The reason why Great America gets crowded is because it is situated almost halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee so it draws from two major Midwestern cities.
@@thestrangeman069 I live in TN. I go to universal and Disney every two years but In between time I go to smaller parks like Six Flags. Oftentimes the one in St. Louis. It's boring to me now so next Friday we're trying this one out. I'm excited
Actually if you got tuesdays and Wednesdays the longest wait is about an hour and that's Goliath. Otherwise I've never had to wait more than 30 minutes for anything, and most are 10 minutes or less
DKMPalace Honestly I go like 3 times a month and maybe about 20 times a summer if I'm lucky I'm going for my second time in June on Saturday. So omg I'm so excited Raging Bull is fun I think you have to ride it enough to appreciate how good it is and I don't want to start a coaster fight just my opinion
I go there so much I forget it's like part of a famous and branded chain that people travel to. Illinois kids don't see movies or go on bike rides, we got to six flags for the day
This is my home park and it’s one of my happiest places on earth. I love the rides and after a while it just begins to feel like home. I can remember my first ride on each coaster which is really cool and they are getting more and more new coasters for me to experience. I love this place and it is a place I will always remember.
Me, I went on the plane ride with my twin brother when we were about 6 years old, we didn’t know you had to press the button to go up and down so they let us stay on and go again, best day of my life on earth!
Skyler Is Stuck On A Lift Hill noooo lol I live in this area and go a lot and he only really showed the not too good ones there are a lot of different ones and I would say Goliath is 3rd best there
Six Flags Illinois was originally Marriott's Great America built by the Marriott company (the same as the hotel company) it had a sister park in Santa Clara California called by the same name but now that park is owned by Cedar Fair. Both opened in the late 70's
Walter Williams Yup....California's Great America is about a 5 hours drive from L A where I'm located, and even though it is the lesser one of it's Six Flags twin it's a great park, ESPECIALLY with the opening of the new RMC Raptor Railblazer. And with the possible addition of a new B&M Hyper somewhere in the near future I would say Cali's Great America is growing by leaps and bounds!!
This is my home park and I kinda agree with you on it. It can get so crowded. I went on Easter this past weekend for a few hours on the sneak peak weekend and it was crowded AND IT WAS EASTER! It was crazy that it was kind packed. One other thing is the operations here are not that good. On Superman for instance, what should be a 10 minute wait can be a 35 minute wait. I've waited 2 1/2 hours for it before. So you gotta always go in the single rider line for it. I definitely enjoy the park and think it has good roller coasters though, but you really have to think about what you absolutely must get on and then what things you need to skip. I also kinda found it weird you didn't get in giant drop as it's usually a walk on.
National Coaster News this is my home park to, I live almost 10 minutes away so I come here all the time, once I waited 2 and a half hours for dark Knight was raining and it was the only thing open next to justice lesuge
National Coaster News it wasn't that much the operations, it was cause it was raining and they closed all of the outdoor rides so everyone went to the dark Knight cause it's indoor, and you know how long the queue line is and it was completely full
" where did they get that title? Did they just like give it to themselves?" Yes.... that is exactly what they did LOL. I actually worked there the year that they started doing that 😂. It was more about the idea that if they called themselves that and had that mentality that they would be a lot cleaner than they used to be.
Mitchel Larrabee Not really. This park doesn’t have really eye popping records like what Cedar Point has. You guys don’t have a giga (like MF) but I wouldn’t compare this to Cedar Point. Cedar Point is beautiful.
By the way great video. This is my home park and i completly agree with you. i just hope one day ill be able to make it down to six flags st lois....:)
I personally think Busch Gardens Williamsburg is the cleanest theme park in the world, It was also voted the worlds most beautiful theme park for years.
I absolutely agree, it is so beautiful and well kept and has great food as well and always looks so nice. It also has one of the very few really well done original dark rides (aka not based off a property of some sort) and a ton of rides and for not having 10 coasters it has a pretty sweet line up in that area too. Cannot even remotely say the same for it's sister park in Tampa (they got the huge line up but it's poorly kept and not really that nice looking).
I don't really know what's the cleanest, I've never really been to an amusement park that I remember was dirty other than maybe King's Dominion during the Paramount days (it's really cleaned up since Cedar Fair bought it). But Busch Gardens Williamsburg is definitely the absolute best for landscaping, architecture, and themed sections.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a park ambiance like no other American park. It's always shaded and secluded. Its sister park, although having a better lineup than Williamsburg does not come anywhere close to being as nice as Williamsburg. In general, Virginia parks have so much beauty and charm to them.
