West Coast Swing

So today is my last day of april break then back to driving the kids. Last week i spent it at 2 parks Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knotts Berry Farm.
in a twist from the regular i took Amtrak from Clifton Forge to LA via Chicago and then flew back friday morning. Also of note i did not rent a car out there and public transit to both parks is suprisingly easy.

not spending too much time on this but i left from Clifton Forge VA on the Cardinal train 51 aroud 4:15PM eastern on Friday the 30th and got into Chicago around 9:30AM the next morning. and had 5 hours to kill between before the Southwest Chief departed. The train departed Chicago on time and arrived around 30 minutes early (7:30AM (pacific time) on Monday April 2). I then proceed to check into my hotel. and immediately head off to SFMM.

Now the way i went to SFMM was red line subway to North Hollywood station and transfered to the Santa Clearitia 757 bus to newhall and changed to the Santa Clearita 3. both the 3 and 7 serve SFMM and run about every half hour. Note Universal Hollywood is served directly by the Red line Subway at the Universal City station which is the station immedately before North Hollywood.
in park.

time in park
Noon-7:30
crowds Busy-Packed
weather 60's to 70's and sunny
food the park sells sushi and yes i bought it. no merch
meetups none
ride count
Twisted colosis 1
scream 1
Riddlers revenge 1
X2 1
Goliath 1
Batman 2 (walk on and empty row in back)
Viper 1 note the sign at the entrance said 30 minue wait ride was actually a walk on and was being dispatched half full.
gold rusher 1
Ninja 1
Apocalypse 1
as it's been renamed The New Revolution 1.
due to timing and crowds i was not able to grab Escape from cripton Tatsu or Full throttle. Green lantern was closed all day so that was also a miss. I also feel like there may have been one or 2 coaster i may have overlooked as well but whatever a fun time had by all.

Green Lantern was closed that day and so was Xcelerator the following day at Knotts
not really going to say much on ride quality nothing overly bad but Colossis was great and the ops were terrable at Apocalypse also ride wait times between the app in park signage and actual wait times were well off sometimes the actual wait times were double the posted. Also the ride locker policy is rarely enforced. X2 has the lockers at the top of the stairs and most ride lockers are near the station not at the start of the queing area. GAV should learn from that.

Tuseday was the only day on the trip that went as scheduled. I went to Knotts followed up by an Angels game against Cleveland. Knotts VS Cedar Point. As i said i used public transit throughout the trip. to get to Knotts from downtown LA take the 460 bus. It also serves Disneyland.
in park

Time in park 10:30AM-5PM
crowds mobbed to the point i bought fastlane. Ghostrider which i rode 4 times. had a 2 hour wait 1 hour after opening and all coasters had full or overflow queues. also of note if this were kings dominion or Carrowinds i would have never considered fastlane.
food merch. Does Fastlane count?
weather clear in the low 70's low humidity/ air polution (this is an LA suburb we're talking about)
no meetups no stupid.
Xcelerator was closed and nothing on the track.
Pony Express 1
Sierra Sidwinder 2
Montezooma's Revenge 1
Jaguar 1
Silver Bullet (sponcered by coors light LOL) 3
their wild muse named coast rider 1

on wednesday i went down to the Santa Monica Pier and got the quick credit on whatever that contraption is called. West Coaster if i recall correctly. Anyway the cost is $10 per ride but the ride ops are sending cycles twice per boarding so that's somewhat of a plus compared to the Coney Island Cyclone. also this ride was featured as a different name (I think the Surpent) in Grand Theft Auto 5 and is ridable in that. also at $10 in game currency. The video game was actually the first time i heard that there was a coaster on the Santa Monica Pier.