gad198 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Overview: My brother and I wanted to get a quick park trip in this past Sunday, and knowing it was Easter we realized that the crowds, particularly in the morning, probably wouldn't be too bad wherever we decided to go. We had two choices, either Six Flags Great America or Dollywood. Unfortuntely, Dollywood was closed for Easter and we chose to make the trip to SFGAm, or at the very least it chose us due to lack of other options! We started our trek up to Gurnee around 6 am (I must say, one of the great things about being in Cincinnati is that you're amazingly close to so many big parks and you can do many of them in a day trip if you choose). We made it to the park around 10 am central with the one hour time difference. We arrived in the parking lot to: around 150 cars total! Wow, I've never seen a park on a sunny (albeit cool) day with that few cars at park opening, but suffice it to say we weren't complaining! We walked through the entrance, scanned our passes and were off to Superman, Ultimate Flight. A few quick notes: I like to give a quick ride review and a grade for each ride. I'll try and keep these short! Also, for those of you who have Six Flags season & parking passes, I never realized that you could park in the preferred lot at this particular park. Is that also true at other Six Flags or does this only hold here? Ride Reviews: Superman, Ultimate Flight (walk-on): the park's B&M flying coaster. I've been on the one at SFOG and the ride experiences are identical. The only redeeming thing about this ride is the pretzel loop, but wow, this element never fails to deliver! IMO, Firehawk is a better overall experience but the pretzel loop is the best element on any flyer, and maybe on any coaster period. I only wish the rest of the ride were as thrilling. Grade: B- Batman: the Dark Knight (10 minutes, all waiting in the pre-show): much has been said about this ride elsewhere so I'll not care to elaborate except to say this. If you haven't been on the ride you probably need to check it out once out of curiosity, but ONLY if there's not much of a queue. The ride length/time is OK, but the ride simply doesn't do anything thrilling or have any redeeming features, maybe other than get out of the sun on a hot day. A noble attempt by SF to add theme (which, to their credit, they pulled off very nicely in the pre-show), but in the end this was a HUGE waste of money. Grade: D Batman: the Ride (walk-on): we got into the station and realized even the front row was a walk-on. Nice! When you're used to riding Montu, Raptor, Afterburn and the like it seems as though B:TR is short. The ride itself is always enjoyable, and the zero-g roll always does what it does! For a ride that's 17 and counting it still rides amazingly well. The missing wheel covers were a bit odd but nothing that detracted from the ride itself. Grade: B+ American Eagle (walk-on): this is the park's out and back wood coaster, similar to The Racer. This queue line has to be the longest queue I've strolled through thus far in any park I've been to thus far! Anyway, we FINALLY make it to the station where there is nobody waiting. We sat in the second seat (I'll explain later why we did this) even though the front row was open. The ride itself has some really nice pops of air, particularly on the return run. Unfortunately, to get that air you have to endure the amazingly rough ride! About that second seat decision: I remember reading a post from the Interpreter where he said that the second seat of three bench PTC trains offered the smoothest ride. My back would like to tell him the following: THANK YOU!! We got off OK, but I can't say the same for those folks in the front seat. One of those front seat riders summed it up nicely after being asked if he wanted to re-ride (as no one was waiting) again: **** NO!! Couldn't have said it better myself. I'd give this a D if this weren't for those nice pops of air, but as is...Grade: C- Raging Bull (walk-on): the park's B&M hyper. We sat in the second to last row. The first drop back here is outstanding, as that pre-drop really whips the back half of the trains over the hill. I still contend that you should catch MAJOR air on the first big airtime hill, but alas, that trim continues to wreak havoc! The rest of the course is a leisurely twisted stroll along the rest of the track with very little air to speak of the rest of the way after that first hill. I'll agree with many others that this is the most boring B&M hyper, by far, that I've been on to date. The one thing B&M did get right with this (and their other hypers) are the trains. They are, without a doubt, the most comfortable restraints going right now. I've ridden four B&M hypers (Nitro, Goliath, and Behemoth being the others) and I'll say that B&M has really improved the design of these coasters, particularly in the airtime department, with each one, and those of you riding a B&M hyper for the first time with Diamondback should be in for a treat. Grade: B- Viper (walk-on): this wooden coaster was a nice surprise! The ride comparison wise that immediately came to mind was the Georgia Cyclone, minus the roughness (although the air is better on the GA Cyclone). We rode in the back and the ride has some nice pops of air on many of the hills, but the one knock I have against this ride is that there seemed to be too much track that didn't do anything (i.e., go through curves at high speeds). Having said that it tracked well and was one of the better wooden coasters I've been on. I'll add this, I've been on El Toro, the Voyage, and Thunderhead all in the last year. Had I hopped on this coaster before those coasters I'd be inclined to rank it higher, but those coasters all change your paradigm as to how good wood coasters can be. It's a solid coaster, but not in the same class as others mentioned above. Grade: B We didn't ride Iron Wolf, V2 (down for maintenance, and it doesn't look as though it's a quick fix either), their other wild mouse (why do they have two wild mice in the same park?! ), their Arrow Looper or Whizzer due to time constaints. We did, however, accomplish a first (at least that I've seen)...we got banned from their 3 Point Challenge game!! A games supervisor stopped by, said we were winning too much (despite no posted prize limits on the prizes we were winning) and said that we could no longer play the game. I've never heard of or seen anyone get banned because they were too good, as games usually have prize limits in place to prevent this type of scenario from occurring. Grade for Six Flags games supervisors: F All in all the park isn't bad. It's got a varied collection of coasters, but there are no real standout coasters like with X2 and Tatsu at SFMM, Goliath at SFOG, or El Toro at SFGAdv. The park atmosphere is nice, the employees we did talk to were all very friendly (sans the experience above), but I don't have any real desire to get back here anytime soon. If I was back here I'd probably take more time to do some of their flats and check out their new Mack water ride opening in May. Definitely a must do park if you're in the area, but for me anyway it doesn't have that "wow" factor that would make me wish I had this as a home park. Overall grade: C+ Thanks for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Great trip report, and I am glad my little bit of advice helped. Did you get to ride Revolution? I loved that ride when it was at Great Adventure as Frisbee...though it looks much better in Illinois... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gad198 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 ^ I think you're referring to the Delirium-type ride, except the seats are facing on the inside of the ring instead of the outside. I think it was in the appropriate section of the park (County Fair if I remember correctly), but I didn't get to ride it. It definitely looked like the best flat in the park, but we were there on a coasters only visit and only had four hours in the park. Do you like that ride better than Maxair/Delirium? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Well, it spins very, very rapidly. It has bright flashing lights. You sit facing the center of the wheel, not the outside. And it has very rapid movements. Yes, I love it. Yes, I love it more than Delirium. Than again, I love standard size Huss pendulum rides, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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