Now, I live in Central Wisconsin, 3.5 long hours from SFGAm. Ironically, I get down there less now, than I did when I was in high school, lol. It's amazing how life happens, and time just slips away from you, and before you know it Raging Bull is 13 years old!! I decided to purchase a season pass this year for the first time since 2005. The decision to do so, as well as make a last second trip down to Gurnee happend in large part due to X-Flight.
First off, this visit was different in every way. I was in the midst of a rare 3 day weekend, when at about 12pm on Saturday I decided to go for it. I purchased my season pass online, and within 30 minutes I had a hotel booked, and I was out the door. Now not only did I not have any plans to do this trip, for the first time I was going to get a hotel room, and also.... go by myself! That's right. I'm sure most of you have gone to SFGAm alone before, but this was a first time experience for me. I must say thought, as fun as it is to be at the park with friends or family, it really is something to go alone. For the first time, I could move at my own pace. I had more of a chance to notice little things around the park, and I could stay open to close!
After checking in to my hotel, I made the quick jaunt across Grand Ave to the park. I mostly wanted to get my pass processed ahead of time, so I could quick get to X-Flight on Sunday morning. I arrived at 6pm, and virtually had my pass processed within 10 minutes of arriving. So now it was off to X-Flight! I must say, that when walking from Whizzer towards County Fair it certainly is nice to see a large steel machine dominating the sky again since Deja Vu left. The first thing I noticed, was the interest that the bystanders were taking in the ride. People were lined up along the fence just to watch it. It seems that most people are intrigued by the inversion for a first drop, and of course the keyhole.
X-Flight - First Ride, approx 40 min wait. For my first ride, I rode on the right, middle. After all of the reports I've read on here, I really didn't know what to expect. For starters, I must say, that this ride is definitely a winner. It will have long lines for quite some time, and the GP will eat it up. However, after my first ride, I kind of felt like I was expecting more, and I wasn't sure where to rank it in the park. That would change in due time...
After X-Flight, I decided to check Viper, but finding only 1 train running and a half full line, I quickly headed for American Eagle instead.
Now, I'm not going to go into depth about every ride, but I will for the Eagle.
American Eagle Blue, 10 min wait. and Red, 5 min wait.
I don't know what it is, but I really have started to notice I am developing a strange new attraction to this ride. It's still the same old shaky, bouncy ride as always, but I find that I am enjoying it more than ever. Not sure if it's the air on the first drop, or the speed on the out run, but god am I loving it! On the blue side, I was even getting a pop of air on the hop into the brake before the final helix, and I don't ever remember that before. Still prefer the red side though
7:50pm. Time to jump back in line for X-Flight. 35 min wait. Left wing, 2nd to last row.
This changed everything. I LOVED the left wing! The roll into the first drop flipping over then down was awesome! Felt more of the speed in the back, and really love that keyhole and headchopper on the yellow-striped support! Intense in the helix as well! I still prefer Raging Bull as favorite in the park, but X-Flight comes at a tie for #2 with BTR.(for now!)
Sunday 5-13
Usually, I have to leave home at 5:30 am to get to GAm in time for opening, so leaving the hotel at 9:00 and arriving at the parking lot at 9:04 was wonderful!
To keep this from getting too long, I'll just hit the key points of the day.
X-Flight, first train of the day. Still love that left wing. They ran the first train @ 9:55, so I was then able to be on the first train of the day on Viper as well. Hit Viper twice, and Bull once before getting Superman, Dark Knight, and V2 walk-ons! BTR was stuck on the lift, but was back up in no time. Had 2 train wait for BTR, then a Ragin Cajun walk-on. V2 two more times walk on, then Little Dipper walk on. By the time I got back around to American Eagle, it too was stuck on the lift. Rode Demon(walk on), then had the longest wait of the day at Whizzer (30mins). Back to AE, got two rides on Blue, before I decided to switch gears. I wanted to hit some of the flats that I hadn't ridden in years, mainly Revolution, Condor, and Chubasco. So I did a "flat lap" around the park. Revy, Orbit, Condor, King Chaos, Whirligig, Fiddlers Fling, Ricochet, River Rocker, Chubasco, Triple Play, Fun Machine, Giant Drop, and Sky Trek Tower. Mixing in some more laps on the coasters as well.
Skipping forward to 6:30 pm, I got in line for XFlight for what I thought would be my final ride, and managed to get on the ride, and back in line again before park closing at 7. After that ride upon arriving back at the station, one of the ops let me re-ride in an empty seat, then returning again they let anyone stay on if there were no people waiting for that row, so got to ride a 3rd time in a row. As if that wasn't enough, they let the whole train have 1 more ride, to be the last train of the night! Everyone on the train was just wild! Loved the atmosphere, and what a way to end the weekend with 4 X-Flight rides in a row! Way to go X-Flight crew!!!
**Other notes of the day.
*Noticed on AE, and on RB ride regulation signs that all riders must now have "3 complete body limbs in order to ride" It just looked funny on the sign, and I assume that's for all the coasters.
*Ride-op at River Rocker was funny! He'd ask over the speaker "Who wants to go faster?" then all the little kids would cheer. Then he'd ask "Who wants to go higher?" then all the little kids would cheer again. Then he asked "Now who wants to go upside down?" Then all the little kids screamed NO! and wanted to get off. LOL! I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants!
*Couldn't help noticing the quiet dead area in the back of the park where Iron Wolf used to be. Also, That karaoke stage has got to go. The poor ops at Fiddlers should get a raise for having to listen to that all day. I believe I saw someone refer to it as "ear cancer"... couldn't agree more!
*Viper had it's second train back on Sunday. SUF with one train is ridiculous.
*As the years go on, I like American Eagle more, and Superman less. I no longer find riding on my stomach comfortable, exciting, or enjoyable. I felt the same on Firehawk last year. I don't mind the ride, I just would rather ride most of the other coasters instead.
*Met a lot of super nice people. I'm quite the shy person, it's never been my thing to just approach someone. I'm pretty sure I noticed some familiar faces from pics I've seen posted on here. Met a nice ACER couple on sunday morning and talked with them for a bit. Then the dude I rode X-flight with on the last two rides of the night sure did know alot about different coasters and parks
Overall. one ofthe best trips I've had to GAm in years. Crowds were fairly light, longest line of the day was Whizzer at 30 mins. Can't wait to go back! Thanks for reading
