After a somewhat lengthy hiatus, we have returned to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to provide you with some coverage of the limited operating season whereabouts as well as remind how great this park is, even in the winter. This also marks the continuance of our semi-regular coverage of this park, so get ready! Here’s the first update of California Coaster Kings in 2016:
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was not boasting its usual warm California weather. There was a decent cloud cover all day.
As it is the winter and not peak season in attendance, The Boardwalk has limited operation. Most of the flagship rides are open, but many smaller attractions stay closed.
Sky Glider was unfortunately closed, just as it was last year during this season.
Most noticeably, the whole back section of the park is closed off south of Sea Swings.
Logger’s Revenge is really the only attraction that we could get a good angle of, and it seems that some major work is being done from the scaffolding under the main lift hill.
Despite some of the parks semi- major attractions being closed such as Logger’s Revenge, the lines were very manageable due to the offseason crowds. Double Shot was a one cycle wait all day.
Fireball was about the same. They were running a very high swinging but not very spinny cycle. Oh well, the more airtime the merrier.
Haunted Castle was the longest line at an average of about 15 minutes. In addition, a lot has been added to this ride which is great to see. There are more scares, better theming, and a much improved swamp room.
A large spider has also been added to the top of the building.
Undertow was running its usual four trains and quick operations kept the line at about 5 minutes.
Although the same issue with the locker policy remains. Many ride operators will now tell guests that although they are not responsible for them, they can leave their loose items by the exit employee instead.
Giant Dipper was running two trains but interestingly, each train was never loaded with more than 2/3 of its potential capacity. When I asked the lead operator about it, he said that during the winter the ride tends to run faster, and they wanted to keep the speed down a bit in order to reduce stress lateral stress on the side friction wheels. There weren’t very many guests in line so it wasn’t an issue.
Even in a half empty train, we had an excellent ride on Giant Dipper. Very smooth and incredibly fast. It is such a gorgeous looking coaster, and having the second most abundant airtime in the state certainly helps deliver one hell of a ride experience.
That’s all for this update, thanks for checking it out as always and make sure to look out for more Boardwalk coverage in the future. So, have you ridden Giant Dipper? What do you think? Comment below and let us know!
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We’ll have some Six Flags Magic Mountain and Discovery Kingdom related updates coming to you this weekend as well! So make sure to come back! 😀
I really wish Six Flags Discovery Kingdom had a ride like Undertow (not gotten rid of tony hawk) and double shot
I totally agree with a double shot. A S&S tower could really finish off their flat collection.
It is so strange to see the Santa Cruz sky so cloudy 😛
Glad to know that Giant Dipper is now smoother! <3