California: Trip Report - Parts 1,2,3,4&5 - Knott's Berry Farm

[Alastair]

Trip Report: California

Having just got back from a 2 week holiday in California, and having in that time visited all 5 parks in the LA County area (Disneyland, DCA, SF:MM, Universal and Knott's); I feel that I should write a trip report to review the parks/some of the attractions.

Firstly I should state that, having visited Florida in 2012, my hopes for the parks in California (particularly the Disney parks) were high. I personally didn't think that anything could match Florida in terms of quality parks/quality rides within a certain area, and therefore although my hopes were high, I tried not to expect too much from them.

I'll organise the report in terms of parks overall, and then select individual rides. Bear in mind that I was only at each park for the day, which was sufficient for some but others could and probably would benefit from multiple day visits.

First: Disney California Adventure

Spoiler: Click here to view this report

This park is one of the two parks within the Disney resort, located in Anaheim - a city south-east of LA (the other being Disneyland itself). The Disney resort as a whole is a lot smaller than its counterpart in Florida , and therefore parking is in a huge multistorey car park rather than on flat land. Entry to the park is still via the classic "tram" (ie. a huge tractor style thing pulling 10 or so big cars chained together behind it) - and the journey isn't a long one up to the entrance plaza. From there, you can choose to go far right into Downtown Disney, right up into DCA or left into Disneyland (the two park entrances directly face each other).

Our first trip however was into Disney California Adventure. This park is essentially the combination of Hollywood Studios and EPCOT from Disney World - with features and rides of both being present (although slightly more biased towards the studios theme). There are a few effective clone rides at California and Florida - the main ones being Tower of Terror and Soarin' which I won't go into as they are essentially the same exact rides.

The park as a whole is classic Disney, clean cut and aesthetically stunning. You enter into a recreation of 1920's LA, with lots of overt Art Deco styling and of course not a single unthemed patch in sight. From there, you can go in any one of a number of directions. Left takes you to Hollywood Land and Tower of Terror, right goes around towards Soarin' and then the Grizzly Peak area, whilst straight on takes you first to Cars Land and ultimately to Paradise Pier at the back of the park.

Undoubtedly it's the latter two areas which make this park. Cars Land firstly, is breathtaking. What other themed area literally fills your entire field of view from such a distance as you enter? The sheer scale of this area is mindboggling, and that's without discussing the ever present street entertainment via the "Cars" from the films themselves driving around and interacting with guests.

The main attraction of this area is Radiator Springs Racers - a test track inspired ride based upon the film. This ride without a shadow of a doubt lives up to its purported $200m price tag. Whilst the racing element of the ride (where you actually race against another car outdoors and indoors) is incredible, it's the animatronics and indoor sections that really make this ride. There are numerous points where you interact with the characters from the films, and it's here that Disney excels in making them more than lifelike. They've somehow managed to perfect in the real world what was an animation on a screen in the film. Other than to a point Expedition Everest, there's also no other ride where you can travel at such high speeds outdoors and still be completely immersed in the themed environment - the ride is genuinely completely self contained.

Walk a bit further down the park and you'll eventually reach the Paradise Pier area. Along with Cars Land, this is definitely the park's signature area. The landscape of the area itself is so perfect that only Disney could have created it - no other area in any theme park looks so naturally formed, as though it is a real place and not a theme park. It's inspired in part by the Santa Monica pier, and having visited both places the resemblance is clear. There isn't an angle from which it doesn't look stunning, and that's before you even ride anything!

The main attraction of the area is California Screamin' - an Intamin launched steel coaster designed to look like a classic wooden coaster. It is also incidentally the longest coaster in the world to feature an inversion. It's somewhat of an odd ride to be included in a Disney park, but one that they manage to pull off. The ride itself is fun but never overly intense (even the loop isn't that intense), and it's always trimmed just as it could get really fun.
The fact that it's so long means that two trains can be on the track at any one time - resulting in numerous moments of 'duelling' and interaction with the other train. This is also without a doubt the fastest operated coaster I've ever seen - with dual stations and 24 seater trains dispatching in sub-30 seconds per train; resulting in over 2000pph throughput (and consistent queues of 5 minutes in a pretty busy park).

The area also includes other classic amusement park rides, befitting of the area's theme - including the distinctive "Mickey's Fun Wheel" - a unique ferris wheel featuring swinging and stationary gondolas (you can feel a little nauseous on this if you don't look in the right places!) There's also a standard Twirling Toadstools, some Flying Machines and a mini Mack Wild Mouse in the corner (is this the only Disney park with a coaster not to feature a Vekoma?) All of course immacultely themed and integrated into the area.

The middle of this area also features a lake on which numerous fountain shows take place throughout the day, culminating in a main big show at the end of the day which unfortunately we didn't stay to see. The area undoubtedly is up there with the best in any theme park though.

The other remaining big themed area of the park is Grizzly Peak, themed around California's wilderness (the great thing about DCA is how true the theming remains to the theme of California). This features one main ride in Grizzly River Run - one of the longest and tallest river rapids in the world. It's very odd for a rapids in that it has numerous proper drops, and you actually spin through them which makes for a very odd and possibly wet experience.
The area is once again almost perfect in execution, with a classic piece of theming visible from a long distance out to mark its presence. The natural feel of this area is once again really a plus point, with waterfalls, rocks and trees aplenty - similar in style although IMO superior to the Kali Rapids at Animal Kingdom.

