Six Flags Great America

[thejoker8388]

I had to go to Chicago on Monday and knowing how close SFGAm was, I couldn't resist going there on Tuesday. After my buisness was complete in Chicago, I drove up to a motel just minutes from the park; there I met a friend who now lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was nice seeing him and neither of us had been to the park before so it was a completely new experience for both of us. Tuesday we got up early and headed to the park, the first thing I noticed was the outrageous $15 parking, people complain about PKI's pricing but PKI isn't that bad. I have a Wyndot Lake season pass so I got right in around 9:45 and had to wait in a sea of people for the park to open.

The first thing I noticed was how SF is pushing the costume chartacters. While we were waiting, we had to listen to about five Looney Toons characters sing and dance, which while maybe something the young children would enjoy I would rather just have gotten into the park. First up was the Southwest Territory, home to Viper and Raging Bull amoung others.

Viper-The first ride of the day on one of the many copies of the famous Coney Island Cyclone. The ride had no wait and we walked right into the station. The ride was great fun, filled with lots of moments of air and twists. I found the ride to be smoother than the only copy of the CIC I've been on, the Georgia Cyclone. All in all it was a wonderful ride and while not my favorite woodie it's definetly higher than most. One thing I must say though was the lack of people SF had working the ride, when I rode it they had a mere two people, one for each side of the train. Then once the one guy finished he had to sprint back to release the train. This ride needed at least one more ride op, but they were running two trains which was nice to see as SF is notourious for only doing one train ops even on busy days.

Raging Bull- This was the first B&M speed coaster I've ridden. I've heard many complain that they lack in air time and forces so I didn't know what to expect. The line seemed long but they had all 3 trains running and an abundance of ride ops. At least one should have been transfered over to Viper. The seats were the first thing I noticed and I thought the restraints were really weird looking and thought it odd that your feet didn't touch. I found the ride itself to be really fun. I guess I didn't expect any air time and therefore wasn't disappointed when there was very little. I liked how the ride had alot of twists and turns, it may not have been the most forceful or intense ride but it was still very fun.

The drop ride- I don't remember the name but it was being run very efficiently and had no line. It was a fun ride but I still prefer drop zone because it's taller, although I could see the Chicago skyline some 50 miles off which was cool. I noticed this ride had wonderful themeing with fake cliffs all over the que. I've never heard anyone say that SF is good at themeing but I thought that this themeing was much better than just about any thing at Paramount. In fact the whole Southwest Territory was very nice and had the old western feel to it which Rivertown sorely lacks.

American Eagle- I consider this thing Racer on steroids, although I'm sure it would deny the accusation even after the B test came back positive. This ride was okay, I prefer Racer more because I found AE to be extremely rough and trimmed to death. The coolest part was the spiral drop turn around. This ride had no wait and in a way seems forgotten in the back of the park.

Iron Wolf- I believe this was the first ever B&M. I hate stand ups as it is so I was wary of going on this ride but my friend and I wanted the credit. The line was short but moved slow, not because of the ride ops which were doing a great job and running two trains, but instead because of the nature of stand ups. This ride to quote my friend "sucked it hard". I hated every part of the ride, it had more head banging than any SLC or arrow I've ridden, I thought this was supposed to be a B&M? I don't know they must have improved with time.

V2- Just like Steel Venom at Geauga Lake. The Line was again short but moved slow because of the nature of the ride. It's a fun ride just like WT or SV yet I just wish the ride did more, my friend had never been on an impulse before and seemed to enjoy it more than me simply because he'd never experienced the ride before.

Batman: The Ride-The only other B:TR I've been on was at SFOG, but in all honesty I don't remember it at all so this was essentially my first experience on B:TR that I remember. The line was long, about 1 hour wait but the ride ops were still going as quick as possible. This was another ride where I was shocked by the level of themeing. The front park section and then entering the sewer and the station were all really well done IMO. The station even had that feel of being in The Bat cave and I thought it was great, really added to the ride experience. This que was themed better than anything at PKI except maybe TR:TR and FOF I'm shocked PKI is supposed to be known for themeing and SF isn't yet SFGAm had better all around themeing IMO. The ride itself was great, I really enjoyed it and actually found it better than Raptor, just because Raptor always leaves me natious whereas B:TR didn't.

After B:TR we ate lunch, the food was what I'd expect in an amusement park and was priced accordingly.

