Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

[dankeykang]

Spoke too soon - the reopening date has disappeared   Will be interesting to see how many parks have to backtrack on their proposed opening dates this year...

[Canobie Coaster]

I have to think any park that was allowed to open in 2020 shouldn't have any issue.  With the vaccines and warmer weather sending people outdoors, the cases and (more importantly) hospitalizations should keep decreasing.

The big question mark are the parks that couldn't open in 2020.  Six Flags New England hasn't even offered an opening date yet.

[prozach626]

It's another example of Illinois being Illinois. If I didn't have any obligations in this state I'd do whatever I could to leave.

[ilrider]

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

[SharkTums]

Obviously things can change but this is a step in the right direction for them actually opening up!

[Coasters & Lamps]

 I'm divided when it comes to COVID.

 If a state is going to have restrictions, at least do it right. Illinois is allowing water parks because the chemicals in the water have been found to kill COVID. Okay, so is the vapor rising off the water going to kill ALL the virions by an infected host before they have a chance to land the dude he sneezes on, who is sitting right next to him? Of course not!

 It has already been proven that COVID doesn't spread nearly as efficiently outside as it does inside, especially in warmer, moist air. So I still can't see why the water park was allowed to open while the dry park wasn't, especially in the middle of summer. Either close them both or open them both. I don't know how people can rationally pick and choose one and not the other. 

 With all that being said, I am all for taking precautions to prevent the spread, especially after loosing my grandfather to COVID last November. 

 Half of my family are of the IFB persuasion, and therefore they believed every right wing narrative that comes along without question. Most thought COVID was the sniffles, and at least one still thought it was a hoax as late as last summer. 

 When I went back to the family farm to see my father and grandfather last June, my cousin and her husband were also visiting my grandfather right after they had just got back from frolicking on Florida's beaches. No precautions taken. Once I mentioned something about COVID, my cousin's husband simply said "you can't live in fear". My aunt arrived later that visit, and all she could do was take pot shots at the governor and complain about how it was a violation of her rights to be forced to wear a mask anywhere. 

 I received word at the end of that month that they had all packed into my grandfather's tiny home for his birthday. This is 2 conservative aunts with 10 children between them. And each of these 10 children have children of their own. Add to this a few of their church friends and there were easily 30-40 people crammed into 720 sq. ft. of space. No masks, no social distancing. I knew that one of them would eventually catch COVID and give it to him. 

 Well, fast-forward to early November and I received a message from my father that my grandfather had been hospitalized and on a ventilator after testing positive with COVID. My father, who lives next door to him, had to rush him in on Halloween In addition to the COVID pneumonia, the virus also attacked his kidneys, and fluid built up around his heart. He was in peak physical health before this and still active out on the farm, so his heart was strong enough to withstand the pressure of the fluid, and his vitals remained stable for over a week despite his constant laboring for breath and the damage the virus kept doing.

 Finally, he started to become less responsive and weaker after a week. On the 12th of November, when it was apparent that the damage was too extensive for him to even make a satisfactory recovery, and the ventilator was on the cusp of causing complications of its own, his 5 children held a zoom meeting and decided to pull the ventilator. He passed away that afternoon...after 13 days of laboring for each breath. 

 While I knew he he would eventually get it, I surely never thought he'd die from it due to his perfect health. Prior to this, he had not spent a single night in the hospital since his appendix burst sometime in the 1960's. He fought off occasional bouts of FLU with no problems and as recently as 2 years ago. This is  man who broke his finger a few years back and discovered that his wrist was broken and healed some time ago and he didn't remember when it could have been. I did work with a boxer's fracture and that bad bad enough. He was a hard worker, I don't know how he managed to continue his farm chores with a broken wrist and have it set back up while not being aware the entire time. 

 He had been widowed since 2014, so it became routine for his 5 children to check up on him. His 2 daughters were warned all summer long by the rest of us, but they wouldn't listen in time. And since he seldom left the farm after giving up driving a decade ago, we know damn well that it was one of the said family members who were playing with fire. 

 My blood is still boiling over this. Not only did their ignorant behavior result in the death of my grandfather, but they also put my father & step-mother at risk as well. Luckily, my father didn't get it. Attribute that to mask-wearing or luck. 

