Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

American Eagle's status? When we were there yesterday at around 12:30 it was chained off and the rest of the day it never opened. It looks amazing with probably 70% of the entire structure repainted.

American Eagle's status? When we were there yesterday at around 12:30 it was chained off and the rest of the day it never opened. It looks amazing with probably 70% of the entire structure repainted.

Sounds like it's down for the time being for the repaint.

It is still closed. There also appears to be some retracking work going on in the helix. Although it's quite possible those were part of the painting crew I suppose

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And $12.99 for a beer? Are they crazy??

On the plus side, it looks like that's for a 22 oz. beer, which isn't quite as criminal as it would be for a 12 oz beer.

I would pay that for a 22 oz. Leinenkugel shandy if it was really hot (and if they didn't offer any craft IPA's)...but I would pass on paying that for a Miller Lite - even if my eyeballs were melting.

At my last Flyers game, a 24oz beer was $14.50, so no, I'd say $12.99 is actually pretty reasonable.

Everyone should know what you're getting into with concessions. Think it's too much, just take a pass and get food/beverage outside the park... Outrageous prices aren't a new revelation.

I went to the park yesterday (Saturday) for preview weekend, and I had a pretty good time. I thought it would be excessively crowded due to the stunning weather (It was 81 at one point in the day I believe) and the bring a friend for $9.99 deal, but it was only like a normal July day. I'd say last year's closing day (November 6th) was way worse. I got to the park around 12:45 and stayed a bit past closing, which was extended until 7 P.M.! Upon entering the park, we headed towards Logger's Run and saw The Joker on the way. After seeing it, I have to admit it looks quite nice in that spot. Not much progress on the queue, it seems they were doing work on the transfer track during my visit. Logger's Run ended up being too long of a wait (Looked like an hour) but that was expected because of the temperatures, so we hit Fiddler's Fling instead. It's cycle has been shortened to increase capacity. This kind of sucks though, because FF already had it's cycle cut a bit last year too, so now it's one of the shortest flat rides in the park. After that, we still needed our water ride fix so we went to Buccaneer Battle, and, I sh!t you not, that was the longest line of the day at 31 minutes. I'll never forget the time I waited more than a half an hour for Bucky It was only running 3 or 4 boats (Seems they stopped running it at full capacity in 2016), so that explains the queue. Family got in line for Strutter's while I headed to Superman: Ultimate Flight for my first coaster ride of the season. I noticed the queue was empty with a mob waiting in front of it, and realized it was broken down. I got to the SRL and was only behind 3 flash passers. About 10 minutes later, it opened up and they let us go first. I got to the station and saw that there was no attendant to assign me a row, so I snuck to row 8 xD. I had only had to wait one cycle, which they dispatched fairly quickly, but when it came to my turn, I was in the loading position for a good 8 minutes or so before they sent us off. Ah well. While on the lifthill, I actually saw the SFGAm Evaluation Squad walking through the ADA line, I guess that was kind of cool. Fast forward an hour, done with lunch at Strutter's, it's about 4:00 now. Did quite a bit of walking around before I decided to go on Whirligig. I kept checking on Batman's line as I really wanted to hit it up, but it remained at 45 minutes almost all day. (We'll get to that later ) After this I went to Revolution, which, I hate to report, has had it's cycle shortened as well. :/ We went back to Yankee Harbor and played some games in the Gotham City Arcade and then went over to Viper. (For reference, it was now 6:00 or so) 20 minute wait for the back row. It was running much better than my last ride(s) on it on Halloween night. After this we had some snacks (ICEE and nachos) and I rode Chubasco, which has also had it's cycle noticeably shortened. 6:30. We made our way to Yankee Harbor and did a bit of stalling, as our goal was to be last ride of the night on Batman. Well, we go to B:TR and it was only 6:45 or so, so we just got on. No line. Just walked right up to row 3 and waited 1 train. I haven't been on Batman in quite some time, reminded me how fun (And intense) it is. It took us a while to get on due to some girl having to be re-measured, so it was like 6:54 when we were off. (The lines are chained off two minutes prior to closing). We debated running to Goliath and risking it be chained off already, but ultimately decided to hit up V2 for the last ride of the night, another ride I hadn't been on in awhile. We stood on the staircase to let everyone else pass us to achieve that goal. I ended up being on the last train of the night, my first time doing that. By the time we got off it was 7:15 or so. Ended up not leaving the parking lot until 7:40 due to a bit of traffic and of course the long walk back to the excess lot. All in all, it was a great start to the season. Can't wait to come back!

