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Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread


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How are crowds during Sundays at SFGAm?

 

My home park is Kings Island and Sundays are significantly less crowded, curious if this park was similar.

 

I plan on going Sunday Oct 18th

 

Thanks

I went on Sunday 10/4 and crowds were surprisingly light. Worst wait was about 40 minutes for Goliath in the early afternoon, and towards the end of the day things gradually approached walk-on territory.

 

I don't keep track, but over the past few years it feels like the park has gradually pruned squares from the operating calendar prior to and after the peak-season, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover the park is open until 10 on Sundays in Fright Fest.

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How are crowds during Sundays at SFGAm?

 

My home park is Kings Island and Sundays are significantly less crowded, curious if this park was similar.

 

I plan on going Sunday Oct 18th

 

Thanks

 

Well, last sunday (10/12) was the most busy day of the year so far, but it was Columbus day weekend so that could have been the reason. Whether or not next Sunday is busy depends mainly on the weather.

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Six Flags Great America-(10/16) TR

 

Theme Park Engineering and Design (TPED) at Purdue was invited to Six Flags Great America for a behind-the-scenes tour of the park. After the tour, they provided 2 free ERT rides on Goliath! TPED were free to go to the park when it opened at five thanks to the complimentary tickets they provided us. First, I would like to thank the administration for pulling the strings to allow us to come to the park for free as well as take us on the tour. This was actually my first time to the park, so I have some ride reviews ahead! Overall, the actually public experience was okay even with some frustrations about park operations, certain food pricing, etc. While our group had a rough start to the night with these things, it progressively got better! We opted to not get Flash pass, so we were only able to get one lap on every coaster except for Spacely's Sprokets.

 

Goliath: The best part of our tour was being allowed to ride Goliath twice! I chose the backseat both times since many had said it was the best seat. During our tour, there was lots of hype built up for this ride, and I had also read mixed reviews online. There are quite a few things to be said about this ride Yes, the ride should be longer, but at the same time, the pace gets killed rapidly. There's a good amount of airtime, but the two inversions are the highlights of Goliath. Overall it lands in my top 10 woodie list. Even for being "the bottom" RMC, it still is better than a large percentage of other rides!

 

Raging Bull: What a surprise! So many reviews for it have been negative saying there's no airtime, but I certainly felt some. That first drop in the back seat was crazy! There's a lot of little pops of air all over the ride. I honestly thought this ride was really great, and definitely a surprise!

 

Whizzer: Solid Schwarzkopf that Great America has preserved well over the years. This was actually a highly-anticipated ride and it did not disappoint! It gave a great night ride and had some good tree headchopper moments. Whizzer still runs butter-smooth after all of these years!

 

X-Flight: This was number 3 of the 4 American wing coasters. Another solid coaster by B&M! I really liked the inversions featured and I think the slow inline roll was fantastic! It probably is tied with Gatekeeper for me, although Thunderbird is still much better.

 

American Eagle: What I found weird is that a lot of the coaster is pretty rough, but I still liked it. The helix was best-described to me as an "earthquake simulator" and that couldn't have been more true. There were some good airtime hills mixed in as well.

 

Viper: Another surprise for me! Lots of laterals and great airtime mixed in here. Easily the best part was the double-down. I came into this ride not expecting much and was shocked! There's a lot to love about it.

 

Batman the Ride: I have ridden some other clones before, but it felt nice to ride the original. Can't say much else about it though other then me loving its intensity.

 

Superman UF: One of the few coasters were it fufilled it's expectation. This was my first Superman clone, but I knew I would be disappointed. Besides the pretzel loop, no other elements stand out.For some reason, the ops decided to pull off a train after the park being open for a solid 15 minutes. A painfully slow line became even slower. The first of a few gripes in our trip.

 

V2: Having ridden Wicked Twister, V2 just does not stack up. Intamin impulses are a unique experience in themselves, so I still enjoyed it.

 

Demon: Well, it's better than Corkscrew at CP, but not by much. The tunnel was honestly the best part of the ride.

