The Best and Worst Rides in Great America

Now I'm on summer break, I've started paying attention to my blog -- and writing posts on it. Just a week ago, I wrote a post titled "Geography." Now, I'm writing about the best and worst rides in the amusement park of Great America in Santa Clara, CA (link goes to Great America's website). So, if you ever visit Great America, keep this post in mind.

Notes on the lists: They are solely based on my 4 trips to Great America. I haven't gone on, and therefore can't rate, some rides like Gold Striker, the Vortex, and the Demon. Also, I realize that I am not meant to like the rides at Kidzville and Planet Snoopy (the younger-kid-themed parts of the park); they are tailored for kids younger than me. Because of this, I have exempted rides at Kidzville and Planet Snoopy from both lists.

Notes on "An Ideal Itinerary": Names of rides and sections of the park are in bold. A reason for including the ride in the itinerary (in italics) follows each ride. After each section of the park is reached, bullet points containing the name of each ride I want to go to in the section follow.

The 3 Worst Rides in Great America

1. Rip Roaring Rapids in All American Corners: 

    Reasoning: You wait for what seems like AN HOUR to ride a tub on a pool. People are frequently misled by the ride's 5-star rating on the Thrill Index. Whenever you go to Great America, don't ride on Rip-off Roaring Rapids!

    What to do instead: If you want a thrill-filled water ride, Loggers Run in All American Corners and Whitewater Falls in Celebration Plaza are your best bets. During the summer, check out Boomerang Bay, the water park section of Great America.

2. Jackaroo Landing in Boomerang Bay:

   Reasoning: No matter where you go on this play structure, you're sure to get drenched. Every five minutes or so, there's a humongous downpour that makes it impossible to go anywhere. You need to brave geysers and downpours to go to any slide on the structure. By then, the constant drenching becomes more annoying than fun. And the tremendously slow slide does nothing to improve Jackaroo Landing's rating.

   What to do instead: Visit the REAL rides of Boomerang Bay: Tasmanian Typhoon, Down Under Thunder, Didgeridoo Falls, Screamin' Wombat, and Ripsnort Ridge. You also might want to try Loggers Run in All American Corners and Whitewater Falls in Celebration Plaza.

3. Thunder Raceway in Action Zone:

   Reasoning: The race for the final spot in my Worst Rides in Great America list is a close one between Boomerang Lagoon in Boomerang Bay and Thunder Raceway.  Boomerang Lagoon, though crowded and cold, is at least free. You need to pay $8 per person to get into Thunder Raceway. Come on, we already paid for admission into Great America!

   What to do instead: Unfortunately, there is no other ride in Great America comparable to Thunder Raceway. The only other rides involving cars are Barney Oldfield Speedway in County Fair (a car-shaped buggy ride) and Rue Le Dodge in Orleans Place (a bumper-car ride). I haven't tried either of these, so I can't provide any feedback on them. If you really want to see Action Zone, go on The Grizzly, a thrill-filled wooden roller coaster.

The 5 Best Rides in Great America

1. The Grizzly in Action Zone:

   Reasoning: The Grizzly is the most thrill-filled ride in Great America I've ever gone on. Though the wait time is 30 minutes or so, the multiple 90-foot drops make the wait totally worth it.

2. Loggers Run in All American Corners:

   Reasoning: There is relatively little wait time, and there's a 72-foot drop at the end. It also involves water, and I'm bound to like any ride with water (except Rip Roaring Rapids and Jackaroo Landing).

3. Whitewater Falls in Celebration Plaza:

   Reasoning: Again, it involves water and a big drop, so I'm bound to like it. There is also NO wait time: the longest wait time we've suffered through is 2 minutes.

