Trip Report: Six Flags Great America 7/12/14

[Invertalon]

We finally after years of talking about going, we made it to Great America. We planned on it two years ago when X-Flight opened, but then Gatekeeper came along… Now with Goliath opening, we are glad we had waited. The park was also throwing an “enthusiast day”, which includes a walk back for first ride on Goliath for the day followed by ERT on Raging Bull and Viper, a walk-back tour and lunch. Unfortunately, on Friday we got notice that the event was practically cancelled… Great… But they still would do the walk back to Goliath for first ride and we would get (2) exit passes instead (for any ride but Goliath…) along with the lunch and behind the scenes tour. A bit of a bummer, but what can you do? I would estimate around 30-40 people showed up, which was more than I expected given they cancelled it. At the Dollywood event weeks ago, I think there was less people and they still did all the ERT that morning and night… On Wild Eagle, there was maybe two or three people on a train… So I think Six Flags opting out of ERT was a bit lame.

 

Anyway…

 

The drive is only around six hours, which was not bad at all. Stayed overnight about twenty minutes away from the park and arrived around 9:30am. Nobody had a clue where to go/stand, and half the employees had no clue of anything going on. Eventually someone came and got us and we went back to Goliath. We walked on the backseat for my first ever RMC ride…

 

Goliath was quite a stunning ride. Amazing airtime on the first drop, pops of air into the turnaround and the camelback that follows. The twisted dive loop was neat, but the star of the ride was the zero-g-stall. Such a wild element! After that point, the ride is practically done and overall the ride feels short. Everyone comments on how incredible the ride is, but many also note how short it is (not just the enthusiast crowd). Overall, the ride is amazing… But it did not blow me away to the point it instantly became a #1 ride for me. Maybe a ride later on in the day would change that? If I had to give a 0 to 10 rating, it would get 8/10.

 

Getting off Goliath (we only were allowed a single ride), we were given our two exit passes and it was time to enjoy the park. We somewhat lucked out, as the forecast looked really terrible for today. High chance of storms all day, radar looked like a mess, etc… But we lucked out somehow and it only drizzled at times and never really stormed until right at closing time… This kept crowds very low for a Saturday… So much so, we never even used our exit passes (a good problem to have!).

 

After Goliath, we went right to X-Flight… I simply love these rides, with Gatekeeper and Wild Eagle both favorites of mine. But X-Flight is probably the best of the three which I did not expect. We waited a single train for front seat, left side. The first drop I liked better than Gatekeeper, as similar as they are. There is more hangtime on the vest as the train kind of rolls slower during the flip than on Gatekeeper. The roll and immelman that follow are both great, and I love the low turn along the water up to the second zero-g-roll. However, the next element is what really blows me away on this ride… That long inline twist thru the air traffic tower and those supports! If you have ridden Banshee, the rolls feel somewhat similar, but throw in some insane headchoppers. I seriously thought my head was coming off, probably the most effective headchopper on any ride I have been on! The final helix is quite intense and the ride finishes strong. Absolutely loved it! Got right back in “line” and grabbed another walk-on, this time in the back seat of the opposite side. Overall, the left side is better but the right has an even more incredible visual through the last inline twist. Rating would be 9/10 (yes, I think I preferred this over Goliath).

 

Following X-Flight, we headed to Raging Bull which was yet to open… So we detoured to Viper. Much like Georgia Cyclone at SFoG, this ride was fantastic. Smooth, some great air moments and laterals with a very good layout. We walked right on this as well. Overall, 7/10

 

Demon was next which was a standard arrow looper. Enjoyed the rave tunnel, but that was about it. 2/10

 

American Eagle was one of the longest waits of the day, about 10-15 minutes. They only had one side running at this point, but the ride was pretty fun. Had some crazy weird vibrations going on, but the layout was decent. Enjoyed the huge long helix in the turnaround. 5/10.

 

Raging Bull was testing as we got off, so we went right back to wait it out. After about ten minutes, it opened. Walked right on the backseat for one of the first trains of the day. Having been on all the other B&M speed coasters in the US aside from Intimidator at Carowinds, I was really excited. I enjoy these B&M’s quite a bit, and Raging Bull has been on my want-to-ride list for a long long time. Was glad to finally be on it!

