Positive Aspects of the Park

[blastedmonkey]

So, I log on here, trying to gain some useful information on the park, and all I really see on these forums is, honestly, for the most part, people stating how crappy this is, or how terrible that is. I thought it was time that there should be a thread for people, like me, who want to see what people enjoy about the park, not what they dislike. So please, what are some things that you really do like about the park?

[wishman35]

haha, i love almost everything about the park. The rides, the atmosphere, everything. The place is great and i have been there 3 times in the past week basically.

the only negativity that will come out of my mouth about the park is three words. " The Dark Knight" ... its new tagline should be "A wildly,dark,very short, waste of time in line" But almost everyone i have spoken to in the park agrees. I really haven't heard one person speak highly of it.

[bigb7965]

^ trailblazer tony has

i have never been on it so i have no thoughts


people just say that it is bad because they are expecting something amazing and thrilling

if you know what to expect, you will like it more

[guitarhero119]

I enjoyed TDK! It is a ride the park defiantly needed. I like that the park offers a great selection of rides. No two rides at the park offer the same experience (with the exception of AE red and blue).

[cycamps]

^They don't even offer the same experience. In case you haven't noticed, the return trip after the helix is different for both sides. However, I think it offers a different experience the whole duration of the ride.

[RBull4life]

I have been TDK only once, waited over an hour and a half, and basically had the same feelings as the couple that sat in front of us. "That's it?" I think once I got inside Theater Royal, and saw the mass of humanity in what seemed to be endless que lines from one side to the other,and seeing that stupid Six Flags commercial every 3 minutes already put me in a bad mode. Maybe I need a second ride on it to fully take it all in, though I don't think I would wait another 1 1/2 hrs for it.

Since this is a positive aspect of Great America, and not about TDK, i think the park looks great considering that there are now two rides absent. The ride-ops, on the rides I have been on, have been great. On the Whizzer, when we pulled back into the station, the ride-op said, "Thank you for riding the Whizzer, and enjoy the rest of your day at Great America. America's roller coast." The ride-ops in the kids's sections are above all, the best I have seen at any park I have been to. Kudos to them for showing that they don't mind working the boring kid rides.
I was surprised at the food at Johnny Rockets, though, I will never eat there again. I swear it took us a little over an hour from ordering our food, to the time we got.

[wishman35]

haha, i feel like i am being overly negative about TDK but honestly its like this: the ride simply isn't worth a long wait especially with the overly long queues. 20-30 minutes at the VERY longest. Funny thing is that on numerous occasions I have park workers plugging it and trying to get me to go on it. Using bits such as its air conditioned, or brand new, or as long a ride as raging bull. I mean the ride feels to me like a minute at best lol

No doubt its different, but even for what it is, it could have been better, longer, scarier, oh well ill drop it.

But yes, the park does look great. I just hope my mid summer visits are not tainted by hour long food lines and the such. I have been having a great time with low attendance. The ride ops have been great for the most part.

[Jerrykoala2112]

I love the park, it is one of the coaster capitals in the world. It has a great veriaty of rides and coasters, my favorites are the water rides.

[shockwave guy mark]

dont get us wrong, we love great america, but we like to report, and show our opinions about things as well.

[blastedmonkey]

I know we all love the park, but we all seem to be dwelling on the negative. If I were considering going to the park for the first time, and I came on here looking to see some opinions on it, I probably wouldn't go due to most of the bad comments on here. Plus, the park checks out boards like these to see where they need to improve and what they should add, change, or completely get rid of. Making complaints is totally valid and within everyone's rights, I'm not saying stop, because in the long run, it does help the park make some of it's decisions, but also hearing about what they are doing good can help them maintain that. All too often, the park only hears about what they are doing poorly or incorrectly. Whenever they do something good, they never hear about it. So they don't really know. This is just a way to let the park and everyone considering going to the park a view of what is good about Great America.

Honestly, it's my favourite park. I'm not just saying that because it's the closest park either. I've been to Disney and Universal and all that. I had to wait in WAY longer lines there than I ever had to at a Six Flags park...well...except St. Louis...but I dispise that park anyway... I dispise Cedar Point as well. Yeah, they got good coasters and a few deals, but in the long run, they end up screwing you over pretty badly at the end of the day, they just tend to sugar coat it enough so that you're surprised about it later.

As far as rides, I love Viper to deaths. Raging Bull a close second. Batman: The Ride next. Honestly, I also love the new TDK. Yeah, right now the lines are long, but it's new. You should have expected it. I liked the pre-show a lot, plus most of the effects were really good. The theming was amazing, and it shows that Great America really is trying to get it's brand up and running again. People don't like the mediocre nowadays, and Six Flags sees that, finally.