When I went to Great America there wasn't many people there. The only ride that took like 45 min to get in was X-Flight, the rest of the rides were like a 5 min wait. It was great. Batman The Ride was empty that they let me and my friends stay on it for 3 rides in the front row. The Demon ride is the worst. MY head kept banging on the sides of the seats and it gave me a headache. But in all Great America is pretty good.
My old home park! Gone here for the last 20 years. No comment on RAGING BULL!? That is one of the smoothest most enjoyable intense rides ever, that drop is pure ecstasy, and so comfortable, I could ride that over and over. Batman is great always. Viper is a very solid fun wooden coaster. American Eagle is intense! Wonderful memories at this park, especially during fright fest. I get happy just thinking about all the amazing times I had there growing up. Who else remembers the old days of Shockwave and Iron Wolf!?
New zealander here. Went there in may just gone. Was the most amazing experience ive been on. Goliath and raging bull were my favs follower by joker and then superman
Six Flags has been using the boarding pass system (numbered tickets) for over 20 years on it's most popular rides on busy days. My first experience with it was at SFMM in 1994 for Flashback, Batman the Ride, Viper and Revolution.
Haven't gone to Six Flags Great America for a while? Here are the rides and other attractions that were removed from 2010-2018. Great America Raceway 1976-2010: Removed to make room for X-Flight Iron Wolf 1990-2011: Relocated to Six Flags America as Apocalypse, now converted to a Floorless Coaster as Firebird. Eventually added Goliath at its location. Rajin Cajun 2004-2013: Relocated to Six Flags America. Demolished the ride's entrance to make room for The Joker. Sky Trail 2010-2014: Removed due to decline in popularity. Ignite Stage 2013-2014: Removed for a modest stage. The Orbit 1976-2016: Removed to relocate East River Crawler now back to its original name The Lobster to its spot to make room for The Joker. Jester's Wild Ride 2004-2016: Removed to make room for The Joker. King Chaos 2004-2017: Removed to add Mardi Gras Hangover. Pictorium 1979-2018: Demolished in late April 2018 to make room for Maxx Force.
A great tip for when you come here,don't care where you sit i went with my school a couple years ago and this helped alot i got to ride the demon 7 times,viper 6,batman the ride 5,the dark knight 2,Wizard 3,everything else was 1 time.
You know that Key Lime Cove is being turned into a Great Wolf Lodge! It is going to make Gurnee a really nice place to visit, and I happen to live their!
J.T. Hill Yeah it is going to be great! They are going to expand the indoor water park and add an outdoor section plus they will re theme the whole thing. Key lime cove is actually closing like this week; you can't make and new reservations anymore.
Great America is my "Local Park." I've been there quite a lot and every time is always great like the last. I think I was 6 or 7 when I got on the Demon for the first time, first coaster I ever rode. Then 6 years later I was in line for some of the best, tallest what ever coasters in the world at Cedar Point. I always never thought I would go on dragster but, there I was! Great park I love it and my parents used to go there too so, always a fun time there!
This park has a great selection of coasters and attractions! They have a really intense flying coaster, a shorter but great RMC, a wing coaster, a invert, 2 launch coasters, a few woodies and a great collections of flat rides! I personally wanna ride their B&M hyper and their RMC Coaster! What’s great is that their water park is free with park entrance! Also! When you mentioned about the seperate DC attractions, parks like Great Adventure also have that problem. Green Lantern, Superman,Bizzaro, are one side of a park while Wonder Women, Batman, and Dark Knight and Cyborg are by Nitro. I think they do that because they wanna spread everyone out but that’s just me. But anyway, the park looks like one of the better Six Flags Park by Great Adventure and Magic Mountain. I do agree that they should offer way more trees and shades. The sad thing is that they’re limited on land. According to how Maxx Force looks, they really smooshed it by Raging Bull. While I haven’t visited the park yet I think it’s a really good park. Great Review! :))
That is beautiful, I went on X-Flight opening day(same as my B-Day). My dad picked me up out of school early. I walked on to it three times before I got sick, could've gone again, though
When you said that your day here was packed, I instantly remembered the day where I hit 12 coasters and 2 ground rides in 7 hours here lol. If you plan well, you can hit e v e r y t h i n g. This is my home park BTW.
You have to stay until the park closes to get to ride all the best rides with short lines. In the last hour before they close lines length drops dramatically. If you can stay until the last 15min do it. You'll get to ride stuff with no line that 3 hours earlier would have easily been over an hour. All the families clear out and it's just enthusiasts or night owls. With a season pass I'd show up at like 5pm and still get to ride all the good stuff.
Taylor you actually visited the day before a bring a friend for free day. I was going to go their on the day you were coming but I got invited to go with my friends the day after. And since I am a poor college student I decided to go with the free option, and thus I missed you by 1 day :(. Anyways, I really like the videos maybe you will reach 50k subs soon!