 

As expected, the first drop was amazing. Probably one of the best anywhere with serious ejector air. The turnaround was fun and the trim on the following hill was sadly on heavily (as expected). Still got some decent floater down the hill, which led into the two turn elements. These were OK, taken at a slower pace due to the evil trim prior. Next was the MCBR which delivered some more intense air in the backseat, followed by another great pop over the camelback. The ending sequence after was great fun, with another moment or two of air mixed in with some fun turns in the figure-8. One of the best endings on a B&M hyper, I think. Compared to the others I have ridden, it is in the top two or three next to Leviathan, Nitro and Behemoth.

 

Following the back seat ride, we ran around and waited three trains for the front. While still a great ride, this is most definitely a back seat ride… Our other three laps throughout the day were all in the back. In total, rode five times including a night ride which was really amazing. 9/10.

 

Next up was the original Batman… I am not exactly a fan of the BTR clones, even though I am an invert fanatic. The endless positive G’s are just not my cup of tea. They are also my lowest ranked among all the B&M inverts I have ridden. This was our longest wait for the day, around 25mins. The ride was exactly as expected, nothing special. 5/10

 

Afterward, we went and grabbed the camera and took a lap around the park. Left afterward for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (our favorite place we frequent often in Orlando… Excited to see they had locations in Chicago) and once we made it back the park, spent a little more time getting photos and joined the group for the walk-back tour of Goliath and some of the maintenance facilities. Enjoyed the double-decker carousel at the front of the park and the space needle as well.

 

Placed the gear back into the car and had the last three hours of the night just to enjoy the rides. Found out Goliath was doing the single-rider line, so we took advantage of that. Waited about 10 minutes and was assigned to the backseat again. Again, extremely fun ride. It appeared it had “warmed up” a bit, and had even more air and intensity. Such a fun ride all around, but I don’t think it surpassed Bull or X-Flight for me overall. We tried to ride it again, but they had then “shut down” the single rider line, which was really stupid to me. The line was still probably 45mins standard line, but they claimed it was too short to keep the single rider line open… OK, yeah… That makes perfect sense.

 

Enjoyed a few more rides on Raging Bull and X-Flight and made it over to Whizzer finally… Unfortunately, it rained as we were next to get on and they closed it down. I guess the track has to be dry for operation. Being 8:30pm or so, they said they hope to reopen but it may not depending on the rain. I really wanted to ride this, so we hoped for the best. Thankfully after riding a few more things we saw it running again. Got back to the ride and waited one train for front seat. This ride was a BLAST. I can’t believe they had planned on taking it out! Such a gem of a ride. It was pitch black outside, so going through the dense wooded areas was a lot of fun. After our ride, went right back for another ride in the back this time. A solid 7/10 from me, and I believe also was my #200 “credit”. I could probably have far more under my coaster belt, but I tend to avoid pointless rides at any park such as boomerangs, SLC’s, kiddy rides, etc… Far from a credit whore. So it is a fairly good achievement for me!

 

By this time, it was around 9:20ish or so and lightning was starting to happen more frequently in the area. We got over to X-Flight by around 9:30 and planned on riding it once or twice and heading to Goliath to end the night. Walked on X-Flight and enjoyed back-to-back re-rides without getting off, and the crew kept insisting we stay to ride over and over again (one perk I miss with Six Flags parks…). With it starting to rain pretty heavily and lightning getting even worse in the area, we figured it was best to just stick it out on X-Flight and not risk waiting for Goliath for it only to be shut down by the time we got on. We ended up with 5 rides in a row and at 10pm it shut down due to the storm. The crew was fantastic though and really made for a great end of the night. We couldn’t believe the crazy weather had held out all day long though until exactly at closing time, talk about perfect.

 

Overall, we ended up with 2x Goliath, 10x X-Flight, 5x Raging Bull, 2x Whizzer, 2x Viper and single rides on Demon, American Eagle and Batman. We skipped V2 and Superman (I have ridden Superman at GL enough to be honest and don’t care for it, and Superman at other parks as well… So not exactly high priority for us). We had a blast at the park aside from the relatively poor excuse of a coaster event with terrible organization. But otherwise, the weather made for an epic day and one of my favorite parks now. The park has a very solid lineup of rides and was very clean and beautiful. So happy I finally made it to this park!

 

Now for some photos.... There is plenty more at my Flickr page as well: Click!

 

 

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[Angle O. Descent]

Great report!

I'm going there July 29-30. I'm stoked!

[rcjp]

Great pictures, as usual.

I simply love these rides, with Gatekeeper and Wild Eagle both favorites of mine. But X-Flight is probably the best of the three which I did not expect.

