Park Review
|
Gurnee, Illinois April 27, 2001
After a winter that seemed to take several eternities, my coaster
season
Even though Great America doesn't officially open until next Saturday (5th),
the local radio station, B96, held a private party last night. Anyone could
buy tickets, but only 10,000 were available (and yes, it did sell out).
I think that (at 27), I was the oldest person there, but the crowd was very
well behaved. I think the only �bad� thing I witnessed was a little smoking
in line, but no line jumping, no loud raucous swearing, etc. I must say that
I was pleasantly surprised, as previous years haven't been so good.
Okay, on to the rides ;-)
We got there at about 6 - one hour late due to the #*@&%$ tollway traffic.
After four years of going up to the park, I have never had to go through traffic
that bad. Oh, the horror! Anyway�
The first ride we headed to was Whizzer. This is such a fun ride - not the most
thrilling, but you can't help coming off it grinning from ear to ear. The
new wheels (installed last season) are amazingly quiet compared with how
the ride was previously. Admittedly, this ride was suffering just slightly
because the trees have only just started to grow again...
Next was Viper. Mmm, Viper. This ride continues to get better and better
each year. We (of course) rode in the magic seat, and magic it was! There
really is substantial air on every hill, with some nice laterals around
the turns.
After Viper we went for a walk to checkout the construction, and take photos
before the sun totally set. Then we ate, returned the cameras to the car, and decided to see what
Shockwave would do to our freshly eaten pizza!
Shockwave
From here we walked over to Batman, which was having problems. It had
been down for about twenty minutes, and they had just started to cycle trains. We
waited about five minutes until a train stopped on the lift. Then we headed off to
Iron Wolf.
This ride was much the same as last year. It seemed a little less shaky, but
that horrid bump after the corkscrew was still there. I am happy to report
that no brakes have been added to this ride!!
Batman was running by this point, so we headed back there. This is another
ride I can't get enough of. The pacing is insane, the speed fantastic,
and the forces are awesome. I really love the �take no prisoners� attitude
of this ride (something that is really missing from Raging Bull).
Off to Eagle - red side, back seat - man, that drop! The whole out run is
full of totally stand-up air. The helix brakes weren't on too strong, so
the return run was fantastic too. (The brakes were really low on this ride
during the B96 night last year too, but they were all cranked right up
for opening day. I hope this year is different). The blue side was not
running, but the trains were installed and they were not backwards :-(.
Skipping Demon, we went to Raging Bull. The drop on this is good, the ride
is pretty thrilling, but it's just too controlled and doesn't even come close
to �raging�. The public loves it, which is great, but it's not one of my
favorites.
I just can't wait for V2. Deja Vu looks good, but I'm mad at it for ousting
Sky Whirl. Plus, Six Flags has (permanently) blocked off the walkway from
Orbit around to Demon. Everyone now must go through Southwest Territory.
Annoying as that is, they now have quite a big area back there for a nice
large ride, except they plonked down Deja Vu right in the middle, and
basically wasted a large space with a small ride. Sigh.
Oh well, it was a great night - a bit cool, but a lot of fun. I'm really
happy that the coaster season is upon us again!
Cam.
|