I love Southwest Territory. It's probably the best themed section in the park next to Yukon. Yukon just has the two kids sections and Loggers Run, so I don't spend that much time there, though.

I hope next year, we get back to the entertainment package that we had in 07. I'm not saying to bring back Spygirl. We can all admit when the park made a mistake. Hell, even they admitted it. But there were really good shows last year. Country Rocks was fun, and I don't think it should be in the Snowshoe Taphouse. That doesn't really fit well, in my opinion. I could have gone without Reflections: Sounds of the 80's, but it was still kind of a fun show and other people seemed to like it. Showstoppin' was amazing. I even thought that the Spirit of America show was kind of cute, even though no one stood at the front gate long enough to watch it most of the time. Great American Idol was always a good time, especially with DJs Bob and Amanda. Those two were the best and they made the show. I think the nighttime parade is a lot of fun as well. I really enjoy the music. If anyone knows if there is a copy of that floating around somewhere, please let me know. It's hilarious and it's great. I think it's time for a new pre-show for the parade, but aside from that it's fun. I like the fireworks too.

Also, Fright Fest seems to have been getting better in some ways since I started going to it. Entertainment-wise, it is really improving. Love at First Fright, I think we can all admit, is a classic and a must each year. I loved Dead Man's Party. I thought it was thoroughly entertaining. The actors on the street are really good, in my opinion as well. I like it when actors, especially ones there to scare you, don't just jump out and go grrrr or something, but maintain a character that, even while not jumping at you, is still entertaining to watch from afar, instead of a person who is just walking around in scary makeup and occassionally going Boo, like I see at so many other Six Flags parks. Great America's Fright Fest is seriously probably the best one at any Six Flags park.

I realize now that this post has exceeded maximum limits and all that, so I'll stop babbling about my favourite parts of the park. Just finally posting my opinion on things that I enjoy or wish they would bring back.

[wishman35]

great post ^^

we all love the park I am sure, but the positive aspects are fairly obvious: the coasters. As long as we are able to get on the rides we want to ride we leave pretty happy im assuming.

As for us on this board, we are hardcore enough that we like to read a message board devoted to the park so I am sure we all find even smaller things more special then the regular joe. I could be content sitting there watching the coasters, i just love how they look, how they sound, its that cool.

[CoasterDude12-2]

Welcome bastedmonkey...,

I know when you say people are dwelling on negative aspects of the park, you probably have read some of my posts. Even today, Great America is an awesome park. It has many of my favorite rides, a waterpark that a happen to enjoy immensely, and has a great maintenance team that keeps that keeps the rides in better working condition than any park I've ever seen (except for maybe Cedar Point). But, I'm also sure you probably went to the park before the 2006 season. In reality, they are two different parks. It is impossible to walk five feet without seeing marketing somewhere, you aren't even allowed to carry items with you in line, even if you are a non-rider, and everything is more expensive. I'm not going to say the prices weren't bad in '05, but it's now $13 for a sport cup. The only way to pay the same amount for parking is if you park in the back. The employees are slow, and snide. Don't expect to be let out of the station quickly, and don't expect a nice explanation for any of the new park rules. Almost all the atmosphere has been destroyed and cluttered up with signs telling me to save money on car insurance. And then, the great new attraction this year is a wild mouse with several rides being torn down. It's like the opposite from '04 when we got a Wild Mouse and a few rides put in too. Many restaurants have been names "johnny rockets", or "cold stone", as opposed to their original names. You can't even play the arcades with change anymore. Everything that was important to me in 2005 has been taken away (except the rides), the atmosphere, the nice employees, the $10 parking, the $35 discounted admission. You can't come in to the park an hour before it closes either. And on top of it all, it angers me that no one seems to care how much they are being screwed.


So yeah, love the park, but I gotta mention the negatives. If everyone only said positives about the park, it would never change.

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

I thought the dark knight was a good experience, but I'm not really here to talk about that.

I think that the park still has some good stuff. We have a great coaster selection. I love some of the theming too. I think Southwest Territory is great. The waterpark is also well themed, and I think it has a good selection of rides from the Wahoo Racers to the different slide complexes. It's much better to some of the parks I've been to.

Sure, there are aspects that I think the park needs to work on, but overall, I still like going to the park and not complaining about every little thing when I go there.

