MORE California's Great America ( + some historical lectures that nobody asked for) : My Bodacious ACE Coaster Con XXXVII Trip Report - Part II

Rise and shine, ACErs! The first full day of Coaster Con XXXVII is upon us! What surprises are in store?? Let's find out!

:}

Good Morning Great America!

Breakfast is served Eagle-side this morning!

The complementary continental breakfast included a substantial buffet of grown-ass adult ACErs on the kiddie coasters.

While I rode this ride back when I was technically "age appropriate," I couldn't resist a ride on Taxi Jam while my fellow ACErs got their credits. It's not bad for a kiddie coaster. :}

And Woodstock's Express is just a good coaster in its own right! Now if only they could do something about the trains...

"Smile if you can barely squeeze your ass into this coaster!"

This Intamin kiddie coaster may cater specifically to the smallest of guests at Great America, but its layout and drops boast near-Arrow Mine Train levels of fervor!

Who's ready to take flight? Props to CGA for having this open during not one, but two of our ERTs!

Much has changed throughout the years here at Great America, but the sky ride remains virtually unchanged from its 1976 status. Considering our proximity to the San Andreas Fault (not to mention our proximity to the epicenter of the great Loma Prieta quake of '89), I'm honestly a bit surprised to see this Von Roll classic still in service! On top of the usual suspects for the disappearance of these once-numerous rides (such as handicap-inaccessibility, high maintenance, and spatial constraints), the threat of earthquake-related complications helped cease the operations of Magic Mountain's two separate sky rides, as well as Von Roll's very first North America project, the iconic Disneyland Sky Ride. Great America remains unfazed, however; and more power to 'em! I want to see Von Roll sky rides around for many generations to come!

Hey boys :} Got any deets for me about the next ACE International trip? ;}

For me, nothing beats a sky ride's point of view. And as luck would have it, we'll be treated to, not one, but TWO more sky rides on this trip. Can you guess where? :}

This view has changed a great deal over the years!

During the spring and summer of 1999, my family and I would take frequent rides on the sky ride to catch glimpses of the remarkable new construction taking place over in this corner of the park. The mysterious white track laden with impossible-looking flips was later revealed to be "Project Stealth: The World's First Flying Coaster!" Alas, ten months of post-construction testing and tweaking was not enough to keep Stealth functioning regularly after its 2000 opening, so the decision was made to reconstruct the ride from the ground up, this time in a lower-traffic environment that was better suited to handle Stealth's lower-than-anticipated capacity. Sadly, Stealth has not aged well, and its presence in Carowinds as "Nighthawk" is almost better off ignored.

Paramount's relationship with Vekoma was all but severed following this "Flying Dutchman" fiasco, and the 2nd and 3rd flying coasters that had been contracted for Kings Island and Kings Dominion were cancelled. It was at this point that Six Flags swooped in and bought the yet-to-be-constructed coasters and shipped them off to two of their recently-acquired parks, Six Flags America and Six Flags Ohio. Ironically, following Six Flags Ohio's subsequent sale to Cedar Fair (and in the midst of its eventual closure), Cedar Fair shuttled the park's "X-Flight" flying coaster to the near-by and newly-acquired Kings Island, where it was then constructed on the very same plot for which it was originally intended during the park's Paramount days.

Crazier than fiction, huh?

Back in California, we have the soon-to-be-married love birds, Doctor Daniel Eugine Joans and Lady Alexa Nicole Lovas enjoying their ride on the sky ride. :}

As far as stadiums go, I rather like the one that has appeared at Great America. It's quite a  change!

One of Great America's first additions following my departure from the area is this set of Larson flyers. If I'm not mistaken, they're one of the first (if not THE first) set of flyers by Larson, who has since ushered in a bonafide flyer renaissance!!

Jeff is no stranger to piloting flyers.

In fact, all of the boys are quite talented in the rutter-ing department. :}

Ok, boys! Family photo in the ACE lounge before the next adventure...