Superman-Again I've been on Superman before at SFOG but didn't really remember the ride. The line was about 1.5 hours but both of us wanted to ride it so we waited. Unlike the several rides before this ride could have used better themeing. The cut outs of the villians and superheroes just looked cheap and I wish they would have actually had a 3D figure, it would have added a lot. The line moved slow again but this time it was due to the nature of the ride as well as the ride ops. They were simply walking around and didn't even seem to care this was the longest line in the park. The ride itself was fun but short. I originally thought I like the Vekoma fliers better because they did more but now I'm back to thinking the B&M are better because they don't make me feel sick, whereas the Vekoma do because of the laying on your back going through the loop.

Whizzer- A creation by the famous Schwarzkopf. This ride had a short line but again moved slow do to the nature of the ride. The ride itself was okay. It had a cool layout in the trees yet evertime it seemed to gain speed it was breaked to death. The kids around me seemed to love it though so that's what matters.

The two big rides left were Deja Vu and Demon but as we headed to DV it decided to break down and then as we crossed to Demon it also broke down. We decided we would head to the water park then instead and hit the last coasters later. We grabbed all our swimming gear headed towards the water park and then saw a sign saying that the water park was closed due to huge crowds. Needless to say this was the bad part of the trip. As we were heading back to our locker we saw that DV was operating again so we headed there.

Deja Vu-For those who don't know what this is, imagine Face Off, but with vertical spikes and much bigger, also w/o the seats facing each other. Again I think SF is injecting there rides with some special juice when you compare them to similar rides at PKI. The wait was 45 minutes and would have been shorter but the ride "experienced difficulties" twice while we were waiting. Both times it was because they couldn't release the restraints and let the riders go. Seems like a stupid thing to me I thought most trains had a manual release. The ride itself was fun, yet it actually seemed less intense than Face Off to me and it had some more head banging than F/O. All in all out of all 3 boomerang models I enjoy the F/O type the most, althought DV is definetly an amazing ride to look at.

Demon-while waiting for DV Demon had opened again. The wait was maybe 10 minutes. Once again this themeing was supurb with the ride going through cliffs and tunnels and such, although the pre-ride story about the Demon they had playing over the speakers was really cheesy. The ride itself was pretty fun and much better than similar coasters like Corkscrew at CP or Double loop at GL.

The final ride of the day was Raging Cajun which was a fun spinning mouse ride. It was around 7 when we got off Raging Cajun and desided to hit Raging Bull once more before leaving. All in all this is a wonderful park and would love to go back. It has great staff and was running a minimum of two trains on every ride that could run them. It doesn't seem to suffer from any of the operation problems that many SF parks are notorious for. Everything seem well maintained except AE which could be retracked and only two rides were closed which were Skytower and the Huss frisbee which was missing its entire platform, I'm assuming for maintence. The park was very fun and I would say its ride selection was just as good as PKI's. It did seem to remind me a lot of SFOG as well with many similar rides. If you're ever in the Chicago area make sure not to miss SFGAm.

[Avatar]

Great detailed report on the rides and the park in general. I ejoyed the read.

[thejoker8388]

Oh yea one other thing. I was given a huge collectable map when i paid for parking. I though it was kind of cool I guess and I'm keeping it to remember I went to SFGAm. I was just wondering if all the SF parks were doing this as a 45th anniversary deal or if it's just at SFGAm?

[WooferBearATL]

Oh yea one other thing. I was given a huge collectable map when i paid for parking. I though it was kind of cool I guess and I'm keeping it to remember I went to SFGAm. I was just wondering if all the SF parks were doing this as a 45th anniversary deal or if it's just at SFGAm?

I know ya get it at SFOG as well.

[The Interpreter]

All the $15 parking SF parks are doing it. At places like Kentucky Kingdom, where they don't own the parking lot and don't get the parking money, you don't get the "free" map.

SFGAm is a fantastic park. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Viper, by the way, is very loosely based on the Coney Island Cyclone. It is, perhaps, one of the least faithful of the Cy-clones. That being said, it is a very fun ride, indeed!

[PKIVortex]

I had the pleasure of visiting SFGAM last summer. I agree about DV, I didn't think it was all that. It has way more head banging then Face/Off. Another reason bigger isn't always better. Viper and RB are great rides. Glad you had a good time.