 Hey there, Park Journey Readers! This week, we had a wonderful time touring California's Great America courtesy of our friends at ACE NorCal. There is a ton of work being done at the park right now, including the construction of the highly anticipated Railblazer and land clearing for yet-to-be-announced future attractions. Come with us as we check out the coasters, construction, and new offerings coming to California's Great America for the 2018 season. Written by Andrew Cunningham We began the morning with a walk-back into Patriot's ride area. The blue pain still looks fresh and vibrant, adding great color and brightness to the surrounding midways. We spent much of the day being ushered back and forth through Patriot's service road since Hometown Square is undergoing a massive repaving project. Now, we know you may have come here for Ralblazer photos, but we came for some food! The park is debuting a new funnel cake and churro location in the French Quarter, complete with some wild flavors. I really enjoyed the "strawberry shortcake" funnel cake and "hot chocolate" churro. And yes, that is a pulled pork funnel cake you see there. It actually worked really well, as the sweetness of the funnel cake and barbecue sauce paired nicely with the saltiness of the pork. Next up, we took a peak back in the coaster shop, where the park performs maintenance on the various trains that run on their rides. The shop was really fun, as it is decorated with signage from some of Great America's past attractions.  Oh, and there may be some new trains parked in here... Alright perverts, we know what you came here for. Despite the Florida Legislature recently declaring pornography to be a public health risk, we know our audience, and we're here to deliver for you. Take your time.  Moving on... Did you know that Great America has a secret apartment in the middle of Orleans Square? A remnant of the park's original days as Marriott's Great America, The Consulate is a vacant apartment that is being revived as a private event space for the 2018 season.  Did you know that the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Game will be held at Levi's Stadium (in Great America's parking lot)? The park was kind enough to put together a concept board for how they will be remodeling the apartment in time for my inevitable Clemson tailgate. Thanks Great America, I appreciate you! Moving back out to the park, there is still work being done on the removal of Logger's Run and the looping starship. While we are really sad to see the flume leave, these removals open up a ton of space for new additions.  Speaking of new space opening up, we were also informed that 2018 will be the final season for the go-kart track  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the park, the map above shows all the space that will be wide open by the end of 2018. I'm thinking maybe a waterpark expansion for 2019 and a hyper coaster for 2020? To wrap things up, we have your daily dose of Railblazer construction. The ride is coming together quickly, with the rockwork and theming being the main focus at the moment. I can't wait to come back and ride it soon! Hopefully we'll sneak in another construction update or two before the ride opens. Thank you for reading, and thank you to ACE NorCal and California's Great America for putting together such a fun tour! Related Updates:
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 Happy Friday the 13th everybody!! Hope you all have some scary things planned for the weekend whether it's just watching scary movies or attending a Halloween event. Hopefully it's not something super scary like having to work. Today we have another update from California's Great America where my wife and I made our first visit to their Haunt last weekend. Written by Gregg Condon Prior to Haunt we made our way over to the park in the afternoon to do some riding and check out the Great Pumpkin Fest.  Lots of graves to mark mazes and scare zones no longer with us   The Pumpkin Patch!! Super cute.   That's foreboding  After heading back to the hotel for a nap it was time to head back to the park for Haunt   Believe it or not, in all our visits to this park, we had never been here at night. Weird right?   Our first maze of the night was Massacre Manor   We had actually gotten a tour of this earlier in the day and it did NOT disappoint   Cornstalkers was up next  Nothing creepier than walking through cornstalks ... we had a great time in this maze.  This looks like something  Hi there!!  Our first "surprise" maze of the night. Seriously, I love this maze, may have been my favorite of the night. The song is catchy (it's in my head now) but the maze itself is just a whole lot of fun!!  Wonder if Ed Alonzo went back to Bayside?    This looks different at night ...    I know this is supposed to be Humpty Dumpty, and maybe it's because it's Friday the 13th ... but ... Doesn't this look like Corey Feldman in Friday the 13th Part IV? Google it. Seriously. Do it now!!  Another really fun and inventive maze   Time for Ed Alonzo!! We've missed him at Knott's Scary Farm!!  Believe it or not, this was the only good shot I got of the show. You don't believe me do you? =)  The lighting and effects around the park were awesome   Definitely the "Grossest" of the mazes at Haunt   We also took a ride on Demon Re-Ignited!! Not only are the effects for the ride amazing, but I probably had the best ride I've ever had on it, at least in the past 15 years or so. It was running amazing. Kudos to the park for not only adding some amazing effects, but for maintaining this classic coaster to such high standards.  If you missed our Demon Re-Ignited Behind The Scenes Tour earlier this week, be sure to check it out.  Last but not least was the all new Backwoods. And if this is any indication of the future of Haunt, it's going to be one of those can't miss events for years to come. I thought the maze was a bit on the short side, but it was phenomenal nonetheless.  CGA's Haunt has an amazing entry area  Fire makes everything better
Probably my favorite picture I've taken this entire Halloween season  Overall we were very pleasantly surprised with Haunt. The event is a LOT of fun, the talent is into it and the mazes are unique. One thing I will say is there needs to be more scare zones, they had a couple but they were kind of small. But other than that, we definitely recommend this event and can't wait to go back next year! Related Updates:
Exclusive: Behind The Walls Construction Update of RailBlazer at California's Great America10/12/2017  Today we've got a bit of an exclusive behind the scenes look at RailBlazer construction at California's Great America. We aren't going to try and guess what's going where but we figured you'd all like to see the progress that's been made so far. And more progress has already been made in the past few days. Written by Gregg Condon Lots and lots of walls up around RailBlazer  Normally this is all we'd be able to show you in a construction update   But exclusively for you Park Journey readers ... we have dirt!!!  And Rocks!!  And piles of dirt!!  And trees!!  Thanks to the amazing PR staff at California's Great America for allowing us the chance to get a look at construction, we can't wait to see more very very soon!! Be sure to come back tomorrow as we'll have our Haunt update from last weekend!! Related Updates:
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