4:20 I was there on opening day in 1976. The spaghetti was much better then, probably about the best food in the park at the time. I recall they had some kind of problem with the bathrooms getting flooded and backed up, and some of the rides had problems, so they gave everyone free admission vouchers for a return visit.
This park is one hour away from me, luckily, and I went in May with my friends because I had a season pass, and NO ONE was there. Only around 100 people were there. All the lines were already up to the boarding station. It was so cool.
The crowds can get ridiculous. The park has been getting more and more crowded with each passing year. I went on Saturday and the place was packed. Unfortunately my schedule only allows me to go on weekends so I always have to buy the Flash Pass if I even want a chance to get on all the coasters. Even with the flash pass I can get on everything only once.
A tip on the food. Bring a cooler, enough food for lunch and dinner, and eat by your car. Saved a ton of money over the years doing that. We still buy food in the park but it's things like snacks, water, and soda .
Six Flags Great America is my home Park and it takes me about an hour to get there. I just got a Season Pass-Membership during the Memorial Day sale and I am happy. I haven’t been to Great America in years. I am happy that I am going back and will be going quite often this year.
I was with Taylor for his visit from 2 (when the American Eagle meet up occurred) to 6PM (I had to leave). I enjoyed every moment, and I was one of the ones to suggest that we go at the then Angelo's (the pasta restaurant mentioned here: now Capone's Kitchen). Aside from the personal experiences (since I have a VERY heartfelt comment on his SFGAm vlog) I do have some thought about my home park. First, I have a theory that SFGAm is a midwestern empire. It is the only major park in Illinois, and serves to the people of Chicago (obviously) which is the 3rd largest city in the nation, and to a certain extent, Milwaukee. This lead to often obscene crowds, especially on hot summer days and weekends. I waited 90 minutes for my first ride on BTR, and I will never wait that long at my home park again. The best days to visit are Tuesday and Wednesday, when bring a friend is not occurring. It will still be 30-45 minutes a ride, and you will not cover all attractions in a day, but you can get on some good rides, and even re-rides on big attractions, if you stay ALL day. SFGAm is a really great park, and I highly recommend going here, but this is one of the most insane parks for crowds, even surpassing amusement parks in Florida and California (SFMM, SFDK, KBF, BGT, etc.: Anything not universal or disney basically.) It does take some planning to successfully visit here, but it will be well worth it. :D
Pikabutter25 Hey very nice comment that you said. I have never really had problems with the lines I just always expect like 45 mins waits on most rides but I guess that is long compared to other parks that aren't as crowded. And Great America definitely serves Milwaukee as well as Chicago. They have many advertisements in the Milwaukee area and Milwaukee is actually closer to Great America then half of Chicagoans are to Great America. I am looking forward to you Great America guide when it comes out!
Pikabutter25 i always have a very mixed experience. There have been days where I rode btm 5 times in a row in less than 30 mins. Other days a ride like demon had an hour wait.
Ive been there literally 100 times it's amazing I once went there during the summer 8 times in a row!!! It's the best six flags ever!!! Ive been going since I was 3!! I'm 11 now!!
Yes, there is also a parody video out there about the other 13 or some Batman: The Ride coasters, and all of them are the same. This one, though, has history
I went there a lot when it was Marriott's Great America, and pretty much lived there when it became Six Flags Great America from the late 80's to 2009.
Their shows aren't really the best, saw the Halloween one and the Christmas Song ones, they're just musicals with barely any entertainment. 10/10 would recommend. Shaded, and good place to sit.
For justice league my family and I just go though the single rider line. The line was an hour and we got in in less than 5 minutes. And most of the time they would put two of us together
Columbia Carousel is excellent. The detailing is as good as King Arthur Carousel at Disneyland or Prince Charming Carrousel at Magic Kingdom. Plus you can’t go on a carousel and not feel like a child 😃
I live like 30 minutes away from that park and I love it my favorite roller coaster is the Viper and will always be the Viper, I used to hate the park at first because I had a horrible experience from it, on my birthday it was my jest time there and it was raining and I was eating with my family when the ride across from us opened, it was the X-Flight and asked if I was able to go and my mother said yes so I went in line a basically went straight to the ride and into a seat since there was no line, I went into the front on the outside on the right wing and I was alone when I went, and it was raining a small bit so I kinda tended up because the rain hurt me as it came down since I was going so fast, and that wasn't the best idea because on the first loop after you drop down I was launched forward like you do sometimes on the demon and its loops, then I was launched back and my shoulder hit the seat I didn't feel any pain then but as soon as I jumped down from the seat and hit the ground literally every part of my body hurt and had been on the ride once before and knew that it wasn't supposed to feel like that so my right shoulder started aching so I held it then I met up with my family back at the food court and my mom went to the bathroom so it was me, my brother and his friend, I wanted to text my mom but I couldn't grab my phone because my shoulder started to hurt even more so I asked my brother to put my phone in my hand that wasn't holding my shoulder at that point I was tearing up and I called my mom and put her on speaker the parked was 30 minutes from closing as well and when my mom came back I she asked me what was wrong I told her that I got off the X-Flight and it started hurting because at that time I barely remembered what had happened on the ride but I knew it happened on the ride and then I was bawling so my mom drove me about an hour away to a to a hospital soon to find out I sprained my shoulder. OTHER THAN THAT the park is amazing I've been on every ride there and I say all of them are excellent ride and I go there practically everyday and it never gets boring!
