Traveling the Globe for the Best Coasters and Theme Parks
We’re returning with Disneyland Resort coverage! This past week at Disneyland Resort was another week filled construction and refurbishments! Many rides are down for refurbishments recently, marking a true off-season for Disney, and the park is getting ready for its huge 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration.
Continue reading “Disneyland Resort Update – February 22nd, 2015”
Though it’s off-season for Six Flags Magic Mountain, there’s not very much change from week to week, besides Twisted Colossus and Scream! of course! However, after several readers asked me for a quick update anyway, I went ahead and put one together. Note I was at Six Flags Magic Mountain on both Saturday (21st) and Sunday (22nd).
X2 is still missing the cover of the end third of the block/station. Additional X2 news; the operators seem to have this new way of getting the trains out faster. They put the restraints ready to lock as soon as the gates have opened, so that people can close their restraints as soon as they sit down. It leads to several complications, as unloading takes longer than any coaster, but overall, the trains are being dispatched much quicker! 
Apocalypse is still down to one train, not much progress has been made on the train in refurbishment, so I expect it to run train for a few more weeks. Created some crazy lines Sunday, where they even used the first set of switchbacks, which I haven’t seen filled in years! After all rough rides on it, I rode it in the rain Sunday, and had quite an amazing spin on it. Sadly the fire didn’t work. Knowing Apocalypse, this will be back soon. It’s rare for the fire effects to be turned off on Apocalypse. 
Batman: The Ride is also down to one train still. Pretty surprising knowing that the trains returned a while ago. Nonetheless, the Magic Mountain trains are the best after all. I had an incredibly fast, yet butter smooth ride on it this weekend. 
Ninja is still running two trains. This time I made sure to wait for the refurbished train. That has been refurbished in every way possible, after years of not being used. It was like experiencing Ninja in a new train, incredibly smooth. Though it’s definitely not that popular anymore, it’s still one of my favorites. I will ALWAYS smile when swinging around on Ninja. Always. 
Well, it sure is off-season in Bugs Bunny World and Whistlestop Park too. The train-ride in Whistlestop Park is closed for maintenance. And Speedy Gonzales Hot Rod Racers is missing the lead-car. 
I believe Road Runner was running on Saturday. Though Sunday it was closed. The trains were on the track, so we’ll see whether or not it will undergo a quick refurbishment this week or the next, or perhaps it was just closed for the day. 
I have seriously no clue what the bathroom hand-rails are for. (Bathroom in between Gold Rusher and Scrambler, across from The Riddler’s Revenge). Perhaps for busy summer days? Not to point out one sex in particular, but the hand-rails are on the side of the women’s restrooms, and I’ve seen crazy lines for the women’s bathrooms at Six Flags Magic Mountain before. 
The fence we touched on last week, is not a construction wall, rather a new wooden fence/wall for the Tidal Wave line. My guess is this ol’ Intamin water ride is sticking around for at least one more season! On a sort of related note, I’m always amazed to see about 10-15 Tidal Wave boats laying around the park (mostly in storage areas, or next to the ride), though the most boats I’ve seen on it is 3, and recent years only 2. I wonder what the reason was to get so many boats over the years. 
The Flashpass Sales Center has received a big Flash cut-out. Look’s pretty cool. 
Oh Look! It’s Scream!’s amazing repaint! 
WHAT?!? That High Five looks amazing. (Quick Tip; Ride Goliath, the view of the High Five is spectacular). 
For our full Twisted Colossus and Scream! Update from the same days, click here!
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comment your thoughts!
Yes we’re back at this awesome boardwalk park in sunny Santa Cruz! Lots of action has taken place since our last visit, including today’s massive Clam Chowder Cook-Off event, as well as the reopening of an entire section of the park. Without further adieu, let’s get started! Continue reading “Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Update – February 21st 2015”
It’s only been 5 days since our Backstage Tour of Twisted Colossus and Scream!, and already there’s more than enough to update on!
– Recently our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that no one 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! –
Let’s cut the action immediately! The amazing-looking, crazy TWISTED High Five element has been placed! 
It looks absolutely amazing, twisty, and action packed. I’m still flabbergasted how the old structure is supporting the insane amounts of steel used on top of the structure. 😀
Notice the new metal tops of the structure that have been placed. They will be the approach to the green double down, and the blue dive underneath it. 
It’s very low compared to the old Colossus, actually, the High Five element is only located a few feet above the original third turnaround!
All this track that’s laying around (AND YES, IT’S A LOT!), is to go up for the green double down and the blue dive/drop. 
Blue drop track… It will be insanely interesting to see the Top Gun go up! That will be a crazy sight!
It’s hard to get a good shot of the High Five from the side of the ride. But if you look good, and ignore the annoying sun glare (it was hazy out, combine that with the Cali sun, and your pictures look like this 🙁 )
Hidden behind Hurricane Harbor. 
It will sure look spectacular from Hurricane Harbor. Always loved seeing the old Colossus from HH, will be very exciting to see Twisted Colossus race by every couple of seconds! 
The parking lot, that used to be in the shadow of the old Colossus and faded Scream! Is starting to look like an exciting beginning of guests’ days! The bright colors of Scream and the spectacular maneuvers of world’s longest Hybrid Coaster really represent the future of the park very well. 
Look it’s Scream! 
Looking all fresh! The supports of the drop are currently being painted. 
Some of the loop’s supports have been painted now too. 
The Interlocking Corkscrews have been completely painted, both supports and track! Looking better than ever before! 
The drop after the MCBR and the entire helix have been painted. 
The Zero-G-Roll has also been painted entirely. 
Here’s a better look of the Zero-G-Roll and the Reversed Immelman/Dive that are almost completely repainted!
