on Mindbender again. There's no other better way than to start any day. We rode every coaster in the park, including Ninja. This is Great Adventure's GASM's old blue train.

 

Why yes there is a Big Mo on the Square

 

Our last coaster of the trip was going to be the Georgia Cyclone (which was running great btw). But while we were in the station, us, and a few other guests noticed that one of the wooden bracing on the supports came detached from the rest of the structure. You couldn't see it while the ride wasn't running, but when a train went passed it, you saw it sway freely. They quickly closed the ride and immediately started inspections. I was really proud of the way the ride crew handled it. They did a great job.

 

On the way out I saw this shirt. I know a certain some one who would love this

 

We decided to walk back to the parking lot and take some photos of the coasters on our way out.

 

Goliath and Georgia Scorcher. We rode Goliath about a dozen times during the trip. Including a night time ride in the front row. It was pretty perfect.

 

We only rode Georgia Scorcher once during our trip. Fun ride. Not the best, but not the worst.

 

It's no Riddler's Revenge, that's for use

 

It is also very smooth.

 

The parking lot is really the only place you can get good pictures of Mindbender.

 

Mindbender has amazing airtime and g forces. Schwarzkopf really knew how to make them.

 

And of course, Batman the Ride is always good as well.

 

The 8th wonder of the world, the back side of Batman The Ride.

 

The last picture of the trip. Jackie trying to get a picture of all three of us while I was driving back to Orlando, FL.

 

Overall, we had a fantastic weekend. The three of us needed this little get a way from Orlando, and it was very well worth it. Also, most of these photos are from Jackie and Lauren. So I need to give some thanks to them as well

 

-Dainan "See you next year Six Flags" Rafferty

If it's true, I know someone who will be very happy!!!

 

 

 

Hahaha! Wow. There's one of many pictures of me I'll never live down . It would be pretty awesome if this is true. As much as I love the nostalgia of the skid brakes, the buzz bars, and the manual operation of the ride. It desperately needs an update. Not to mention that a new braking system and trains would help with the ride's efficiency

Six Flags Over Georgia in two more days!

Finally going to sleep after being up for 22 hours!

^I don't wanna talk about it

 

 

This song has been stuck in my head lately and I haven't heard it maybe 5 years

Day 8, 7/2/12

Our last full day of the trip - Disneyland Resort

 

We got to Disney California Adventure just as the park opened at 8 so we can get some stuff in Cars Land done.

 

Luckily for us, we were meeting up with our friend Robbie again this day, and he got to the park before us and got in line to get Fast Passes for Radiator Springs Racers. So we found him in line and handed him our park tickets in order to get Fast Passes. Our Fast Passes were distributed 8 minutes after the park opened, and they're not good until 2 hours and 10 minutes after the park opened! Fast Pass Return doesn't open till about a half hour after the park opens, so the first time distributed for was 8:40. Needless to say, they were out of Fast Passes fairly quickly.

 

We also got a nifty surprise Fast Pass for California Screamin'. Disney puts surprise Fast Passes in their machines for attractions that need the attention. Like here in Florida, our Surprise Fast Passes in Magic Kingdom are for Mickey's Phillhar Magic and Carousel of Progress. With that being said, you can tell how the rest of the park is suffering with the news Cars Land. In fact, we never saw California Screamin' over a 15 minute wait the entire time we were there.

 

Our first ride of the day was Luigi's Flying Tires.

 

I've never seen Cars. But the story telling isn't hard to fallow.

 

One of Jackie's, "Hey Dainan, smile!"

 

It's hard to tell, but I think Robbie might like Disney.

 

Patrick, Jackie and Robbie. Something tells me one of them is not completely awake. Probably the lack of coffee.

 

If you look closely, you can see Carl from Up in line for Luigi's Flying Tires.

 

Luigi's Flying Tires uses hover craft technology to move the vehicles.

 

You move the vehicles with your body movement.

 

They gave us a "pizza" to tell the Cast Member who's loading us that we are in the same party.

 

Basically it's bumper cars with giant beach balls that you throw at each other.

 

Really weird, and really fun.

 

Patrick and I are ready to go.

 

Jackie and Robbie are ready to go as well.

 

After Luigi's, we ate breakfast at Flo's and then headed over to Paradise Pier.

 

I wish a vendor would hand me a coke in such a fashion.

 

Patrick and I ready for yet another fantastic ride on California Screamin'.

 

Our fabulous on ride photo.

 

Nerd shot of their unload console.

 

Robbie and I after another ride on California Screamin'.

 

Afterwards, we made our way down Paradise Pier to get on the Golden Zephyr.

 

On the way we stopped because Robbie wanted to play some games.

 

Go get em Robbie!

 

Robbie won a plush Goofy.

 

Golden Zephyr was closed when we got over to it the day before because of high winds.

 

Fun little relaxing ride.

 

Because we are all 12, we played in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

 

Robbie and I making our way up the nets.

 

Shaky bridge....

