Wisconsin/Illionois Trip

Well let's start with SFGAm becuase I was extremly dissapointed. I made two trips in a onw week span and both days wre horrible. I don't know what happened but SFGAm seems to have lost its atmosphere I use to feel. Now this is my homepark so if anything I usually lean in favor of it but I've had to much. Both days I went a higher than normal level of rides/coasters were not operating. Several of the shops were closed which gave a feeling of the park being deserted and dead. Very very few of the employees seemed to be enjoying themselves and most looked very depressed. Deja Vu broke down throughout both days, but whats new there. And as far as cutting back the hours, 10-8 is just ridiculous. I understand they are trying to save money, but it isn't right to cut back hours a week before.

Ok now on to more important things becuz I could honestly complain for about an hour about those two visits. Lets see Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells. Hades is simply incredible. This was my first gravity Group coaster but I am addicted. The one problem I saw was they only had one train, which for that ride I felt they needed two. All the other woodies also only had one train but due to there being no line I felt that was ok. Dive to Atlantis was a joke. That now claims the title as worst ride ever for me. The line took 1 1/2 hours and the ride was the most boring thing ever. I have more fun on a carousel. The ride operator would be doing push ups while the ride was operating instead of doing his job. They only had 5 boats ona ride that should have been designed for at least 8. The waterpark however was great. Few lines and fun slides. The lifeguards were friendly and seems to be doing a good job at paying attention to what was going on around them. The indoor amusement park looked like a warehouse with 4 or 5 rides just thrown in there. I though it really ruined the image of the park.

Timber Falls also in Wisconsin Dells was ok but nothing great. Avalanche their one coaster was very fun but very rough especially around the 2nd turn. There was no line for it. In fact i got 30 rides straight in a 1 hour span becuase the train never filled up once. The ride operator for this is the kind that causes us problems. I saw him let one rider ride with the lapbar way above his waist. I always like a loose lapbar but this was just unsafe. I can see the rider trying to get away with this but there is no reason the ride op, should have let him get away with this. The minature golf courses were fun but very easy even for minature golf and had nothing that made them stand out as unique. The log ride was fun for a family but again nothing exciting or unique by any means.

Riverview Park, the last park i visited in the dells, was kind of sad. It had one family coaster and two kiddie coasters. The park looked like a travelling parkthe ride op on the main coaster was very friendly which gave me a good imporession of the parks staff, however the park itself had nothing worth paying for.

Finally Wisconsin State Fair which was the Murphy Bros. Exposition handling the rides. They had several fun intense rides, and an ok travelling coaster. But again as with most travelling rides I saw way to much tape holding the rides together and too many ride ops who didn't seem to care in the least if safety was checked properly or if the ride was taken care of properly.

Yes this may seem like I gripped alot but I was very dissapointed in most of these places. I have always been a huge SFGAm fan but they seem to have taken a big dive since last year. AThe one part though which made the trip well worth it though was Hades. What a ride.

Illinois

lol thanks i missed that

I don't know what happened but it seems that around mid-July someone "flipped a switch" and things changed drastically at SFGAm from earlier in the season. I don't know if it was the beginning of the cutbacks and the effect it had on employees or what but I noticed a difference on my last two visits as well.