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Postby RobSFGAm on April 28th, 2021, 5:50 pm
CoasterRiderSC wrote:
RobSFGAm wrote:Opening Day video posted. It is a bit long, about an hour, but did an entire walk through of the park. Includes Tsunami Surge, New water park entrance, Scenic Railway tracks, Holiday train in the Demon tunnel, most rides working, etc.

https://youtu.be/wtVYrkYcgOA

Rob


Great video Rob! I just watched the entire thing. Thanks for the walk thru.

Question: are those boneless wings and that loaded chicken sandwich a new thing? I've never been in that chicken place by Eagle. I like the nachos/funnel cake place across from Demon because I can get a meal and the funnel cake with only 1 wait in line!

Yes the boneless wings by the Eagle have been there for a long time and this is the only place i know I of where you can get them buffalo style. The sandwich is new this year as well.
Glad you liked the video. I know it was a bit long, but figured people could just scrub through to what interests them.

Thanks,
Rob
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Postby ernstwhere on April 30th, 2021, 11:42 am
RobSFGAm wrote:
CoasterRiderSC wrote:
RobSFGAm wrote:Opening Day video posted. It is a bit long, about an hour, but did an entire walk through of the park. Includes Tsunami Surge, New water park entrance, Scenic Railway tracks, Holiday train in the Demon tunnel, most rides working, etc.

https://youtu.be/wtVYrkYcgOA

Rob


Great video Rob! I just watched the entire thing. Thanks for the walk thru.

Question: are those boneless wings and that loaded chicken sandwich a new thing? I've never been in that chicken place by Eagle. I like the nachos/funnel cake place across from Demon because I can get a meal and the funnel cake with only 1 wait in line!

Yes the boneless wings by the Eagle have been there for a long time and this is the only place i know I of where you can get them buffalo style. The sandwich is new this year as well.
Glad you liked the video. I know it was a bit long, but figured people could just scrub through to what interests them.

Thanks,
Rob


Rob, The video wasn't too long at all. It was great to watch a complete walkthrough considering mgmt didn't do much to keep the public engaged during the closure. I appreciated the length and like a lot of things lately a full, virtual experience.
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Postby RobSFGAm on May 1st, 2021, 8:01 pm
Park update today (5/1/2021):
Got to the park at about 12:30 and it was very busy.
Temperature check line for the first group was to the new Hurricane Harbor entrance and the second one was almost as long, but made it through in about 12 minutes.
Maxx Force was down as it seems there is an issue when the train leaves the station it does not fully clear the last car, thus the second train cannot move into the station.
Buccanner Battle and Loger's Run also were open today.

Food was long, but Mobile ordering go me my Strutters in about 12 minutes.
Not sure of the IL governor moved to another level or note (saw a note that he might by this weekend), but the capacity seems much more than 25%. In addition, Batman - The Dark Knight and Justice League were both opened today which are indoor attractions and were not opened previously. On B-TDK, the queue part in the old theater was skipped, but did not ride so cannot tell you how they spaced indoors.
That's about it for difference I saw this week compared to last weekend.
Last edited by RobSFGAm on May 1st, 2021, 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby RobSFGAm on May 1st, 2021, 8:05 pm
Rob, The video wasn't too long at all. It was great to watch a complete walkthrough considering mgmt didn't do much to keep the public engaged during the closure. I appreciated the length and like a lot of things lately a full, virtual experience.

Thanks...glad you liked it. I tried to cover everything and it got long in trying to do so. I can see in the YouTube Analytics that most people watch for about 12 minutes and I usually try for ten minutes and a good balance.
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Postby anewman35 on May 3rd, 2021, 11:37 am
Illinois definitely hasn't moved to a new phase (people thought it might by this time based on the vaccination numbers, which have met what they needed to, but some other metrics haven't), so it should still be 25%. The thing is, it's presumably 25% of 'maximum' capacity, not 'normal' capacity, so that can still be a lot, especially if stuff is going slower because of Covid reasons. But I haven't been to the park this year so I can't judge for myself
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Postby RobSFGAm on May 8th, 2021, 7:40 pm
DINOSAUR DRIVE-THRU coming next weekend (May 13, 2021 – June 6, 2021).
Some of the dinosaurs are already there and being put in place. This will be in the overflow parking lot.
This is an extra admission / tickets

https://www.dinosaurdrivethru.com
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Postby coasterfanatic on May 13th, 2021, 6:03 pm
The dinosaur drive thru thing is not affiliated nor run by the park. It’s a third party company using Six Flags back lot to host the event. Tickets are like $55.


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Postby gottastrata33 on May 14th, 2021, 9:45 pm
coasterfanatic wrote:The dinosaur drive thru thing is not affiliated nor run by the park. It’s a third party company using Six Flags back lot to host the event. Tickets are like $55.


