This was not only a rough one, but unfortunately, quite possibly my worst park visit yet.
I see the potential for a fantastic visit at this park, but today was NOT the day. I’ve never seen so many school buses, several rides and almost every restaurant were closed, and it looks like only single use Fast Lane was available. Only ended up getting on four coasters before it became unreasonable to expect to ride anything else, but here are my thoughts on what I did ride:
Maxx Force (Credit #130, ranked #7):
If I only got one ride in today, this would’ve been the one even with one train ops and roughly 4 min dispatches. Words can’t describe that launch, intense feels too simple for what it is. If the ride wasn’t so short, it would be higher in my rankings, but it still blew my expectations away and then some. I really hope we see a resurgence of the air launch, it’s the best launch I’ve experienced and was worth the hour and a half wait, which I wish was the wait time for 70% of the park today.
Viper (Credit #131, ranked #17):
Just one spot below the original Cyclone, this thing is the real deal. Intense, a bit rough but nowhere near unbearably so, and this was one of the only two rides in the park with a decent wait time at roughly 20 mins, possibly due in part to the app incorrectly stating it was closed. Also one of the only coasters I saw running two trains, which I’m incredibly thankful for being that it was one of my priorities today.
Little Dipper (Credit #132, ranked #55):
Holy SHIT this is a smooth PTC. Not just smooth by PTC standards, but absolutely butter smooth, nowhere near what I’d expect out of a nearly 80 year old coaster still running buzz bars. This is my new favorite family coaster, and SFGAm should certainly be applauded for saving it.
Demon (Credit #133, ranked #53):
A solid Arrow looper by all means. Is it janky as hell? Yeah, but that’s half of the fun. The double corkscrew was probably the most intense I’ve experienced. This was our last ride of the day and while I’m incredibly disappointed in what we didn’t ride, this was a solid note to end on, and it helped that this was the one other coaster running two trains.
There is no excuse for the park to have operated as poorly as it did today. We opted to wait to eat until after we left because the lines were so horrible for the two restaurants open. Raging Bull was constantly cycling empty trains, American Eagle didn’t make a peep, Whizzer is closed “for improvements,” Rakshasa was on one train and had no less than a 2.5 hour wait any time I checked, X-Flight was one train and a 2 hour wait, Goliath was one train and a 1.5 hour wait, and I saw Condor cycle twice.
This was the beginning of coaster season for me, the first time I’ve seen one of my best friends in a year and a half, and it’s been a total shitshow of a day. I think we’re going back tomorrow if for no reason other than there’s very little else to do in Gurnee, but my hopes aren’t high for round two either.
I see the potential for a fantastic visit at this park, but today was NOT the day. I’ve never seen so many school buses, several rides and almost every restaurant were closed, and it looks like only single use Fast Lane was available. Only ended up getting on four coasters before it became unreasonable to expect to ride anything else, but here are my thoughts on what I did ride:
Maxx Force (Credit #130, ranked #7):
If I only got one ride in today, this would’ve been the one even with one train ops and roughly 4 min dispatches. Words can’t describe that launch, intense feels too simple for what it is. If the ride wasn’t so short, it would be higher in my rankings, but it still blew my expectations away and then some. I really hope we see a resurgence of the air launch, it’s the best launch I’ve experienced and was worth the hour and a half wait, which I wish was the wait time for 70% of the park today.
Viper (Credit #131, ranked #17):
Just one spot below the original Cyclone, this thing is the real deal. Intense, a bit rough but nowhere near unbearably so, and this was one of the only two rides in the park with a decent wait time at roughly 20 mins, possibly due in part to the app incorrectly stating it was closed. Also one of the only coasters I saw running two trains, which I’m incredibly thankful for being that it was one of my priorities today.
Little Dipper (Credit #132, ranked #55):
Holy SHIT this is a smooth PTC. Not just smooth by PTC standards, but absolutely butter smooth, nowhere near what I’d expect out of a nearly 80 year old coaster still running buzz bars. This is my new favorite family coaster, and SFGAm should certainly be applauded for saving it.
Demon (Credit #133, ranked #53):
A solid Arrow looper by all means. Is it janky as hell? Yeah, but that’s half of the fun. The double corkscrew was probably the most intense I’ve experienced. This was our last ride of the day and while I’m incredibly disappointed in what we didn’t ride, this was a solid note to end on, and it helped that this was the one other coaster running two trains.
There is no excuse for the park to have operated as poorly as it did today. We opted to wait to eat until after we left because the lines were so horrible for the two restaurants open. Raging Bull was constantly cycling empty trains, American Eagle didn’t make a peep, Whizzer is closed “for improvements,” Rakshasa was on one train and had no less than a 2.5 hour wait any time I checked, X-Flight was one train and a 2 hour wait, Goliath was one train and a 1.5 hour wait, and I saw Condor cycle twice.
This was the beginning of coaster season for me, the first time I’ve seen one of my best friends in a year and a half, and it’s been a total shitshow of a day. I think we’re going back tomorrow if for no reason other than there’s very little else to do in Gurnee, but my hopes aren’t high for round two either.
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