Great America Trip - 7/26/14 - A Period of Transition

[jbujwit10]

Since I haven't been to Six Flags Great America in 3 years, I knew there were going to be some awesome changes. My trip on Saturday, 7/26/14 certainly lived up to that. When I say "changes," I'm referring to the new additions of X-Flight and Goliath as well as other smaller difference since my trip 3 years ago.

I went to the park with my brother Neil, and in the past it was an annual tradition for us. I had taken 2 years off because I felt that it was becoming a bit repetitive and not as exciting as in the past. I mean, for about 3 or 4 years it was always the same main attractions (except for when Deja Vu was luckily open during 1 visit and I got on it - miss that thing). But this time around I knew it would be great with the 2 new roller coasters.

When we first arrived in the park we headed straight to The Flash Pass center which was a nice experience. Since we had purchased our Gold The Flash Pass the night before online, we had it reserved. Since we did that we were able to skip the main line and jump to a special line for people that already had The Flash Pass reserved - great time saver and suggestion. Reserve it online and avoid a 10-30 minute line.

My goal was to get on Goliath and get the big new coaster in right from the get go. I thought that would be smart because it would have a shorter line in the morning. However, that didn't turn out as planned. We walked over to Goliath and saw a 3 hour waiting time - we weren't willing to do that since we had adrenaline pumping and wanted to go on a coaster. Instead, we reserved a ride on X-Flight, which was a short 15 minute wait. This was my first time on X-Flight, and it was a great experience. The loop that comes right off the 1st drop is Superman-esque in the feeling you get in your stomach. I love that feeling, so I was an X-Flight fan from that moment forward. The rest of the ride was really enjoyable - very smooth and just glides into the inversions. If there were 3 small details I didn't enjoy it was the annoying prerecorded voice for getting ready to "takeoff," the harness straps which hurt my collar bones (maybe I'm too skinny), and I wish the ride was longer. But I definitely plan on riding it many more times.

After that we went on 2 more roller coasters. I can't exactly remember the order of everything, but I believe we went on Batman: The Ride and V2. They were both great, as usual. Batman is just full of so many twists and turns you never know what's coming next. It'll definitely disorient you, but it's worth every inversion the ride has to offer. V2 was great also, if you're a first time rider make sure to go on front row as you'll get the best from the ride in that position. I absolutely love going backwards into the straight tower as you're looking straight at the ground, it's an awesome experience.

Goliath was the next encounter, and maybe a dreaded one just because we knew that we'd have to wait a long time to get on it. Keep in mind that the Gold The Flash Pass cannot be used for Goliath; you have to buy the Platinum The Flash Pass for Goliath. We knew this ahead of time but were not willing to pay $110 a person for the Platinum as opposed to $70 a person for the Gold. The entire Goliath experience was about 2 hours and 45 minutes including the line and actually riding the roller coaster. In the end, it was definitely worth the wait. The first drop is hands down the best part of the ride, even better than going upside down on the wooden supported and steel tracked behemoth. I don't think that I'd wait that long to ride it again (expecting the Gold The Flash Pass for this ride next year), but I know that this ride is here to stay.

The rest of the day was pretty smooth. I mean, the 2 main goals were accomplished: riding X-Flight and Goliath for the first time. My brother and I both agreed that Goliath was the better coaster. We of course went on Raging Bull, and hit the ride up twice. For some reason it felt even faster at night. I've never felt that Raging Bull is my favorite roller coaster at the park, but it's the best one to ride at night because it's just a beast in speed and height. It looks great at night. We also went on Viper once which was really enjoyable, definitely caught me off guard a few times with some hang time. Viper got the stomach feeling great.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day was riding the 1981 introduced red, white, and blue wooden roller coaster: American Eagle. I was pretty excited to go on this ride as always, because in the past it never disappointed. You knew that you were going to get, an amazing first drop and some high speeds (66mph) for a wooden coaster. American Eagle's is kind of like a story with all of the different parts you go through. However, this time it felt like torture. It's been 3 years since I've been on it, and man-o-man has it got some wear-and-tear. There wasn't 1 part of the ride that wasn't shaky. The ride just isn't smooth at all any more, which makes it really difficult to enjoy. Even the first drop wasn't smooth, and that's what always kept the ride great. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but I feel like this roller coaster doesn't have much longer at Great America.