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Which I think Is a ridiculous cost. The park itself has the cheapest tickets it has had in years. I understand it's third party but $20 per car for a drive through attraction makes more sense.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on May 14th, 2021, 10:59 pm
gottastrata33 wrote:
coasterfanatic wrote:The dinosaur drive thru thing is not affiliated nor run by the park. It’s a third party company using Six Flags back lot to host the event. Tickets are like $55.


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Which I think Is a ridiculous cost. The park itself has the cheapest tickets it has had in years. I understand it's third party but $20 per car for a drive through attraction makes more sense.


Agree 100%! When I saw that price my first thought was "Who's gonna pay that??"
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Postby RobSFGAm on May 15th, 2021, 4:41 pm
gottastrata33 wrote:
coasterfanatic wrote:The dinosaur drive thru thing is not affiliated nor run by the park. It’s a third party company using Six Flags back lot to host the event. Tickets are like $55.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Which I think Is a ridiculous cost. The park itself has the cheapest tickets it has had in years. I understand it's third party but $20 per car for a drive through attraction makes more sense.


Agreed that the price seems a bit high, bit when I went to the park today, Dinosaur Drive Thru was really busy. The entire course was full and then there were people waiting to get in the actual drive thru event. Even when I left it was just a busy.
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Postby RobSFGAm on May 15th, 2021, 4:42 pm
The Scenic Railroad tracking is fully complete, so they should be able to open for Memorial Day.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on May 16th, 2021, 6:59 pm
RobSFGAm wrote:The Scenic Railroad tracking is fully complete, so they should be able to open for Memorial Day.



Thanks for the update! That's great news and it's long overdue!
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Postby Carlo on May 16th, 2021, 8:52 pm
RobSFGAm wrote:
gottastrata33 wrote:
coasterfanatic wrote:The dinosaur drive thru thing is not affiliated nor run by the park. It’s a third party company using Six Flags back lot to host the event. Tickets are like $55.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Which I think Is a ridiculous cost. The park itself has the cheapest tickets it has had in years. I understand it's third party but $20 per car for a drive through attraction makes more sense.


Agreed that the price seems a bit high, bit when I went to the park today, Dinosaur Drive Thru was really busy. The entire course was full and then there were people waiting to get in the actual drive thru event. Even when I left it was just a busy.
People are not paying the full price. They have a coupon code kid25 gives 25% off. So it's about $40 a car.

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Postby gottastrata33 on May 16th, 2021, 11:38 pm
If you go with four people, $10 a person isn't bad.


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Postby SFGAM_Hog on May 21st, 2021, 10:04 pm
Hi I haven’t been on for sooo long. I know this is discussed a lot but how long do you think Demon has left? I’ve gone to the park only a few times now so far this year and it looks like there is rarely ever a line, and the trains I see running don’t have many people in them. Does anyone think there’s enough room for a Jersey Devil *clone* or a raptor with that type of layout for Demon’s footprint? Before the Demon stans come for me, I know, it’d be sad to see it go because they still seem to care for the ride (the audio going into the tunnel and before the corkscrews) and it has a lot of charm, but it is rough. I’m 5’9” and the restraint is very uncomfortable on my shoulders. Demon is a great first upside down ride for kids, but I honestly don’t see it staying at the park for much longer.
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Postby JaminOut on May 22nd, 2021, 10:46 am
I think it depends on what the company’s current motives. It seems that under the new CEO we will be seeing more minor updates and general improvements to the properties. This may extend to older attraction such as Demon. As such, I believe one of the following situations will occur:

A) Removal. I do not believe this will occur in the near future, if this occurs. This is mainly speculative, but Roaring Rapids is not opening this season and all of its signs have been removed. I’m not sure if this is an annual process for opening and closing the ride, but this is the first time I’ve noticed it. Additionally, other rides have lower ridership (Buccaneer Battle). It would be wise for Great America to focus on this space (and potentially the Go Karts) for redevelopment first.

B) Renovation. This possibility I believe is fully reliant on how Six Flags felt about the success of the Blue Hawk conversion at Over Georgia. If ridership increased and maintenance costs decrease by the combined necessary margins to break even on the investment, I believe Great America would go this route.

C) Remain. Maybe the explicit and implicit costs (including opportunity costs) of removal or renovation currently outweigh the benefits. Until there is good reason for the operational status of the tide to change, no major actions will occur against the ride.

My preference would be a renovation. Demon was my first non-kiddie coaster (even before Whizzer), so I would hate to see it go. It’s basically the coaster that made me an enthusiast. The ride could be made far more comfortable with new trains, renovating the station, and adding special effects (fog in the first tunnel, new LED lights in the second, turning the waterfall back on with corrosion prevention measures for the underlying track) are fairly low cost and not too expensive to maintain. I believe marketing a renovation of this classic would be highly marketable (more so than Blue Hawk was) due to this ride’s history with the park.