This was it for today. Enough change from Monday to conclude that construction and painting is progressing insanely rapidly! Exciting to see! The Screampunk District, with Scream! (or whatever it reopens as) and Twisted Colossus, is opening this Spring!
For our Twisted Colossus and Scream! Backstage Tour from earlier this week can be read here!
I was honored to be invited to my second backstage Twisted Colossus Tour! The tour included the Scream! repaint this time, so I’ll be writing about that too in this update!
– Recently our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that no one 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! –
Let’s start off with the Screampunk District in general!
In about two weeks the construction crews will start the complete demolition of this plaza, to place the new entrance plaza of the Screampunk District!
Magic Moments theater hasn’t been touched yet, but soon will also undergo its refurbishment. 
Twisted Wiches, the Gourmet Sandwich shop, is slowly starting to be refurbished. Notice the style they’re going with at the entrance of the building. 
They will replace all pavement in the area, they are not exactly sure what the new layout or colors will be. 
Finally, the awful looking Coca Cola vending machine collection has been removed!
This is right next to the entrance of Twisted Colossus, and near the new Twisted Whiches. The park is placing sets of small stairs in the hill-side. 
Let’s move to the Twisted Colossus station!
The bridge that will be Twisted Colossus’ exit is being refurbished with new fencing and flooring. Beneath, the actual track, has received the beams that will house the drive wheels. These wheels will accelerate the train to a speed needed to get through the TWISTED Pre-lift. 
The station track is connected on both sides. They yet have to modify the station platforms. The new trains and track are wider than the old. 
The control-panel booth has been taken out and the gap in the station is filled. The new panel will be on station level, located on this metal platform below. 
WHAT? That’s shiny Scream! We’ll get back to that later in this update. 
The unused side of the station is now covered up! 
Here’s the actual TC station where guests will board one of the 4 trains. They repainted the walls below the track white. 
Here’s the view of the brake-runs from the station. The transfer track has been placed as well. They’ve been working on that for months due to the fact that the new track is a lot larger and thus the transfer track couldn’t just be added to the old structure but had to be altered, which turned out to be very time consuming!
There’s lots of room next to the station, this wall is bordering Scream! Plaza, so hopefully one day the fence disappears, and we’ll find ourselves a flat ride. 😀
Looks a little messy, but there sure are lots of tiny details going into a monster hybrid coaster like this.
One of the many container-work-shops. 
Let’s throw in some exciting Twisted Colossus trains!
Wrapped…
UNWRAPPED! 
What?! It’s the famous lead car! And she’s a real beauty in person. The details on the train are incredible! 
The trains have seat-belts, and lap-bars with shin-guards. 
Some second row good-ness. 
The nerd back-side of the train! 
This is only the first of 4 trains, the other trains will each have a different color scheme, blue, green, and purple.
Let’s move on to some actual back-stage construction pics of the world’s longest Hybrid Coaster! Completed lift-hills and catwalks!
Here’s the trim-brake section before riders will enter the second (green) half of the ride. 
That transition from blue to green! 
Interesting looking structure in which two break-runs will be located. The green one on top, the blue trim-breaks on the bottom. 
In case of an evacuation from the blue-brake section or the green lift-hill, behind this panel a staircase will be installed. 
The empty Colossus Turnaround Colosseum… For those of you who were worried the blue trim-breaks indicated that the out-ward bank on the blue side would not be placed. Worry no longer, no such thing was ever mentioned, the blue outward-banked airtime hill will still be part of Twisted Colossus. 
I say… FLATRIDE! Really, they could fit some in here, it’d be spectacular with Twisted Colossus flying by. Sadly no such thing was mentioned… 😀
Rest in pieces block-brake section! Here’s the booth and staircase that were connected to the mid-course break-run on the Ol’ Colossus. 
The deepest point of the ride is located before the double-up. This dip is coated with asphalt. 
Rocky Mountain Construction is adding a lot of extra wood to the already existing structure to support the heavy track. The old track crossing through will not be demolished, but has become part of the supporting the structure. Wood is being placed all over it!
See, this is a sign of the construction moving along at a great pace, track everywhere! 
And then… like Twisted Colossus wasn’t looking pretty enough yet, here’s two absolutely stunning drops. These will be filled with ejector-time! 
Look at those little floater hills! 
The new, white, structure seen here is the structure for the green double-down, and the blue dive underneath it. 
What?!? I’m in the middle of the two drops! Notice that the old track on the left will not be demolished. It will be part of the supporting structure. 
Artsy air-time hill shot! 
Beyond these hills… lays the magical twisted High Five element!
Oh, there it is! 
They were placing the High Five element as we were taking the tour! Very exciting!
Let’s move on to Scream!
The park is taking the trains off the track to start the overhaul of the trains. Oh, and see the parking lot underneath… Yes, we learned that sadly that will stay the way it is. Scream! will remain to be the parking lot coaster it has always been. 
Wood of Twisted Colossus meets paint of Scream!… 
All of Scream! is being painted by hand! The primer for the supports is peach, and the actual coat of paint is bright orange, as Sue from Six Flags Magic Mountain said, it really pops. It does, I was a bit conflicted with the colors at first, but now I got to walk around the ride, it really does pop. It looks great! 
Busy painting! 
After the primer, the bright orange is added, and then it looks like this, amazing!
The helix on Scream! has completely been painted. 
There are two trains still on the storage tracks. The track on top of the Zero-G-Roll behind it has been painted as well!
The painted track on the loop!
Let’send with this shot of Scream!’s interlocking Corkscrews! Looking awesome with the new paint!
Thank you so much for checking out this rather long report of our second backstage tour of Twisted Colossus! For more details on the new Screampunk District, and to see the amazing progress made, check out our first backstage tour report here!