Fiddler's Fling, x1

Buccaneer Battle, x1

Superman: Ultimate Flight, x1 - Backrow via SRL

Whirligig, x1

Revolution, x1

Viper, x1 - Backrow

Chubasco, x1

Batman: The Ride, x1

V2, x1 - Last ride of the night

Total: 9 - Coasters: 4

Pictures:

I saw this Batman souvenir cart in Carousel Plaza. It seemed new (Can anyone confirm?) I bet it will sell capes and those light sticks

Finally saw the Joker in person, not going to lie, it looks pretty neat

It's weird how different this area looked 4 years ago compared to today

Still not entirely sure how this ride will rank for me.. guess I'll have to wait to find out

Bucky's excess queue, which I'm pretty sure has never been used

I didn't even make an attempt to ride X-Flight today. From what I saw, it had a full queue all day, though it was a station wait around closing, but I feel like they may have roped it's line off early due to the 1 train operations on it

It's a bird. It's a plane. Nah, it's Pretzelman: Ultimate Flight!

Not the best quality shot, but I just want to say, The Joker looks great by the pond next to Little Dipper.

After 5 months of the offseason I was really looking forward to some airtime on Viper again

Love this ride

Didn't do the Bull today, but had to get the obligatory shot

Last ones in line!

Tried to get a shot with the train, but failed

One last shot of The Joker before heading out (It is pretty photogenic as you can tell)

First test run!

Does Whizzer get decent ridership numbers?

^ I don't know the exact numbers, but it still gets full queues with 3 trains and is very popular with families

^As well as plenty of lifetime long coaster nerds. I love Whizzer. Seems to get better each year, while the thrill of many newer rides wears off after a few seasons.

And $12.99 for a beer? Are they crazy??

 

On the plus side, it looks like that's for a 22 oz. beer, which isn't quite as criminal as it would be for a 12 oz beer.

 

I would pay that for a 22 oz. Leinenkugel shandy if it was really hot (and if they didn't offer any craft IPA's)...but I would pass on paying that for a Miller Lite - even if my eyeballs were melting.

Yeah, I feel the same way. Leinenkugel Shandy is excellent and I'd totally pay that. Miller Lite is fine, but it's the kind of beer I only drink if there's an awesome drink special on it.

I'd even pay $15 for Miller Lite, if I had to. Aside from when Yuengling is available, I mostly stick to piss beer like bud lite, anyway. It helps me avoid the bloat/fullness feeling of my fragile screwed up gastrointestinal system.

What the hell is the bottle flip game?

What the hell is the bottle flip game?

Literally this, but on a metal stand I believe:

I'm not sure of the exact objective of the game, but I'd imagine you have to get the bottle to land upright a certain number of times. Very stupid, imo

^As well as plenty of lifetime long coaster nerds. I love Whizzer. Seems to get better each year, while the thrill of many newer rides wears off after a few seasons.

Whizzer is shockingly good. Everyone I went to the park with loved it.

Also got to converse with some kid that was on an insane coaster trip, rocking the same Maverick shirt as I was. That's my Whizzer story.

Whizzer has a way of creating good memories. It was my first big coaster. Before the air gates, the seatbelts... heck, back then you would sit down and the train would take off. They ran four or five trains; if the whole queue was filled under the station, that would be about a 25 minute wait. It's 90 minutes nowadays. Not complaining, just different operating procedures. Well, maybe just a little complaining. Oh, the old headlights and taillights the ride had!

I'm so glad we still have Whizzer. As an ACE member, I pushed for landmark status years ago. Very happy about the plaque out front. Lucky to be there the day of the unveiling as well!

See, sometimes if you tell a park what you would like to stay (in a kind and polite way of course), it can happen. Now the ride has an award. Could you imagine a cookie-cutter ride like Superman being in that spot? That was their original intention.

What the hell is the bottle flip game?