 

Dark Knight: This was actually our last ride/credit of the night. It was also my first Dark Knight clone. Nothing to write home about and many effects were not working, so pretty well got nothing out of this ride.

 

Little Dipper: our group did a TPED takeover on it. Fun little wooden coaster but mainly just rode if for the credit.

 

Giant Drop: Another fantastic Intamin Drop tower. I actually prefer this model to the gyro drop at KI/KD.

 

Terror Twister: Pure INSANITY. Who knew Teacups in the dark with strobe-lights would turn out to be one of the most intense experiences ever. I just could not stop laughing the entire time!

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More backstage-y-ness

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History and more history

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Love me some Batman

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Great-looking entrance.

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It was pretty neat seeing the coasters cycle. Plus it helped me in getting my bearings straight

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This was one of the few backstage parts of the tour. It's the largest warehouse on the property.

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The majority of the backstage tour was actually being inside the park a few hours before it opened.

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Raging Bull was certainly a highlight of the trip!

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Goliath certainly has a large presence in the park

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One more because I love the look of its lift hill.

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The only nighttime picture I took. Seriously, the first drop in the back is amazing. Once again, I'd like to thank Six Flags Management for allowing us to tour the park and visit for free. It was a fun day for TPED!

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X-Flight is such a photogenic coaster.

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Loved this angle of Goliath

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The zero-G stall is probably my favorite element on the ride...

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Meh.

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TPED was allowed to park in the Employee lot for the tour. Pretty nice view from here ;)

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koaster, I'm glad you had fun at my home park. You did well being able to ride every coaster without a flashpass on a short hours night.

 

I'm a newbie here, but I didn't know Goliath was considered "the bottom" RMC. I think it packs a great ride into a small space, which you have to take into account. It's as long as anything that has occupied that spot, and way better. I'm surprised you didn't mention the drop. 180ft is sweet

 

I completely agree about Bull, and even though the eagle is rough, I don't know anyone who doens't like it.

 

Thanks for the pics of Goliath from the back side BTW. You don't see it well from the park.

 

P.S. Does anyone know why Jack isn't in front of the Fountain? I'm going this weekend and always look forward to seeing him.

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I'm a newbie here, but I didn't know Goliath was considered "the bottom" RMC. I think it packs a great ride into a small space, which you have to take into account. It's as long as anything that has occupied that spot, and way better. I'm surprised you didn't mention the drop. 180ft is sweet

 

 

I've only been on three RMCs, and I rank them as follows: Texas Giant, Twisted Colossus, and Goliath. That being said, Goliath is still an excellent ride (and the best one at Great America). It does pack a lot of punch in a small space.

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koaster, I'm glad you had fun at my home park. You did well being able to ride every coaster without a flashpass on a short hours night.

 

I'm a newbie here, but I didn't know Goliath was considered "the bottom" RMC. I think it packs a great ride into a small space, which you have to take into account. It's as long as anything that has occupied that spot, and way better. I'm surprised you didn't mention the drop. 180ft is sweet

 

I completely agree about Bull, and even though the eagle is rough, I don't know anyone who doens't like it.

 

Thanks for the pics of Goliath from the back side BTW. You don't see it well from the park.

Thanks for reading! Goliath is a great coaster in itself. However, I also rode Wicked Cyclone and Outlaw Run this year, and Goliath simply does not have that level of intensity the other two do. That's not to say it is a bad coaster, because it is definitely not! Just a bit underwhelming compared to the other two RMC's. However, the fact that we had mini-ERT certainly helped make the experience even better!

Thanks for the trip review, great pics!

Thank you!

Love the pics!

Thanks, me too! A lot of the angles of Goliath I got were from the backstage tour since it is not very visible elsewhere. Being able to walk under Goliath's zero-g stall was pretty neat!

I've only been on three RMCs, and I rank them as follows: Texas Giant, Twisted Colossus, and Goliath. That being said, Goliath is still an excellent ride (and the best one at Great America). It does pack a lot of punch in a small space.

Yup, between Whizzer, Raging Bull, and Goliath, I found them to all be fantastic. The park's overall coaster collection was surprisingly really good!

