Six Flags Great America - July 9th and 10th, 2023

 From Saturday, July 8th to Friday, July 14th my mom and I drove out to Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana to check out three amusement parks within 5 days. The first park we visited was Six Flags Great America, just north of Chicago on July 9th and 10th.

Six Flags Great America was a great park with many classic rides and roller coasters! It was a park I have wanted to visit for a long time and it did not disappoint! Due to the heat that the US Midwest was facing this past week, Six Flags Great America was not very busy, so I managed to get on many rides during both days of our visit.

Be sure to check out the many photos that I had captured of Six Flags Great America during my two day visit! 

On Sunday, July 9th, we drove from our nearby hotel over to Six Flags Great America. We arrived a bit early, so we waited on the road that headed into the park and were treated with this view of Flash: Vertical Velocity and Superman: Ultimate Flight while we waited for the parking lot to open.

The parking lot opened at 10am and the park opened at 10:30am as scheduled. Here is a view of some of the tallest rides at Six Flags Great America.

It was great to finally be at Six Flags Great America after hearing about it for many years!

Six Flags Great America had originally opened as Marriott's Great America in May 1976 and was owned by Marriott (along with their other park in California) until 1984. Six Flags acquired the Gurnee, Illinois property in 1984.

When you enter the park, you are greeted by the Columbia Carousel, a beautiful double decker carousel manufactured by Chance Rides located in the Carousel Plaza. It has been delighting parkgoers since 1976.

Also located in the Carousel Plaza is the Sky Trek Tower, an Intamin Gyro observation tower that takes passengers 285 feet into the air. I managed to ride this observation tower from 1977 twice during our two-day visit.

My first ride of the day at Six Flags Great America was Superman: Ultimate Flight, a Bolliger and Mabillard Flying Coaster that opened in 2003.

I really wanted to ride Superman: Ultimate Flight as I had yet to ride a B&M Flying Coaster as Superman: Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Great Adventure was closed during my visit in July 2018.

Luckily this Superman: Ultimate Flight was operational, so I was finally able to experience the very forceful and fun pretzel knot inversion!

Up next for me was The Flash: Vertical Velocity, an Intamin Impulse shuttle coaster that opened at the park in 2001.

In 2022, it received a retheme to The Flash to fit in with the DC Universe section of the park.
The Flash: Vertical Velocity was my second-ever Intamin inverted Impulse coaster. It provided a forceful and thrilling ride with its launch and twisted track!

Afterwards, I headed over to the World's first inverted roller coaster, Batman The Ride!

It opened in 1992 and still rides amazingly well 31 years later!

After taking a spin on Batman The ride I went on Goliath, the park's RMC that opened in 2014. Unlike the other two RMC coasters that I have been on, Goliath is a bit different as it not only was a ground-up construction (not a conversion), it also features wooden track with steel topper track, making for a more out-of-control ride experience!

Goliath is quite a thrill as it features an 180 foot drop with an angle of 85° followed by a dive loop and a zero-g stall inversions!

After a thrilling ride on Goliath my mom and I took a ride on the Great America Scenic Railway.

It provides some nice views of the other rides and roller coasters in the park including the American Eagle.

The Great America Scenic Railway also passes through the layout of The Demon, which was unfortunately closed during our visit.

It also passes by the Whizzer, which was also unfortunately closed during our two-day visit to Six Flags Great America.

After a tour around the park on the Great America Scenic Railway, I decided it was time to get a birds eye view of Six Flags Great America. There was no better way to do it than by going on the Sky Trek Tower.

While on the Sky Trek Tower, the cabin rotates, taking passengers to a height of 285 feet, providing a great view of the park and surrounding area. Here is a view of Six Flags Great America's newest coaster, Maxx Force that opened in 2019.

While the cabin rotated, audio of the original Great America theme song from the Marriott era played. I love it when parks add a historical touch to their rides!

Here is an overhead view of the Columbia Carousel.

While somewhat hard to photograph in its entirety from the ground, Superman: Ultimate Flight was fully visible from the Sky Trek Tower.

Viper, a wooden roller coaster located in the park's Southwest Territory was also highly visible from the Sky Trek Tower.

The classic Whizzer could also be seen from the Sky Trek Tower.

With the hot temperatures, the park's water park, Hurricane Harbor was quite popular on this sunny Sunday!

Here I am enjoying the views from the Sky Trek Tower.

After coming back down to the ground, my mom and I took a spin on the Columbia Carousel. We rode on the upper deck which featured horses, while the lower deck featured many other animals.

Here is the layout of Six Flags Great America.

I was a bit disappointed to see the Whizzer was closed during our two-day visit as it is the last remaining Jumbo Jet coaster in North America manufactured by the legendary Schwarzkopf. The Whizzer opened with Great America in 1976.