 I flew on a plane to visit some friends in South Dakota last August and quarantined for 2 weeks before coming back to the farm in September. I was also planning on visiting Indiana Beach as soon as I got back from South Dakota, but those plans fell through and I had my first year without a roller coaster since 2014. I'm still hoping to get there this year, especially with the new Scwarzkoph they're getting, but I still plan to wear a mask and social distance wherever possible, and I may still quarantine before coming around older people. I doubt I'll make it much elsewhere next year. It is my fervent hope that the vaccine effects will continue to exceed  expectations and COVID will be a non-issue, but with the new variants, who knows. 

 There's no easy answers to it. I have an uncle who works at Caterpillar with a couple of co-workers and some of their family members who died form it. There's no easy answers. I just know I want the virus gone. 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

^ Thank you for this story. It's not easy to share something this personal. Hopefully people will see that their actions have consequences.

[prozach626]

So about Six Flags Great America...

Hopefully they're not stuck with one train ops and half full trains like SFSTL was all season. It wasn't worth visiting.

[ilrider]

On 2/28/2021 at 6:49 AM, prozach626 said:

So about Six Flags Great America...

Hopefully they're not stuck with one train ops and half full trains like SFSTL was all season. It wasn't worth visiting.

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.

[YoshiFan]

If they follow what other parks did, at the minimum, the B&M coasters should be loading every row. Maybe Maxx Force too since the seatbacks are so tall.

I guess the absolute worst case scenario would be every other row on all coasters except X Flight and Superman unless the state decides to be strict and require skipping rows on all the coasters.

[prozach626]

^No. SFSTL had the "absolute worst" example. American Thunder (GCI) ran one train ops and loaded it half empty. When the cycle finished, they would soak it in cheap smelling sanitizer and let it run empty for a cycle to dry off, which only partially worked.

[DoinItForTheFame]

Why the heck hasn’t the park released day tickets yet?!?! When you go to “buy now” it’s just memberships and season passes. No day tickets.

[anonymouscactus]

You can get a season pass with parking for $60 good at all SF parks for an entire season

A one day ticket would have to be $35 to even break even in one visit due to $25 parking, unless you plan on visiting with someone else who has parking covered, or have kids that don't need parking, etc. I'm guessing one day tickets would be $39 at their lowest but I don't know for sure.

+Online fees either way.

So at the very least you should still get 1 pass for yourself to come out ahead.

No plans to visit a second SF park all season which would guarantee a cheaper rate for anyone and everyone? I'm sure single day tickets will be released soon. You can't even make reservations yet. I'm sure once reservations open up the mostly full season schedule will be up and they will sell tickets.

[JT325]

On 3/2/2021 at 2:10 PM, prozach626 said:

^No. SFSTL had the "absolute worst" example. American Thunder (GCI) ran one train ops and loaded it half empty. When the cycle finished, they would soak it in cheap smelling sanitizer and let it run empty for a cycle to dry off, which only partially worked.

That reminds me of the time I was riding Mr. Freeze during and ERT and the park was trying to "impress" someone present, obviously, as they were drenching those nasty headrests with Fabuloso.  I rode once and didn't go back, I thought my eyes were turning purple from the smell.  Cheap aggressive smells (gain, windex, air freshener, AXE stuff) more than anything add a big dose of air pollution.  But it's gotta smell clean....

[jconsolmagno]

On 2/28/2021 at 7:49 AM, prozach626 said:

So about Six Flags Great America...

Hopefully they're not stuck with one train ops and half full trains like SFSTL was all season. It wasn't worth visiting.

I went to SFSTL - Evil Kinevil, The Boss, Mr. Freeze were doing 2 trains in August. Can't remember on Batman... Screechin Eagle definitely was not.

[prozach626]

Did you go on a weekend, or a week day?

I think we went shortly after they reopened, then again for Winterfest. Both days were fail.

American Thunder was one train ops:

They ran one train, every other row. The train would be unloaded and drenched with the (seemingly) cheapest worst smelling sanitizer in existence. They would cycle the train empty to dry it. Then, they would load every other row, again. 

We walked by the entrance attendant carrying a bag. We waited about 30 minutes for those operations. When we went to get on the train we were told we couldn't leave our bags on the platform. We're not used to carrying bags. We should have known better, but it also would have been great for the entrance attendant, maybe the easiest job in the park, stop us.

Everything else we saw was one train, every other row, with an unmotivated sanitizing session in between. The park was depressing, it was hot, and we left.

#karenstrong

[Danrarbc]

Every single time I went to SFStL last year I saw everything except Eagle and Freeze running two trains. Freeze did a lot, but I also think they had issues with one of the trains a couple times. I never saw Thunder with one train. You must have been super unlucky. And cleaning was only done once an hour pretty quickly after the park opened last year - sanitizing after every passenger load didn't last long at all. Did you also get unlucky visiting each ride at the top of the hour?