 

We started the Wilderness Explorer activity map. But we really just did it to get the stickers.

 

Next up we did Grizzly River Rapids

 

The theming was really nice.

 

It was a fun rapids ride.

 

It ended with a nice splash

 

Goofy disapproves of Patrick's statement.

 

It was time for our Fast Passes so we went back over to Radiator Springs Racers.

 

The queue was massive.

 

Robbie, Jackie, Patrick and I excited to ride Radiator Springs Racers again.

 

It was funny to us. It was like seeing an alternate reality Test Track.

 

Patrick's ready to do this.

 

Alright, here we go.

 

You exit the ride into the middle of the race.

 

Our on ride photo.

 

I stopped at Cozy Cone on the way out of Cars Land and tried the Fillmore’s Fuelin’ Groovy Ades. Mine was pomegranate limeade with lemon-lime foam.

 

We park hopped over to Disneyland for lunch. We hopped on the train to New Orleans Square.

 

Oh hey Cody! What time are you off? 6? Alright, see ya then

 

We did the Haunted Mansion again. Why not? Who doesn't love the Haunted Mansion?

 

Oh hey there Splash Mountain. Maybe we'll actually ride you in the day time today.

 

But we'll get a Fast Pass.

 

The nice thing about park hopping at Disneyland is that the parks are ridiculously close together. On the way out of DCA, we got Fast Passes for Soarin' and then we got Splash Mountain fast passes. The significance of this is, you can't hold more than one Fast Pass at a time in the same park. In Florida it's nearly impossible to park hop around Fast Pass times, but in California it's like walking from one section of the park to the other. Yea...we're nerds.

 

We ate lunch at the Hungry Bear.

 

A Country Bear Jamboree themed restaurant! Yes please!

 

We sat right on the Rivers of America, so we made some new friends. Here's Patrick and his new friend. As you can tell, he looks really happy to see him

 

I may have been more excited about this than I should have been. But hey, if you've ever spent as much time around the Country Bear Jamboree as I have, you'd be excited too!

 

Here's something guests can't do in Florida anymore. The Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes. We still have them in Florida, but they're for Cast Members only

 

Ah, the Columbia. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to ride it on this trip. I guess this just means I need to go back to Disneyland

 

Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island.

 

Alright, I'm excited for alternate reality Tom Sawyer Island.

 

The raft trip over to Tom Sawyer Island is much shorter here than in Florida.

 

The rafts are also designed differently. But I guess the "average" guest wouldn't really notice that.

 

'

This was neat. Tom Sawyer Island has a tree house on it.

 

Point goes to Florida. I wasn't a big fan of Tom Sawyer Island Pirates Layer. A lot of things on the Island were closed of permanently (ie, the Fort). Spending a lot of time on Tom Sawyer Island in Florida, I can understand why Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island is the way it is now. But it just felt incomplete.

 

After Tom Sawyer Island, we went back to Disney California Adventure to see the Phineas and Ferb Rockin' Rollin' Dance Party.

 

It was cute. We are immature Phineas and Ferb fans, so we were excited to see it.

 

I wish we had this show instead of Disney Channel Rocks at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

 

It was time for our Soarin' Fast Passes. To be completely honest, none of us really care for Soarin', but we did it anyway to compare it to the one at EPCOT. The queue and over all atmosphere in California's was different. DCA's Soarin' basically takes place in a Hanger and has a vintage Aviator theme going on. While EPCOT's Soarin' makes you feel like you're at a modern airport.

 

To our amusement, the film was in worse shape than Florida's.

 

We left DCA through the Grand Californian and took the monorail from Downtown Disney to Tomorrowland.

 

Abandoned Peoplemover track next to the Monorail.

 

Jackie is the only one out of the group who had been to Disneyland before the trip. Her favorite ride as a kid was not the Peoplemover, but Rocket Rods. Rocket Rods was basically Test Track on the Peoplemover track. The track wasn't designed to have high speed vehicles on it, and after many technical issues and structural damage, Rocket Rods closed forever.

 

There have been many rumors about future plans to bring back the Peoplemover in some form, but as of now. Nothing has happened. We will see what happens in the next few years.

 

While we are on the subject of abandoned Disneyland rides, we went into Innoventions which was originally Carousel of Progress.

 

"Temperature increased to 975. Overload-- overload..."

 

Jackie and I are big Carousel of Progress fans. So we really excited when we found the split in the floor for the rotation.

 

Yes, we really took this many photos of and with it. Patrick and Robbie were totally judging us the entire time.

 

Okay, this is the last one.

 

We had to get to Toontown quick because it closes early for the fireworks.

 

Our last coaster of the trip was Gadget's Go Coaster.

 

This was the first of three Vekoma Roller Skaters Disney purchased for it's parks. The problem with the Roller Skaters is that they're designed to run only one train, which Disney parks can't handle. After this, Tokyo Disneyland's and Magic Kingdom's Roller Skaters were redesigned to be able to run two trains at once to increase capacity.