I could go on and on about this park for ages, however I'll conclude that this is probably the second best themed park I've ever visited (hint hint I hadn't by that point visited the first). The only letdown for it is its lack of shows, however the park across the way more than makes up for that deficit!

 

[Nick]

I could go on and on about this park for ages, however I'll conclude that this is probably the second best themed park I've ever visited (hint hint I hadn't by that point visited the first).

Magic Mountain?

 

[Alastair]

Magic Mountain?

If you replace best with worst then, probably!

 

[TheMan]

MORE!

 

[Alastair]

Part 2: Universal Studios Hollywood

Spoiler: Click here to view this report

The second park we visited on the trip was perhaps the one I least anticipated given the ride lineup. Universal Hollywood was the first Universal park opened, and it sits inside its own community - known as Universal City. The location of the park is interesting; it sits on the side of a reasonably steep hill - well behind and to the West of Mt Lee (the location of the Hollywood Sign). Being where it is, the drive from entering the park boundry (in the car) to finally ending up at a parking space is possibly the longest I've encountered, looping around various construction sites (n.b. Harry Potter) before driving back along the way you came to head into yet another multistorey car park.
From there, the entrance into the park is fairly simple - just up a few escalators and you're at the plaza. The entrance is marked by a classic Universal arch as well as the sign/fountain. Universal CityWalk is located on the right of the park entrance as you approach also.

Universal CityWalk

More on the park itself. The strangest thing about the topography of the park is that it's completely split in half. Half of the park lies at the top of the hill, and half at the bottom. This complicates the day given that a monstrous series of escalators are required to navigate between these - probably a 10 minute journey just on the escalators themselves. On the whole, all of the shows and smaller rides are located on the top level, whilst the more serious attractions are on the bottom.

The feel to the park is a lot more bland than Disney, and very similar to Universal Studios Florida - with lots of nondescript white 50s style buildings, along with the huge studio soundstage facades that house the rides.

Firstly though we headed to the back of the park, down the insane escalators and to the furthest part to Transformers: The Ride. This is one of the park's signature rides, a classic Universal 3D motion ride - cloned in Florida and previously in Singapore. It lives up to its billing, with the visuals and motion being synced perfectly - it is really incomprehensible how they come up with and realise these types of rides. It's VERY similar to Spiderman 3D in Florida, and in my opinion not quite as good as that (the falling sequence in Spiderman did it for me). But undoubtedly it's an excellent ride. It does seem somewhat low key though - the outside facade being rather shabby (by Universal standards) and placed right at the back of the park furthest away from the entrance. It seems petty and harsh to criticise a ride like this though, given that it's worlds away from anything in the UK and indeed Europe.

Close to Transformers, slightly closer to the escalators was Revenge of the Mummy. One of my highest rated rides in Florida, I was looking forward to this immensely too. Once again, however, I have to say that the Floridian version just seemed to have that extra edge of effort put into it and I preferred it overall. The rides themselves are, as far as I can tell, completely different, aside from them being the same theme and both having launches. The Floridian queueline was MUCH better than the Hollywood one which consisted of a series of switchbacks in one room rather than a winding queue going through numerous themed rooms. The coaster itself lacked the impressiveness of the "fake ending" of Florida's version too, although it's still a fun coaster and has some fantastic effects.

Opposite from the Mummy was Jurassic Park: The Ride - which has also been cloned in Florida. It's a great water ride with some fine theming, although its age is showing in some places. My most vivid memory was of course getting soaked on the final drop - the only time I've encountered a soaking bigger than that was on Tutuki Splash at PortAventura!

Back up the escalators (yes, there's only three rides on the lower lot), which do afford great views of the surrounding area I must add, and it was to Waterworld - a brilliant show themed around the film. The special effects in this show were probably the best I've seen in any live show - and particularly fun was the preshow acting - involving the actors spending around 15 minutes literally walking around spraying water at people in the lower crowd and pouring buckets over their heads (the Ice Bucket Challenge fad helped with this one I imagine!)

Another show in the upper lot was the Special Effects show, which was fairly standard and, in some places a bit cringeworthy (enthusiastic American comedy acting) - and indeed similar to the one in Florida.

The main attraction on the upper lot was the Universal Studios Backlot Tour - a tour of the backlot of the studios on a large tram. What I expected on this was a tour of a working studio, and what it actually was was rather a series of sets and things either built or retained specifically for the tour. Not quite the same thing, and as such it was rather disappointing driving around viewing dilapidated old buildings, and sets claimed to be from 60 year old Hitchcock films - rather than modern film sets. The good part of the "tour" was the Kong 4D section - where the tram entered a motion platform inside a giant theater and experienced the attraction. It was a fantastic sequence, especially given the movement which much require an insanely powerful platform.

The War of the Worlds plane wreckage set

The last ride of the day was Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem - a pretty new ride based on the popular film. This was a Simpsons style simulator ride, however utilising a massive IMAX size screen and individual cars all in one room (increasing capacity massively). It was a good ride, and the theming was excellent but I felt it a little lacking in the effects department.

Overall, I'd say Universal was a bit of a disappointment. Especially having visited the Florida version, Hollywood just seems to lack something - indeed I feel it needs a decent outdoor coaster just to add some beef to its lineup.

Harry Potter construction!

