California Great America 10/03/26

One upside of losing my old job was that my new job sends me to a much larger variety of places. I won't bother posting a TR of last weeks completely forgettable first visit to Seaworld San Diego, but I was able to re-visit CA GA for the first time in a very long time.

Right from the entry of the park you get the first (and pretty much last) reminder that this park used to be a sister park to the Great America in Chicago. I guess with the merger, it's a sister park yet again, but any other similarities would take a trained eye. The reflecting pool with the double decker carousel is still a beautiful park entrance. The food court and games plaza are quite similar and CAGA still has a shaded tunnel and I think Chicago's is gone.

Picked up my ASFL wristband and was glad that I had it. The park was crowded, hot, and the ride ops were painfully slow. Like LaRonde slow.

First stop was Gold Striker, which is right there at the entrance. I've heard so much good said about this ride, and was really hoping to enjoy it. The first drop is totally unique and exciting in that it shallows out early but continues to descend for an extended time. But beyond that, it's just a rickety mess of GCI's ADHD. After being completely blown away by my first ever rides on Mystic Timbers this year, I had high hopes for this. No doubt it was great when it first opened, but it's showing (well beyond) it's age at this point. I waited for the front seat with the intention of riding front and back but one ride in the front was enough.

Next up was Railblazer, the first RMC single rail installed in a park I believe. I'd had one ride on its' Wonder Woman clone, but it was so much so fast that I don't really remember it. With this I was able to get a front (2nd row) and back seat ride for comparison. These are absolutely insane rides, so quick, forceful, yet fun and re-ridable. I enjoyed my 2 rides but don't really see an advantage to a park this big having a ride this small. The line was long, and yes, the capacity is awful, especially with the atrocious ops this park has.

While in the gift shop picking up my ASFL, I noticed merch that said "Demon: Re-imagined." Okay, fine, let's see what this is all about, (I would have skipped it otherwise.) If by "Re-imagined" you mean screwing the 1980's lightbulbs back in after decades of neglect, sure. I'm nostalgic for Demon at Chicago's GA because it was my first Big Coaster, but beyond that, it's just another painful arrow corkscrew with a bit of flair. I do love that tunnel in the middle though!

When I reached the food court I decided it was time to eat. Another glaring difference between this and the parks that CF/SF actually cares about is that every food stand was still the awful theme park food from 30 years ago while most other parks have been upgraded. I used my meal plan and settled for a slice of flavorless pizza and breadsticks with the smallest hint of salt and butter. And no dipping sauce. The drinks were only available at a separate stand in the center of the food court, meaning a 2nd line to wait in while holding your entre.

From here, it was a struggle to find anything else I even wanted to do until I got back towards the front of the park. Skipped Grizzly and Psycho Mouse for obvious reasons, and bypassed the Intamin Drop Tower even though I love them and they're getting harder and harder to find these days. Next attempted ride was the Mass Effect 4D simulator. I got to chatting with a father and his daughter who were fellow coaster nerds and we had a nice time talking about their roadtrip travels. But after an extremely long time in the FL queue and being told that it was going to be another 15 minutes, I decided to bail. I had asked the operator what it was and it's basically the old 4-d theater with moving seats from the 90's but with an updated screen and an actor who narrates the story and reacts to the screen. Not sure I missed anything.

On to Flight Deck, which I was really looking forward to. I had forgotten about this ride and forgot how intense it was. This was probably the highlight of the visit, slowest ops of the day aside. Absolutely intense ride and an excellent example of "early B+M!" My feet were tingling at multiple parts and the final turn around over the water is amazing. While I loved it, I didn't ride again due to it's intensity.

Almost skipped the bumper cars until actually seeing them in motion. While not Knoebels level, this is probably the only bumper car ride I've seen that could approach Knoebels. They were quite fun and fast. I had a great time and was going to ride again but was a little self conscious about getting right back on through the FL in front of the long line of people who would recognize me doing it. Chalk up a win for LostKause. My intention was to come back later and grab at least one more ride but ultimately I never made it back.

Though it messed up my flow, I decided to ride the Delta Flyer sky ride next and it took me to the back of the park again. This time I walked to the front the way I came back. Stopped at Railblazer for another ride but even the FL line was looking too long so I left.

While always intending Patriot (aka Vortex, aka Iron Wolf, aka Paint Shaker) to be my last ride on the way out, I had mis-remembered the location of the entrance and had missed it my first time by. So I grabbed my 3rd credit (more later) and the less said the better.

With Patriot pretty much sucking the last bit of my will to live from this park I decided to leave after maybe 3 hours total at the park. I was glad to get back to my hotel with plenty of time left in the day.

Closing thoughts: I'm glad I got to visit this park one last time before it closes. That being said, it's pretty obvious that it's in it's final days. The operations were beyond slow. No improvements to food options had been made despite most other parks in the chain getting major food upgrades, yet the price increases kept up. There is so very much open space at this park. They could double the amount of rides here if they wanted to. It reminded me of one of those old RCT2 scenarios.

I'm glad I got to visit one last time and scrape up 3 new credits. which leads me to my final thought. I rode Iron Wolf as a kid. (credit 1) I rode it as Vortex at CAGA. (credit 2) It felt weird counting it a 3rd time as a conversion to floorless because it was the same awful ride experience. I probably wouldn't have except for the fact that I counted Rougarou again after it was converted from Mantis. I don't think it's wrong to do this, but for some reason it feels a bit dirty with this ride. Rougarou gets a pass because CP is my home park. Just curious if anyone else feels different/same here?

Tommytheduck:

I rode Iron Wolf as a kid. (credit 1) I rode it as Vortex at CAGA. (credit 2) It felt weird counting it a 3rd time as a conversion to floorless because it was the same awful ride experience.

Um, you don’t have to? Iron Wolf was moved to SFA and became Apocalypse, then Firebird (floorless conversion). 😉