Interesting, you're not the first person who prefers X-Flight and while I've only been on GK (so maybe that's why I find it odd) I think it's a bit weird that X-Flight is better as, from the POVs, GK appears to have an overall better pacing compared to this one that seems to crawl through the inversions. What was it exactly that made you prefer this one?

[Invertalon]

Here is my breakdown of the three wingcoasters:

 

Gatekeeper was my first one and became one of my favorite rides (mainly after the ride picked up speed halfway through last season when they got the wheels sorted out or whatever). Earlier this year, we went to Dollywood and I was able to ride Wild Eagle many times during ERT and such... During the day, I found Gatekeeper quite a bit better. Wild Eagle is fairly short and is missing one more signature element or something to really make it stand out. The location and theme is stunning, but I think the drop on Gatekeeper is better along with the other elements. At night though on that pitch black mountain, Wild Eagle was incredible. Not sure if it edged out GK but it was far more impressive at night.

 

X-Flight was actually the one I was least excited about riding for whatever reason. I just thought GK and Wild Eagle looked better in terms of layout, but I was wrong when it came to the actual ride experience. First, the drop is probably the best out of the three. While it is really similar to Gatekeeper, it goes the maneuver slower and you get more hangtime (especially in the front) and just hang out on the harness significantly more I think. The zero-g-roll is comparable to the first keyhole on GK, but on the right side you get these really fun lateral g's that make it feel a bit more "quirky". The immelman on GK is better compared to X-Flight, I think due to size. I really love the turn over the water up into that second zero-g-roll, breaking up the constant up-down-up-down motions of GK. Following the roll, the turn into the signature moment on X-Flight... That beautiful drawn out inline twist. Much like Banshee, I did not expect much going into it... But wow. The interaction with the little air traffic tower building and that epic headchopper support just finish the ride out super strong... Gatekeeper has a terrible ending, which is the single reason I think X-Flight wins in my books. You are practically on your harness out of your seat the entire element and the head-chopper effects are probably the best I have ever experienced (especially on the right side). Pacing wise, they both feel similar regardless of size. I never thought XF felt slow or had weird pacing compared to GK, I think all three wingcoasters actually feel very similar.

 

Both are very solid rides, but X-Flight just finishes stronger and the ride experience just feels more "complete" with less up-down-up-down-up-down motions and is a bit more dynamic with the turns, inline, etc... Gatekeeper hits that MCBR and is followed by the worst part of the ride, so it just fizzles out. I also like the interaction with the queue line, "props" and the water/grass with multiple low points throughout he ride on XF. While Gatekeeper has a great location as well with the main gate and stuff, your always so high up in the air that you don't really "interact" with anything else but the keyhole elements (which are awesome, don't get me wrong!).

[rcjp]

^Ok, thanks. I haven't had the chance to try any wing coaster other than GK (an Furius Baco, but that's intamin's) so I was curious.

[Geauga Dog]

Excellent TR and fantastic photos! So glad you had a good time and that the weather held out for you. That happened to me several years ago when a storm was approaching Gurnee around closing and I was queued for Raging Bull. Lightning was piercing the sky in the distance as we were climbing the lift. It was scary yet thrilling at the same time.

 

Glad to keep reading how great Goliath is. I hope to get up there sometime this year.

 

After Goliath, we went right to X-Flight… I simply love these rides, with Gatekeeper and Wild Eagle both favorites of mine. But X-Flight is probably the best of the three which I did not expect.

 

I, personally, like X-Flight better than Gatekeeper. I find the smaller wing coasters look and ride better than the bigger models (have yet to ride Wild Eagle). I, too, preferred the front left side for the roll over at the top and the hang time before the first drop. I agree about the keyhole on XF - it looks like a much tighter fit going through the air traffic control tower, if that makes sense, over the larger ones on GK. I also find XF as more photogenic since the queue goes under pretty much the entire ride.

 

Following X-Flight, we headed to Raging Bull which was yet to open… So we detoured to Viper. Much like Georgia Cyclone at SFoG, this ride was fantastic. Smooth, some great air moments and laterals with a very good layout. We walked right on this as well. Overall, 7/10

 

Viper is excellent, one of my top ten favorites. When I was there in 2012 the trains squealed around the turns and was very sluggish on first of my two days there. Amazing how the very next day it was running great like it always has.

 

Raging Bull was testing as we got off, so we went right back to wait it out. After about ten minutes, it opened. Walked right on the backseat for one of the first trains of the day. Having been on all the other B&M speed coasters in the US aside from Intimidator at Carowinds, I was really excited. I enjoy these B&M’s quite a bit, and Raging Bull has been on my want-to-ride list for a long long time. Was glad to finally be on it!

