PTR: Dainan's California Adventure, 6/25/12 - 7/3/12

[CycloneMan]

My best friends Jackie, Patrick and I decided we needed to get out of Florida for a while and head out west, to what has become one of the best coaster trips any of us have had in a really long time. This trip was only planned a few months ago, and I can't believe we got all done.

 

9 days, 8 parks, 35 roller coaster, 3 best friends. ...and 5 trips to In-N-Out Burger!

 

Day 1, 6/25/12

Arriving in California and Knott's Berry Farm

 

Here's the gang of misfits on our way to Houston, Texas for our connecting flight to Orange County, California. Me, Jackie and Patrick.

 

And what if I do?

 

Its a statue of George Bush. Must be in Texas . Alright, enough of that. Let's get on the plane and head to California.

 

We arrived in California about noon, and were welcomed by this lovely poster at the airport.

 

Oh yes, don't forget this one too.

 

This was our rental car during our adventure. It wasn't supposed to be this nice, but they were out of smaller cars, so they upgraded us for free.

 

After driving around lost for what seemed like an eternity, we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch. Our first meal in California.

 

Everyone said we needed to try it, and they weren't wrong. It's cheap and good. And most important, cheap

 

Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away from Knott's Berry Farm, so it was the perfect way to start our vacation.

 

What I liked about Knott's, was it's Market Place. It's a small area with shops and restaurants, but it's not all corporate places with flashy signs and obnoxious lights everywhere. It was nice and small. Perfect for this park.

 

 

After half a day of traveling, we finally made it! =)

 

Our first coaster of the trip, Montezooma's Revenge.

 

Montezooma's Revenge is a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop.

 

After you go through the vertical loop forward and then backwards, you go through the station and back up the back spike. This was one of the most insane features of any coaster I've been on. Other Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loops are usually trimmed so you don't go all the way up the back spike. Montezooma on the other hand, flys up the spike like there's no tomorrow with a crazy amount of airtime. This right here, put Montezooma's Revenge in my Top 10.

 

Jackie and Patrick ready for Montezooma's Revenge

 

Next we went over to Jaguar. But...I don't have any pictures of the awesome temple or the coaster. So here's Jackie and Patrick in the train.

 

Alright, let's discuss Windseaker for a second. This was the only ride on the trip I was terrified of riding. But I did it, and let me just say this. It's a big nothing. Yes, I was still scared out of my mind, but once you get over the whole being 300ft in the air part, it's actually quite boring.

 

Mexican Hat Dance...the best themed Tea Cups ride EVER!

 

Knott's has a stage couch ride.

 

We didn't do it today.

 

S&S Turbo Drop.

 

Oh wow, guess which ride was down! It did end up re opening later, and we were the first train out. I'll discuss Xcelerator more later.

 

Boomerang ended up being the longest wait of the day. Only 15 minutes, but it was still too long for this type of ride. Got the credit, that was enough.

 

Riptide was a lot of fun. Not the most comfortable ride, but plenty of fun.

 

Calico Mine is a really neat, old school dark ride. You hop aboard a mine train that takes you through caverns, tunnels, bats and waterfalls. Hmmm....why does that sound familiar?

 

Knott's Berry Farm was interesting. Parts of it felt like your typical Cedar Fair park, while other sections, such as Ghost Town, were really well themed. The park is also beautiful at night.

 

There Ghost Town was a lot of fun to explore.

 

Does anyone know the significance of this?

 

 

We went to the bakery in Ghost Town to get some dinner. The food was fantastic.

 

Some old critters from Knott's Beary Tales can still be found in one of the gift shops in Ghost Town.

 

Unfortunately, during our two visits to Knott's Ghost Rider was down for rehab. It did re open early during our trip, but we didn't have the time, or money to go back to Knott's for a third time.

 

The last thing we did was Snoop's Starlight Spectacular.

 

Right after I took this picture of Jackie all of the lights turned off and the music stopped. Knott's doesn't joke about their closing times.

 

It was a great first evening to our trip. During this day we got an all the coasters except for Silver Bullet, Sierra Sidewinder and Timberline Twister. We really loved Knott's and couldn't wait to go back. Though it would be a few days before we returned.

