|
|
|
|
| Status: |
|
Operating since 5/29/1976 |
| Also Known As: |
|
Marriott's Great America; Paramount's Great America; Great America; Knott's Great America |
| Phone: |
|
408-988-1776 |
| Web: |
|
California's Great America's site |
| Address: |
|
2401 Agnew Road
P.O. Box 1776
Santa Clara, CA 95054
USA
|
| Visits: |
|
172 |
| Rating: |
|
 |
|
| More About This Park |
History:
In 1985, the City of Santa Clara purchased Marriott's Great America from Marriott and hired Kings Entertainment Corporation to run the park.
Past name(s): Marriott's Great America (1976 - 1985); Paramount's Great America (19?? - 2006); Knott's Great America (2007)
|
|
|
| Reviews |
Sir Willow
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 3553
View Park/Ride Count
|
TR- 7/31/03 Part 1 of 4
If you haven't read one of my previous trip reports (shame on you!), then
I'll warn you ahead of time-be prepared for an overly detailed long write
up, but hopefully one that you'll enjoy reading. :)
The Park: Paramount's Great America
The People: Me, my kids Amber and Joseph, and my sister Deb
The Weather: a bit cloudy with 3 cases of brief sprinkling. Otherwise nice
The Crowds: Pretty light-no long waits to speak of.
The Occaision: Amber's 8th B-day and my first visit in 5 years
The Grading Scale: 1-10, with 10 being perfect and a 1 being worse than
junk.
We had prepared for this trip, which happened to be on Amber's birthday,
by telling the kids that for their birthday they were going to go to a
place where they were going to learn about Great America-the Presidents,
The Columbia, The Top Gun salute to the military, etc. Needless to say,
the kids weren't real excited, with Amber even asking if she still had to
go if she decided she was sick and protesting that she should get to choose
something fun to do for her birthday and that wasn't her choice. Her aunt
and I promptly told her to bad, she was going anyways. Needless to say,
when we actually arrived at the park both of them were very happy and
excited to learn that our descriptions didn't exactly hold a lot of water.
Sometimes it's just a lot of fun to be a stinker. hehe
We left my sister's house at around 6:30 am in an effort to beat most of
the Bay Area rush hour traffic, and found ourselves near the park with
plenty of time to eat at a nearby Lyons, then drive over to the parking lot
before they had opened the gates. At 9:30 when they opened the parking
lot, there were probably only around 35 cars waiting at the gates, which
was a good sign of things to come. We paid our parking fee and drove in,
with me laughing about being the first one to drive into the lot and park.
We sorted ourselves out and headed over to the entry gates where, with a
nice coupon Deb got at work, we were able to get 4 admissions for $79! We
then waited for them to let us in.
After standing there for a few minutes I suddenly realized that on their
rather hard to hear PA system they were playing the Star Spangled Banner,
and that the security at least was standing at attention for it (none of
the gate tenders were though). I didn't see a flag to stand and salute at
that point, so we tryed to quiet down for it, though not many others around
us did. But I don't think anyone else could really hear it, so I don't
blame them much for that. Once the song was done, security started waving
us through the metal detectors and then through the gates.
At this point, we did a prearranged split-Deb was taking the kids and
getting a locker and letting them look around at everything as they came in
while I, after noting how great the fountains, pool, and Columbia Carousel
looked, turned quickly to the left and made a quick walk to Stealth so that
I could get it out of the way and not have to wait in a line for it. Not
only did I not have a line, I managed to get the front row on the very
first train out! Woohoo! Very nice to since, as Cam mentioned in his TR,
they were only running one train. Within a matter of 3 minutes from the
time I walked up I was loaded in, lowered down, and the train was
dispatched. The first thing I noticed was that the restraints didn't seem
as tight or adjustable as the ones on X-Flight, though they were
comfortable enough on me. But if I had been thinner, or an inexperienced
rider, it may well have made me nervous.
The lift hill went fairly quickly, which was nice since I don't like being
on my back the way they do it. But then we rolled over and headed down, up
around the first elevated turn around down another drop, turned, and
flipped over for the great, intense loop. We then flipped back over so we
were hanging again and took a couple turns and helixes, then made another
half flip and started the corkscrews. I loved the loop, and especially
enjoyed the helixes. The corkscrews were also a lot of fun, but going
through them I was happy I was in the front as I could feel some bumping
around and could only imagine how much worse it was in the back. It didn't
bother me where I was, but I'm sure it was nasty back further. After the
corkscrews we took another turn, came around onto our backs, and headed
into the brakes.
