Although Cedar Fair didn’t add any new headliner coasters during their time as owners, the single greatest improvement in the park’s history did come out of their ownership.  The annual Halloween Haunt at California’s Great America has dramatically increased in popularity every year since it’s introduction in October 2008, growing to its present 3 scare zones, 6 mazes, single ride overlay, and 4 shows.  I finally got a chance to check out Haunt during its second week of operation and I was once again impressed.

After immediately entering the park, the soundtrack of creepy, mood-setting, horror classics blasts through the speakers as a small collection of actors “surprise” guests.  A lot of work is obviously poured into the entry plaza’s decor with a huge collection of skeletons scattered through the area lit by theatrical lighting.  This trip, like every other, was conducted in the standard loop, from Flight Deck and around.  Time for a terror-ific tour of California Great America’s Halloween Haunt.

The closest, and in my opinion best, scare zone is The Gauntlet. Located in the Orleans Place section of the park, The Gauntlet is a carnival gone wrong with boardwalk barkers, bearded ladies, and of-course the strangely frightening clowns.  When entering this area from the side nearest to the Grand Carousel, immediately the strident screeches of guests echoe against the walls.  The Gauntlet entrance is heavy on scare actors spooking plenty of guests.  However, as the scare zone continues towards Flight Deck, there progressively becomes less and less actors.

But overall this scare zone was solid.  The talent was mediocre, I recall better in previous years but the scenery, soundtrack and elaborate costuming all worked.  Bonus points to the Gauntlet for being the only scare zone that did not rely solely on screaming, and surprises but  also utilized the creepiness of stalking with actors following guests for long periods of time. .

Inside The Gauntlet is one of the most popular mazes, CarnEVIL.  This heavily blacklit, clown-centric haunted house is also among the strongest mazes of the night.  Unlike the outdoor mazes, CarnEVIL benefits from its space limitations forcing a flurry of corners and small rooms providing for a intimate walk through. In addition, this house has the best pacing with non-stop actors from beginning to end..

An absolute must when experiencing CarnEVIL is to purchase the 3D glasses. At just $1.00 each, these simple, cheap glasses greatly enhance the experience creating a far more disorienting experience.  CarnEVIL‘s utilization of black lights is emphasized with the use of 3D glasses.  While this house isn’t the best, its a strong second and a great start to the night.

Just after exiting The Gauntlet, the subtle campfire country music sounds in the distance.  An abandoned car’s engine roars and the dilapidated sign add to the woodsy atmosphere.  WereWolf Canyon is a natural fit for its location of  the heavily forested queue of Rip Roaring Rapids.  And the beginning section of this maze is fantastic on the loading dock for the rapids in a camp cabin setting.  However, once the maze gives way to the long drawn out queue section, the quality goes down the tubes.  The open, minimally themed areas do nothing to accomplish the sense of fear, and the single actor with a chain saw is in no way convincing or frightening.

Having the longest wait of the night, many guests were hopeful of a top-notch experience, especially with the entrance and soundtrack building suspense.  But in the end, Werewolf Canyon is undoubtedly the worse maze of the night.  More attention needs to be spent on the long expanses of minimally themed path.

The surprise hit of the night was BANG! PrimEvil Percussion, a simple atmosphere drum show which wandered the park. As pictured in the photo above, the musicians chose some dramatic locations to perform, such as right in front of Firefall and a spotlight in front of Drop Tower.  These guys brought kinetic energy to areas that were otherwise lacking.  Plus, the beats and rhythms were nicely composed and easy on the ears (unlike a certain Blood Drums).  I caught BANG!‘s performance twice during my visit and was throughly impressed each time.

Continuing towards the back end of the park, guests pass through the newly revamped Dead Man’s Cove: Forseaken Souls scare zone.  Swallowing the former Witch Doctor’s Trail scare zone and expanding to a larger location, the scare zone’s quality improved.  Vocally, the talent here was the most impressive of the three scare zones with the voices being spot on to their pirate roles.  The highlight here was the number of sliders present; these guys came out of nowhere! Sliders were hiding behind trash cans, in planters, and in other dimly lit areas awaiting victims.

Unfortunately the routing of this scare zone killed most of its momentum.  Missing was a mood-setting soundtrack and huge elaborate props.  Instead, a long drawn out section from the Bridge to Kidzville through Planet Snoopy to Black Widow Cavern contained a small collection of good, but not great, talent.  I understand that the sliders would be unable to do their job on the wood flooring just on the otherside of the buildings, but the waterfront property seems like such a stronger location for the Pirate themed area.  In short, the “new” Dead Man’s Cove was too long for it’s own good.

