Countdown to Chi-Town & St. Louis
Next week, I’ll be riding my most anticipated new ride of 2012 in Six Flags Great America’s X-Flight. Early reviews have been very positive. The ride appears to take advantage of the very exposed wing coaster riding position with a number of thrilling near-misses. Aside from X-Flight, I’m looking forward to fully experiencing Six Flags Great America. I’ve only ridden three of the park’s 13 roller coasters as some torrential rain forced me to cut my trip short. And, while I’m in that neck of the woods I’ll also be visiting Six Flags St. Louis for the first time. So, I’ll get to ride the revamped Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast and see what a backwards-facing launch is like.
Excited for Wood, Wind, & Water
I’m particularly excited about the wooden coasters that I’ll get to experience on this trip. In general, there are fewer wooden coasters around and they tend to give unique experiences. In all, I’ll get to ride 6 woodies including a re-ride on the Viper (probably a top 20 woodie for me), the GCI twister American Thunder, and the massive terrain coaster Boss.
I was able to ride a few coasters at Great America and I enjoyed all three. Here are my Demon and Raging Bull reviews. I’m planning on having a review of Viper after my trip.
After riding Carowinds’ Windseeker earlier this year, I’m looking forward to comparing it to Six Flags St. Louis’ swing ride, SkyScreamer. I’m starting to branch out from roller coasters a bit. Soon, I’ll have a Pro Slide Tornado review up and continuing that trend, I’d like to give SFSTL’s new Bonzai Pipeline a try. It’s a water slide that starts with crazy free fall drop capsules. I just found out Great America has a similar ride in Dive Bomber too.
Have you been to Six Flags Great America or Six Flags St. Louis? Feel free to give me any ride recommendations or tips below.
July 14, 2012 at 15:19
My home park is SFSTL and I visited SFGA last weekend for the first time. At STL, on Mr. Freeze, sit at the end of the coaster, the seat closest to the launch tunnel before launching. Gives a great feeling of weightlessness on the inverted Tophat. Boss will be unnaturally rough since it's late summer. At Great America, don't miss Whizzer, it's actually pretty unique! And finally, on Superman: Ultimate Flight, the back seat is wickedly intense. My sister and I expected it to be very simple and smooth, but that Pretzel Loop is out of this world, and gets increasingly intense the farther back you go. I have never felt something that intense on a roller coaster before because it's not a natural feeling. Not to say I didn't love it though
July 16, 2012 at 05:33
Maybe you should check out Tatsu then. It's pretzel is a lot bigger and the Gs at the bottom are totally insane. And the rest of the ride and park are great too!
July 16, 2012 at 19:44
Yup, I've ridden Manta, which has a bigger loop, and it is just insanely intense. And it's the best in the back! That's why it's my favorite type of inversion!
July 14, 2012 at 19:26
They just put in some of those crazy drop-capsule waterslides at Funtown Splashtown near Portland, Maine (which also has an interesting-looking 1990s CCI woodie, Excalibur). I'll probably make it up there eventually, since my sister-in-law lives in the area.
July 14, 2012 at 23:40
Dude, Mr. Freeze, American Thunder, and The Boss are all really great. That said, get ready to walk. SFSTl is huge, with insanely long and creative queues.
July 15, 2012 at 08:28
Hey CC, are you ever going to make it up to cedar point anytime soon?
July 15, 2012 at 08:34
I'd been wondering about The Boss: It's certainly impressive-looking, but lately it doesn't seem to get the level of respect in polls and such that similar CCI/GCI/Gravity Group mega-woodies do. Is there some reason for that? Has it gotten rough? It's not in a more remote location than other such coasters.
July 17, 2012 at 12:06
At SFStL, The Boss and Mr. Freeze never seemed to have lines early in the morning, everyone always seemed to go to Batman since it sits near the entrance but I haven’t been since American Thunder arrived. I like knocking the Gerstlauer spinners out early as well since their lines are always slow moving so do Pandemonium as early as possible. And by the way, beware Ninja’s second inversion, I hit the restraint so hard one time I briefly blacked out on one side of my field of vision, ouch!
January 3, 2013 at 18:58
The line moves quicker now, in the off season they modified the station were the trains don't stop, they crawl by and you have to climb in, the line moves fairly quickly now.
July 25, 2012 at 23:55
At SFStL try Excalibur as it is one of three in the world, there are similar rides but not as big or with the capacity. The Screaming Eagle may not be anything special but it is a classic and fast, when it opened it held the height and speed records, the top of the lift hill has a great view and setting as it was John Allen's last coaster. The front is probably the best on the Boss, It's intense, and I'd sit there even if it weren't a better ride for no other reason than I've seen several people hurl near the back. Our scooby doo ride is worth the ride as well. Mr. Freeze is a must and American Thunder is one of my favorites! Ride River King Mine Train and imagine it as a stand up coaster because it was one of the first for one season and that didnt go too well. Ninja is a bit jerky and nothing too special but it was the roller coaster at the 86 expo in Vancouver. The Colossus ferris wheel is the tallest amusement park ferris wheel in the US… umm, enjoy SFStL and We are glad to have you here!
January 3, 2013 at 19:00
Excalibur may be removed after the 2013 season due to technical issues with the ride, nothing official yet but it was closed for most of the 2012 season.
August 7, 2012 at 23:26
Hope you liked my home park! (sfgam) I love the Viper and American Eagle as woodies, Raging bull is just plain fun and I really like X Flight as well. I just think the park needs a little more unique coasters because they have ALOT of clones. Six Flags st. louis has HUGE potential. Its beautiful, can be crowded when I go there for Fright Fest, and has a good setting for unique terrain coasters. But six flags dosn't really put interest into them as far as coasters go. Add one world class steel coaster and another nice steel coaster and this could be one of the best.
March 11, 2013 at 18:21
What is it about Great America’s Viper that everybody loves? It seems to get more praise nowadays then the original Coney Island Cyclone. It’s not as good as the original IMHO. I’d love to see a review and get your take on it; maybe it will shed some light on this issue for me.