Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

[robbalvey]

For instance, just a few days ago, a woman with her two children got to the Viper station (after a 45-minute wait) only to find out that her youngest wasn't tall enough to ride. The op was very apologetic, and even arranged for the three to head to Whizzer to ride without waiting. This arrangement was made quietly near the station exit. I just happened to be standing within earshot.

 

Perhaps that happened as a result of what happened a week or two ago. Maybe the ride op was just being overly considerate - she certainly didn't have to do that by any means, and the mother didn't seem to be demanding anything. It was simply an act of kindness.

Who knows. But I can tell you this is the polar opposite of the horrible attitude and customer service we experienced.

[scott2608]

I have yet to hear any horror stories about Goliath restraints, anyone not able to ride due to size? For what it's worth, I'm able to ride everything else I've ever gotten on, but this will be my first RMC.

 

I'm 320 LBS and just fit after being pushed in a little. I can't fit on batman:TR and V2

[OrlandoGuy]

And this isn't really related to customer service, but since we had a group of three, I had to ride alone anyway. The teenage girl I ended up sitting with decided to pull out her cell phone on the lift hill and take a selfie. At first I was tempted to slap it out of her hands, but I chose not to since that would probably cause even more of a scene. On the brake run I was debating on whether or not I would tell an employee she had her phone out, but I decided not to. Looking back, I probably should have. I would have loved to see her escorted out of the park.

 

Wow, really dude? Did it never occur to you to just maybe, I dont know, politely ask her to put it away? I know its against the rules and she shouldnt have done it but at the end of the day she didnt have any intent to do any harm (unlike say line jumpers or people who smoke in line), and yet your first instinct was to rudely slap it out of her hand and break her phone? Or watch as she gets escorted out? Thats kinda sick man. Maybe Im overreacting but it seems to me a normal response wouldve just been to tell her to put it away, not get all malicious over it.

[Woodie Warrior]

And this isn't really related to customer service, but since we had a group of three, I had to ride alone anyway. The teenage girl I ended up sitting with decided to pull out her cell phone on the lift hill and take a selfie. At first I was tempted to slap it out of her hands, but I chose not to since that would probably cause even more of a scene. On the brake run I was debating on whether or not I would tell an employee she had her phone out, but I decided not to. Looking back, I probably should have. I would have loved to see her escorted out of the park.

 

Wow, really dude? Did it never occur to you to just maybe, I dont know, politely ask her to put it away? I know its against the rules and she shouldnt have done it but at the end of the day she didnt have any intent to do any harm (unlike say line jumpers or people who smoke in line), and yet your first instinct was to rudely slap it out of her hand and break her phone? Or watch as she gets escorted out? Thats kinda sick man. Maybe Im overreacting but it seems to me a normal response wouldve just been to tell her to put it away, not get all malicious over it.

I never got "malicious" over it. I didn't ever seriously consider slapping it out of her hands, because, I agree, it would've been unnecessary and rude. But have you never seen the signs up that say "If you have a loose article out on the ride you will be kicked out of the park". She had her phone in her hands the entire time, and even if she was holding it down in her lap, if it would've flown out it could've definitely hurt somebody. (Oh, and I did ask her to put it away and told her that it was against park rules. She didn't react at all, so she most likely didn't hear me.)

 

Anyway, back on topic.

 

Has anybody noticed any markings around the park? Maybe in Ragin' Cajuns spot?

[batmanfan80]

I noticed I forgot to mention that people I talked to in line last time had the same problem with their kids objectively measuring above the height restrictions and then being denied at different rides posting the same height requirements. Apparently some ride ops don't know how to measure correctly. My overall impression of their customer service acumen is that they do the minimum generally. I don't think most of the workers take any pride in how they do their jobs(which no one should think is an anomaly among similarly paid people working at other places around Chicago). If a company has a service-oriented culture, sometimes it's apparent. At most every Oberweis we go to, you can tell they've been trained to emphasize service. Some Chick Fil As are like that. Sometimes one of em will be great, and you go back a couple months later with a new staff and the service sucks.

 

The unique thing about Great America is that they are a default monopoly over here and the average customer is probably driving several hours and maybe spending a couple hundred bucks if they're bringing a family. I imagine there's a good amount of locals who are there all the time, but that might be 1/10th-1/15th of the total guests. SF should try to do a bang up job considering so many of their guests are sacrificing a good deal of time and money to attend. Instead it seems like they're more interested in running on the cheap and maximizing profit.

 

These single rider lines will mean a major improvement if used properly.

[prozach626]

With both the Viper height thing and this beer thing, without being there, it just sounds to me like the employees were basically just doing their job. Maybe they erred a bit on the side of being overly cautious, but they're probably trained to do that (because its better to annoy a customer than break the law). Now, again, I wasn't there, maybe this employee was on a power trip and wanted to screw somebody over for no reason. I kinda doubt it, though.

