Well, I've been bragging and bragging about this trip, and now I'm on it! That's right, I'm in San Diego right now. So, let's start with getting here:

As a punishment for my bragging and being an @$$, I was stuck in Newark International for 4 hours because of my delayed flight, as seen in the airline troubles thread. So finally, after my 10 wonderful hours with Continental, I was in San Diego. I'd been here before for an extended time, so I know alot about the area, and will start you off with just San Diego, you can scroll down to the Knott's part if you'd like. Photo's are on page four.



San Diego

To stay: In San Diego, there are many great places to stay. Whether you prefer beach, downtown, or countryside types of areas, it all depends on your budget. If you are on low budget, there are some places downtown, which can get boring, because there isn't too much to do downtown unless you are on business and they have dinner cruises and such. For a beach, you can stay at Mission Beach or Pacific Beach. They look like common shore places, not too expensive, and they are near everything (Sea World, Belmont Park, Zoo, Balboa Park). For a medium or higher budget, depending on where you find them, there are hotels all over Downtown, ranging from Hyatt to Radisson, so it all depends one where you like. You can stay at country-like places which is referred to as inland county (it's all San Diego county though). There are many of these golfing resorts all around the inland areas. There are some nicer hotels at the mentioned beches as well. For absolute Luxury, stay at Coronado hotel, it's probably the best you can get. It's on peninsula reaching into San Diego bay. There are some northern beaches (La Jolla, Del Mar, Oceanside, Carlsbad) but they are mostly residential areas.


Beaces: There are many beaches, all nearby, because San Diego isn't that big. There are the very nice looking beaches, such as Oceanside and Carlsbad, which are the Nothern shores. Del Mar and La Jolla are in my opinion the best, they have many cool looking gardens with plants that look so weird, like they're going to jump out and eat you, and cool palm trees too. In La Jolla, I think there is kayaking, hang gliding, a bunch of cool stuff. There are also coves, and a Seal Reserve. Then there are the common looking beaches (Mission, Pacific), which are nice, but nothing too special. In Mission Beach, there is something else special......


Parks: Belmont Park in Mission Beach is nothing but kiddie rides and Giant Dipper, which is a fun wooden coaster that is really old. Other then the coaster there's not much to do. Sea World is cool, I guess It's like most Sea Worlds, with mainly shows, and only 2 rides (JTA, Shipwreck Rapids), the common Sea World simulator, and the common Anhueser Busch 4-d movie, which all change ever few years. The Zoo is amazing, very big, suggested that you buy the tour pass for the zoo, and maybe even the Skyride if you can't walk to the very top area of the zoo (Polar Bears). Do not miss the pandas, even if the line is long, it'll go kindof quick, and well, pandas, you can't miss that. Got the the children's zoo as well, because the animals there are baby animals, which will make you go "aww" no matter who you are. There is also the Wild Animal Park, same company as the Zoo, which is like another zoo, but the animals aren't in cages, you just walk around paths that go near the natural habitat. This park is located in a partial desert climate area, so suggested that you go there equipped with fans, bottles of water, and stuff like that. There is a train ride which goeas around ares that you cannot reach by foot. If it is closed, don't go to the park that day, it is really not to miss, like I did. I have heard that it is amazing though, like being in the actual area that you are going through (SE Asia, Africa, it's different throughout the ride). You can buy packages that have the Zoo and WAP (Wild Animal Park) with all of the rides included (skyride, tour, train). There are many other park packages, which will vary that can include USH, SW, Zoo, WAP, Knott's. Then there is also a SoCal city pass that can be used at the 5 mentioned parks, along with the Disney parks and I think SFMM.



Knott's

Well, I've been to Soak City in San Diego, and it is a great waterpark. It has all of the common rides that any water park would have, but nothing special. All of the rides are named after things in San Diego, so that's cool. The family raft ride is the tallest ride there, pretty cool ride. From atop the taller slides, you can see the Mexican border line. The one next to Knott's looked like a smaller park, but it's probably the same type of slides, with different names, and closer together.


Enough messing around now, I bet you wanna hear about Knott's Berry Farm. Well, I want on Sunday the 26th, and the park wasn't too crowded, but the lines were still kind of long, it says why for each one. This is my trip to Knotts:

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Silver Bullet 9/10
Great invert, originally both trains were running, and first thing when I got in I went to the line to ride. Got the front row in less than 10 minutes. The drop, though not too exciting, is actually fun, instead of a steep descent down, it's a smooth glide into the loop, feels like you're flying rather than dropping. The loop was taken pretty quickly, but it wasn't too forceful. So the drop and loop, though cool, were kindof boring. But after that was the overbank. It was amazing! You go up, and u[ and then whip over to the side, whip back and fly down. Down into the cobraroll. This cobraroll was about the same as Alpie's; rise up smoothly and flip over, then go through the twisty corkscrew part, and come back down. Alpie's is bigger, but in proportion to speed it feels the same. The twist wasn't too great, on Talon and B:TR it kind of goes very quickly, this one is very streched out, and doesn't really pull much of any force. The turn afterwards was cool, you just spun around above a bunch of people on the ground. The first corkscrew, like the twist, wasn't snappy, it was just a flip. Then there was that little bump that made big airtime, very nice. The second corkscrew was snappy like it should be, and was then followed by the helix. Fun helix, but wasn't that forceful, didn't compare to Talon. The ride goes through quickly, but by the end of the helix, the ride went slowly to the brakes, which did nothing until halfway through, were it came to an abrupt stop. I wanted to go back to ride later in the day, but they put it to one train operation and this ride wouldn't have been worth waiting a very long time, so I spent that time waiting for Xcelerator. This isn't as good as Talon or Alpengeist, but better than B:TR. The ride got a 9.