 

Another ride on the Matterhorn, why not?

 

Believe it or not, this was Robbie's first time on the Matterhorn.

 

The rest of the evening we spent running around doing our favorite rides, so we don't have that many photos. But we did snap this one at the Jungle Cruise. Kissimmee Kate. The relevance of this is that we live in Kissimmee, Florida. Well, on the boarder, but Patrick actually lives there.

 

At this point we met back up with Cody and his friend Katie. They basically grabbed dips on their seats on Splash Mountain so I got stuck in the front. Now, from this picture, you'd think I was scared. Incorrect. I was angry because I was drenched from head to toe from Drop 2! So I was not looking forward to the splash at the bottom of the drop. Yea....you get nowhere near as wet on Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World than you do in Disneyland.

 

We spent a good chunk of the night re riding Disneyland's awesome Space Mountain!

 

I ran into my friend Kris working at Space Mountain.

 

Jackie and Patrick in line for Space Mountain.

 

Cody in line for Space Mountain.

 

Robbie and I in line for Space Mountain.

 

At Star Traders in Tomorrowland, Jackie spotted this bag. Hmmmm

 

We ended our night at Big Thunder Mountain. During the trip, we all got photos with our west coast version of our rides. Big Thunder Mountain is the only attraction the three of us all worked together in Walt Disney World. Jackie and I have been friends since we were teenagers, but working together is how we met Patrick. So it was the perfect way to end our trip.

 

Day 9, 7/3/12

Last day - lame attempt at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the same day

 

Our flight back east was around noon, so we took a quick trip to Downtown Disney for some last minute shopping.

 

Lego Store shot in the day light.

 

We ended our Disneyland adventure in World of Disney....where we ended up not buying anything.

 

Good bye California.

 

Only 6 hours till we are back in Orlando.

 

Lay over in Texas, almost home.

 

We made it back to Orlando, and we stopped by Downtown Disney in Walt Disney World before going home (We live just outside of Property, so it wasn't really out of our way). We did this just so we can say we did both Walt Disney World and Disneyland in the same day. Though it was both Downtown Disney, it still counts.

 

Thanks for reading

 

-Dainan "Planning my next trip already" Rafferty

 

...no thanks

I was struck by the similarities between CA Screamin' and Revolution at MM. Very similar long, fun coasters.

 

I remembered you telling me that before the trip. And I was thinking that the entire time.

 

Dainan, did you happen to catch the giant Zoetrope in the Animation Building? It was really impressive - this video does not do it justice.

 

 

We did see the Zoetrope. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Day 7, 7/1/12

Disney California Adventure

 

Our final new park of the trip. Disney California Adventure.

 

We arrived at DCA a little later in the morning. We were dead tired from Magic Mountain the day before we decided to sleep in.

 

Our trip to DLR was only two weeks after the re dedication of DCA.

 

You think our trip is crazy? This is my friend Patrick whom I work with in Orlando. He came to California for the weekend and did all of Disneyland Resort in one day. We ran into each other as he was leaving DCA.

 

We didn't do Soarin' this day, being we have the same ride in Florida, we didn't care to do it.

 

We got Fast Passes early enough for the first showing of World of Color.

 

Our first ride of the day was The Little Mermaid.

 

A sneak peak at things to come for us Floridians

 

The ride was nice. But I'm a little nervous as to how the Florida crowd will re act to it. It is a good ride. But it's not the greatest. In Florida, Disney is hyping this attraction up like there's no tomorrow. And the Floridians are getting really pumped up for this new "E-Ticket" ride at Magic Kingdom. Supposedly Florida's version of the ride will be updated and longer. We shall see. But after doing it in DCA, I don't feel compelled to wait longer than 20 minutes for the Magic Kingdom version.

 

Our next ride screams at us from across the water.

 

California Screamin' ended up being one of our favorite rides on the trip.

 

California Screamin' is an Intamin LSM Launching coaster. Oddly enough, it's the 8th longest coaster in the world.

 

The wait really wasn't that long either.

 

Jackie and Patrick ready for the first ride on Screamin' in the front row.

 

Jackie gave it a thumbs up. This ended up being her favorite ride at the Disneyland Resort.

 

Myself and my friend Jeff on my first ride on Screamin. Jeff is a friend of mine for a while now. And when he found out I was coming to California he requested that he took us around DCA.

 

Jeff and I after my first ride.

 

We got fast passes immediately after we got off, so we could do other things in Paradise Pier and then come back to Screamin.

 

Next up, we did Mickey's Fun Wheel.

 

Patrick and Jackie enjoying the not so impressive swinging cars. Meh, I guess growing up in Coney Island makes me snooty about these things

 

Toy Story Mania looks great in this location. But yea...we didn't do it. We have one here, and we don't do it here either.

 

This is the only photo we got of Goofy's Fly School. It's a wild mouse. We got the credit. We didn't do it again.

 

It was time to go back to Screamin next. This our on ride photo. ...yup.