4. Ripsnort Ridge & Screamin' Wombat in Boomerang Bay:

   Reasoning: I've already covered the rides I like in All American Corners, Celebration Plaza, and Action Zone. With Kidzville and Planet Snoopy exempted from the list and given the fact that I haven't been on any of the 3 rides in County Fair, this the final two slots on my list to rides in Boomerang Bay, the water park inside Great America. Jackaroo Landing finished 2nd on my Worst Rides in Great America list and Boomerang Lagoon finished 4th; Didgeridoo Falls is boring and slow; Castaway Creek is overcrowded and a ride for 5-year-olds, not me; Down Under Thunder has some thrill, but it leaves you dizzy in the end; and Tasmanian Typhoon, even though it escapes the plights of the previous rides, doesn't have enough thrill for me. This leaves me with Ripsnort Ridge & Screaming Wombat (two separate water slides which share the same line and lifeguard and, because of this, are grouped together). It's my favorite ride in Boomerang Bay, so that means it makes the list.

5.Tasmanian Typhoon in Boomerang Bay:

   Reasoning: Due to circumstances explained in the Reasoning section of Ripsnort Ridge & Screamin' Wombat, the 5th ride on my Best Rides list has to be from Boomerang Bay. Tasmanian Typhoon is my second-favorite ride in Boomerang Bay, so it makes it onto the list.

An Ideal Itinerary

Arrive at the main entrance to Great America and step into Celebration Plaza.
    -- Ride on Carousel Columbia. This ride is a great introduction to Great America. It's a chance to relax before going on the thrill-filled rides later in this itinerary. 

Walk into All American Corners via Orleans Place.
    -- Ride on Flying Eagles. Again, this ride is a build-up to the more thrill-filled rides in Great America (it's rated "Intermediate Thrill" - 3 stars - on the Thrill Index). It's also fun and kind of thrilly (if that's even a word).

If it's summertime, walk to Boomerang Bay. 
    -- Ride on Tasmanian Typhoon and/or Down Under Thunder. They are my 2nd and 3rd-favorite rides in Boomerang Bay, respectively. If you want thrill, go to Down Under Thunder (which involves going up a vertical wall); if you want a family ride, ride on Tasmanian Typhoon (my 5th-favorite ride in all of Great America).
    -- Ride on Ripsnort Ridge & Screamin' Wombat. It is my 4th-favorite ride in all of Great America.

Walk (from wherever you are) to Planet Snoopy (if you want, check out the kids' rides in Kidzville or Planet Snoopy).

Walk to the ride near Planet Snoopy called Loggers Run (though it's surrounded by Planet Snoopy, it's technically a part of All American Corners).
    -- Ride on Loggers Run. Loggers Run is my 2nd-favorite ride in the whole park.

Walk to Action Zone via Planet Snoopy.
    -- Ride on The Grizzly. The Grizzly is, in my opinion, the best ride in Great America.

Walk to Celebration Plaza via County Fair.
    -- Ride on Whitewater Falls. According to me, Whitewater Falls is the fourth best ride in Great America.

Walk out of Great America from the Celebration Plaza main exit.
 

And our day in Great America is done.

Geography

You've waited 8 months to see a new blog post from my blog. And today, the wait has (maybe) payed off. The post you're about to read is long, but read on to find out about the game I invented (detailed in the section "Where in the World?") and see the humorous map I found (section "The Economist's US Map.")

Where in the World?
I invented this game two years or so ago to allow Suraga (my sister, who, at that time, was 3; she's now, as she says, "four and a half.") to play a game that she wanted to but couldn't. You see, we bought a game from some store when I was about Suraga's age. Entitled "Where in the World," it promised to be a fun-filled geography game. However, when we actually played it, it turned out to be about rote memorization of facts. You needed to memorize at least 4 facts about EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (all 196 of them!). Even I couldn't play it -- we lowered the number of facts to 1 when we played. Then Suraga caught sight of the game and asked if she could play it with me.

The First Incarnation
I told her that the game was too complicated. She, however, kept wanting to play. I saw the opportunity to make up a game which would be easy enough for her to play and would use all the cards, pawns, boards, and spinners provided so Suraga would never find out that the game I made was not the real game. And Suraga just might have the opportunity to practice her reading skills along the way.