One of the smaller changes implemented was the removal of the "No Loose Article Policy." Now I'm not sure when this policy was removed, maybe it was 1 or 2 years ago, but I was super glad to see that it wasn't here to stay. I think that it was crazy when we HAD to buy a locker to store even small things like a cup for 7-11 Slurpees (drank the heck out of one in line for Goliath...yum!) I understand that now it takes a bit more time to load/unload passengers from a train, but in the end it's a smart decision. The lockers weren't cheap and it was annoying dealing with them before and and after every roller coaster. I thank Great America for getting rid of that policy.

This particular day reached a temperature around 85 degrees, so we decided to go on a water ride. We chose Yankee Clipper. I was pleasantly surprised with the ride, and I had never been on it until this day. Using The Flash Pass for this ride is extremely advantageous - once the reservation waiting time is up it's basically a hop-on ride. There's no additional 10-15 minute wait once you use The Flash Pass at the line. We waited about 25 minutes using The Flash Pass, whereas everyone else waited 70 minutes. The ride itself was great, and it was even more exciting waiting for the drop. We kept joking about how we wanted to turn around and avoid the water. Anyways, the drop was awesome and we got wet enough for a cool down. We weren't allowed to take our shoes and socks off, but they didn't even get wet so it worked out just fine.

There were 3 rides that we didn't go on that we usually do: Demon, Giant Drop, and The Dark Knight. We decided to leave the park at about 8 PM instead of staying the entire time until 10 PM. If we did we might of jumped on them or may of hopped on other roller coasters. I do wish we went on Demon just to see how it's holding up, especially since it's older than American Eagle. I always loved the fact that like Whizzer it's so old it's gone through a name change, from Turn of the Century (which I always yell before the corkscrew) to Demon, of course. The Dark Knight is always a great ride for a few laughs, it turns and drops you when you least expect it making for a great time.

If you're still reading this really long post (I have a lot to say lol) please leave a comment about this section here. My favorite roller coaster in the park (depending on the day as you'll read) is Superman: Ultimate Flight. I just absolutely love that inverted loop (or so I like to call it). I really enjoy that feeling in the loop when you're upside down and it basically takes the breath out of you, but in a good thrill seeking way. This time around I didn't get that feeling as strongly. It's always been like that; sometimes I have that oh my god I can't breath feeling while other times it's not as strong.

Well, in general my experience at Six Flags Great America 3 years later was great. I really feel like the park is going through/ending a great transitional period. Now that we have two new solid roller coasters I think that our park is really a top tier amusement park (even more than before). I did notice that it is more teenage friendly (as opposed to children that aren't in their teens yet). I say that because there are now intense rides in the park as opposed to less thrill-seeking flat rides. This, however, makes me and most of us really happy, because we're thrill seekers looking for some of the biggest and baddest coasters out there. I hope you enjoyed my super-long post and use it in some way to help plan your trip.

Ride Count:
X-Flight - 2
Raging Bull - 2
Goliath - 1
Raging Bull - 1
Batman: The Ride - 1
Superman: Ultimate Flight - 1
Viper - 1
Vertical Velocity (V2) - 1
American Eagle - 1
Yankee Clipper - 1
TOTAL RIDE COUNT - 12

Thanks for reading,

-Jake

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Goliath at night. Best. Ride. Ever.

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk

[jbujwit10]

Dang I'll have to try that Guy_With_A_Stick. I bet that'd be awesome with the first drop - next time for sure.

[ashley2]

Then the yellow train didn't run for a while. Anyways, wow! I had so much fun and the drop wasn't that bad, I really enjoyed it! I waited for an hour(because of the technical difficulties). Then I headed to AE again and rode the blue side. Then I went to ride Raging Bull again! Wow, it was amazing, I can't wait to ride it again!

[tazy]

The ride itself was great, and it was even more exciting waiting for the drop. We kept joking about how we wanted to turn around and avoid the water. Anyways, the drop was awesome and we got wet enough for a cool down. We weren't allowed to take our shoes and socks off, but they didn't even get wet so it worked out just fine...!!!