5/15/04

I decided to take a coaster vacation this year. I’m on the west coast for the first time in my life (well…to me Reno, Nev., is the west coast) and figured that I’d take in a few coasters that I may never get to visit again.

After not sleeping the night before because I was so excited about riding coasters the next day, I got to PGA just after 9:00. My hotel was about a mile or so away. Parked fairly close to the entrance and proceeded to walk to the gate and stand in line.

Just my luck, there was a fairly big crowd waiting to get in. Found out later that there was some type of special happening at the park that day and a TON of High School, possibly some Jr. High, kids were there. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older, but please tell me that I wasn’t as big of an idiot as some of those kids were. I was determined to not let that small problem ruin my day.

My first impression of the park was pretty good. I’ve been to PKI several times and PKD and have enjoyed both tremendously. Upon first glance PGA looked just like a typical Paramount park. Fountain as soon as you get inside the gates, flowers, nice themeing.

They let us in the park about 15 minutes or so early. I made my way towards Top Gun along with I think about 50% of everyone who was waiting. As is normal, they had part of the park roped off until the exact stroke of 10:00. People were shoving and pushing and of course when they opened the section, everyone made a mad dash to Top Gun. I absolutely it when that happens. It’d be nice if they’d try to make it somewhat orderly. Oh well…that wasn’t going to ruin my day either.

I skipped Top Gun and started walking around the park. Came upon Delerium and walked right on to it. Great ride. Fantastic way to start the day. I headed over to Grizzly. I’m a big fan of woodies, unfortunately, this one let me down. Just not very exciting. Walked to Invertigo. Great! Enjoyed it completely. Went to Vortex, very nice. A little head bang though. Made my way over to Top Gun. Great ride! Waited an hour and it was worth it. Finally made it to the Psycho Mouse. I’ve never been on a wild mouse coaster before and even though it didn’t have the intensity of a regular coaster, the hairpin turns really were fun!

The park was clean, themed very well, exactly what I expected from a Paramount Park. All the rides were running and the staff did a good job. While I enjoyed the rides, I wasn’t overly wowed as a whole. I’m glad that I got a good price on the ticket because if I had to pay full price, I would much rather have been at a park like CP.

I left PGA about 2 or so and headed to Valencia and SFMM where I am now and plan on spending the next two days.

Actually, I got to Valencia around 8pm and went to the park to see if I could ride anything just to get a taste of my days to come. Managed to get on Viper (10-15 min wait), Revolution (practically a walk on) and Goliath (about 40 minute wait, but worth it.) I’m probably not going to be able to sleep again tonight, but I don’t care! X is first on my list.

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Thrillnetwork Editor

Nice TR, looking forward to the rest of it.

PGA does look like a typical Paramount park as it is setup to be presented as one, but it is noticeably and considerably smaller than the others. (Especially in comparison to Kings Dominion, the only other Paramount park I've visited).

I just got back yesterday from 2 days at MM. Did X first car Friday morning at opening, then leisure circuit around park till close. Sat morning, let the masses hit X (probably 70% of initial people in rush to it...) and instead went to Deja Vu (amazingly enough it was running no problem, did it four quick times, nice start to the day, then RR, Batman, and Scream numerous times before any one else managed to get to them. All in all in two days probably 80% of my riding was done the first 2 hours of each day. MM did seem to have security guards at most line entrances, which I did not see last year. Perhaps they are trying to clean it up somewhat, also saw some Sheriffs in the park as well. Its still somewhat gangsta land, but what can you expect from So Cal... All in all a great trip, every major ride was running except Superman, Deja Vu was great way to start the day. Hope your trip was enjoyable as well..

Day 2....
Got on all the major coaster with the exception of Flashback and Superman. When I got to the park, I made a direct line to X. Got on the FIRST ride of the day on the back row. What a rush. X is absolutely amazing. It's a shame that there won't be another one like it, at least until someone else makes a copy of it. For a Sunday, the crow was light. Walked on to Colossus and Scream. All this took place within a half hour. Not a bad start to the day. I'm not a big fan of the SF parking lot coasters, but Scream was pretty darn good.

