Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

^You missed good weather on Saturday.

Emily and I went to the park from about 12:30-7 yesterday, with her sister and my brother-in-law. We had a great time. I don't know if the park got their shit together for Last Call Fall Festival, or if it was just so terrible last year, because we went on a rainy day where the park closed after a half day.

A credit book of 15 credits was about $32 after tax. The first thing we got was the Chicago Dog, which was actually the biggest damned hot dog I've ever seen. It was good, but I'm sure it was pretty generic. We also tried the fried cheese curds and Mac and cheese bites. Both were good, not great. I had two craft beers, both of which made me realize that I don't even remotely care for craft beer, anymore. Good thing JB's had me covered with a $15 Coors Light to close out the day. Not heavy. Not bitter.

All of the food was pretty 'OK,' but that's exactly what we expected. I think the dogs were really generic and everything else was frozen and deep fried. I still like the event, because it gives the park an excuse to stay open and guests have a reason to come. Mixing it up with something different made it a good time. I've never gone to any other park food festival events, so I just hope that not all of them have lackluster items. I'm not bashing on the park when I say that.

I have a couple of really bad menu pictures which show the offerings in the two stations within Yukon Territory and the Southwest Territory. It was basically 1 credit per beer sample, 4 credits for a beer, 3 credits for smaller food items, and four credits for larger items. We walked by a instrumental blue-grass'ish band playing in the Yukon Territory, but I didn't see any other shows. It's not our thing, so I didn't pay attention. That said, I didn't see the show we passed by last year, which had about five kids dressed as manly lumberjacks running around with plastic axes singing, "You're a man, you're a man, you're a man!" Over and over again. It made me want to punch myself in the face, but the real reason it's probably gone is because the lyrics will melt snowflakes, and global warming is already a problem.

The fall only makes a Six Flags park look more Six Flags. The leaves blend in perfectly with the faded paint. But, if we can appreciate Six Flags St. Louis for what it offers, then we can definitely appreciate Six Flags Great America. Goliath and Raging Bull still provide a couple of the best first drops in the industry, from the back row. Every one of the coasters in Great America's line-up are solid and they've got another one on the way.

We didn't intend on riding the Hell out of everything. Before our trip was over, we rode Goliath twice, V2 once, Joker once, X-Flight once, and Raging Bull once. Wait times were decent. Our second ride on Goliath gave us the longest wait, at about 40 minutes near the end of the day. Our first wait was around 20 minutes. V2 was a one train wait. Joker was about 10-15, same as Raging Bull, which was only running two trains, but the ops were hustling. X-Flight was 1-15.

V2 - Station wait. It was the first time for my in-laws to ride a RMC, Wing Coaster, Free Spin, and Intamin Impulse. They've come to really like going to parks after we took them to KI's Haunt last year and KI in the summer.

Waiting isn't our thing, so we did a ton of talking and hanging out. That, and the festival kept us busy with food and beer (bleh) sampling. It got pretty cold, so around seven we left to get Lou Malnati's, the 2nd reason we took the five hour drive north.

I only took a few pictures and later I snapped two terrible pictures of the food and beer menu items:

Me being me.

There were enough vulgar comments about the size of the hot dogs made to keep a teenage boy entertained.

It was really a beautiful day. Also, I'll take Raging Bull back to STL with me any day of the week if the bitchers don't want it.

Goliath looks great.

Just like old times.

Good luck reading those.

If I had my wish, I would have liked to take a lap on American Eagle, Whizzer, and another lap on Raging Bull. Oh well. We were going to go back to Great America for its first ever HITP and some exploring in Chicago, but we really actually want to stay home for more than a couple weeks at a time. It's been a great year of park traveling, but it's all becoming a bit routine and a little redundant after a long season. The four of us are going to visit to our home park, SFSTL, for HITP in mid December. After that, Emily and I are calling it quits on coaster-going until Coaster Campout at CP, in May. See you next year, SFGam!

Nice report! I’ve still never tried any of the special food items during Last Call.

Also, be glad you guys went yesterday. If you went today you would have basically experienced a repeat of your trip last year (Park closed at 4)

You're right about that. We missed the crappy weather by one day. We had steady rain almost the whole way home. I'm thankful for our timing.

Looks like a great event. I love when beer is front and centre. I'm hoping to get back to SFGAm next year, and I'd like to try Raging Bull again. I didn't like it last time, but I've been thinking, especially after loving Nitro, that I may just have been feeling queasy at the time and if I go into it in better shape, I may like it more. The new coaster is the first time I've been interested in this park since 2014, so it'll provide a good excuse.

