On Thursday night I took a trip up to my friends house who lives only a few minutes away from Gurnee and stayed the night.
I only got a few hours of sleep because I was playing on his DDR machine all night, but I felt refreshed as soon as I saw the park in the morning!
As soon as I walked from the Drop off area I was greeted with a sign...
How exciting!
Group Photo (I am the one on the far left... I look like a idiot
)!
After checking in we were handed a park ticket (even if you were a season pass holder too... and the season pass ticket for some reason did not work
), a food ticket, a Theme Park Review wrist band, a schedule and a handshake from Rob Alvey!Shortly after that we were told to enter the park but not to get separated from the group as we were going to start heading for Superman and a group photo was going to be taken!
Sadly you can barely see my head in this image, but none the less it was really cool
After some people went and put stuff in the lockers and some people used the washroom it was time to head toward Superman!
Ha! You have to wait in line!
We headed through the flash pass entrance up to Superman after stalling a few minutes for some others to catch up and others to put stuff in the lockers by Superman. After about 5 minutes it was time to fly!
Look at all the people on the Mid-America and Six Flags Trip! There is a lot!
After getting off of Superman me and my new TPR friend Jim decided to re-ride since they were letting us through to re-ride if we wanted. We hit front row a second time and then headed towards Batman. There was no wait so I hit back row twice without having to get off. It seemed to be a little intense for Jim so he decided to sit out the second ride and wait for me...
Of course after riding Batman we had to hit V2 in the best row you can experience it! In the very back! I just love the freefall sight from V2's back tower
After hitting V2 we decided to skip Little Dipper as we were (supposed) to have an ERT on it later that night.
Instead we hit Iron Wolf, and for once I did not hit my head at all!
I actually enjoyed riding Iron Wolf! And I know that is very hard to believe for some of you.And of course after some IW we had to hit up American Eagle... Which of course was only running one side (Go figure even though it got a little crowded later. However I did see it running Red for about an hour or so). We got in the last seat on the train and got some decent airtime before hitting the helix. I also just had to see if chang's track was still there, which it is.
After hitting up American Eagle we headed toward Giant Drop. We waited about 10 minutes and got a pretty good ride in as it was the seat I never got to ride in until that day (that I can remember at least). After that we ran next door to Raging Bull, and saw this sign...
At least they made the public aware that the rides would not be open for them later in the night.
While waiting in line for Bull (which was about a 15 minute wait) my new friend realized he forgot his sun glasses in the Giant Drop bin, so after Raging Bull in the front row we hit Giant Drop again to get in another ride and pick up his glasses. The front row on Raging Bull never seems to get old either. The back is just so boring to me now since I whored that row pretty much all day when I got 50 rides on it in one day, plus you get some really nice fresh air in the front.
After hitting Giant Drop we contemplated hitting Viper, but decided to pass it up because we had a ERT on it later anyways. Instead we started heading toward Picnic Grove as we were pretty hungry and wanted to get there early.
We waited outside Picnic Grove for the rest of the group, and because me and Jim got there early we got interviewed by the Daily Herald. We were asked if we though Viper belonged in the top 10 wooden Roller Coasters. I replied yes while some of the group disagreed with me. "I really enjoy Viper, its definitely one of the best wooden coasters I have been on, and it just gives you so much airtime compared to the others I have been on too. It also has some other great elements to it for its size and length. Its also extremely smooth for being a wooden roller coaster" is pretty much what I said. I was also asked what my 5 favorite roller coasters were at the park...
1. Raging Bull
2. V2
3. Viper
4. Batman
5. Superman
I also told the reporter that I used to love Shockwave and he just could not seem to contemplate someone enjoying that roller coaster.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=400921
My name is not stated at all in the article, but it said about a dozen people were asked and I was definitely one of them.
Rob and the rest of the TPR crew showed up at 1:00 so we headed into Picnic Grove where I ate some Hot dogs and fried chicken
Rob also made lunch very humorous as he was sharing what people were eating... a wiener or breasts After most people were done eating park managers showed up to answer questions. I made a separate thread about the Q&A session so you can check it out here...
http://www.sfgamworld.com/forum/great-america-forum/topic10921.html
I have some videos to upload from it so watch this thread or the thread I linked up there^
Overall I was very pleased about the questions asked and the answers we were given. I personally asked the question at the very end about American Eagle running backwards again, and was sort of upset by the answer, but I understand where they are coming from.