Pasisng through Camp Snoopy, adjacent to Psycho Mouse is Cornstalkers.  Although not heavily advertised, Cornstalkers to receive noticeable changes.  New Dementor-like scarecrow costumes were institued, completely different from the one pictured above at the mazes entrance.  In fact, this maze came with a slew of other improvements.  The concept of walking through a corn field at night infested with animated scarecrows immediately generates high expectations. And while high, Cornstalkers is able to live up to its expecations

This maze has much better pacing than the earlier WereWolf Canyon, its sister outdoor maze. The designers re-arranged the former endless outhouse labyrinth to become a much more intense, zig-zag course walled off by corn stalks along the way.  Also, manequin scarecrows, indistinguishable from the live scarecrows were scattered throughout the maze.  Cornstalkers is also one of the longer mazes winding all the way from the back of Tiki Twirl, under Grizzly and exiting across from the food court. Ultimately, Cornstalkers isn’t the best maze, but is certainly in the top half.

Upon exiting Cornstalkers, the pulse-pounding base of a familiar tune can be felt not to far away.  It can only mean one thing: time for the beloved Toy Factory! Toy Factory is the only maze that was not apart of the inaugural 2008 Haunt, and it shows.  And it is a step-up from the gore-fests of Club Blood and Slaughterhouse. Instead, Toy Factory plays with the childhood dreams and re-imagines favorite toys.

Toy Factory is uniquely imaginative and features the best rooms in the all of Haunt.  The strobe heavy doll play room is terribly creepy, sections like “Kill-A-Bear” and a giant man eating “Hungry Hungry Hippo” skew impressions of toys that are a cultural staple.  But the highlight of this maze is the completely uncommon ending where you are “packaged” after being squeezed through two enormous inflatable walls; the only comparable experience would be trying to work your way through the bottom of two inflatable bounce houses being pressed together.

This house is a devilish play on the child-like side of one’s imagination.  If you can only visit one haunted house at Great America, make it Toy Factory.

The trip around the park continues through Underworld Alley, Great America’s third and final scare zone.  Much like Dead Man’s Cove,  this scare zone also suffers from awkward routing.  In previous years, guests could only enter through the hedge canopy, however with some new scenery that was unable to be placed under the canopy, the scare zone now consists of two thorough-ways of beneath the canopy and the area just adjacent to it.  Unfortunately, this scatters the talent and leaves some monsters stranded with no visitors to scare, and others submerged in a sea of people.

However, the costumes here are detailed, the new scenery including the entrance and tombstones are welcomed additions.  Underworld Alley with it’s hell-like theming is in many ways, the most frightening scare zone.  But these things can’t save the scare zone entirely, preventing it from matching the quality of The Gauntlet.

The big “New for 2011” headlienr was the revamped Slaughterhouse Annihilation.  This maze had some of the best scares. While I tried to follow any sort of story, there appeared to be none.  It’s just a lot of blood.  In many ways it is improved over the cheese-fest that was last year’s Slaughterhouse with a McDonald’s ending and blabbering meat salesman, but I can’t say I’m in love with the latest incarnation.

It is one thing to be gory, but to rely on pure blood and guts is lame.  Yes there are certainly some good scares, but this maze is nothing more than blood, monster pops out from around the corner, blood, pop up around the corner, and so on.  I do wish they would try something different.  Perhaps I visited during a period of weak talent, but Slaughterhouse certainly did not Annihilate me.

Club Blood is the second worse maze in the park, second only to the the uneventful WereWolf Canyon.

While Haunt was dramatically better than previous years, its obvious how well it does for the park.  All mazes had at least a 10 minute wait, and the parking lot was filled with cars.  I have never seen Great America so crowded.  But could this be the last year?  With the park recently sold to JMA Ventures, Great America’s fate is completely in question, however if the park were to return for another year, I believe it is safe to assume that Haunt will return in some form.

For Halloween fans in the Bay Area, Halloween Haunt is the place to go. It is really the most spectacular time of year for Great America with a fantastic collection of rides, haunted houses, and shows.  Furthermore, this might be the last year.  Only 9 days are left in Halloween Haunt, so be sure to go and check it out before it may be gone forever!

Firstly, Takabisha is an impressive looking coaster. Compared to the loopy colours of Dodonpa and Eejanaika, it’s a study in formal black, grey, white and red. And it works!

After bolting through the park and waiting in line, and completely forgetting one had to redeem your entry tickets to get actual ride tickets, I had to bolt all the way back to the front of the park and get this sorted. Silly me. The ride ops were kind enough to realise we were dumb tourists and let us come back in through the VIP entrance. Bear in mind I had happily lectured my partner about how Fuji-Q Highland works previously, and then completely forgot when we got there in the excitement of needing to get on the ride NOW NOW NOW!

