SF Great America 5-29; Where the heck are all the people?!

After our weekend trip to Sandusky was unexpectedly cancelled due to my landlord dropping a few bombs on us (sold the building, inspectors coming, etc), we decided to take a one day getaway and head to Great America. After all, traveling 30 minutes is a lot different than traveling several hours. So off we went. And surprisingly, it ended up being one of the best trips we've ever had to the park!

We showed up around 9:30ish and since we paid for the tix online (they had a spring special running as long as you used the tix by May 30th), so we saved a few bucks and skipped the ticket lines. Five minutes later, we were in, hit the bathrooms, and moved off toward the Fast Lane office. ...this was a bad idea, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Now what really shocked me from the get go was, yes, getting used to the sight of the waterpark. The ever changing skyline that is Great America has thrown us for a few loops, and just when I was getting used to seeing Superman there instead of the old Shockwave (oh how I miss the 'migrane machine'), they threw in a waterpark! I didn't actually get to check out Hurricaine Harbor yesterday, since the weather took a turn for the chilly, but the theming and general look of the place is awesome. Very impressed with what I saw.

The Fast Lane counters were...EMPTY. O_o; Yes, empty. We figured crowds would pick up a bit later in the day so we splurged, bought two, and figured meh, if we use em, great. If not, well we'd get to that. The odd thing was, we probably could have gotten away without even using them for the day. There was no one THERE! The crowds didn't start to get bad till around 4, and by then we were done and heading out the doors. Very, very odd, especially with a holiday weekend. They're usually packed.

Off to the rides! Here's how it went:

1. Viper: We hit the line just as the park officially opened and walked on. I love riding back car in this coaster. You just get whipped over every hill and get some mean ejector airtime. We had a blast on this one, and it was running fast and furious as always. I've always dug Viper. 4 out of 5. Great way to start the day.

2. Raging Bull: We would end up hitting Bull twice during the day, but right when the park opened, there was no one in line, so what the heck. We had a 1 car wait and then got on. Bull is running VERY smooth this year. Oddly it seems to get better every year I ride it. We rode toward the back and had alot of fun chatting with the people sitting to my left, who were from out of town. They seemed to enjoy it too, cause the little girl next to her mother was cheering when the ride was over. VERY glad also to see the ride ops getting the energy in the station going. They were interacting with the guests and getting them pumped up. This was a nice change of pace. 5 out of 5.

Deja Vu: Vu wasn't running right away but we spotted it running and walked over. This would turn out to be the longest wait time of the day.

..all 20 minutes of it.

Seriously? The ride is a lot more fun now. This was only the 2nd time I've managed to get on the goofy thing. But it was alot of fun, and the ride ops bumped us up in line since it was just myself and my husband, so that cut a good 10 minutes out of our wait. There were a LOT of big groups. And they put us right up front. WOW speed! And the view being lifted was awesome. The ops were having a lot of fun with this one too. 4 out of 5.

Revolution: A fun little ride still but nothing fabulous. We had fun trying to calm down a few nervous teenage girls before the ride. My husband wanted to tell them one of the seats pops off during the ride and called it "russion revolution" -_-; Dork. 3 out of 5.

Eagle: Rode backwards blue and they seemed to be having some problems. Only running one train on the blue side and two on the red, but everyone seemed to want to ride blue. I love the ride but it's kind of tame backwards. 2 out of 5.

V2: Again, a walk on! And this was mid day! We pretty much strolled right on, had a 1 train wait, and then hopped on in the very back. I love that pause being in the very back. Makes the ride so much fun. 4 out of 5.

Batman: I still love the new paint on this bad boy. And it was running SO smoothly! The ops were efficient but not the most friendly in the park. Still, the ride looks and runs great. 4 out of 5.

King Chaos: I was excited that this was running, because last year we missed it. They got it going pretty well and we had five or six intense turns one right after the other. My stomach actually flopped a little. Fun ride, but way too short. 3 out of 5.

Superman: ah, finally a shot to use the Fast Lane pass. 2 hours worth of wait, or $15? ...Yup, worth every penny. Again, this is a fun, smooth ride, but the best part is that goofy pretzel. Back car again (can we sense a theme here?). We got some sinister pulls on that and had alot of fun. 4 out of 5.

At at this point, we were kind of perplexed as we'd done almost everything we wanted to do! So we took one more spin around the park, hit Bull again and grabbed a random father and son to join us so that we could use up those fast lane passes, did my traditional run on Columbia Carousel, and off we went.

Odd things I noticed:

The sign outside the Karaoke place says "Drink Dr. Nut. It's delicious!" ...yeeeah *snort*.

Adventure Inn is a frightening place to stay. I highly advise against this place. Spend the extra 50 bucks and go to Sybarris, wouldja? SO much better.

They played the Vengaboys song a total of 4 times while we were there. Watch the kids in the park when they play it. Its funny watching five year olds do the dance.

All in all a really great day at the park. I think the threat of nasty weather scared so many people away. But we had a lot of fun!

Be happy it was slow, as i went today (05/30/05) and it was very busy!!
Slow days will be few and far between now till mid august.