Seeing an INTAMIN coaster (Arctic Rescue) coming to California makes my heart pump. Nothing special about Arctic Rescue, but it is our first Intamin since ??? (Xcelerator, maybe) and Intamin is my favorite manufacturer. I hope USH gets their Intamin Muliti-Dimension Coaster (Looks Promising!) and then Cali can have some Intamins again.
I've been to all 15, and while I understand your rankings for me it is more based on Thrills so my ranking would be as follows: 1. Six Flags Magic Mountain 2. Knott's Berry Farm 3. California Great America 4. Santa Cruz 5. Universal Hollywood 6. Sea World San Diego 7. Disney California Adventure 8. Disneyland 9. Legoland CA 10. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom- The operations are just that bad 11. Gilroy Gardens 12. Belmont Park 13. Sesame Place SD 14. Castle Amusement 15. Santa Monica Pier Top Tier is 1,2 Next Tier is 3 Next Tier 4,5,6 Next Tier 7-11 Bottom Tier 12-15
A person that actually agrees with me about DCA being better than Disneyland. Universal Studios Hollywood has too much screen like rides and SeaWorld has caused Animal Abuse. I wish I could go to California's Great America.
I love this list. Universal Hollywood never seems to get any love, it has improved soooo much in the past 2 decades alone while maintaining that classic feel with the studio tour and superb theming. Knott’s is an amazing family park that people always pass up.
Love this list. I get that people solely focused on thrills would put Magic Mountain, Knotts and CGA at the top but I totally agree that Disneyland is the best. No park has a better dark ride collection. And the atmosphere is really fantastic. It's my favorite park to this day and I'm curious to see if it'll ever be topped. I think that the top two parks in California are clearly #1 Disneyland and #2 Magic Mountain. And that top two really illustrates California's strength in terms of diversity of parks. I personally put California above Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida in terms of park collections (though the downside is that there aren't very many parks close by when you leave the state.) I've lived across the country and enjoyed a lot of great parks. But I don't think you'll find a better variety or better depth of parks than in California.
My top 5: 5:Disneys California adventure 4:Disneyland 3:Six Flags Magic Mountain 2:Universal 1:Knotts (Note I only had one day to experience both Disney parks with a park hopper ticket- and Matterhorn and haunted mansion were closed. Plus it was like 106 degrees at SFMM (not great with like 0 shade) Knotts is home to my number 1 (ghost rider) and when I went it was virtually empty
I have only been to 5 parks in Cali, and I also don't enjoy dark rides (although ROTR was decently fun). 1. SFMM 2. Knotts 3. SFDK 4. DCA 5. Disneyland
To anyone in the know - visiting cali in the summer and have a sunday at the end of July earmarked for Disney - will be getting genie plus tickets - only interested in the coasters / big rides, would it be possible to do both parks and still get on most of the key rides?
Out of what I've been to, and as a SoCal local who considers Knott's his home park: 1. Disneyland 2. Knott's Berry Farm 3. Six Flags Magic Mountain 4. California's Great America 5. Universal Studios Hollywood 6. Disney's California Adventure 7. SeaWorld San Diego 8. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk 9. Belmont Park 10. Legoland California And a few notes: Magic Mountain is overrated, especially by coaster enthusiasts. It's not that pretty, the food is kinda bad, but most importantly, the operations are pretty bad, and they've gotten REALLY bad in the past few months or so. It's completely carried by its ride collection, otherwise it would rank lower. DCA is really close to overtaking USH in my opinion, but Lightning Lane just kills DCA for me. The Lightning Lane to standby ratios were out of control last time I visited both Disney parks, which was a couple months ago. Genie+ is just a scourge on the whole resort that makes the parks a lot harder to enjoy than they need to be, but its especially pronounced at DCA. Universal actually keeps their standby lines moving because they price Express so high, so I have come to prefer their general park experience. Which is a bummer because DCA clearly has the better ride collection; USH is really not that deep of a park. SCBB really impressed me. The gap between it and SWSD is closer than you might think. Knott's is absolute fire and I would probably prefer it to Disneyland if their operations didn't suck. (Please Knott's. 3 trains on Ghostrider and consistent 2 trains on everything else with little to no stacking. Do it and you win California.)
Haven't been and probably won't for a while considering how expensive plane tickets are and $5 a gallon gas in California (thats almost TWICE what I am paying here in Tennessee)
Here's my favorites depending on my mood. Cheap and easy fun: Disneyland (it also helps that I live down the street from there and have a Magic Key lol) Thrills: Six Flags Magic Mountain Entertainment: Universal Studios Hollywood A little bit of everything: Knotts Berry Farm
I can assure you most castle park employees do not care about the park. And that stems from palace itself. I worked there for almost 2 years and management doesn’t give a shit about anyone but themselves
Let's compare your 2021 and 2022 rankings: 15. Adventure City (2021) Pacific Park (2022) 14. Pacific Park (2021) Belmont Park (2022) 13. Belmont Park (2021) Castle Park (2022) 12. Castle Park (2021) Sesame Place (2022) 11. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (2021) Gilroy Gardens (2022) 10. Legoland California (2021) Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (2022) 9. Gilroy Gardens (2021) Legoland California (2022) 8. SeaWorld San Diego (2021) Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (2022) 7. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (2021) SeaWorld San Diego (2022) 6. Universal Studios Hollywood (2021) California's Great America (2022) 5. California's Great America (2021) Knott's Berry Farm (2022) 4. Knott's Berry Farm (2021) Disney's California Adventure (2022) 3. Disney's California Adventure (2021) Universal Studios Hollywood (2022) 2. Six Flags Magic Mountain 1. Disneyland
I live a 20 minute walk from pacific peir and I find it funny that when I was 5 years old, I came of the west coaster crying because I thought it was scary lmao