While the Whizzer was closed I was able to ride some other classic Schwarzkopf rides such as The Lobster, which also opened with the park! This fun polyp ride features a lot of spinning, lowering, and lifting!

For lunch, we ate at Strutters in Hometown Square. The chicken sandwich and waffle fries were quite tasty!

As I had mentioned before, the classic Demon Arrow looping coaster was also closed. It has originally opened as Turn of the Century with the park in 1976 featuring two airtime hills and corkscrew inversions. For the 1980 season, the airtime hills were replaced with vertical loops. The track was also repainted black during this time, with the coaster being renamed The Demon.

Up next for me was X-Flight, my first Wing Coaster manufactured by B&M.

During a ride on X-Flight, passengers sit on both sides of the trains with their feet dangling as they navigate inversions and near-misses such as this one that passes through a control tower! it was a neat experience!

After X-Flight, it was time to ride The American Eagle, the park's wooden racing roller coaster. Unfortunately, only one side was operating, but it was a fun out and back wooden coaster nonetheless!

The American Eagle was manufactured by Intamin and opened on May 23rd, 1981 (coincidentally the same day and year as Canada's Wonderland's debut!). Both sides feature a 147 foot drop which takes the train-loads of passengers over some airtime filled hills, followed by a large 560 degree helix, followed by more airtime filled hills.

Here is a view of the 127 foot tall lift hill of American Eagle which is followed by a 147 foot drop.

While waiting in line for American Eagle, I had a good view of the Revolution, a Huss Frisbee ride that opened at Six Flags Great America in 2004. It had originally operated at Six Flags Great Adventure from 1999 to 2003.

After riding American Eagle I took a ride on this classic thrill ride. It was my second classic Huss Frisbee ride and it provided a lot of spinning and some airtime!

Here is a locomotive passing by on the Great America Railway as seen from the American Eagle queue.

After riding Revolution, I rode Fiddler's Fling, a very forceful Calypso ride manufactured by Schwarzkopf. This classic Calypso has been operating at the park since 1976. It was really fun and a bit different than the Mack Calypso (Spinovator) that operates at Canada's Wonderland.

Overlooking the Go-kart track, you can get a nice view of the Southwest Territory located in the distance.

Since it was quite hot and humid, I lined up for Aquaman Splashdown, Six Flags Great America's one of two log flume rides. Aquaman Splashdown is an Arrow Hydroflume that opened with the park in 1976 as Yankee Clipper and features a 60 foot drop that heads into a splashdown element followed by a small pop of airtime, adding to the thrill of this log flume!

Here is a photo showing how wet you can get on this log flume!

Southwest Territory is a western-themed area with two thrilling roller coasters including Viper and Raging Bull and a few well themed flat rides too!

Viper is a wooden roller coaster that opened at Great America in 1995 is modelled after the Cyclone at Coney Island. It is the only roller coaster to have ever been built in-house by Six Flags.

I found Viper to be quite smooth for a wooden roller coaster, providing some great moments of airtime throughout its 3,458 feet of track!

Up next was the Giant Drop, the park's 227 foot tall Intamin Drop Tower! It is located behind Chubasco, the park's spinning tea cups ride.

Giant Drop opened in 1997 and features a very well-themed queue. I took photos of Giant Drop's queue during my second day at the park, so be sure to check those out below.

Up next was Raging Bull, Six Flags Great America's B&M hyper coaster that opened in 1999! Raging Bull features a winding track of over 5,000 feet with a drop of 208 feet!

Here is the Giant Drop in freefall as seen from Raging Bull's queue.

The orange track of Raging Bull really stands out as the sun begins to set!

Here's Ricochet, the park's Huss Swing Around. It has a nice western theme to it as the cars have a cowhide print on them!

I just love the theming of Southwest Territory

Up next was my final ride of the day, Justice League Battle For Metropolis dark ride. Five years ago I had been on the one at Six Flags Great Adventure and really enjoyed it, so I decided to take this one for a spin. It too was also very enjoyable like I had recalled! I love how the cars spin and rock throughout the ride!

The Demon's loops were peaking out from above the trees.

Maxx Force had quite a line all day, so I opted to leave it for our second day at Six Flags Great America!

As the sun was setting, the lights on Columbia Carousel came on.

Here's my Mom and I in front of the Columbia Carousel before heading out for the night.

The Columbia Carousel is a beautiful piece at Six Flags Great America.

After a good night's rest, I started our second day off at Six Flags Great America with a ride on Maxx Force!

Maxx Force was manufactured by S&S and opened at Six Flags Great America in 2019. Maxx Force's main feature is its air launch that sends 16 passengers at a time from 0-78 mph in less than 2 seconds into four inversions! A ride on Maxx Force lasts for an exhilarating 23 seconds! It was an excellent way to start my second day at Six Flags Great America!