 

Jeff did not steer us wrong with his lunch suggestion. I got the cheddar and broccoli sourdough bread bowl from the Pacific Wharf Cafe. It was pretty much amazing.

 

Patrick got Star Bucks on our lunch break. See, Patrick has an addiction to coffee. And when Disney announced that Star Bucks will be coming to the parks, you would have thought he won the lottery. So of course a stop needed to be made. This goes along with the theme of "California has it first, Florida will get it soon." So Patrick was ridiculously excited.

 

Next we head over into Cars Land.

 

We came in through the side, and immediately you're taken into the atmosphere.

 

There goes Radiator Springs Racers.

 

Here they go again...on Jackie's camera.

 

The details in Radiator Springs is amazing. Some people have compared it to Tokyo DisneySea. Having been there, I'd have to agree. Disney really out did themselves on this one.

 

150 minutes with an hour single rider line!?!? Yea...we'll come back.

 

Okay, so we really weren't surprised at all by the wait times for this. The highest we saw it during our trip was 180 minutes.

 

We zipped through Cars Land and passed Luigi's for our next must-do attraction.

 

um...what? Jeff insisted that we did this, and it had no wait. So we did.

 

Basically you go around on the track through eaten food. It's...um...well...it's... ....so terrible you must do it.

 

Jeff was laughing to himself the entire time.

 

Tower of Terror had a long wait, so we got fast passes for it.

 

Yup...no where near as good as Florida or Tokyo's. In fact, it's the same exact one as Paris's Tower of Terror. Yes, I've been on all of them now

 

Another ride Jeff said we must do for it's awfulness.

 

Hey, at least it's not some stupid ride about stalking celebrities or something like that.

 

You get in a cab, and drive through Monstropolis. It wasn't really that bad of a ride. It wasn't really that good of a ride either.

 

Next door was Dancing With Disney

 

It was mad poppin, yo!

 

Yea....we quickly left and went to watch the Pixar Play Parade.

 

The parade was very similar to Pixar and Pal's Count Down to Fun at Disney's Hollywood Studios. But of course this one was better. ...as was almost everything at Disneyland.

 

If Disney's Hollywood Stuido's former Block Party Bash and Pixar and Pal's Count Down to Fun had a love child. This show would be it.

 

They basically shot water at you every chance they got.

 

Alright, see ya.

 

Next we went into the Animation Building.

 

We were obligated to sea the show because Jackie used to work at the Living Seas pavilion at EPCOT and this was one of her attractions.

 

In fact, on this trip. We did the California version of all the attractions Jackie, Patrick and I work at in Florida (if they're here).

 

We heard a lot of hype about the Aladdin show, so we were pretty excited to see it.

 

This is the only photo we have from inside the theater. With out giving much away, the show is amazing. If you ever get to DCA, make sure you see this show!

 

The park is pretty small. This is Grizzly Peak, you can see it from everywhere.

 

Well, we have time to kill before our Tower of Terror fast passes, let's see how Cars Land is looking.

 

Did I mention that during our trip, Cars Land had only been open for two weeks?

 

We decided to bite the bullet and do the single riders line for Radiator Springs Racers. Originally our plan was to get to DCA for opening and go here first, but because we slept in, we decided to do that the next day. But it was only a 40 minute wait for single rider at this point, so we decided to do it.

 

I'll be honest, I've never seen the Cars movies, so I don't entirely understand the story telling in the queue. But it did look really impressive.

 

Every where you look there's queue.

 

After only 30 minutes, we made into the station.

 

Jackie and Patrick ended up on the car in front of me (which means we will race). And Jeff was in the car behind me.

 

We're next.

 

I was pretty pumped to ride it.

 

And just like every new ride, it has it's glitches. We got to the point in the ride where you split and go through separate show scenes and you get ready to race. Well, we ended up in a good old fashioned Disney ride backup, and got to sit here for a good 5 to 10 minutes or so. As you can see, Patrick and Jackie are across the way.

 

Patrick waiting for the ride to continue.

 

Jackie took this shot of me waiting for the ride to continue as well.

 

We did end up finishing the ride. The theming inside the ride was incredible, and the outside portion was really good. It doesn't go nearly as fast as Test Track does, but it does a lot more. We took more photos the next day, so don't worry. Those will be in the next update (If you really cared )

 

We got off Radiator Springs Racers just in time for our Tower of Terror Fast Passes.

 

Not as impressive as Florida's.

 

The boiler room was pretty cool.

 

Jeff, myself, Jackie and Patrick on Tower of Terror. It is a good ride, but no where as good as Florida's. This version of Tower of Terror doesn't have the dark ride portion in it.

 

We headed back over to Paradise Pier after Tower of Terror.

 

We did Jumping Jelly Fish...not sure why. But we did.

 

I really enjoyed the location of Silly Symphony Swings. It was directly on the water, adjacent to Screamin'

 

"Is that supposed to be like that?"

 

The next batch of photos will be nothing but California Screamin' and Paradise Pier. Why? Because we fell in love!

