SFGA Overall Awesome!

Since opening weekend, I have made it up to Great America twice. Overall, the park has really cleaned up its act! It now costs $15 to park, and you get a complimentary poster sized map in addition to the regular guides with every paid vehicle. Since regular parking went up, so did Season Parking Passes. Those will now set you back a cruel $60 for one or $80 for two, and bottoming out at $100 for four. I find this still to be of value however.

Okay, let's talk about the park! The first big thing I noticed was the friendliness of the staff! They smiled and said welcome to Sixflags, and hd a whole spiel about the 45th anniversary. 10 minutes before the park officially opens for the day, they host a "Party" in front of the colmbia carousel in Carousel Plaza. This "Party" consisted of the singing of the National Anthem, introducing the first family of the day and a well-choreographed dance of 4 Looney Toons Characters. I also noticed a large assortment of costumed Looney Toons Characters, Justice League Heroes as well as costumed employees from each themed area of the park. Once the park opened the swarms took off.

Our first stop, of course was the Season Pass processing center. They gave me an '05 pass instead of '06 so since they screwed up, I got an extra coupon book and bring a friend for free coupon.

All the rides were running well except for Deja Vu and Revolution were not open yet. A welcome change for me was the return of the name Yankee Clipper for the boat flume. The park appeared cleaner, and there were indeed bathroom attendants and fresh cut flowers in most of the bathrooms. A disappointment came from seeing that blue is now forwards again on American Eagle.

Live entertainment was present everywhere in the park. You always had a chance to hear a great band play in SW Territory, County Fair, Orleans Place and Hometown Square! The daytime parade was awesome and there were cool give aways from some of teh floats! (The night time parade hadn't begin yet) They also play real music on all teh speakers in the park (not typical themed music), not to mention a real radio station in the queue for Viper.

As far as it being a smoke free park, several people don't obey it yet, but it shall take time. The thing that stuck in my mind the most was that for 2 trains that got stuck on the Whizzer, everyone on those trains were offered free funnel cakes by the management!

Overall, I would have to say go to Great America if you are able, it was an excellent experience and it will be all year, especially after Hurrican Harbor is fully open!

I think it would be better to keep themed music in the different sections of the park as opposed to "real music".

Well, if you go to Orleans Place, they still play zydeco music and on certain rides you still have themed music (e.g Superman and Batman.) But everyone seemed to enjoy the music and I often saw people dancing to the music!

Some areas still have the original Marriott music. If you listen in SWT after you pass the Demon tunnel you can still hear the original SWT music. Orleans and Mardi Gras still have their music too.

I have heard that the park has been getting alot of negative comments on the changed music. Hopefully they switch back to the themed music from the Marriott era.

I'm glad they got the old Demon Song playing in the Demon queue again. *** Edited 5/30/2006 8:38:34 PM UTC by jonrev***

---

jonrev said:
Some areas still have the original Marriott music. If you listen in SWT after you pass the Demon tunnel you can still hear the original SWT music. Orleans and Mardi Gras still have their music too.

I have heard that the park has been getting alot of negative comments on the changed music. Hopefully they switch back to the themed music from the Marriott era.

I'm glad they got the old Demon Song playing in the Demon queue again. *** Edited 5/30/2006 8:38:34 PM UTC by jonrev***

---

I didn't think that SWT was around during the Marriot era. This was added during Time Warner's ownership of SF if I'm not mistaken.

I definitely like SFGAm. It's one of the best SF parks I've been to, and it seems fairly well run. When I was there the the beginning of May, Deja Vu and Revolution weren't running, either. Both sides of AE weren't, either. I wonder why they turned the train around? It's a boring ride, IMO. Backwards at least made it somewhat more interesting.