California Screamin'

Disneynutcase

New Member
DLMAGICDARREN, I think you overuse the word "show," perhaps confusing it with a more accurate word such as "theming." I think most of us will concur that California Screamin' it "themed" to look like a classic boardwalk amusement park wooden coaster. And the two added effects--the rocket launch/hyper speed up the hill and the sometimes-there soundtrack (although both cool "effects") actually don't really go with that theme. As far as show or story goes, the ride is still only a roller-coaster.

To say that BTM, Space Mountain, RnRC or the Matterhorn or "just coasters" as well is ridiculous. There are plenty of details, effects, imagination and semi-story to each of those four superior obviously-designed-by-Imagineers kind of rides. Examples: rush from a sound studio to a concert venue as fast and wildly as possible (which really isn't easy to do in L.A.); ride a runaway mine train past obstacles including a cave-in. It's like calling ToT "just another drop ride." Aside from the Mickey trademark design in California Screamin's loop, there's nothing about that coaster that can't be found in most Six Flags or Paramount parks across the country.

Knotts has one called Xcellerator (recently installed this year) that also has a soundtrack and a rocket launch start. So both features are indeed not unique to this ride.

Or to put it another perspective, using your logic: We could rip out Big Thunder Mountain and replace it instead with a steel coaster with rustic looking "show" wood and a twangy banjo soundtrack within the coaster trains. Using the logic you've used, because this coaster would look somewhat rustic and would be located in Frontierland, it would therefore be appropriately themed.

To me, a ride like this would be a totally different and inferior product to BTM. But I guess we all see and experience things differently.

In my opinion (and it may just be mine), Paradise Pier ruins DCA. There's not a ride in the area that you can't find elsewhere in non-Disney theme parks (and for that matter done better). And I'm really not an Disney purist. It's just that the whole area reeks of outside contracting and off-the-shelf rides (in other words, rides that WDI did not design themselves). And this includes California Screamin'.
 

DLMAGICDARREN

New Member
Well Disneynutcase, it's fine that we disagree.

I'll agree there is a big difference between show, and themed.

Rock N Roller Coaster has a show, because there is somewhat of a story to it. The preshow sets it up mostly though, the actual ride is not much of a show, but I'll still give it to you, however, if you were really racing across town on LA freeways, you also probably would not start with an LIM launch, or even more so go upside down. If I literally went upside down on the LA freeways, my ride surely would not make it to the concert, so I don't really get your double standards why it's ok for some attractions to add effects probably not realistic, and yet you seem to accept other effects that are just as unlikely on rides you seem to like, such as an earthquake at the end of a runaway train ride, or a snowman in a Swiss mountain. I guess it's simply because you like one coaster better then another.

I never once called BTM, Space Mountain, or Matterhorn Mountain, "just coasters", any more then you called California Screamin one, so I don't see what's so "ridiculous". I merely pointed out, they are still coasters, whatever you think of their theming. Love them or not, California Screamin, Space Mountain, Matterhorn Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain, are "just coasters". Definition of an object, and a description of its' appeal are two different things.

Why do the details of Matterhorn Mountain, or BTM count, yet the details of California Screamin don't? So Matterhorn is a coaster with a mountain built around it, and California Screamin is a steel coaster made to look like a wooden one. That's a one on one relationship. I never once denied the details that exist in DL's coasters. I notice the specifics you provide in BTM, which seem to try and say a runaway train is "themed" even though a steel coaster, built in 2001, to replicate a hundred year old wooden coaster is not. Sure the earthquake scene is nice, but what did it have to do with a run a way tram?

If the tram ran away "because" of the quake, that scene would be in the beginning of the ride, not the finale. So BTM has an earthquake, and California Screamin has a wave effect, both are cool, and still both don't really have a thing to do with the theming of the ride in general, but just attempt to provide more theming in general, whether it fits specific to the actual attraction or not.

Sure the scenes in BTM are wonderful, but it's telling a very different story, nobody ever said that DCA's themes and stories, are not more realistic then the ones across in Disneyland, which theme to a more "make beleive" idea.

I never once said the "theme" to California Screamin is the launch, nor the soundtrack. Rather I said those elements, as well as the loop and giant Mickey, didn't fit the theme, and were simply added elements.

I'm aware of the coasters at Knotts, and although I've not yet had the priveledge to experiance Xcelerator, since Windjammer's demise, I never claimed a LIM launch and sountrack made a themed coaster. In fact, a much older coaster at Knott's has been launching us long before any coasters we mentiond, Montezuma's Revenge.

You give much to much credit, as to my opinion of the ride, having "theme" to have anything to do with the soundtrack. Your analgy of how BTM could be replaced by wood is pretty far fetched. How does rustic wood tell the story of a runaway train? Yet it has eveything to do with the theming of California Screamin, because, it's NOT supposed to resemble a steel coaster. Could BTM's mountain be removed, and have Big Thunder Adventure still be a runaway train? Perhaps, would I support this? Absolutely not.

Did I ever say that California Screamin was the best themed coaster of Disney's? I don't think so. I only pointed out what it had, and compared it to other's at Disney.

I go back to the example of Matterhorn. Is it themed? Yes, but to what, nobody really understands. Is it an adventure on the actual mountain in Swatzerland? Is it a fantasy where you encounter a snowman? Or is it themed to the 1959 film, Third Man On The Mountain? You could get three different answers, or possibly more, depinding on who you ask. The bottom line is it's got a mountain. I don't know of any defination that says, in order to theme, you must build a mountain around it.

DCA's own Grizzly Mountain, has only about an equal amount of theming to it as California Screamin, even though it has a mountain.