 

-Dainan "Next stop, Disneyland" Rafferty

[truepolak90]

I was out in cali in the beginning of June! I loved knotts!!!! I have photos I still need to upload, but if you go to a cedar fair park and it's crowded fast pass was a great investment!! You just walk up all the exits, helped me get Everything done x3!! California is BEAUTIFULL!

[batmanrobinchiller]

I WANT MORE!

 

Hope you guys had fun! Can't wait to see your next adventure !

[truepolak90]

I'll be going back to Cali As soon as funds and vacation days permit me too. it was amazing, magic mountain is definately a must visit, along with Disney and knotts!

[Yankees99]

Sounds like you had a blast. I live about 25 minutes from Magic Mountain and about 45 from Knotts Berry Farm, so I know what you mean about In-N-Out. It's a staple out here.

 

Unless I missed it, did you guys go to Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant and have their fried chicken, country biscuits/gravy and boysenberry pie? It's the absolute best.

[CycloneMan]

We never did end up eating at Mrs Knott's. I really wanted to, but it was a bit pricey.

 

Day 2 PTR coming soon

[ThemeParkRider]

The one thing I enjoyed about Knott's is the unique selection of food. They had all kinds of jelly (and pickles I believe) just in the park!

[Yankees99]

Yes, they do have great foods. Have to get down there sometime this summer for some chicken. Knott's reminds me of what Great Adventure originally looked like from a rides standpoint. Haven't been there in in quite some time, but people I talk to who go there on a regular basis now say the ride variety remains top notch. Just glad you guys had fun down there.

[The Master]

Be sure to try Del Taco too. I go out to CA every Dec, wish I could live out there.

[CycloneMan]

Day 2, 6/26/12

Disneyland

 

We arrived in the Mickey and Friend's Parking Structure around 7am. We knew that Disneyland was a parking garage, but it was still weird to see it in person.

 

I think we'll remember where we parked.

 

Doing a happy dance with Mickey.

 

The parking structure was ridiculously huge!

 

We hopped off the tram and went straight into the esplanade.

 

A line was forming outside Disney's California Adventure because everyone wanted to go see Cars Land.

 

While not so many people were lined up at Disneyland.

 

We spent the entire day at Disneyland. We stayed from 8am to 12am in the park.

 

This was my 4th Magic Kingdom I have been to. Other than Magic Kingdom in Florida, I have already been to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, but I was really excited to finally be in the place it all started!

 

Walking into Main Street USA feels familiar enough.

 

City Hall is a bit different than Florida's.

 

Seriously tho, turning onto Main Street and not seeing the giant Cinderella Castle that we have in Florida was a bit unnerving. Yes, we knew we were at Disneyland, but seeing Sleeping Beauty's Castle in person was very special.

 

Patrick couldn't believe how small it was.

 

First stop is Tomorrowland. Star Tours is just like Florida's but with less capacity. Moving on.

 

Ah yes! There it is. The attraction I have been looking forward to the most, Captain EO.

 

Just kidding, it's totally Space Mountain.

 

When I was in Tokyo Disneyland, Space Mountain was down for refurb. So this was the first time I got to ride this type of Space Mountain.

 

Making our way into the building.

 

I personally felt the interior queue wasn't that impressive.

 

If I didn't know better, I'd say we were in Florida.

 

But then you enter their station. Oh my god, does it look impressive!

 

Riders loading into their rockets for an intergalactic race through the cosmos!

 

Personally, I like the Space Mountain coaster in Florida better than California. But the over all experience of California's Space Mountain is way better than Florida's.

 

This was disappointing to see. In Walt Disney World we call this Astro Orbiter and the Peoplemover. In Disneyland they call this....theming. The Peoplemover was removed years ago and replaced with Rocket Rods which ran a short unsuccessful life, and the Astro Orbiter is the Observatron. The Observatron spins to music. ...that's really it.

 

Time head back to Main Street for a Disneyland classic.

 

I enjoyed the show.

 

Main Street Cinema in Disneyland isn't a gift shop like it is in Walt Disney World now.

 

It's really nice to see Disneyland's Main Street untouched... unlike Walt Disney World's.

 

hmmm, Splash is down. Feels just like we're back home.

 

Yes, it's really small. But it's beautiful.

