Gouldy's American adventures.

[gouldy]

So me and the wife went to California and Vegas and ate lots of food and went on coasters and things... below is an example of said activities.

So first we landed in Vegas and could see this from the hotel...



We rode it. It was cack, total cack.


Of course we hit up the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus...



I enjoyed El Loco (pictured) quite a lot, although Lindsey wasn't a fan. She preferred the pink one, the name of which escapes me.


Then we somehow ended up in a helicopter over some rocks...



This truly was an experience. Still don't think we were quite able to take in the scale of it from the helicopter, so if I was to go again, I'd like to at the very least land the chopper at the top of it to get a proper look.


Then we flew to L.A. and hired our car for the holiday, and of course, we hired the same car we drive at home...



He served us well, although it has to be said that I HATE automatic gearboxes and I don't know how you guys put up with that sh*t!


First park we visited was Disney...



This place was awesome.

I was extremely surprised by how good the Space Mountain was here. I had no idea what type of ride it was having done no research before going. I actually really loved this ride. We also had a treat while we were on it, because it broke down on the last brake section and stopped for quite a while, long enough for then to turn the lights on and give us a chance to have a look around (they also let us all re-ride it!)...










Didn't realise that Matterhorn Bobsleds had a splashdown at the end of it...



Looked like I'd bloody pissed myself.


Next day was Universal Studios and Hollywood and stuff...




Then the next day, we drove north for a while until we turned up at this little place...



X2 was awesome, especially the drop. First time in a long time that I've actually screamed involuntarily on a coaster.


Liked this photo...





Then we hit up KBF the next day...



As a huge fan of Intamin Rockets, I found Xcelerator to be one of the better ones I've ridden, awesome ride!


Silver Bullet...



This ride was a little bit like being caressed to sleep. But Lindsey loved it!


Me on Montezuma's Revenge...



Zooming right in on this image you'll see me with my arms up on my own in the middle of the train.


We drove from KBF to an In-N-Out Burger at lunch time...



We need more stuff like this in England. We just have the nasty fast food like McDonald's where everything turns up already pre made in the back of a lorry, all processed and stuff. This was a lot lot fresher food and tasted a lot better for it. Could have done without all the Jesus stuff on the packaging though haha.


Then we drove across the Disney for the rest of the day...



I maxed out the score on the Buzz Lightyear shooty thing.


The next day was spent at the California Science Centre...



We saw Endeavour. Awesome.


Later that day we drove across to Santa Monica...



What a sh*t coaster.


We got to watch the sun set over the pier and the hills...



T'was a nice place.


The next day we ended up at this little place again...



Full Throttle was a lot better than I thought it might be.


It was the day they were waving bye bye to Colossus...



This meant that the rest of the park was genuinely empty for a large part of the day...



So empty that we actually had multiple re-rides on a few of the coasters...



We both really enjoyed Riddler's Revenge...




I think this shirt should be a thing on this website...



Finally left the park after having ridden Colossus for the first time ever, just an hour or so before it closed down forever...





We ate a lot of food, but pride of place as my favourite single item, was this thing...



Bloomin' Onion from Outback.


I cannot quite put into words the amount of food we ate on this holiday. Our hotel was surrounded by 20+ restaurants of all kinds, and then there were the rips we made to In-N-Out and Five Guys and Taco Bell.

Had an awesome time in L.A. (Vegas was good, too, but not my scene...), but I couldn't live there with temperatures like that!

Magic Mountain was a great place and had some, obviously, awesome rides, but I actually preferred KBF as a place to visit, it was a very nice little park. And obviously Disney was awesome because it kept Lindsey happy... and also Space Mountain.

Throw questions at me bros!

[mkingy]

Great trip report Mr Gould

Canyon Blaster is the pink one

Has X2 / anything else changed your top ride list?

[TheArchitect]

Awesome TPR man, was looking forward to it. I particularly love the pic of Colossus with the reflection from your bonnet or car roof? As for questions; what were you on about with jesus on the packaging at In-N-Out burger?

In-N-Out is a Christian company and always has been, they're much like Chick-Fil-A in a sense, now as a Christian, it doesn't bother me. It shouldn't bother any non-christians either. It's their personal convictions that they choose to represent through their brand. Please don't let this escalate into a religious debate.

[Oscar]

Glad you had an awesome time! You should have been around this week or the next one. We're getting some clouds from the hurricane in the pacific and weather is like 5 to 10 degrees cooler than when you were here

As for the religious stuff on IN-N-Out, I've never read the packaging. I go for the food not to read xD

Cool Trip! Sounded like fun! I like the pic of xcelerator, with some photo editing, i think it could look even better. And yes, Full Throttle is better than expected, I was surprised too! What about Drop of Doom? Were you surprised by that? I was! Especially when the tower sways because of the superman ride!
Hope you enjoyed those burgers! I eat them like once a week! I never noticed the christian stuff until one of my friends told me, I was just like eh? Just ate a good burger.
As for chick fil a, I don't really care for all their religious stuff, i just go to eat, no matter where. I just hate that they close Sunday! Its weird how I always want chick fil a on the only day their not open.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Glad you had fun in the USA. I'm really jealous of the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. You weren't able to see how catastrophically low Lake Mead is from the chopper did you?

[TTD03]

Fantastic Trip report, you are landing yourself on the homepage for it!

[gouldy]

mkingy wrote:

Great trip report Mr Gould

Canyon Blaster is the pink one

Has X2 / anything else changed your top ride list?

Canyon Blaster! That's the one!

Yeah, I haven't really thought about it until now, but my top 10 has definitely altered. I'm pretty sure my favourite coaster I've ridden is still El Toro at SFGAdv., but X2 and Tatsu have now definitely appeared in my top 10. X2 probably being about number 10, just sneaking in, because it could have done with being longer!