[blastedmonkey]

Coasterdude, I totally respect your opinion, but I am a park regular and I go there consistently almost every other weekend, and have been since 2000. I have seen the changes, and while I dislike the new advertisements and things, I also see why some of it is neccessary, so I do let it slide. Let Six Flags do what it has to do to get out of the hole, in my opinion. Odds are, things will change once that happens. I agree that negative things should be voiced. I also think that the positive ones should be too. Like I said, how will Six Flags know if it's doing something right unless someone tells them?

[w00dland]

This is a good idea for a topic.

For me, obviously the coasters at Great America are pretty high up there compared to industry standards. You guys don't realize just how lucky you are. Most parks out there are sporting 5 or 6 roller coasters which are all below the average SFGAm coaster. Just yesterday I was at Valleyfair getting off Wild Thing wishing that I could have ridden Raging Bull instead.

But coasters aren't the biggest reason I go to parks. The biggest reason for me is that they allow me to escape from everyday life for an extended period of time. I get to let go and forget about work, drama, and problems and instead focus on having an amazing time, and I guess thats where Six Flags is starting to blow it for me. The more advertisements the park brings in, the more it reminds me of things outside the park...and I don't want that. I remember back in 2004 when i could spend days at the park just walking around (and jumping on every roller coaster I passed) and enjoying the atmosphere, and while I can still do that things just aren't exactly the same.

I mentioned Valleyfair coming nowhere near SFGAm standards when it came to roller coasters, and while Six Flags clearly has Valleyfair beat in the rides department, I would say that VF has SFGAm beat in the atmosphere department, because on the way home I had completely forgotten about the work I'm supposed to be doing this morning. The park let me escape.

[BrianPlencner]

People have said that the increase price of parking, and admission have upset them. I go so many times a year it does not matter how much they charge, as I have both a season pass, and a parking pass. This year alone I have gone 10 times. So, lets do the math.

General Park admission, at the gate, no discount: $54.99
Parking, in the front lot (as that is where I always park when I go) :$25.00

So, for 10 visits, I would be up to $549.90 in admission costs, and $250.00 in parking, for a grand total of $799.90.

I paid $87.39 for my Season Pass, and $65.00 for my parking pass. Total here is $152.39.

So far this season, I have saved $647.51 by getting the season pass and parking pass. I know by the time the season is over, I'll probably save at least 10 times that.

Sure, I may only go for a few hours, but I still have a great time, and ride what I want. In fact, I went for 2 hours this past Saturday and relaxed in Hurricane Harbor (5-7 PM), and then left. I did want I wanted to, and had a great time doing it. What more could you ask for?

So, as long as the Season Pass and Parking passes are there, and a great value, you won't hear me saying about the price of parking or admission. What you will hear me say is at the end of the year, and how much money I saved.

As far as the employee's go....Each time I go, and each ride I'm on, the employee's are always very nice, they say Hi, and they all make sure that I had a great ride. They also say to enjoy the rest of my day at the park.

Finally, nothing the park has done this year has had a negative impact on me. This is because it does not effect me. The lockers I don't mind as I never have anything extra with me. The price of parking / admission I've stated my reasons above. Finally, the price / quality of food does not interest me either, as I never eat in the park..if I do, which is very rare, its just a pretzel. I don't use a fast pass, as I don't mind waiting in line. If the lines are to long, I'll leave and come back another day (another advantage of the Season Pass / Parking pass).

So, as long as the park keeps the rides (both coasters, and non-coasters) in top working order, and the overall condition of the park is kept up, you won't hear me complain.

--Brian

[jbujwit10]

Hi all!,

Well, a few weeks ago I went to Six Flags Great America. This time, I really realized how we have a great park! Also, I really started to enjoy V2. I think it is awesome how you get lifted up upside down. It's so thrilling! I also think that it is great that they add a new roller coaster(s) at least once every 2 years! Although the roller coasters recently added(The Dark Knight, Ragin Cajun') are not the best, it is better than nothing. Also, I like the employees that work the roller coasters. I especially love it when they get into the ride and say some interesting things before you go and experience the ride.

-Jake

[cycamps]

I personally think that the park is full of mostly positives. However, a local radio station really bashed GAm the other day, and had NOTHING good to say about them. They also called Vertical Velocity, Terminal Velocity or something like that. Shows how much they know. It really angered me, as I think the park does well, and the high prices don't bother me too much...

[LaTiNoObSeSeDSFGAm]

I like SFGAm also. But I have grown up with this park, Ive been coming here for the past 19 years of my life and in my opinion the old days are better which is why I bad mouth the park, because a lot of the old rides, food places, shows, ect are replaced with new ones that arent quite as good. Sure the HH is good as well as V2 and DeJaVu but it just isnt the same atmosphere to me as it used to be. If your new to the park then you will like it, unless your like me where all the small changes seem to bother you.