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Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread


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TDK's pre-show area already is madness when there's a line. They let a group of people into the area, then they often open the door to let a bunch more in, and since the rest of us have to back up to let them in, those people who entered late invariably end up in line in front of us when we exit the room to head toward the ride single file. It's ridiculous.

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I went to the park today, and I'm not sure what to think. On one hand, it's early in the season, so the unfinished feel should go away soon. On the other hand, the park seems to have taken a few steps back.

 

From today:

 

Operations seemed to be between slightly below normal at best to bad. I know it's cold, raining, and early in the season, but that is no reason to limit operations, especially when the park is filled with middle to high school kids for a band/choir competition. The lines were small until around noon, and then the lines suddenly got pretty long, especially for this early in the season. American Eagle's queue was maybe 30mins max, Raging Bull, and Superman had long queues, and Whizzer's queue area was almost full.

 

I hate the placement of the go-karts. The whole area is really open, and aesthetically looks really bad. The park couldn't even use the same fence around the ride. The whole area looks thrown together without much care. I used to like the area as it was relatively quiet and relaxing. Little Dipper fit in well, and it was just a nice area of the park. Now, it is probably the worst area by far in the park. Also, does it really take 12 people to operate the go-karts? I know it just rained, but, from what I could tell, only 3 or four people were drying the track.

 

Many of the employees seemed to lack any enthusiasm. I know it's early in the season, your cold, and it's raining, but take some pride in your job. However, American Eagle and Raging Bull had great ride crews. They were working quickly and had a lot of enthusiasm and energy.

 

The new water park is looking great. The location is really eye catching from the parking lot, and it looks a lot better in it's location than I thought. The slides also look a lot larger than I originally thought with the "looping slide" looking terrifying. The loop on then is very small, and it should be great. I'm not a big water park person, but I really want to try the new offerings out now even more than I previously did.

 

As usual, prices continue to rise, but nothing outrageous. There are still many of the franchises in the park, even Johnny Rockets. The new pizza is also good. It's no Lou Malnati's, but it's a lot better than what was there before.

 

There is now a season parking pass entrance at the south entrance to the park.

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After looking at that and having worked with sign shops before my best guess is a rehab or new sign. One clue is the fact that the support for the top part is still there. Had this been SF 5 or 6 years ago I would be worried. That is just my guess... On a side note. There is a total of 7 other "signs" on the side post. That to me is what looks bad... very cluttered... sad but hey if Red & Yellow M&Ms keep the parks open I will take it!

 

Ryan

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I was at the park yesterday.....very low capacity and almost no waits for any of the rides...yay for me!!!

 

The new Riptide Bay looks fun, but it's right smack dab in the parking lot and there's not much "themeing" yet....hopefully there will be some "greenery" and/or "theming" added because right now it's 'pretty bare' as far as that goes. The Funnel Tube Flume had water running for testing yesterday, and there were all sorts of workers finishing up the concrete work. And 'Heavens To Betsy" the new tube ride features an 'automatic tube lift', so you you don't have to carry one up the stairs...about time!!!!

 

Tons of discarded concrete on the "Great America Speedway/Barney Oldfield Speedway/SplashWater Falls area".......the cars are still there....but there's no way that that amount of concrete ejecta couldn't've damaged the track for future use.....I am expecting that the new coaster will be built here. PLEASE......Not another Low Capacity Coaster.....Green Lantern at SFMM looks fun, but we need something that will provide rides for more than 500 guests per hour....we've got enough of those.

 

Rode everything ( almost literally) except for "Iron Wolf"....the ironic thing is that fifteen years ago, I would've waited 90 min for the ride when it was new, but now, even though it's a 'walk-on', I have a hard time justifiying how bad my head will hurt with actually riding it. I am "Not One" for coaster removals, but if this one were to 'go' I would not mind. I love B&M's but this one has 'NOT' aged gracefully. I'll ride it this year to say I did,but ...I am in no hurry to do so.....what a shame.