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Anyone think this weekend will be crazy busy? The last time I went in October was the Sunday before Columbus Day and NEVER AGAIN. Rides were 3 hrs or more. Tomorrow it's open until midnight. But wondering if it would be less crowded on Sunday. I don't want to be tempted to get a flash pass.....

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Anyone think this weekend will be crazy busy? The last time I went in October was the Sunday before Columbus Day and NEVER AGAIN. Rides were 3 hrs or more. Tomorrow it's open until midnight. But wondering if it would be less crowded on Sunday. I don't want to be tempted to get a flash pass.....

Sunday is supposed to be sunny and in the mid 60's... I'd venture to say that there will be a healthy amount of people at the park... Not sure if it'll approach what it was back on Columbus Day since there is school on Monday however... Saturday might be manageable for the first half of the day since they're talking AM rain showers...

 

I have a friend driving in from Iowa to process his season pass on Sunday, so I'll be there regardless.... Hoping to get in early and just do what we can with the day... Not expecting many rides after 2pm or so...

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Anyone think this weekend will be crazy busy? The last time I went in October was the Sunday before Columbus Day and NEVER AGAIN. Rides were 3 hrs or more. Tomorrow it's open until midnight. But wondering if it would be less crowded on Sunday. I don't want to be tempted to get a flash pass.....

Sunday is supposed to be sunny and in the mid 60's... I'd venture to say that there will be a healthy amount of people at the park... Not sure if it'll approach what it was back on Columbus Day since there is school on Monday however...

On top of the good weather, the Bears and Packers both aren't playing this Sunday. I get the feeling that the typically more tolerable crowds on Sundays (as opposed to Saturdays) are at least partially due to people watching the Bears or Packers play. That's a bummer for anyone planning on this coming Sunday that both happen to have their bye weeks.

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Anyone think this weekend will be crazy busy? The last time I went in October was the Sunday before Columbus Day and NEVER AGAIN. Rides were 3 hrs or more. Tomorrow it's open until midnight. But wondering if it would be less crowded on Sunday. I don't want to be tempted to get a flash pass.....

Sunday is supposed to be sunny and in the mid 60's... I'd venture to say that there will be a healthy amount of people at the park... Not sure if it'll approach what it was back on Columbus Day since there is school on Monday however...

On top of the good weather, the Bears and Packers both aren't playing this Sunday. I get the feeling that the typically more tolerable crowds on Sundays (as opposed to Saturdays) are at least partially due to people watching the Bears or Packers play. That's a bummer for anyone planning on this coming Sunday that both happen to have their bye weeks.

Good call on the NFL angle... That is a factor that will add a few people as well... Didn't think about that...

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Was there last weekend. Good to see Condor back up and running. Lines for the flats were pretty normal, although Triple Play's was way out of the structure. Just ended up watching the shows along with Condor, East River, and the Balloons. I can't justify waiting in these lines anymore. Every coaster had a completely full or overflowing queue. Without extreme amounts of flash passers those are all at least 60 min waits. But the FP line was overflowing too. So I'm sure the shortest coaster wait was probably Demon at 90 minutes. Coulda been longer. Pretzelman was probably close to 3 hours. I could just about fly to Orlando and ride the much better Manta in that time span. Great America cannot handle crowds this size. Food lines were awful once you got past 6 pm. People were pouring in constantly when we left around 9 something. To both the regular car lines and the pick up/drop off spots. The whole back lot was full. Why people are so willing to get in these lines is beyond me. Makes me wonder if their power is out or something. You'd think with lines like these that we had a lineup of Millennium Force, Montu, Tatsu, El Toro, Kingda Ka, and every other majorly hyped coaster out there.

 

One Yelp review talked about the misleading advertising for Goliath. It would not surprise me if 90% of the people at Great America really thought it was the "tallest, fastest, steepest" coaster in existence. Unfortunately, it is also one of the shortest too. Something like 29 seconds of ride time after reaching the top of the lift. If X-Flight had been hyped like this, it would have had a similar effect.