 

Time for our next ride, the newly re opened Matterhorn Bobsleds.

 

Matterhorn recently re opened with new bobsleds. The original bobsleds had two seats that could seat two riders. These new bobsleds have three seats that can sit one rider each. The seats are not at all comfortable, and made it a really rough experience.

 

The Matterhorn had a long line, but thankfully they have a single rider line. Patrick and I on our first ride on the Matterhorn.

 

Patrick after his first ride on the Matterhorn.

 

During the recent refurbishment, the re painted and put new snow on the entire mountain. It looks pretty fantastic!

 

Alright, now it's time to ride the other side of the Matterhorn. This time we all rode together.

 

Time for Mr Toad.

 

 

The detail in their Fantasyland is just so much better than Florida's.

 

If you're wondering why no one is in the queue or on the vehicles. It's because the ride went down and was evaced. But we did do it again later and got to ride the entire thing

 

Storybook Land Canal

 

Jackie and Patrick, look out!!!

 

It was a really cute ride.

 

Casey Jr coming down the tracks!

 

So here's a bit of a back story, out of everyone in our group, I'm the only one who despises this ride. I love Mary Blare and her art, and the Sherman Brothers. So you'd think I'd love it, but I actually despise it. But because it's a classic, I had to do it.

 

The building it beautiful.

 

I was pleasantly surprised. The Disneyland version of this ride, the original, was amazing. We were all in love with it.

 

Next up, Big Thunder Mountain.

 

The track layout is very similar to Florida's, except it's a mirror image, and there are some differences in layout between the first and second lift.

 

The queue is very different than all the other Big Thunder Mountains.

 

The other difference with this Big Thunder Mountain, is that the station is outside.

 

A personal fact that I'm sure no one cares about. After riding Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain, I have officially ridden every single Big Thunder Mountain in the world. In fact after this trip, I've ridden every Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, Snow White's Adventure and Peter Pan's Flight. Yea...I'm a nerd.

 

Jackie and I ready for our ride on Big Thunder Mountain/

 

We had lunch at the Golden Horseshoe. Which unlike Walt Disney World's, is open every day. And it has a show every day.

 

This is the last photo I took for the day. I ran out of battery, and Jackie was low, so the photos from this point will be scarce for this day. We did plan better the rest of the trip tho, so don't worry .

 

Jackie, Patrick and I with our tickets for our round trip and tour on the Lilly Belle. The Lilly Belle was Walt Disney's presidential car on the Disneyland Railroad. Unfortunately I don't have any photos from inside the Lilly Belle. But you can see some photos and information about it here.

 

Inside the Haunted Mansion's stretch room. It was weird because this was an actual elevator.

 

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is just like Walt Disney World's except for the first part of the attraction. You walk through the hallway of changing portraits and the library, which I thought was really cool.

 

hmmm, where does this lead?

 

She'll never tell.

 

Great, let's go in!

 

COME ON! LET US IN!

 

Just like home, we walked into Splash Mountain's queue and after 2 minutes, the ride went down.

 

Oh hey there! You were trying to get into Splash Mountain? Joke's on you!

 

We made our way to the other side of the park to do the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I had mix feelings about it.

 

Here's a young CycloneMan and twin brother outside 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea at Walt Disney World. I remember being in awe with this attraction as a kid, and through my teen and adult life. So when I planned my trip to Disneyland, I was really looking forward to doing the Submarine Voyage. Unfortunately, I was expecting more than I got. I knew the ride was Nemo, but I thought a lot of the original stuff would have been in the attraction. Instead of a giant squid, sea serpent and mermaids. I got The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends, but this time it wasn't in EPCOT.

 

Skip a head a few hours, and here we are in front of It's a Small World watching the Magic, Memories and You!

 

It was interesting to see it on something other than Cinderella's Castle.

 

But it was still fun. What we did do, that I don't have pictures of is Fantasmic. Fantasmic in Disneyland is on the River's of America and is so much better than Walt Disney World's. I had no desire to see Fantasmic in Disneyland, because I don't care for the one at WDW, but my friend from Disneyland who joined up with us, said we needed to see it. And he was not wrong.

