Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

^ I wouldn't get your hopes up. I've been to SFGam at least ten times within the past several years and crowds are kind of strange there. Whenever I first get there I can ride several rides with almost no wait. Then, usually by noon, the place just gets packed without even noticing. I've never experienced any near station wait days at this park.

JB's is really good, in Southwest Territory. That's generally our go-to place in most Six Flags parks.

Video update

Thanks for sharing. I'm happy to see 4 cars per train rather than 3 like in the animation. That extra car can really make a difference in capacity.

I thought I was going to be watching some nerdy vlog. Or even worse, a podcast. Nice video. Thanks for sharing.

^ Goliath sure, but Raging Bull is not a coaster you ropedrop. Its capacity and throughput is amazing and generally won't get a longer line than 45 minutes.

 

Rope drop Superman, it's guaranteed to break down at least a couple times that day and the line doesn't have very much shade and will be long. It's a GP magnet.

In what world is "generally not longer than 45 minutes" a good thing? 45 minutes is a very, very long line IMO. I gameplan to avoid those types of waits LOL.

Put this in perspective. We throw around 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, etc. from the safety of our computers without thinking about them. I like to think of length of wait compared to the length of ride. I generally am not thrilled about waiting for longer than the length of the ride itself if it can be avoided. That's I think what parks should be shooting for. When its a two minute ride, and you're waiting 45 minutes, you're talking about waiting 22.5x the ride itself. By that point, my mind has been turned into jelly, and its hard for me to actually enjoy the ride that is over in a blink of an eye. If I'm paying to go to a park, I kind of like to ride rides again and again, and not wait in line personally.

With that mentality you should either hate this hobby entirely or spend your entire existence riding Disneyland's Pirates or the Carousel of Progress.

I was gonna say... so you’re ok with waiting 4 hours for Pirates, which is a 15 minute ride?

This logic could also be applied to say that Mean Streak would be worth a longer wait than Steel Vengeance.

I was gonna say... so you’re ok with waiting 4 hours for Pirates, which is a 15 minute ride?

I would not be OK with riding that. I've ridden it too many times to count when its a walk-on. I would not be OK with waiting a long time to ride Mean Streak unless I needed the credit. At Cedar Point, I try to buy to the FL+ to get my production on Steel Vengeance. Any more negativity or trying to poke holes in my logic guys?

I guess I'm just a little surprised at how people don't try to factor in ratio of wait time to ride length.

I would venture to guess that 99.9% of people decide how long they're willing to wait for something based on how much they enjoy it.

Your mentality does not seem to jive with theme parks because the vast majority rides are incredibly short compared to their average wait times, even with a skip-the-line pass.

Sounds exhausting, but if it's his thing then whatever.

Most parks not named Cedar Point you can stroll into a park on a random Wed and walk right on most major rides. In all my park travels Cedar point is the only park that gets consistent crazy long wait times.

I've never had that experience on a summer day at SFGam or most other parks, including my home park SFStl. The only time I can really remember that happening was at SFFT when it was 100 degrees, over ten years ago.

Most parks not named Cedar Point you can stroll into a park on a random Wed and walk right on most major rides. In all my park travels Cedar point is the only park that gets consistent crazy long wait times.

Maybe you get a break for the 1st hour or so of operations, but most parks need some outside factor to be in your favor (weather or random, dumb luck).

It can happen, yes, but I wouldn't bet the farm on this in general. At SFGAm, I wouldn't put more than $20 on that bet. If you are coming to this park, you will most likely have lines.... No way around it.

Oddly enough, my one visit to SFGAm was last summer on an overcast Friday in July. The weather forecasted significant storms, but it wound up just being a combined total of maybe 30-60 min of light rain scattered throughout the whole day. And the park was dead. I'm talking walk ons for most of the rides, station waits for Goliath (with some walk-ons), just halfway down the stairs for Raging Bull. Even X-flight and Superman had absolutely no line, and were somehow still running two train IIRC. I rode X-flight twice in a row without getting up. That day was awesome, but since it was a Friday in July, it was probably just a weird fluke.

At some smaller parks though (like my home park SFA), if you come on a random Wednesday even in the summer, you can expect short lines for most rides.

I was gonna say... so you’re ok with waiting 4 hours for Pirates, which is a 15 minute ride?

 

I would not be OK with riding that. I've ridden it too many times to count when its a walk-on. I would not be OK with waiting a long time to ride Mean Streak unless I needed the credit. At Cedar Point, I try to buy to the FL+ to get my production on Steel Vengeance. Any more negativity or trying to poke holes in my logic guys?

 

I guess I'm just a little surprised at how people don't try to factor in ratio of wait time to ride length.

Think less...party more....

Waiting in line is not always a bad thing. It is nice to be able to talk with your friends and other enthusiasts while waiting. Plus if a queue house is themed well and tells a story, all the better.

I was gonna say... so you’re ok with waiting 4 hours for Pirates, which is a 15 minute ride?

