Six Flags in 2014 *YAAAAWWWWNNNN*

You know if you had added that 'R' to XLR8 instead, you would have gotten XLR8R? But now you're just stuck with XLR8 which doesn't spell anything.

Every year Screamscape puts up a link to the National Amusement Park Attendance Numbers. That is where I searched and searched for the position of my favorite home park. The cutoff was at 2.2 Million and sorry Great America didn't make it while other Six Flags Parks did. Unhappy that we received X Flight certainly not, however why has Six Flags not built another since? My simple point is everything they are claiming Goliath will do no other coaster at the park can do it today. I'm so Happy about Goliath I will cry the first time I ride...tears of joy. As far as I'm concerned no other coaster needs be built at Great America after Goliath. Batman still epic, Viper wooden roller coaster masterpiece, V2 just the rush every thrill seeker needs. Whizzer the classic ride which defines whats left of Hometown Square. Wait Ignight Plaza the new concrete jungle minus any trees now. The Demon last Arrow coaster in the park. X Flight a great ride which needed to be higher and longer but it is what it is. The American Eagle Which from first drop to the top of the helix sports the original Topper Type Track. Harold Hudson made it reinforced steel to keep the ride running. If you can't tell the difference from the wood track to the steel creation of Harolds then back to wood...ride it again and pay attention this time. Yes, Great America will have a fine collection of coasters as well as flat rides. I'm happy about all this. As for comparing the two Great America's Cedar Fair just built an awesome real wooden coaster this year. They also have stated that in the future there is big plans to rebuild the park. These last two off seasons they repainted almost every building. They also as a company believe in painting rides. Look at their Columbia: Golden Roof, every picture telling the story of America restored. The whole structure painted in beautiful colors. Now Six Flags has no clue what paint is. Every coaster at Great America needs a paint job. The Eagle is looking so bad just strip the paint totally of the poor thing. Gurnee's Columbia rusting roof in several places. Dull barely visible painting, the whole ride needs to be 100% repainted. Now when we gave Hank Salemi a picture of the other Columbia he decided to repaint the center ring, top of the peak and touch up some white paint on level two. He promises more but I'll believe it when I see it. Raging Bulls stairs are leaning so bad they look about to fall over. Then exit the beast and the boards bounce all the way down. Sorry, Six Flags is a billion dollar company and upkeep should be their first priority. Deny the shabby look of the Gurnee park Chi Town or open your eyes to the truth. But getting Goliath who cares about anything else that's all that matters now.

Paragraphs, man. That's impossible to read.

I note with no small amount of irony that, in the above discussion, Tyler was a voice of reason to somebody else being a jerk and an idiot.

Dare I say there might be hope for the kid yet?

(P.S. Don't let it go to your head.)

Even paragraphs won't help the legibility of that stream-of-consciousness rambling.

Guys what it all come down to is this. 37 years of visiting the park hundreds of times gives me plenty to think about each visit.

The Ole Girl is rough around the edges. But that never has stopped me from going and enjoying the rides I like.

Notice several coasters didn't make the cut. Sorry, we have a horrible B@M coaster at the front gate. Nobody I go with even cares to ride it.

I love the chances the park took with the backwards year. I truly hope it become a regular thing.

I'll miss our spinning mouse however we have lost so many coasters the sting is all but gone.

During this same time Cedar Point not only built a ride arsenal they removed just a Mouse Coaster. Yes, my friends and I feel this is unfair.

Landlocked: Please, have you been on Sky Trek Tower to see all the space behind Whizzer? Do we need both flumes with a huge waterpark? There is room along side the America Eagle. They can go over and around The Rapids Ride. The PR Department want us to believe the park is landlocked. Disneyland sits on a smaller footprint but keeps adding.

I've notice all kinds of triangles along the Eagle Blue Side...more future RMC work to come?

I'll be there Monday it's all about Backward Viper and Eagle Blue. Plus just picturing the site of Goliath.

