Pardon my gushing.
Photo courtesy of Julie's Coaster Pictures! |
Photo courtesy of Julie's Coaster Pictures! |
The park was absolutely *stunning*, in full and glorious spring bloom. Hundreds of the tallest yellow tulips I've ever seen enveloped the plaza pool and double decker carousel. Flowering trees graced every square inch of the park with the sweet scent of honeysuckle. |
Photo courtesy of Julie's Coaster Pictures! |
Susan and I were *delighted* to spend the day with CoasterJulie and her boyfriend, Geoff. Julie and I have corresponded through e-mail and IRC chats for some time now, but we had never met until this weekend. They are HILARIOUS people to hang out with. Geoff is about as witty as they come, and Julie can talk up a storm! She is also very funny and both of them are about as nice and unpretentious as anyone can get. Geoff took to calling me "Jasper" for some reason, and he turned me on to Laffy Taffy with bits of Sweet-Tarts. Julie serenaded us with a frighteningly deep-throated rendition of a song that Great America regulars must be fairly familiar with: "The Demon.............. is gonna get cha........ The Demon.......... is gonna get cha......" |
Saturday was quite cold, so for the second week in a row I was
forced to make yet another impromptu winter clothing purchase
inside the park - this time insulated pants. You know, the kind that go
squish-squish-squish when you walk. It felt like I was
wearing a diaper! Fortunately Geoff was understanding and
resisted the urge to embarrass me. Yeah, right! The rides were up and running for opening bell, long before the midway games had their curtains lifted (does this tell you something about Great America's priorities?). And speaking of opening bell, I can't recall another park playing the Star Spangled Banner just as the rope drops. I find this very touching and a nice reflection on the park. On Saturday morning only Raging Bull did not open at 10:00 a.m. There were clearly attempts to get it up and running as quickly as possible, as numerous trains were sent out only to get stuck on the lift hill. This did not hinder our day in the least. Instead it allowed us to make Viper our morning wake up call.
In fact I tend to compare Viper more to Hersheypark's Wildcat, with Viper getting the edge. Viper is an incredibly smooth, extremely rerideable twister that gives it's front seat riders a challenging mix of airtime, frightening headchoppers and sharp laterals. There are no seatbelts and the lap bars stay put. If you ride it first thing in the morning they do not slow it down at the top of the lift hill. At night it was simply insane with speed! I put Viper No. 7 on my list, just behind Raven and ahead of Hersheypark's Wildcat. I absolutely love this coaster!!! Next we rode American Eagle. I think Julie and Geoff like this coaster a lot more than Susan and I do. The first out section is fantastic - it really flies over those first three hills and lets you know what it's capable of doing. And then.... it hops onto that first turnaround and just...... crawls..... through the rest of the ride. Such a pity. Iron Wolf was another coaster I was itching to ride. I was completely surprised by this short but intense stand up when I rode it for the first time last year. So impressive was it that I thought it better than Mantis. I have since ridden two other stand ups that I felt were worthy of challenging Iron Wolf. Riddler's Revenge and Georgia Scorcher are both excellent coasters. Riddler's Revenge is great for it's pure feeling of flight. But Iron Wolf, in comparison, is my favorite for it's all-out intensity. Both Susan and I walked off with spaghetti legs. Iron Wolf packs a powerful punch - it has turns that really mean something, with drops that make you go OOF! There's no mid-course brake to slow it down so what you get is a ride with raw power. And that's the best way to sum up Iron Wolf. It's what a stand up coaster should be.
Everyone seems so eager to compare Raging Bull and BGW's Apollo's Chariot. Indeed, employees asked me several times which coaster I liked better. I suppose it all depends on what you like in a coaster. Some people prefer out and backs, some like twisters. Either way, both coasters are outstanding on their own merits!
I counted six GREAT moments of airtime on Raging Bull. It's not the airtime machine that Apollo's Chariot is, but it's got an unbeatable first drop, a perfect mix of high turns followed by low to the ground drops, two or three floater-filled camelbacks and a fun figure eight ending. But forget the Apollo vs. Raging Bull debate. Viper is still my favorite ride in the park, and if BGW had a woodie I'd probably pick that over Apollo as well. But I'll go on record and say I like Apollo better, simply for being an all-out airtime machine. One thing I did not like seeing were "hippies" being forced to leave without riding. This is a terrible, terrible situation if you ask me. B&M has failed badly to provide people who could not even be considered obese with an opportunity to ride their two hypers. Not only that, but consider the horrifying embarrassment these people suffer. I sincerely hope both BGW and SFGAm *INSIST* on being provided with alternative seating arrangements for these guests. There is no excuse for it. One other thing I noticed is the looseness of the restraints. On Raging Bull in particular, you really are forced to keep one hand on the restraint. If not, it WILL come down, and not just a little. On two of my rides I was pinned in before the mid-course brake, and my ride experienced notably suffered for it. I wish there were a way to just let loose and fly, but I guess when riding the bull, you gotta hang onto the rope.
