The Mess That Is Great America

[Soxman]

I grew up with Great America. I love riding Viper, Batman, Rb, Eagle, Demon, and so on. I complain b/c I am frustrated with the park. I try to point out problems I have b/c I want people to realize what a great park it was. A letter will not do anything. That is like going to guest relations to complain pointless. When your grow up with something it is hard to see it look bad when it looked so good. I do not expect the people on the site to do anything, but I do have a problem with some people on the site. I usually just sit back an read and I had enough of kids talking about nothing and polls asking what is your favorit expired ride, when a lot of these people werent old enough to even ride Rolling Thunder. This site if for Great America. It should be used for positive, negative, and rumorsBy The Way - The Sox are just bad

[Coasterman Jro]

Posting things like this give room for discussion. These are discussion boards (Although we're not allowed to discuss things very often ), and as you can see, this topic has already generated lot's of discussion. I enjoy having "chats" like this, even if they end up being a little hostile. It helps to build community. But saying something like "If you don't like it don't talk about it" does nothing to add to the conversation, and only leaves room for topics like "Best color on a B&M invert". I, quite frankly, would rather have a friendly debate than a choose color swatches party.

[CoasterDave316]

The park will never look like it did during the Marriot days im sure, Six Flags is a big corporation. I personally love SFGAm, but I will say it is not my favorite park. My favorite park is Indiana Beach, proving once again size doesn't matter oh and theres more than corn in Indiana.Coasterman Jro, we have a community, im sorry you don't feel apart of it. Complaining about our moderation to us is just as useless as complaining about a park at Guest Relations. If you don't like it, don't post simple as that. Sorry you don't feel apart of the community. I don't know where you get this "The mods close things because of difference of opinion". We rarely close topics over difference of opinion, the main reason we close topics is because they have been repeated 50 times. We seem to have discussions here just fine. If you don't like it don't post, I don't want to hear anymore complaining about the moderation from you unless you Private Message me.Back to the wonderful DISCUSSION we have going on now.

[Soxman]

I agree size does not matter - I love Worlds of Fun in K.C. Great Theme, a lot of flat rides, and 3 decent coasters. Bigger isnt always better. I accept the fact that GA will never be the same - I just wish they would make better decisions. I know your love for DeJaVu, but in my opinion it was a bad decision. Taking out seven inversions for Superman - Bad decision. I want a floorless to keep up the inversion number

[CoasterDave316]

Wow me and you might agree on something as far as Superman goes .Shockwave fan for life

[Soxman]

Coasterdude like I said before I respect your opinion. We are going to agree on some things and disagree thats life. When I look at a park my main concern in theme. Next I look coasters and flat rides. Finally I look at how clean it is and how friendly the cast members/ops are. I enjoy Theme Parks not Coaster Parks. In my opinion Great America is a Coaster Park

[Chitown]

I will back Soxman on a couple of things:I was at the park Friday evening at about 5:00 and the signs out front for closed rides didnt include Deja-Vu. The ride was not open the whole time I was there and the sign at the entrance of DV said "This ride will not open today". This actually surprised me because as Dave stated, DV is always on the "may be closed" list even if it is operating. The other thing is Ice Mountain Splash not being open. That ride should have been operating because it was the weekend and it states that this ride operates on weekends. SFGAm does need to get their heads out of their asses and open up all rides if they are capable of running.Now to what I wont back Soxman on:Superman with 1-train obviously was an issue with the train that wasnt being used. Something must have been wrong with it to not run it. SFGAm is great for running coasters at full capacity and S:UF is no exception. If it was 1-train, it was a maintenance issue.Demon running 3 trains has always been useless. The track length of this coaster is about 1900 ft. 2 trains is sufficient. 3 trains is overload.You complaining about DV being down probably pales in comparison to Six Flags and their disgust towards these GIB installations. Dont blame the park for this. They want to get the ride up and running and they will keep trying until all options run out.Finally, DUDE!!! You went on a Saturday in August when its 90 degrees out. Did you expect a smooth running day without aggravation? If you have been going to this park for a long time, you should have a general idea of when the park might be packed. I have been going to this park since the year it opened its gates. While I miss the Marriott days, I also know we probably wouldn't have all these new coasters if it weren't for SF.

[CoasterDave316]

Alright then, 3 people saying it wasn't on there is enough for me. I take back my comments about the sign. But with all the talk about the sign, we are missing a major thing. Deja Vu being closed all weekend! Not just Saturday. At first im thinking one day no big deal. Then Chitown said it was closed yesterday. 2 days in a row is a big deal for a ride that has just reopened. Hopefully they didn't find more problems, or else it might spell the end for Deja Vu.