 

Me and Screamin'

 

Patrick and Jackie with Screamin'

 

My new favorite picture

 

We tried to come up with an scheme to dismantle it and bring it back with us to Orlando.

 

Seriously? Why does California get the long, smooth, fun Intamin ride. And we get the short, rough, mediocre Vekoma coaster!?

 

We spent a good chunk of the evening re riding.

 

Unfortunately, California Screamin' closes early for World of Color, and doesn't re open for the rest of the day.

 

We ended up getting really good spots for World of Color.

 

It's so pretty.

 

After World of Color we headed over to Cars Land again to find Radiator Springs Racers down.

 

The neon lights in Radiator Springs looked awesome at night.

 

Mad T Party is the night life of Disneyland.

 

It's a giant rave.

 

Randomly thrown in is Muppet's. Add that to the list of things we didn't do because we have it in Florida.

 

Yea... Mad T Party was just weird.

 

Patrick was in need for a coffee fix. So we went over to Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe on Buena Vista Street to get him Star Bucks where we found these cool Hollywood Tower Hotel posters.

 

The Tip Top Club you say?

 

We left California Adventure and went to Downtown Disney to get on the Monorail.

 

Patrick and I in the super cool Mark VII monorail.

 

To promote Cars Land the monorails have been given a Cars look. We finished our night at Disneyland, where we rode Space Mountain again. As well as all the Fantasyland dark rides.

 

Next up, our last day full day in California

 

-Dainan "I'm still California Dreamin" Rafferty

This is what it looks like when Wawa opens a location in Orlando!

 

Yesterday (grand opening).

 

Tonight.

 

Yea, I went two days in a row

 

And it's right across the street from Sea World

Day 6, 6/30/12

Six Flags Magic Mountain

 

We left Anaheim fairly early and headed up north to Valencia

 

hmmm, this looks familiar. Wonder where I am...

 

Well hello Six Flags Magic Mountain, where it's only $15 to park!

 

Colossus from the parking lot.

 

It's a bit of a walk back to the park. There is a parking lot tram, but we decided to walk it.

 

We chose to come to Six Flags on a Saturday because this was the scheduled opening day of Lex Luther's Drop of Doom, and the re opening of Superman Escape from Krypton.

 

Unfortunately they placed these signs up while we were waiting to enter the park, and started spieling that Lex Luther wouldn't open for another week.

 

Which also meant that Superman Escape from Krypton would also be down. Starting to feel like a "Six Flags day" already.

 

Upon entering the park, we were greeted to live music.

 

One of these two will be our first coaster of the day.

 

Of course it would be the Schwarzkopf.

 

I was ridiculously excited to ride this coaster. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a thing for classic coasters, as well as Schwarzkopf. So it felt like a real honor to ride the Revolution.

 

We were a bit worried about the OTSR on the trains.

 

But it really wasn't that bad.

 

It was a really fun, smooth ride.

 

The only disappointment with the ride is that it's trimmed to death. I wasn't entirely surprised by this, but it was still a shame.

 

Next up, the parks Arrow Looper.

 

I was really impressed with the Magic Mountain crews. On almost all the rides, they were checking the trains quickly and dispatching on time with out any back ups.

 

Viper was just like any other Arrow coaster. Not smooth!

 

I really enjoyed Great American Scream Machine at Great Adventure growing up, and never found it that bad. Viper on the other hand, was rougher. I felt there were more rough/unnecessary transitions in the track.

 

You're not Scream Machine. You're not as good as Scream Machine. But you'll do for now.

 

There will be a lot of random shots I took while I was walking in this update.

 

Walking up the mountain, you get pretty close to Revolution.

 

Can I take you back to Florida with me pleeeeaaaasssseeee!?!?

 

Ninja didn't have a wait so we did it next.

 

Ninja is an Arrow Suspended coaster.

 

It was a decent ride. Not the best, but it was fun.

 

I enjoyed the was it coasts on the mountain side.

 

Sigh...

 

We rode Gold Rusher. This is the only shot I got. Yup....moving on.

 

Riddler's Revenge opened in 1998 and still holds the record for the tallest, fastest and longest stand up coasters.

 

I don't tend to care for Stand Up coasters, and they tend to be very uncomfortable. I was surprised to find this one really enjoyable.

 

Next up was Green Lantern: First Flight.

 

Luckily they had a single rider line, so we didn't have to wait long. Here I go on ride on Green Lantern.

 

There goes Jackie for her ride.

 

Green Lantern is an Intamin ZacSpin. The cars spin freely on the side of the track. We ended up hating it. It was not comfortable at all, and not that much fun. Luckily we didn't wait long with the single rider line. In fact, we got pretty lucky our day at Magic Mountain. The lines weren't that bad, and they offered single rider lines on a few coasters.

 

Never seen one of these before

 

Once you enter the covered queue, it is identical to Six Flags Great Adventure's queue.

 

Batman was it's forceful, usual self.