I went with a flash pass last summer and was busy the whole day. didn't even get to Superman. it was a great experience. Raging Bull is still my favorite there. shout out to Viper for being a pleasant surprise
If your home park is six flags great America then you've heard "it's one of the best Six Flags parks" and "has a great coaster collection" but I wish there was a fantastic coaster that the park would be known for. Don't get me wrong they do have amazing coasters. But there always seems to be a problem with it. For example: Goliath's problem - too short. Raging bulls problem - too old. X-flight's problem - bad restraints. BTR's problem - Multiple clones of it SUF's problem - is a copied coaster Vipers problem - little painful AE's problem - painful I think you get my point Edit: My bad y’all, obviously I know our BTR is the original, I meant to say they made clones of it
I agree with you on some of these but, if you know how to ride them they are actually pretty good. Sit in the back row of Raging Bull. Viper And AE just sit in a seat without a wheel under them.
There are sometimes shows in the grand music hall in the hometown square area. Also, when you go again, I recommend stopping for nachos at that barbecue place near the raging bull. Another thing, if you ride the demon, be ready for it to get bumpy at the corkscrew
Also just gonna add on to the food portion of the video they do have very delicious and popular chicken tenders and fries, if you’ve never had that meal you have to try it. Another unique thing is they have delicious Chinese food which adds more diversity to the food! They also have a entire spot with all organic foods!
Go to the park in the spring. I went last Sunday May 20th 2018. It rained for the first hour in a half. Rode dark night 5 times in a row with no wait. After it quit raining they opened all the rides. No wait to 5 minute wait for most rides. The longest I waited was 10 minutes and that was because I wanted front row of raging bull. No wait, don't go at all so my wait is shorter :)
I grew up in Lake County, IL. It was so great as a teenager to live so close to Great America. Also, I've spent a lot of time there as an adult because I took my daughter there all of the time. The season pass made it easy to go for a couple of hours, when it wasn't as busy. The water park is great too. I've seen this park evolve over the last 30 years and I'd definitely recommend going there. And yes, they do have shows. There's a place inside when you walk in and go to the right. These shows have scheduled times. Also there's shows on the main stage, plus a parade every night. The fireworks are great too. Definitely a good place to spend the day or weekend at!
Gurnee resident here! I do not know how they got “Cleanest Park in the World”, but they probably called in World Records or something and they just said “Yeah, it’s clean”
They did have shows once. Maybe they don't anymore? IDK, but I had some friends from college in the mid to late 90s who majored in musical theater/showchoir and who worked there during the summers, performing in the shows and dressing up like Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird and all the WB characters, walking around the park and entertaining the little kiddos. And I remember my dad taking us to those shows when I was a kid but that was like the early to mid 80s.
I rank this currently as my second favorite Six Flags park.behind Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. At one point I liked this park slightly more, but that was before they made their Hurricane Harbor waterpark a separately ticketed gate.
Whizzer is normally a first coaster for many, but if you'd like to ride that, you'd either have to get there super early, or wait in the 2.5 hours queue. I'd suggest, for a first coaster, either Demon or The Dark Knight
I go here every summer!!!! I loveeeeeee this place!!!!!!!! I went on the American Eagle the Viper The Whizzer and the demon. I was willllllling to go on the super man and X-Flight
This is my home park. I been coming here for 25 year. I agree with you it can get crowed on shorten days. That's why I don't go on weekends & only go on weekdays. The orbit is gone. We will have the Giant Drop being VR till Memorial day. In terms of food we got a new Mexican pace in the food court that's called Macho Nacho.
Went there during Halloween about 12 years ago and then again for a physics class I was taking in high school which was about a decade ago. Surprisingly (or maybe not since it's midwest and October can get really cold) it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be during Halloween.
I pass this park every time I go to visit family in Chicago. Last year I balked on going on Labor Day, hopefully I'll get the gumption to go this season! Thanks!