 

[BigAl]

Thing with Universal is, the park gets a fair few complaints about noise (see the scream curtain things surrounding Waterworld). Whilst a big outdoor coaster would do the park good, getting it built and it being allowed to operate would be fairly tricky.

Great report so far, Al!

 

[Alastair]

Time for part 3! This is split into three posts because it's so long! Also, I've condensed the previous two parts into spoiler tags to avoid the thread becoming too busy

Part 3: Six Flags: Magic Mountain

Spoiler: Click here to view Magic Mountain Part 1

Undoubtedly the most highly anticipated park coaster wise, possibly only superseded in the world by Cedar Point, Six Flags holds the world record for the most coasters (19 when I went, now 18). Located, as suggested by the name, around 45 minutes North West of LA in a particularly dry desert like area surrounded by mountains. The journey up interstate 5 from LA to Valencia is a particularly scenic one - you very quickly notice the green hills turning yellow and getting much larger the further inland you get. I apologise in advance for the lack of my own photos, but when you're rushing around a park with so many coasters you kind of forget to take them! Most that you'll see are mine though.

Arriving at the park is almost as fun, with the frankly preposterous skyline visible on the left prior to entry (the 400ft+ tower of Superman/Lex Luthor being visible from miles around), before you drive within 20ft of X2 as you pass into the car park area. The coasters span right around the boundaries of the park, and therefore you park almost in their shadow. in some cases.

The car park

Travel from the car park to the entrance is via a "bendy bus" - on which you are informed that you can't take food or drink into the park at all (not even water) although this rule was so flimsily enforced in the bag check that it may as well not have existed (possibly something to do with the temperature pushing 35°C).

As you enter the park, the first coaster you see is Full Throttle straight ahead, although our first coaster was to be Tatsu - the world's tallest, fastest and longest flying coaster. Tatsu is by far and away the park's best landscaped coaster - towering above the paths below and winding its way around trees on a slightly banked hill. Having previously ridden Manta at SeaWorld Orlando - I had some idea of how this was going to go - although all the same I was impressed by the sustained intensity of this ride as a flying coaster. The first thing you notice is how high everything is going on around you - especially when you're used to Air. The highlight of this coaster though is definitely the pretzel loop - an absolutely ridiculous element (possibly the most ridiculous on any coaster, ever). It consists of the train entering a slight incline, before entering a downward inside loop all the way around back to level flight. The force exerted by this element is unlike anything else I've ever experienced, you almost can't breathe at a point - especially if riding on the back row like I did first time. There's something about accelerating, with positive G-forces whilst lying on your back that you just can't replicate in any other situation If only we could swap AIr for Tatsu!

Tatsu's huge pretzel loop

Next we moved back towards the entrance and rode Viper - an Arrow 7-inverter - once the tallest and fastest looping coaster in the world. Unfortunately, being an Arrow, it's most definitely showing its age - it offers an extremely uncomfortable ride in parts at best - and the cobra roll makes the Smiler's feel like a B&M. By the end of the ride, you've been completely battered around and just want to get off - not helped by the restraints which are identical to those on the Revolution at BPB (ie. offer no room for your right or left arm depending on which side of the train you sit). I will say it's a very aesthetically pleasing coaster though, with the three identically sized loops nicely arranged!

We next ventured over to X2, which was nearby, before realising that it was harbouring a 2 hour queue - which given the number of coasters we had to go wasn't an option at that point. Therefore we headed towards the entrance once more, and came across Revolution - the first ever steel coaster to feature a loop. It appeared as though it was closed at first sight, with not a soul in sight - not even standing around the station. It soon became clear though that there was just no one in the station - a virtually empty train sat waiting for people to fill it - an odd sight in a reasonably busy theme park (albeit one with 19 coasters!) Revolution is quite a fun ride, although a bit of a weird one with it being split into different sections. The pacing of the coaster is decent - although the trimming at the top of every hill is a little annoying; and it interacts with the terrain and surrounding track very well (in classic Schwarzkopf style, part of the track goes directly through the middle of the vertical loop). It certainly has endured its age better than Viper in any case.

Next, we walked across the middle plaza of the park - past Full Throttle (which sustained a queue of an hour and a half for most of the day), towards one of the taller rides in the park - Goliath. Although at first sight it looks like a B&M, Goliath is in fact a Giovanola (who did once manufacture track for B&M). It's more or less the same height as Shambhala - which is slightly depressing given Goliath doesn't even make the top 5 coasters at SFMM (and isn't even the tallest in the park). Again, it was once the tallest and fastest coaster in the world. Unfortunately, the coaster itself is nowhere near the standard of Shambhala. It does feature one airtime hill, although the restraints are of a much lower quality than the B&M clamshells which slightly hinders it - and the much of the coaster sees it meander around until it makes it back to the station. The two good points are the first drop, which on the back row is excellent, and the final helix which sustains quite a decent G force for quite a long time - despite the MCDB slowing the ride to almost a complete stop (I can't imagine what it would be like if it didn't!)

Inside Goliath's station

Goliath on the right in the background, in the shadow of Superman though!

After this, we decided to move around to the back of the park. We first went to Batman: The Ride - a standard B&M Batman invert clone. Again, this ride had basically no queue due to the number of coasters in the park plus the high capacity of the ride on two trains. I can't deny that it's a great coaster - smooth, fast and very intense. Despite this, the landscaping of the ride is non-existent (it's just mounted onto bare concrete) and as such everything takes place quite high up resulting in not much concept of speed. In addition, the ride doesn't really have a large enough drop to compensate for its lack of landscaping - a good first drop can add to a coaster immeasurably (Montu) - Batman's drop seems fairly average though. The pacing on it is good, but everything seems to take place too quickly in a kind of Smiler-style of cramming inversions into a small space (although with much more class due to it being a B&M).
There's no doubt though that if one of these was put into the UK, it would instantly be the second best coaster in the country.