 

I made another trip to Busch Gardens last month. This time Montu seemed to knock the life out of me on one try before lunch. Still an awesome ride. They've somehow managed to import half of Brazil here, so lines were a lot longer than last year at the same time. Montu and Kumba ended up being like 25 min waits with one train running. It doesn't feel like they dispatch trains any faster at BG. Liked Kumba a lot more this time. The second time I rode it I was able to avoid the ear touching by bracing a certain way. it was a lot easier than avoiding whiplash on Demon. First time I rode Kumba I didn't care for it at all, so it's always good for people to give coasters another try unless they really beat you up like Mean Streak or Magnum. Great America really needs a good 7 looper or at least a B&M floorless type coaster with a dive loop and cobra roll. Everything at our park is so short aside from Raging Trimbrake/Eagle/Viper. I just find it difficult to get a real satisfying ride experience off of individual coasters here. Great America only seems to really work for me if I can ride most everything in a reasonable time frame. Unfortunately it looks like June, the first two weeks of July, and the last week of Fright Fest are the only times that is gonna happen. Maybe sometimes in May if they have their act together. Looks like the first two weeks of Fright Fest were good this year after being horribly bad last year.

 

If last year is any indication, the final weekend should be good. But last year we lucked out with almost every coaster breaking down, people leaving the lines, and then it re-opening about 10-15 min later. Maybe I'm off base here, but I think these theme parks should do everything to give a great guest experience every time. That means Great America should not try to flood itself with 50,000 people every chance they get while selling tons of flash passes and running substandard operations and BG should run two trains at least considering people travel hundreds or thousands of miles to go there. Come to think of it, people often drive hundreds of miles to our park as well. BG should fix their cruddy lockers too, the time spent messing with those cost me a ride on something. Great America at least has the locker thing down better. But nothing beats Universal's working and free lockers.

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I haven't ridden it yet myself, but Goliath seems to rate lower than the rest of the RMCs just based on length. There isn't a bad RMC yet in the world, but the rest just have more texture and length. Judging from the povs, Goliath seems like a Wicked Cyclone-like ride because it doesn't let up, it's pure intensity.

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I may have been overwhelmed by the dread of that line, but I didn't see the go Mets sign.

 

Trip report:

 

It was packed. We pulled in by noon, front lot was full (except for season pass lot) and the back lot was filling fast. I only ended up riding Goliath and Demon. Some wait times I saw:

 

Goliath 120min

demon 60

Viper 75

superman 120 (they said the single rider line was the same)

Bull 120

 

I kept telling my friends this wasn't going to be a good time to go. We needed to get our 2016 passes by nov 1 to get the gold package we got on a deal. It was just sooo crowded. Lines for every ride, food, everything were really long. This park needs to be twice the size. Days like this are no fun and my group was disheartened as soon as we walked in. We rode Goliath, then Demon. My group didn't want to do spinning rides, so we didn't even ride any flats. We left at 4 and people were still pouring in. I have no idea where all those people were parking, the lot must have been full by then. It was a beautiful fall day though, perfect.

 

So from what I'm reading, next weekend might be ok? Is it possible Sat or Sun might not be that bad?

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Food service at the park was a joke today.... Took over an hour to get a slice of pizza at the stand in the corner by Dark Knight... Lines had the same amount of people at every other stand we saw... Not sure about the wait times at other stands... Normally I'd just go to a fast food joint outside the park for lunch, but decided stay in given how many people were at the park... The parking lot was probably 80% full when we tried to eat around 2pm.... Never again

 

Guess this sums up a typical Halloween experience at a park this weekend I guess... Sucks that this was the only day my buddy could process his pass for 2016... Knew it was gonna be a bitch, but went anyway....

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I know there are tons of cities with no 'big' parks (at all), but I've always wondered what it would look like if there were another Great America-sized park on either the west or south side of Chicagoland? It certainly seems like the interest (from the public, in going to an amusement park) is there.....I guess, at this point, it'd have to be Cedar Fair who'd have to be interested in a Chicago area park...right? And, yes, I know it's unheard of for a major chain to build from the ground up (as of late), but the crazy attendance at this park (and it's inability to truly do a major expansion) makes me wonder.

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