Hey there Park Journey readers!

Today we are bringing you a full update of the construction that is happening at California's Great America. We previously published an article with our Top 5 Guesses on what's coming for 2018, and boy a lot has changed since then! The project area has significantly grown in scope, making some of our smaller choices highly unlikely. ​

Today, we're going to give you a construction update (taken on July 29th), and we're going to summarize what has been done so far. 

In case you're just joining us, let's start with the basics:

• ​California's Great America is confirmed to get a 110.5 foot tall steel coaster in 2018. This is confirmed through the permits filed with The City of Santa Clara.
• It is likely that this coaster is 1) from a manufacturer that Cedar Fair has worked with in the past, but not recently and/or 2) is a prototype attraction. These are based off of comments made during the Q1 earnings call in May. 
• The park is teasing the attraction as "Project SR1", which could stand for several things. Construction walls are currently up.

Now, for what's newer:

• Markings have been spotted around Whitewater Falls, which is adjacent to the current walled off construction area. This is leading many to speculate if we may see Whitewater Falls close to make room for the coaster. 2/3 Boats have been taken off of the attraction via a forklift, and some minor groundwork has been started in the area.
• Cedar Fair trademarked the name "Railblazer", leading many to speculate that this will be the new coaster's name. 

And for those less familiar with the park, here is an overview of the current areas that will be included in this update:

Let's begin by talking about the current construction zone, highlighted in Orange on the map above.

Pictured above, you can see the teaser wall that the park has been promoted on social media. There is a trail, with 16 different markers reserved for a different coaster in the park's history. We'll get up to 15 with the parks current and previous lineup (they will count Vortex/Patriot and Turn of the Century/Demon as two), and the 16th spot will be reserved for the new attraction. 

Opposite to Demon's entrance, there is a teaser area where we can take a peak into the construction area. 

Through the wall, we currently just see a lot of dirt being pushed around. 

Now let's go take a look over by Whitewater Falls...

Whitewater Falls was operating with one boat left on the ride. I'm not sure how long it's been down to one boat, and if that is normal or not. 

Above you can see the work being done behind Whitewater Falls. On the left of the building, there is a forklift with the other two boats sitting out of the water. On the right of the building, there is a digger with ground construction happening. 

Above, you can see the construction area as seen from Star Tower. Nothing is vertical yet, so not too much to see. 

There you have it! We have a walls, construction equipment, and a bunch of dirt!

Thanks for reading! Make sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for future updates and live coverage of the August 16th announcement! 

Today we've got a great article written by Andrew who's going to talk a bit about what might be coming to California's Great America next year. 
But more than even that, CGA is one of those parks to watch because the next 3-5 years at this park are going to be AMAZING and we can't wait to see it all come together. 
There's lots of info and links below, so be sure to check them out and give us your thoughts as well. 

Happy July, Park Journey readers!
It’s that fun time of year again for coaster enthusiasts- permits are filed, construction markers are popping up, and mounds of dirt are starting to get pushed around at your local theme park. All of this starts to happen before the majority of new-for-2018 attractions are announced, which leaves us here on the internet to wildly speculate!
One of my local parks, California’s Great America (CGA), is getting a much gossiped about steel coaster next year. I’m going to have a little fun and give some development background, as well as 5 predictions for what type of coaster we may be seeing for CGA in 2018.

The big developments so far:​

Update July 18: 
Yesterday California's Great America sent out the following Tweet and Picture with even more clues. We love that the park is embracing this and having some fun with the fans. So, what do you think it is? 

​@CAGreatAmerica: 
Where does this lead? #projectsr1

Why it could be a fit:
With RMC openly teasing their development of the prototype Raptor, 2018 seems like the likely time for this new coaster style to make its debut. This would fit with the “completely new type of coaster”, and it would make sense that Cedar Fair may have negotiated a package deal from RMC (the raptor for CGA, plus the Kings Dominion and Cedar Point projects)

Also, those survey markers that say “SR1”. What if SR stands for Single Rail? Hmm...

Why it may be a miss:
The RMC Raptor is a cost effective steel coaster meant for a smaller park. If Cedar Point is serious about growing CGA’s attendance, it wouldn’t make sense for them to put in such a low capacity attraction. If this was a Six Flags park, I would sing a totally different tune, but adding low capacity marquee attractions just doesn’t fit with Cedar Fair’s previous expansion strategies.