…the photo walk-back tour of Great America! C'mon, my lovely ACErs! Let us frolic and take photos!

First stop: Flight Deck's back bowl!

This service road beneath Flight Deck provides some remarkable vantage points of this B&M masterpiece,

including this spectacular flatspin view, which was made famous following Top Gun's media shoot.

It's here we notice that Flight Deck's flatspin is articulated in such a way that the track swoops even closer to the ground for the ride's lake helix finale.

While not as flattering as the other shot, this view of the flatspin makes Flight Deck look like a giant tomato, and I think that's really swell. :}

One last shot before we move to our next destination!

Look at all of these trees! Where is it we could be??

Beneath Vortex, of course!

Atop the berm that was once home to Great America's miniature railway, to be precise. :}

Vortex, I've learned, is best enjoyed from afar. Watching it involves far fewer blows to the head. 

I will say, though, that Vortex's layout is fairly remarkable. Great America presented B&M with quite the challenge: Build a full-sized stand-up coaster on a plot of land already occupied by Tidal Wave, Triple Play, and the train, while keeping all three rides intact. Vortex would go on to outlive all of its original neighbors, but it has them to thank for its extraordinarliy space-economical layout!

While ACErs and tall people alike may turn their noses up at Vortex, the crowds still seem to enjoy it. 

And who can blame them? When I was 9, this was one of the coolest rides ever!

Moving right along. I'm sure you know what's coming next. :}

GOLD STRIKER PHOTOGRAPHY EXPLOSION!

Gold Striker is elusive. Its few publicly-accessible vantage points are made even more challenging to photograph by the ride's numerous sound-dampening walls.

However, our tour inside Gold Striker's super structure gave us an intimate look at this elusive beast!

The views are so lovely, in fact, that I should hope to see the park expand the midway into this area. :} 

As we continued, we found ourselves right on the western property line!

That of course means it's time for some Demon love!

Our Demon tour came in two parts! First, we enjoyed the greenway beneath the ride's signature double loops, which famously replaced the ride's original bunny hops from its "Turn of the Century" days. 

A large chunk of Arrow looping coasters feature back-to-back vertical loops. This trend actually started with the back-to-back corkscrew element, which began with the debut of the original "Corkscrew" at Knott's Berry Farm. Every Arrow coaster built featuring a corkscrew has no less than two corkscrews total, and all of them feature their corkscrews back-to-back, save for one notable exception: Busch Garden Williamsburgs's infamous "DrachenFire" coaster, which was a failed attempt by Arrow to break their mold of cookie-cutter inversions. When the park was moved to remove DrachenFire's first of two corkscrews, it made the ride the only Arrow coaster to ever operate with a single corkscrew (unless you count the ride's first drop, which was somewhere in the realm between a corkscrew and a dive loop of sorts). 

The double loop trend came two years after the original Corkscrew, and was ushered in by the aptly named "Double Loop" at Geauga Lake. The Great America parks were quick to get on the corkscrew bandwagon with their Turn of the Century coasters, but after only 4 years decided that the rides needed to be a part of the double-loop trend as well. However, because the loops were being constructed on a plane originally occupied by two perfectly-straight bunny hills, the park needed to do something a little different. Geauga Lake's Double Loop coaster set the standard for future double-loop coasters, which was based on the same principles as the original corkscrew coaster: two back-to-back corkscrews, both turning clockwise, from left to right (or counter-clockwise, from right to left; it doesn't matter as long as both corkscrews turn in the same direction). Similarly, Double Loop was built with two identical loops, both beginning to the right and ending to the left. This, of course, puts the train two track widths away from where it was before entering the first loop, and that wasn't going to work with the straight-plane Demon coasters. So, of course, the obvious solution was to build one loop to the right, and then one to the left, thus putting the track back on its original trajectory. The only other Arrow looping coaster to feature this phenomenon is the remarkable "Fantasia Special" at Tongdo Fantasia in South Korea, which also features the World's only triple-corkscrew. 