Those are just my two cents.
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Postby SFGAM_Hog on May 22nd, 2021, 10:55 am
JaminOut wrote:My preference would be a renovation. Demon was my first non-kiddie coaster (even before Whizzer), so I would hate to see it go. It’s basically the coaster that made me an enthusiast. The ride could be made far more comfortable with new trains, renovating the station, and adding special effects (fog in the first tunnel, new LED lights in the second, turning the waterfall back on with corrosion prevention measures for the underlying track) are fairly low cost and not too expensive to maintain. I believe marketing a renovation of this classic would be highly marketable (more so than Blue Hawk was) due to this ride’s history with the park.

Those are just my two cents.


I agree, I’d like to see them renovate it more than anything! And about Roaring Rapids, I think I heard someone say a concrete pillar collapsed and that’s what they’ve been working on? I do find it weird that the sign is removed, but they could just be making touch ups to it.
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Postby coasterfanatic on May 22nd, 2021, 11:10 am
SFGAM_Hog wrote:
JaminOut wrote:My preference would be a renovation. Demon was my first non-kiddie coaster (even before Whizzer), so I would hate to see it go. It’s basically the coaster that made me an enthusiast. The ride could be made far more comfortable with new trains, renovating the station, and adding special effects (fog in the first tunnel, new LED lights in the second, turning the waterfall back on with corrosion prevention measures for the underlying track) are fairly low cost and not too expensive to maintain. I believe marketing a renovation of this classic would be highly marketable (more so than Blue Hawk was) due to this ride’s history with the park.

Those are just my two cents.


I agree, I’d like to see them renovate it more than anything! And about Roaring Rapids, I think I heard someone say a concrete pillar collapsed and that’s what they’ve been working on? I do find it weird that the sign is removed, but they could just be making touch ups to it.
From what I heard, Rapids needs quite a bit of work done. The plan is for them to refurbish the ride this season and reopen next season! While the removal of the sign is interesting, it’s not uncommon when refurbishing/closing a ride for a year.

Of course, anything could change between now and next year in terms of the plan for Rapids. The ride is very costly to maintain but is the most popular water attraction in the park. Only time will tell. I’m definitely a bit worried about it, but the plan is for it to reopen next year after a refurbishment.


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Postby JaminOut on May 22nd, 2021, 1:07 pm
Between Rapids’ refurbishment and the situation with American Eagle’s trains, I think the next couple years of capital investments are going to be interesting. It feels like Eagle may only run red side this year as the blue trains have yet to make an appearance and with likely budget constraints due to covid I wouldn’t be surprised if they opt to just not open that side.

Are there any other minor planned capital investments the park is making? There was a teaser about a V2 repaint, correct?
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Postby coasterfanatic on May 22nd, 2021, 1:11 pm
I believe you are right. I did hear that only Eagle Red will operate this year too.

Sky Trek will be closed too but that’s covid related. The park needs some serious landscaping and stuff done as well, and other general upkeep so hoping they get that done.


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Postby JT2002 on May 22nd, 2021, 5:11 pm
Agreed hopefully the landscaping gets done, they're always a little short staffed and behind schedule to the effect.
The train will be the first big refurb (which maybe the track is done but the stations and train itself I hope got and are getting worked on, then rapids I think, and I really hope Eagle is next on the docket (then comes the flumes *gulp*).

I prefer this approach than just letting stuff sit and removing a thing a year to put in a new small ride tbh with less theming and character.
Last edited by JT2002 on June 3rd, 2021, 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby RobSFGAm on May 23rd, 2021, 8:27 am
Yesterday the Train Station by Goliath they had all the chairs back (staked to one side) and it looked like they were doing refurb work to the station. The track is complete and they pulled the cars out from the tunnel next to the Demon. Train could open Memorial weekend as I believe that the work they left could easily be complete by then.
As for getting the park in order, it is going to be a struggle as they are having a hard time filling positions this year. Seeing that most people want to ride the rides, that is where they are putting staffing so other things will not be a focus. At least the staffing is not as bad as Cedar Point where they had to increase the pay from $10 to $20 and still cannot enough staff. Now they are going to a 5-day a week operating schedule through June.
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Postby JackGlass on May 23rd, 2021, 1:08 pm
$20 an hour is awesome. Hopefully Cedar Point makes that wage hike permanent
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Postby anewman35 on May 23rd, 2021, 5:05 pm
Is a switch to Pepsi something that's officially happening? Seems like Six Flags making a deal like that would have press releases and stuff, and I can't find any...
Last edited by anewman35 on May 25th, 2021, 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby gottastrata33 on May 24th, 2021, 3:32 am
anewman35 wrote:Is a switch to Pepsi something that's officially happening? Seems like Six Flags making a deal like would have press releases and stuff, and I can't find any...


My questions exactly. Where is this info?!
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