I collected some 300 pictures, many of which will be posted on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram soon, so make sure to follow us everywhere! Comment your thoughts, and let’s get TWISTED!
Today’s Valentine’s Day, and a gift from California Coaster Kings to you… A Twisted Colossus and Scream! Update! Construction and make-overs continuing rapidly!
– Recently our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that no one 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! –
I’m going to start off with Twisted Colossus. Regarding the brake-runs, nothing has really been changed since last week. 
Mostly the entire old block-brake structure has been removed. 
The structure for the double down is being placed. In the background you can see the approach to the high-five element being completed on both sides. (The green track in the below the structure will be going up the High Five next). 
There’s a lot of track and wood ready to be placed. 
And then here’s the beautiful moment at which they’re placing the actual High Five. All track preceding the High Five has been placed. And as I was taking pictures, the metal beams, for the 90′ degree banks in the middle of the element, were being placed. 
Notice the amounts of blue and green track! Ready to go up very soon! 
Here’s the crane that’s placing the High Five beams and track onto the structure. 
As a transition from Twisted Colossus to Scream!, here’s the new advertisement for the Screampunk District and Twisted Colossus, it’s on the construction walls over at the entrance to the area! 
Definitely seems as if Magic Mountain is really aiming for that Spring opening!
Oh look! That’s Scream! over there! Let’s move on to the Scream! repaint.
The painting crews were busy painting Scream again. 
A lot of track has been repainted already. I would say about 80%. Including the interlocking corkscrews of course!
Most of the lift’s track, the drop’s track and the loop’s track have been repainted already.
Wow… What’s that? That’s orange supports! 
The orange is way lighter than I initially thought I saw for the helix. Maybe they’re going over it again? Maybe it’s more Steam-punk-esque this way…
Now I think about it, I kind of like both colors of the supports. But I guess I’m going with the new fresh, bright, orange! 😀
The drop, as I mentioned before has been repainted as well. The track that is.
Look at that loop, all shiny repainted in blue!
An overall shot of the Scream! repaint on the side where no orange is to be seen. The brake run, parts of the Zero-G-Roll, the valley between the drop and the Reversed Immelman/Dive, and the entire Cobra Roll are left to be repainted. Track wise. 
That was it for today! We’ll be back VERY SOON, for more progress, from some awesome new angles. Thanks for checking out this update! Please click here to read our wonderful Six Flags Magic Mountain Update from today to see what else is going on at the park.
It’s Valentine’s day and many couples, families, and groups of friends decided to visit Six Flags Magic Mountain today! Though the overflow lot wasn’t used, the three parking lots were definitely full! Here’s the update!
Speaking of a parking lot, the parking lot all the way in the front of the lot that was receiving new asphalt last week, has reopened ad the park’s new Handicap parking!
Finally the park is continuing Swashbuckler work. 
All Holiday in the Park Rockin’ Universe lights have been removed. All buildings are returning to their DC Universe state. 
While in DC Universe, Batman The Ride is still running one train. So lines for Batman were ridiculous today. 
At least Apocalypse had a sign out today stating it was only running one train. One of the trains is dismantled for a refurb on the side of the ride. 
Valentine’s day means lots of first-timers, because even Green Lantern received some love from guests. Long line! 
There’s a new promotion kiosk in front of Gold Rusher.
And I have a feeling the changed the signs to ‘Capitol Thrill Family Giveaways’ to appeal more to the thrill-seeking audience at Six Flags Magic Mountain. 
So there’s still the clear rumor that Tidal Wave is leaving the park, which would be a shame for a park located in a dessert with insane heat, and only 2 water rides left. (If Tidal Wave were to close). There was a construction crew building a wall around the side of the ride next to the game section of Colossus County Fair. 
Valentine’s Day… LOVE FOR VIPER! The line was all the way down the ramp, and the switchbacks inside were in use! The park was dispatching train after train!
The Road Runner Express repaint has been completed. It looks great shining in the sun!
Let’s end this update with some Flashpass line love! This was the enormous line at 1:30PM! 
Thanks for checking out this Six Flags Magic Mountain update, our Twisted Colossus and Scream! Update is LIVE too! Click here to check it out! It’s one of those can’t miss updates! Click here for yesterday’s HUGE Universal Studios Hollywood update!
Universal Studios Hollywood is ever changing, and here’s the start of our more frequent coverage. This update includes the celebration of the Chinese year of the Ram, Springfield construction, Studio Tour work, Wizarding World of Harry Potter construction, and other things around the park!
Springfield is coming along very nicely, and parts of it will start to open up late March. 
Springfield will have a wide selection of food options, recreated from the popular Simpsons series. The version found in the Orlando resort was a huge hit with guests, convincing enough to use the -already limited- space at the Hollywood park to recreate Springfield. 
The old Ben & Jerry’s next to the Special Effects stage is under reconstruction to meet the Springfield needs. 
Look at that Springfield Skyline, in a couple of months that’ll be in the shadow of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
Shrek 4D has reopened after the Wizarding World of Harry Potter buildings next to it were finalized. The line now maneuvers under the WWoHP scenery, to an all new switchback line (similar to Studio Tour line) on the back side of the 4D theater. 
But the Wizarding World buildings sure look spectacular alright!
The construction is moving rapidly, there are workers seriously everywhere you look along the Wizarding World lot. 
Shrek line! I meant… Wizarding World…
The huge ride building is enclosed, receiving AC vents. Lots of work going on inside!
And then just to imagine how massive Wizarding World will be for Universal Studios Hollywood!
Lots of progress on the castle. 
Happy Lunar New Year! Today was the first day of Universal’s celebration of the year of the Ram.