Whew, that was a lot of reading, huh? Didn't think this would turn into an Arrow Dynamics history lesson, didja? :}

Back to the pictures! 

Peek-a-boo!

Demon's mirror-image loops are separated by a long straight of track that isn't found on other double-looping coasters; If I'm not mistaken, it was put in place to make for a more comfortable transition between the loops' directional changes.

Here we have the often-overlooked 2nd vertical loop. Both Demons were built with rock formations that pass through the center of the 2nd loop, but now only Six Flags Great America's Demon has that feature.

For the first 20+ years that Arrow designed looping coasters, loops came in two sizes:

big and small. :}

The Demon coasters feature one of each. The only Arrow coaster to break vertical loop mold is Dollywood's marvelous "Tennessee Tornado," which continued (with much more success) the breaking-of-the-mold trend that Arrow had started with DrachenFire. Sadly, Arrow folded amidst the chaos over a certain prototype coaster at Magic Mountain, leaving Tennessee Tornado the company's looping coaster swan song. 

This is here also. It has a backstory, but I swear it's not as long as Demons. Promise.

Clearly Demon is the more interesting of the two rides anyways. :}

You can get shots like these of the Demon at Six Flags Great America pretty easily because of the path leading to the Southwest area that passes right through here, but at California'a Great America it's a rare opportunity!

The PR guy showing us around said that this area was publicly accessible at one point, but I forget now when he said that was. 

Hey, Grizz. What's shakin'?

YOU are?!

Hardy-har-har.

Grizzly is an interesting case. Most boring/mild wooden coasters happen by accident, but Grizzly is boring by design. It was also kind of painful for a while, but these days it's actually quite pleasant. 

Before Paramount Pictures decided to throw their hat in the amusement park ring, Great America's parent company was the Kings Entertainment Corporation. As their name would suggest, they were the company responsible for Kings Island and Kings Dominion. KECO also rescued Carowinds from financial ruin in 1975 (which was the same year that Kings Dominon opened, hence the Rebel Yell / Thunder Run connection). 1981 and 1985 saw the opening of Canada's Wonderland and Australia's Wonderland, respectively, and in 1986, Great America rounded out the crew. 

KECO, a Cincinnati-based operation, really had a thing for the defunct Coney Island (Ohio) Wildcat. They liked it so much, in fact, that they decided to construct FOUR incarnations of the coaster in the early to mid 80s. The first Wildcat was built at the brand-new Canada's Wonderland, which borrowed its name from King's Island's then-new coaster, the Beast! And, as if one Coney Island homage wasn't enough, the defunct park's other classic wooden coaster, "Shooting Star," was also re-incarnated at Canada's Wonderland, though the "Mighty Canadian Minebuster" seems to hold less reverence than its Beastly sibling (It apparently only deserved one re-incarnation, after all). Canada's Wonderland's reincarnation of the Wildcat went over so well that Wildcat #2 was built the very next year, this time to complement Rebel Yell at the flourishing Kings Dominion. It was here that the Grizzly name was born ( I guess they decided they only needed one Beast per country…? ). The 3rd Wildcat (and the 3rd Beast) was built for Australia's Wonderland, but this one was a little different. The story goes that, to appeal to a larger overall audience (this was, after all, Australia's first conventional wooden coaster), this particular incarnation of the ride was toned down considerably from the original. Whether or not the story is true, the difference in ride layouts can't be denied. As luck would have it, when it came time for Great America to get Wildcat #4, KECO decided it would be a good idea to give us the numbed-down Australian version of the ride, instead of the far superior Kings Dominion version from which our coaster's moniker was derived. 

