SFGAM July 11th 2006

My buddy Anton and I headed up to our home park, Six Flags Great America, Tuesday morning. I hadn't been up to Gurnee since Fright Fest last year and also hadn't experience Hurracaine Harbor since it had opened.

The weather was dismal all day, which we knew, overcast and light showers all day. We bought our tickets online for $34 the night before, saving $20 at the gate and also bypassing the ticket booths.

Now I'm probably one of the older guys that murks these boards, but I must say that I just had a blast with all the costume heroes all day. We couldn't walk 10 feet inside the park and snapped a picture with Wonder woman and the Flash. I think my favorite I saw all day, which I got a picture as well, was with Yosemite Sam. The costume itself just makes me laugh. These costume characters really seem to spark up the midways and I saw people of all ages enjoying them.

I was pounding MONSTER energy drink on the way up to Gurnee and it gave me a good exscuse to hit up every bathroom in the park. I didn't really notice any changes from years past, I've always thought Great America keeps their bathrooms and midways pretty clean.

Everything was running today. Deja Vu ran all day with no problems. It ran more than Raging Bull did, but that's a funny story which I'll explain later.

First up was Superman. Eh. I think this ride is too short, it feels like Batman is even longer than this ride. The landscaping they put in seems to be coming in nice. Front row on the two high speed turns is a blast.

Vertical velocity is my second favorite ride in the park. Back row, going up the back spike is a friggin' rush. And I just love, "Prepare for Launch." BAM !

I love Batman's paint job, but I'm puzzled by doing away with all the great theming that had been there since the coaster opened. Batman is still my favorite ride in the park, and one of the few coasters in the country I LOVE waiting in line for.

Iron Wolf needs some help. I remember this thing when it opened, and the feeling on my train when we hit the brakes, was, "They need to fix the head banging thing". Not sure if that's possible but GOD DAMN.

American Eagle turned it's blue side around so both trains now ride forwards. WHY ? I actually had the most fun on this ride than I've ever had. They were racing the trains all day, and there was so much S#it talking going on between my train and the red train, it was like Medieval Times. The brakes on the top of the helix were off, which is a first for me. Personally I think the helix is very energizing, and racing another train helps with the fun.

Deja Vu to me is the scariest ride in the park. Going up the first spike is crazy, I think it's the only ride where we, as entusaists, are kissing the shoulder restraints and saying, "thank you. don't break."

Demon's drop is surprising nice, but other than that, meh.

Raging Bull. Haha. So we're next up for the front row and it had just started to rain. So the teal train pulls up and this girl in the 4th row just yaks up like 12 tacos EVERYWHERE. To her left, to her right, and straight ahead, tacos were just everywhere. So they clean the teal train which took about a half an hour, and ran it twice empty to dry it off, but it was raining... Guests actually moved out the fourth row que because you could still see that it wasn't getting dry. Anyways, I've been on Bull once before when it was raining, and it hurt. This time, front row, it was no different. I did notice that the trim brakes on the third hill weren't on... Have they been running Bull with them off ?

Viper continues to amaze me. Great America does a fantastic job with the upkeep on this ride and still gives one of THE best wooden roller coaster rides in this country.

Ventured over to HH, and immediately blown away. I know I live in Chicago, but I'd imagine you spend enough time in this place and you just might forget it. There so much to do in this water park, but Anton and I just drank some sort of alcoholic tropical drink and hung out.

For 34 bucks plus parking... I can't see how Great America isn't one of the better values in any park... Mooseburger Lodge was abs horrible, I thought I remembered their burgers being decent but were just almost uneatable. Cheese Fries over by Eagle are still unbeaten.

I'm a smoker and used the smoke zone things, which actually was pretty nice, because all of the other smokers in the park used it as well, and talked to a lot of them.

Overall a pretty cool day at Six Flags.

nick

I love the part about kissing the shoulder restraints on Deja Vu. Me and my riding partner were quite freaked out as well riding in the front row for the first time. I totally agree that it's the scariest ride in the park, only followed up by V2. If the third hill on Raging Bull is the hill after the drop out of the turnaround, then the trim brake was clamping hard back in June. Man, the taco explosion sounds funny and really bad at the same time. It's a good thing she wasn't on Fiddler's Fling (for those who don't know it's an extremely fast 70's (?) flatride) when I was. That could be really messy!

You're very lucky to SFGAm as your homepark. It's really nice.

I agree with you CoasterSmith, I love waiting in line for Batman. In fact, I think Batmn and Superman have the best queues because of the music alone, plus batman offers shade!

Honestly, The trim brake on the third hill and the helix trims were completly off. I get so pumped up for Batman because of the theming and music, and I also like the british guy doing the voice stuff in the station rather than the usual guy/girl blah voice stuff...

nick