Anyway, onto the ride. After being strapped in with a seatbelt and pulldown harness (seems the same as other Gerstlauers in this oeuvre), you’re off into the dark. The ride ops shout excitedly and wave at every train – a nice change from the ‘Have a stroke and fall out for all I care’ Six Flags attendees. You enter the dark – and it’s pitch black, then do a sudden drop and half circle. Then into a tiny brake run, down a fun little dip and you can see the light again as well as the vertical track in front as you zoom over the very powerful first launch. Into the first three inversions – all of which are really high and provide some great hang time – then an overbanked hill and back into the back end of the station and brakes. This station is really stark and empty, bar a fire extinguisher…maybe a chance for some more themeing in here? A poster? An adorable Japanese cartoon animal with big eyes screaming about what’s to come next?

We take a slow turn round to the right and the impressive lift hill is in front of us. Slowly…slowly we approach (whether it’s to scare us silly or the system just getting everything secured…or both) then we’re on the chain lift and pointing towards the sky. It always feels on these rides (I’ve been on Mystery Mine and Saw) that this is the bit that if you so much as wiggle the wrong way the whole thing’s going to come crashing down. Again…part of the theatrics I suppose. The lift stops just before the top and you edge over excruciatingly gently… quietly…deliberately…there’s a magnificent view of (the usually hidden) Mt Fuji to your right…as long as you don’t have your eyes closed of course…the train starts to drop and is pulled up by the magnetic brakes (eliciting a yelp from everyone) then slowly…ever so slowly…leads you to the edge…keeps holding till you’re facing straight down, then keeps holding some more till you’re literally hanging out of your seat…then you’re off again! It’s a relief to make it back to the ground (albeit briefly) before another three very similar and impressive inversions to the first one, then up a hill and into the final brake run.

[yframe url=’http://youtu.be/vPnwBPFfiO8′]

My mouth was dry – I was very impressed. It’s a great coaster and well worth their investment. There was some surprising headbanging going on at times – I might have done better to jam my head against the seat more but wasn’t really thinking. I like the way the super scary part is halfway through – seems to extend the ride quite nicely.

Overall, 9/10. Well done Japan!

PS We accidentally took the long way to the park, through the Five Lakes district – it was a beautiful bus trip but fairly agonising when we knew time was short and you could see hints of the park in the distance. What doesn’t seem to be often mentioned is that there is a train station OUT THE FRONT OF THE PARK! No kidding. Use it! Get to Otsuki station (from Shinjuku station inTokyo which is accessible from anywhere on the Yamanote line), then transfer to the Fujikyu Line (get it? Fuji-Q?? Nice!) to Fuji-Q Highland.

It’s been a while since I visited my home park, California’s Great America, opening day in fact.  However, with very little happening in the park since, I felt no rush to return to the park.  With some friends I made a visit today, with picture taking, new gathering, etc not being a priority.  In addition, activity is minimal on property with little to no note-worthy news available for posting.  However one ride at the park continues to be plagued with problems.

FireFall, will it ever run properly?

Installed in 2008 from the now-wasteland that is Geauga Lake, FireFall has always had it’s issues.  When the ride opened, several weeks delayed, it was missing fire effects, and since then the ride has struggled to continue proper operation.  On opening day 2011, the ride opened sans-gondola with just the support arms being hoisted above the water.  The gondola was brought on installed, and the ride did eventually open.

However in recent weeks, the ride has continued to be problematic.  Today the attraction was closed during the period I was in the park (from 10:30ish – around 3:00) and while at one point it was testing with a mechanic on site, it’s hard to believe that this ride can have such a huge problem.  But, perhaps that’s what the park deserves for getting an old-new ride instead of forking over the cash for an entirely new attraction.

As for construction around the park, there is none.  And while crowds are lite, some days this summer have brought huge attendance  In short, I don’t see Cedar Fair doing away with the park in the near future, but I also don’t see a big new coaster being added either.  I can see a Windseeker or some other flat ride being added in the near future, but nothing too grand.  We’ll keep our eyes out.

Leave a comment with your Park Thoughts below.

Light speed to Endor? Not with a line this long...

Upon arriving to Disneyland around 11:30 am, 3.5 hours after park opening, we immediately headed to Star Tours.  No surprise: the line was estimated at 110 minutes.  Another (not so) big shocker was that Fastpasses were out for the day.  The other members of my party were not feeling the 1hour and 50 minute wait, as a result, we ditched our flight on the newly-refurbished Star Tours. Instead, it was “Lightspeed to Pizza Port!” for some Chicken Fusilli and Caesar Salad.

