Which Great America?

Okay, for the people who have been to Six Flags Great America and Paramount's Great America, which did you like better? Even though I have never been to Paramount's, it seems that SFGAm has better quality rides, but PGA has better scenery. But how should I know I've never been to PGA.
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SFGAm kicks ***

PGA is my home park and I just was there on Memorial Day. The park has never been better and does have some nice scnecery esspecially in the new celebration plaza. It seems that they took alot of the trees out in the back of the park were all the games, kids rides, and a few thrill rides are. It is a great atmosphere and the coasters are great. Many people here know Top Gun is the most hidden gem of any coaster!

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Proud giga buzzer!

PGA looks cool. SFGAm is cool. Interesting on how they opened the same day.

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Let the bears pay the Bear Tax, I pay the Homer Tax.

They were both owned by the same company originally, right?

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Saviour machine aka Squeemu!

They were both built by Marriott to virtually the same plans. Even before the parks were sold to Six Flags and KECO(now Paramount)the Illinois park started getting different rides than the California park. The "cookie cutter" approach was not as successful as they had hoped.

I have been to both Great Americas in the last year:

My opinion - Six Flags is MUCH MUCH better.

My reason - Six Flags really surprised me. The park was beautiful, well themed, and very impressive. The rides....a VERY impressive collection with a few world class coasters. (Raging Bull, Viper...) The food caught me off guard as being better than your average theme park. The staff was very nice and friendly, and the ride-ops did an excellent job. 2 other visits last year showed the same high quality of service, staff, etc.

Paramount's Great America was an entirely different story. I was really disappointed by their rides. Top Gun was good, but no stand-out. Stealth only operated 1/2 out of 2 days I visited there. (When it ran it had an OBSCENE wait and capacity). Every other coaster was OK at best. Nothing to write home about. Now, I can have a GREAT time riding rides that aren't world class. (Not everything is a Ghostrider or a Magnum) However, the experience I had at PGA was TERRIBLE. One of the worst examples of how to run a theme park I've ever seen. The staff were unfriendly, unefficient, and often just plain rude. The ride-ops were also doing a terrible job at trying to feed the large lines through rides, and I never saw anything running at near the capacity it could, which is not acceptable when there are huge lines. I could give 12 examples of how poor things were, but I'll just share one story: At 6:45 I went to get dinner. After standing in a line for 20 minutes a food employee told me that the line I was in was closing, and I would have to go to another line. The other lines were longer than the one I had entered 20 minutes ago! I was furious! I just gave up and waited until 10 and ate outside of the park.
A second visit was almost just as poor. I was VERY dissapointed, and it was a shame. I was looking forward to PGA a lot. If they ever write a book about how not to run a theme park, I saw a LOT of things there that should be put in that book.

I hope everyone has a chance to visit Six Flags Great America. It was VERY good!
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- Peabody

I've been to both, but at the time I was at the one in California, I was only 10 years old, so they were the same back then. I've followed the progression of them both however, I even though PGA has some unique rides, I'd say that SFGAm is MUCH better.

One thing though...Peabody, I don't know where you ate at SFGAm, but when I ate there a couple of weeks ago, the food was very mediocre. The pizza didn't even have Pizza sauce on it - it was pasta sauce, and extremely garlicy (I love garlic, but this was too much). An 8" pizza, 2 breadsticks and a soda was over $12 !!! There is no excuse for this. I understand it's a convenience, and I don't mind paying extra, but the quality should at least match the price. it's not like it's that hard. I've eaten at plenty of places that offer quality food and quick service.

I recommend skipping eating at SFGAm, and visit the Chilis across the interstate when you leave the park. My friend and I have made it a tradition, eating there every time we visit.

I guess I lucked out with SFGAms food. I had a huge fajita that was quite tasty. I was surprised for amusement park food! I didn't even have to wait.
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- Peabody

SFGA, all the way . i guess, i dunno never been to cali

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Blue Streak Laps : 490 ~~ 85 in one day

Hay I work At PGA At Top Gun We Trie Hard









For The 2 Time Peabody

Really Kong? What part of PGA do you work at? PGA is my hometown park too. I like what the've done this year, but it seems like everytime I've gone this year (around 3 times) Smash Factory is always closed! Do you know why?

Really? The Top Gun crew was extremely slow when I was at PGA. The ride runs just two trains and we must have sat on the brake run for quite some time!
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Colorado Avalanche 2-1. Go Avs!

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Kong said:
"Hay I work At PGA At Top Gun We Trie Hard"

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I'm sure you "Trie" hard, but the 2 times I visited the Top Gun operation was almost laughable. Unacceptable constant 3 minute dispatches with 2 train always stacking reminded me of a certain ride in Ohio.
("Hay"? Isn't that what horses eat?)

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Kong said:
"For The 2 Time Peabody"

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What???
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- Peabody

I'm sure his grammer and spelling is pretty rudimentary, and yes, PGA rides seem to move way to slowly. Ah well, what can you do.

Davis, the moderators are very strict about spelling and grammer here. (I think it's even in the user agreement when you sign up!) It only takes 2 seconds to use the spell check feature of this forum. I'm surprised his post wasn't deleted by the time I read it.
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- Peabody