Finally I care about this park. I talked them into Upgrades on the dining pass for every owner of these. We talk they listen and in the end I'll stand by this park until I die.

Maybe my nickname should be the almost mature owl.

;-)

Tyler Boes said:

Maybe my nickname should be the immature owl.

Fixed that for you.

Actually, I'd recommend looking to Andy as a mentor. I think that would be very helpful. At least to everyone except Andy.

Ok, now on to SFGAm. I just don't get the complaints.

My home park is Valleyfair. Our last major addition was Renegade in 2007. Once the newness wore off for me, I stopped renewing my season pass. In fact, I didn't go to the park this season and probably won't next. Been there, done that, nothing compelling me to go back right now. Hopefully, we'll finally get our invert in 2015 and I'll get a season pass and return.

Since 2007, here is what has been added to SFGAm:

2008: The Dark Knight

2009: Buccaneer Battle

2010: Minor additions - Little Dipper, parade, etc.

2011: Riptide Bay

2012: X-Flight

2013: The year of reverse

2014: Goliath

Now granted some of those additions may have not lived up to the hype. Yet, Six Flags cannot add new coasters to every park every year. That's what landed them in bankruptcy court just a few years ago. It's all about living within your means. Which is something the average American cannot comprehend.

First of all, Tyler, with all due respect, and I say this as someone who likes and appreciates you around here, the above post is what gets on the nerves of a lot of CoasterBuzzers. They keep telling you to not post if it's not important, and yet you still do. I don't mind when you do, but darnit kid, you are about to lose your ability to post on CoasterBuzz (That's what Jeff meant about "bouncing" you), and I don't want to see that. Sometimes you have some very interesting things to say. In other words, check yourself before you wreck yourself.

I would like to think that I am one of your CoasterBuzz mentors. :)

And now that I think about it, having official CoasterBuzz mentors is a really good idea.

And to Witrzek, Maybe you should lay off the drugs, man. Posting sober makes for more intelligent conversations. If you want people to respect your posts, you have to respect the reader enough to at least make sense.

Are you really going to cry tears of joy when you ride the new coaster at SFGAm? Seriously? LOL

LostKause said:

I would like to think that I am one of your CoasterBuzz mentors. :)

Well, at least we know what he thinks about Flash Passes and low capacity rides. :)

I think you guys may be losing your perspective a little. A special interest forum shouldn't require any mentoring at all. And even if it did, it would be fair to say that plenty of mentoring-like advice has already been offered.

The way I see it, Tyler doesn't need any mentoring. Just a heavy dose of maturity. He's managed to accomplish exactly what he wants, which is to be the center focus within as many threads as possible. Once he "cracks" the top 25, he will consider himself an achieved regular poster.

I don't begrudge the guy. I know he's young and quite frankly, we've all fed the machine. But it's time for valuable contributions, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of attention grabbing.

Yeah, you're right, Carrie. He systematically hijacks every single thread, including now this one. We're talking more about "He-who-shall-no-longer-be-named" than anything else - new coasters, pay-to-cut, or even pancakes. The kid's a walking (skipping) punchline, so it's easy to fall into the trap. The best thing is for everyone, myself included, to ignore and not respond to any of his antics. Enough! Damn teenagers are even more annoying than babies.

What isn't making sense to you?

The upkeep part?

The PR created landlocked Part?

How I work closely to improve things in the park as a guest and for all guests, part.

You can't understand how badly we want a World Class Coaster Here.

Yes, I will cry out in joy for our new toy...Goliath.

Drugs so you call caring and passion drugs.

Remember from Chicago we are 5hrs or so away from: Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kentucy Kingdom, Holiday World, The Dells. Great America is one of many choices for vacation planners to make.

Without a doubt Goliath will cause a spike at the turn styles next year.

I make no apologies for my passion, care, concern for Great America.

I have brought hundreds of new people to the park in 37 years, have you?