Meanwhile, here in California, a new style of roller coaster train had be developed for the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper, which is just down Hwy 17 from Great America. The peculiar but pragmatic fiberglass "California Style" trains were designed by D.H. Morgan Manufacturing of Scotts Valley, CA (which, oddly enough, is the very same suburb of Santa Cruz in which I lived. It's also off of Hwy 17 :} ) to better negotiate the classic curves of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's pride and joy. KECO caught wind of this and decided that what the dull-as-dishwater Great America Grizzly needed to complement its lack of luster was a pair of paper-thin trains that harbor almost no momentum. This would later help make Morgan's California-Style trains the most abhorred things on the planet, and would also help Grizzly rank among the worst wooden coasters in recorded history. 

Despite the odds, Grizzly was an exceedingly pleasant experience at Coaster Con XXXVII, much to the surprise of its riders.

(Okay, I lied. This one was JUST as long as the one about Demon. I'm sorry. It won't happen again.)

…

(Actually, that was a lie too. It's probably going to happen again at the Boardwalk. And Magic Mountain. So. PREPARE YOURSELVES. You have been warned.)

:}

…anyways, here we have a unique view of the Barney Oldfield Speedway. The once double-tracked Arrow car ride is a Great America original, but was rerouted in 1986 to make room for Blahhhzzly. 

Okay, FINALLY! Something exciting…….flowers! :D

You think reading all of this stuff is exhausting? You should have seen me after that walk back tour. It was almost two hours of fabulous photo time, but I was fairly ragged at the end. Time for some food!

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Amusement Park sushi? Seriously? That's a gamble if I ever saw one."

The fact of the matter is there's a little old Japanese man in the kitchen making it all, so I knew it just had to be good. And it was! California Roll and Inarizushi (sushi rice stuffed in a tempura'd tofu pouch). :}

Oh yeah. Then there's this.

Let's go ahead and fast-foward through the history of this situation here. Great America's signature Intamin Triple Wheel once sat here, but in 1998 it was replaced with the mechanically-finicky Invertigo. Then Invertigo was replaced in 2011 by this patch of grass. Invertigo now operates (and I use that term lightly in this case) at Dorney Park as "Stinger." The patch of grass has far fewer maintenance problems. 

Kings Island's sister coaster retained the Invertigo moniker after the Paramount sale because "Face-Off," the ride's original name, is also the name of a John Travolta / Nicholas Cage film that has absolutely nothing to do with the ride. King's Island's Invertigo has far fewer maintenance problems than Stinger, but still more than the patch of grass.

Let's take a break for a sec and appreciate the scenery.

Okay, enough scenery. Let's appreciate this Schwarzkopf Bayern Kurve! 

That's the spirit, boys! Way to go!

Bayern Kurve selfie! The only other U.S. park you can do this at now is Kennywood. The'yre the last two Bayern Kurves in North America.

These modern shoot-the-chute rides are starting to go the way of the Bayern Kurve. They were a popular trend coming off the heels of the river rapids sensation, but their often cookie-cutter layouts have made them less of a commodity in recent years. 

Splashwater selfie with the posse that started it all!

#scandiposse #sillyhomos #werk

Many of these spillwater rides don't have very impressive surroundings,

but Whitewater Falls' scenery is so lovely that I hope the ride stays for many more years.

While we were drying off, we decided to check out the photo contest.

(Congratulations to the UNSTOPPABLE JONATHAN HYMES II for a well-deserved 1ST AND 2ND PLACE photo contest victory!!) 

Then we checked out the park's candy kitchen, in which Great America really delivered with their homemade sweets. Vanilla-Butterfinger fudge? Yes, please. 

The boys rode the Celebration Swings while I pigged out on fudge. :}

Then we rode the carousel! 

Lots of family portraits today. :}

And a selfie with my secret weapon! 

Ok! Time for some bird's eye views!

Okay, let's have a little award show real quick:

Gold Striker wins best ride at Great America.

Vortex wins worst ride.

And Grizzly gets most improved! Thanks for playing and drive home safely.

One of the only opportunities to snag a good shot of Gold Striker is right outside the exit. 

Switching gears: who wants to get wet??