Personally, based on the relationship, geography, and park demographics, I think that RMC may have sold their prototype Raptor to Silverwood in Idaho. Silverwood gave RMC some of their first contracts (RMC did work on Timer Terror and Aftershock), and RMC is headquartered a short drive away from the park. But Silverwood is a whole different topic for another post, so moving on...

Why it could be a fit:
This fits the bill for both being a “completely new type of coaster” and a renewed relationship with Mack (last used by Cedar Fair for Coast Rider in 2013). It would be fresh, exciting, and would directly “1-up” Superman at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. To me, this addition is the most exciting possibility on this list.

Why it may be a miss:
I have no idea what the price tag is on this thing, but Mack rides typically aren’t the cheapest additions. I love Mack, they build really high quality rides, but I would expect this to be a bit pricey (much more than a Raptor, for example). With the massive overhaul at Cedar Point, the significant project at Kings Dominion, and the likely expansion at Knotts, will CGA have that kind of budget for 2018? My gut tells me no, but I could be overestimating the price on this one.

Why it could be a fit:
A lot of people speculate that an impulse is coming to CGA in 2018. This has largely been fueled by the combination of the “Renewed relationship” comment, which would fit for Intamin, and the fact that the aforementioned planning documents included an impulse coaster.

Why it may be a miss:
Sorry folks, I just don’t buy this one. 110 foot impulse coaster? That would be significantly shorter than any other impulse that’s been built to date. If CGA were to ever get an impulse coaster, I would wager it to be a relocation from another Cedar Fair park. It could eventually happen, but I just don’t see a custom 110 foot impulse moving in next summer.  

Why it could be a fit:
This fits the bill as a “renewed relationship”, since we haven’t seen Cedar Fair work with Intamin since 2010’s doomed Shoot the Rapids project.

But lets dig more into this:

1. Intamin actually classifies their Half Pipe as an Impulse Coaster, which would make the “Impulse Coaster” rumors actually true
2. 110 foot height limit would be consistent with a larger half pipe coaster, if you add in an elevated station.
3. Remember that SR1 marker? Intamin also refers to their half pipes as Surf Riders.

Why it may be a miss:
I can’t think of any huge reasons why this wouldn’t be a fit. Honestly, the only thing I can think of is that it seems too similar to the pre-existing disco coaster at the park. But hey, we’re talking about Cedar Fair, if they’re willing to put multiple B&M hypers into two of their parks, then they certainly wouldn’t hesitate with a Disc-o/Half Pipe combo.

Why it could be a fit:
Three reasons come to mind as to why this would be a match for CGA’s 2018 project.

1. The SR1 marker could literally translate into Sky Rocket 1.
2. CGA is currently lacking a launched coaster, and this would be a nice full circuit ride that is on the lower budget side of things.
3. The wave turns on the Sky Rocket 1 kind of match the swerving tire tracks that the park is teasing us with.

Why it may be a miss:
It doesn’t fit the “new type of coaster” or “manufacturer in recent history” bill. If memory serves correctly, Cedar Fair has never bought a coaster from Premier Rides. Admittedly, there are some Premier coasters in Cedar Fair parks, but those are all old holdovers from the Paramount days, so it would be a stretch to consider those to be a from a manufacturer with “recent history”.

Something else?
When it comes to new theme park attractions, it’s always a good idea to keep an open mind. Do you think something else is coming that I have omitted from my list?

Let us know on Facebook, or tweet us @ParkJourney and @GatorAndrew

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Last week while spending some time up in Canada we got to visit one of the theme parks that has been at the top of our "must visit" lists for a LONG time. And Canada's Wonderland sure didn't disappoint. 
It's easy to say this park is in our top 20 parks to visit, hopefully below you'll see why. 

Written by Gregg Condon

Welcome to Canada's Wonderland 

Home to two incredible B&M Hyper/Giga coasters. We'll touch more on Behemoth and Leviathan a bit more down below. 

The entrance reminded us a LOT of Kings Dominion except in place of a tower, you've got a mountain. Very Canadian. 

We happened to be visiting while Canada was celebrating their 150th birthday. Which meant lots of awesome Canada shows on their History Channel. It was a nice change from what we get on our "History" channel here in the states. 

