11/1/08

[MollysMomma]

After visiting Great America at least once per season for the past 25 years, this was my first time at Fright Fest. This was also my first year to have a season pass. My trip this weekend was for my 7th and 8th visits this year.

My friend and I left my house around 5:30 Saturday morning. After stopping at the oasis in Dekalb, we arrived at the park at 9:00. We wandered around for a bit and took a few pictures. My friend will only ride certain rides, so the season pass holder ERT allowed me to get on a couple of coasters without making her wait too long. That made for a great start to the day. We headed for TDK first and got 2 rides in. I think it's kinda fun in the dark. Next, I hopped on SUF in the last row. The loop was fun as always. Then we headed over to BTR so I could get a ride on that. I rode 2nd row, great ride. I've decided it's smoother toward the front of the train. We went back to TDK for 2 more rides. We were ready to head to the other side of the park, but I stopped and got one more ride on SUF since there was no line with the ERT. Once again, rode the last row. The train that departed after I got off, had no riders in the front row. 4 people rode 2nd row, but not the front. I thought that was kinda funny.

We wandered back through Orleans over to Hometown and had a once cycle wait for Triple Play. It's been one of my favorite rides since I was a kid. After TP we decided on Whizzer, rode the last 2 rows. I always enjoy Whizzer, it's a classic. Next, we hopped on Orbit and were able to walk on as the last 2 riders for that cycle. After Orbit, we headed to Viper. We rode 1st car 2nd row, great air time as usual. Next was Terror Twister, once cycle wait. I thought that was pretty fun in the dark with techno music blasting. I rode River Rocker next, it was my first and only ride of the season. Unfortunately, I didn't get in the last row, but it was fun anyway.

Since we hadn't eaten much for breakfast, we were kinda hungry at this point. I bought food in the park for the first time this year. We shared a pretzel and cheese. While we ate the pretzel, we headed over toward Demon. My friend won't ride the big coasters, so Demon is her favorite. I told her she's riding everything next year, no matter what! Anyway, Demon's one of my favorites too, since it was my first big, looping coaster when I was 4. We rode last row, the drop is great in the last row. Next was Black Widow, we rode red side toward the back. I especially enjoyed this ride as they either had the trims at the top of the helix off or turned way down. As strange as it is to have such a large helix like that, it's much better when they let the trains fly through without slowing you down so much. It makes the the air time hills on the return to the station much more fun. It was a great ride and I wish they could leave those trims off all the time.

Next we continued our way around the park. We stopped and had a once cycle wait for Fiddler's Flung. Then we moved on to Monster Mash, 2 cycle wait. We had fun as always. Next we rode Rue le Morgue. We had a blast, so much fun in the dark with the black lights and fog. I think that's my favorite transformed ride for Fright Fest. On our way out for lunch, we stopped for a ride on Columbia. It was kinda weird to be listening to Backstreet Boys and then Bon Jovi for the ride.

We headed out to the parking lot for lunch I think around 1:30. We always bring a cooler and just have sandwiches and things. Makes for a quick and easy lunch, and it's nice not to have to try and find a parking spot if you leave and come back.

After lunch, there was a lot of people heading into the park, so it took a while to get through security. We then slowly made our way over to get in line early for the 3:15 showing of LAFF. It was a full house for the show. I thought it was a great show, we enjoyed it. We got out of LAFF and headed for another ride on Demon. Since the park was pretty full at this point, the line for Demon was about 45 minutes. After Demon, we headed over to Necropolis.

Necropolis was pretty neat. Lots of gory looking scareactors wandering around. One got my friend pretty good. We saw Mayor Slayer. We decided to spend $5 to go through MOT since it was still before 5:00. That was pretty fun. I don't really like not knowing when people are going to jump out at me, so I was was startled plenty of times. LoL I thought it was pretty good, we had fun. The only thing I thought sucked was that the group behind us came running through and caught up to us, and they were being loud and annoying.
It's so weird to see the empty flumes and surrounding pools on the way out of Necro.

After Necro, we decided to take advantage of the sales, and go for funnel cake sundaes that came with the sport bottle for 6.99. We went to Antoine's in Orleans first, but it was packed and very disorganized with people trying to enter from 2 different doors. So, we headed back to the funnel cake foundry. It was busy too, but more organized. We probably waited at least 20 minutes to get through the line. We easily could've split one funnel cake sundae between us, but we both wanted the sport bottle since they were on sale.

After we finshed what we could of our sundaes, it was dark. We headed over for a night ride on Demon, with a 45 minute wait. This time, we rode somewhere in the middle. Definitely not as fun going down the drop. Then, we decided to go back through necro in the dark. Neither of us got scared by anything. The line for MOT was huge. I'm glad we went through before 5:00. After leaving necro again, we got a 2nd ride on Monster Mash, it was a 2 cycle wait. Then on our way out of the park, we stopped for another ride on Rue le Morgue. Again, we had a great time.

We left the park around 8:30 because we were tired from getting up so early, and I didn't want to fight the traffic. We headed to the Holiday Inn Express in Libertyville. As a Holiday Inn Employee, I can get rooms for 49.00, so that's always a plus.

Overall, we had a great day. The best part was the pass holder ERT, thanks to Six Flags for that! I like what they do with STT for decorating, but I wish they would have it open. It's always fun to see the park from above, especially at night. The crowds didn't bother us too much, since my friend won't ride the big coasters. So it was a really nice day, although a bit chilly once the sun went down. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon.

TDK-4
SUF-2
BTR-1
Triple Play-1
Whizzer-1
Orbit-1
Viper-1
Terror Twister-1
River Rocker-1
Demon-3
Black Widow-1
Fiddler's Flung-1
Monster Mash-2
Rue le Morgue-2
Columbia-1

total-23

Necro-2
MOT-1

[onyxhotel08]

OMG no Bull! I couldn't end my season without at least 2 trips on Raging Bull. V2? BTW waiting 45 minutes for Demon is like waiting 2-3 hours for Iron Wolf. I wanted to go on Wolf with my bro and his fiancee but he knows how it hurts so we skipped it. The only ride on the flash pass gold that we passed up.

[MollysMomma]

While I'm maybe a little disappointed I didn't ride RB or V2 during my last visit, I'm the kind of person who's content to just walk around the park and do whatever. With the fact that I live 3 hours away, and this is the 1st time I've ever had a season pass, I'm happy I was able to ride all the coasters more than once this season. And I love all the flats in the park, so I always have fun riding them.

[Demon_07]

OMG no Bull! I couldn't end my season without at least 2 trips on Raging Bull. V2? BTW waiting 45 minutes for Demon is like waiting 2-3 hours for Iron Wolf. I wanted to go on Wolf with my bro and his fiancee but he knows how it hurts so we skipped it. The only ride on the flash pass gold that we passed up.

Hey, some people aren't obsessed with just Bull and V2 and Demon's wait goes by pretty quick usually because there isn't a flash pass.