Got to the park at 11:15 and it was pouring rain, so we went to lunch at Quiznos and returned around 1:00. Got into Hurricane Harbor and were expecting to rent a locker by the Southwest Territory/Hometown Square restrooms since we would be at the park until closing. They were all sold out, so we had to get a family size in Hurricane Harbor, which is $10.00 but about twice as big. Good deal.
We did the family raft ride first (only the purple/orange one was up due to staffing issues) and it was pretty neat. Kind of short, basically just a loop, but the drops at the end were neat. Next, we did the slide complex in the corner by the parking lot. We did the purple/orange bowl and the teal regular tube slide. The yellow tube slide and two body slides were closed due to staffing. These slides and the family tube slide had about 10 minute waits each.
Next, we hit up the wave pool for 15 minutes or so. Pretty cool, but I could see how they could use a second one due to its size. After that, we headed to Wahoo Racers. Only four were open due to staffing. Pretty fun, hard to get a good start. No wait for these.
Next we did Hurricane Mountain (I think that's the complex next to Wahoo Racers), which consists of four tube slides. Blue is the best, followed by green, but they're all really fun. No wait for these, either.
We decided to do Wahoo Racers again. I had to go one trip ahead of everyone else in our group because the lifeguard made exactly 4 people go down at once. There was only 1 other group behind us (with 4) , and the girl behind me ended up going down with the rest of my group because of the stupid lifeguard. Oh well.
We ended our Hurricane Harbor experience with a complete circuit around the lazy river. There were plenty of empty yellow tubes, so we tried to hop in at the "Blue Only" entrance, but the lifeguard wouldn't let us. The best part is, people were actually renting blue tubes, when there were plenty of yellow ones at the bottom of each complex. Back to the lazy river, it was fun, better than most because of the cool water effects.
That sums up our trip to Hurricane Harbor. All in all, I'd say the slides were okay, not the greatest, but not boring. They could really use a nice, 90 foot straight down body slide
and second wave pool. The tornado should be good, too. As for theming, the bare aluminum (or whatever the slide complexes are made out of) could use some sort of covering (like Skull Island). Great music. The woodchips are pretty bad, so maybe border the concrete with 6 inches of sand so that the woodchips don't get kicked as easily onto barefoot concrete. The concrete itself was very comfortable for walking on. Shade would have been nice. It was pretty cloudy today, but on a hot 95 degree day, you'd just bake under the sun. Also, I couldn't see spending an entire day there. Granted, there were practically no lines today, but I still can't see spending an entire day there. It's basically two slide complexes, mat racers, family tube, and wave pool. Plus Skull Island, but we didn't do that. Separate admission could be justified with more attractions.
Now, onto GREAT AMERICA. I'll just put in notes about our day, not every detail.
Viper had no line, was actually a walk-on at about 4:00.
Raging Bull had a 25 minute wait, 2 train op.
Demon was a walk-on for back row. Great op, by the way.
American Eagle was a 45 minute wait! That's because they were on 1 train op for each side. We went blue, wasn't braked as heavily as red on the helix. It also took red forever to make it over the first hill.
Iron Wolf was a walk-on.
At this point, it was 6:30 and we had to make it back to Hurricane Harbor to get our stuff from the locker. So we went on Whirligig (walk-on) but then decided to just check out the Batman line and see if it was doable. Walk-on! So we head back to Hurricane Harbor and as we are leaving hear the "time for closing has arrived" announcement. They play what sounds like Happy Trails but island themed. We ate at Crazy Buffalo Saloon, which is better than Mooseburger in my opinion. I had the homestead burger, very tasty. They also have the buffet option.
Next, we headed back to Superman, 20 minute wait. King Chaos was a walk-on. Whizzer was a 10 minute wait. Next was Deja Vu.
The line for this was suprisingly short, just 15 people or so behind the grouper. We make it into the station with the next group of riders. The wait for 1A was three trains, the wait for 1B was only one train. Anyways, we went into 6B and 7A. We get in, sit down. "Okay, everyone please step back into line." It was obviously down, although the op didn't give the "official" spiel and about a minute later says, "Oh, yeah. We're down for weather." About a minute later, he says, "Okay. Let's make this official" and gives the "Ladies and gentlemen...may I have your attention, please. At this time Deja Vu is ceasing operation due to current weather conditions..." or something like that. First, they gave the option to wait, but a few minutes later sent everyone out of line. We left with an awesome sight of lightening, though.
All in all, great day at Six Flags. No lines, good weather (except at the very end). What more could you ask for?
That is absolutely unacceptable to have only 1 train running on BOTH sides. That is absolutely the most rediculus thing I have ever heard.
