ilrider

^^If you are talking about the land across Washington St., that is south of the park, not north. Grand Ave. is the north border.

Zoning hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23 according to the sign outside the park, just to put a date to it.

Yep, saw the Gurnee village zoning meeting sign at the back entrance when we went today!

I believe one of the factors people vote on is ride length, so that probably did not help since X-Flight is a very short ride. I also know that even though we filmed that day, nobody asked us to vote as we left the ride, so I don't think those numbers mean much at all if only some riders vote for each ride. Typical "reality" TV. I didn't expect it to win or anything, up against Intamin rides, but it is a fun ride, with a great climax.

^Boers and Bernstein never show sensitivity (particularly Berstein). That's their shtick. They get good ratings here in Chicago. Bernstein belittles people, including callers, the entire show each day, although he's often right in what he says. It's very entertaining at times, but they rub many the wrong way.

I filmed on X-Flight too, and we got 10 laps that day. I am glad we had brief rests between circuits, because I was pretty nauseated by the end, but had a lot of fun riding with 3 of my kids. We all showed up on the episode too, which was a blast. In Dinn's photo, one of my daughters and I are the third seat back on the right side.

Cool! Celldweller is one of my favorite artists! Have seen them (him really--Klayton writes all the music) live a couple times and own a ton of his music! That would be awesome to hear in the station.

I rode it in 2011 and only found it rough at the end and did not find it as rough as everyone says. I loved it! I thought Zeus was worse.

Viper is one of my favorite coasters in the park and underrated. I often jump on it as the first ride of the day while everyone else runs to Raging Bull. I would love it backwards!

I get bad motion sickness on all rides these days but survived namtaB yesterday! I take Dramamine a couple hours prior to arriving, so that helps. I was really dizzy for the first couple steps after getting off the ride, but it was a lot of fun, and I recovered pretty quickly. Ride felt even more intense than going forwards. I definitely could only do this once or twice a day at the park.

Actually, SFGAm park president Hank Salemi is often out sweeping garbage at opening time right at the front gates, and also greets people leaving at closing time, again with dustpan and broom in hand. I think it's great these higher ups do this!

I'm not sure about the rest, but I timed the American Eagle entrance walk as 4 minutes and the exit is 2 solid minutes. I'm 6'1", so I get places faster than most. Those were times walking at a medium pace with no people in the queue. Doesn't seem like a long time, but it's long to walk away from a park to get to a ride (or to get "back to the park"). At least they will bypass some switchbacks if there is no line at SFGAm. Batman at SFStl drove me nuts the first time with all the switchbacks in Gotham Park with the line not starting until much later. Way too long a queue there. Then, you keep going right past the station and go out to more switchbacks just to come right back to the station.

It's definitely worth a visit. It was pretty run down when I visited a few years ago, but we still had fun. The Fascination game was fun, the walking tacos were great, and so were the elephant ears! Just don't expect any amazing rides, just some fun ones and a really odd one! The swings are actually really good as well. It is looking better the last couple years. A lot of new paint made a world of difference. Much better last year than our visit in 2010. Cornball Express is a really good coaster.

I grayed out on the old Shockwave at SFGAm every dang ride after the 3rd loop until hitting the MCBR. Loved the ride, but hated that part of it, even though I expected it.

My kids all started loving coasters at a young age and never had to be pushed or forced to ride. My 4-year-old son is very tall, already at 47", so he started coasters before he was 2 with Great Pumpkin Coaster at KI, then rode Little Dipper, Spacely's Sprocket Rockets, and Whizzer at SFGAm when he was only 2, as well as Screamin' Eagle, River King Mine Train, and Pandemonium at SFStL also at 2. Yes, he was 42" tall before he was 3! At 3 he added Batman:Dark Knight and Demon at SFGAm. He loves them! As I said, we never had to push him to ride, and he has never cried once on a ride from fear or not wanting to ride. He says how fun they are when he gets off.

SFGAm. Lucky enough to live 15 minutes away.

Demon, SFGAm

That ride beat the hell out of my knees! I think I would have been more comfortable in the graveyard!

I just saw the funniest Carnival commercial. A family is on a Carnival cruise and the dad says, "This is sure better than last year." They then cut to the family stuck upside down in a coaster loop, and the mom drops her entire purse and cell phone on the ground below. Cut back to family, so glad they picked the Carnival cruise this year. I think I know which of those two options I would take, and the irony of the family thinking back a year to their terrible experience cracked me up!

I heard on the radio this morning, while the DJ was interviewing a mom whose ex-husband and 10-year-old daughter are on the ship, that the waters have gotten choppy, slowing the arrival of the ship in Mobile by a few hours, to this evening rather than this afternoon. Then, many of the passengers will face an hours-long bus ride back to Galveston.

Batman, SFGAm.

Whizzer, SFGAm.

Got the confirmation today too! My daughters and I will be there!

When that happened my Dad asked me how someone could get into the park and do that. Honestly, Bill had to have some help on the inside, but I don't know all the details (just what was written in the paper when it happened). I understand if you can't share details of what exactly happened (or how it happened) but it's fun to learn the details 18 years later. I can't help but think of the Simpsons and their cat Snowball (and Snowball 2) when I hear about Tiny. I'm sure we'll be seeing Tiny 2 next year. I honestly don't know anything about how they got away with it beyond what I read in the paper at the time it happened. Bill had graduated by then, and actually I had too, so there were no rumors flying around school or anything for me to pick up. I was just so shocked it was someone I knew and I thought it was quite the amazing prank/crime due to Tiny being easily viewable by all that traffic passing right under her on 94, at all hours!

SFGAm (home park) Indiana Beach SFSTL Holiday World