Overall, Stealth was a lot of fun. I did like X-Flight better, and could
see how they improved it from this model to that one, but I still got a
very good, fun ride out of Stealth. I'm curious what it would be like in
the back, but didn't want to take the time away from the kids since they
were the main reason we were there. Overall score: 7
Coming out the exit, I noted that Deb and the kids hadn't caught up to me
yet, and she didn't answer her cell phone. And since Delirium was right at
the exit, and there was no line, I took advantage of opportunity and
finally took my first ride on one of these models. It didn't seem like
they were running it in a particularly intense cycle, but even so-Wow!
Talk about a fun ride! I love the sensations of floating, flying, and
spinning that this creates, and it was very rerideable. Certainly one that
I want to get more of, and next time I'm at Knott's I'll be sure to hitch a
ride on theirs. Score-8.5
While I was on Delirium I noticed Deb and the kids walk by, so I quickly
jogged up and caught up with them, and we headed off for some fun with the
kids while I started to take some time to look around and see all of the
changes that Paramount has made to the park. The first thing that became
readily apparant was that while there was still a good number of remnants
of the old Mariott's park, including it's theming, the idea of theming
itself has bascially been chucked into the garbage can. No longer is there
an Orlean's Square or Yukon Territory. Now on the map it's the Pavilion
Plaza, All American Plaza, KidZville... just very generic names for what
has become, in essence, a rather generic park when it comes to themes.
There just aren't anymore attempts there. But at the same time they
haven't managed to capture the atmosphere of a true amusement park like
Cedar Point, though that seems to be the direction that they're trying to
head towards. And that was probably the one thing that I really disliked,
is the decision to forget that part of the park. Now I'm left wondering
why they still call it Great America when it has nothing to do with America
anymore. Instead it should be Paramount Amusements and Thrills or
something similarly generic.
The most heartbreaking part was when I saw large areas that had so much of
the original buildings and trim still around, but the idea behind the
architecture being abandoned. Heck, they even changed the names of the
theatres, though I'm befuddled as to why they felt that necessary. But
even with all that, I felt that the park really looked very nice-much much
cleaner, kept up better, and landscaped better than my last visit, though
there were a couple of exceptions I'll mention. So the park is improved,
but it was sad to know that the park I grew up with no longer exists much
at all here. It's out in Chicago now.
Anyways, enough of that. Back to the park and what we did.
We were close to the entrance of KidZville, so that's where we went next.
Almost right in the entrance was the Taxi Jam, a kiddie coaster that said
no adults were allowed to ride. However, when I asked the op about riding
with my kids, he was more than generous in inviting me on, mentioning that
the sign was there to help keep away, "some of those wierd adults that like
to ride the kids coasters." Needless to say, I wasn't going to mention
that I was one of those wierd adults. :) This is a Miler kiddie coaster,
very similar to other models, but more compact in that the return side is
much closer to the station than most. But otherwise it's still pretty much
the typical Miler ups and downs that make them such a fun little ride. No
score though. I mean really, it's a kiddie coaster after all! :)
The kids then noticed the Scooby Doo Haunted River, so they grabbed boats
and headed up to the top, where they were able to drop their boats into the
water and follow them down the "river" and through the various obstacles
along the way. Quite a lot of fun to watch them "race" their boats and see
who would make it all the way to the end first. I remember doing this same
thing with leaves and twigs in the gutter as a kid, but it's much more fun
with real boats, more water, obstacles, and decorations around. We did
this 3 times before convincing the kids to move on to the playground area
for a bit. They then took a turn on the kiddie bumper cars where Amber
once again showed her driving prowess by hitting a few parked cars with no
one in them, then getting stuck and being unable to turn her wheel all the
way so that she would back up, she sat there in frustration til the ride
ended. The whole time Joseph was scooting around and bumping her, having
no real problems at all. All I know is, I'm getting more and more scared
about when she gets old enough to want to learn how to drive.