All of Universal Plaza was beautifully decorated with lanterns and flowers. 
With an amazing center piece!
All chines horoscopes were presented on different lampposts around the plaza. 
Even the selling of snacks was done in style! 
Beautiful decorations. I found it really unique. Looked wonderful!
There was almost no one as I entered the plaza, at about noon. Later, when I left the plaza, it was definitely a lot busier. 
Curious George, in style! 
Even though there weren’t many people out on the plaza, as soon Mandarin speaking Megatron came out, people came running from everywhere. Quite funny, there were many Asian tourist tours at the park today, and as soon as Megatron came out, many of them were surprised to hear Mandarin, and came over. Very exciting to see. And indeed, this ‘event’ speaks to a large Universal audience. 
Some interesting Jurassic Park River Adventure details. The first animatronic Dino from the second scene of the ride works again, and better than the last couple of months. The tall animatronic Dino in the first scene has been fixed, its ‘skin’ ripped, and looked horrible. this has been replaced. The car scene is still not functioning, at least the audio that was going with it has been turned off. The last times the audio of a sliding car was on, but the car itself didn’t move an inch. And then I figured something really cool/interesting… Jurassic Park isn’t only home to Dinosaurs, but also to MICE! I was taking shots of the splashdown from this angle, at the ride’s building, when I noticed mice running out of the drop tunnel onto the rocks, some disappeared inside the tunnel again, and I decided to keep watching one of them, that after a certain splashdown got wet, and returned inside the tunnel, in a hole in the wall. I find it hilarious that actual tiny mice live in a ride that is to portray a world of gigantic creatures. How’s that for irony!
The Studio Tour’s new entrance! Looking very nice! 
The exit and entrance are divided by a huge set of planters, on the other side of the entrance plaza appropriate stylish lights have been added!
On board Studio Tour. The Psycho mansion is being reconstructed and receiving some love!
That was it for today! Thanks for reading, we will be posting Universal Studios Hollywood updates more frequently, as our coverage has expanded here as well!
Woohoo! A lot of change on Twisted Colossus and Scream! already! I separated the Six Flags Magic Mountain update and this update, since this one will be a lot bigger. At the end of this update, you’ll find the link to the actual SFMM Update from the same day. (Please note that it had rained all day before I arrived, and it was incredibly cloudy and even foggy later on, I took the pictures to my best ability and settings on the camera, but they may be a bit grayish).
I’ll be starting off with all the Twisted Colossus changes.
They’re still working with the drop track, seriously whenever I’m at the park they’re working on the drops. The structure under the lift-hill used to have track cross through to approach the old break-run. Currently that gap is being filled with more supporting structures, which they’re building over and through the old track. 
It was challenging to get a picture of the beginning of the High Five element, I even rode the little train in Whistlestop Park to see if I could get a better shot. But nope… So try look for it… 😀 There’s a lot of blue track stored next to the structure. I’m expecting that to be placed this upcoming week.
Notice the weird looking structure in between the two larger mass structures? That’s the new structure that they were putting together last week. 
The entire track preceding the actual High Five has been placed. Including the tiny drops after the hills. 
On the other side of the ride, more of the original structure has been taken away. The footers and dip in the ground below (where the original triple jump was located) is now coated with asphalt. 
Exciting, and not exciting, news… The brake-runs have been placed. 
The green track above is the final brake run. Which is still missing catwalks on the top brake. But the brake that leads back to the station has catwalks already. Now note what’s up with the blue track below…
Yup, that’s a brake-run too! The videos and materials the park provided show a curved turn that leads right into the second lift-hill. Which, when you think about it, would not really allow for the trains to line-up, and would put a lot of force on the lift-hill structure. Since it’ll have a lot of speed approaching the second lift. So indeed, there’s a brake run before the second lift. With catwalks already placed. 
The Twisted Colossus trains arrived yesterday, were stored at the Colossus entrance this morning, and at night they were relocated somewhere else again. I’m not sure where they are now. 
One last look at Twisted Colossus, they’re working on the structure EVERYWHERE! 
Let’s move on to Scream! or whatever it’ll be called when it reopens! (Yes, the name will change, it’s still unknown to me what the name will be). The new park maps should reveal the name!
The first part of the drop has been painted all blue. 
More of the Dive Loop/ Reversed Immelman has been painted all blue. 
More of the Zero-G-Roll has also been painted all blue. 
Here are some good shots of what the painted supports look like. Only the supports in the helix have been painted so far. And from that helix-track, only 1/4th has been painted all blue yet. 
PARKING LOT! Hopefully they’ll cover that up, finally. 
Let’s get to the corkscrews! It’s like we’re looking at Bizarro! 
I honestly kind of like the look of it with the purple supports, but it sure will look even better with the freshly repainted orange supports!
Notice that the second corkscrew is yet to be repainted. 
A couple more shots of the repaint. 
That was it for this week, lots of change, some surprises for people that didn’t expect the extra break-run on Twisted Colossus! Thanks for reading this update! Make sure to check out the Six Flags Magic Mountain Update of the same day, by clicking here. Which includes more repaints, X2 station work, reopening of Wonder Woman and more!
Leave a comment!
We were at Six Flags Magic Mountain again today. There’s lots of Twisted Colossus and Scream! stuff going on, which we’ll publish is a couple of hours from now, to get the coverage started, here’s an update with some regular things around the park. Please note that the weather was horrible in the morning, and cloudy and misty the rest of the day, thus the pictures may look a bit grayish.
With the new LEDs installed in the fountain, it seems as if the park’s keeping the fountain this way, which looks awesome at night too! 
Part of Lot 1 is being resurfaced.