Now I'm done with this and will be taking more new guests to the park Labor Day, see you there.

I hope you don't plan to entertain your new guests with a torturous diatribe on what's wrong with the place.

I wish I could singlehandedly take credit for improvements to guest experience at my home park.

Pfft. You got your world-class coaster in 1992, chief. ;) Everything else is just a bonus. I thought SFGAm was one of the chain's best parks. I'm sorry that Raging Bull, Viper, Demon, Whizzer, Superman Ultimate Flight, The Dark Knight, Batman - The Ride, Vertical Velocity, X-Flight, American Eagle, and Little Dipper don't meet your satisfaction, but if Goliath is enough to make you actually cry tears of joy, you've gone to a whole new level of obsession, and the fact that you feel that the park so desperately needed it to overcome the suck of the rest of the coaster collection is exactly the kind of silly mentality some portions of the enthusiast community need to lose.

Lastly, congrats on bringing hundreds of new people to the park, but by your own admission, attendance is about 800,000 less than it used to be, so you better get crackin'!

I also don't understand how words like "unfair" and "owed" enter the equation. Six Flags doesn't owe you jack squat any more than Walmart or McDonald's do. I patronize my local McDonald's more than I go to Six Flags, but do I get all uppity when another McDonald's around the corner gets a new play area? No, because that would be *insane*.

Yes, but have you brought hundreds of new customers to that McDonalds?

Let be fair and clear on here. I made it clear Batman, V2, Viper, Ragin Cajun, Demon, X Flight, The American Eagle, Whizzer, all are favorites of mine.

Oh Raging Bull didn't make the cut, two big reasons:

Being held back for so long at the fast pass entrance angers so many regular guests. Should the ride operator have to get on the load speaker and say, "We need people in the station." All the while thousands of us just stand at the mercy of the fast pass attendant.

Just tonight a friend of mine who hasn't been to the park in 20 years went last Saturday. I was so glad his group had a fun time. However, he was more then angry with the extra 20 minutes added to his wait due to fast pass on Raging Bull. My response, we only ride it once a day just for that reason. The person sitting next to me at the bar said: "That and all the empty seats each train get him mad."

That brings me right to the second reason: So many empty seats each train it defeats the four across seating. They have a count down clock on that coaster because of poor dispatching and stacking trains.

Superman we have not been on it in 6 years. It painful, it lumbers along the course so slow, just a bad layout.

I hear people who do ride it report it's loading is nothing short of killing daylight. I don't know if it's true or plan to find out.

The Dark Night: We did ride it our last visit. No preshow, No lights on the lift. Not one sound effect was in use. My best friend feels they have given up on this ride.

Goliath will bring back the level of a Shockwave or De Ja Vu thrill.

Not even on the hottest days are there lines for That whole lot of nothing Splash Battle Shapiro Ira mistake.

The Little Dipper is a never miss ride each and every visit for us. This is one of the finest additions to the park. Hank Salemi keeps this treasure in great shape.

Great America has a wonderful collection of flat rides. We ride as many as we can each visit. During Fright Fest the faster cycles add to the event.

The show department at the park does a wonderful job, given what they have to work with. The Grand Music Hall is a Marriott Masterpiece Theater.

So please stop twisting my words claiming I don't like the rides in the park. I never ever said that.

All eyes are on the southeastern skyline for Goliath to rise up. It is a happy new season coming in 2014.

Titan has a countdown clock and it runs 2 trains on a course that can support 3. I'm pretty sure stacking has nothing to do with it.

"You can't understand how badly we want a World Class Coaster Here." (Odd capitalization his)

If Raging Bull, Batman The Ride (and the original BTR at that), Whizzer, Viper aren't world class coasters, what, exactly, are you waiting for?

Great America has a great collection of coasters. Your objections to various coasters -- X-Flight needed to be higher and longer, Raging Bull isn't a great ride because you don't like how they handle the queue -- seem to have little to do with the actual coasters and reek of self-entitlement.