The Nickelodeon Central area was adjacent, and was calling to the kids, so
we moved over there, taking a turn on the SpongeBob's Boatmobiles-a
slightly themed version of the Rodeo. I loved the one at SFKK, and this
one was also a lot of fun, though it was running a much tamer cycle-and
understandably so. But the addition of Sponge Bob's narrating the ride,
the bubbles, and other little touches make it a lot of fun.
|
| 1-21-04 12:51:27 |
|
Sir Willow
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 3553
View Park/Ride Count
|
Part 2 of 4
We took some more time for the kids to meet Dora the Explorer and take a
round on the Treetop Lookout-what seemed like a shorter, slower version of
the Condor, but they had fun with it. At this point I managed to talk them
into stepping away for a bit so that we could catch one other ride with
throughput problems before it's line got long, on promises to return
afterwards. They agreed, so we headed around the corner to Psycho Mouse.
Psycho Mouse was my first Arrow mouse, and their arrangement here was
intersting. It was tucked into a corner that hadn't been used before, next
to the go carts that took up the spot occupied in the past by the Edge.
The bright yellow made it easy to see, and it's entry house with the large
mouse overlooking what was arranged as a small maze was cute. A nice entry
for low price. But being able to look through the coaster and into the
employee lot showed just how cute. Would have been nice if they could have
at least put some shrubbery or something to hide the parking lot here.
In any case, the line was short at this point, and within about 10 minutes
or so the four of us were taking up a car, with Amber and Deb in the front
and Joseph and I in the back. It seemed that they could find a way to get
these loaded and dispatched faster as the coaster could quite obviously
hold a lot more cars than they were putting out. In any case, we were off
for what looked like a fairly typical mouse with a couple of extra speed
bumps on the end. After all the bashing of these, I wasn't expecting much,
but I was surprised by how much fun it was. Smooth, with great lats-fun
but not painful-on the sharp turns on top, and they gave a great impression
of falling off the edge. One brake trimmed a little more than I would have
liked, but it didn't hurt as you were slowed like some I've been on. And
the drops were great fun, with some wonderful little pops of air throughout
that whole portion of the course. The trick-track didn't feel like much
other than some wierd banking, but it didn't bother either. Overall, this
was a very fun mouse coaster that outside of the boarding procedures I
really couldn't complain much about. MM still gets the top mouse prize
just for the boarding procedures, but I'd put this one on par with the
technic one at Legoland. Overall a 7.5, though depending on my mood it
could go up as far as a 8.
As promised we walked back to the Nickelodeon Cental area and let the kids
walk through the Thornberry's Comvee (fancy cartoon RV). We skipped the
rain maze as it wasn't very hot. A bit humid, but not enough that we could
justify letting the kids get soaked in it, though it looked like it would
be great fun on a hot day. Then we headed over to the next "new to me"
coaster-Runaway Reptar. This is a tubular steel kiddie coaster built by
Intamin, and it a good bit longer than most kiddie coasters, though 2 times
around still would have been nice, but not necessary. It wasn't that
cramped, and was noticably smoother than other kiddies-as much due to the
track as anything. The first drop was into a bunch of mist (Reptar's
mouth?) then up and into a turning drop than then leads into a helix, back
up a little, then another drop right by the first one so you get more mist
and a nice roar from Reptar this time, then a couple short speedbumps on
the way back into the station. Quite a fun, and comfortable, kiddie
coaster, and one the kids liked enough for a reride. No score though,
since it's a kiddie, though if I did it would score well.
We then turned back and headed towards the back of the park a bit, walking
past the Centrifuge-the old Fiddler's Fling with the tops removed. It
seemed to be running slower than I remembered to, which wouldn't surprise
me since Paramount really seems to be gearing for families with kids now,
but noone else wanted to ride so we kept going.
Another aside-Paramount is really pusing the "family atmosphere" here, with
numerous signs posted around with such warnings as, "Conduct, including
vulgar language or wearing offensive clothing that is not in keeping with a
family environment is not allowed in the park and may be cause for removal
from the park" and warnings about anyone under 18 not being allowed to
smoke. I didn't see anyone doing anything to test any of those warnings
either, and this was possibly the most family oriented of the chain parks
I've seen (no, I'm not including Disney or Legoland there).
We also took a walk around past the games (repainted with some darker
colors than in the past) Drop Zone (kids not tall enough to ride), which
seemed to be running very well and also had, I noticed, the back side walk
around area closed off for the queue now, and Grizzly, which none of us
wanted to ride, as we made our way around to the Barney Oldfield cars,
which is still running the old gas-powered cars that you actually have to
push the pedal and steer instead of all the electric driven ones that you
see so often now, though it only has one track left of the three that it
originally ran (one was removed when they built grizzly and rerouted the
ride, leaving 2 for the reroute, one of which has now been removed though
the pavement and portions of the track are still there) This is still
quite a fun ride and gives some nice views of the Demon as it runs by on
one side then winds in and around Grizzly's structure.