 

Curses!

 

Sigh.... moving on.

 

Oh hey there Goliath. Yea, we'll get to you later.

 

Maybe we'll be able to ride both sides

 

Just kidding, this is Six Flags on a Saturday in the summer! Why would we have both sides open?

 

Despite the Morgan trains, it was a really fun, air time filled ride. We did come back at night and rode it a few more times.

 

Oh hey there Parking Lot Medusa, didn't see you there.

 

Scream is literally in the parking lot.

 

No, really. It's a parking lot!

 

The ride seemed out of place. You can tell it was just a quick add to the park.

 

Enough of you.

 

Alright Goliath, we'll talk about you. Goliath was very...boring. The first drop was unimpressive. In fact, the only good part of the ride was the airtime hill.

 

Here's where the park's first log flume used to be.

 

All this land clearing being done. Hmmm, I wonder what type of coaster it'll be

 

We ate at Moose Burger for lunch.

 

It was a cute full service restaurant.

 

The moose sang....

 

Here's my Moose Burger. It was actually really good.

 

They even had up stairs seating.

 

Hey there Patrick and Jackie!

 

After lunch we went over to ride X2.

 

X2 is the first ever 4th Dimension coaster built by Arrow. The cars hang off the side of the track, and rotate along the rails.

 

In 2006, I rode Eejanaika at Fujikyu Highlands, so I was really excited to ride X2, because of the newer trains.

 

X2 was just as rough as Eejanaika was.

 

It's also not an easy ride to get photos of within the park.

 

Patrick hated it so much, that he only rode once. Later on Jackie convinced me to ride again. The first time I rode on an outside seat (as did Patrick). The second time I rode was on an inside seat. The difference was like night and day. It's a much more enjoyable ride on an inside seat.

 

After X2, we decided to ride Revolution a couple of more times.

 

Got to love those old trains.

 

Jackie was enjoying her rides on Revolution.

 

I was enjoyed our rides on Revolution.

 

And Patrick was enjoying our rides on Revolution.

 

It's such a beautiful ride.

 

Next up we did Tatsu.

 

Tatsu uses a duel station and runs three trains.

 

This is about the part of the ride where my life flashed before my eyes. I don't particularly like Pretzel Loops on Flying Coasters, so I wasn't looking forward to this part.

 

The ride is massive. The coaster itself, isn't the most thrilling. But it's location on top of a mountain makes it that much better.

 

Patrick, Jackie and I after our ride on Tatsu. This was really the biggest surprise of the day.

 

After Tatsu we went up the Sky Tower.

 

Viper

 

Apocalypse

 

Magic Mountain is in the middle of the desert. It was really hot the day we were there.

 

Looking down at Ninja, hiding in the trees.

 

Tatsu and Revolution

 

After the Sky Tower we decided to take the Orient Express down the mountain.

 

Hello Revolution

 

We looked around the gift shops and found some interesting stuff!

 

Excuse me Magic Mountain, just how tall is Goliath?

 

o rly?

 

Wohoo! GCI woodie!

 

Jackie's photo.

 

Apocalypse going up the lift.

 

It was a fun, fast, smooth ride filled with decent airtime.

 

Honestly, how can you complain about a GCI woodie?

 

After Apocalypse we cooled off on Jet Stream.

 

Another group shot. Me in the back, Patrick and Jackie. The boat was in the station, so this is legit

 

Yes, we did get the Canyon Blaster credit.

 

Oh yea, you can judge us.

 

As well as Road Runner Express

 

We bid adieu to Magic Mountain after spending 12 hours there. We were able to get on every coaster (that was opened) in the park. Even got some multiple rides on some. It really was a better day than any of us expected to have at Magic Mountain.

 

We'll end this day with a pretty picture of Colossus....ignore Goliath. It looks better that way .

 

Next up, first trip to Disney California Adventure.

 

-Dainan "One day was enough tho" Rafferty

Happy you're enjoying it Harry =)

Very nice. You sure got your monies worth when you came out here. Was last at Universal about two years ago (Live about 10-12 miles from it). The ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier is brand new. Had something to do with environmental/energy saving. How far up the coast did you drive? Did you walk over to Venice Beach? Did you go to Magic Mountain?

 

The trip was pretty much fantastic. We didn't walk over to Venice Beach tho. We didn't drive up the coast at all. The only time we were on the beach was that evening in Santa Monica and San Diego. We did go to Magic Mountain, that will be the next Trip Report

 

 

The Chinese Theater is cool but it is a shame about the creepy photo-op panhandlers hanging out there which is why I only stopped there the once. Up in Vancouver they wear suits which was quite an unbelievable sight.

 

Yea, we have those in NY too. They're more common now, I don't really remember seeing that many when I lived there.

Day 5, 6/29/12

Universal Studios Hollywood, exploring Hollywood and Santa Monica Pier

 

After driving through lovely LA traffic we made it to Universal Studios Hollywood.

