Coaster Community

The last day of the trip (Thursday 5/22) we hit up Six Flags Great America in the ‘burbs of Chicago. Note to self: come from the west of Chicago next time, tollways suck.

Anyway, SFGAM reminded me obviously quite a bit of Six Flags St. Louis, but on a grander scale, and was a bit nicer IMO. I was freaked out a bit upon entering the lot when I was greeted with an endless row of school buses, but as a whole (except for a few exceptions), waits weren’t bad at all. Can’t say the same for the crowd that showed up though… Anyway, on to the park itself. I didn’t pay much attention (read: any at all) to the theme of the place (it is a Six Flags, after all), but some of the park had a neat “old school” amusement park feel which was pretty cool. All in all, it was a nice park and an enjoyable place, but nothing stood out as exceptional in my mind.

The first coaster we hit was Superman Ultimate Flight, the closest coaster to the gate. This was where the biggest operational problem was: only one train operation, on what may be their most popular ride. Good job Six Flags. Luckily we beat a rush to the ride and only had to wait 15 minutes or so, I can’t imagine how long it must have been later in the day. The ride itself was cool. It was only my second flyer, so I kept drawing comparisons to Firehawk at PKI. This ride had more of a smooth, graceful flying sensation than Firehawk, and the pretzel loop was of course awesome. It was fun, but nothing amazing. I’ve come to think that roller coasters weren’t meant to be ridden in that position, but it does offer some neat sensations.

We glanced at the new ride, the Dark Knight, which had just opened a few days earlier. Judging from popular opinion, I didn’t miss much when I opted to skip the line that was out of the queue house/station/whatever that building is supposed to be.

The credit whore in me took me next to Ragin’ Cajun. Not much to say, except it was portable, boring, and slightly embarrassing to ride. The Gerstlauer spinners are 10x better and don’t feel like they are going to collapse while you ride, which is usually a good thing.

Down the midway was the original Batman invert, not the backwards version located in St. Louis. And I enjoyed it more. SFGAM’s version took the effort to include gates to bypass the neverending hike through Gotham City Park (thank you!) in order to get to the station quicker. And we were able to walk on to the front row. I thought the ride was smoother and seemed to be taken care of better than the SFSTL version. This one had some sweet footchoppers as well. I dig inverts, and of course Batman is never bad. Probably my second favorite ride in the park.

V2 was next, and not much to say, other than that it’s your standard impulse coaster. The launch is unexpectedly forceful, and I’d have to say I enjoy this better than Wicked Twister simply because the straight back spike and “pause” once it reaches its apex is pretty freaky. These rides are fun, but don’t do a whole lot for me.

Iron Wolf was the next ride in the loop, and predictably, it was rough and not fun. Should be named Muhummad Ali: the Ride, my jaw still hurts from it. Probably the only B&M I’ve ever hated. Standups aren’t cool as it is, and when they beat you up like this, it only makes me want to turn it into scrap iron.

American Eagle was up next, and only had one train running. It was relatively decent and smooth through the first half with some decent air. On the return run it picked up some good speed with even better air, until the last camelback hill, when it felt like the train jumped the track and the cars came straight down. I think my spine compressed about six inches after that. The ride needs painted too. Boo. Not worth the 30ish minute wait.

We hit the “old west” or whatever it’s called section next, and the first ride was the walk on (and originally named) Giant Drop. Not much to say, it’s an Intamin drop ride, which is always fun. I took the time to notice that this particular section of the park was pretty decently themed, which was nice.

Up next was my favorite ride here and the most anticipated one, Raging Bull. They had three trains on the track, but were only loading two. Weird. Anyway, I honestly loved this ride. My expectations were lowered quite a bit after being slightly disappointed by Apollo’s Chariot at BGW/E, but this ride was still fun. I think AC is still better, but without the excessive trims (at the top of the first airtime hill, seriously?) the Bull would be better. I wasn’t sure I would like the hyper-twister layout, but I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of a cross between Apollo and Titan at SFOT. The first drop coming after the little flat stretch at the top of the lift was awesome in the back seat, and the rest of the ride had plenty of opportunities for decent-to-excellent airtime. And it was freshly painted too, which is worth a bonus point or two. I wish it had a bit more intensity, but I say that about most rides that aren’t named the Voyage. I’m not sure if this ride cracked my overall top ten, but it was still a good ride. Not spectacular, but tons of fun.

Viper was up next, and again this ride lived up to expectations. It was very, very smooth and had good moments of air. This was my first of the “Cy-clones” and I see why the layout is popular: it is compact and has a good mix of twists and hills. Intensity-wise, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the newer GCI woodies and many of the CCI/GG woodies out there. That’s not a slam, however. I really enjoyed the ride. I would trade Timber Wolf for this thing in a heartbeat. It was fun.

Demon was next, and not much to say other than it was a standard Arrow looper with corkscrews. The highlight for me was the first drop in the back seat; I did not expect to be tossed out of my seat, my knees ended up around eye level. I’ve got a bit of soft spot for Arrow Loopers, so I would rate this ride as not quite bad, in between mediocre and horrible.

Finally it was time to conquer the mighty... Whizzer. Not going to lie, I had a smile on my face through the entire ride. I can barely remember much about the Zinger other than that I was terrified the first time I rode it, and this ride was so much like it. I loved every second of it. It’s not a ‘great’ ride, but these things are just fun and surprisingly intense. It’s not the best ride here, but it was without a doubt one of my favorites.

Anyway, we decided to head out of middle-school field trip hell to enjoy the rest of Chicago. As a whole, the park was nice, clean, and had a good assortment of rides, but nothing really stood out as outstanding or spectacular to me. I did enjoy myself, and is a property Six Flags should be proud of.