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Been nervous all week since weather reports said that Friday was going to contain a 60% chance of scattered showers and isolated t-storms. The reports seemed to get worse and worse every single day of the week! I spent the night at my brother's pad on Thursday, since he was taking me after he got home from work on Friday. The whole night it was pouring. I knew Friday was going to be a drag.
On the ride to Gurnee, we got about 12 free car washes. The rain was constant. It just did not stop. We were about ready to turn around when we saw how huge the raincloud above us was. Lightning was going off everywhere, thunder, loud rain, seemed like some hail. Yuck yuck yuck! We got to the park and asked the parking-ticket lady if the rides will be open at all. "Probably." My brother gave her $10, and then we sat in the parking lot for a while.
Funny Note: On the way into the park, the little road that lets people exit the park was backed up all the way! Hah! Everyone was leaving! That scared us half to death.
None of the rides were running, but the rain wasn't as bad as earlier. Finally, out of nowhere, we saw Raging Bull testing its trains! And then Viper! And then Shockwave! Woohoo! We got out of the car and ran to the ticket booth so my brother could get his. The rain stopped! Hooray! But who knows how long it is 'till the next storm hits, right? We had to hurry.
Getting into the park, we ran straight to Southwest Territory. We ran into Viper's line to find... nobody! Pure emptyness! We ran right into the station, and hopped right onto the first car. Pure awesome ride! My lapbar was so high off me, I felt like I was going to die! It was the best Viper ride I probably ever had. I'll rate the rides by four stars each.
VIPER (Ride 1): ****
Getting off Viper, Bull was next! Walah! Almost nobody in line! It finally began right where the stairs the led up to the station were. That had to be the shortest Bull line I've ever waited in. It took us 7 minutes, and we finally got onto the first row of the yellow car. Amazing ride, as usual. My stomach didn't drop as much, so that was a bit upsetting.
BULL (Ride 1): ****
As we stood in Southwest Territory, gawking at American Eagle, we realized that we had to ride it backwards... NEXT! Well, we didn't. On our way to American Eagle, we ran into the Breakdown King itself, Deja Vu. A line formed! The ride was running! Amazingness! I haven't ever seen it run before! We got into line.
While waiting, the ride broke down twice. Both times it was the same error, too. The little floor that falls down/lifts wasn't operating. Finally got on afrer an hour and a half of waiting, and was a little dissapointed. My head banged a lot, and I could hear that everyone else was having the same problem. My headache was born.
DEJA VU: **
Like we promised ourselves, we ran to American Eagle's blue train. NO LINE. Nothing. Ziltch. I've never seen the park so empty!! The ride backwards was uber-fun, it just wasn't as scary, though. I don't know. I liked the feeling where you didn't know what was coming. That was spectacular. Good ride on AE.
AMERICAN EAGLE: ***
My brother told me that he never rode Iron Wolf before, so we headed to that. A near-to-nothing line, and we got on the second row. Pretty decend. I tried Jeff's method of riding, and it helped a little. The ride kind of increased my headache, though.
IRON WOLF: ** and a half
We ran towards Vertical Velocity. Damn! It was shut down. That's my second-favorite ride in the park, so I was pretty heart-broken. Damnit! Batman was right near V2, so we headed towards that. GET THIS: Batman had 12 people in line! YES, 12!! We ran through the lines, up the stairs, through the tunnels, and straight to the back row. Pretty good ride. Really smooth. I didn't bang my head at all, but the intensity must've increased my headache. I was NOT feeling too good.
BATMAN: ***
We walked towards Powerdive to check out its grave. Pretty sad that it's gone. I shouldn't have gone that way. My brother noticed Shockwave, his favorite ride in the park. He DEMANDED that I ride it, so, well, I did. No line as usual. We got the second-to-last cart, and just walked right on. I hate this ride. I noticed I got a bit taller, so my head didn't bang too much! Pretty good. But still, the intensity is too much.
SHOCKWAVE: * and a half
I wanted to find some Tylenol, so we just walked by the Whizzer in search of a store that'd have some. Didn't see any! GAH! I saw that the Season Pass Processing Center was open and empty, so I got my picture taken quickly and got hold of my card. Don't they look a ton better this year? I like the green!
It was going on 4:00, and we were both tired/had headaches, but I still convinced my brother to check out Viper. We went that way, and got in line. Wait, again, there was NO LINE! Awesomeness! While we were waiting for the car to pull into the station, we noticed rain outside. Dear Lord! That stuff hurts when you're going that fast! Pretty good ride. The rain made it less-fun, but hell... Viper always rocks the casbah.
VIPER (Ride 2): ***
We ran to Bull, hoping for no line, and there wasn't one. Awesome! We got in line, and 10 minutes later, we were at the top of the hill. Don't remember what seat, but the ride was pretty good! Again, the rain hurt like hell, but it was still good. Bull always satisfies!
RAGING BULL (Ride 2): ***
The rain started to pour, so we ran to the front of the park and got into the car. We were soaked! Jeesh. We got lucky that day. The whole day the weather was amazing. High-60's, sunny, no people in the park. I've never had a better day at Six Flags Great America. Woohoo!
(PS: The music in the park ROCKS hard. I've always wished that they'd just come out with a SFGam CD that has all of that funky music on it.)
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Bob Klein
[url]http://ufxn.com
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Deja Vu in the front seat makes V2 feel like a kiddie ride!
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Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society-Chicago Chapter
On the 13th, Deja Vu was fine... no headbanging or anything, even as disappointed as I was with the ride itself...