Following Batman, we did a couple of flat rides in the general area - including "Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth" - a unique, Enterprise style ride where you're restrained only by centripetal force as the wheel spins around - resulting in a really weird sensation of not being able to move.

Close by was Green Lantern - a fairly new Intamin Zacspin - the same model of coaster as the one in Terra Mitica that resulted in the death a month previously. The point of the coaster is that the seats can freely spin - kind of in a 4D coaster style although without the prior controlled spinning element. The problem with the ride is the design though. Why on earth Intamin decided to make the whole coaster without a single turn is beyond me. The restraints are incredibly uncomfortable, pressing down on your shoulders for the entire ride - which is necessary given the experience but not welcome at all. Each mini drop over the edge is marred by huge vibration and jolting, and not much spinning at all as is supposed to happen. Indeed, the most amount of spin happens as you re-enter the station, which is quite pointless as the car is instantly braked and returned upright. Unless you're really lucky, you won't get a single inversion spin on this ride. Aside from Baco, this is definitely the most uncomfortable coaster I've ever been on.

 

[Alastair]

Spoiler: Click here to view Magic Mountain Part 2

After the experience that was Green Lantern, we decided to move away from the coaster for another ride, and headed towards Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom. Formerly the tallest drop tower in the world (a record only broken by Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom at SFGA two months earlier) - the tower is affixed to the side of the Superman: Escape from Krypton structure. The 400ft drop is only 10ft smaller than that of its successor in any case. It's hard to express just how tall this thing is - in fact, once you reach a certain height - it's difficult to perceive that you're still rising up at all - even though you know you are. The views of the surrounding mountains are frankly stunning, although you don't have much time to enjoy them before you go plunging 400ft down towards the ground at 85mph. The drop is incredible, and indeed after a while reaches terminal velocity - at that point you don't feel any acceleration anymore - which is a very strange sensation. It's the kind of ride that results in you not wanting to ride any drop towers ever again - as what could possibly surpass it?

Next, it was time for another type of coaster I'd not tried before - the B&M standup and The Riddler's Revenge. This is another coaster that would usually dominate the skyline of a park - but here it's merely a backup coaster that most people probably don't even ride. It's the largest standup coaster in the world, although that's not much of a record to hold these days of course! The restraints were probably the killer for this style of ride - they consist of an OTSR which can be moved up or down via a mount at the back, with a kind of bicycle seat in between your legs which you can choose to rest on or not during the ride. It is possible to stand up properly on this, although the method by which the restraint locks sometimes prevents you from doing so (it doesn't move back down once it's been moved up a little bit) - and therefore it can cause severe pain if you don't work it in the right way. The ride itself is just classic B&M, and in fact I think it would benefit from normal trains - as the standup element does absolutely nothing and isn't a sensation which is worthy of its own coaster type. It does seem somewhat fitting that the two green coloured coasters placed virtually next to each other are the two models that will probably never be produced again!

Next up though was the biggest surprise of the lot. At the far back of the park, plonked again on some bare concrete, was a pretty new and pretty decently sized GCI - Apocalypse. Now, I'm not going to go into the theming of this ride, which was frankly weird and very poorly executed (it had an industrial kind of theme, but on a wooden coaster?) Whilst we were there, it was running on one train due to "maintenance" of the second - and therefore the queue was pretty long and slow moving. The ride however, was worth the wait. Very similar in style to Wodan at Europa Park - it's completely relentless - never letting up in speed or intensity from the first drop to the final brakes. Like Wodan, it also featured a station flythrough that is a fantastic idea and gave everyone in the station something to look at whilst waiting for the one train to return. There needs to be more coasters like this in the world, specifically in the UK! Apocalypse is undoubtedly in the top 3 coasters at the park.

At this point it's probably prudent to reveal that the only ride closed in the entire park was Superman...for the whole day. And as far as I can tell it was closed on the days around my visit too for some unknown reason. So I didn't get to experience that, but in light of other ride closures in recent times (ie. X2's lengthy period down) I felt it was a fair tradeoff tbh.

Next up was the walk around the side of the park back around to reach arguably the main attraction of SFMM, X2. It's genuinely incredible to me that Arrow managed to design and build this complicated and genius a ride; having been previously responsible for such primeval dross as PMBO. The world's first 4D coaster, X2 was also my first ever 4D coaster (well, there's only 3 of them in the world and two are in Asia) - and the anticipation was immense. I've heard that X2 can be very much a love/hate kind of ride - and in my case it was most definitely the love side.
It's hard to describe how a 4D coaster feels without actually riding it, but the addition of the independent seat rotation is like an epiphany in coaster design. Being able to one minute go over a huge inversion on your back, and the next be heading straight down vertically facing down is truly an awe inspiring thing. In addition, the near-miss fire effects were a welcome addition in the park (at least there was some theming somewhere!) I'm not going to pretend that the ride wasn't a little rough, but any form of discomfort was offset by the sheer insanity of some of the moments.

