Park Review
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Santa Clara, California August 16, 2001 While I lived in Capitola, this park, celebrating its 25th operating season this year, was my "home" thrill park and quickly became a favorite of mine. While it doesn't feature an exceptionally large number of top-notch thrill coasters, this park does have a couple of personal favorites. They just installed their tenth coaster this year, but keep in mind that three of their coasters are quite tame and one other coaster, a woodie named Grizzly, should never have been built in the first place. My schedule only allowed for me to spend a few hours at the park so I only wound up going on only a few rides. After purchasing my VIP season pass (which I'll get to use at PKI next week), I headed over to one of my favorites, Top Gun. Installed in 1994, Top Gun is a first-generation inverted suspended coaster similar to Batman: The Ride. Top Gun is a personal favorite of mine despite its short ride length. I enjoy it more than its brethren (i.e. Batman) because of the excellent use of water towards the end of the ride. The design drops riders down very close to a small lake at high speed for an excellent effect. I next went on Vortex, which is a first-generation stand-up inverting coaster. Vortex is a short ride that hardly compares to later generation stand-ups such as B&M's Riddler's Revenge. Still, even with only two sets of inversions (one loop and one corkscrew), Vortex is still a fun ride. Unfortunately, like other first-generation stand-ups that I have been on, Vortex contains some head banging. Fortunately, thanks to the many rides I have taken on it, I have learned to lock my head into place at all times while riding this coaster! After Vortex, I paid a visit to my favorite coaster at PGA, Invertigo. Invertigo is a first-generation Vekoma suspended boomerang coaster. Given the fact that this coaster is a shuttle design, Invertigo typically features long lines thanks to its lack of throughput. Thankfully, the park was empty that night and my wait for Invertigo was quite short (less than 15 minutes). I rode Invertigo in my favorite seat, the "front seat" all the way to the right. I love the feeling of falling out of my chair when the train is first pulled backward. (I can't use the standard car "numbering" convention here, as Invertigo features cars where the seats face each other, alternating forwards and backwards.) Like Top Gun and Vortex, Invertigo is a short ride (typical for most shuttle coasters, it seems) but it is intense. I can't wait for my upcoming visit to SFMM at the end of the month so I can ride the second-generation Vekoma suspended boomerang, Deja Vu! I next went on my favorite freefall ride, Drop Zone, an Intamin Giant Drop ride. Unfortunately, I wound up taking side 6 of the ride, which placed me in direct line with the sun (which was still an hour or so from setting at that point). Despite having to squint my eyes (I wasn't going to chance losing my sunglasses on this ride during the drop), it was as intense as always. The smoothness of this ride is like no other freefall ride and is far superior to Intamin's original attempt at a freefall ride. I next went to ride Stealth, PGA's flying coaster (the world's first). I enjoy this ride but have never been a huge fan of it. Why? It is such a smooth ride that the "perceived" speed is slow. I like coasters that make me feel like I am going fast. I guess that's why I own a motorcycle as well :o) Nonetheless, Stealth is quite fun. Flying coasters definitely have a unique feel as compared with other designs. Stealth represented my longest wait of all rides for the evening, a total of about 30 minutes. While Stealth was my last ride for the day, I was not quite done at PGA for the day. It was roughly about 8 pm and I wanted to grab a bite to eat for dinner. Unfortunately, all of the main restaurants were closed. It bugs me when parks close their restaurants long before closing (PGA didn't close until 9pm that day). So, I figured I would get something to eat later on the road (wound up eating at Denny's at about midnight). In lieu of eating, I went over to PGA's IMAX theater to catch "Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box 3D". Now I know this may be a bit off topic, but I do want to say a quick few words about this film. I have been a fan of Siegfried & Roy ever since I saw their show back in 1986. I love both magic and animals, thus being a fan of S&R should be no surprise! The film (standard 50-minute IMAX length) goes into the history of both Siegfried & Roy and is pretty interesting. It also shows footage of their current show at the Mirage, as well as some great shots of them at home with their animals. I recommend it to anyone who either loves magic and/or animals like myself. The 3D effect of the film is minimal but effective. Andrew
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