TheArchitect wrote:

Awesome TPR man, was looking forward to it. I particularly love the pic of Colossus with the reflection from your bonnet or car roof? As for questions; what were you on about with jesus on the packaging at In-N-Out burger?

It was the roof of the car!

On all of the packaging for the burgers/drinks/fries etc. there were Bible passages. John 3:16 on the underside of the cups for example.

Rickrollercoaster wrote:

In-N-Out is a Christian company and always has been, they're much like Chick-Fil-A in a sense, now as a Christian, it doesn't bother me. It shouldn't bother any non-christians either. It's their personal convictions that they choose to represent through their brand. Please don't let this escalate into a religious debate.

It didn't bother me, it's just writing on a cup. As a Brit, it just seemed unprofessional and odd. But it's just a culture difference, because half of my country is completely irreligious you would never see something like this on a company's packaging.

Oscar wrote:

Glad you had an awesome time! You should have been around this week or the next one. We're getting some clouds from the hurricane in the pacific and weather is like 5 to 10 degrees cooler than when you were here

Cooler weather and clouds were the only things I could have wished for!

Helo9797 wrote:

What about Drop of Doom? Were you surprised by that? I was! Especially when the tower sways because of the superman ride!

I didn't ride it

I did notice how much the tower swayed though! Would be quite an odd feeling while riding the drop tower, I would assume!

As Superman has been mentioned: In the queue for Superman, I spoke to 2 very nice girls whose ovaries practically exploded in front of me when they started talking to me and found out I was English. Superman broke down while I was queuing for it that time, too, but we stayed in the queue for the 20 minutes it was broken because we were enjoying the conversation so much. It helped that they were both incredibly cute. Lindsey found it amusing, of course, when the 2 girls in question started waving at me shouting "HI DANIEL!" when we saw them in the park again later on.

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Glad you had fun in the USA. I'm really jealous of the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. You weren't able to see how catastrophically low Lake Mead is from the chopper did you?

I was able to see that, unfortunately, yeah. Our chopper pilot also explained to us just how bad the situation was; saying that if it continues at the current rate, the dam itself will be essentially useless in less than 10 years time - unless they re-engineer the water inlet tunnels on the dam. It was easy to tell how bad it's got based on the much lighter coloured rock where water had been in previous years.

TTD03 wrote:

Fantastic Trip report, you are landing yourself on the homepage for it!

Cheers! Yeah, I noticed. It put a smile on my face, so cheers for that, whoever is responsible! (Assuming Oscar?)

[TTD03]

^ Nope, all me!

[gouldy]

TTD03 wrote:

^ Nope, all me!

AH! I didn't see that you were a mod!
Well then, thank you very much!

I'm so jealous you got to hit up California. I was fortunate enough to get to Vegas this summer but not anywhere in Cali. SFMM has been in my top 3 parks to visit since I was in diapers practically.

Also, you're hot.

[mkingy]

Also just noticed cheeky theme park reference in the thread title :<

[TTD03]

gouldy wrote:

TTD03 wrote:

^ Nope, all me!

AH! I didn't see that you were a mod!
Well then, thank you very much!

, You're Welcome!

[gouldy]

mkingy wrote:

Also just noticed cheeky theme park reference in the thread title :<

tiepilot35 wrote:

I'm so jealous you got to hit up California. I was fortunate enough to get to Vegas this summer but not anywhere in Cali. SFMM has been in my top 3 parks to visit since I was in diapers practically.

Also, you're hot.

Let's just preserve this comment for ever.

You have to get lucky on Lex Luther for the sway, because superman only runs one train, breaks down, maybe it only sways on the way up (which is still amazing scary, funny, awesome), but if your lucky, the swaying starts a soon as you reach the top, and continues swaying as you wait to be dropped. Its great! So sad you didn't get to ride! Its wayyyy better than any other drop tower I've been on. Those S&S drop towers are nothing compared to Intamin True Freefall.

[TTD03]

^ ~tis true.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Gouldy regarding the dam, I'm still waiting on Las Vegas to ban lawns and golf courses. It's also absurd to me that they're or want to build a water park.

[gouldy]

It did seem a little odd to me how there is a serious issue out there at the dam and the lake, yet when we got back into Vegas there was absolutely no sign of it - sprinklers on everywhere watering grass that should never be in the desert, pools with cascading water features and fountains etc. No signs anywhere at least attempting some kind of "conserve water" message.

Forgot to say, these photos are incredible. Glad you had fun and congrats!

[TTD03]

gouldy wrote:

It did seem a little odd to me how there is a serious issue out there at the dam and the lake, yet when we got back into Vegas there was absolutely no sign of it - sprinklers on everywhere watering grass that should never be in the desert, pools with cascading water features and fountains etc. No signs anywhere at least attempting some kind of "conserve water" message.

I don't think fountains or waterfalls for an actual pool are an issue, because it is just recycled water from the pool itself. Other than that, everything else needs to go.

The whole city wasn't meant to exist in the middle of the Nevada dessert, next to Death Valley( the hottest place on record)!
Golf is just a waste of water.

[Coasterkidmwm]

gouldy wrote:

It did seem a little odd to me how there is a serious issue out there at the dam and the lake, yet when we got back into Vegas there was absolutely no sign of it - sprinklers on everywhere watering grass that should never be in the desert, pools with cascading water features and fountains etc. No signs anywhere at least attempting some kind of "conserve water" message.

Don't you know there is no climate change? This is America Gouldy.

AMERICA F*ck yeah!
sorry just saw Team America: world police, two days ago lol

I still love to see the classic "Magic Mountain" logo on the front car of Colossus! Too bad you will never see that sign on the front one of Twisted Colossus coming next year. :'(