In Goliath’s line the fence that was totally ripped apart over the years has been replaced. 
Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth has reopened after a couple of months. Next up: Swashbuckler, hopefully.
While everyone’s dying and hyping over the Scream! repaint that just started, the Road Runner Express repaint is almost completed!
Only the lift-hill and the first drop are left to be repainted! 
Apocalypse had me on edge today. First off, the usual ‘we run only 1 train for your future enjoyment’-sign wasn’t there. Additionally there was no wait time listed. They sent me in the line, and I found myself waiting in the switchbacks, and no trains came by. It already looked like a one-train operation. So after 5 more minutes of waiting, I was able to find an employee to ask, which then told me they were indeed only running one train. People (on a deserted day) waited in a long line without any info on how many trains were operating, or what the wait time was… 
Besides that, which just bothered me a bit because it was cold and drizzling :P, there are multiple spots on the ride where Apocalypse is being retracked. 
After a couple of years, the station covers in the back of the X2 station are being replaced one by one. The first one, all the way in the back, is taken out now. 
This was a little pre-Twisted Colossus Update. Which is LIVE now! Click here for the many Twisted Colossus surprises, and the Scream! repaint goodness!
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a seaside amusement park in Santa Cruz that opened in 1907, making it one of the oldest and most classic parks out there. The Boardwalk is a little different from most theme parks as rather than paying to enter, you enter and exit the park at will. To ride, you either purchase individual tickets, or an all-day ride pass. We are really excited to be covering this park now!
As it is the off season, the official park hours are 12PM to 5PM, although the rides actually remain open almost until 6PM. Some rides and attractions are also closed for off season work and maintenance. To compensate for this, the park offers a discounted all day ride pass. The discounted all day pass is only $23.95 for unlimited rides.
Fireball is closed, unfortunately. We actually quite like that ride, more so than its sibling at California’s Great America, Delirium.
Sky Glider is also closed.
It would look as if Fireball and Sky Glider were the only closed attraction, until you walk down to the southernmost end of the park. The entire section is closed and being extensively refurbished. This includes many rides such as Riptide, Logger’s Revenge, Cave Train, Tornado, and others.
Many restaurants in the area are closed as well.
An arcade in that section is being completely redone.
It appears as if they are painting large pieces of wood white, maybe for The Giant Dipper.
The Ferris wheel has many of its cars off the structure, presumably being refurbished.
We really hope that Cave Train is receiving some work. It has potential to be a good dark ride, but has really fallen into a state of disrepair recently.
Working your way back to the center of the park, everything else is open. Everyone’s favorite ride, the Giant Dipper is open but only running one train.
For a 90 plus year old ride, it is very smooth with some crazy laterals, great airtime, and awesome head chopper effects. Expect a full ride review on it in the near future, because we love this classic!
Undertow is also open. It is running four out of its six trains, each holding four people. 
We really enjoy this coaster as well, and it’s certainly better than its predecessor Hurricane. A great ride for those of all ages. Expect a review for it in the even nearer future!
Double Shot is also open. This is actually a custom model which is 125 feet tall as opposed to the standard 85 feet, making for a slightly more intense ride with slightly more airtime.
Pirate Ship is also open. This one doesn’t quite tilt as high as the same style attraction at Pacific park. It is more synonymous with Six Flags Magic Mountain’s attraction.
The Auther and Looff Carousel is also operating. Now if anything was ever a classic, it’s this carousel. There is a mechanism that dispenses rings with which you attempt to throw said rings into a clowns mouth. It is actually really fun and adds that much more to a very family friendly ride. Built in 1911, it is one of the oldest carousels in the world.
It even has its logo imprinted in the ground outside of it.
The Haunted Castle dark ride is running as well. Although it’s not excessively scary, it’s a cool thing to have as yearlong attraction, and some of the sets look half decent. It is a very impressive attraction for a boardwalk park.
With all of these attractions, you almost forget about the beautiful stretch of California Coast Line right in front of you. It is very popular in the summer and actually features quite a few concerts.
That is mostly it for this update. Expect more coverage from this awesome park in the future as well as some of the ride reviews mentioned above. Make sure to leave a comment about your thoughts on this park below!
Also, click here to check out the Twisted Colossus Update from the same day, including information and pictures of Scream!’s repaint!
The Twisted Colossus construction crew has picked up the pace again! There’s a lot of work being done on different parts of the future ride.
They’re placing more track that leads to the High Five element. As I was taking pictures many pieces of track were located right next to the High Five structure, and cranes were working with the pieces, which likely indicates a lot more track will be placed here soon.
On the other side of the High Five structure, metal connector-pieces have been placed, in addition on the ground next to it metal beams are stored. I expect the placement of these beams to start soon, after which we can see even more track placement. 
Speaking of stored track pieces, there are a lot of green track pieces located near the old second turn-around. They seem to be straight pieces or non-banked turns, which indicates that we’ll likely see the construction of the break section soon. 
Taking a look at the old camel-back/ block section, they seem to be taking out almost all of the structure. Which seems pretty obvious to me, as the Top Gun element is likely going to need a whole lot more structure changes than some of the other parts of Twisted Colossus. 
But, they’re already busy putting together new parts of the wooden structure. 
Let’s move on to Scream! Where they’re power cleaning the supports. It’s slightly hard to see below, but the supports and track are being cleaned for the repaint it will soon receive!
Perhaps some of the most exciting news… The Twisted Colossus photo-op now states that Twisted Colossus will open in Spring… they changed from Summer plans to Spring plans, something I haven’t see Six Flags Magic Mountain do in a very long time! 
That was about it for today! Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out last week’s update with even more Twisted Colossus construction details, by clicking here!