Fortunately I was spared that disappointment! On Saturday I politely asked the attendant if we could hold for the backseat. He paused for a moment, then said "okay, sure, it's the best." The next time we got a different guy and he made us take a middle row seat. So Susan burped in his face as she is prone to do, while I spat on him. No wait, that wasn't us. Phew! On Sunday, Susan and I were lucky enough to FINALLY meet Joe Campanella! Joe is a poster on RRC and he was more than gracious to us. He got us a backseat ride every time! However, one time he was forced to push down on my restraint to satisfy the lead op. It was hilarious - he handled it with all the delicacy of a surgeon ("here now, this won't hurt a bit..."). After it clicked I screamed "he's a NAZI!!!" and he just laughed. On our next ride he walked up with a smirk on his face and said "here, I think this needs to come down some more." He pretended to push down, and I yelled "Aaaaaah!" and he just laughed and walked away. Joe is every bit as cool as I'd heard. The security systems in place for Raging Bull's queues was brilliant. On Saturday they set up a boarding pass system. As we entered the queue we were given a number, distributed in sequential order, to be given to the attendant once we reached the station. No boarding pass, no ride. Number out of order, you'll have to wait. It was an obvious and overwhelming success with regard to containing any line jumping problem. However, I noticed we did not encounter any line jumping at all anywhere in the park, despite both days being quite crowded. Still, this boarding pass system worked perfectly. On Sunday the park did not use the boarding pass system - instead security monitors were placed at the entrance. Again, we encountered no line jumping. I say whatever works, THANK YOU for doing something! We also rode Demon as well as Batman. Going from the front directly to the backseat on Batman is amazing, the ride is just *that* much better! The line for Shockwave was surprisingly all the way out the queue and into the midway so we never rode it, nor Giant Drop for the same reason. We also didn't ride The Whizzer as it broke down as we were close to boarding. Julie seemed devastated! That is, until she was launched several times on Viper.
One thing I noticed about Great America that particularly impressed me is that each flat ride is completely isolated from the rest of the park. Every ride has rows of flowering trees or a ring of bushes surrounding it, and this really makes each flat ride a self-contained attraction. It accentuates the importance of each ride. You're not just riding any old ride, you're riding THE ride! It's an extremely nice touch and one of the most memorable impressions I had of the park.
Power Dive makes the most awesome roaring rocket sound as the ship swings back and forth! However as the ride came to an end, tragedy befell, along with the overhead restraints, on poor Julie's boobies. Her hooters were howling with pain from being squished together so forcefully! It did not look pleasant at all, though it *was* quite funny to look at! Julie told us that she asked the Great America representative at No Coaster Con if the windows on Sky Trek Tower would ever be replaced. Sure enough, every single window pane had been completely replaced. It's so nice to see parks paying attention to public concerns, even when there's little to be gained financially. Another thing that impressed me were the employees at Great America. Now, I know what you're saying - "Yeah, it's easy to be nice at the beginning of the year, come back in the fall and see what they're like." Well, we DID go in the fall and one of the things that left the biggest impression on me then was the courteousness of all the employees. I'm happy to report that this was not a fluke. Every single employee we encountered over two days was not only competent, they were FRIENDLY. I encountered workers who were enthusiastic about their jobs, concessionaires who smiled at me, and ride ops who respected my spleen. I, for one, am extremely delighted to see this kind of attitude. Not only that, but everyone seemed genuinely proficient at their positions. Even when dealing with problem guests they remained polite but firmly in control. Somebody in management is doing something very very right at SFGAm. The food at Great America is about the only thing you'll find that is not great. Susan is krazy with a K over corn-on-the-cob, but again, like last year, the corn was wrinkled and had been setting out way too long. I tried it and yeah, it was pretty nasty. We did enjoy some tasty breadsticks with marinara sauce, but at $3.50, would it not be unreasonable to expect more than two lousy breadsticks, I mean come on! Anyway, poor Julie was saddled with some funky kind of cardboard pizza that Geoff compared to a badly thawed Jeno's in your grocer's frozen food section. Food aside, Six Flags Great America really has it all. This was our second visit to this park, and I would now say it's my second favorite Six Flags park, after SFOG and even ahead of SFOT. They really have a marvelous collection of coasters and flat rides, and the place is filled with beautiful walkways and nicely decorated plazas. The employees are extremely nice and the park is very well run. We spent two full days at SFGAm. Is it really worth going for two days? Absolutely! I really, really wish ACE would hold a Con in this area. SFGAm, MA and Big Chiefs would make a marvelous Con. Joe, it was great meeting you - hope we can hook up sometime when you don't have to work! And Julie and Geoff, thanks for spending the day with us. We had a blast!
Mark-
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Email: MarkinArk@earthlink.net