There's a lot of nostalgia about the Log Jammer. Yankee Clipper, Log Jammer's "Super Flume" companion, was retired to make way for Stealth, but Jammer's still going strong as it approaches its 40th season.

Log flumes: eliciting mixed reactions since 1965. 

If you're like me, then you probably still have a desire to ride the Yankee Clipper. Six Flags Great America has both flumes, but Clipper only runs on the busiest of days. Both of their flumes have retained their original layouts. Our Jammer's layout was altered for Stealth, but now winds around Boomerang Bay. Something about a log flume in a water park just feels so right!

Great America West has still managed to hold onto their "Yankee Harbor" area, while Six Flags Great America's has more or less become equal parts Kiddieland Chicago, Gotham City, and Six Flag's magical land of Y2K over-speculation.

Where Six Flags Great America's lighthouse once stood now resides V2: Vertical Velocity. Roughly the same area at California's Great America is also occupied by an Intamin contraption, but here the lighthouse remains intact. 

"Excuse me, can you tell me where Stealth is? I coulda sworn the entrance was right around here somewhere…"

Here's something that hasn't changed: Orbit! Originally opening as "Orleans Orbit," the ride's name was shortened when part of Orleans Square was turned into the "All-American Corners" area. Other than that, thing's here haven't changed much since '76!

Rip Roarin' Rapids (or simply "Rapids" as the sign now states) is wetter than ever! Like, really wet. It just sends you under this crazy monsoon-like water feature that 100% covers you. It's ruthless and I love it. 

Now we must leave this beautiful place for a few hours and change clothes.

On our way back to the park, we stopped at a gas station, where I decided to buy these. Big mistake. They taste like putrid fish Cheetos. 

Back inside the park, we decided to check out the ACE Great America Museum!

The centerpiece for which is this custom Coaster Dynamix model of Top Gun.

Over here we have this little trip down memory lane: Tidal Wave!! 

My very first rides on this classic were still during its Tidal Wave days, but in 1998 the ride received a fresh paint job and a new identity: Greased Lightnin'! (Not to be confused with "Greezed Lightnin'", the Schwarzkopf shuttle loop that formerly ran at Astroworld. Why Great America decided to borrow the name of a competing company's identical ride is beyond me, though it kind of reminds me of how Paramount AND Six Flags both needed stand-up coasters called "Shockwave" in their repertoires for some reason (but that's a story for another time). In this case, the different spelling of the two rides' names protected Paramount from copyright infringement.)

Sadly, the Greased Lightnin' re-boot would only last the ride another 5 years. In 2003, the pieces of Great America's Greased Lightnin' were combined with those of the Viper at Six Flags Over Georgia (which just so happened to be the other Tidal Wave that Six Flags Great America had retired in 1991 in favor of welcoming the Caped Crusader) to create one total functioning Schwarzkopf shuttle loop. The composite shuttle loop was constructed at Kentucky Kingdom and named "Greezed Lightnin'" after its counterpart in Astroworld. The two Greezed Lightnin's ran until 2005 and 2010, following their respective parks' closures. While 3 years of dormancy lead to the eventual demolition of Kentucky Kingdom's Greezed Lightnin', Astroworld's Greezed Lightnin' was sold to Joyland in Texas with intentions of an eventual rebuild. However, after about 5 years or so, Joyland called it quits, and from there it was traded to Cliff's Amusement Park of New Mexico in exchange for a water play area. The ride has since vanished from the grid; at this point, the ride would be in no condition to be rebuilt anyways. 

The good news is that Knott's Berry Farm's Montezooma's Revenge is alive and well. We'll be visiting Montezooma in about a week or so. :}

Turn of the Century and Demon both have a history of running three trains, but the need for three trains has long since gone. The immaculately-restored lead car of Demon's yellow train is now a part of ACE's archives, if I'm not mistaken. 

Ah, this brings me back. Project Stealth before its final paint job and announcement.

