9/1/2015 - California's Great America

A few weeks ago we headed up to California's Great America for a bit of summer fun. This is a park we visit every few years and always seem to have mixed results. This visit however was probably my best visit to the park since the late 80's. 



This park gets a lot of flack for it's coaster line-up even though they've got two stellar coasters (Gold Striker and Flight Deck) a couple of really fun coasters (Wild Mouse, Demon) and a couple that are, to put it lightly, forgettable (Grizzly and Vortex). 

But what the park does boast is one of the best collection of flat rides of any park in the country. It's seriously amazing. 

As a 49ers fan, this was my first time seeing the completed Levi's Stadium ... it's ugly. Plain and simple. 

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We arrived at the park about 3:00pm and were able to spend about 4 hours in the park at a leisurely pace and ride all of the coasters other than the mouse with minimal waits and probably 7 or 8 of the amazing flat rides. 

First we headed over to Gold Striker which probably had the longest wait of the day at about 15 minutes. The ride crew was outstanding. 

Decided to take one last ride on Vortex which is rumored to be receiving floorless trains next year. Have definitely had worse rides on this, but I do think this will make a great floorless coaster. 

Let's hope along with new trains, a paint job and a re-design of the station is included. 

Let's take a look around the park, it wasn't a very busy day. 

The Demon, sure to be included in the upcoming Arrow Documentary

The Grizzly ... what can be said about this ride that hasn't already been said? The ride isn't rough but it's just boring and the trains and the operations of those trains with the seatbelts ... awful. 

If there's any coaster that could use an RMC re-do it's this one. And it could probably make a pretty good one. 

We also took some time to look at some of the Haunt preparations. We've actually heard this one is pretty good. 

Absolutely love this ride. 

Mmmm ... Centrifiuge 

Yay for Log Flumes!!! 

Flight Deck ... not only one of the best inverts in CA, but one of the best inverts period. 

More Haunt ... not sure if this is a maze or just a re-do of the Bumper Cars. 

Thanks to Great America for a great day. We can't wait to hear what you have in store for 2016. We love seeing the turnaround this park has made over the past few years. 

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