 

And the "re-imagined" go-karts....I feel bad for anybody riding this when it actually gets hot out....wow, what a bad idea....and it looks terrible as well......Concrete, concrete, concrete........uggggh.........I'd rather have screaming kids back in this spot than pavement and Absolutely NO SHADE!!!!!!!!!! Not a good visual....not at all

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After my visit today, I take back what I said about the staff after my last visit. The staff was back to being what is to be expected at SFGAM with energetic staff and great operations, despite the weather. I'd even go as far to say as the staff was better than usual, with amazing operations on Viper and Raging Bull. The people working these rides were working very fast and helped the light crowds move quickly. Even at Dark Knight, what would appear to be a long line for a mouse (the line was to the area right after the turn in the queue after the control room after the pre-show room) moved very fast. Great job, and hopefully the staff keeps up the good work.

 

Outside the rides, the staff was also great with all of the smiling, saying "Have a Six Flags Day", etc., and it just shows how the staff can make or break a park. After seeming dirtier than usual on my first visit, the park was once again back to being very clean.

 

One downside is that they have gone back to playing "I like to Move It" every hour, but if it helps keep the park clean, then I don't have a problem with it.

 

 

While I'm still not a fan of the go-karts placement, the area looks 1000x better now that some grass has been planted. It still looks bad with two different fence colors, and hopefully some trees are planted in the future to fill the area in.

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Rode everything ( almost literally) except for "Iron Wolf"....the ironic thing is that fifteen years ago, I would've waited 90 min for the ride when it was new, but now, even though it's a 'walk-on', I have a hard time justifiying how bad my head will hurt with actually riding it. I am "Not One" for coaster removals, but if this one were to 'go' I would not mind. I love B&M's but this one has 'NOT' aged gracefully.

 

It's the restraints more than the tracking that's the problem. They changed them.

 

We could of all had a reride a week ago, and not one person on the train took them up on their offer and exited. I normally will always take one reride, but not on that. I agree it' time for it to go, sadly, unless they can replace the restraints with something better.

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Rode everything ( almost literally) except for "Iron Wolf"....the ironic thing is that fifteen years ago, I would've waited 90 min for the ride when it was new, but now, even though it's a 'walk-on', I have a hard time justifiying how bad my head will hurt with actually riding it. I am "Not One" for coaster removals, but if this one were to 'go' I would not mind. I love B&M's but this one has 'NOT' aged gracefully.

 

It's the restraints more than the tracking that's the problem. They changed them.

 

We could have all had a reride a week ago, and not one person on the train took them up on their offer and exited. I normally will always take one reride, but not on that. I agree it' time for it to go, sadly, unless they can replace the restraints with something better.

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Restraints huh? Sure it has nothing to do with the giant gap between the track and the wheels?

 

I really don't see this giant gap. If anything, it's barely a millimeter. It probably is shaky from being the first B&M Coaster ever, and especially with it being a stand up, you shouldn't go expecting a butter smooth ride. I love this ride, shaky or not, and it delivers some amazing rides in the back.

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Zoomed in a bit. I really think it's the trains that makes this ride so rough, but of course it's only based on the pictures i've seen of that gap. I mean it's not a huge gap by any means, but I think the ride would be whole lot smoother if the wheels were actually touching the track. The trains were fabricated by Giovanola which may contribute to that roughness too. I have no idea how the track has held up over the years. Either way I wouldn't be sad if Iron Wolf got scrapped for something else.

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Love the lost articles display with all of the broken cell phones!

 

When we were at KD last week, some guy lost his phone on I-305 and was going off like he expected they were going to close the ride down while someone went inside the fence to retrieve it. One of the ride-op's gave him a form to fill out and he was going up and down the exit cursing and just going off.

 

Even funnier was that before he even realized he lost his phone, he struggled to get the OTSR up, knocked his hat off doing that and then just about tripped getting out of the train...and he didn't even seem like he was drunk - FAIL!

 

Funny you should mention that as one time last year they had a staff member walking out to the infield with a rake & bag in hand to collect a rather huge pile of cellphones that had been dropped from the ride.

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^^Whatever the reason, the ride's so bad the operator actually said over the mic as we loaded, "The ride has gotten rough because it's 20 years old, so hold on to all loose articles." I wanted to call him out on that 20 year excuse. We've got coasters over 30 that are smoother, like Whizzer.

 

But yes, the restraints are different, and I contribute a lot of the pain to banging into them because they're right beside your head. I've been riding Wolf since it opened, and the banging wasn't there for several years. Maybe it's a combination of factors including trains, wheels, restraints.

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