Up next was The Dark Knight Coaster followed by The Joker, my fourth ever S&S 4D Free Spin coaster. I still truly enjoy the forces that can be made on these coasters as the seats flip! The only downside to these models are their low hourly capacity.

The next roller coaster I didn't ride during my first day was the classic and historical Little Dipper. As the sign outside the queue states, the Little Dipper originally operated at Kiddieland Amusement Park of Melrose Park, Illinois from 1950 to 2009 when the park closed. Thankfully Six Flags Great America acquired this classic PTC junior wooden coaster, where it has been operating since May 2010.

It is a nice addition to the park and offers a fun ride for those who are young and young at heart!

While only 28 feet tall, Little Dipper offers a series of gentle drops and turns along its 700 foot track.

The train on the Little Dipper looks very nice with its blue with white stars paint scheme.

Here's another look at The Joker.

After catching a ride on DC Super Villains Swing and Little Dipper, it was time to cool off on Roaring Rapids!

This Intamin River Rapids opened in 1983 and features 12-passenger rafts that navigate the concrete channel filled with many rapids.

Goliath's dive loop inversion is hidden within its wooden supports.

During our second day, we took another ride on the Great America Scenic Railway.

From the Great America Scenic Railway, you can get a great view of Maxx Force.

Here's a great view of Mardi Gras and DC Universe sections.

If you take a round trip on the Great America Scenic Railway, you get up and close to Goliath.

Goliath is filled with many moments of intense airtime!

Later on in the day I went back over to Southwest Territory to get some more rides on the rides in that area, including that on the River Rocker, a Zamperla Galleon that opened in 1996.

This time when I went to ride the Giant Drop, I took my camera with me through the queue to get some photos of the theming.

Giant Drop is themed to a mine and features some nice theming elements.

Here are some miner's tools in the tunnel.

After the tunnel you pass through some walls that look like a canyon. I thought this was really neat!

After the short walk, you then come to the Giant Drop.

These western themed buildings are really neat!

Raging Bull was thrilling parkgoers throughout the afternoon.

While in the Southwest Territory I took a ride on the Chubasco, the park's Zamperla spinning tea cups ride. The building the ride is in is really cool. While the Chubasco is operating, it is accompanied with lights and heart thumping music which greatly adds to the overall experience!

The Sky Trek Tower was operating throughout the whole day on Monday even though the hours were listed as 10:30am to 2:30pm. I rode it once again a bit later in the day.

In the mid-afternoon, Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn came out to greet some guests.

Wherever you look in Hometown Square there are roller coasters in view.

Tucked in the corner of Hometown Square is the fun Huss Troika known as Triple Play! It is one of the many original rides at the park. When I rode, it seemed to have a longer than usual operating cycle compared to other Troikas I have been on!

Another ride that will whirl you about in Hometown Square is the Scrambler known as Hometown Fun Machine! It features a bright green and yellow pain scheme and has also been at the park since 1976.

The Hometown Fun Machine gives you a good view of the Whizzer which was unfortunately closed during our two days at the park.

The Whizzer looks to pass over water and pass by trees along its winding track.

Hopefully I'll be able to experience it in the future!

My second day at Six Flags Great America was mostly about riding rides I didn't get on during my first day, so up next was Rue Le Dodge, the park's bumper car ride located in Orleans Place! The cars moved quite fast and bumped quite hard, which is good for a bumper car ride!

My second roller coaster of the day after riding Maxx Force was The Dark Knight Coaster. I forgot to take a photo of its exterior in the morning, so here is one now!

Riding Wild Mouse coasters in the dark is insanely fun! I had been on the identical coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure five years prior, but felt this one was better maintained.

The first drop on Goliath provides a significant amount of airtime!

The zero-g stall inversion was quite awesome too!

I am a huge fan of calypso rides, so I had to get more photos of the Fiddler's Fling!

My final ride of another great day at Six Flags Great America was another ride on Batman The Ride! I just couldn't believe how well this one rides for being the original unit!

Here we are again before heading out for the day!

The front entrance at Six Flags Great America is quite photogenic.

Just as we were getting into my car, I snapped another photo of Maxx Force.

I also captured this one last photo of Superman Ultimate Flight, which was my second last ride of my visit at Six Flags Great America. I find it to be a great coaster, so of course I had to ride it twice during my visit! Superman: Ultimate Flight was also celebrating 20 years of operation this year!

Below is an on-ride video of the Sky Trek Tower at Six Flags Great America! I love how they play the original Great America theme song from the Marriott era as you view the park!

Be sure to look at my photos of our two days at Six Flags St. Louis! :-)