California's Great America Informations

California's Great America (formerly known as Marriott's Great America and Paramount's Great America) is a 100-acre (40 ha) amusement park located in Santa Clara, California. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. The park has appeared in 1994 films Beverly Hills Cop III and Getting Even with Dad and features over 40 rides and attractions. One of its most notable attractions, Gold Striker, has been featured as a top-ranked wooden roller coaster in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards publication. Also featured is Railblazer, one of the first Raptor Track roller coasters in the World, and Flight Deck, a BandM invert coaster.

Marriott's Great America, built by hotel and restaurant operator Marriott Corporation, opened to the public on March 21, 1976. Less than two months later on May 29, the company opened a second Marriott's Great America – later known as Six Flags Great America – north of Chicago in Gurnee, Illinois.A third park was initially planned for the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, but the idea was later abandoned after several failed attempts to sway local opposition.

The park, though profitable, was still an earnings disappointment for Marriott, leading the company in 1983 to explore options to sell. An interested party, Caz Development Co., appraised the land value at US$800,000 to $1 million per acre. Marriott also involved the city of Santa Clara in negotiations, which was already leasing 55 acres (22 ha) of parking space for the amusement park. Fearing homebuilding on the land by Caz Development would lower home values of existing homeowners, the city council approved a $101 million purchasing agreement on January 31, 1984, by a 4–3 vote that also had to be approved by city residents. The citywide vote passed, approving the sale by a margin of 3 to 1. Caz Development then sued the city and Marriott in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County to block the transaction. The court nullified the sale, forcing the city to attempt to salvage the deal through negotiations with the other parties. Unable to broker a timely agreement, the city council voted 6–1 to scuttle the sale on February 5, 1985, though the city was still interested in owning the park. After Marriott refunded a $20 million down payment back to the city, negotiations were restarted. All parties were able to agree on a compromise, which was signed in marathon sessions taking place in early June 1985. The city acquired the park for $93.5 million from Marriott, which retained 20 acres (8.1 ha) from the sale for development. Caz Development settled and was allowed to build a hotel and office near the park, which the city renamed Great America.

Kings Entertainment Company, who owned and operated other amusement parks, was hired in 1985 to manage Great America for the city. In 1989, the city decided to return the park to the private sector and sold it to Kings Entertainment. In the agreement, the city would earn 5% of all revenue that exceeds $56 million.

Three years later Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western), the owners of Paramount Pictures, sought to join other entertainment companies as a theme park owner. The company acquired Kings Entertainment, owner of three parks including Great America, and one other park for $400 million and created Paramount Parks. Viacom, the parent of MTV Networks (including Nickelodeon), then bought Paramount in 1994, allowing Nickelodeon theming and merchandise into the park as well. During the Paramount era, attractions from the Action FX Theatre, Nickelodeon Splat City (later Nickelodeon Central), Drop Zone Stunt Tower, Invertigo, and many more modern thrill ride attractions were added in. Because the park is landlocked in the center of Silicon Valley, several rides including the classic train ride and the Sky Whirl, a Marriott's Great America signature attraction, were removed to make way for newer attractions.

In its last years as a Paramount Park, Great America was co-owned with several broadcasting stations in the Bay Area, including KPIX-TV and KBCW.

After Viacom and CBS Corporation split, Paramount Parks became part of CBS. The merger did not last long, as CBS announced plans to sell the theme park division.

Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. announced in May 2006 that they were acquiring the amusement park division from CBS. The transaction included licensing agreements with Nickelodeon and Paramount, providing the park the option to retain its Nickelodeon and Paramount theming for several years.

On October 25, 2007, Cedar Fair renamed the park California's Great America. For the 2008 season, the park saw the addition of a Huss Rides top spin ride called FireFall, a new ice show in the "Great America Theatre" (formerly The Paramount Theatre), and the addition of the Halloween Haunt event to the park.

In the summer of 2009, Cedar Fair announced that all the Nickelodeon themed areas would be replaced with Peanuts themed areas. In 2010, the newly rethemed Planet Snoopy opened in the park.

On January 27, 2011, the park announced Invertigo would be removed and relocated to Dorney Park, another Cedar Fair property.

On September 19, 2011, Cedar Fair confirmed reports that California's Great America would be sold to JMA Ventures, LLC for $70 million in cash. The sale required approval by the City of Santa Clara, and its city council was scheduled to vote on the matter on December 6, 2011. Cedar Fair, which purchased the park in 2006, expected to use the cash proceeds from the sale to reduce its senior secured debt. However, on December 6, 2011, JMA Ventures cancelled its plans to purchase the amusement park. In the same announcement, Cedar Fair also verified that a long-term agreement was reached with the San Francisco 49ers regarding parking and construction of a new stadium adjacent to Great America.

Note: Number ratings assigned per California's Great America, while the colors are unique to Wikipedia. For more details, see the California's Great America "Guest Assistance Guide" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 2, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2013..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/1920px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/1920px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/1920px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/1920px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}

Planet Snoopy is California's Great America's kids area, which opened in 2010.

A time capsule was buried at then Paramount's Great America in the former KidZville area of the park on March 29, 2002. The time capsule is set to open on March 29, 2152. The time capsule reads, "At this site is buried a time capsule with essays by students in second through twelfth grades in the Santa Clara Unified School District and other local schools. What will the next 150 years in Santa Clara be like? In honor of the City of Santa Clara's sesquicentennial 1852-2002."

Boomerang Bay is California's Great America's water park, opened in 2004 as Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay. On August 8, 2019, it was announced that Boomerang Bay will be rebranded as South Bay Shores with the addition of several new water slides. It is included with the price of admission to California's Great America.

Past rides and attractions include:

Fast Lane, first introduced at a Cedar Fair park in July 2011, is a secondary queue system that offers shorter wait times on the park's most popular rides. FastLane is a system wherein addition to a standard admission charge, visitors can purchase a wrist band. The band grants access to the Fast Lane queue. The concept that 'elites' can purchase a special pass to bypass other patrons is considered exceptionally vile by many. In theory, a limited number of wrist bands are available each day.

Halloween Haunt is a seasonal event at California's Great America. It had a "teaser" maze in 2007, but officially began in 2008 and is patterned after other Cedar Fair HAUNT such as Knott's

SCarowinds HAUNT XL The annual Haunt includes over 500 monsters placed in various haunted mazes and scare zones throughout the park.

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