This year everything was 2 trains on the Wednesday I visited in March. And according to a trip report from yesterday it looks like the park is installing dividers to be able to open every row.

[DoinItForTheFame]

So you can't buy tickets past the 4th of July for the park yet... However the hours show the park open past the 4th... Weird. Any ideas why?

[Nrthwnd]

^ Could be a timing error, on their part. Or .....  "Somebody's not watching what's being posted," etc.

[mulfdog]

We're heading to Great America (our home park) on May 8th.  Apparently there is a Taste of Six Flags event scheduled to begin that day.  Bonus?  This is what is posted on their website:

Taste of Six Flags Food Festival

May 8-9; 15-16; 22-23

Rides, Tastes, and Brews!

Spring is in the air and the thrills are back in action! All that screaming on the roller coasters is going to work up an appetite. The new Taste of Six Flags Food Festival will bring the best bites from around the Six Flags family of parks right to you in Hometown Square. With treats for all ages, this is an event you won’t want to miss!

The Taste of Six Flags Food Festival will occur the following operating weekends in May:

Saturday, May 8 & Sunday, May 9

Saturday, May 15 & Sunday, May 16

Saturday, May 22 & Sunday, May 23

Scheduled event hours of operation are Saturdays 12pm – 8pm and Sundays 12pm – 7pm.  

To experience the Taste of Six Flags Food Festival, you will need a reservation and valid form of admission to the theme park – just like any other day you plan to make a visit. This can be with your Six Flags Membership, Season Pass, or one-day admission ticket. 

Once inside the park, the specialty food and beverage items will require an additional fee. Punch cards featuring 12 credits will be available for purchase at Sidetrack Soda for $29.99. All-Season Dining Pass Holders receive 3 bonus credits with a punch card purchase!

Punch card credits can only be used to purchase items at Taste of Six Flags booths and cannot be redeemed at locations outside of the Taste of Six Flags special event. 

 

Anyone have more details?  Menus?  We enjoyed our first food and wine festival at Busch Gardens and loved every minute of it.  I know this will be a much more mellow affair.  I'm really curious about what they mean by the "best bites from around the Six Flags family of parks".  Are there Six Flags parks that are known for their food?

[tndank]

1 hour ago, mulfdog said:

Are there Six Flags parks that are known for their food?

Will probably be a Six Flags version of what you saw at Busch.  Probably not as nice but sounds like it could be worth checking for sure.

 

[mulfdog]

Oh I am going in with very low expectations.  At $2 a punch it can't be that good.

We have a gift card coming to us for the months we paid for the membership but couldn't use it.  Considering we weren't likely to buy anything in the park anyway this seems like a good use of sunken cash.  I was able to find a food fest that Darien Lake held in 2019 (I think).  

https://www.sixflags.com/darienlake/newsroom/all-american-food-fest

The pricing structure looks similar so I wouldn't expect the event to be all that different.  Here was the food lineup for that event.

Specialty Craft Food Items:
• Pulled Pork Mac N Cheese Twister Fries/Sandwich/Nachos
• Gourmet Tater Tots
• Red, White & Blue Funnel Cake/Churros
• Roasted Corn on the Cob – Siracha & Beer Butter/Bacon & Basil
• Chicken & Waffle Sandwich
• Turkey Burger Sliders
• Buffalo Chicken Pizza
• Mango Soft Serve
• Sparkling Ice Cream Sandwich
• Confetti Cotton Candy

There isn't anything there that is a standout but I'll give it a whirl since we were already planning on being in the park that day.

[prozach626]

So the overly COVID cautious park remained closed in 2020, but it opens its doors in 2021 by serving food during the pandemic... 

[mulfdog]

I think it's a bit more complicated than that.  I do believe that the park management wanted to open the park last year but weren't able to because they didn't get approval from the state.  The positivity rates, daily cases, and deaths are now significantly lower than they were last summer.  In addition about 25% of the state is fully vaccinated at this point.  Dining is open throughout the state.  I don't see a reason SFGAm shouldn't open (with  limited capacity) and be able to serve food at outdoor kiosks.

[tndank]

11 hours ago, mulfdog said:

 The positivity rates, daily cases, and deaths are now significantly lower than they were last summer. 

Sure about that?  IL has had more cases daily the last few weeks than they did from May to Sept last year. In no way saying they shouldn't open, just pointing out they probably could have opened last year without issue....like so many other states/parks.