 

We did end up riding Splash Mountain later in the night. From front to back, my friend Cody who lives in walking distance from Disneyland, his friend Mike, Patrick, Jackie and I. It was a very weird experience for Jackie, Patrick and I because it was so different, yet so similar to Florida's. The problem with Disneyland's Splash Mountain, is that it's a real log flume. So you go by all the show scenes so quickly, that the story doesn't really make sense.

 

We ended our night on Space Mountain

 

The mountain at night is stunning.

 

Our on ride photo from our last ride on Space Mountain.

 

We had an awesome time our first day at Disneyland. We did almost every single ride in the park in the 17 hours we were there.

 

Stay tuned for SeaWorld San Diego and Belmont Park next!

 

-Dainan "Wishes I was still at Disneyland" Rafferty

[The Master]

Back in the late 90s Disneyland did a halfassed refurbishment of their Tomorrowland, much like WDW's refurbishment of Imagination at the same time, both were failures. DL did build a new Astro Orbiter at ground level at the entrance to Tomorrowland but it really sticks out into Main Street and it's a copy of the Astro Orbiter in DL Paris. I rode DL's former People Mover back in the 90s and it was alot cruder and bumpy than WDW's version but it is a shame they ripped it out for the Rocket Rods disaster, it used to have a TRON segment. The WDW Space Mountain is alot more like the Matterhorn than DL's Space Mountain, and I agree it is a better coaster than the one in WDW. DL's Pirates is alot better than WDW's Cliff Notes version and DL's has much better AAs in it too. The WDW pirate AAs will seem pretty crude after riding the DL version.

 

Sounds like you are having a fun time there which is good.

Edited July 8, 2012 by The Master

[CycloneMan]

Day 3, 6/27/12

SeaWorld San Diego, Belmont Park and Mission Beach

 

We started the day with another stop at In-N-Out where we tried the fries Animal Styled. It's really worth trying.

 

We made it to SeaWorld San Diego around 2pm.

 

We did the Sky Tower first.

 

From the Sky Tower you can get a perfect view of Manta

 

View of Sesame Street Bay of Play and Journey to Atlantis in the background.

 

 

The newest attraction to Seaworld San Diego is Manta.

 

There is a small section of interior queue at Manta where you walk by sting ray tanks. This is the only part of this attraction that makes Manta similar to Seaworld Orlando's Manta.

 

The rest of the queue is outside and in the middle of the coaster.

 

Manta is a Mack Launched coaster.

 

It goes 43mph and only as high as 50 feet. But don't let that fool you, it was much more intense than we thought it would be.

 

Manta is Asian themed. Yup...that's my caption.

 

The pattern on the ceiling of the station was pretty neat.

 

Manta has unique restraints. The seats are high up in an open car, and the lap bars come from above.

 

The ride goes into a dark ride portion before it launches.

 

The coaster has two launches and stays close to the ground.

 

Like all new rides, Manta has it's technical issues. A little after we rode Manta it went down and didn't reopen during the remainder of our stay at SeaWorld.

 

Here's Blue Horizons. We have it in Orlando too....moving on.

 

Shipwreck Falls is the park's rapids ride.

 

 

We went over to Journey To Atlantis, but what do you know, it was down!

 

We'll check back later.

 

So we went over to Wild Arctic

 

We decided to skip the simulator because it's the same one as Orlando...and it's awful.

 

Unlike Orlando's Wild Arctic, their exhibits were outside.

 

Beluga Whale

 

Journey to Atlantis re opened while we were walking past it, so we hopped in line.

 

There weren't that many people ahead of us in line. From this spot, the queue looks really well themed.

 

But when you get closer to the station, you can tell that the queue is quite ghetto for SeaWorld standards.

 

The wait should have been no more than 10 minutes, but it took us 45 minutes to actually get on the ride. The dispatch times were absolutely terrible. They kept sending empty boats without spieling and the ride kept stopping.

 

The ride time for Journey to Atlantis is 5 minutes. It took us over 10 to get through it. The ride kept stopping, and when we got off the ride they were spieling technical difficulties. We never saw the ride run again. So we did have good timing.

 

Riptide Rescue is a fun little flat ride.

 

After Riptide Rescue we went over to the parks Sky Ride and found this rental wheel chair.

 

The Sky Ride has little Shamus on it.