[chimike]

You know, one thing that probably would help keep peoples' tempers down is if these parks were better at managing their queues. Watching the comments like "Crowded Summer Saturday - 90 degrees" always makes me think that anal capacity on coasters is not as much of a help during crowded times as simply having the queues running efficiently. Queue management is not restricted by rider saftey or budgets, it is a simple exercise on common-sense and work ethic. I know at Disneyland the queue/fastpass situation has made the park feel much more crowded since most of the queues are half-used with the majority of the crowd emptying out on the pathways causing even more crowding.For SFGAm, maybe they need to be more careful with keeping the queue areas full and lines off the pathways. RCT is nice-enough to cut-off the line but in reality and in practice the situation is a mess. Earlier this year when I visited SFGAm in the morning the line for Superman was also backed up into the plaza before 10:00. The issue with me was that they didn't have any of the shaded queue set up. When we exited the ride and walked back towards the plaza we noticed that the line was bigger and was still subjected to the sun instead of being under shade. How hard is it to let people get out of the sun? It sure would make people feel better about waiting. On my trip, Raging Bull was another example of a ride filling out onto the pathways while queue line was empty.For a ride like Superman I would be very assured in knowing that there are times where only one train is in operation. It would tell me that on opening year Management is willing to drop capacity in order to ensure saftey. Who wants to get stuck on the lift or have their harness open on a ride like Superman? With that said, the GP is not as understanding of the perils of capacity v. safety, nor should they be, they are the GP. As I op'in above - the shade would probably go a long way in calming people down.As for Whizzer, it was always a max 4.For Eagle, when I was at the park the delay in opening one side wasn't a safety issue. It was a 'labor hour' issue and I would use this as an example of when to spend a few hundred dollars more in bringing your capacity up earlier then normal to deal with the kind of day yesterday appears to have been. If they were asking people not to come to the park, how significant is a few hundred dollars more in keeping capacity higher, longer. This is where labels like BAD and GOOD management come into play

[goldmember]

Great America should invest in those mist fans like CP has. They know it gets hot around here, so they should try to make it a pleasant as possible for there guests.

[holydumb26]

You guys please stop complaining about our great park we should be happy that Marriott bulid such a wonderful park so close to where we all live.Just be happy with what we have. I know I am and I am having an awesome season this year and I hope you are too.But if you dont like SFGAm please dont bring all of us down by saying how bad our Great park is. I bet you just hit it on an off day. Iam am not bored after 31 times so far and I want more.

[linebacker131]

I am embarrassed of my home park.

if u are ebarressed of great america then dont go anymore

[CoasterDave316]

Magic Mountain has misters in there lines, while it doesn't get as hot here as it does at SFMM I think it would be a great additions to the major lines at SFGAm.

[goldmember]

It gets very uncomfortable in the que on a hot day with all of those people around you and there is no airflow. They should put the fans where those useless TV's are that you cant hear or see anyway.

[Soxman]

Great Suggestion Goldmember. The TV's are crap. Like I have said before I go to GA b/c it is my home park. I never get bored of the place, Batman, Viper, Demon, RB,... are all great rides, and I like Gurnee. Living in Rockford it is about an 1.5 hour trip. I expect on crowded days that the park would have good crowd control. The park should run its best when it is maxed out, not on a cold day with very little people. Thats how you win park approval

[whiteygabe1998]

If you dont like the way sixflags great america runs the park. Dont go . And non of us feal sorry for you being out there at 95 degrees. And i dont think you should complain about this park when we are lucky that only one person has died at our park. I have been to parks before snats village its water slide had a hole in it i could of good my foot stuck in it easly thats poor management.We have misters i think 3 or 4 not in the lines but there avalible to everybody. But bad thing about misters in the lines is what if somebody dosent whant to be in them??

[Soxman]

I am not complaining about the heat! Lets say your son does something stupid and you are embarassed. Do you not love your son anymore? Do you not pay attention to your son? There is no logic behind what you just wrote. The park needs better crowd control and that begins with park management. I like Great America - I just don't agree with some of their decisions.Please tell me why you brought death into the topic. I have no problems if a ride isnt up and running due to safety.The misters in the park are under the RR tracks. You need them in coaster lines.

[InsaneNewman]

Wow, great discussion... Anyway, what GAm really needs to do, if they want to have TV's in the lines is replace them with LCD panels... LCD, although more expensive, will catch the light of the sun and be visiable instead of having a glare. Imagine the money that could be made (towards a new coaster?) by sell advertisements if the TV's could be seen!The park management has always impressed me, if you think that their staff seemed to be stretched to thinly, that's because college students are going back to school and the park is losing it's staff!

[whiteygabe1998]

The tvs should be removed because they dont show anything but clips. I will see somthing i whant to watch and 3 mins latter or so it changes. what they should of done from the beguining is have lik e alittle build with the lines in it and have an ac going.

[CoasterDave316]

The TV's used to have stuff on them worth watching but now all it has is Doritos/Coke and Six Flags Commericals. They advertise for the park while your in the park, odd.

[whiteygabe1998]

DOnt forget corn nuts. When i go there they seam to be handing stuff out one time i got vanilla coke before it came out. And than i got corn nuts.

[Soxman]

I would still like to see an electronic board in the plaza giving up to the minute ride wait times. I would also love to see the park offer different season pass options. I miss the Gold Season Pass.

[whiteygabe1998]

what did the gold do??

[Soxman]

From what I can remember if you had the Gold Season Pass you recieved discounts on food and merchandise and the park also set up a day/night where only Gold Members were allowed to attend. So many people get season passes now due to the fact that you go twice and you pretty much have paid for it.I bet plenty of people on this site go to the park more that 15 times a year and the money adds up when it comes to food and merchandise.Plus for the people who do go a whole bunch a day/night would be very nice b/c the lines were always only 5-10 minutes on everything

[whiteygabe1998]

I got a seasson pass and i have only gone once