Jaguar! 8/10
After Silver Bullet, I went to Fiesta Village, rode their Chance Revolution, and then went to Jaguar! Entering the Aztec building, the line went back and fourth through the temple, nicely themed, very dark and wet inside. This iss a fun ride, the first lift goes just above the tree line, giving a great view of Xcelerator and other rides on the boradwalk. This ride was fun, it had some air hops, some high lats good views. When the ride wasn't doing somethng exciting, it was giving good photo shots of Silver Bullet, or going through Motnezooma's loop. or interacting with an aztec temple. The ride get's a 7, but all of the surrounding stuff (SB, theming) gets it to an 8/10


Montezooma's Revenge 10/10
I never knew Shwarzkopf shuttle loops were so amazing. I don't understand why this ride is nearly invisible, hidden in the back of Fiesta Village, but that makes it cooler, with trees surrounding and all. I sat down, put the seat belt on, and then the emptied the train because of some breakdown. Eventually almost everyone except 5 other people left the station, and then they got it to work. They ran it through a test, and the train went into the loop just as Jaguar! passed through it. Good synchronization. Then I sat down in the front. like always, put the seatbelt on, pulled the lapbar down. Staring down the launch, I hear "Clear, Dispatch" we inch forward and then 4 seconds later we're going 60 MPH. Not too intense of a launch, but exciting. The loop is so small, and nearly circular, those forces were great, and then up, it looked like the train was going to fly off the top of the track, and then right before we hit the top, we fall back down, through the loop, backward, and up the backward spike. If you look up whil you are one the backward spike, you will be looking across the park at the entire Ghostrider. Even if this ride were in the middle of no where, it get's a 10


Xcelerator 11/10
Leaving the exit of Montezooma, I come to realize that I had ridden 59 different coasters. So I want to make my 60th special, and man, it was. I walk through the line to the area where it splits to the front car and other cars. To the front I go. After being angry at Knott's for 20 minutes for only running one train, I start watching the launches. Fun stuff. Cool photo shots. Another 10 minutes and I realize something that made me very angry about this and, later, Ghostrider. The front means not row, but seats in the front car. Well, if one waited much longer for the front, why would they then not ride in the front? So I made sure I would. After a total of 40 minutes, I sat down in the seat to discover how comfortable the Intamin hyper seats really are. Those new sidebars aren't too bad, they're actually comfortable to rest your arms while you wait for them to put your lapbar down. Why do they do that? The first 2 times I rode they said leave your lapbar up, but the last time they didn't. So here is what happened the first time (anything in double "quotes" I actually said, anything in single 'quotes' I thought):
'These seats are pretty comfy and secure' YELLOW 'this should be pretty cool' YELLOW 'I wonder if I can put my hands up while launching' YELLOW 'Rolling back and seeing the....' YELLOW '.....brake fins go down is cool' YELLOW "(yawn)" GREEN "AAAHHHHHH!!!" A few seconds later we're going up vertically. I didn't expect the twist to be so whippy, but it was great. First and last time I rode were in the front, and there was floater at the top of the tophat, but nothing too special, down we go, to the ground it, it takes the picture and up into the first banked turn, nothing crazy about it, just a turn around. Then the second one was great, you're going up and turning, and then you just flip over to the side and flip back, fun stuff. then into the brakes, which weren't smooth like the video said. In the back, the ride was the same except the top hat had ejector air which kept me out of my seat for the entire drop. God-like. I enjoyed that video, it had people dressed liek they're from the 50's doing safety stuff, and then showed Keith McVeen's Badnitrus rendering of the ride. My 60th coaster. Amazing ride, 11/10, tied number one steel coaster with Volcano. Go Intamin!


Ghostrider 10/10
So after Xcelerator, I went to eat some lunch in the Marketplace at the subs takeout place, not bad. While eating, I was staring straight at Ghostrider, and when I finished, I went straight to it. I walked right by the entrace at first, thought it was just a rock formation. I didn't take any pictures of this ride because I didn't feel like it, but I'm sure that's not too interesting anyway, as it's not that new. So this had 2 trains running, a brown and a gold, I don't know if there are 3 trains, can anyone say if there are? Anyway, the front seat like always. Now I get to experience roughness, but the good, wooden kind. Fun drop out of the station. I like how that area was also kindof like a desert, which went well with the area (Wild West), unlike another ride placed there*. So up the lift, to the top, I could see a nice view of nothing, really, thanks to the roof they put up on the drop, and the person to the right of me, well, took up alot of space. So then down the drop, very nice, the next hill was great airtime, I loved it, then up the next one and that turnaround that can be found on more than one CCI, then more hills and turns making a long double out and back ride complete with airtime, high lats, and a great helix finale with that last airtime bump. Best wooden coaster that I've been on 10/10.