I'm not trying to make DCA, or Paradise PIer more then it is, DCA still ranks lowest of all the six Disney parks I've been to, but California Screamin, is "themed". Likewise, so are some coaster's at non Disney parks, but Xcelerator would not be one of my choices to illustrate that. Riddler's Revenge or Batman are better examples for California Coasters. Hulk or Dueling Dragons for east coast picks.

Is California Screamin the best ever "themed" coaster? Not by a long shot.
 

Testtrack321

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure that Xecelerator dosn't have a soundtrack and that the launch ISN'T using LSM (not LIM), instead it uses hydrolics. A big note is this, they were both made by Intamin.
 

SL 1993R

New Member
Calif Screamin fits in with the California experience that is being told at DCA... yes it has its own soundtrack, and works about half the time I ride it.. It's a theme about a Calif Boardwalk.. the best place to sit is in the front of the coaster.. The front seat turns it into an awesome ride.. I've riden in the front probably close to 50 times...
 

esqteam

New Member
Info on Screamin....

When DCA opened, the Los Angeles Times had a special insert about the park.

The article has a diagram of Screamin being a Coaster Magentism. There are steel plates underneath each car. The track has magnets that results in a spinning electromagnetic motors pushing the coaster forward. The car reaches 55mph in four seconds.

There is an on-board sound system playing surf guitar soundtrack. Scream tubes exist on the ride to intensify and contain the sounds.

The ride is a wooden coaster motif, actually built from steel.

Went to DCA this past Saturday. It was down AGAIN for sometime during the day. It has been down for some time every time I have gone to DCA.
 

SONiCSenshi

New Member
I think I better clear some things up about this coaster. Anyone that is real coaster enthusiasts will notice this. California Screamin' is designed to pay homage to some of California's classic and legendary coasters of the past and present. First of all if painted white like most classic wooden coasters this makes it look like the Giant Dippers and Colossus. Next the drop off the LSM Lift hill and the next turn are almost identical to the first drop and turn on the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper and the old Whirlwind Dipper that was located in Venice Beach. The Vetical Loop on SC resembles the loop on Revolution (First Modern Looping coaster) the launch is LSM, which pays homage to Superman: The Escape. The on board music pay homage to Space Mountain. And the launch speed and time it takes to reach 55MPH is very much the same as Montezooma's Revenge. And both launch and the lift hill use LSM's not LIM (Intain AG has never used LIM's on any of their coasters, not even the Impulse coasters.) Some people also say that the LSM drop technically now pays homage to GhostRider also because they are so similar. KBF added the speed shed/noise shield to GhostRider after SC opened though. Oh and it's lift height is the same as one California other legendary coasters, can't remember which one right now. California Screamin's feels a lot like the way Revolution did back in days before it had all the problems it has today and they both share 75 degree banking. The same company that designed California Screamin' also brought us Revolution, Superman: The Escape and Montezooma's Revenge. They are called Intamin AG and it was designed by Werner Stengel was the right hand man of the late great Anton Schwarzkcop. To put in an easier to understand way is that California Screamin' is California Coasters Greatest Hits Collection. ^_^
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by SONiCSenshi
I think I better clear some things up about this coaster. Anyone that is real coaster enthusiasts will notice this. California Screamin' is designed to pay homage to some of California's classic and legendary coasters of the past and present. First of all if painted white like most classic wooden coasters this makes it look like the Giant Dippers and Colossus. Next the drop off the LSM Lift hill and the next turn are almost identical to the first drop and turn on the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper and the old Whirlwind Dipper that was located in Venice Beach. The Vetical Loop on SC resembles the loop on Revolution (First Modern Looping coaster) the launch is LSM, which pays homage to Superman: The Escape. The on board music pay homage to Space Mountain. And the launch speed and time it takes to reach 55MPH is very much the same as Montezooma's Revenge. And both launch and the lift hill use LSM's not LIM (Intain AG has never used LIM's on any of their coasters, not even the Impulse coasters.) Some people also say that the LSM drop technically now pays homage to GhostRider also because they are so similar. KBF added the speed shed/noise shield to GhostRider after SC opened though. Oh and it's lift height is the same as one California other legendary coasters, can't remember which one right now. California Screamin's feels a lot like the way Revolution did back in days before it had all the problems it has today and they both share 75 degree banking. The same company that designed California Screamin' also brought us Revolution, Superman: The Escape and Montezooma's Revenge. They are called Intamin AG and it was designed by Werner Stengel was the right hand man of the late great Anton Schwarzkcop. To put in an easier to understand way is that California Screamin' is California Coasters Greatest Hits Collection. ^_^

This is why people love Cali Screamin' so much--it is a mix of the best elements from the best coasters in America.
 

SONiCSenshi

New Member
LOL that's right, CALIFORNIA not America, all the coasters I listed above all and were located in California. I believe the lift and drop Height were taken from GhostRider or Revolution now, Revolution has heavily inspired the design of California Screamin'.

Revolution Lift Height: 113ft. Drop Height: unknown, Track Length: 3457ft. Maximum Speed: 55MPH

Colossus Lift Height: 115ft. Drop Height: 125ft. Track Length: 4325ft. Maximum Speed: 62MPH

GhostRider Lift Height: 118ft. Drop Height: 108ft. Track Length: 4533ft. Maximum Speed: 56MPH

California Screamin' Lift Height: 115ft. Drop Height: 107ft. Track Length is 6072ft. Maximum Speed: 55MPH

If you want an American Greatest Hits Collection head up five miles north to Knott's Berry Farm. GhostRider at KBF is described also as a "Greatest Hits Collection" taking some of the best elements of some of the best wooden coasters in America and the world and improving on them. It features elements from coasters like the Texas Giant, Raven, MegaFobia, Coaster at Playland Park, BC Canada just to name a few, but now I am getting off topic.
 

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