Leaderboard

Day 4: Six Flags Great America Honestly after walking around this park twice on a sunny day with a heat index of 110, I'm way too exhausted to think about doing a full report with pictures. Maybe I'll add them in later. I'm just gonna give my reviews of everything I rode (in order of how I rode them during the day) and add in a few thoughts at the end. Like the other parks in this report so far, this was my first time here. Columbia Carousel: I mean it's so unique and it's right there on the way in so I hopped on for an upper deck ride. Nothing more to say other than it's a really neat looking carousel. With my season Flashpass in hand for some reason I started wandering aimlessly before coming to Little Dipper, which was a walk on so I hopped on. Kind of short and uneventful compared to the other family woodies I've ridden this week, but still really awesome to ride such a historical coaster. I set my sights on the RMC but by the time I got back there it broke down, so I rode Fiddler's Fling while I was waiting. This thing is basically a scrambler on crack. Almost made me legitimately dizzy. Very fun ride and glad I hopped on. Goliath: I'm already not really the biggest RMC fanboy out there and I have to say this might be their worst. I rode in back and the first drop is great as they all are, but the layout just lacked anything interesting at all. The dive loop and stall is done better on almost every other RMC coaster that has them and it has some pretty brutal potholes in spots. The one airtime hill was very good. But that's all the ride has and the brake run comes up faster than I ever would've imagined it would. This was a 1 and done for me. It's the 3rd best wooden coaster at Great America. Sorry, not sorry. Raging Bull: Rode this once in the early afternoon and really liked it. Rode it 4 more times before closing and fell in love with it. This might be my favorite B&M coaster. I just rode Fury earlier this year. I've ridden Goliath at SFOG. I've ridden Diamondback. I think this is legitimately a better coaster than all of those. The airtime in the back not only on the first drop, but off literally every hill on the ride is some of the most insane ejector found on B&Ms. The airtime off the midcourse felt illegal. The twists and turns provided some good positive Gs and it's nice to ride a B&M Hyper that's not the usual slate of boring camelbacks and a lame helix. This is an elite roller coaster and no one gives it the credit it deserves. American Eagle: I liked this a lot, especially the first half. There's some good floater over the hills on the outward leg. The helix is a little rough but not terrible. But the size of this thing is just a lot of fun. I was surprised to see them running both trains on both rides during the afternoon. I rode the right side first and then went back at night to ride the left side but unfortunately they closed it. Credit denied, oh well. X-Flight: I don't like Wing coasters and this is really no different. I actually thought the layout was one of the better of the wing coasters, but it had a very nasty pothole right before the keyhole element and the rest of it was just a rattly mess. Meh. Wrath of Rakshasa: I loved this and wish I got back for a 2nd ride on it. It starts with the usual dive coaster fare, but quickly starts ripping through tight barrel rolls and whippy turns way more than any other dive coaster I've ever ridden. It's nice seeing one of these actually get a fun layout. Thumbs up on this one. Demon: I appreciate the history of it. But it sucks. The coat hanger into the corkscrew section slammed my jaw off the restraint. And the rest wasn't much better. Viper: Great woodie, best in the park. I think this was my first Cyclone based coaster and the back seat especially was full of fun floater moments and surprisingly smooth. Lots of laterals also because not a single turn has any banking. Whizzer: Another historical coaster in a park full of them, this was good fun. Some of the turns are slightly brutal but not really fast enough to hurt. But very fun and unique. Sky Trek Tower: Too hazy to see Chicago, but great views of the park and they keep you up there for a while. Condor: Every time I ride one, I always think it's the last time I'm gonna ride one because they're so rare at this point. So when I see one operating I make sure to ride it. Dark Knight: I like that the whole queue is indoors. I don't like that unlike Great Adventure's version that goes directly up a ramp to the station after the preshow, this one goes down a long tunnel that for some reason added about 30 minutes to the line. Good news is all the effects are working on this one. Aquaman Flume: I got absolutely wrecked by the wave that forms at the bottom of the drop. Never seen this on a flume before. It felt great today but it shocked me to get so wet on a flume. Therefore, next ride was... Loggers Run: I love that the two flumes are so intertwined with each other. This one was a lot less wet but the double down was fun. Batman: Running 1 train and the station was hot as hell. The ride was great, it flies through the course even after 33 years. But that wait sucked even with all the cool effects working. Too bad they couldn't fix the A/C. Joker: I hate the way they load one car at a time now. SFNE does the same thing. Take a train off if you're going to do that. Sitting on the brake run for 6 minutes when you're done sucks. Anyway, I was on the right side and it was one of the more maniacal Joker rides I've ever had. Sky Striker: It felt like this swung higher than other Discoveries I've ridden. Was it just my imagination or does this get up to a higher angle? Giant Drop: Was closed all day but finally saw it operating in the last hour of the day. Rare ride on an Intamin 2nd Gen. I should love it but Larson Towers have spoiled every other free fall ride for me. Credits missed: Obviously Maxx Force was the big one. Could be down for the year? Sucks to miss that one. Superman was down all day I think, not sad about that. Vertical Velocity I saw run one train when I was across the park and I never saw it running other than that one time. Typical Intamin. Would've liked to have gotten this one, but not the worst thing to miss. Aforementioned right side of American Thunder eluded me. Other than the Batman themed coasters having slow, hot lines, ops are great at this park. I found the park to be well kept, employees were much more enthusiastic than most other Six Flags properties. Lots of air conditioned restaurants was nice. This is easily the best Six Flags park from an all around standpoint that I've been to. Will return for sure, especially to ride my new favorite B&M and hopefully ride Maxx Force. On to Wisconsin tomorrow, Little Amerricka and Mt Olympus.

Doing Cedar Point on the ride back. Been there several times so basically saved it for last in case I needed to push things back a day, but as of now planning on being there for most of 2 days. Yeah MA really was a total dud, but I really want to get back to Michigan (especially northern Michigan) so I assume I would stop back in, especially if they continue retracking Shivering Timbers.

^Welcome to America.

^ what a great addition. I loved this large park - especially the dueling mountain coaster they have. And Hurricane was fantastic.