After a nice lunch, we jumped across the esplanade to Disney California Adventure to check out the new Paradise Pier dark ride,  The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. With a much more managable 45 minute wait, we jumped in line.  However, due to the wonderful omni-mover ride system, we were thru the entire line (which did in fact go outside of the permanent queue) in under 30 minutes.

My expectations going in were to be a D-Ticket that would match the internet hype during the ride’s construction.  Was it a D-Ticket?  To some maybe, however to me it was a modern Fantasyland C-Ticket (which is by no means bad).  The ride has it’s flaws, such as a very abridged and abrupt ending, but at the same time there are some absolutely awesome moments.  My favorite scenes were the opening Scuttle scene and Ursula’s Grotto.  Expect a full review at a later date, however if you are heading to the park soon, do make sure to ride this ride, it’s a real gem in the otherwise dark ride deprived park.

Mickey's Soundsational Parade was the only sour note in an otherwise beautiful summer melody.

After Mermaid, we checked out The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (lite version) and the air-conditioned Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, but then it was back to Disneyland to check out the new parade. Mickey’s Soundsational, although the inspiration for the name of the entire summer campaign, was the biggest disappointment of the summer for me.  While it’s nice to see a real parade after 2-years of the street-show-that-shall-not-be-mentioned, it was a sub-par parade.  Fortunately, as the name indicates, the music is the strongest aspect of the parade.  Otherwise, its dumbed down float designs and lack of acrobatics really make the parade fall flat.  Once again, at a later time, I’ll do a nice photo essay/review of the parade.  Check back later for more.

The day went on with dinner at the Riverbelle Terrace, some exploration time of New Orleans Square, and a last ride on Space Mountain before we departed.  There is still plenty to do before Soundsational Summer ends including riding Star Tours (multiple times for multiple destinations of course), taking flight on the newly rethemed Goofy’s Sky School, grabbing a bite in the new Paradise Gardens dining area, and checking out the latest additions to World of Color.

Since visiting Walt Disney World and Islands of Adventure, I also got some new insight on the Disneyland Resort including:

• Disney’s California Adventure 1.0 was a complete joke.  Any respect I had for DCA circa 2001 is now completely gone.
• Disneyland is the best Disney park in the US while DCA is the worst.
• Although Disney’s Animal Kingdom won’t/doesn’t have has much to do as Disney California Adventure, Animal Kingdom has a sense of direction, something DCA has always been missing.
• Both Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman top anything Disney has done in the US.
• Imagineers have certainly learned their lesson on how to design parks that handle crowds well since Disneyland opened in 1955.
• The Disneyland Resort has the best nighttime line up on the planet.

Just some random things that pop into my head at this moment.  I’m sure that’s another topic that will one day get it’s own blog post.

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Construction time!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or just have a life other than the theme park world, than I am sure you are aware that Disney California Adventure is currently in the middle of a $1.1 billion expansion.  Not only is the park increasing in size with major additions such as the giant Carsland, but the park is also redoing several sections of the park to give them more of that “Disney DNA”.  Construction is in full swing with construction walls seemingly everywhere.  Time for a quick tour….

A view of Carsland from the top of the Hyperion Theater.

The bulk of the expansion is being pumped into the 2012 additions, including the massive Carsland.  Occupying 12 acres, 6 of which devoted to rock work, Carsland includes 3 rides (1 of which will be a no-doubt E-Ticket attraction) as well as plenty of shops and restaurants.  As of now, most of the structures have gone up, the cement for the rock work has been poured and construction crews are currently working on  painting the rock work, finishing the buildings, and essentially building a mini-theme park. Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree is still in the midst of receiving steel and infrastructure work however that will all change as time passes.

Carthay Circle Theater, the park's future center piece, continues to rise in the main entry plaza.

The Pan Pacific Auditorium-inspired turnstiles are approaching their opening. Notice Carthay Circle Theater in the background.

Mean while at the front of the park, construction on the new Buena Vista Street entrance area has swung into full swing.  The park’s new turnstiles inspired by the Pan Pacific Auditorium (and quite similar to Disney’s Hollywood Studios’) are rumored to open July 15th and will welcome guest to an immersive entrance for the first time since the park’s opening.

Construction walls now occupy the main corridor forcing guests through either Hollywoodland/bug’s land or Condor Flats/Grizzly Recreational Park to get to the otherside of the park.  Behind those construction walls, crews are working hard installing tracks for the new Red Trolley Cars which will be running up and down the new entrance as well.  Details have also began to emerge in the park’s new (under-construction) icon, Carthay Circle Theater which is now almost completely in tarps.