Screamin Swing 8/10
So, *this is that ride. It's white with red and blue stripes. But you forget about the colors when you're on the ride. So the restraint is very odd, first it comse ove your lap from the sie, then it is pushed down depending on how it should fit you. So you feel a push and begin to move. The first push was surprisingly forceful and got you up far, then backward, forward, after a few pushes, you were at full height, and it's so scary, you feel like you need something to grab onto. Great ride, thrilling, but short. It'd be a 9/10 if either it was a longer ride or it was cheaper to $2 instead of $5. So 8/10, Worth at least one ride, I'd do it again though.


Boomerang 5/10
I went to ride Riptide, but the water wasn't on, so it was mostly like any top spin, but floorless, which was cool. I then went to ride Xcelerator for the second time, now in the back, which you can read about in the Xcelerator reiew. Boomerang failed. I went on the Sea Serpent in Wildwood, and that was actually smooth because of their new trains. On this, I knew to keep my head to one side of the restraint, but the actual train shook through the track, and forced my head to start banging around. This is the only roller coaster that has ever made me feel sick, and the only way to get rid of it was to ride:


Water Rides
I didn't ride Perilous Plunge because it wasn't that warm out. Big Foot Rapids was lame. There were no drops, just some turns and rapid waters areas that had a few splashes. No waterfuls, whirlpool areas, no shooting water at you, just a boat winding town a river of water with a bit of splashing. 2/5
Right after that I went on Bear Mountain Log Ride. It was great, it had all of the Christmas decorations instead of the usual ones, but I got the idea of what it's usually like. Best log flume I've ridden. It had alot of different tunnels, and went in and around the mountain. There was a surprise drop in pitch dark, that was great. 5/5

I then went to the Wave Swinger, followed by Supreme Scream. I guess if you rode one Turbo Drop you rode all, same with Wave Swingers, so you know what they're like. Went for one last ride in the front of Xcelerator, one hour wait, but well worth it.

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Great park, clean, very well themed, I love the different sections of the park. I give it an A, 94%. It was mostly great, but that thing with the lines on Xcelerator and Ghostrider bothered me, as did the fact that they replaced another coaster with a Boomerang. One more thing was that they charged $5 for a ride that wasn't worth that much. So, 94%, A. Dorney used to be my fav, but this one had the theming over it, as well as the whole fav wood and steel coaster in one park, but still, go Cedar Fair. This is now my favorite park!


When I get home, I will put all photos up. I didn't make the video on Xcelerator because the ops saw me, most pics are of Xcelerator and Silver Bullet, no pics of Ghostrider, some Screamin Swing pics too.

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Sounds like you had fun. I didn't know Xcelerator was that awesome. I will be watching for when you pictures go up. Glad you like Ghostrider. Surprised that SB got such a low rating, I thought it would be better.

Rather dissapointing, definately not the best invert.

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8 out of 10 is a low rating?

I'm beginning to think Alpy will not ever leave my #1 Invert position.

But I'm looking forward to the coaster in June. KBF will probably be our finale to the trip.

I'm going to SFOG this spring to get my Six Flags pass and going to skip riding the new kiddie coaster because that would be #100 for me. lol

I'll save that spot for something at SFMM. Hard to decide between so many great coasters. X, Superman and Goliath are all in the front running.

I think it depends on what's closest to the front gate. LOL.

June hurry up and get here!

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glad to hear you had a good time. have you been on Raptor? if so how does it compare? and how does Xcelerator compare to StormRunner?

in the above post: dont dissapoint yourself by having your 100th be Superman. it is a good coaster but very dissapointing. i would say go for X because it is just so unique.

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8/10 is low, considering one point was because of the theming and all, and the coaster was debated between rides like Raptor, Talon, and Alpie, which are better.

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then you want either X, Revolution, or Viper.

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it's simple

I guess it'll be X then. Let's hope it's running and with a 10 minute wait that day. lol.

I wonder if I write ahead of time and tell them it will be my 100th if they'll give me any special treatment. I doubt it. A walk up would be nice though.

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Sound like you had fun. I am suprised you liked Talon better than SB though. SB looked like it was more fun. I guess I'll have to ride SB to put in my opinion on it.

Well, the main flaw was lack of forcefulness. The helix couldn't compare, the zero g was streched out, not enough negs and lats, and one of the corkscrews wasn't snappy. It was a great ride, but not as good as Talon, which I expected it to be.

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Where are teh photos?

I'm in San Diego, and I don't have any uploading things here.

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meowcoaster1 will be posting them when she arrives at home. She is in San Diego.

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"I go out and see a kid grabbing his crotch. Ain't nobody telling them that. Where do they get it from? They watch MTV. I say, 'If you wash up more often, you won't have to grab your crotch.' I'm telling these guys, 'Why you gotta grab your crotch?' Then you see Michael Jackson grabbing his crotch 50 times. What's with him?" - Mr. T