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After putting on a great Holiday in The Park event, there was a lot of work to be done for Discovery Kingdom to return to it’s normal form. Fortunately, the park has been working hard to accomplish this, and is doing a good job.
Most major decorations have been put away, including a complete re-transformation of Candy Cane Lane, Christmas Tree Forest, and Toy land.
Some of the old Christmas trees from Christmas Tree Forest are now in the habitat to increase behavioral enrichment. Very cool of the park to reuse old props in a positive way.
The sledding area behind Toyota stadium has been blocked off to let the snow melt. Strangely, there is still a lot of snow there many weeks later!
The rest of the area behind Toyota Stadium still has all of it’s lights hung up.
Leftover lights seem to be the only things left from the event.
Many of the bushes and trees throughout the park are still covered in lights. For some reason, many of them are still left on at night. Not quite sure why the park does that. The same counts for Six Flags Magic Mountain’s tree-lights at the front of the park!
There are advertisements around the park for the year round operating season, and Dare Devil Chaos ( Not a) Coaster. Dare Devil Chaos Coaster is now listed to be opened this summer, rather than the spring. Interesting, many state fairs can set these attractions up in a few days.
Aside from some old lights, you really wouldn’t know they even had a Holiday in The Park event this year. The really have cleaned up almost everything. Moving along, let’s see what’s going on in the park aside from that.
The most obvious thing, Superman: Ultimate Flight is closed for annual maintenance. What frustrates us, is that when we stopped by in the morning, an employee was telling a guest it would open later that day, despite the fact it won’t reopen for a month or so. The employee was clearly uninformed, and thus falsely informed guests about the park’s star attraction. C’mon this is something that all the staff should’ve been aware of! 
Kong was only running one train, and looking as photogenic as ever.
Roar is continuing it’s two train operations. Unfortunately, the recent re-tracking it had is starting to become less and less apparent. Hopefully they can do some work on it soon. Let Six Flags send some money to Cali for it’s CGIs, both Apocalypse and Roar could use some serious love! ;D
We didn’t grab a picture of it because loose articles are not allowed in the station, but one of Roar’s trains is getting very beat up and could use a refurbishment. The restraints have rather large chunks just missing. We hope to soon see the new generation CGI restraints being added to the Roar trains, like one of Apocalypse’s (SFMM) rows already has.
Speaking of refurbishing trains, Medusa’s third train seems to be getting worked on extensively while the other two are running. Many parts of the train have been removed, including some restraints.
Also, something neat to point out, B&M’s storage track is pretty unique. The up-stop, side friction, and running wheels stay completely off the track while in the transfer track, extended the lifetime of the wheels due to lack of stress. The train instead rests on a different set of wheels used exclusively for the transfer track.
The Butterfly Exhibit was closed.
Moving to the back half of the park, Boomerang and Ark have both reopened, after receiving some maintenance.
Tazmanian Devil however, remains closed, along with White Water Safari.
The Tiger Cubs the park recently received are no longer in the nursery, they are now featured in the show at Odin’s Temple. To read more about them, click here.
Speaking of shows, there are a decent number of shows running throughout January. Though in the summer season there are at least twice as many shows, and 3 more stadiums that are in full use then. 
We stopped by Drench! and were happy to see such a high-quality show running in the off season. Despite the low attendance to the park, the stadium was almost full due to it’s popularity!
At this point we just have accepted the fact that Tsunami Soaker will stay
open no matter what time of year, and it was not warm out there. 😀
Monsoon Falls was open for a good period of time, but ended up closing at
about three o’clock.
Sea Lion Stadium has been closed for some time and is undergoing some
serious construction. We’ll have news of the future plans for the stadium and its show, soon! Looking at the construction, it seems as if they’re creating a new decor for a future show!
If you look closely, one of the Vans on the construction site featured the
Lynco Associates logo. For those who are not aware, Lynco Associates does
work generally involving concrete and has worked with Discovery Kingdom in
the past. We can then expect Sea Lion Stadium to reopen with new concrete
work done as well. 
Loony Tunes ACME Fun Factory is closed for annual maintenance.
It actually looks like they are using it to store Holiday in The park
Decorations.
That’s about it for this update. The park is generally empty in January so
we encourage you stop by. They are also running Pink For The Cure, these
next five weeks. If you’d like to read about that click here. Otherwise,
here’s the Six Flags Magic Mountain Update from the same day!
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom turns PINK for the Cure in a partnership with Susan G. Komen Sacramento Valley from January 17 through February 16. At the heart of this first time awareness event is a special pink ticket that can be purchased online. A portion of each ticket will be donated to Komen Sacramento Valley to support local breast cancer research and education programs, and to subsidize mammography screenings for members of the community unable to afford the test.
“This is a very important cause and by purchasing a ticket and visiting the park, our guests are supporting Komen’s efforts to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease,” said Don McCoy, park president. “We’re honored to partner with them to increase awareness to the importance of breast cancer screening and early detection.”
On Saturday, January 17, representatives from the Komen Sacramento Valley affiliate were on hand to kick-off the five-week partnership. Special guests that day include 25 African American breast cancer survivors who will take a symbolic ride on the park’s roller-coaster, Cobra. We made it to the park for an update that day, so we included the coverage in this post.
“The rollercoaster ride is symbolic of the ups and downs, both emotionally and physically, that these survivors have experienced in their battle with breast cancer,” said Kelly MacMillan, executive director of Komen Sacramento Valley. “And of course, riding a fun coaster is a great testament to how far these women have come.”
