Six Flags Great America -- Tuesday, May 18

First off, I hit an insane amount of traffic on the drive up so instead of getting to the park between 9 and 9:30, I didn't pull into the parking lot until about 9:55. Official opening time was 10, but of course people were already being let in.

Worst part of the trip -- the weather -- it was 49 degrees, completely overcast, and very windy when I got there and didn't change much the entire day (maybe got up to 55 degrees).

Park was fairly empty, with most guest there for either Middle School or High School graduation trips. Despite the fact that there were a lot of (mostly) unsupervised kids running around, everyone seemed pretty well behaved with no line-cutting. (Of course most lines were only maybe 10 minutes anyway.)

I immediately headed over to Superman and got in the short line -- the first train-load of riders pulled out at 10:08. I rode Superman twice before heading over to Deja Vu...

Yet again, Deja Vu was closed the entire day. This marks the third time that I've been to a park with one of these coaster that they've been closed -- I've yet to ride one and I've pretty much resigned myself to the idea that I probably never will. Also closed that morning were both American Eagle and V2.

So I rode Demon, Raging Bull (twice), and Viper (twice). By this time I could see that both American Eagle and V2 were doing test runs so things were starting to look up. Rode Iron Wolf and walked around to American Eagle, but it was still closed. Headed over to V2 (which was running) and waited about 30 minutes for the front row (the only way I like to ride that one). As I got to the gates there was a shift change. I don't know if it was the new operator's fault or not, but the ride went down as soon as she got on the controls. After waiting 5 minutes more they cleared the station...

Rode Batman (twice). Saw the construction on Ragin' Cajun -- looks interesting, but very tame. At least the switchback track should get some good spins going and should be good for a laugh. King Chaos was also still under construction. Big Easy Balloons and Jester's Wild Ride were both operational, but I didn't ride them.

Headed over to get some lunch somewhere with indoor seating since it was so damn cold! Most of the food places were closed -- after finally finding one that was open I was told they couldn't take my order for 5 or 10 more minutes because their computers crashed...

After eating I headed back over towards Whizzer (now closed). Rode Viper and Raging Bull again before seeing people on American Eagle. I rode Revolution while my friend went to the restroom and then rode Iron Wolf again. Got to American Eagle and they're only running the blue (backwards) trains. Rode it three times.

Headed back to V2 and was able to ride it in the front. Got on Batman -- the train stopped on the lift hill and we were stuck there for about 10 minutes before it got going -- not a long time but it was so damn cold out!

Rode Superman two more times. Then over to Whizzer (now open again) and Demon once more.

By then it was only an hour before closing and we decided to head out since we were ready to get out of the cold. Although it had it's definite low points (damn you Deja Vu!), all in all it was one of the better trips I've had to a Six Flags park. Although it was also by far the most empty I've ever seen a Six Flags park so I'm sure that helped.

Sucks Deja Vu was down, I thought it was doing better at the end of last year downtime wise. Too bad I went in August last year, I rode everything about once in an entire day. Sounds like a pretty good time though.

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The Gravity Group: Turning "Gee what if..." into "G why not?"

I'm glad you had a good time. Too bad about Deja Vu. It was open the first day of the season so I don't know what happened or has it been running since that day. I guess I'm not that surprised that some coasters were up late or had periods of downtime throughout the day. That usually seems to happen there. My feeling on Deja Vu is that if they can't get it running, they have to remove it! It's ridiculous that Deja Vu has been up for four years now and it still can't run reliably. Put a cool flat there or some small sort of twisted rollercoaster there. There just isn't any point to have a ride up...that is always down.

Otherwise, it seemed like you had a pretty good time. Oh, what did you think of the other rides/coasters? Give some ratings.

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I want to go to John's Park.

I'm not suprised to hear Deja Vu was down.

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It's hard to really say -- I don't think they have anything that really stands out. (Deja Vu only stands out to me because it's so elusive...)

Superman is interesting and it was my first time on a flyer, but besides that one big loop that pushes you back (and makes you feel like you might just pass out if it lasts any longer ), there's really not much to it. Plus I didn't like having to hang there at the end while waiting for the next train to pull out of the station -- a bit dizzying...

V2 is always fun in the front row, but the wait is just too long.

Batman is a pretty good inverted, but not as good as ones such as Raptor or Montu.

Viper was probably my favorite coaster in the park -- not extreme by any means, but always fun. American Eagle was ok, but not as impressive as it looks.

Demon is also pretty fun, if tame, but better than it first looks.

Raging Bull is ok, but nothing special.

Iron Wolf should be torn down and replaced by something new. (Of course I'm not a big fan of stand-up coasters in general.)

The scariest ride award goes to Whizzer -- it's a cheesy coaster, but there's a lot of room in those cars when you're sitting one person to a seat and the only restraints are the seatbelts that don't lock unless there's a lot of force applied. I found myself getting pushed out in the corners a bit too much for my liking and it was one of the only coasters during which I was actually holding on. (And I'm one of those people who rides Millennium Force in the front row with their hands up the entire ride start to finish.)

Speaking of Millenium Force, I think Cedar Point has pretty much ruined me for the rides at parks such as SFGAm -- Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Magnum XL-200, etc... Nothing at SFGAm even approaches these...

Good reviews. I agree with you about Superman:UF, other than the pretzel loop, there isn't much to it. It's a shame since the flying coaster has so many possibilities but has yet to be realized on the Superman:UF clones popping up at Six Flags parks. I also don't care for just hanging there waiting for the train in front to pull out of the station. I think that was bad design, but I'm not too concerned about that, I'd much rather have had more elements than worry about the station itself.

Most of the reviews, I would agree with, with the exception of Raging Bull. I think it's an awesome ride. With a great first drop and some good airtime and some nice twists and turns. It's in my top 5.

I also agreed with what you said about Cedar Point. I feel the same way, I'm so impressed with CP, that it sometimes does take a lot to really standout to me.

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I want to go to John's Park.

I agree that they should concentrate on creating a more thrilling ride on Superman as opposed to worrying about the station design -- but of course if the ride was more intense then the time spent just hanging there at the end would probably be even worse... At least the harnesses are comfortable.

I figured I'd get called out on my Raging Bull assessment... I dunno what it is about that ride that doesn't do it for me. My friend that I was there with liked it well enough... Again, I think I was just comparing it to Millenium Force too much -- sometimes I wish I could just wipe my memory of that and the other CP stunners so that I could enjoy other coasters more.