By this point it was approaching half 6 (ride close was 8), and we still hadn't done a number of coasters including Scream, Full Throttle and Ninja. We therefore made the short walk across to Full Throttle, where the queue had finally reduced somewhat to around 45 minutes. The Full Throttle queueline was a refreshing change from the others at SFMM; there was a stage in front of the plaza right next to the main queuing area - on which a live band was performing, and there were other forms of entertainment including picking people out of the queue to complete a "challenge" to win a front of the line pass to the ride. This was great, and really made the queue to what is a fairly low capacity ride much more bearable. Also, the queueline is probably the best place in the park to see the most other coasters, with X2, Goliath, Lex Luthor and of course Full Throttle's launch all visible.
Onto the ride itself however - to those who've ridden Sky Scream at Holiday Park - the trains/restraints are exactly the same, including the shincrushers. Unfortunately that slightly marred what was a fun launch, and an insane vertical loop with 3 good seconds of hangtime. That was the peak of the ride though, and the backwards launch was frankly pointless - and after that the ride comes to an abrupt and unwelcome end on some brakes placed at the bottom of a huge drop. If only they'd extended the length of this and removed the pointlessly bad restraints - it could have been a fantastic coaster because it was so smooth and pleasant to ride!

We next walked across, back past Goliath, and took a right down to the strangely secluded area that contains Scream. There's no point in denying it, Scream is most likely the dictionary definition of a car park coaster...literally being built in part on the car park. The ride itself is classic B&M multilooper, of the floorless variety - which I feel adds a little to the experience. It features a standard B&M layout ie. vertical loop, dive loop, zero-G etc, however with interlocking corkscrews at the end that add some interest. I've ridden quite a few of these now and I can't say I'm really a fan, they all seem alike to me - and although they are B&M - they can be a little rattly and rough in certain places on the train. Despite it being a car park coaster, the view from the raised up station is probably one of the best views I've seen from any station at any park!

Scream on the right. Same picture as above

Finally, we come to Ninja. This was probably my most unknown ride in the park - I hadn't ever watched a POV and didn't really have any clue about it. It's essentially the same model of coaster as Vampire at Chessington - an Arrow suspended, however a little longer and faster than the Chessie version. A little like Revolution, the ride swings through the trees, and makes great use of terrain - skimming over water at points with lots of near misses. It actually uses so much of the terrain that a second lift hill is needed at the end to make it back to the station! It's a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and the trains were comfortable and the ride pretty good - unusually for an Arrow. It's a shame that very few of this type of coaster are produced anymore, because they really are a lot of fun.

And that brought us to the end of the day! Unfortunately there wasn't time to ride every single coaster (who'd have guessed?), although with Superman closed, the only other substantial coaster that we missed was Goldrusher (a mine train) - that was forgoed for a second ride on Tatsu.

 

[Alastair]

Spoiler: Click here to view Magic Mountain Part 3

Six Flags Magic Mountain on the whole is a place that, as a thrill ride enthusiast, you simply have to visit at some point. It's got pretty much every type of coaster anyone could possibly want, and comes across a little as a kind of showcase park for different models. And with Twisted Colossus on the horizon next year, that looks as though it will continue into the future. The obvious downsides to the park are the lack of theming. There are a few forlorn efforts in some areas, particularly the Batman area - but most of the "theming" is merely vinyl sheeting or wooden boards stuck up around - and most coaster have a sheet metal industrial theme that requires little to no money to build/implement. I guess in that respect, Six Flags are similar to Merlin - however they can build anything they want without any limitation so that kind of makes up for it!
In addition, there is no park transportation - you have to walk everywhere, which is a little irritating - especially in high temperatures, with big elevations in the land and in such a huge park.

On the whole though, I'd definitely visit again - even if just to experience the rides themselves. Last picture below:

Tatsu's on the left, Revolution's loop visible below it, Superman/Lex Luthor in the middle right and Goliath on the far right

 

[CGM]

Thanks for sharing. It's so rare to get an in-depth trip report of a large US park like SFMM, particularly from a UK perspective.

However, I feel I must point out one thing. Viper doesn't have a cobra roll. I think the element you're talking about is a batwing, sometimes called a boomerang.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to your account of Knott's and Disneyland.

 

[Alastair]

True, it is a batwing. My memory must've been messed up by the roughness!

 

[John]

Thanks for the reports, SFMM has been at the top of my most wanted list for a while now, mainly due to Tatsu and X2, but with so many coasters it's not just about the headline rides.

I think this is the only review I've seen on Revolution not to complain that it's been totally ruined by the OTSRs.

 

[Alastair]

Thanks for the reports, SFMM has been at the top of my most wanted list for a while now, mainly due to Tatsu and X2, but with so many coasters it's not just about the headline rides.

I think this is the only review I've seen on Revolution not to complain that it's been totally ruined by the OTSRs.

Perhaps it's because we're so used to vile OTSR rides in this country? Also I never rode it when it had lapbars so nothing to compare it against.

 

[Alastair]

Part 4: Disneyland

Spoiler: Click here for Disneyland report part 1

Two days on from Magic Mountain and we found ourselves once more travelling down the I-5 towards Anaheim, back to the Disney resort - but this time upon arriving at the entrance plaza we turned left, towards Disneyland. The first sight after you pass through the ticket scanning is of course the classic Disney Railroad Station building, fronted by a Mickey face grown into a patch of grass in small flowers. From there, you pass through the arches on either side of the station building into the Main Street plaza.

