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California’s Great America adding wooden roller coaster in 2009

$The Grizzly at California\'s Great America$ The first drop on the new wooden roller coaster planned for California’s Great America sends riders whirling into a one-of-a-kind twist around the existing Star Tower observation deck.

The 3,100-foot-long woodie will take riders on a 2 1/2-minute trip that includes a drop from the 108-foot-tall lift hill and a series of zero-G camel backs and bunny hops.

The still-unnamed ride, designed by Great Coasters International, will feature a pair of Millennium Flyer trains with seating for 28 riders and a 48-inch minimum-height requirement.

The new wooden coaster, scheduled to open in 2009, will be located in the Carousel Plaza section, near the main entrance of the Santa Clara theme park.

California’s Great America officials call the multimillion-dollar coaster the amusement park’s single biggest investment in the last decade. (Hat tip to News Plus Notes)

The park’s 1986 double-out-and-back Grizzly wooden coaster is longer (at 3,250 feet) but shorter (at 91 feet tall) than the planned 2009 ride, according to Roller Coaster Database.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: The Grizzly. Credit: California's Great America]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 4:54 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California’s Great America, Family & Kids, San Francisco, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment on “California’s Great America adding wooden roller coaster in 2009”

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley Says:
July 30th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I would like to suggest people avoid the company Overseas Adventure Travel when planning trips. We signed up with them and paid in full. We had a chance to purchase very expensive travel insurance that they push (almost $1000 for 2 people). We didn’t take it. My husband came down with kidney cancer 5 weeks before our trip.
We asked to take the trip at a later date as it is regularly offered. We were told no and lost half the cost of the trip. And when we had questions about the refund, we were hung up on. Amazing way to do business.