Paradise Gardens and Goofy Sky School are now open at Disney California Adventure. Image from BobWeis.cn

Lastly a big “Job well done” to the team behind Paradise Gardens at Disney California Adventure which opened just yesterday.  The newly redone dining area includes an elaborate set of shaded structures, lots of vegetation, beautiful landscaping, spectacular dining facilities, and it is now, without a doubt, the new, best area in all of the park.  I will say, I was a bit shocked at how good the interiors of Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta came out.  Absolutely fabulous job!  Unfortunately, it was still behind walls during my last visit, but our friend MintCrocodile has some excellent coverage of the entire new area.

Goofy’s Sky School, a (cheaply) rethemed version of Mullholland Madness also officially debuted yesterday which butts up to the new Paradise Gardens area.  Video here.

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Well, my apologies if you were expecting a short trip report! However that’s what happens trying to cover this giant summer at the Disneyland Resort.  Thanks for reading!  Remember to leave a comment with your Park Thoughts below.

One of the most popular attractions is Disney California Adventure, Toy Story Midway Mania is a fun for all ride where the characters of Toy Story set up the Midway Game play set. Guests ride the trams from game to game racking up points. Here are clips from the Mr. Potato Head boardwalk barker, the queue, and a full POV of the ride itself. Enjoy!

It’s october and that means Halloween is in full swing across the nation.  This past weekend was the first weekend for California’s Great America’s Halloween Haunt event featuring 6 mazes, 4 scare zones, as well as Black Widow Cavern, a scary version of Loggers Run.  This CGA Update is from October 3rd, 2010.

The iconic entrance decked out in Halloween decor.

If my memory serves correct, the first year of Halloween Haunt (2008), the park did Haunt on Sundays, while last year they didn’t.  This year Sunday Haunts have returned and not surprisingly, the park was dead.  All mazes had a maximum wait of 5 people.  Scare zones often had more actors than guests walking through.

CarnEvil continues to be one of the strongest mazes.  Like all the mazes, there was definitely some spots where there should obviously be an actor, but considering the light crowds I don’t blame the park.  The biggest change in this maze was the addition of a booth tricking people into buying more of those nifty 3D glasses (which are worth the dollar bill.)

Werewolf Canyon is one of the more detailed mazes.  I enjoy it, but like Corn Stalkers, the 2nd half is very long with not quite as much going on as the other mazes.

I’m lovin the scare crows in between the Snoopy banners.  Definitely fits well with the rest of Snoopy Plaza.

CornStalkers definitely suffered the most from the lack of actors.  This maze is naturally repetetive, and that’s emphasized with the lack of actors.

Toy Factory is by far the best maze of the night.  Tons of actors, and the creativity of the maze is outstanding.  Not to mention the incredibly catching song. “Here in the Toy Factory….”

I am not a fan of Slaughter House.  The obnoxious music, the ridiculously unnecessary gore, and the theme is all a bit bleak for my taste.

Club Blood.  For some reason, I liked it more in previous years.  I think this night the talent just wasn’t all the way there.

And now for some random scare-achter shots:

That’s it for this Halloween CGA Update.  Check back again for more!

Introduced this past summer, Knott’s illuminates Camp Snoopy at night with Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular.  A sight and sound extravaganza.  Lights drape from the trees and other objects in the area with 4 distinct areas.  The neatest aspect of the entire experience was the glasses that were sold to ‘enhance’ the experience.  When you put these on, all the individual LED’s showed up as either a star, snowflake, or heart.  Definitely worth the dollar I paid for them.  Here is a tour of the electric event.

In Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular, the end closest to the Mexican section of the park is dedicated to Sally and her 60’s Flower Power style!

Ring Ring Ring!  Sally, it’s your big brother Charlie Brown.

Following the Sally Flower Power section is an area featuring Linus and Woodstock as astronauts in space.  The area even comes complete with two green aliens and an LED animatronic space ship!

Schroeder with his famous piano playing skills plays away in his very own section of Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular.  His area is located closest to Sierra Sidewinder and features various musical notes.  While I feel the lighting is the least impressive in this section, I do find the main figurine of Schroeder with the rainbow of LED musical notes to be one of the most impressive parts of the entire experience.

The section of Camp Snoopy closest to the entrance is centered around Lucy.  Its Lucywood, where Lucy Van Pelt is the star in the center of the universe.  This area features cameras with dramatic flashing effects, and the entire Peanuts gang dressed up or a red carpet premiere.

Sierra Sidewinder in the glow of the surrounding lights.

And now here is a grand tour of Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular by video!

Leave a comment with your Park Thoughts below.