It was while waiting for Grizzly that I noticed something that may well
help explain why it is such a rough ride. The coaster cars on it's Morgan
train are trailored, in a similar fashion to the PTC trains that used to
run on Raging Wolf Bobs. After doing some digging around, it sure looks
like that's true for the same types of trains run at SFMM, SCBB, and
Belmont, which may also help explain some of the uncomfortableness at a
couple of those other coasters, though what on earth SCBB does with theirs
to make it run so well I don't know. But after noticing that and watching
it for a while, I was able to observe some shuffling because of the lack of
wheels at the front of the cars (at least that's what it looked like),
which really has me wondering how much this coaster as well as Colossus and
the Dipper in Belmont would be improved with new trains that had a more
standard wheel arrangement.
After we got off the motorized cars, we headed over towards another coaster
that they could ride, and to me a bit surprisingly so-The Demon. This
would be the kids first multi-looping coaster, so I was a bit nervous for
them, but they weren't at all. First thing I noticed was that the entry
rockwork seemed to have chunks missing, though the vines that had overgrown
a lot of it seemed to hide some of that. Then walking through it was quite
obvious that the rockwork around the vertical loops was gone, though most
of the rest remained. Outside of the rockwork, none of the effects that
made this coaster so special remained. No misters or screams in the first
tunnel, no lights or screams in the second, no red eyes in the skull
entering the corkscrews, etc. However, it did run pretty smooth if you
ride it right. I didn't, instead riding with my head forward some so that
I could watch Joseph. And only because of that did I get banged a little
bit. Not bad, but because of the awkward position it left me with a bit of
a headache for much of the rest of the day. So while it ran fairly smooth,
this coaster is in many ways a shadow of what it once was. Score-5.
We hopped off and took a round on the Berzerker, their Schwarzkopf bayern
curve. This model has the motor drives under the track instead of in the
middle as SFMM's does, allowing it to go inside a shed. However, it was
also running much slower than it had in the past, with the only times that
it seemed to gather any speed being the brief time when it was dropping out
of the building. I'm guessing another one tamed down a bit for the
kiddies, but I missed how this ride used to feel all out fast. I'm also
sure that I remember them running it reverse for a few rounds to, which
they didn't do anymore, but that may be old age memory playing tricks on
me. :)
It was now almost time for the "Slime Time Live" show which the kids wanted
to see, and which provided a perfect excuse for me to get in a quick ride
on Invertigo while my sis took them over to see the show. This way at
least they wouldn't be waiting around for me while I rode, they would enjoy
the show, and I would get in my ride (Deb didn't want to ride it that much
for some reason)
|
| 1-21-04 12:56:01 |
|
Sir Willow
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 3553
View Park/Ride Count
|
Part 3 of 4
Invertigo's entrance is easy to miss, as it's basically a post with the
sign name sticking up in a vast concrete pad area, and I actually wandered
part it twice trying to find it, while also noticing how out of place the
vine covered walkway now looks right here with uncovered walkways on both
sides. It used to come up to the edge of the platform for the triple arm
wheel that was here, and looked gorgeous as well as provided a nice place
to sit and relax in some shade. Now it looks like an out of place island
of green in the middle of the walkways, and while I was happy it was still
there, it seemed they didn't have to make it look so odd.
In any case, I finally made it into the entrance for Invertigo, and after a
short 3 train wait amongst a few sprinkles coming down from the sky, I was
seated in the next to last backwards facing seat. I'm sure everyone knows
the layout, so I won't dwell on that, but I'll say that it was one heck of
a ride. The drops were great, the g's were right where I like them-enough
to feel, but not uncomfortable, and I loved being able to watch other
people. It was funny because the teenage girls I was facing had been
taunting another girl about 10 years old that didn't want to ride. Then
both of them screamed and acted like they were going to die they were so
terrified. So needless to say that earned some heckling from me, and I
made sure to tell their young friend not to listen to them tease her as
they were scared to death. :) In any case I really liked Invertigo, and
it shows again that Vekoma can make some great rides when they want to.
Score: 9
After this I jogged back around the Nick area to catch the end of the show
and meet back up with the family, and had an opportunity to watch the kids
having a blast sitting in the bleachers up on the stage. The felt like
they were a part of the show, even though they weren't playing the games,
which I thought was a nice touch.
