Let the Good Times Roll at Mardi Gras - SFGAm 4/16/04

Six Flags Great America – May 16, 2004

AH….the winter blues are finally over. My yearning and longing for a coaster fix…satisfied…well only temporarily anyway. Thankfully there is a possibility that I will be attending Media Day on Thursday May 20, 2004 if I get confirmation that I am supposed to attend. I got an invite and sent back my letter stating that I would like to attend but alas they are supposed to send a confirmation letter which I have yet to receive. But not on to the fun.

New Orleans Place

Superman – the ride

First ride of the day. What a way to wake you up! Still fast and smooth. Took a backseat run for a kick in the pants better than any cup of coffee can do…even Starbuck’s! The intensity is still there and there is nothing like feeling like a bird soaring over it’s pray (the people in the queue line) to start off the day.

Mardi Gras

The all newly improved once dead section of the park begins to spring new life. So far I like what I see. Plenty of festive people walking throughout the New Orleans Place section and Mardi Gras sections of the park. That just added to the Mardi Gras flavor that the park is trying to instill on that area of the park. Not all of the rides were up and running yet. King Chaos had water dummies on it ready for testing but where the heck is the ride control panel? It wasn’t in the operator booth. Though it does look great. It looks like it will have a fountain in front of the ride. But whether or not the ride will interact with it or not we shall see. Also not quite ready yet was Rajin Cajun. That was the one ride I was looking forward to riding the most this year but as I expected it was not quite ready to go. The track itself is done. And I can say this looks like it will be a really fun and spinful ride. I just can’t help but sit here and drool while I think about riding this new coaster. Looks like it will be a couple of more weeks before it is ready. Oh well, I was really hoping it just might be ready for Media Day, but I have my doubts since it is on Thursday. Now on to the rides that I did ride in Mardi Gras.

Big Easy Balloons

This is a pretty tame ride that even the little kiddies can ride. Though it is still fun for even adults. The ride is very nicely themed to the Mardi Gras theme. Definitely worth a spin or two. Definitely a nice family ride.

Jester’s Wild Ride

This ride is definitely one wild ride. The ride is themed as a made grass float. It rocks back on a small “U” shaped track, and then all of a sudden the “float” starts to spin. The rocking back and forth as well as the spinning creates an interesting array of sensations. Another fine family ride addition to the park.

The rest of the park

Raging Bull

Even after a couple month slumber in hibernation, this monster still snorts and runs back and forth like a real raging bull. Landing myself a seat in the 3rd row. Plenty or airtime to be had. Still running like the bull it is.

American Eagle

Whoa nilly hold on tight because this sucker just went into backwards overdrive. I was getting some nice ejector airtime in the last seat (really the front but facing backwards.) Who knew American Eagle had an ejector seat. I did not notice any new track work that they did but it is definitely running better than years past.

Déjà vu

It’s wasn’t running again. Déjà vu! It never did run on Sunday while I was at the park. This ride seriously should be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest lawn ornament.

Viper

Kick butt and taking names as usual. Smooth, fast, and loads of airtime. Definitely the best airtime machine in the park still. But watch out American Eagle is definitely in the running as the park seems to be striving to get it running better now than it ever has. Nothing in the park can even compare to the laterals found on Viper, nor the headchoppers. This coaster is definitely a must for any coaster junkie!

Whizzer

Still a fun family ride packed in the woods that have grown up around it. That is what set this coaster apart from the rest at the park. Kudos goes to the crew for running a solid 3 trains with minimal stacking. Although the third train was outfitted with sandbags and not fit for human consumption at this time, the crew still did an outstanding job of getting people on and off the ride. A day at Six Flags Great America is not complete without a ride on Whizzer.

Stargate 3000

Personally I really did not think much of this “motion simulator” movie. But then again anything is an improvement over Space Shuttle America!
All in all the trip to Six Flags Great America was a fun one and well worth my visit. It was very sunny out. The temperature was around 70. And the crowds? Where were they? Most of my rides were complete and utter walk-ons except for Raging Bull and Viper. Not a bad start to my 2004 coaster season. *** Edited 5/17/2004 6:54:12 PM UTC by beast7369***

Every day I have been at the park Deja Vu has run almost flawlessly the entire day. This is the first I've heard of it being out an entire day. I've gotten a ride in on it every weekend this season. They also have been kicking butt in getting people on this thing. On Saturday they were dispatching every three minutes which is great for this ride.

What media company do you work for that you can attend Media Day out of curiosity?

Deja-Vu wasn't down the whole day. It finally opened up around 4 oclock.

I too am waiting for a confirmation from great america for the media day event. i was planning on going anyway cuz i suspect they would have a list of people invited and returned thier waiver forms. see you there.

Matt

Deja-Vu was down all day on 5/17/04 as was the Giant Drop.

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mattmatt said:
I too am waiting for a confirmation from great america for the media day event.

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I talked to Six Flags Public Relations and they told me that there would be no Confirmation sent. There was an error in the letter they sent us. We just show up and we will be on "The List”.

Also she said that Rajin Cajun should be open for the people going to Media Day, But is not 100% sure it will be open.

Enjoy getting there at 4:30 AM.

I would rather sleep. :)

Today, there were about 10 to 20 workers in and around Rajin Cajun. It seemed they were mainly working on the station and electrical. It also looked like the track was complete as mentioned above & had one of the cars on the transfer track.

Giant drop was running today (5/18), didn't stay long enough to see if Deja Vu would come up, but it was listed on the sign out front as being down. Got to enjoy my first trimless Bull ride in a long time, prob. had something to do w/ the 1/2 empty train.