SF Great America - Wed 8/1/07

Well my last trip report from last week http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=47552 was much better than this one is gonna be.

Seems the old old tired annoying problem of running both side of the American Eagle rared its ugly head again.

The park was packed. The waterpark was filled to capacity - they wouldn't let anyone else in. And Eagle has only the blue side running.

We stopped in guest relations as soon as we walked in the gate. The guy was sympathetic with me, stating that was one of his favorite rides too. He gave me a form to fill out, so I did. Then he gave me 2 "exit passes" to use for me and my bud, on any ride we wanted. How ironic, the passes had a picture taken at the top of the Eagle's hill, with trains side by side (but there is a single rider in one of the front seat ;)

We bummed around, the park was packed. Rode Whizzer. Little sluggish, it was very humid. But still one of my 2 favorite rides at the park (Viper is the other). Only about a 10 minute wait.

Demon, maybe 5 minutes. Finally got on the "King Chaos." I was never to quick to get on one of these, fearing overtight restraints and too much 'blood rush to your face' time. But it wasn't that bad. Short though, and seems they use the same 'program' all day. Rode it 2 times.

V2 was closed later in the day. So now 1/2 Eagle and V2 were closed, on a full day.

We decided to use our 'exit passes' on Ragin Cajin. After what, 3 years, still haven't ridden it. I've gotten in line a couple times, but always have left after the the line doesn't move.

It was good. They have a policy where 4 people can ride in a car, ONLY if one of them is under a certain height. So you have mostly cars going out with 2 people on an already very low capacity attraction. Add to that, 2 cars were dead on the transfer.

Rode Orbit 2 times, seems they have new 'strip lights' where individual plastic bulbs used to be, it looks good. The a.schwarzkopf emblem is still on the ride's hub... that was cool.

Whizzer 2 or 3 more times. Never waited over 10 minutes, they've been running all 3 trains. Was faster at night, as always. Fast, free, fun, non-restrictive, fast, tree flybys, rambunctious, what more could you ask for?

Giant drop was running, at half capacity.

That's about it. A bummer of a day kinda, cept for our Whizzer rides of course.

Shame shame shame shame for only running blue Eagle. And to make matters worse... you have to walk like 1/2 a mile to to SEE what the line looks like. It was full all day. Some lady's told us they waited over an hour.

Come on Shapiro, keep pushing forward!

Ate at Mooseburger lodge, for the 3rd time this year. I never eat in the parks, until after I found out how good these burgers could be. Overpriced of course, but they pile those waffle fries on. Burger was a little undercooked this time though; I'll ask for well done next time.

What continues to be nice at Six Flags is the huge amount of costumed characters. Tweety came into the restaurant and was going table to table, making people laugh, acting like she was gonna take people's food, it was great.

My review wouldn't be complete without whining about the flash pass and prices. Get rid of 'letting priveleged people cut' and do something TRULY cool like Holidayworld and give some free pop. Add gatorade and caff free pop so everyone doesn't get heatstroke. Run your rides to capacity.

And never, never, ever, get rid of Whizzer. I'm afraid Great America may fade into 'just another Six Flags park' without it (and YES, it can be there forever, just start a 'part replacement' program).

Thanks for telling us your trip. I would love the park to get rid of American Eagle. You could put a lot of stuff there for that ride. I really doubt that ride was an hour. That ride is always empty.

It was over an hour. The line was right around the corner from the 'sky coaster' thing (which was also closed).

The American Eagle, on a good day, when they are running it to capacity, is a great ride.

A little work, a lot of money, ok a lot of work and money, and it could be a great ride again.

It's a huge landmark. It's pretty much the biggest coaster there. You can see it everywhere.

I don't think the solution is just 'scrap it'. That was stupidly done with Shockwave. That could have been redone a-la Phantom, and been world class ride. Instead we have a boring, overbloated B&M clone.

So you see one side of Eagle running and rush right into Guest Relations to bitch about it? That is petty IMO.

Why do you keep bringing up the free soda thing? Not one corporate park in existence offers free soda. Feeling dehydrated? Take your butt to the many water fountains that can be found in the park. It's better for you anyway.

If a park was as crowded as the day Billy went, I'd complain too, especially if it was one of my favorite rides in the park that was running under capacity.

Almost every other park chain "gets it". happy "guests" are more likely to empty their pockets. SF just says, "We own you; we can operate the park however we want and give you whatever sub par amusement park experience we want to and you'll still pay us much more than the other parks charge".

I have yet to get to SFGAm. I understand it to be very nice. I hope it's not anything like SFGAdv.