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California’s Great America – Trip Report June 2017

Sean: It was time to spend a full day at California’s Great America again, it has certainly been a while, so instead of writing a general park update, we combine park update aspects with a bit more of a trip report approach, telling you a bit about our excellent experience at the park!

– Over the years, many of our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that not everyone mentioned where they got the images from. We are totally fine with our audience using our images, BUT ONLY IF credit is given to californiacoasterkings.com. Thank you! –

Some other team members had already experienced Patriot a few times, but with my busy Southern California life this was my first time back at the park since Patriot had opened, of course I rode it first thing upon entering the park, and I was very pleasantly surprised! 

There are many different opinions out there regarding this ride, but after 20 or so rides in all different parts of the train, I can confidently state that this Floorless conversion was very clever, and though the ride remains small and quick, it’s a wonderful addition that didn’t cost the park any additional space. More on Patriot later! 

Next up: Flight Deck of course! (Well really I would’ve rather ridden Gold Striker upon arrival, but that didn’t open ’til later in the day!)

As usual Flight Deck offered a phenomenal, smooth, quick, snappy ride experience, and after a few months I almost forgot how amazing this Inverted Coaster by B&M is. We rode this 49ers-colored beast a bunch that day, as the park was dead empty. 

Another personal favorite is, and has always been Psycho Mouse, except the operations and dispatches never cease to disappoint me. 

Nonetheless with no trimming or stopping the first 6 turns, this is a wild Wild Mouse and I am still so in love with this Arrow coaster!

I am always curious what others think of Psycho Mouse! But I for one love it, and it’s located somewhat near a great set of flat rides that the park has.

After having ridden the Drop Tower at Carowinds a few weeks back, it was fun to be back at California’s Great America and ride the taller version. These Intamin drop rides just offer great intense experiences. Nonetheless, the Californian version desperately needs a repaint! Check out our Carowinds report here, as much of CGA’s future may be headed in a similar direction!

Next up: Demon! (Yes we’re skipping Grizzly because it is boring, runs one train and host a long line while everything else is a walk-on. Bye.).

This classic Arrow looper is still one of my favorite attractions at the park, it’s running a lot rougher than it has in past years, but it sure still delivers a classic thrill will small tight vertical loops. This year the park added a giant awning over the switchbacks of the ride’s queue. We’re seeing “Demon Re-Ignited” Logos out there, for this particular coaster, but we have not a single clue what that entails!  

As you may have heard, California’s Great America is adding a 110 ft tall coaster in 2018, which will be located where Invertigo once stood! The current garden, dubbed by fans as “Invertigarden”, is currently unmarked, but we should be seeing changes here soon. 

The space may look small, but with an exceptionally large set of midways passing by, they could easily expand the place to fit in a coaster of substantial size, some are even saying this may be a Chance Rides Hyper GT-X Coaster. 

Eventually our favorite coaster at the park opened, Gold Striker, which was hauling ass! The wooden super structure is starting to become a darker brown, and with the beautiful blue Patriot in the background it’s a nice new view from the exit of the ride. 

I am not a fan of Boomerang Bay, at all. So we decided to go inside again after a few years to admire the Stealth station, I am still so underwhelmed and disappointed with this water park. They need to either give it a huge refurbishment and relaunch it as Yankee Harbor, or they need to use the space better. 

See this staircase to the park’s main (and pretty much only) slide complex? 

It uses the old Stealth station!

It’s just hilarious to me how they tried repurposing this station to house the stairs and line to water slides.

Wonder what the station looks like? Exactly as you’d expect it to look like! They filled in the track gap with concrete, and you can still see where the seat-tilt mechanisms were located, as well as the air gates. It’s honestly a tad upsetting walking there now! 

Back to less upsetting things at the park: PATRIOT! With a line-up as intense as the park has, since Gold Striker, Flight Deck, and Demon are forceful and whip you around, a more-family friendly, smaller B&M Floorless experience is just perfect in my opinion. It is very re-rideable. 

In addition, the park had zero blue coasters, and I really think the smooth looking blue is a great color to be located near the red of Flight Deck. The simple repaint of these two coasters in the last 3 years have made the park look so much more welcoming and colorful. The park is in better shape than I ever remember seeing it. 

Of course we took their Eagle’s Flight/Delta Flyer across the park all day! 

And we couldn’t miss out on Logger’s Run, though I keep forgetting how soaked I get on this classic Arrow log flume. 

Another great reason to love the park is there old school flat rides such as the Schwarzkopf Calypso, Huss Breakdance, the HMB Endeavour, their Enterprise, etc! <3

FLIGHT DECK! 

Alright, let’s finish this report with a sunset Patriot shot! We’ll be back at the park soon to watch 2018 construction unfold, and we’ll also have several new California’s Great America reports coming!

Thank you for checking out this new California’s Great America report! We’ll soon launch some specials along with Coaster Con XL reports and SeaWorld and Six Flags Magic Mountain updates!

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2 Replies to “California’s Great America – Trip Report June 2017”

  1. Thank you for giving some love to there Von Roll Skyride. 1 of 11 left running in the USA. A very rare ride. Von Roll rides have a certain charm to them.

    Reply

  2. I’ve ridden way too many wIld mouse coasters in my time, but I still hold Psycho Mouse up there among the best: With minimal braking it really picks up some speed, and it’s pretty smooth compared to many other wild mice. Fun ride, great coaster!

    Reply

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