Guests visiting the park throughout the five weeks can participate in special pink activities and learn more about current initiatives of Komen Sacramento Valley, including Komen’s Circle of Promise initiative, addressing the disparities in breast healthcare among African American women who are rarely or never screened for reasons related to insurance or income. The Circle of Promise initiative was developed to empower local African American women to access breast health care. Participants register and make a promise to take care of themselves and become an ambassador within their community.
On Saturday, February 14, Valentine’s Day, the park will hold a special Circle of Promise event to bring African American breast cancer patients and survivors together from throughout the community. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer death among African American women, exceeded by lung cancer.
In addition to the special PINK ticket, $5 from the sale of every commemorative pink t-shirt will go to Komen Sacramento. The park’s popular dolphin swim program, Dolphin Discovery, has a special pink swim opportunity with a portion of the swim program fee benefiting Komen.
While entering the park guests will see promotional signs stating the
nature of the event.
Many of these pink bows can be found throughout the entrance area, and park.
The fountain in the entrance plaza, is now flowing with pink water in honor
of the event.
The stage in the entrance plaza is now all Pinked up for the event. It
looks great.
Many employees wear For the Cure shirts adding to the extent of the event.
We’re very glad that Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is the second park to partner with the Susan G. Komen Foundation! Make sure to buy your pink tickets!
The pink ticket is available to purchase online here!
There wasn’t enough noticeable change this week to bring a separate Twisted Colossus Update, and there wasn’t that insanely much Six Flags Magic Mountain news either, thus I combined the two for a regular-sized update.
The huge Holiday in the Park wreath has been taken down. And so have all other wreaths in the park. There were quite a few, since almost every single lamp post had one attached to it!
The most heavily themed area during Holiday in the Park has been cleared from almost all its decorations. 
This is where the ‘ice-sculptures’ used to be. Not all the decorative snow has been cleared yet. Seems like a pain to clean up. 
Santa’s workshop is gone. They yet have to place back the fencing that surrounded the Katy’s Kettle area. 
Most buildings are snow-free now. Except for the Cyber Cafe and Katy’s Kettle. 
The tree of heroes is gone, and some new plants have been planted. Expect flowers in within the next couple of weeks. 
I just notice how much this bill board bothers me… I wouldn’t mind seeing this one leave before any other of the many ads. 
After Xtreme Zone received a new/refurbished sign on the other side of the building, it seems as if the larger sign is currently being refurbished. 
Can’t wait for Ninja to return to 2 trains… I’d also like it’s station to receive a repaint of some sort with new lights. It looks a little disgusting by now. 
I took this picture some time last week and forgot to put in the update, but I’m very curious why the promotion booth at Six Flags Plaza has a picture of the Boomerang at Wiener Prater on it, with the Six Flags logo… Six Flags has a whole bunch of coasters, and a couple of boomerangs as well… So how come there’s not a Six Flags coaster in the picture? 😀
I hope that after Scream! received it’s make-over and repaint Tatsu is up next for a repaint. 
A few weeks after I purchased my 2015 Dining Pass, I stumble upon this sign… a Deluxe Dining Pass with snacks throughout the day is a thing now! Seems awesome, I’ll investigate if they have an upgrade for people that already purchased the regular pass. 
Let’s get to Twisted Colossus now!
They’re further dismantling the structure. They’re currently taking away the track and parts of the old camel-backs/ block-brake run. 
There are some more structural preparations going on at the second turn around. 
They’re also constructing the top of the catwalks on both sides of the lift-hills. 
Behind these walls construction continues, with most landscaping being taken out. 
And then Six Flags Magic Mountain re-used the #farewellcolossus photo-op set, and is now promoting Twisted Colossus! 
It looks pretty nice, but really I can’t wait to sit in the actual TC trains! 
That’s it for today! Click here for last week’s Twisted Colossus Update, which has lots more details not discussed here. For more Twisted Colossus and Six Flags Magic Mountain news from last week, click here.
It’s time for a new Knott’s Berry Farm Update! I attended the Knott’s for the Cure media event in the morning, and everything related to that will follow in a different post soon. This update includes many things around the park that were worthy to be included in this update.
Let’s start with Pony Express, which is back to two train operations. I find this very ironic almost, since during the summer it occasionally only operates one train… 
The park has definitely not finished cleaning up after Merry Farm yet! There are a whole bunch of decorations left to put in storage. Though it isn’t half as bad as Magic Mountain, that has hardly stored away anything! 
Though I really like these banners, they’re clearly Merry Farm!
Just like Riptide, La Revoluccion is still awaiting parts from Germany. Meanwhile the ride’s fences, gates, control boxes, etc are being replaced/ moved around quite a lot. 
Boomerang, which is seriously the only coaster running in the rain (even light rain), has received new station speakers. 
Even more exciting, the train has received a new chassis! Meaning that the base of the train has been replaced, with new wheels, etc. It’s smoother, though not very significantly. It’s still a great ride!
Staying on the Boardwalk, Xcelerator will soon receive a brand new Fast Lane waiting line. It’s hard to see in the picture below, but small flags in the grass indicate where the new path will be placed. 
Right next to Xcelerator, Coasters has received a new repaint. So has the interior. 
The neon-signs are awaiting new neon-lights. 
Here’s the poster on the door, and the inside still wrapped up. 
There are quite a few rumors of Calico Saloon closing for a while, to be totally reconstructed as the building is wearing out. The building is visited by many people each day and is quite old. 
The Timber Mountain Log Ride is closed for maintenance. It’s closed ’til January 30th. 
The drop and lift-hill are being worked on most. For example, the entire conveyor belt from the last lift will be replaced. 
The new conveyor belt is ready to be installed and stored under the ride. 
The Calico Railroad was closed for a couple of days, as the park renewed the crossing. New tile and concrete were placed. 
In addition the fences/gates were taken out, and repainted black. (Used to be purple).
