Theme Park Discussion / An East-Coaster Goes West: Cali'2010

Between graduation at the end of May and the premiere of Toy Story 3 last Friday, my childhood has come to an end. But, in true T.Hops. style, I closed that chapter of my life with a bang. Long story short, my mother is one of the best people to ever grace this planet (on par with Rod Serling, but a tier below Lady GaGa), and for my graduation she flew the two of us out to California for a week of hardcore coaster-riding. Not necessarily her idea of a vacation, per se, but most definitely mine!

Quick summary: the trip was a total success. I stepped in the Pacific Ocean, saw the Hollywood sign, sat through hours of L.A. traffic, rode almost forty new coasters, and came home with 600 pictures. And my mother lived through it all, which is a pretty big success. But without further adieu, let's begin!

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Day One: Pacific Park & Santa Monica - 6/5/10
aka People Who Wear Sweaters in 75* Weather But Jump in the Freezing Pacific Ocean.

To start things off, I'm thinking that the plane should have touched down right here. The ocean is a lot more pleasant than the tree-killing, carbon-emitting L.A. traffic and the bitter taste of not meeting Miley Cyrus in LAX.


But who cares what Tyler wants, right? These people do. It's like those Windows7 commercials with the funny French girls saying how it was totally their idea.


My name is Tyler Hopkins, I'm an enthusiast, and the roller-coaster-on-the-ocean was my idea. Thanks, Santa Monica, for making my dream come true.


See? My mom and I are both super happy that we're about to ride a roller coaster over the ocean. Inside, we're really upset that we couldn't find Sam and Addison's (from Private Practice) houses next to the pier. Trip disappointment #1.


These people are getting a little pop of airtime that you'd never expect to come out of something coasting along at ten miles per hour. Wave!


Now I say it's time to tame this beast! But before we do, could somebody explain why the wall/roof on the swinging ship is necessary? It's quite ugly, and I've never seen a dragon made like that before.


Here's an idea: Let's ride a roller coaster. Awesome. I'd say right about now, the three teenagers working their new summer job are chewing their gum real loud while they pretend to care about your safety. Cool!


And now we're coming out of our seats a bit, then a lot, then making a nice turn back to the station. Lather, rinse, repeat. Ride over, kthxbye.


Here comes a series of pictures that all look pretty similar, but are each just as necessary as the last. Had each and every one not been taken, I would not be a true tourist.


Zoooooom.


Zoooom.


Zoom. All done. Next stop: Six Flags Magic Mountain, From the Sky!

Edited by coasterfreak101, 21 June 2010 - 08:45 PM.

Day Two: Six Flags Magic Mountain, From the Sky - 6/6/10
aka Thank God for the Sky Tower's Air Conditioning.

Alright, so let's just get it out in the open right now: I love X2. I've never found myself legitimately scared and/or confused on a roller coaster until now. Ever.


Basically, it's just a lot happening to your body all at once. You hit your head a few times on the pads behind you, which probably just adds to the delirium and wonder which is this fantastic roller coaster.


Ignoring Viper, because it's really quite ignorable, let's skip to the park's other superstar, Tatsu! My mother hates prolonged positive G's, but hot damn, that pretzel loop is ridiculously fantastic.


And another shot of it, because it makes me happy. Really happy. It's just a fantastic ride. Floaty first half, whippy second half, plus that pretzel-loop-straight-out-of-heaven. God's favorite element is the pretzel loop, definitely.


We ended up not getting on the rapids. Shame. But we did get on Tatsu, which makes up for it quite well!


Oh, one more superstar here: Terminator! Cute lil' Termie, all deceivingly small. Oh, but you have a crazy ride in store, don't you? Yes you do! You're just a little out-of-control monster!


Deja Vu is fun and all, yeah, but Terminator is fantastic. No time to breathe from half a second off the chain to the brakes at the end. And with how wet I got from the misters, I'd call it an Aquatrax, no doubt.


Everybody say hey to the sun, I guess. Or bye, I'd really prefer that it wasn't chillin' in my picture here. Rude.


Riddler's Revenge was fun, minus the part on our first ride where one of my lil' fellas got a little squished. But, secretly, I love B&M stand-ups. And dive loops. And this ride has two of those.


I'll go ahead and claim that this little colored-lighting thing going on was totally on purpose. I think it symbolizes the light from Batman and the evil from the Riddler ready to scrap. Maybe.


Quick note: It seems silly to me that you have to circle around and cross a bridge just to get to X2. Is there a particular reason for that layout? Seems to me like some stairs to the left would have done the job.


I'm rapidly running out of captions, so I'll give a little explanation as to why half of them are probably bad. I write these things when I'm tired. End of story.


Arrow corner. One ride is photogenic but sucks, and the other is hard to photograph but rocks my socks off. Take a wild guess as to which is which.


Aaand now let's play that zoom game again to close this thing out. Zoomed all the way in! Colossus doesn't look so colossus now, does it?


Zoomed a little out, givin' Superman some lovin' like Lois Lane on a hot, humid summer day in Maryland!


Zoomed all the way out to show an area of the park with lots of coasters that aren't really very special. Minus Tatsu. Next stop: Knott's Berry Farm!

Edited by coasterfreak101, 21 June 2010 - 08:45 PM.

Day Three: Knott's Berry Farm - 6/7/10
aka Screw Engineering, I'm Going to Be a Cowboy.

Good morning, California Sun. (Note: I cheated here. California's a cloudy mess all morning, so I grabbed this one in the afternoon. Shneaky, shneaky.)


First ride of the day: Xcelerator! Quite a good coaster, even if it is over much too soon. But many claps for Intamin for the hydraulic launch - it's the best one out there!


