Six Flags Great America Chicago

This is Six Flags Great America in Chicago Illinois and our home park (at the time of this review). It has added 11 coasters to our conquered list, American Eagle, Batman: the Ride, Dark Knight, Deja Vu, Demon, Iron Wolf, Raging Bull, Superman: Ultimate Escape, V2: Vertical Velocity, Viper and Whizzer. It's a very good park with very good coasters, however this park has problems. It holds the distinction of being the park that we had the worst experience in the history of our amusement park trips; 3 coasters in 9 hours.

When we moved from Ohio, one of the things we knew we would miss was our proximity to Cedar Point and Kings Island. However, we were we were pleasantly surprised at what a good Six Flags park Chicago has. Luckily, we live closer to this park than any other park before it. It has some great coasters including the first in the Midwest and possibly the best flying coaster we have been on, Superman: Ultimate Escape with one of the best loops (head first, front flip) we have ever been on. Raging Bull is a fantastic hypercoaster with awesome air time and a top speed of 73 mph. Six Flags Great America is also home to the first inverted coaster in the world, Batman: The Ride. This coaster, unlike many "first" innovative coaster types holds up over time and is great fun. American Eagle is a very good out & back, racer wooden coaster. When it debuted in 1981, it was the fastest coaster in the world at 66 mph and is still the tallest, longest, fastest racing coaster in the world. The Viper wooden coaster is a mirror image of the famous Coney Island Cyclone and great fun. Honorable mentions go to Whizzer, Demon & V2.

With all those coasters, you would think this is a world class amusement park. However, Six Flags Great America has some egregious offenses. The first of which is The Dark Knight coaster. The shittiest coaster to ever ride the coat tails of a great movie. The queue themeing is the best part of this ride which should be advertised as a children’s ride to give people a fair expectation. It’s a dark ride coaster that culminates in a Joker less mouse trap of a ride. If this ride has a line longer than 15 minutes, move along. Trust me! You are missing nothing.

Next is the worst standup coaster we have ever been on, Iron Wolf. In a genre infamous for being rough rides, it is, without a doubt, the roughest. So bad in fact, you spend the majority of the ride just trying to limit how much you rattle around in your seat and trying to minimize the pain until it finally ends. I would liken the Iron Wolf ride experience to Son of Beast, with the loop, at Kings Island. It sucks and can ruin an entire day at the park. At the very least, make sure you have some ibuprofen with you. You'll need it when the ride is over.

The final, and probably the worst issue we have with Six Flags Chicago is the ride management and largely the reason we experienced the worst day ever at an amusement park. The line queues are some of the worst we have ever experienced. The staff seems to have no sense of urgency or pride in what they are doing and makes little to no effort to fill trains to capacity. Maybe this is just a testament to the available work force in Chicago but it sucks. In most cases, if you want any chance of getting on all rides during the day, you need to get a Flash pass, and now your ticket just doubled in price. Nothing like spending $100 a person to spend a day in a park not named Disney. As a season pass holder, I can tell you that at Six Flags Chicago, it feels like Al Capone is running the place because if you don't buy a Flash pass, you’re fucked. It feels like a setup.

The most frustrating part about Six Flags Great America is that it has so much potential. Overall it has great coasters, decent food and some good themeing. They just need to find some more people who give a shit to work there. Regardless of our experience and complaints, I highly recommend this park. I'm glad we have had the opportunity to make it our home park while we are here, but it still isn't Cedar Point or Kings Island. I would be remiss if I didn't give Six Flags credit. During our “worst day at the park”, we were sharing our experience via Twitter, as we do during all our adventures. Six Flags took notice and started Direct Messaging me asking for more information about the problems we were having and pledged to forward our comments onto the park. Hopefully it makes a difference but I am a cynic. Also, don't forget the history of corruption in Chicago because depending on the day you go, it can feel alive and well at this park.

Trip Picks & Ride Reviews

Keren's Korner

So with Mark starting the blog – and doing a fantastic job with the videos and park summaries – I kind of felt like I needed to contribute. It occurred to me that I should write about things that I like but that Mark has no interest in. (Trust me, a lot things fall into that category!) This will mostly include reviews on restaurants, movies and books - and so Keren’s Korner was born. (Disclaimer - Mark has seen way more movies that me and will definitely have an opinion - however - his opinions are usually very different from mine.)

The blog should be a great outlet for me, since I normally can’t discuss things like food with Mark (he's a bit picky!) Also it is possible (however unlikely) that someone else might find it entertaining. Because it’s tougher to critique food and movies after you’ve eaten or seen them, I’ll probably start with books. Along the way, I may decide to blog about something else entirely. I’m leaving it completely up to what may be.

Also, I welcome comments or recommendations. I’ll do my best to try / read / see / eat what I can. I hope you enjoy!!

Idlewild

This is Idlewild located in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania and the last stop on the Western PA Trip. It added two coasters, Rollo Coaster and Wild Mouse, to our conquered list and further reinforced that amusement parks aren't always just about the roller coasters.

This park features two very unique attractions. The first being Story Book Forest which features some "life size models" of your favorite fairy tails. Examples include three real little pigs and a shoe big enough live in. The second is Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe. It combines a train ride back into the forest just like the trolley car that takes you to the Land of Make-Believe in the TV show. There you will see animatronics of all your favorite characters including King Friday as they take you on another adventure in the land of Make-Believe. Both attractions are equally endearing and great fun for children & adults who grew up with stories.

The only noteworthy coaster was the Rollo Coaster which is a wooden coaster built from the very trees that surround the park. The track is also placed in a heavily wooded area engulfed by tall trees. Idlewild is surrounded by greenery and the signage isn't very good. We actually drove pass it the first time because if you don't know it’s there, you will never find it. However, this does really add to the overall aestetic of the park.

Idlewild is a really nice starter park for kids with rides and attractions heavily themed for children, but we enjoyed them all the same.

Trip Pics & Ride Reviews