After the Q&A session it was time for the backstage tour!
I hit the washroom very quick as well as a few others and then we were off!
Alright for right now I am just going to post pictures with most likely no description as they are sort of self explanatory...
Hello Superman!
Look at the Pretzel loop! Look at all those supports!
For all you turn enthusiasts.
Sorry this pretzel does not come salted!
The Drop.
The Lift.
Tubes!
I guess this is where they keep some of the maintenance'd water rafts.
Is that a Shockwave spiral staircase?
Fright Fest and other crap!
A closer look.
Some more.
Um... For the water rides I guess?
I did not even know Six Flags had its own nursery for plants
Just isles of appliances and other junk!
Retired stands and other signage and stuff!
Shockwave railings and some parts from some old kid rides.
Well there's one train!
Iron Wolf looks like a pretty neat ride from here.
Some old light posts from Shockwave's queue.
Old train wheels.
maintenance warehouse (for the train).
The rough stuff!
I like this angle!
This part of the ride is not that rough its after going through the loop that is!
For all you drop enthusiasts.
Did you know American Eagle goes... underground ? 0_o
That's me... Wish I had some sunglasses on, it was really bright (and hot)!
Group Photo! I'm on the far right.
Coaster pr0n.
That is hot!
Going up?
Wouldn't you just love to climb that?
You know... When you stand next to it you realize American Eagle is very tall!
I love that turn! You know what would make it better? If it had not trim!
That's me again... Baking in the hot sun...
Everyone is just about everywhere... scattered.
This turn is ExTrEmE!
Back when HH was not around, this was not a special picture to take.
Alright. So after the backstage tour we were offered water (gladly accepted!) and we headed back into the park. Jim needed to check some of his e-mails so we went to the cyber cafe to rest in the A/C and to use the computers. After a while my other friend dropped off my sun glasses and we left to head back to Ragin Cajun.
After we took our spin we walked back to V2 (Batman had a nasty crowd enter at the time) and hit the back row again after about a 15 minute wait. After our Lim Launched experience we went back to American Eagle, this time for a front row seat! I really left my seat belt undone this time and had the lap bar pretty high up. The result was some pretty good airtime before and after the helix!
After our AE ride we went back toward Demon for a pretty good experience in front row, and of course we then headed toward Whizzer. In line we met another TPR member who was on the Mid-America tour. He really liked the park and was asking me some questions about Whizzer, my day and about the rope course. We then all rode Whizzer together in the last 3 seats of the last car and had a wonderful ride.
When we got off the new TPR member I met went toward the rope course (which he later told me was excellent and was worth the money!) while we walked towards Batman. Batman was once again pretty extreme in the last row, but not as extreme as Iron Wolf's headbanging goodness (which we hit next)!
Then... The unthinkable happened. After a nice sunny day it started getting extremely cloudy. While waiting in line for American Eagle it started lightning, and a thunderstorm was approaching. AE shut down so we left to go to an arcade to pass time. I played one round of DDR before we met back up with TPR next to Little Dipper under the bridge's roof. It then started puring and a extreme storm unfolded.
Rob made our time in shelter go by quickly by talking with us, giving us updates on the ERT's and just keeping everyone together.
TPR in shelter.
Rob updating us on the weather, and just giving us a good time!
We even had a retarded pose picture!
To put it simply the thunderstorm passed. We missed out Little Dipper ERT, however we were right on time for Viper and Raging Bull! We then walked over to Viper and I got 3 rides in...
Shortly after we headed toward Raging Bull. No waiting in lines, just some good old ERT goodness!
There was no one in the park but us! I also liked how we pulled in and we were asked if we would like another ride, which we of course would love to! And then after that cycle Rob asked if we would like another ride, or want to go back onto the bus, or go home (say wut!). Of course we all wanted another ride and we got it! That was 7 rides in a row without getting off (well I changed rows of course).
Overall it was a great day, and such a cool opportunity to experience the park in full. I want to thank TPR for everything they did, and especially to Rob for taking the pictures of us (some photos I used in the PTR were his) and setting everything up. Rob is such a cool guy and I hope he gets no disrespect from anyone as hes the guy that should never deserve it for everything he has done.
I am currently working on a montage (might be done tomorrow), and I also have some videos to upload from the trip so keep watching this thread or my youtube account for an update!
http://www.youtube.com/user/xkonsentox
Thanks for reading!