 

The Sky Ride goes over Mission Bay from one side of the land to the other.

 

Me on the Sky Ride.

 

Jackie and Patrick on the Sky Ride.

 

At the exit of the Sky Ride we found this old drink cart.

 

Before leaving SeaWorld we watched Cirque de la Mer.

 

On the way out we walked through the gift shop and found this! If you don't get the reference, watch

! (Skip to 1:25)

 

After we left SeaWorld, we drove a mile down the road to Belmont Park at Mission Beach to ride the Giant Dipper.

 

This was what I was waiting for the entire day.

 

Jackie was pretty excited too.

 

It's not too expensive.

 

Unfortunately the Giant Dipper is blessed with California Morgan trains. They're not comfortable and they provide a usually rough ride.

 

Luckily the Giant Dipper has a really good tracking job so it wasn't really that rough.

 

The Giant Dipper is one of the last Prior and Church wooden coasters in existence. The coaster opened in 1925 and has had an interesting life, but we'll get back into that later.

 

After a couple of rides on the Giant Dipper, we took a break and went over to the beach.

 

This was my first time in the Pacific ocean.

 

We played around on the shore line and hung out playing music till it was night time.

 

Yea...we are nerds in many ways.

 

One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.

 

Hey look! I found kelp!

 

Now that it's night time, we went back over to the Giant Dipper to get one last ride.

 

After our last ride we went into the roller coaster museum.

 

This model is what the coaster looked like in 1976 before it closed.

 

Patrick enjoying the model.

 

Giant Dipper closed in 1976 forever. In the mid 1980's the "Save the Coast Committee" formed and began a restoration project on the Giant Dipper. The Giant Dipper reopened in 1990.

 

We say farewell to San Diego and the Giant Dipper and head back to Anaheim.

 

-Dainan "Next stop, Knott's Berry Farm" Rafferty

[CycloneMan]

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

[Yankees99]

Safe to say you guys got your monies worth when you came out here. You guys covered everything and did a great job capturing the environments and nuances of each venue.

[CycloneMan]

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

Edited July 20, 2012 by CycloneMan

[batmanrobinchiller]

I wish I was on that trip with you! ugh.

[Yankees99]

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 Master]

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.

[CycloneMan]

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.

[ThemeParkRider]

I remember the House of Horrors. That was pretty unique and I wish we had that in Florida!

[MarioSonic94]

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.

 

Just like Busch Gardens' Curse of DarKastle ride.

 

 

 

[The Master]

In Philly they have panhandler's that pretend to be deaf and mute and hand you their business cards for money, they hang out in the PHL airport's luggage pickup area. Still not as bad as the Pennywise clones in New Orleans.

 

Back to a more pleasant topic, it does look like USH's BTTF/Simpsons sim building is better designed than the one in FL, I always hate waiting on those hot ramps out in the full sun. Always heard that the Hollywood version of JP is the best version, any truth to that? I have been visting Disneyland for 10 years but never gone to USH, been to Knotts and SFMM though.

Edited July 17, 2012 by The Master

[CycloneMan]

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

Edited July 20, 2012 by CycloneMan

[The Master]

It sounds like you had a much better time there than I did when I was there back in Dec of 2002. It was on a Saturday but I didn't know until I got there that it was donate a toy for free admission day which meant it was super crowded. Also they were really slow dispatching all the rides that day, only running one train on all the coasters, both Riddler and Superman were broken down all day, and Skytower was closed. I waited 3 hours in line to ride X and this was 10 minutes after the park opened. I was surprised how much cleaner it was than GADV then.

[Yankees99]

Another great job with your photography. The Gold Rush is their Runaway Train, except Runaway Train is way better. A lot of people when they go to MM (Wally World, hahaha) don't realize it's the high desert and they aren't prepared to spend 10-plus hours there in the middle of the summer. I always found it to be the best time to go, i.e. shorter lines. With Riddler's, I went on it the day after it opened in 1998. While I enjoyed Magic Mountain, I don't think it even comes close to comparing with Great Adventure. I live about 25-30 minutes from Magic Mountain. I used to live three exits from it in the late 90s and got myself a season pass on the cheap. I could even see the top of the tower and Superman from my house at one time.