And here we have something very interesting! A model of the ride that would eventually become Gold Striker!

Gold Striker may be the new kid on the block, but for park executives, the ride was already a familiar friend by the time it was built. Striker began in 2007 as a mystery GCI concept with a roughly star-shaped layout and high turns. Indecision from Great America and resistance from park neighbors pushed the ride's planning stage into the 5 year mark (it was even rumored to have been re-directed to Cedar Point at one point), and during those 5 years, Gold Striker experienced several adjustments. While the ride's first drop and overall height stayed the same, its high banked turns were lowered considerably and banked more sharply. The ride's pre-lift section was moved to the right of the station, and the track leading to and from the ride's midway-hugging fan turn were lifted out from under the first airtime hill and angled more to the left of the station. The break run was also angled away from the station and segmented into two halves.

Following the finalization and announcement of Gold Striker, construction of the ride included an increasing number of sound-dampening tunnels and walls, including the ride's now-signature first drop tunnel. Ride testing lead to noise complaints, which in turn lead to more sound walls. Even after the ride's official opening, noise complaints shut the ride down for even more walls. At some point during this saga, industrial-strength styrofoam sheets were placed under and between the slats of the ride's track to further combat the noise. The result is one of GCI's quietest and most head-chopper-riffic creations to date!

Next stop: Boomerang Bay!

It was at this point that I made the discovery that Stealth's station is still standing. It now serves as an entry foyer for the park's large slide tower. Kind of looks like alien ruins. :}

It was a little chilly, but that didn't stop the boys and me from enjoying the slides at Boomerang Bay! The park's family raft slide is quite potent!

I had to take advantage of the lovely views from the slide tower, so after I was thoroughly soaked and cold I headed to the top to take some photos and enjoy what was left of the sunshine.

EXTREME SOLAR FLARE HIPSTER INSANITY!

I never did get a ride on Revolution H.M.B. Endeavour. Both times I tried, the ride was down briefly. It loves the camera though. :}

Boomerang Bay's star attraction is this spectacular "Boomerango"- style slide, which has both terrifying drops and great airtime!

Ezra and Steve agree! Boomerang Bay's water slides are few, but they definitely pack a punch!!

Our Luau-themed dinner (you can't have a Paul Blick event without a Luau!) was served at sunset by the wave pool. I ate several skewers of shrimp. :}

Time for a ride on yet another classic Schwarzkopf flat !

#fireworksetting :}

We now return to the Lifetime™ Original Movie, "Psycho Mouse: The Last Arrow."

I was here for the media day of this delightful (and surprisingly comfortable) wild mouse in  April of 2001. Arrow Dynamics closed its doors forever the following December.

#selfie on the fabulous Arrow mouse with banked turns!

Drop Zone Tower! So good to see you. 

Drop Tower is the oldest operating Intamin 2nd Generation Freefall. It was the second Intamin "Giant Drop" ever built, following the debut of the prototype at Kentucky Kingdom (which originally possessed one of the greatest ride names of all time: "Hellevator"). Paramount opened a smaller version at Carowinds that same year, and a 3rd tower at Canada's Wonderland the following year. Kings Island wouldn't receive theirs until 1999, but their patience was rewarded a 3rd Generation "Roto Drop" Freefall, which came as a part of an area re-vitalization that also included their earlier-mentioned Face-Off / Invertigo coaster. Kings Dominion, late to the party, didn't receive their Drop Zone until 2003, but their updated version of the Kings Island tower provides what is likely the best ride experience of the five. 

Everybody loves Grizzly!*

*not actually true, but I am excited about the ride's improvements.

M&M and I now bid you a good evening from Gold Striker. G'night, y'all!

Whew! That was a long one. Is everyone still awake? Alive? Okay, good. :}

Tomorrow we get ANOTHER full day at Great America, but this time our adventure will be laden with exciting ACE-tastic activities and maybe a few surprises!

See you bright and early tomorrow for the Midway Olympics! :}