ilrider

Little Dipper is always one train at this park, at least for as long as we have been riding it, which is for many years.

Gatekeeper being inspected now? Anyone have any info? Seeing photos of workers in a cherry picker looking at a support online.

^Pretty amazing it was not worse with the train going through. Kudos to B&M I guess. I have never see this on a B&M coaster before. Obviously a lot of force through there.

^We won’t hit the waterpark. Thanks!

We may be up near VF at the end of June and are thinking of stopping by. Would we need two days to get all the coaster credits on weekdays, or would one weekday day be enough? There will be five of us, with two who will ride all the coasters. Would we enjoy the park more if we gave it two days? We don’t want to feel rushed. We won’t do Fast Lane. Debating whether to do two days at VF or one at VF and one at Nickelodeon Universe. We have never been to VF, but were just at NU a couple years ago, so we will likely skip NU if we spend two days at VF. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

They return before Labor Day in the suburbs, by late August. I think Chicago Public Schools started in August this year too for the first time. Go the last week in August if possible. Wisconsin schools do not start until after LD though, some of those families might be there.

They don't even have the staff to place a queue attendant on most rides honestly.

I think the only ride that has ever happened to us on was Goliath when it first opened. I don't remember it ever happening on Whizzer. Not a normal thing at SFGAM. It is my home park, and we are there quite a bit.

Multiple people were shot at the park tonight just before close. Over 5 ambulances requested so far. Waiting on more details. We heard sirens near our house probably headed that way around that time (we live 15 minutes from the park). This place is going downhill fast! Guess this is why they are raising prices.

Quick trip report, we spent three days at the park and stayed at the Lighthouse Point campground at the park. Our first time at CP. Campground was very nice, with a pool, and shuttle service if we did not want to walk the 7 minutes to the park. Crowds were light overall. Nice lineup of rides. Loved MF, SV, and Maverick. I can see why Intamin gets such a bad rep for reliability though. MF was down a lot over the 3 days, and we only got one ride on it. We were on the train for ride 2 today when it broke down and we left since we had already waited out one breakdown and they predicted extended downtime for the second. Maverick went down twice, once when we were 5 minutes from riding, the second time on the final brake run, so at least we got a ride and an exit pass for that one! In RMC news, SV was down most of the day yesterday. There was a cherry picker on the structure this morning but it was running today. They were testing it from 10:30-11 tonight. I already described our nightmare 2 hour wait on Tuesday for that one. We got in a 15 minute line for it today as our last ride of our trip, but two minutes in they shut the ride down to transfer a train, which they said would be quick, but my son was just done, so we left the park. Just icing on the cake at that point! It was very hot and humid on days 2 and 3, with people passing out all over the park, including an employee. Not sure if the weather might have affected the coaster operations somewhat. We had free drink wristbands as part of our stay that was a real savior those days. I have to say, that second launch on Maverick might be my favorite coaster element anywhere. The sense of speed in the near darkness and the way the train just explodes out of the tunnel into that hard left turn. Truly amazing! I was howling with delight every time. Glad we got on it 3 times. It is my son’s new #1 coaster, beating out MF from the day before. Good rides (something for all ages), friendly, enthusiastic employees overall, but the mechanical operations of the major coasters leave a lot to be desired. I was very frustrated at times. I got all the coaster credits by day 2 thankfully. I understand now why many people say just to go to KI instead. We had a fun time at the park as a family though, and it was nice to finally hit CP!

That would make so much more sense! Lest everyone think it was just some horrifically busy day at the park, the second longest wait for any of the 9 coasters we rode today was 20 minutes for Valravn, the second ride we rode during early entry. Every other coaster we rode was 15 minutes or less. Maverick showed 90 minutes on the app at one point, but we are saving that for tomorrow after the SV wait today.

We had to wait two hours and we were there when the ride opened this morning. It was awful. We saw a train dispatch with 2 rows filled (!) due to the holdups at the sole metal detector. They finally opened the second one just as we got to it and we used it. One thing I don’t get is even though my son and I had no metal on us, they sent us out of the structure to the lockers to line up behind others just to come right back into the structure rather than let us go right through security and to the station. They need to figure out a different system overall. I watched the security guard spend well over a minute wanding some people, which was one reason they could not move people to the stairs fast enough. This is our first day ever at CP, so not sure if the second detector being down was the biggest reason for the delays, but watching train after train of several empty rows was maddening and I wondered if this was SOP. Loved the ride though!

Man, I knew something was weird when the ride ops were claiming the safe lights were on after seeing the height of that restraint, but this is just criminal and mindblowingly dumb. Anything to make a buck.

^It does tilt, but 30 degrees I read today, not a full tilt onto your stomach like FF. That said, I can't believe such a ride does not have also have a secondary seatbelt restraint. Less than 3 months of operation and this ride already killed someone. Unbelievable.

^Very cool! I had never seen TOC in action before. No air gates! Imagine the issues that would cause today. Now we have seatbelts on the carousel!

Totally agree. The full fault lies on the ride operators, and I don’t want to victim blame, but I always ensure my kids are buckled up safely by watching them secure themselves before I restrain myself.

I’ll answer the ones I can: No mandatory lockers. Rides have free storage bins and racks. Get Chicago deep dish at Giordano’s 5 minutes west of the park on Grand Ave. Check hours ahead though, as some nights I know it closes at 9. X-flight seats I always like the back, but I always prefer the back on coasters. Row 4 can be used for larger riders. Rain policy is generally lightning closes the rides. Most run in the rain. Some rides such as Whizzer close in any rain. You can ride solo on Whizzer. Any coasters are good at night to me. Hit Raging Bull or Superman first. Maxx Force, you can come back to a bit later and it should not be too bad. Goliath gets busy pretty fast too, though it is in the very back of the park.

^Sounds like it is getting rethemed to The Flash. Probably a new paint job to fit too.

^I am only speculating of course, but I don't think Illinois will go full shutdown again anytime soon. Just today Pritzker sounded very optimistic (for him) and said the cases in Illinois hospitals are starting to flatten. Well over half of Illinois is vaccinated, and even though the delta variant is surging, we are in a better place than last fall. The positivity rate is just over 5% and dropped today, but was around 20% when we went full shutdown last year. I am a public school teacher here, and 4 weeks into the new school year, we have not had one case in our district of almost 4000 students and over 300 faculty and staff. The schools who are having outbreaks are not usually more than 5 cases per school, I just read this week. I think the indoor mask mandate will be the height of the mitigations for the time being, and right now that is the only place SFGAm is requiring masks, indoors. Hopefully you will be okay to take your trip out here. Have fun if you come!

Thankfully, one train ops are not something this park has ever been known for, but no idea what it will look like under COVID. The half full trains, I am fully expecting.

New park opening date of April 24 announced today! They moved it up a week!

I would be so happy if they got the shuttle coaster. I miss Tidal Wave a lot at SFGAm, so to have this less than 3 hours away would be fantastic! I would love to have my son experience what launch coasters used to be like.

Lol thanks. $5 x 5 of us was $25.

^Last Thursday. It was probably the light rain all day that kept it closed. We got on it the time before though. Glad it is running better this year. Very unique ride!