 

I deal with people for a living. There's really no nice way to put it. The employee was intentionally on a power trip. Trust me. You could tell she clearly got enjoyment from making my day worse. Believe it or not, these people exist.

 

 

The situation with the beer sounds pretty ridiculous, but having read prozach's attitude, in general, over several years in the SFSTL thread - it doesn't surprise me, and I'm certain that any amount of real fault on the employee's part was at least matched by the customer.

 

I'm not even going to act like what you said is out of line. That being said, I can tell you I was nothing but polite to this girl. I'm a bit of a smartass and that comes off wrong when you read it instead of meeting me in person. I'm 'the guy' who is always overly polite to servers. It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. I have enough confrontation at work, therefor I try to have as little of it as possible outside of my duties.

 

PS - I stopped being such a smartass on this site, since people misinterpret me.

[robbalvey]

Anyway, sorry for the long post - it, as it did others, just strikes me as odd that this park is suddenly getting a bad rep (at least here).

You obviously haven't been paying much attention to any of the Six Flags threads lately. There seems to be a decline in quality, especially when it comes to customer service at a lot of the parks recently, and I'd say it was really noticeable starting over the past couple of years. Not all the parks have fallen quite as bad, and some have certainly proven to be worse than others, but I think people have noticed it to some degree chain-wide.

 

Our height check incident was just one of many customer service issues we encountered during our visit at Six Flags Great America from unnecessarily long lines for food (We waited 27 minutes at one location with only 3 people in front of us), to being told by employees that spoke little English to "cut the line at another busy food location and request a new drink" (which resulted in more drama) when they didn't know how to change the mixture of their soda machine, incredibly long dispatches for rides by crews that just didn't seem to care, shop employees that seemed to know nothing about the items they were selling, etc, etc.

 

And just before our visit to Great America, I received an obnoxious letter from the president of the park regarding our visit, and I firmly believe the bad customer service comes "from the top." This was a park that 2 or 3 years ago was close to the top of my "best Six Flags parks" list, and today, it's near the bottom. They were still doing some things that were notable (the rhymes the ops were doing were cute, the GR woman who helped us with our height check issue was great, and some of the crews were doing a good job, but that was the exception not the norm.)

 

What's really telling is that some of the friendliest people we encountered at the park were the Flash Pass staff, and they aren't technically employees of Six Flags. It was pretty clear to see that the staff trained by Six Flags and those trained by an outside company seemed to have a completely different attitude and approach to customer service.

 

On the flip side, Great Adventure was AWESOME! We were greeted by several of the park management staff, everyone was friendly, ride crews were hustling, and the employees in general seemed happy to be at their position. Again, it comes from the top. It was clear that senior management of the park was spreading the good vibe from the park president to the front line employees.

 

Maybe it's time for a change in senior management at Great America? I would encourage Six Flags corporate to take a closer look at what is happening at that park (and I know they read our forums.)

 

--Robb

Edited August 11, 2014 by robbalvey

[adavis]

I have yet to hear any horror stories about Goliath restraints, anyone not able to ride due to size? For what it's worth, I'm able to ride everything else I've ever gotten on, but this will be my first RMC.

 

I'm 320 LBS and just fit after being pushed in a little. I can't fit on batman:TR and V2

 

Thanks, glad to hear that you could ride.

[GoBears]

Six Flags Great America will be releasing a teaser video every Monday and Thursday with two different paths to choose from in each video. This first video talks about the park hearing rumors that something may be happening to the Southwest Amphitheater or Aunt Martha's in 2015.

 

 

Rumors have been circling around the Southwest Amphitheater the last couple years that it'll be removed and replaced with a new attraction (or attractions). Could this be the southwest themed dark ride I've been wanting? Maybe not, especially since the investment this year will likely be lower with the additions of X-Flight and Goliath in recent years, but it's fun to think about until the next teaser comes out on Thursday.

 

What do you think it could be? It's probably not a Sky Screamer due to the fact that the park has not set up a hearing in the village yet to build over 124 feet for 2015. Could it be a new show coming to the SWA in 2015? A new flat ride of some sort? A dark ride? Or perhaps an updated menu at Aunt Martha's?

[CPSFMMCW]

hmmm I too am starting to doubt a skyscreamer. Mainly because of the teasing. The choose your path thing? Makes it sound like there will be some element of choice in their 2015 addition. Doesn't sound like a skyscreamer to me. And as previoulsy stated, they haven't filed any permits.

[prozach626]

incredibly long dispatches for rides by crews that just didn't seem to care

 

I agree with this ten fold. I've never seen ride operators look as lazy as they did the other day. It really aggravated me, but I tried not to act concerned since I was with a first timer to the park. I didn't want to ruin his time.

[GigaG]

Does Goliath run two trains regularly?