Mandatory Starbucks 

An absolutely beautiful park

The first coaster we came to was Flight Deck, our first Canadian Coaster Credit 

It wasn't the worst SLC we've ridden, but it's still an SLC

Right next to Flight Deck is Time Warp. It's nice they have the two worst coasters in the park right next to each other. =)

Have to admit, I was kind of looking forward to riding this, well until I rode it. I'll give it that it's an incredibly unique coaster, but nothing any of us in the group needed to ride again later in the day. 

One thing that makes a park stand out for us is a park that has a great variety of different rides. And Canada's Wonderland has just that. Some amazing and unique flat rides like Sledge Hammer. 

This was our second Backlot Stunt Coaster (after riding the one at King's Dominion) and I have to admit, I didn't remember the one at KD being quite as rough as this one. Still fun though. 

Oh, Behemoth is over here too. One of the best B&M hypers we've ridden. In fact, this park probably has our top two B&M hyper/giga's. But more on that below. =) 

More amazing flat rides. Love these giant enterprises and wish there were more of them. 

Psyclone was fun, but kind of a short ride cycle. 

After lunch at Coasters and seeing the Canadian Prime Minister (yes he was there) we came over to Vortex. Now as a fan of Ninja at SFMM this was probably one of my most anticipated coasters of the day. 

And this did NOT disappoint. To put it bluntly, this ride hauls ass. 

From start to finish it does not let up and could probably go another 1000 feet without breaking a sweat. We rode this multiple times throughout the day as periodic storms drove people away. 

Sadly we only saw Soaring Timbers run once all day even though we passed this area multiple times. So we didn't get to ride. 

Okay, Leviathan, where to even begin with this. 

First off, the long-standing rumor was that this coaster was destined for Knott's Berry Farm and for whatever reason was sent to Canada's Wonderland even though they had gotten Behemoth only a few years earlier. 

Why it went here and not to some other Cedar Fair park is anybody's guess, but seriously Behemoth and Leviathan are easily top 15 coasters and they are BOTH in the same park. Either would be the best coaster in the state of CA with the exception of Twisted Colossus. 

The rumor is that Knott's is FINALLY going to get it's Hyper/Giga next year, and if it is anywhere close to the greatness of these two rides then those of us west of the Mississippi are FINALLY going to have a Hyper coaster that is amazing. 

Oh yeah, even with all these coasters and flat rides, we're still in a beautiful park. Seriously, it's awesome. 

Speaking of awesome, our friend Nicholas from CWMania came by to hang with us for a bit until the big thunderstorm came. Then he took off along with probably 3/4 of the people who were in the park. 

Which made the rest of our afternoon/evening pretty amazing. 

Dragon Fire was pretty awesome for an older Arrow 

Nice themed area 

Dudes and Dudettes, Beaver Tails ... amazing. 

The Mountain, which has two rides in it and one that goes on top of it. 

Speaking of one of the rides, let's talk a bit about Wonder Mountain's Guardian. 

The only video/pictures I'd seen of this ride were from it's first year when the media was some kind of "bugs" thing. As the first Triotech ride it was kind of a test and the media didn't fit the ride AT ALL. 

Well apparently since that first season they've updated the media to fit the theme of the mountain. And while some of the screens are far too visible, and some of the 3D needed a bit of help we all really enjoyed this attraction. WAY more than we thought we would. The coaster part is pretty fun and the media definitely fits the ride now. We actually enjoyed it more than Iron Reef if you can believe that (many of you will). =) 

After a nice thunderstorm what else is one to do except go on some water rides. Love all the natural trees around the park. 

You'd think in Canada the rain wouldn't drive people away, but it totally did. 

Some rain, a classic Arrow, a fake mountain and a real rainbow. 

We decided to seek wind because we could. =) 

I have to say, this one seemed to spin a bit faster than the ones at Knott's and Kings Dominion. 

They had a lot of distance things like this around the park, apparently for physics day. Not sure what the "first arrow" thing was, because Dragon Fire wasn't the first arrow. Hmm. Anybody? 

And we'll leave you with one last shot of  the beautiful mountain with some amazing clouds behind it. 

We had an AMAZING time at Wonderland and we'll probably be going up to Canada at least once a year for the foreseaable future and we will for sure be visiting this park when we do visit. 

We hope you enjoyed and if you make your way up to Ontario this park should definitely be on your to-do list. 

We'll have more updates from our trip later this week from the Hockey Hall of Fame and from Seabreeze park in Western New York.