To be plain; there exists no superior theme park entrance plaza to this anywhere else in the world, and I'm fairly confident of this despite obviously not being travelled enough to back it up. Although the entrance, Main Street plaza and Main Street is almost identical to that in Florida's Magic Kingdom - the California version seems to have a little more character about it, a little more intimacy - it may just be me, but everything seemed slightly smaller than in Florida. This stretches to the castle, which is perhaps the most marked aesthetic difference to Magic Kingdom. California's original incarnation is much smaller in scale, although up close just as detailed in design.

After walking down Main Street and stopping to take the standard pictures in front of the castle etc, we turned right to experience another moment of deja vu - the entrance to Tomorrowland. It's situated in the same place as in Magic Kingdom - the first area on the right. An intricate piece of space-inspired theming marks the entrance (more about the park theming later though) - which we walked through straight down to Space Mountain - our first ride.

From the outside, again, the California ride building is pretty much the same as the WDW version - the same opulent white that visually defies its nearly 40 year old age. The queue however winds its way from outside unlike Florida, and the ride itself is completely different. Whilst the MK version has two side by side tracks, the Disneyland version is more conventional - with one track. In my opinion the California incarnation is superior to Florida's - it's smoother, seems bigger and with a far better layout - which makes much more suited to its titular theme. It also has a fantastic soundtrack, which plays through onboard speakers which makes a massive difference to the experience.

After emerging back into the centre of Tomorrowland, we were drawn to another highly rated Disney attraction - Star Tours. As many will know from its clone in Florida; this is a fantastic 3D-motion ride based upon the Star Wars films. Every aspect of this ride is brilliant, from the queue (featuring some ridiculously lifelike but completely physical robots) to the ride system itself, which utilises physical props and a 3D screen to create a completely immersive experience. It's not quite on a level with the track based 3D motion systems of Universal - but then this is meant to be more of a family ride anyway.

Next up was the walk through the archway under Sleeping Beauty's Castle (Florida's is Cinderella's Castle, for reference) - into Fantasyland. Fantasyland is probably the most unchanged part of the park since its opening - some of the ride facades look a lot more "of the 50's" than others - although of course they are still impeccably maintained. Peter Pan's Flight was our first ride in Fantasyland - a classic old ride which is essentially a slow ride around various scenes depicting, well, flight. It's charming although pretty dated - great for kids though.

Take a right past the Carousel and you quickly approach the looming structure of Matterhorn Bobsleds. This being the first ever steel coaster, it's fair to say that I was looking forward to seeing what it would be like now (also it had been previously hyped up to me by @Sam ). In the end it was a fun coaster - and I mean fun in the genuine sense. There is a real feel that the ride experience is slightly out of control and slightly random - not engineered to create sensations as pretty much all other steel coasters are nowadays. There is also a proper splashdown on it - as in where the full train actually goes straight into a pool of water like a flume ride would (apparently it's to cool the brake system down); which really adds something to it. It goes without saying that the theming both whilst viewing outside and riding is spectacular - just Google it and you'll see for yourself!

It's a Small World followed - which I won't comment upon too much as everyone knows what it is and what it does. Personally I think it's a little creepy, especially the repetitive aspect of it (this was possibly enhanced by my having seen the Simpsons version of it) - but it's clearly a ridiculously popular ride so I seem to definitely be in the minority!

We then passed the Carousel once more to cross to the left side of the park (by far the best side of the park). First it was to Frontierland - possibly the most classic of Disney areas. The main (and pretty much only) ride in this area is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Now, I had really enjoyed this ride in Florida - and overall I found that the Disneyland version was a little more muted. The aesthetics of the ride were still good, if (as with the rest of the park) a bit smaller and less extravagant than the WDW version - and in addition the coaster itself seemed bittier and less coherent. The indoor section did almost redeem it though - especially with the fire effects that are so simple in their execution (just lights and steam) but so effective when travelling past at a decent speed!

 

[Alastair]

Spoiler: Click here for Disneyland report part 2

Next up was Splash Mountain, located just past the New Orleans area in Critter Country. Again, a recognisable Disney clone, this one is themed slightly differently to Florida's version which is in Frontierland. Nonetheless, the rides are very similar - you serenely make your way through multiple scenes before a couple of small drops before a massive final drop. It's surprising how little water actually makes its way onto the boat given the size of drop/splash - I wasn't complaining though!

Right next to BTM was the Rivers of America attraction - in which a large, three tier steam-powered riverboat navigates around a manmade island in a manmade river. The scale of this in terms of theme park attractions is incredibly impressive - the way in which the attractions around the riverside, and indeed other structures unrelated to rides are incorporated into the experience is brilliant. It's a ride that really defines a theme park - it links together multiple themed areas in a coherent way that makes them all glue together; I don't think there's anywhere else that can do this other than Disney.

Pirates of the Caribbean sits a little further back from the riverbank - if Frontierland is the most classic of Disney areas then this has to be the most classic of Disney rides. I was especially looking forward to this, as it was to erase from my memory the travesty that was Piraten in Batavia. It's very slightly different to the WDW version, with there being two drops at the beginning (one of a moderately thrilling size) - although the actual scenes are exactly the same. Inclusive was the ridiculously impressive 'projection onto sprayed steam' effect which I haven't seen anywhere else and which is probably one of the best physical effects I've yet seen. It remains a world class dark ride, even despite the heavy competition that has been built up around it.

