TR: Great Weekend at The Great Escape 5/23-5/24

[froggypheebs]

I decided to get a Six Flags season pass for the first time this year. There are some relatively close SF parks that I have never been too so I thought it would be worth it. (Great Escape, SFNE, and SFA)

 

The only SF I have visited before is GAdv. I’m not a big of a fan of that park as it is way too unbalanced for me to fully enjoy. I decided on GE as my “home” park since this is a more “tame” park I can bring my mom here for free (on certain days) and she won’t be bored out of her mind. She enjoys parks for the more tame rides and shows. She’ll ride some spinners but nothing too crazy. I was eager to go to a SF park that is on the right track toward the “family-friendly” trend. I also was anxious to ride Comet to compare it to my beloved Phoenix.

 

We left PA around 8AM on Saturday and started out for an easy drive on I-84 and I-87. The season pass line was the longest wait the whole day. About 30 minutes.

 

I walked inside the gate and instantly loved this place. I looked at all the little houses in the front of the park. I liked the little schoolhouse and the general store. I also liked that some of them were fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, etc. I have to say that “Goosey, Goosey, Gander” had to be my favorite as every time we walked by the geese were quiet to me but when my friend walked by they squawked at him OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD every time. It was hilarious.

 

I loved the Swan Boat ride. Are there any other boat rides like this where you can fit like 10 people in a boat? We also did Thunder Alley, the car ride but our radio didn’t work, just static. The tulips along the ride were cute. We also did the Storytown train and sky ride, boomerang, and Alice in Wonderland walkthrough here. The Rabbit Season walkthrough wasn’t open yet for the season so I’ll have to come back to do this. That suspension bridge looked like a lot of fun. We sat for part of the pirate water show and it was really good, great actors and stunts, you could tell the audience was enjoying themselves. We also stopped at the petting zoo. I had read on the map they had this but forgot about it until it was right in front of me. It was a great surprise when I found it and we got to pet the alpacas, goats, sheep, and cows. The turtles were also awesome.

 

We went up to Ghost Town next and rode the Steamin’ Demon. Short, not all that memorable. Next was the Condor. The only other one I have ridden is Hershey’s and this one is definitely not as good as that one. They don’t even start spinning it until you’re already like 10 feet in the air. Still a fun ride but not as good or intense as it could be. We rode Canyon Blaster, a cute little mine train. The theming was pretty good. Definitely the best theming on a mine train I’ve ever seen. Log flue was next. Again with the theming! Best theming I have ever seen on a log flume. Yeah there were some old parts of rides that you could see behind the park, the old rainbow ride and some of the boats for the rapids ride but for the real theming of the ride there was the old west buildings on the right hand side of the ride and then the tunnel at the end of the ride was pretty awesome. Inside the tunnel were wax figures working in an old saw mill cutting logs and at the very end before the drop was a guy spinning around on a log above your head. When I looked at pictures I always saw the main sign for the park but I never realized that it was the log flume. That was a nice surprise.

 

After this it was over to the Fest Area of the park, we rode the Ferris wheel and saw the Alpine Bobsleds running. I was getting excited to ride it until we went to get in line and there were people coming out the entrance. It broke down right before we got in line.

And didn’t reopen all weekend. I was really excited to ride this. Oh well. So back to the Comet. Saved the best for last. I’ve heard this thing was temperamental. Well, I must have caught it on a good day because it was awesome! The thing was flying! Intense, fun, and just a great ride that is very rerideable. Also they had 2 trains running even though the line was pretty short. That was cool of them and the crew was pretty good. Not as good as Phoenix, but still had a lot of air and I left it with a smile on my face from ear to ear.

 

Too cold to go in the waterpark this weekend but it looked like a lot of fun it is was 10-15 degrees warmer.

 

Overall: extremely friendly employees, only one ride down (Alpine Bobsleds), great family atmosphere, hardly any lines, pretty decent operations. I loved this place and would go back in a heartbeat.