Last Call wasn't nearly as "dead" as I was hoping line wise and we didn't ride that much as a result. Alternately, the park was decently staffed. Carnival games, arcades, most of the food booths: they were all open. No question that I prefer Cedar Fair's festival setups over Six Flags. They were really slow in selling tickets (I waited almost 30 minutes to buy my one passport) and that's probably because it represented a loss of income vs. having you pay $13 for a Miller Lite elsewhere.

Also someone on Goliath wound up with a bird hitting them coming down the first drop and there were feathers all around us in the back of the train. That was wild. Oh: Demon ran. Not sure what everyone was talking about beforehand.

I'm hoping to get back to SFGAm next year, and I'd like to try Raging Bull again.

Raging Bull is strictly a back seat or a front seat ride, with the back seat winning out 5-1. Sitting anywhere else takes a lot away from the ride. Otherwise, there's just the right amount of strong airtime as you go roaring into the tunnel. The rest of the ride is decent and you just have to appreciate it for what it is, knowing you're going to get floater air in small doses. Although, the drop after the MCBR provides a decent amount of air. The low to the ground elements and helices near the end are pretty fun. I think you'll like it.

I've been strongly considering hitting this event and it sounds like I missed the prime weekend for it. After hitting KI and CP the last 2 weekends I didn't want to make it 3 in a row heading out of town to visit a park. Glad everyone who made it seems to have had a good time. Maybe if the forecast temperatures for next weekend trend upwards I'll make it to the park, otherwise it may just have to wait until next year.

I think I know the answer to this, but I thought I had read someone say differently in the past. I bought a season pass from Great America during the flash sale, assuming it to be the most likely SF park I'd get to next. That now turns out not to be the case as an opportunity came up last minute after purchasing and I'll be in Baltimore after New Year's until May. Is there any way of processing the pass at Six Flags America, or having the pass be somehow valid without processing at the park it is purchased at?

The reason I ask is I thought I recalled someone going to HR at a SF park at which their pass was not purchased and getting it processed after all.

Thanks all!

We had the same dilemma last year. We purchased season passes at SFSTL, but it turned out we were going to take a trip to SFGam prior to getting our passes processed. We emailed guest services and they sent us something in our email. When we got to the park, we went to the guest services booth and showed them the email. They printed out one day passes for us to use. We were informed that this was good for one time only.

^Thanks, I’ll try that.

Great report Zach!

Looks like tomorrow's conditions will provide some nice practice for those fast-approaching December hypothermia bliss rides.

Looks like tomorrow's conditions will provide some nice practice for those fast-approaching December hypothermia bliss rides.

Yea, we were planning on hitting the park. Needless to say, those plans no longer exist.

^ That was a very wise choice. I heard from somebody on SFGAmWorld that BTR and The Dark Knight Coaster are the only coasters open today. Looking at the app it looks like most of thrill rides are closed as well.

The only rides that ended up opening were Columbia Carousel, Rue Le Dodge, TDK, Whirligig, Winner's Circle, and Justice League.

Yeesh. Looks like SFSL had rides closed too.

Yeah, that’s pretty alarming. Great Adventure and New England have run every single coaster in their HITP lineup in colder weather (32 degrees, sunny and not windy). Unless they just chose to do that because the park was empty and they didn’t care (which is likely since it’s Six Flags) then it doesn’t bode well for Holiday in the Park. Was there ice overnight or something (that wouldn't have melted if it never got above 32)?

Management was probably using the weather as an excuse to save labor.

According to Marcus LeShock, there was a lot of ice.

I'm at the park today and a lot more things are open. Raging Bull, Batman, Joker, V2, Demon, Dare Devil Dive, Lobster, Chubasco, Mardi Gras Hangover, and a few others opened today after being closed yesterday.

They probably didn't run the rides because the attendance these couple weeks is very low. You save on labor and you potentially cut down on maintenance costs if cold weather makes you replace things more often. Plus I watched a maintenance worker stand at the American Thunder control panel at SFSL for an hour or more (the ride was estopping because the trains were coming in late and the computer's timer was flagging it) during- I'm guessing they don't want to spare workers for something like that in cold weather until the event starts.

Peppermint Swirl is the cutest teacups name ever.

Fixed that for you.

Terror Twister II is the best teacups name ever.

Peppermint Swirl is the cutest teacups name ever.

 

Fixed that for you.

Terror Twister II is the best teacups name ever.

The lights, music and fog.makes it the best teacups ride ever period.

So true. I can’t wait to see what the park does for Peppermint Swirl.

Peppermint Swirl is the cutest teacups name ever.

 

Fixed that for you.

Terror Twister II is the best teacups name ever.

Just Googled that, and that is amazing. Love it.

I've only ever been to SFGAm in the summer, and also one visit in the winter in 7 degree weather for Goliath construction tour. From what it looks like, though, they're doing a good job with their special events in the fall/winter.

Holiday in the Park guide is up

https://static.sixflags.com/website/files/sfgm_hip-guide.pdf