Deja Vu is not worth the trouble in my opinion...
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Bob Klein
[url]http://ufxn.com
Nobody is going to "Taer it down!" It's been running fairly reliablely now, so why? People obviously love it (when it's open) because lines form quick. Tearing down Deja Vu will not solve any problems, it would just create more, like, "What do we do with this plot of land? Sky Whril is at the dump, we can't rebuild it! We've already had enough bad PR from DV, we shouldn't have gotten rid of it so suddenly! ARG!"
And for another large non-looping steel coaster, why bother? They have one already! They aren't going to build a giga, no way would the stupid people of Gurnee allow that, no way! That would pull in more people to help the economy even more! Can't let that happen! That would leave them with Raging Calf... Which isn't a large, but small non-looping steel coaster.
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Deja Vu in the front seat makes V2 feel like a kiddie ride!
*** This post was edited by TrBiggar on 6/16/2002. ***
I sure hope to God that they tear it down. The thing always breaks. It's pathetic. Why leave something like that up? I heared the people in back of me talking. They said that they got stuck on Deja Vu last week, after it malfunctioned 3 times while in line.
That's pathetic.
Tear the pile of crap down.
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Bob Klein
[url]http://ufxn.com
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Top 5 Coasters 1.Deja Vu(SFGAm)2.Raging Bull(SFGAm)3.Millennium Force(CP)4.CornBall Express(IB)5.Viper(SFGAm)
CoasterWorld
I was there on the 12th and the weather was great. There were storms at 8-9am, but they cleared up and the park wasn't busy at all. It did rain at 3pm for about 10 minutes but I was having lunch.
Deja Vu ran fine, apart form someone's restraints getting stuck. Rode in the front and the back and got no headbanging whatsoever.
Now S***wave is a different matter, I nearly blacked out between the 3rd loop and the midcourse brakes - if anything should be torn down that thing should be.
V2 was running.
Viper is TOTALLY awesome!
Raging Bull is now pathetic in the front due to the trims, but it is still great in the back.
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Coaster Grotto - Save your Top 20 Coasters and Track Record Online!
If you can't take the intensity of Shockwave don't ride it, the intensity of the ride is what makes it so great.
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Deja Vu Count = 10
CoasterWorld
I'd just be happy that Deja Vu was open and you had the opportunity to ride it. When I went last month, it tested for 6 hours successfully and then the testing stopped for the rest of the day, there was not a single ride given though.
The fact that I have yet to ride it makes me say, tear it down if it doesn't operate. There is certainly room for a Wild Mouse and I'm sorry but SFGAm is in a desperate need for a Wild Mouse and if they don't want to stoop that low, try an inverted Wild Mouse.
However, since it does seem to be running successfully with minor breakdowns and they can keep it up and running, best luck to you Deja Vu!
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Tuesday's Gone With The Wind.
Elijah Rock.
Is it written in the stars?
La Vie Boheme!!!
CoasterDude316 said:
If you can't take the intensity of Shockwave don't ride it, the intensity of the ride is what makes it so great.
Well if you've never ridden it before, how are you suppose to know if it is "intense" or not?
Anyway, there's a big difference between intensity and totally bad transitions that result in your head being bashed all over the place.
Goliath's helix is intense, Hypersonic's launch is intense, both of these are great rides. Shockwave is a headbanger. The other two people in my group all thought the same - and I heard a local say that it was the roughest ride they'd ever had on it - so perhaps it was a very bad day.
Everyone is entitle to their opions though, but no need to worry - I won't be riding it again.
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Coaster Grotto - Save your Top 20 Coasters and Track Record Online!
Just because a ride always breaks down, doesn't mean you should tear it down. If they did that, V2 would be gone this year due to it's problems last year (which are still present, but not as much.) When I was 2 cycles away from getting on DV a week ago, it got stuck. People were on it. I saw Demon stuck later that day. People were on it. I was stuck on Eagle's brakes last month. I also saw Demon stuck then, too. Every other time I walk past V2, it's down. Last time I walked past Deja Vu, it was open. I've seen every coaster there but Shockwave stuck at some point, it's no big deal. So complaining about being stuck on a ride is stupid. Sure, on DV, if you're stuck on the lift, it's sure as hell uncomfortable, but other rides get stuck on the lift too.
I'm sure next year Deja Vu will be running much better. This is basically it's first year, give it a chance, don't be so ignorant, the ride is a prototype (one of 4... a bad move on SF's part) and new.
Oh, and about Shockwave, I have to defend this too. It's both very rough and very intense. Poor transitions cause roughness, but that doesn't make you black out. The loops are smooth. Everything else isn't. Greying out in the loops isn't uncommon at all. They pull some massive, sustained Gs. Don't complain about that, you'll be fine, you recover as soon as your on the midcourse. However, if you want to complain about roughness, be my guest. Next time, ride it in the very last row, or, at the very least, in the back row of the car you're in. When in the front row of a car, it's unbearable because of the wheels below you. The back row of the cars are somewhat better, but, in warm, humid weather, it's going to be bad. I found it does give a smooth ride when it's 41 degrees.
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Deja Vu in the front seat makes V2 feel like a kiddie ride!
Wow, another thread reduced to "Tear this down" and "Tear that down"!
What one person doesnt like, another person comes along and likes it so if you dont like a particular coaster, than dont ride it. It doesnt get anymore simple than that.
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""To be the man, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!, You got to beat the man""!!!
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