I went to work. Pretty soon, I came up with an idea: Suraga could pick a continent at random, and we could go on a safari of that continent! And that is the main idea behind my game, Where in the World. 

This game quickly became a sort of play, with our living room playing Greenland, Tonga, the Congo, and a host of other places. And any good play needs bad guys, so I introduced some to my game.

Me and Suraga weren't new to plays. We weren't new to plays with bad guys, either. In 2011, me and my teammate Vishnu did a history fair project on the Cuban Missile Crisis (see the second item in this blog post). Every minute we weren't arguing, we were out in Vishnu's backyard playing. As far as I can remember, Vishnu was President Kennedy, I was Khrushchev, and Suraga (who always tagged along for our meetings) was Robert Kennedy. All three of us were invading Cuba, facing off against the main antagonist, Fidel Castro (dictator of Cuba), and his cronies. Suraga never forgot about our game, and, when I had to pick a bad guy for \/\/here in the World, "Castro" was the obvious first choice.

And so Castro (in our house, an oversized teddy bear) became the main villain of Where in the World. The co-villain was Guevara (based on real-life revolutionary Che Guevara), a plush teddy bear bearing a Union Jack on his shirt and hat (our dad bought it during a layover in London). Now the game was about going on a safari through a continent and getting to some destination before Castro and Guevara. 

A week later, we played Where in the World for the first time. I explained the rules to Suraga. She picked the continent of Oceania (aka Australia), which consists of Australia, New Zealand, and a bunch of Pacific islands, for her safari. We started out strong, with Suraga finding a strip of paper reading "Dingo," then running for her life from this ferocious Australian wild dog. However, the once-interesting safari turned into a boring and redundant play. I couldn't find anything for Suraga to do in, say, Nauru or Vanuatu. I soon resorted to pillow-fights with Castro at almost every isle we visited. When Suraga sprinted into American Samoa (aka our kitchen), this ill-fated first attempt at playing Where in the World ended for good.

However, Suraga loved the "signs" (strips of paper) I had her find and read along the way. You see, for every country we "visited," I placed these signs around the house. Each sign would say something like "DIG!" or "SHOP" or "SHIPS" and would follow phonics rules Suraga had learned so far. She liked reading the signs and doing the actions they corresponded to, and begged to play again.


I don't exactly remember what happened next. I think I appeased her with another safari, this time through South America. Castro and Guevara somehow got a head start. Then they won a crucial step of the race. They rowed into Tierra del Fuego (our destination) first, causing great disappointment.

The Demise of Where in the World
For some reason, Suraga stopped wanting to play Where in the World (I'll leave it to you to figure out the reason). Also accelerating the demise of Where in the World was the Indian cultural festival of Navaratri. For this festival, we had to make an art display on 5 steps. Board games were the perfect choice to make the steps. Every board game we had -- including Where in the World -- was used in making the steps. My game was forgotten both during the two-week festival and long after, replaced as The Most Fun Board Game Ever by a few new games.

Given to me by my aunt for my birthday, Ruckus still holds the position of Most Fun Board Game Ever. It is a luck-of-the-draw, short, competitive, and FUN card game. Anything can happen, and everyone has fun. We played it first in June of 2010, and it gathered steam from then on. We played it again and again. In 2011, a dispute over the rules sidelined Ruckus for a bit. However, Sorry, not Where in the World, took the position.

Sorry was another game given to me by my aunt. Although it's slow and often ends with Suraga crying because she lost or me protesting our dad's bias towards Suraga in the game, it is entertaining and fun. However, me, Suraga, and our dad have never played a game of Sorry without crying or shouting. Never. This gave Ruckus a huge advantage -- and it dominated.

The Revival
This year marked the revival of Where in the World. Two weeks before the time of this posting, Suraga begged to go to the park. I resolved to do anything to stop this, and Suraga soon agreed to a game. "Which game? Ruckus, Sorry, or Uno?" I asked. "I want to play a game we never played," replied Suraga, "Its name is Where in the World."


