California's Great America Update - April 5th, 2025

It's opening day at California's Great America! Doubtlessly by now you'd heard the rumors about the park and how this year might be the last. There was an LATimes article that had a quote from ProLogis that said that they hadn't exercised their early exit clause but you and I both know that their are always contingencies in these contracts, especially when there's company changes/mergers/buyouts like what happened to CGA this year. But all this to say that every visit to the park has a little extra meaning for me this year. Last season or not, I won't take what we have for granted! But let's see what's new!

Another year at Great America!!

Let's take a look at the map! Nothing too crazy when it comes to ride removals but there are some smaller changes!

The fountain and entrance way looks so clean and great!

Snoopy and Woodstock were out meeting and greeting

Inside CGA is just "Inside", I have to assume the signage will come back soon!

There was a local orchestra performing

Didn't get a picture of them performing but I did hear them and they soudned great!

Over at the reindeer animatronic area (during WinterFest), they have some old historic pictures of the park all hung up. It's a lovely touch and the first of the couple that really scream 50th anniversary to me

Unfortunately, Great America theater seems like it will sit empty this year

Subway is the first of our casualties this year. It is closed, signage is removed and isn't on the park map. No huge loss there

The loss of Great American Pizza company is a little tougher to stomach. It likewise had its signage removed and it was removed from the map

Also, no surprise, Whitewater Falls isn't open yet, even though it could've been today, it was a beautiful day!

I really love watching Railblazer. Whatever happens to our park, I hope this coaster lives on

I need to ride it a lot more than I have these last couple years

Its picture stand was all closed up. I don't remember if it was like this last year...

The floral tunnel is looking pretty good but I'm hoping it gets a little more full

But all the park is looking so so green with all the rain we've had lately. I really like this picture!

An interesting potentially new souvenir was in the California Trails shop. We've had the nanocoasters for a while but I don't remember seeing these coaster cutouts!

Tiki Twirl remains down. It's still on the map and the park confirmed last year that they're working on getting it back up again so I don't think it's leaving yet!

The second "50th anniversary" style touch that the park added was a couple of fact boards in NorCal County Fair

Just a tiny, nice little touch acknowledging the history of this park

Over in Planet Snoopy, looks like Music Goes Round and Around is coming back this year

The other piece of excitement this year is the replacement of Kids Stuff with Tradewinds Mercantile

The graphics package looks great and fits much better with the South Bay Shores adjacent area

The whole building looks just so much better

Love the little displays on the inside

And the outside has some great places to sit and relax

The inside continues the theme

With a tradewinds related quote thrown in!

As far as stuff goes, it's pretty standard stuff

But in a much nicer package! Great on the park for making small improvements

Over at Mass Effect, the scrim on the outside has been replaced and looks great

Can you believe that it's been almost 4 years since we got to step into the haunted Wax Factory?

Actually the new Tradewinds store has opened up a path past the former Waxworks building

Over at Rip Roaring Rapids, the ride hasn't quite opened yet for the year

The park has ads up for the combined pass. It's actually a pretty good deal!

And finally, I'll leave you with this shot of Flight Deck!

It was so good to be back at the park. Let's hope that the rumors of the park's demise are greatly exaggerated and we have a few more years but I'm trying to take advantage of the time I have! I'll be back at the park in May for the start of the summer season!