First off, major kudos must be given to Great America for doing their best to match the appearance of the ride at Great America to the appearance of the ride at Kiddieland. They even analyzed photos of the ride at Kiddleland to best match the lights on the ride (though they're now LED) along w/ the loud speakers. Very close attention was paid to detail!
Six Flags Great America had a nice tribute to Kiddieland through multiple signs displayed in the....
queue. Below are a few examples of some of the signs displayed.
Great America did a terrific job in creating the atmosphere of the day with...
The dressings of the table for lunch to..
some very nice old-school music (for an old-school ride)...and that even included...
two very talented professional dancers!
Elvis helping to serve rootbeer floats? If that doesn't take you back, I don't know what will. : - )
"You ain't nothin' but a hound cat...err..umm dog..."
Is that who I think it is? Behind you!
Is Mr. Six challenging Bugs?!?!?! To what?
Dancing with the park mascots? Well, if that's the case, Bugs wins, carrots down. Sorry Mr. Six - I know you're very popular now, but Bugs is still #1. : - )
Back when Six Flags first purchased the Little Dipper from Kiddieland, Six Flags promised that the family that owned Kiddieland would be invited to the opening of the ride at Great America - and true to their word, the family was there to pass on the "baton" of the ride from them to Great America.
The family getting ready for their first (or is it 3,653th?) ride!
Going up the lift hill...
and finally, returning to the station. Judging from the smiles, I think the family enjoyed themselves!
They also got to enjoy themselves with Mr. Six...
in more ways than one! Mr. Six has sure got the moves!
For opening ceremonies, park president Hank Salemi gave a very nice speech about the historical significance of the Little Dipper and what it means to keep the tradition that comes with the Little Dipper alive.
After a very touching speech from one of the former owner's of Kiddieland, it was on to the ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the (almost) opening of the Little Dipper at its new home, Six Flags Great America!
The Kiddieland owners not only passed along the Little Dipper to Great America (via auction), but also presented the park with the ACE Coaster Classic plaque for the ride along with a coin commemorative/collectible Kiddieleland coin (pictured right).
The media member who goes the farthest back with Great America is pictured above - that being ABC's Frank Mathie. His first one was when he covered the opening of Great America in 1976 with a ride on the Turn of the Century. He has continued to attend most media days through the years and has, at these events, ridden such rides as the America Eagle and Raging Bull. It was great to see him riding the Little Dipper both in person and on tv - keeping yet another Chicagoland tradition alive!
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/mathie&id=7465879 is Frank's story, in video form, on the Little Dipper
Below are a few random miscellaneous shots of Little Dipper. In my opinion, is that it's almost impossible to get a really good place to take a good shot of the ride! I tried, and asked many professional photographers if they could find a good spot, but alas, I never heard of anyone finding a great spot. So, in advance, I must apologize for the photos being not-so great. But, still, here they are, none-the-less!
Hank seems to like it!
Notice the orange clip-like seat belts.
The Kiddieland family riding again!
I'm sorry about the formatting with the photos (if you have a formatting issue). It has been a long time since I inserted photos to a post on this site, and if I'm doing something wrong, I don't remember what, and hence don't remember how to fix it. =)
The ride looks great, doesn't it? It's going to be a terrific family ride for the park for many years to will continue to serve its role as being many peoples first roller coaster. Right now, itt's brand new, so it's still kind of slow, but as the former owner of Kiddieland said, "give it a month," and I'm sure it will be flying! Considering some of the work done on the ride was done by the same people/company that did Viper, you know the ride has to be (and is!) butter smooth. In all respects, both in the erection of the ride and in the dedication to detail in trying to keep that classic look, Six Flags has definitely excelled, and they deserve major kudos for all the work they've put into the ride!
Major congrats must go out to Great America for keeping a Chicago tradition alive! Great job, Great America! Also, to the hard-working Great America crew working throughout the day...
some of which are pictured here, it must be said...
"Thank you, thank you very much."