 

Just like Universal Orlando, you have to walk through City Walk to get to the theme park.

 

Unlike Universal Orlando, it was mostly like a shopping mall. While City Walk in Orlando has dance clubs, restaurants and only a few shops.

 

Like comparing Disneyland to Magic Kingdom, the entrance to Universal is very similar to Florida's, yet so different.

 

Oh hey there free comp ticket! How are you today? Yea...free entry to Disney, Universal, Magic Mountain, SeaWorld and Knott's was pretty sweet.

 

The park was very different than Universal Orlando.

 

Patrick and I with Dr Frankenstein's Monster...yea, I got nothing.

 

We decided to do the Studio Tour first. Which turned out to be a great idea. Because when we left the park in the early afternoon, the line was over an hour and a half.

 

Oy, this is going to be a long ride.

 

It was nice to be on an actual studio tour.

 

The Studio Tour brings you through many movie sets. This set was used as Hill Valley in Back to the Future.

 

Into King Kong 360. It was really incredible.

 

Before

 

After

 

Earthquake

 

Don't you just hate it when you're in the train station and the ceiling opens up and a truck falls in?

 

Can't do this in Orlando.

 

Yea....we didn't get a good shot of the shark.

 

Were gonna try to get off at that old fishing dock, we'll unload one row at a time and, oh watch those high voltage bars!

 

Sigh....I miss the Jaws Ride

 

After we did the Studio Tour we headed down to the Lower Lot

 

The park is on the side of the mountain.

 

It's a long way down from the Upper Lot to the Lower Lot.

 

Our first ride of the day was the park's only coaster.

 

The queue was neat but not as well themed as Orlando's.

 

The coaster wasn't as good as Florida's. It wasn't a bad ride by any means, but not as good as the one here.

 

In the Lower Lot they had the NBC Universal Experience which was celebrating the 100 years of Universal.

 

Transformers is the newest addition to Universal Studios Hollywood.

 

The attraction uses the same technology as Spider Man at Islands of Adventure.

 

Personally, I wasn't the biggest fan of the ride. It wasn't the best story line to follow, and it was almost all screen, with very little dark ride portion. If your a Transformers fan, I'm sure you'd find it amazing. Personally, I was unimpressed. I think Spiderman at Islands of Adventure is way better.

 

Oh yea, and Bumble Bee walks around.

 

Time for alternate reality Jurassic Park.

 

It's basically the same exact thing as the one in Islands of Adventure.

 

Luckily it has a single rider line...as well did everything else.

 

There are some design differences between Universal Hollywood and IOA's Jurassic Park River Adventure. USH's has a lot more water effects that get you soaked, while IOA's only gets you slightly wet.

 

Jackie enjoyed her ride. Patrick...wasn't expecting to get so wet.

 

After Jurassic Park we went back up to the Upper Lot and took a stroll around the park.

 

This seems a bit out dated.

 

Doc Brown's, we must be by Back to the Future the Ride.

 

Oh it's just the Simpson's Ride.

 

Jackie and her favorite ride

 

The building and the entire area around it is ridiculously huge.

 

Simpson's Ride in California actually takes your on ride photo.

 

The view from the exit is slightly different than Orlando's.

 

On the way out we did the House of Horrors. It was a fun walk through. It was nice to have classic horror films in a haunt maze.

 

Good bye Universal. It was a fun morning, but it's time to actually sight see.

 

Our first stop was Grauman's Chinese Theater.

 

 

Um...yea...

 

.....O_o

 

We were in Hollywood shortly after Michael Jackson's death anniversary.

 

After walking around for a little bit, we set out to do our only real sight seeing thing. We found the house from American Horror Story.

 

After driving around, we made our way to Santa Monica.

 

Of course the only reason we came here was to ride the coaster.

 

Santa Monica West Coaster is a Moran steel roller coaster.

 

"I'm sorry. If you don't stand up straight, I can't measure you!"

 

The coaster's queue is on the edge of the pier.

 

After our ride on the West Coaster, we drove back to Anaheim.

 

We went to the Disneyland Hotel for a little bit to check out the Big Thunder Mountain model.

 

After we checked out the model, we walked around a little bit. But went back to our hotel and passed out.

 

Next stop, Six Flags Magic Mountain

 

-Dainan "My feet still hurt" Rafferty

Day 4, 6/28/12

Knott's Berry Farm, Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Hotel

 

Welcome to Diamond Bar, California. This is where Robbie lives who had some tickets for Knott's Berry Farm for us.

 

Robbie and I up early at IHOP across the street from Knott's.

 

Jackie and Patrick look awake.

 

Unfortunately Ghost Rider wasn't awake for us. Ghost Rider was scheduled to be down our entire trip, but it ended up opening early. But we didn't have enough time, or money to go back to Knott's just to get the one credit.

 

Welcome back to Knott's Berry Farm. Lucky for us there were camp groups EVERY WHERE and very poor operations.

 

Oh hey Peanut gang!