Made my way over to B:TR where the wait was under 15 minutes. Enjoyed the ride, pretty smooth. Walked to RR where the wait was about 20-30 minutes. It was a little rough, but an exceptional ride. It was definately one that I was planned on riding again. Got over to Psyclone from that. What a rough woodie. Reminded me of the Georgia Cyclone at SFOG. I decided to skip DejaVu even though it was running. I've been on the one at SFGAm and figured that it'd probably be the same.

Since I was close I hiked my way to Ninja. I'm not a huge fan of suspended coasters, but this one was awesome! Great speed and nice height going through the turns. Went on the Goldrusher. I love the mine rides. A couple of idiots behind me were complaining the whole ride. I would have loved to have thrown them off the ride so they'd quit griping.

Since I was the eager beaver and rode Viper, Revolution, Goliath and about 30 minutes after I checked in to my hotel Saturday night, I skipped those for the time being.

One thing that I will agree with LasVegasPlanner on is the security. Lots of them patrolling the lines. I didn't see too many skipping line and when they did, security usually shut them down. WTG SFMM!

It's about noon and I've ridden everything that I really wanted to get on so I went back for a second helping of X. Unfortunately X ran into some operational problems and delayed the boarding procedure. This time, I waited about an hour or so, not bad as a whole. Rode in the middle of the train this time. Still a great ride. Went to Viper and Revolution, just as good in the light as they were in the dark last night.

Managed a second ride on RR, Scream and Colossus. At this point it was staring to get a bit late (5 or so). Decided to go back for my third helping of X. This time I waited for the front seat. OH YEAH! That's the way to go. Plus, the lights were on which only added to the excitement.

Finally decided to ride DejaVu. Very smooth for a DejaVu ride. The assumption is that the mechanics at SFMM keep it in good condition.

Met a lot of great people in line, since I was traveling by myself.

The park could have been a little cleaner. I was dissapointed with the garbage in the stream by Revolution. Overall a very good day. I never thought I'd say this, but by 9:30, I was coastered out.

I can't wait to go back tomorrow!!!!!

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Thrillnetwork Editor

Ok...I'm back from my coaster vacation. I ended up looking like the guy from the Hotels.com commercial. Red face, sunglasses tan line around the face, etc. My suggestion to all concerned...BUY SUNSCREEN!

On my last day at SFMM, the sign saying that Superman:TE was closed due to weather, was turned around. The ride was still closed, but at least this time 'it wasn't due to weather.' The sky tower was closed both days as well which was dissapointing.

It seems that the ride-ops were particularly careful to check restraints. (go figure) Overall SFMM was a pleasure to visit. Since I'm from the Eastern side of the US and have been to CP, I can say that SFMM is the ONLY park to even challenge CP for dominance. The quality of rides was soooo much better than some of the other parks that I've been in. If SFI would just put as much care/thought in to the rides at other parks, they would truely have a world class collection of parks.

Ok...after two complete days at SFMM, I have concluded the following:

- The food at Mooseburger Lodge is pretty good. It's not outrageously priced and it's a sitdown restauraunt.
- X is properly ridden in the front row.
- Scream is properly ridden in the front row.
- Viper is one of the best looping coasters and one of the most intimidating looking coasters in the country.
- Wear good shoes if you plan to do any walking at all. SFMM is named that for a reason. It sits on a fairly good sized hill. You will do some hiking.
- The entrance for X is a bit hidden. Go towards Viper, take the steps towards the Chinese food place and bear to the right. Go over the bridge to find X.
- The theming for Goliath is some of the best I've ever seen. Great jungle environment. Plus the mist spayers keep you cool in line. All parks should have these installed throughout the whole que line.

There you have it. Three days and 16 (if I counted right) coasters. Sounds like a good vacation to me!

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Thrillnetwork Editor

I'm surprised you like Viper so much. I've heard from many people that it isn't that great.

I can't wait to try out SFMM and the SoCal parks when I move to Phoenix this summer.

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Bryan Wood Thrillnetwork Database Admin and review writer extraordinare

Viper had some nice elements to it. Of the looping coasters that I've ridden, only Vortex at PKI tops it in my book, but of course, I like to go upside down alot.

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Thrillnetwork Editor