CC7 TR

[Chickenhawk]

hello again, My family and I attended the SFGADv 7th Coaster Celebration both days. This has become a lower keyed event compared to the last two years. As many know, the event did not include backstage tours. It only consisted of two 1 1/2 hour ERT sessions, breakfast, lunch and two raffles for a bag of goodies. ERT Saturday night was the east end, Medusa, Rolling Thunder left side, Viper and Runaway Train. Nothing novel to report here. They claimed RT was greased but it ran as well or slightly better than last week. Maybe the night air. Sunday morning was Nitro, 1st gen freefall, BTR and Chiller; first 3/4 hr blue/Batman and next 3/4 hr. red/Robin track. Skull mtn. was closed to ERT and I missed the service lights on ride. Nitro great as usual and everybody had the chance to reride Chiller often enough and short intervals, which allows us to judge the best seat and the best track, a feat thats hard to do during normal park hours as it's a low capacity ride. Personally, I chose red front, it seems longer than blue and blue seems to crawl through the tophat, compared to years past.

Sun. breakfast was bagels and danish, no OJ, years past it was a full hot breakfast with eggs and sausage. Sat. lunch was just hamburgers, hotdogs and fried chicken. I seemed to remember salads as well in the past. No speeches, no scavenger hunt before the raffle. We got to question the PR man (Mike) after the raffle. Tours were cancelled because of "security and legal" reasons. I wasnt going to be a pain and argue with him. As for the new coaster, it was like trying to interview an AREA 51 worker. Most of us know about the cough B&M cough flyer cough and chuckled cough. He did hint that there was going to be a major announcement around October 20's We shall see! He said there will still be a CC8 next year, so this is an indirect hint that something new is coming. In all I was slightly dissapointed and the best bang for the money would have been to just go to the park Sunday normal hours. The threat of rain kept the droves away, and had 3 to 4 thousand attendance. Most were walk ons and waits were slightly longer than the ERTs at least till 11 AM. Take care, -Emil-

["Weatherman" Dan]

When they say Rolling Thunder is greased, they mean it! The ride is so different, and so much smoother (at least the right side is) when the mechanics do their magic. Problem is, if it's too greased, there's a high probability that the trains will slide too far on the brakes, and that's bad.

Sounds like you had a good day, with the exception of some old CC traditions... Oh well; maybe next year!

~Dan

[sfgadviper]

I had a great time at the event. I do wish that it would return to the one day format like last year though. Driving home at midnight then returning by 8 when I live an hour away is very tough. I was so exhausted I was home by noon on Sunday.

It was nice meeting everybody and I finally was able to get my "rally" on Viper. Yeah Yeah I know...why? Well cause I like it!!!!

[twistedrails]

i only live 45 mins away.........but i stayed in a hotel about 10 mins from the park......which made i much less tiring.......but i still left by 12 Sunday.......How long was your rally on viper?......you might have set a record

[JJ2K]

Why didn't scream machine have ERT???

[twistedrails]

nobody was there to run it i assume.....or they figured no one would go all the way out there to ride it.....i wanted to ride it for ERT all sunday night......but instead i rode Rolling Thunder many many times ....Yeah.....u heard of grease?......my ears were hurting after a couple rides....lol...but i love RT tho

["Weatherman" Dan]

There was one supervisor on duty for ERT for the west side of the park. To have rides in 220, 230, AND 240 open would be a huge hassle. So, Chris (one of the coolest guys in the park!) did the four coasters by himself, not an uncommon occurrence as the season winds down.

~Dan

[?¿?Joker?¿?]

Ok, now I gotta ask, lol, what does "ERT" stand for? I was there saturday and I didn't see much of anything special going on.

[twistedrails]

it stands for EXTRA(extended) RIDE TIME it was after closing saterday night and in the morning on sunday........this was only for people that were attending coaster celebration

[Pashacar]

I thought it was Exclusive Ride Time.

[Robert_Strausberg]

ERT does indeed stand for Exclusive Ride Time.

-Rob

[twistedrails]

your all right...my bad....it say "Exclusive Ride Time (ERT) on 8 different coasters!"...right on the registration

[?¿?Joker?¿?]

Hmmmm.... We where the last riders on the Nitro saturday night and when we got off, the park was looking extremely empty and quiet. We even had to take the additional time before leaving to walk over and return our Q-Bot. We finally exited the park a good 45 minutes after closing time and no rides where running that I could see or hear.

Something really funny happened that night...LOL! When we got off the Nitro we where the last group of people leaving the park and the first hotdog/soda stand comming back from the Nitro some kid ran up to the Ketchup dispenser thinking it was a soda tap (it actually does look like one) and got a mouthfull of Ketchup!! LMAO!!! ;D Everyone was laughing!! That will teach him!!

[twistedrails2k]

Well the only rides running for ERT on saturday night were RT, Viper, Runaway Train, and Medusa so if you were on the Nitro side of the park you would have heard anything.....and i was quite even on the other side of the park too......it was almost spooky without screaming and yelling and just the roar of medusa every once in awhile......... and Ketchup is da bomb yo!....lol