 

Because we didn't get on this the first night we were here, we decided to hit up Silver bullet first.

 

The park wasn't even open 5 minutes yet! This is what happens when you are only running ONE TRAIN!

 

As you can tell, we were thrilled! Hopefully this wont be a trend of the day or anything .

 

Silver Bullet was decent.

 

I enjoyed how it came close to it's surroundings.

 

The layout was decent. But overall not the most thrilling ride. We would have enjoyed it more if it didn't have such painful operations.

 

Lets get that bad taste out of our mouths and go ride something we like.

 

Train full of happy riders eagerly awaiting to launch.

 

I still can't get over how far back up the spike the train goes.

 

From Supreme Scream's queue you can get some good shots of Xcelerator.

 

Yup...

 

There you go...

 

Wild West Stunt Show? Why not!

 

The stadium was really cool. They had Conestoga Wagons that you can sit in.

 

Here we are in our luxurious Conestoga Wagon.

 

Unfortunately the show was quite terrible, and we decided to leave half way through.

 

Let's go on another coaster that only has one train running.

 

Sierra Sidewinder if a free spinning Mack coaster.

 

It's sort of like Skull Mountain at Great Adventure if it were outside and spun.

 

Jackie and Patrick ready for their ride.

 

We decided to get off our feet and take a ride on the Calico Railroad!

 

Oh no! Robbers tried to get us. Don't worry, they found out that we all work at theme parks, took pity on us, and gave us money instead

 

From the Calico Railroad you can get a back side view of the Boardwalk area. Here's Perilous Plunge

 

The top hat on Xcelerator.

 

After the Calico Railroad we went on Timber Mountain Log Ride.

 

It's one of the best log flumes out there.

 

We ate at Johnny Rocket's for lunch.

 

A look down the Boardwalk

 

Just like the real Boardwalk, you can get prizes at games that are blatant rip offs of near by attractions!

 

We went over to the Roaring 20s to see their Ice Skating show.

 

Happiness is Snoopy

 

The show was cute, not the best. But not the worst either.

 

We were fools and decided to ride Perilous Plunge. You can tell we rode it by our awkward wet spots on our clothing due to the OTSR.

 

Jackie was excited to go back on Xcelerator.

 

It seemed to be running better than it was the other day. The launch is great, and you get some great airtime going over the top hat. And then it's a boring figure 8. Not bad for a prototype tho.

 

We tried "Gaying up" our on ride photo. Thanks to Patrick being surprised by the launch, it didn't come out as we hoped.

 

Jackie wanted to bring this car back to Orlando with us. It would be perfect for Old Town in Kissimmee.

 

Official Xcelerator groupies

 

The creepy sun is the entrance to our next destination.

 

The gang on the Sky Cabin.

 

An overview of the Ghost Town section of the park.

 

Even with Supreme Scream's height. It's still an S&S Turbo Drop with pretty lame airtime.

 

Xcelerator

 

Perilous Plunge

 

Windseeker

 

Ugh

 

This is the part of the ride where you realize that packing that extra bottle of Tylenol was a good idea.

 

Um....yes please!

 

Calico Mine

 

The queue was like an alternate reality version of Big Thunder Mountain in Florida.

 

Here are the lovely mine cars we will be riding in.

 

Doesn't every one look so happy? =)

 

It's hard to get photos of the inside, but here's the Glory Hole!

 

After you get to the top, you go outside, and the plummet back to the bottom.

 

Pony Express is the parks Zamperla launching coaster.

 

Not the most thrilling ride, but it's cute.

 

We did Mystery Lodge. What happened in there was a mystery.

 

Boomerang! Get the hell out of here!

 

So photogenic, so evil.

 

Oh hey there Robbie.

 

We tried to take stalker photos of him.

 

But then he spotted us. Drats!

 

It was really neat to see that this park still has an actual stage coach.

 

Here it comes.

 

It's a little cramped in there.

 

One more coaster to ride.

 

It was a cute kiddie coaster.

 

We ended our visit to Knott's on Montezooma's Revenge.

 

She's just so beautiful.

 

After Knott's we went to In-N-Out Burger for dinner. If anyone is keeping track, this is our third time.

 

After our cheap meal at In-N-Out we headed over to Downtown Disney

 

 

Here's a place we don't have in Orlando.

 

I present to the world, the Jonas Brothers shrine....

 

Their Lego Store was very similar to ours.

 

Of course it was better tho.

 

Um....what?

 

um....

 

Trying to break open the Disney vault.

 

This is new.

 

 

The entrance to the Disneyland Hotel from Downtown Disney is Sorcerer Mickey's hat.

 

Better here than Disney's Hollywood Studios.

 

It's a Tiki Room / Jungle Cruise bar.

 

We went into the Convention Center building.

 

The hallways are lined with concept art.

 

I may have a bit of an obsession with Big Thunder Mountain.

 

All old Disneyland merchandise.

 

That's all for now.

 

-Dainan "Up next, exploring Hollywood" Rafferty