I have a chance to go to California next weekend, which is sort of a great opportunity…except nothing’s open yet. What gives, California?! At least I have another opportunity to go back in June. It certainly is an exciting year for California, though; here’s what we’ll have to look forward to:

• Superman Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, a crazy new Premier coaster (“Late Spring”)
• Transformers: The Ride, a new 3D ride based on the same technology as Spider-man, at Universal Hollywood (bet you thought it was Six Flags with that name) (sometime in May)
• Lex Luthor, the world’s tallest drop tower, at Six Flags Magic Mountain (Late May)
• Manta, a new Mack launched coaster (the first in the US), at SeaWorld San Diego (May 26th)
• Cars Land and Main Street Rehab at California’s Adventure (June 15th)
• New trains on Matterhorn at Disneyland – not necessarily a good thing, but Space Mountain in Florida turned out OK (actually, better) with new trains (June 15th)

And of course, like the neglected puddle it is, California’s Great America has nothing new to share.

Any preferences on what you guys would like to see “under construction” pics of? I’m leaning toward Superman Ultimate Flight.

UPDATE: I couldn’t resist sharing a little more about California’s Great America, given my comment. Their newest two coasters in the park right now are a wild mouse (added in 2001, more than 10 years ago) the Taxi Jam kiddie coaster (added in 1999). Their most recent major coaster, Flight Deck, was added in 1993, nearly 20 years ago. They actually used to have two newer major coasters than that (Invertigo and Stealth), but both have since been removed to other parks. What says “we don’t value your park” more than moving its two newest major coasters to other parks? There was another park in the Cedar Fair chain that saw something similar happen – Geauga Lake. Thankfully, California’s Great America seems to have a brighter future than that, but here’s hoping that GCI project comes to fruition; it would certainly help the park feel more loved.