[GigaG]

At the park on a overcast day with rain... Lines are 30-90min on rides, even Viper and Whizzer. Even Demon has a 5-10min wait. Is this above or below average? And is this because of SF ops or just pure crowds?

[GoBears]

At the park on a overcast day with rain... Lines are 30-90min on rides, even Viper and Whizzer. Even Demon has a 5-10min wait. Is this above or below average? And is this because of SF ops or just pure crowds?

 

Below average for this season. Weekdays the last few years have gotten increasingly busy, even on forecasted rainy days.

[Ed Farmer]

I'm banking on some non-existent wait times this evening for my first time back here since late 2012. There's no way I could let a 65°F day in early August pass without making some sort of effort to finally swing in for a few laps on something. I heard through the grapevine that there's a new ride this year, so I look forward to being able to verify this for myself.

[GigaG]

I caught Goliath running one train... Don't the trains have issues?

[thenewzolt]

Does anyone know what's going on with Goliath? There saying it's not opening today. Also this is my first time here and I must say I've never seen crowds like this at a park..

[Hriscay]

Howdy Everybody,

 

I visited SFGAm last Tuesday for the very first time and I know it seems lately that everyone who has been there for their first time have been having bad experiences, so i wanted to share mine since i honestly had a really good one. I guess it is just Hit or Miss. First off, I did splurge for the Platinum Flash Pass and it was well worth it. What they don't tell you that I didn't realize is yes you do get to use it on Goliath but only twice. SO I did that first thing and was a little mad when i got off the second time and no longer saw it on my Q-bot. If I would have known I would have saved it for my very last ride of the day. That being said Goliath was a 3 hr wait all day long so waiting 20 minutes for 2 rides instead of 6 hours was still awesome. I understand this though; I mean if it was unlimited, I wouldn't have left. 10am-9pm only riding Goliath, that's worth an entire day’s worth of pay

 

SO let me just take a moment to say NTAG and IRAT are wonderful rides, NTAG edges IRAT due to the length IMO, but IRAT's barrel roll was my favorite inversion because of how effortlessly it feels. That being said, Holy Toledo GOLIATH IS AMAZING!!!! I mean I excepted it to be a good ride but come on, it’s amazing. I'm sure we all feel the same way about it so I don't need to break the ride down and talk about the individual part but I do want to talk about the zero-g stall. Who ever said "Hey, how about we just stop the inversion mid-way through for a second or 2," is an absolute genius. That is hands down the best element I have ever felt. I truly can't find the correct words to express the awesomeness of it. I'm so sorry guys but, IMO; it's better than Outlaw Run. Yes, nothing currently beats Outlaw's double roll at the end but all in all I like Goliath more. I've ridden both in the front and back and Goliath just wins for me. I got to agree with someone a page or 2 back. 10,000/10 is my rating.

 

Next I would like to review Raging Bull. Ok first off I am biased, Titan at SFOT has been my number 1 sine I rode it over 10 years ago as a young fella. I seem to compare all Hypers somehow to it which really isn't fair because something like Nitro is completely different then it. I was able to ride Nitro at Great Adventure, Intimidator at Carowinds, and Goliath at SFOG last year and honestly, I just didn't find them amazing. Where I still rank Titan as a 10, IMO, these 3 ranged between a 6-8.5, Nitro was the best but really just because of its beautiful location. I honestly felt like I was let down on them and worried that all B&M Hypers were like this. Boy was I wrong. I got to ride Raging Bull and Diamondback at KI this year and both are a respective 9.5 and 9. It restored my faith in these rides. Raging bull had everything I think a hyper should have. Great first drop followed by great airtime hills and good banked turn around, then a section of low flying turns. It had airtime, forces, speed and was just great. I am one of those that prefer something like this or titan as opposed to out and back rides like Diamondback or Nitro. This was a great ride and I have to give Six Flags a push up because that was the first time I have ever seen a 3 train operation at a Six Flags theme park. When I rode Nitro last year it was only 2 trains which really surprised me. Also they weren't even letting them stack, before the train even hit the MCBR the next one was out of the station. I have read the recent horror stories at this park but I was impressed with this, maybe its the norm but being used to SFOT, I have never in 20+ visits seen all 3 going on titan. Btw I did stick my feet out and almost got them crushed because I forgot all together about the Pre-drop, lol. 9.5/10

 

Ok, I'm at work currently so I will only in-dept review one more ride. X-Flight was my very first wing rider. I had some expectations but really did not think it would be as good as it was. It really surprised me. Its smooth, fluid, and fun. Yes, IMO, B&M seems to no longer be throwing force in their rides in exchange for fluidity. Case in point is Banshee and the exceptions would be the Pretzel loop for flying coasters. I rode both sides and can't really confirm which I liked more for the first drop. Both were great but I think the right side was better, maybe just because I rode that in the front row. The first time I even had to pull my hands down cause I thought they would hit during the Keyhole. All in all it was a really great ride and if that's what SFOT gets in the shopping center near Batman then I will be 100% contempt, though I'd still prefer a mega looper or Dive Coaster. 9/10

