Six Flags Great America - PTR - 05/19

Well, this was my second time at this park in the past couple of years, but a few new additions made this trip very special! X-Flight would be my first Wing Coaster, and Batman was going backwards!

Also, I met tiepilot35 COUGH Keegan for the first after being well-spoken buddies for 7 years.... it was epic. Both of our boyfriends were there as well. It was a very very fun day! Also, my sister's roommate hooked us up with cheap Autism Society promotional tickets.

I suppose I'll do it how I always do. Pictures first with miscellaneous captions and then I'll make the more notable ride break-downs afterward. Enjoy.


Jumpin' off the interstate to get there...
















Raging Bull still surprises me every time I see it. It's so large...


And this hammerhead.... UGH


Vroooom.








Gorgeous.








#namtab




Loooop


And ]seemingly] less than 1 second later.... crazy overbanked turned.






Had to pay my respects to a classic log flume. Which was awesome and soaking!


X-Flight had closed already at 6:40... so we went on to Raging Bull to be our last ride of the day.






Giant Drop was awesome too. Uncomfortable for tall people.


Pretty...



Beautiful...



One last goodbye to Raging Bull [:(] Until next time!



X-Flight

This was our first ride, as there was no line at park opening, around 10:37. Jeff and I sat back right... Jesus Christ, you guys. This ride was unbelievable. I was NOT expecting anything like this from this ride. The Wing Coasters seemed to have developed some kind of a 'weakness' stigma about them, and I kind of assumed it would be a pretty weak experience just with new wing-riding maneuvers to get excited about- WRONG. It was very forceful and awesome. The first drop and zero g are cool but EVERYTHING following that was a hundred times better! The Immelman was cool in the back left than the right, which I was not expecting. In the back left, the Immelman has this really "floating-whip-back-up-at-the-last-second" feeling! The flat turn is forceful and in the back right, the next inversion (enters like a corkscrew but leaves like a barrel roll) has the COOLEST sensation. The turnaround into the in-line twist is cool and the in-line twist is just awesome! I can't believe how strong the helix is by the way... I definitely didn't think the helix would be anything special and it definitely is one of the more powerful helices I've ever been on.


American Eagle

This was so much better than I remember from 2010! They ended up operating both sides forward this trip around, about the middle of the day before they did it though. This ride is so perfectly rough, with some cute pops of airtime, and a cool turnaround. The turnaround is actually pretty cool. We all agreed that this ride was very fun. We even went back for a second ride later.


Raging Bull

Best ride at the park in my mind. Back row twice, once in the afternoon and once as our last ride [Jeff and me; Keegan and Steven went to Superman to wait it out as their last ride... Jeff and I did not want to). The drop and all of the hills actually have such great airtime. The second hill with the banking is so cool. I don't remember giving this ride enough credit. It is so great with lots of wonderful airtime moments and a cool figure 8 style finale. Definitely always worth the wait, Bull. Even with those hard trims. Keep it comin'...

Batman: The Ride Backwards

This ride was crazy enough forward... Oh my god. We rode 7th row, obviously. Not even much more of a wait. I don't think people understand what was going on with the 'front' of this ride. But we wanted to see everything. This experience was truly truly unlike anything any of us had ever before handled. It was disorienting and even messed with my vision and my balance. Once the train rolled into the brakes, the tunnels around me kept moving... I stumbled down the exit ramps. It's intense. I don't actually know if I would do it again. It's a little aggressive for me but the others in my group seemed to like it!

Viper

I LOVE this woodie... much better in the very back than the front. I don't remember it being so great last time I came, but it was a highlight of the day. Perfect roughness, nice long, layout with PLENTY of airtime and lats that you look for on a classic woodie. SFGAm really stays on top of making their wooden coasters fun to ride season after season...

[Mikey]

What was your impression of the line lengths compared to the amount of guest in the park? Did you feel like you waited longer then you needed to?

^Okay let's get one thing straight, this is a sensitive subject. I have hardly ever waited more than like 20 minutes for ANYTHING except for like The Hulk and the Forbidden Journey. It was super busy there, more than I was expecting. So we waited pretty long for most things, but Viper and American Eagle and this one flat ride had short lines. But X-Flight had no real line but only ran one train during the beginning of the day so it took awhile to get through the short length of line there was...

Generally, no, we didn't wait too long for anything. Raging Bull's line really goes pretty quickly. We got on enough, but I could have wished for some more rides like on Whizzer and stuff....
But I'm going to Valleyfair tomorrow so I can break my ExcaliburRenegadeWildThing2013Cherry YAYYYYY #wantexcalibur #missrenegade #misswildthing #<33

The answer is yes, the lines were longer than I felt we needed to. That is because all of the staff on every ride is lazy, slow, and unorganized. Happens every time I go there. It could be a SFGam thing or a Six Flags thing overall. Single-train X-Flight sat in the station for at least five minutes between cycles as the staff meandered from row to row, slowly checking harnesses and chatting up each row.

[TheArchitect]

Nice pics there bro, thanks for sharing.

[Mikey]

Six Flags is now allegedly training their operators to run rides slower then capacity to save on operating costs. They are implementing policies disguised as safety measures to force them to operate slower. Such as the visual scan 360 degree follow the thumb and check places guests couldn't possibly be. This issue has been identified as consistent with all parks.

I have spoken with a lot of guest at Six Flags who feel the same way you do, and while long term it may not have any effects, it will eventually hurt attendance.

That's really sad to hear. It's amazing what Six Flags will do to make/save a penny. No wonder they're working through bankruptcy or whatever happened.

The problem is some of their parks have such good lineups that they're impossible to resist going to. And they seem to be doing a lot more with RMC than Cedar Fair is at this point.

EDIT: How exactly does this policy even save on operating costs? I mean like to the point where it would be financially significant?

[Mikey]

When you don't run max units, you can sometimes get away with less operators. I believe they are also operating on the assumption that fewer cycles per hour is less wear and tear on rides.

Also I believe RMC may have some exclusivity rights with Six Flags since the owner of RMC is a former Six Flags Engineer.

well, yesterday they closed Eagle red side as soon as people started leaving due to rain.... made me lose out on A LOT of re-rides

...Keegan this is that guy I was talking about when we were at AE^....