I feel at this point I should discuss the New Orleans area of Disneyland. I will say it right now - aside from Hogsmeade at IOA (and probably Diagon Alley now) - it's the best themed area I've ever been in, and most probably one of the best in the world. It's definitely the most authentic and realistic feeling area I've ever set foot in within a theme park. The attention to detail is simply stunning, with the Haunted Mansion ride building being a highlight - a lesson in subtlety and anticipation. Unfortunately it was closed whilst we were there, but the eerie silence around the ride only added to its theme

Just over the bridge outside of Pirates of the Caribbean and you enter into Adventureland. This area strangely feels quite small, with the ride entrances to Indiana Jones and Jungle Cruise being crammed right in next to each other. This is in contrast to Florida's version, which felt very natural and well laid out. This was just first impressions though, before I had even entered a ride.
All that was to change as we approached Indiana Jones Adventure - an "enhanced motion vehicle" dark ride (according to Wikipedia). Now, this is a dark ride. After nearly every non-coaster dark ride in the entirety of Florida and up to that point California being screen-based - it was more than refreshing to encounter a dark ride completely comprising of physical motion and physical theming. The ride is essentially a story led journey based upon the Indiana theme (although not utilising anything directly from the films). The ride car holds 12 in three rows of four - themed to a big military-style jeep.
I won't go into detail about what actually happens within, but after my first ride I was left in no doubt that this was the best dark ride I'd ever been on. The way in which the ride car moves around, simulating uneven surfaces and creating the impression of speed when you know that you can't actually be moving that fast is remarkable. The onboard speakers add John Williams' memorable and recognisable soundtrack to the ride which is a huge plus - and enhances the experience probably musically more than any other ride.
There is, as with most big dark rides, a standout scene - where all the effects, theming, music and motion come together to create something special (the falling scene in Spiderman 3D, for example). Here it's a boulder rushing towards you, with what looks like Indiana Jones holding precariously onto a rope right in front of the ride car. As it comes towards you, the ride car appears to reverse at high speed - before taking a completely unseen path underneath the boulder and negotiating out of its way. It's a breathtaking piece of theatre, and having read about how it was done afterwards it only increases my admiration for the Imagineers and how they go about making their plans a reality.
In addition, the queueline for Indiana is second only to Forbidden Journey's in terms of immersiveness - simulating the entry to an ancient temple. It's very long, but with theming around such as it was, walking through it is more something to be savoured rather than the usual chore.
All in all, Indiana is more than just a triumph of dark ride technology - it's also, similarly to Matterhorn Bobsleds, a really fun ride. It's a ride that, at certain points just puts a smile on your face just because it's so damn good.

It was approaching the end of the day as we left our second ride on Indiana, and of course the last-thing firework show couldn't be missed, so we took the Disneyland Railroad from the New Orleans station around to Main Street. Riding this train, around the now dark park, really cemented my impression that this is the best theme park in the world. For most parks, the train around it is just a method of transportation - quite quaint but nonetheless just transportation. With Disney though, the Railroad is an attraction in itself. You pass through the indoor finale of Splash Mountain, before skirting the edge of the River (passing the numerous detailed scenes on the banks intended for the Rivers of America attraction) and eventually passing right behind the facade of It's a Small World. What follows is the train passing through a huge diorama themed to the Grand Canyon, then one themed to Primeval times (complete with full audio-animatronic dinosaurs) - a fantastic touch that makes the side facing seats make full sense.

All in all, there isn't a trace of doubt in my mind that Disneyland is the best theme park I've ever been to. I can't envision of how another park could top this one in terms of the complete package. The whole park is immaculately laid out, and indeed themed - there don't ever seem to be any clashes of theme; it all seems to flow and seem completely natural. The integration of attractions and the way they are interweaved are also magnificent - for example the way the Rivers of America and the Railroad interact with the landscaping and scenery is seemingly so simple but so perfect - no greater immersiveness could possibly be created in my mind anywhere. And then there is the ride lineup, which doesn't need to be thrill based (given DCA's close proximity) - although the perfect amount of thrill is included in BTM, Matterhorn and Indiana. The quality of theming is unsurpassed, across the board. No expense has been spared, anywhere, and that shows through.
Now, I'm not ignoring the Universal parks in this verdict - but where Islands of Adventure is completely different areas all within one park - Disneyland is just one park - all integrated. That is in my mind how a theme park should be, and this is the ideal model of it.

 

[Alastair]

Part 5: Knott's Berry Farm

The very next day after returning from Disneyland, we made the slightly shorter drive back down in the same direction (down I-5, towards Anaheim) - but this time the destination being Knott's Berry Farm. Located in Buena Park (a city south of LA), Knott's Berry is a Cedar Fair owned park - and self proclaimedly "America's 1st theme park."

Knott's is very much a park in the style of the Pleasure Beach. It's placement within a perfectly rectangular block right in the middle of a residential area is incredibly reminiscent of BPB, albeit without the seafront on one side.

The best point about Knott's on the particular day we went however was the number of people in the park. Upon entering (this was at about 1pm, about 3 hours after opening), we were greeted with a completely deserted entrance plaza. Thinking of course that everyone must be in the main park, we walked through towards the first visible ride - Montezooma's Revenge. This is a classic Schwarzkopf shuttle looper - the same as the Thunderlooper that used to reside at Alton Towers. This was set apart from Revolution at SFMM by the fact that it had retained its lapbars - allowing complete freedom and appreciation of the ride.