 

Everything else:

Superman: Honestly, these just don't do anything for me, thrilling for the GP but I just don't like them, I think I just don't like flying coaster in general. 6/10

V2: Fun ride, doesn't stall like the one at Dorney but whatever. Just what I thought it would be. 7/10

Batman: What can I say that hasn't been said? These are great rides; I just wish this wasn't my 8th clone. Cedar Fair puts a different inverted at their parks, why couldn't six flags? Nonetheless they are still very solid, fun rides. 7.5/10, It would be higher but once again this is my 8th clone.

The Dark Knight: Had no idea what was going on, Left, Right, Left, and Right. This thing whips you around. Fun Family stuff but I wouldn't care to re ride. 6/10

Whizzer: For an old ride it runs great. Seats were comfy and all in all pretty solid. 6/10

Viper: Well I honestly am giving this a higher rating than it should just because it Reminds me of The Texas Cyclone. That being said it was still a good ride. 8.5/10

Demon: Corkscrews hurt, restraints hurt, loops were fun though and it had a good staff running it. Mixed feelings on this arrow looper. 5.5/10

Screaming Eagle: Rode both sides, was very happy that they were racing. Good ride though don't get the helix half way through because there is no way one side would ever win the race unless it left way before the other. Still for being as old as it was it was decently smooth. 7.5/10

 

The platinum Pass was well worth it, the park got very busy and everything was between 40 min-3 hour wait so if I didn't get it there was no way I could have ridden everything. I guess I got pretty lucky because I really don't have any quarrel about the park. Let me leave you with a couple photos I took.

 

Thanks for reading, below is some of the pictures I took.

 

-Hriscay

X-Flight's Layout. Great Ride

TAKE THE HOLE!! Can this be a new saying?

Just about the most of Goliath I could get in one shot.

Going Up

Going Down!

Turn Us Around!

Lets go Upside-Down!!

Perfection, Enough said!

This is what Astroworld could have looked like. I know they were thinking about a Hyper.

Beautiful Sunset for a Wonderful day.

[Airtime&Gravity]

Does anyone know what's going on with Goliath? There saying it's not opening today. Also this is my first time here and I must say I've never seen crowds like this at a park..

 

Is there an event going on? I was planning on going to the park tomorrow, but if Goliath is down, I might not, especially if there are large crowds expected. Great America has been packed on all my visits this year, and with the decline in service, it can get very unpleasant to visit.

[appel]

Sounds like Goliath has problems with the orange train again. It seems that it may not open today.

 

http://sfgamworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14450&start=2875

[thenewzolt]

I don't think there's an event going on. But it is packed. I visit great adventure often and never seen crowds like this there. I'm not sure about Goliath but they are making announcements over the pa that it will not open today.

[willthegolfer]

Im at the park now. Very busy, 40 mins for viper and 1 hour for AE, which is only running blue, Goliath closed. At least viper and ae ran pretty well.

[Ed Farmer]

I swung by briefly yesterday to finally redeem a season pass and hopefully see what Goliath is all about. I shot myself in the foot a bit by assuming the park was still operating late, so as we made our way past the gates at around 7, they were informing people that Goliath's line was closed for the day. Oh well. We ended up getting 2 laps on the always-excellent Batman before continuing down the path to get a closer look at Goliath. It looks great- I wasn't overwhelmed with the enormity of the structure, but that's probably because seemingly every captioned photo I've come across online made it a point to emphasize that pictures don't do it justice. I look forward to coming back later in the month when more kidlets are back in school and the weather is cooler.

We decided to swing by X-Flight since it was on the way to Raging Bull, and the line was dwindling. I've taken >5 laps on this, and those were all in 2012. It was fun, just as I remember, but nothing thrilling. The legendary rattle that I keep reading about continues to elude me. I think Wing Coasters provide a very similar experience to Dive Machines, sans the vertical drop.

It was about 5 minutes until close by the time we were through with X-Flight, so rather than sprint to Raging Bull and risk being assigned to a row other than row 9 due to the "limited number of trains being sent out" thing, I strolled to Demon for a great ride in the last row. Until I finally get to sample the new RMC roaming in Iron Wolf's old lot, the first drop on Demon in the last row remains the second best place in the park to get ejector after row 9 on Raging Bull's first drop. I really hope this ride stays put for a while yet.

[adavis]

Dang. Just got into town and was hoping to get on Goliath. I don't suppose anyone knows if Goliath might open tomorrow?

[GigaG]

A guard in front said it may reopen today and probably will tomorrow, and my friend said he saw it testing.