And thus Where in the World was revived. I mapped out a fun course throughout Africa and added one more element to the game -- money. Everyone (me, Suraga, Guevara, and Castro) got a predetermined amount of money. The amounts of money ranged from $1500 to $200, and we would use the spinner provided to determine who would get which amount. We would need this money to start playing (the "starting fee" was $200) and buy stuff like camels and boats. With the rules of the game set out, we began playing.


We first determined who would get which amount of money. I got $1500, Castro got $800, Guevara got $500, and Suraga got $200. With the $200 starting fee subtracted, Suraga was bankrupt when she arrived in her chosen place of landing, Libya. All she had to do was traverse the entire continent of Africa and wind up in Madagascar.


Libya's chief export is crude oil, so I decided to do something related to crude oil while we were there. Suraga had a reason to do it -- to get money (she had no money when she arrived in Libya). I came up with an activity: I would put a rubber band on a spot where crude oil was to be found, and she would have to use a set of signals to get a robot (i.e. a stuffed animal) to the spot within a certain duration of time. Castro and Guevara aced the task on their first try, bought camels with the money the got, and marched across the Sahara to Chad. Two Where in the World-days later, Suraga tried the activity for the third time. The robot went really close to the rubber band but JUST missed it. With 2 seconds left on the timer, Suraga managed to turn the robot around. It touched the rubber band with less than one second to go. In dramatic fashion, Suraga had completed the Libya stage of this safari -- and won $100.

To cross the Sahara, you need camels. When Suraga went to a mall to buy camels, she went to the Cake Shop instead of the Camel Shop and traded most of her money for a cake. Now without enough money to buy a camel, she had to wait for another day. Meanwhile, Castro was already one country away from Madagascar (our destination). 

A day later, Suraga finally got enough money to buy a camel. On her camel, she rode to Chad and went to work on the amazingly easy task there. She had to put a pencil in a slot and keep turning it around for 30 seconds. If the pencil came out 6 times during the 3-minute duration of the task, she would fail the task and have to do it another day. In her first three 30-second periods, the pencil came out. She managed to do it on her fourth 30-second period, acing the task on her first try.

She now made her way to the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), where Castro and Guevara had been trying (and failing) the task for the previous 2 days. Having to do with multiplicative series and unit analysis, this task was "the hardest one of all." I explained to Suraga that copper mining drives Zaire's economy, but the copper mined out of the ground is "dirty." You need chemicals to "clean" (purify) this copper, I told her. She was chosen to clean 4 grams of copper. She found a table detailing how much chemical to use to clean a certain amount of copper, but 4 grams was missing from the chart. She had to infer the value for 4 grams, then fill up a mug to that value exactly -- within 3 minutes. With less than 1 minute left, Suraga figured out the value. Then she went to a sink to fill up the mug. "10...9...8...7...6," I read out. With 4 seconds left, she rushed me the mug. She had aced the task again.

She dumped the money she'd gotten on a canoe to take her across Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania. In Tanzania, she had to work as a park ranger in the famous Serengeti National Park and foil poachers' plots. She did, and got $150. She proceeded to buy a boat to get her to Madagascar, but instead of going to the Boat Shop, she went to the Bat Shop and spent $100 there. Boats started at $150, and she needed to earn $100 more. There was some more bad news: Guevara and Castro had arrived. Suraga quickly set up a coffee shop to earn the remaining money, but she only got $29 on one day, $71 short of her goal. However, a superhuman performance the next day saved her, and she had enough money to buy a boat 

During the final stretch of the race, Castro and Suraga raced to get to Madagascar first. Castro had enough money to buy a speedboat, and dominated Suraga in the first half of the race. However, he fell off the speedboat and into the ocean, handing Suraga a Where in the World victory. From then on, not a day has gone by without Suraga asking me if we can play Where in the World again.

The Economist's US Map
Below is a humorous map printed in a 2011 issue of The Economist. You might not get the humor at first, but look closely and you will. Enjoy!

Click to enlarge