As we approached the coaster, we still hadn't see anyone. We actually thought it was closed, it was so dead. The entrance was open though, and we walked in to be greeted by a train in the station - with 2 people in the front seat - and NO ONE ELSE. There were more staff than visitors in the station. This was to become a recurring theme throughout the day.

Next up was Xcelerator. The largest coaster in the park by far, this coaster is pretty much the same exact height as Stealth at Thorpe - and is the same variety of launch coaster also. The difference between the two is twofold - Xcelerator supplements its top hat with two forceful overbank turns - as opposed to Stealth's single hill. Mainly though, Xcelerator sports lapbars rather than OTSR's - which again immeasurably improves the ride experience. The launch is of course forceful, however the best part of the ride is the top hat - on which you experience at least 4 seconds of solid airtime from the approach into it until the drop back down. I certainly had time to take it in though, after 8 consecutive rides without leaving the train!

The lapbars can be seen here:

Almost next to Xcelerator were two supporting coasters - a standard Mack wild mouse called Coast Rider) and a standard Vekoma Boomerang (called...Boomerang). Both were predictable - the wild mouse a completely standard affair, and the Boomerang painful (albeit looking good for its age!).

Knott's had a very nice atmosphere about it. I mean, granted, this may have been aided by the number of people on park (my estimation is less than 500) - however the park itself is very pleasant - nicely laid out and with a good selection of rides and coaster spread around. Although it calls itself a theme park, Knott's definitely feels like more of an amusement park - and as such when you do see good theming it seems to add to the experience even more.

In describing good theming, you can't leave out Jaguar. Although this is a standard, and fairly uneventful Zierer Tivoli - the station building is something that frankly Disney would be proud of. It's basically a huge, Mayan temple - that the queueline winds around inside. The feel inside is genuinely that it is built of real stone (although it isn't) - and for what is essentially a standard mine train - it's stunning.

 

[Alastair]

Close by to Jaguar is the parks other signature coaster - Silver Bullet. Commonly designated the worst B&M invert ever built, it certainly attempts to make up for any deficit in ride experience with its aesthetics. Bright orange and red, and located Infusion-style over water, there is simply no way you can miss it. Ride experience wise, it is probably the worst B&M invert I've ever ridden (although I've ridden a great selection thusfar) - but that doesn't mean it's by any means a bad coaster - especially when we're used to the likes of Infusion over here. There is a fantastic twisted airtime hill halfway through the layout, and the final double helix pulls possibly the most G's I've felt on any coaster bar Nemesis, Batman and Goliath.
I will say that it is probably the most oversupported coaster I've seen. Especially the cobra roll, which can be seen below...

One other thing about Knott's is that it has an almost Alton Towers-style array of different types of coasters. It has launch coasters, a dark ride coaster, a spinning coaster, a mine train, a shuttle loop, an invert, a woodie and so on.
Perhaps the strangest of them all was located towards the back of the park, in the Wildwater Wilderness area. Titled - Pony Express, this is a ride similar to Flamingoland's Velocity - however manufactured by Zamperla and consequently with restraints the same as Avatar Airbender at the Pleasure Beach. It is meant to be a family ride, however the layout is so boring and uninspired, and the ride so unthrilling that I feel even families would hate it. It's certainly well themed, however it's a Zamperla and as such aesthetics is literally the only upside.

Nearby was the Bigfoot Rapids - a standard, if surprisingly long for the park Intamin rapids. Definitely more pleasant to ride in the weather over there though!

You can see the track of Pony Express passing over the Rapids here

The final major coaster we hadn't yet ridden was the park's massive woodie - GhostRider. A 1998 CCI - I was expecting some major roughness on here. The queueline and station building, and indeed general "Ghost Town" area is very well done - definitely the best themed area of the park. On entering the station, as is classic, we had our choice of seats bar the front row - and so we opted for the back first ride. Not the wisest of moves. On the back row, with the exception of the Wild Mouse at BPB, GhostRider throws you around the most of any coaster I've ever ridden. It's relentless too - the layout offers two huge drops, one at the start and another in the middle - just when you think the worst is over. It's an insane ride, with a fantastic layout - it's just that 16 years of operation has degraded the experience somewhat. The front row definitely improves the ride, and dilutes the roughness - however it doesn't come close to GCI smoothness.

One thing is for sure though; if there's a big earthquake in Buena Park - GhostRider will be safe! There's seemingly more wood in this thing than Yosemite!

Finally, we rode Supreme Scream. A 300ft S&S Turbo Drop would normally be an intimidating sight, however after you've ridden a 400ft+ Intamin - it's a...drop in the ocean!
On a serious note, Supreme Scream did offer a decent drop - nothing like the Intamin version - and it differed also in that it shot you up at the bottom of the drop Ice Blast style (the ride is somewhat like a reverse Ice Blast). It was only operating one tower, and consequently it had the biggest queue in the park (about 10 minutes)!

All in all, I was expecting Knott's to be easily the worst park of the 5 I visited whilst in California. As it turned out, it definitely exceeded Universal in terms of ride selection and enjoyment (possibly aided by the quietness too!) - it's certainly a park I would recommend anyone visiting the area to visit, if only for the great selection of coasters

Some general shots:

 

[Craig]

Great reports there Alastair brings back memories of my visit last year!