 

Literally this, but on a metal stand I believe:

 

 

I'm not sure of the exact objective of the game, but I'd imagine you have to get the bottle to land upright a certain number of times. Very stupid, imo

I thought my town was insane for having this as a youth group activity. Guess this really is a trendy thing right now.

Nothing says fun like flipping water bottles.

Could you imagine a cookie-cutter ride like Superman being in that spot? That was their original intention.

What a travesty that would have been, not only for the loss of whizzer itself, but also for the likely loss of most of the wonderful trees and other plants that have grown in and around whizzer over the past 4 decades that help make it the best night ride in the park.

Whizzer was wonderful back in the day with 5 train operation and before seatbelts, but the fact that it now runs its course through a literal forest is pretty fantatstic too. Thank god that management reversed course and saved this masterpiece.

What the hell is the bottle flip game?

 

Literally this, but on a metal stand I believe:

 

 

I'm not sure of the exact objective of the game, but I'd imagine you have to get the bottle to land upright a certain number of times. Very stupid, imo

Wow that seems dumb. I'm sure by the time I have kids and they grow up, this will be an Olympic event. Right next to E-gaming.

Could you imagine a cookie-cutter ride like Superman being in that spot? That was their original intention.

What a travesty that would have been, not only for the loss of whizzer itself, but also for the likely loss of most of the wonderful trees and other plants that have grown in and around whizzer over the past 4 decades that help make it the best night ride in the park.

 

Whizzer was wonderful back in the day with 5 train operation and before seatbelts, but the fact that it now runs its course through a literal forest is pretty fantatstic too. Thank god that management reversed course and saved this masterpiece.

Revolution at SFMM is the same way. The old Schwarzkopf has had trees grow up around it for 40 years, and it's almost like driving through the forest. I wouldn't care nearly as much about that ride if it didn't have that atmosphere.

Decided to take a flyer today and visit the park despite the crappy weather.

All in all, it was a fun couple of hours and I got to get my coaster fix. Everything was a station wait and odds were you wouldn't have to vacate your seat after riding. There were maybe a couple of hundred people in the entire park. X-flight, Batman, and Goliath were single train ops. Not sure if that was weather related though.

I was finally able to check out Justice League and this ride thoroughly impressed me. The story is easy to follow and the effects were top notch. The game was very fun to play and I can totally see friendly shit-talking regarding your score among friends. It really reminded me of "Machine Gun shooter" games from the 90's. I'm looking forward to returning to the ride. Probably won't wait more than 45min for it, but if the wait is short, it's a must do.

Another cool thing was that I got to see "Floating Rain" on the back spike of V2. Really geeked out over that. Hooray science

What the hell is the bottle flip game?

 

Literally this, but on a metal stand I believe:

 

 

I'm not sure of the exact objective of the game, but I'd imagine you have to get the bottle to land upright a certain number of times. Very stupid, imo

 

I thought my town was insane for having this as a youth group activity. Guess this really is a trendy thing right now.

This is still around? I thought it died along with Vine.

Decided to take a flyer today and visit the park despite the crappy weather.

 

All in all, it was a fun couple of hours and I got to get my coaster fix. Everything was a station wait and odds were you wouldn't have to vacate your seat after riding. There were maybe a couple of hundred people in the entire park. X-flight, Batman, and Goliath were single train ops. Not sure if that was weather related though.

 

I was finally able to check out Justice League and this ride thoroughly impressed me. The story is easy to follow and the effects were top notch. The game was very fun to play and I can totally see friendly shit-talking regarding your score among friends. It really reminded me of "Machine Gun shooter" games from the 90's. I'm looking forward to returning to the ride. Probably won't wait more than 45min for it, but if the wait is short, it's a must do.

 

Another cool thing was that I got to see "Floating Rain" on the back spike of V2. Really geeked out over that. Hooray science

They have a single rider line

Another cool thing was that I got to see "Floating Rain" on the back spike of V2. Really geeked out over that. Hooray science

This sounds interesting. By floating, do you mean you're falling as fast as the rain is?

Another cool thing was that I got to see "Floating Rain" on the back spike of V2. Really geeked out over that. Hooray science

This sounds interesting. By floating, do you mean you're falling as fast as the rain is?

Exactly.

You would see the rain falling like normal as you went up the spike but it would slow down as you began to drop back down the spike since you were traveling at similar speeds/directions. It was a cool thing to see in person.