10/11/2008 - A rare Trip Report from me.

[CoasterDave316]

My brother Tom and I headed out to Great America last night for the first time since early May.
Got to the park around 6:45 after spending 2 and 1/2 hours sitting in traffic on I-294 and I-94.

Once in the park I noticed the new scrolling signs they added near the entrance that weren't there my last visit.

Headed towards The Dark Knight since Tom had yet to ride it. I was surprised how short the line was, walked right into the pre-show room. When the pre-show started I noticed they have really turned down the volume of the speakers since I rode it during media day, and now you can barely hear it. Was much better when it was loud. After we got out of the pre-show, they announced the ride was down temporarily. After about 10-15 minutes it was up and running again and we were on. I noticed a few more effects were working on the ride, then when I originally rode it. We stopped on the block brake before the last two hills of the ride, which really killed the momentum of the ride, and slowly coasted back to the station...which kind of killed the whole experience.

Made a stop at King Chaos next. They changed the program back to the one it originally opened with. Which has a lot of build up most the ride that eventually leads to nothing. The other program is better.

Batman The Ride was next and since Deja Vu is gone, it's my favorite ride in the park now. Only a 20 minute wait. They had a bunch of fog in the station and in the tunnel which was cool. The ride was running good as always.

Walked through Necropolis next. It's easily the worst necropolis I have seen in recent years. Half of it is now the line for Mausoleum of Terror tickets. There is also way too much light back there, it used to be much darker, with more fog. They really need to bring the freak show back there again since it feels so empty without it.

Circled back around to Iron Wolf, it's line was on the stairs. Had a grand ole time.

Eagles line looked a bit too long, and it was only running the Red Side so we skipped it for now.

Passed by the Former Deja Vu/Buccanneer Battle area for the first time since they had completely removed Vu. Was odd to see. I'm guessing they are planning on using Deja Vu's old sign for Buccanneer Battle since they have yet to take it down.

Demon was next, walked right on. Fun as always, and LOTS of fog in the little tunnel before the corkscrews was cool. Great America really upped the amount of fog this year.

Walked right onto Giant Drop next...started to realize the park wasn't as crowded as I originally thought it was. It's too bad they no longer theme it to Hellevator anymore for Fright Fest. I'd like to see that return in the future, since it was one of the best transformed rides.

Watched part of the Freak Show, and from what I saw it's basically a 1 man show now. Doing the usual stuff. I have seen so many different freak shows at the park over the years now it takes a lot to impress me now. (T2 and the guy who balanced the running lawnmower on his chin impressed me a few years ago).

Waited about a half hour for Viper, and it was well worth the wait. The ride was running great, lots of airtime on every hill. Fun Stuff.

Walked near the former space shuttle America where they have Area 51 set up this year, barely anyone was there. Was best when they had this set up in Hometown Square.

Went through the Cell Block thing they have set up, and can't believe they are actually charging people who don't have season passes to enter this pathetic excuse for a walk through attraction. 0 of 10!

Went on Condor next since it's running the cool longer program again....and it's the best way to see how long Superman's line is. Which ended up being too long for our tastes.

Was getting late, and we wanted to get on Eagle and Bull before we left, so headed to the back of the park to ride Eagle Red. About a 25 minute wait for it. The crew was moving really slow. But I have yet to have a bad ride on Eagle yet this year, and this time was no exception. It was running great.

Finished off the night with 2 rides on Raging Bull as the park came to a close.

Overall I had a good time, easily my best visit this year. Since Opening Day winds kept almost everything closed, and the whole park closed within 2 hours on my Mother's Day visit. So it was nice to see things operating normally again.

Wasn't impressed with the amount of Fright Fest stuff this year, seemed to be another down year. So that sucks. Hopefully it will improve next year.

[onyxhotel08]

I think on one of the pictures I saw had the HELLAVATOR sign where Deja Vu was? Not Giant Drop...Did any1 else see that on the Fright Fest pictures?

[BP317]

Giant Drop was Hellevator from 2003-2005, it was not Hellevator in 2006 due to reduced capacity and not during 2007 due to accident on the real Hellevator. They used the sign on DejaVu for Fright Fest 2007.

[onyxhotel08]

Thanks for that. It's weird cause I would think "reduced capacity" wouldn't play into putting the FF sign on another ride. What are you referring to when you say reduced capacity? GD had fewer people on it so they decided to take it's sign and put it on Vu for 1 season?

[BP317]

2 seperate years. They didnt do it in 2006 because the cables had just been replaced but they only had a budget to buy new ones for 3 cars, so they didnt want to bring attention to the ride by doing Hellevator. However they did put up the Hellevator sign in 2006 because the carpenters were trying to get ahead and didnt know it wasnt being done, but none of the effects were done. So the sign was there but the actual ride wasnt transformed.
In 2007 due to the accident on Hellevator (or Superman as they renamed in 07) they decided again not to do Hellevator, and put the sign at DejaVu for kicks & giggles knowing it was going to be removed.

[onyxhotel08]

yeah but to people like me whose main reason for going was Deja Vu/Raging Bull, i didn't find it so funny. Does anyone know when in fact they decided to sell Deja Vu?