Six Flags Great America plans to keep one entrance closed

Well, that explains why the last 2 times I went to the park, they had the entrance by the Eagle closed off from Washington St. They actually implemented this back in September.

That entrance was great because only the locals and people familiar with the park knew about it which meant no line to get in the parking lot.

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"The Peoples Elbow" or "The Spinaroonie?. Cant decide which is the most electrifying move in sports entertainment!!! LOL

Chitown, I used that entrance twice during frightfest!!! I'm not kidding either.
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Beer, My Baby, and Coasters. Is this a great country or what? ;)

I hope that it does open after a few weeks. That is the best way to go in. Hardly anyone knows about it, mostly locals, as Chitown said. It makes it much faster to get robbed by the the parking lot toll. (I think $10 is a little steep to park a car...)

I can't see something as insignificant as this doing a thing to help security. If someone wants to get into the park and plant a bomb, or whatever, then they're hardly going to be put off by having to use a different gate to get in.

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The weekend following the Sept. 11th attacks, SFGA closed that entrance, but just for that weekend. Several reasons were cited to employees for the closing.

1. Eagle is RIGHT THERE, and fears that some idiot would attack it or try something daredevilish were very real. They though this because Eagle something that is VERY high profile (can't miss it from the interstate) colorful (red, white, blue) and with a patriotic name (AMERICAN Eagle)

2. That entrance is VERY hard to keep tabs on, and the nearest area with a good vantage point is the Raging Bull Platform, and ride ops can't be expected to keep an eye on it and operate a ride safley.

I'm not surprised that this happened, but I always would come in the employee entrance because I work there, so it doesn't make a difference to me. But that is the best place to enter the lot. No lines at the booth.

Oh yeah, and the rides Lead for Eagle had to ride every hour that weekend, and couldn't go one break until he/she was replaced by another lead or a supervisor. *** This post was edited by K-town Coaster on 11/19/2001. ***

Yeah, the eagle always seemed a bit vulnerable to me.

Funny that is the only entrance I knew until I left the park  by the main entrance last time.  Of course I got lost; came in off 41, the first time I visited and just drove toward the coasters in the distance.
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97 coasters for 2001. Drat I need to go to Fla before the end of the year, to break the century mark!!

I agree.  The washington Enterance is the best way into the park, do to the reasons mentioned above. 

As far as it being closed, I've noticed that most days that I was out at the park AFTER 9/11 that enterance was closed when the park opened, but I was able to EXIT via Washington when I left the park.  Now, I'm not sure exactly when they opened that gate since I did leave after the park closed.  I'm guessing that they did that to help get the guests out of the park.  I did notice that on those days that I do go out there, there was a marked Gurnee PD squad car blocking the enterance just beyond the Eagle.  I'm guessing that he was there to keep an eye on people going out of the park that way, and to check on the people coming in.

By the way, did anyone else catch this statement in the article?

"While the theme park is now closed for the season, that security measure and others still might be in place when it reopens May 4."

I will say right now that this is the FIRST time that I can ever remember that SFGAm has publically said when the park will open for the next season THIS FAR IN ADVANCE!  Never can I remember them knowing this date so early on.  In fact, last year at No Coaster Con they DID NOT know when the park would open for the season, or much season passes are.  Hopefully, SFGAm has noticed that other parks do this(Holiday World has it on their webpage) and they will start doing it more as well. Maybe we can even purchase our SFGAm season passes prior to March 1st! :-) 

--Brian

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Brian A. Plencner
E-Mail: saurses@home.com *** This post was edited by Brian A. Plencner on 11/19/2001. ***