 

As expected, the first drop was amazing. Probably one of the best anywhere with serious ejector air. The turnaround was fun and the trim on the following hill was sadly on heavily (as expected). Still got some decent floater down the hill, which led into the two turn elements. These were OK, taken at a slower pace due to the evil trim prior. Next was the MCBR which delivered some more intense air in the backseat, followed by another great pop over the camelback. The ending sequence after was great fun, with another moment or two of air mixed in with some fun turns in the figure-8. One of the best endings on a B&M hyper, I think. Compared to the others I have ridden, it is in the top two or three next to Leviathan, Nitro and Behemoth.

 

So glad that you liked Raging Bull as it is one of the least liked coasters due to that obnoxious trim brake. I absolutely love it for all the reasons you stated. It is definitely a back seat ride. I've tried the front before but that trim brake feels much stronger in the front than it does in the back. I also agree with night rides - they can be amazing. I usually marathon Bull for the last hour or two before closing though next time I might try X Flight to see how it is at night as I think Gatekeeper is better at night.

 

Enjoyed a few more rides on Raging Bull and X-Flight and made it over to Whizzer finally… Unfortunately, it rained as we were next to get on and they closed it down. I guess the track has to be dry for operation. Being 8:30pm or so, they said they hope to reopen but it may not depending on the rain. I really wanted to ride this, so we hoped for the best. Thankfully after riding a few more things we saw it running again. Got back to the ride and waited one train for front seat. This ride was a BLAST. I can’t believe they had planned on taking it out! Such a gem of a ride.

 

Whizzer is a gem and being the last of its kind in the U.S. it makes it that much more unique. I can't imagine SFGAm without it. Would be nice if Gerstlauer could bring this style of ride back since they were able to build new trains for Hershey's Sooperdooperlooper.

 

I take it you didn't get to ride the Giant Drop. If anything the view of Raging Bull from the top is spectacular.

[Invertalon]

Nah, we skipped the drop tower. I am sure the views would have been excellent though! I tend to prefer smaller drop towers over the larger ones (for example, I think the waldameer one is far more exciting than the 400ft one at SFMM)... Although the views are incredible up that high.

 

At night, I think visually GK would probably win in that regard over the main gate and the overall setting... But it would be close. Wild Eagle is probably the best of them all at night... Going up the lift with the spectacular view of the sky with all the stars and such, plus going through the trees and darkness during the ride. There is too much light pollution at the other two parks to get a sky like that!

[coasterbill]

Nice to see some love for the Wingrider coasters. Personally I love them, though I'm yet to ride X Flight.

 

Great report and photos.

[jimmiemac02]

I would estimate around 30-40 people showed up, which was more than I expected given they cancelled it. At the Dollywood event weeks ago, I think there was less people and they still did all the ERT that morning and night… On Wild Eagle, there was maybe two or three people on a train… So I think Six Flags opting out of ERT was a bit lame.

 

That stinks...I guess this is just another reason why Dollywood is one of my favorite parks in the world. Thanks for a great TR and really nice photos!

[Ryan P.]

Wow amazing pictures!! This gets me excited because SFGAm will be my new home park. Cant wait and great report!

[Invertalon]

The Dollywood event did have more than just a few people, but still... Less than what was at this event. I think most people just left before night ERT on Wild Eagle and Mystery Mine... But I am surprised just how few people did stay. It was cool though riding Wild Eagle with only 2-3 people on the train in the darkness on that clear, cool night... Was one of those magical experiences given the lack of screaming, location, ride, etc... Always a good time.

 

But the reason for Six Flags cancelling ERT was a bit stupid. I really just think they were so unorganized that they just said screw it. Everything else was a mess with it, so I am not surprised. Lunch and tour times changed mid-day and people did not know about it. We were supposed to meet somewhere at a specific time for the backstage tour and I got a call from a friend early that they were already on the tour, that the time had changed. He had to talk with the supervisor leading the tour and they had us wait by Goliath to join the second half of it. I mean, really? I am glad they let us finish the tour, but the time changing was idiotic. I wouldn't be so bothered if everyone didn't have to pay for this "event". Season pass holders had to pay $40 I believe for this, which is crazy. It would not be a big deal if it was free, but for a paid event...

 

Appreciate the compliments on the photos everyone. I was a bit sad the weather was so crappy all day for the pictures, but not the short wait times on everything!

[_koppen]

Simply awesome photo report!

 

I always thought X-Flight looked like the strongest of the winged coasters.