Oooh. The artsiest you'll ever see a picture from me might just be right here. Also, I cheated again. Xcelerator is way faded, so these pictures are totally edited to make the ride look plenty better.


They were repainting the lower supports when I was there, though, so that's a good sign! Also, this picture makes me feel like I'm looking between some lady's legs. Children, shield your eyes. Or grab your cameras.


Anyways, Xcelerator was a great start to the morning - 70+ miles per hour is a good wake-up call!


And now, something much less enjoyable. Boomerang!


This Boomerang had to be the slowest I've ever seen. I can't believe how long it took to get up the lift each time, and how slow the line moved as a result. Ridiculous.


But it was a credit, nonetheless, and so I suppose it was worth the wait! Psych.


Supreme Scream. I couldn't get myself to ride this one alone, as my mom hates drop towers with a passion, and it's a shame since I just got myself on Drop Zone at Kings Dominion last week and loved it. So be it.


Perilous Plunge was down for most of the day. I saw, at most, five boats cycle all day, and probably only three of them had people in them. Shame.


It's crazy how much water this thing just dumps out down the drop, really. Little children in Africa are crying and drinking their tears, and Perilous Plunge is just dropping water left and right. Niiice.


Now on to the sleeper hit of the day: Pony Express! This ride was fantastically fun, so much so that it was the ride we rode most all day!


It's unbelievably sad how short this thing is, though. By the time it's really started up, it's already coming to an end. But for what it is, it's a great, fun, family-friendly thrill!


My mother spent her rides screaming, "I'm a cowgirl!" There's a picture to prove it sitting next to me, too. I guess I'll have to scan that in. Be excited.


This is the part where the ride gets fun, twisting left, then right through this nice little tunnel that makes everyone scream. But after this, it's over.


Lame rapids. Nothing like the Cedar Point ones, or the Paramount Parks', or what I hear of Dorney's. Not sure why, but these ones just don't do anything.


One last shot of Pony Express. My favorite part is when a train pulls back into the station and the back-pad lifts off each rider. There's this mass simultaneous sigh of relief, and it makes me laugh every time!


Sidetrack: This log flume (named Log Ride - oh, the creativity) was ridiculous. I cut myself on the boat because of the turn after the indoor drop, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure how the old couple before us didn't have a heart attack!


Now over to the Mexican area of the park, where I think every single SoCal Hispanic might have spent their entire day. I think this area counted as a culture credit, really.


Jaguar was an enjoyable ride - and a pretty long one, at that. Plus, I'm a sucker for these rides with the crazy-long trains, they're just so funny to watch! And the back seat's always a fun ride.


This area of the park was certainly disappointing as far as aesthetics go, however. I'm not sure who decided that four of the park's seven big coasters needed to be crammed into this little spot, but they did.


Regardless, it at least had plenty to do! Montezooma's Revenge (which, for the record, I don't think that's how you spell Montezuma...) was my first Schwarzkopf shuttle loop, and it was a lot of fun!


Of course, it would have been more fun had I been able to wear my damn glasses. But so is the life of the blind.


Launching! The flywheel launch was pretty good - better than I expected, I think! And Schwarzkopf sure did know how to design a loop...


My favorite part might have been how close the train seemed to get to the top of the forward spike. Obviously, it does the same on the back one, but it was great to see the end of the track getting closer and closer!


Almost done with our circle of the park, it's time for Sierra Sidewinder!


I had never been on a spinning coaster, minus the spinning mice (like Primeval Whirl), and this was a nice little introduction to the genre!


This was another of Knott's unfortunately-short-but-quite-fun rides. But the height, length, and concept was perfect for the family-friendly area that the ride's situated in. Definitely good for all ages!


It's like the Xcelerator-overbank picture all over again! This park likes overbanks, so it seems.


Clicked for this one a second too late, but it's not too bad. All in all, Sierra Sidewinder is a great ride. I wish it was longer, but just like Pony Express, it's a lot of fun for what it is. Definitely a theme of Knott's.


Now for the last ride of the day: Silver Bullet! I don't know why people hate on this ride so much, it was a pretty decent invert!


Quick note: I hate getting stopped by trains. Buuut now I can finally say that I have a two-trains-in-one picture, so I suppose it was worth it!


Anyways, Silver Bullet was pretty good! Sure, the first drop was crazy-drawn-out, but I can see why it was necessary with the rides underneath it. And so be it! The layout was fantastic!


The corkscrew-turn-corkscrew sequence has actually been in my head for a really long time. So I'd like to believe that I'm up there with Walter and Claude and Mr. Stengel. In my head, at least.


And I digress. Here's a little look back at the mid-section of the park, with Pony Express and the pay-per-ride, super-short Screamin' Swing. Yet another short ride at Knott's!


Here's a nice shot of the sky, plus some track. I genuinely wish that B&M would do more overbanks like this one. It might have been my favorite part of the ride, it's just a unique, floaty feeling that's pretty cool!


An open ride and a closed ride. Which sucks, since I've now been on 149 coasters. Thanks, GhostRider, for killing that milestone.


But anyways, some more Silver Bullet. It's quite the photogenic ride, and I enjoyed it a lot! Go Knott's for having a not-too-short ride in their collection!


Also, I love the multi-colored trains. Why don't more rides do this? These train colors cancel out the ugly, all-red-for-no-purpose lift hill of the ride they run on. I'd like to see them elsewhere!


Aaand we'll end this update with a moment of silence for Tyler's Coaster Count. Next stop: Universal Studios Hollywood!

Some pretty shots there man, looks like a great trip.