 

I would not be OK with riding that. I've ridden it too many times to count when its a walk-on. I would not be OK with waiting a long time to ride Mean Streak unless I needed the credit. At Cedar Point, I try to buy to the FL+ to get my production on Steel Vengeance. Any more negativity or trying to poke holes in my logic guys?

 

I guess I'm just a little surprised at how people don't try to factor in ratio of wait time to ride length.

Think less...party more....

 

Waiting in line is not always a bad thing. It is nice to be able to talk with your friends and other enthusiasts while waiting. Plus if a queue house is themed well and tells a story, all the better.

Not for me. I'd rather have the ability to walk around the park, watch all of the rides run, grab a snack, etc. I can talk to my wife whether I'm standing in a queue surrounded by teenagers bumping into me with hormones and adolescent behavior going full bore, or I can talk to her while walking through the park. That, and I don't have to talk to other enthusiasts.

Also, as I was thinking about it, one park that does frequently give station waits throughout the park is KK.

I was gonna say... so you’re ok with waiting 4 hours for Pirates, which is a 15 minute ride?

 

I would not be OK with riding that. I've ridden it too many times to count when its a walk-on. I would not be OK with waiting a long time to ride Mean Streak unless I needed the credit. At Cedar Point, I try to buy to the FL+ to get my production on Steel Vengeance. Any more negativity or trying to poke holes in my logic guys?

 

I guess I'm just a little surprised at how people don't try to factor in ratio of wait time to ride length.

So I'm guessing you think the best theme park is Dorney, right?

The irony of all this is that Raging Bull is 70 seconds (1:10) from drop to brakes, which is about close to as long as it gets for most coasters.

Imagine going to Cedar Point (on a slow day mind you) and only being able to ride Iron Dragon, Rougarou, Blue Streak, and Corkscrew for the sake of trying to be edgy

^Don't forget the CP&LE Railroad. You can just stay on the ride to minimize your queue-to-ride-duration ratio.

I'm surprised the fight in the parking lot on Wednesday hasn't surfaced on the news. My friend and I were leaving the park at closing - around 8pm, and there was something going on right at the front of the lot. We stood out front and watched this thing escalate quickly, but kept back. It was all this yelling and we could see people going back and forth... a couple minutes go by and 2 cop vehicles with flashing lights come from BOTH sides. A small crowd had formed around the fight and then the cops where there and a bunch of park security.

I had a second of disbelief when I heard a booming voice scream out "DROP IT!" Then again "DROP IT!" Scary stuff. People were leaving and just trying to get to their cars. It was sad to think these people with their kids and toddlers had to be around this stuff.

My friend and I were only at the park from 6-8. Buying a membership was a challenge for me this year, as I've gone to the park less and less over the past couple years. I love the rides we have at my home park, but it's still a Six Flags operation (and probably the best operated in the chain, which isn't saying much). Those stupid long "cattle" exit walks to get off the coasters, except Whizzer and Demon, which were built before Six Flags*. The outdated blaring speakers in ride stations; the uninspired, bored and cocky employees (they are probably good people, but SF doesn't give them anything to work with ). The smell of fresh blacktop. The lack of seating. The annoyance of loud repetitive boom music screaming in our faces. The horrible communication of everything the employees should have been trained for...

It's time for an extended Six Flags break for me. It's just not fun anymore. It's not even worth my time. I'd rather drive several hours to another park where I feel a little more respected, and where I can relax if I need to. Why do it if it's not fun? There are so many other GREAT options; from 30 minutes away to 5 hours: Santa's Villiage, Little Amerricka, Bay Beach, Cedar Point, Holiday World, Kings Island (Indiana Beach was on that list before about a decade ago.) Having a good time is worth the extra drive at this point.

Every year, I hear the same thing from friends. "Oh, they're doing much better this year at Six Flags (fill in the blank)." "Even Park President (fill in the blank) is on top of the operation, they promise you'll see the changes!" Blah blah blah.

^Don't forget the CP&LE Railroad. You can just stay on the ride to minimize your queue-to-ride-duration ratio.

It probably won't be open for a LONG time. The new half-coaster*, we heard, "should be ready on August 1st." I couldn't care less about the new ride, personally. Another test track to nab a record.

*Ridiculously long exit walkways back to the midway and super-short coasters are NOT spacial issues. They are designed that way on purpose.

*****End rant*****

Good stuff: Whizzer, as always, is running like new. The train we rode it was pristine, they really do take special care of that ride. Same deal with the Lobster - but a shorter ride cycle than ever.

Flashing lights seemingly sweeped in from both sides of the parking lot. It's like the cherry on top of your six flags day.

A-holes gonna be a-holes anywhere, it has nothing to do with Six Flags. Your location says Chicago; I can guarantee the city is more dangerous than the park.

And why are you surprised it didn't make the news? Every little scuffle isn't news worthy.

More power to you for going to other parks. When I was there in 2017, I found SFGAm quite charming compared to my local SF parks (SFA and SFGAdv), and thoroughly enjoyed more than just Whizzer.