Moving on to Voyage to the Iron Reef! There’s still not much to see really, some work has been done inside, and the laser-tag is currently also under construction. The Arcade is only closed due to the construction going on inside, other than that it’s currently used for storage and will reopen with Voyage to the Iron Reef. 
GhostRider, which is so much better with a wet track, will be closed for extensive maintenance, and likely some more re-tracking from January 20th ’til February 13th. 
That was the regular Knott’s Update for now, stay tuned for everything related to Knott’s for the Cure! To check out our new Six Flags Magic Mountain Update with lots of interesting things going on, click here!
I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain two days in a row, and decided to combine the things I saw into one update. So here it is, on the bottom of the post you’ll find the Twisted Colossus Update from yesterday as well.
Holiday in the Park is now over, but pretty much every single piece of Holiday theming is still in the park. 
My guess is, that next week when they’re closed, they’ll start converting the park back to what it was, but they sure have a lot of work to do.
Funny enough I saw many people still taking pictures with the tree of heroes over at DC Universe.
The Holiday in the Park wreaths that the park hung up on almost every single lamppost, are pretty much all still there. I expected them to take them down earlier, like during the crowd-less operating days this week. 
The tree of water is turned off and the photo-op scenery is gone. The lights that moved are protected in their plastic boxes to be taken out soon.
Yesterday they were taking apart the stage. 
Today only the frame of the light-installations was left standing. 
Sorry for the blurry picture, but it’s time for the pistachio park walls to be fixed, the wallpaper is tearing off. 
Jet Stream, though still leaking significantly less than a couple of months ago, is starting to leak pretty badly again. 
The park did though manage to finally fix up the Xtreme Zone sign after the T was missing and the sign was faded for a very long time. 
To my surprise, I noticed that the paint on Batman is starting to just simply flake off. It’s slightly hard to see in the pictures, but there’s plenty of places along the track where the paint just let loose, tore off, and the old gray track colors are clearly visible below. 
Still hard to see, but there are a couple of significant gray spots on the first corkscrew for example. 
Moving on to Apocalypse. Which first off NEEDS RETRACKING! I gave it a couple of shots the last two days to redeem itself, but sadly enough Apocalypse has become very rough. Remember how rough Roar was at a point? Well Apocalypse is currently rougher than Roar ever was… Moving on to the cool news, row 9 (seats 17 and 18) on train 1 have new restraints, not just any new restraints, it’s the new GCI restraints for their Millennium Flyer trains. You may recognize them from Gold Striker, where all restraints look like this!
One day has passed since our Twisted Colossus Update, and a whole lot of track has been placed! The approach to the High Five element (both sides) is under construction. 
That was it for today, please check out the separate Twisted Colossus Update that matches this update from the last two days, by clicking here!
It’s only been 3 days since our last Twisted Colossus Update, but surprisingly much changed! I went to the park to ride some coasters with no lines, but immediately spotted the progress made. It’s not a very big update, but it’ll show you the process made.
The green hill following the drop has finally been placed, I expected it to be placed a while back, so I’m very glad to see it in place!
There are also a lot more track pieces on site, and they were starting to place track for the High Five element already!
The track that was previously the approach to the slow turnaround inside the structure has been taken away. Which was still there in almost its entirety last Sunday. 
The Rocky Mountain Construction crew was doing some more work on the lift-hill, though I’m not entirely sure what. 
The area has officially closed and is blocked off. Meaning Scream!’s closed ’til the opening of the all new Screampunk District. Obviously I don’t have any pictures from inside the closed area, but a lot has been stripped already. All tables are gone, fences are being stripped, trees are being removed, paths are being ripped out, etc. Six Flags Magic Mountain didn’t wait a second to get started, it’s already one big construction zone in there! 
Thanks for checking out this quick Twisted Colossus Update, our regular Six Flags Magic Mountain update is now LIVE as well, featuring pictures from the day AFTER this update! Click here to go to the update! For the Twisted Colossus update from 3 days ago, with more pictures from within the future Screampunk District, click here!
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It’s the first week of January, and a week since our last Twisted Colossus Update. I guess with New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day the construction slowed down a bit, as not as much has changed as I expected.
The green drop is still not followed by the little hill. Which I expected to be placed by now, and in general, the structure on that side remains the same as last week. 
The Top Gun structure is under construction, I have a feeling a lot of wood will be added in order for the element to become reality. 
They’re working on preparing the High Five element for track placement, though currently there aren’t many noticeable changes from last week. 
Twisted Colossus is stilll looking very pretty, in case anyone doubted that. 
Moving on to the part of the ride that has been drastically altered over the last two weeks, the old second turn-around!
1/3rd of the original height has been taken off, and currently the shaping continues for the Double Up, and the Outward Bank Floater that will be on this side of the structure. 
You can now see the station, and where the track will be placed that will mark the transition from blue to green. 
They trimmed down the huge structure quite a bit!
In the station not much has changed, they’re clearing it out more. If you look precisely, you may notice that the control panels have all been taken out and the floors are being leveled. 
And then there’s the ride that ‘screams’ for a repaint. It will either close tomorrow for its overhaul, or a week later, since the park extended their daily operations ’til January 11th. I’ll step by sometime during the week to figure out whether it’s closed yet, or not. 
A quick last, faded-paint-Scream shot!
Might not see this building again, ’til it’s repainted and the Looking Glass Theater. 
One quick look at the future Screampunk District made me realize how insanely badly the area needs a face-lift. I’m stocked for the future of Screampunk District!
That was it for today, really not that much has happened. Click here for last week’s update, that includes some more changes. For our back-stage Twisted Colossus tour post, please click here. Everything you need to know about the new area can be found there!