As the show ended, we made our way over to Logger's Run, which was right at
the corner of the Nick area (I miss the Yukon!!), and it was great fun as
usual, giving us a nice misty spray with a couple of solid places of
splash-just about what I look for in a log flume. I did note that they
changed the routing on the ride itself some, and places where they had
changed the flume were quite obvious as they were either not painted or
made of concrete, and most of it didn't have much water in it, all of which
was a change from the past. Does it really take that much effort to paint
the troughs and put some water so that you float rather than drag/ bump/
and bang? And up on the top level I was a bit surprised at the wall
extensions they added to much of it, making it impossible to see outside
and into the park for most of it, which took away from a lot of what made
it fun on that level. But at least it still got you wet.
We checked out the Sponge Bob theater, but after waiting around for along
time and watching the other side load up at least twice with Spongebob not
moving at all, we moved over to the other side, which had an Indiana Jones
type of show playing, and where we found out a seat on the SpongeBob side
had broken (why they couldn't put someone out front to say that and instead
leave everyone wondering was beyond me) The show we did see was alright a
bit, but a bit much for the kids, which I probably would have realized if
I'd bothered to look. And trying to explain a show like that to them while
making sure they're not scared just doesn't work real well. So we exited
with promises to the kids to come back in a bit when the show was working
right and see SpongeBob.
we continued to make our way down where they've now created a little plaza
at the Rapids entrance, moving the Orbit (formerly Orlean's Orbit, an
enterprise) here, and putting the Flying Eagles scooters out in front of
both. With no lines, the first stop was the Eagles, and I grabbed Joseph
who thought they looked like they might be a fun, gentle ride while Deb and
Amber sat out. Let's just say that I surprised him a bit. I'm not a
veteran of flyers, so can't really say that these would snap well, but the
sails are the metal ones, not canvas, making them a bit heavy and, I would
imagine, harder to snap. However, even with that, I was getting some great
high flights, lots of sideways time and sharps drops with an occaisional
vibration in my wires that I can only imagine would be approaching
snapping. Joseph, once I got moving, started to get a bit nervous, so I
had to fly a lot with one hand around him til he realized we weren't going
to really go flying. I really enjoyed these, and would have liked more
time on them to see how far I could get, but the others were wanting to
move on, so off we did to a ride I would feel for the rest of the day.
It never did get really hot, but it was comfortably "over warm" at this
point that we listened to the kids pleadings and headed to the rapids.
This uses the 6 person boats and moves at a pretty good clip on the
turnstyle loading station, so lines move well. It took us about 15 minutes
to get into the station (with me asking at one point why the have the line
crossing over itself right near the station instead of just laying them out
next to each other) and seated into our boat with just us 4. The waves and
rapids gave us a couple moderate waves, but for the most part weren't to
wet, though fun. What got us was the water spouts fired by people watching
the ride. Talk about perfect aim, setup, and water amounts. I caught 2 of
them directly and a couple of others caught most of the boat. The kids
walked off comfortably wet and Deb and I were pretty well doused. Not so
wet that we were wringing out like at SFMM's (which is to much sometimes),
but definately soaked enough to not dry off the rest of the day.
We took a turn on the Orbit to try and dry off some, which was a fun ride,
but my car rocked more than I've ever experienced on this. I don't have a
clue why, but even Deb commented that we were rocking a whole bunch. Lets
just say that it does make the ride a bit more nerve-wracking. Hunger was
calling by now, along with a very mixed appetitle among us so we made our
way back up toward the Nick zone, again passing SpongeBob which still
didn't seem to be working quite right, and had a late lunch at the
Nicktoon's Cafe, set up buffett style where you paid as you left the buffet
line. After pizza, burgers, fries, breadsticks, and salad, we were quite
stuffed.
As promised, we tried out Sponge Bob 3D once again, and this time it was
working! yea!!! I won't give away any of the storyline, but if you're a
SpongeBob fan (as the kids and I are), then you'll love it. If not, then a
lot of it will probably go a bit over your head. The effects are great,
from the surprise on the opening theme song all the way through. We all
exited with big grins on our faces from a great show.
We let the kids take another ride or two in nearby Kidzville (sorry, a bit
blurry here) then backtracked once again on our way up to the Eagle's
Flight-one of the last cable car/ sky car's in the state (SCBB and the
Orange County Fair have the only other 2 I'm aware of) This is still a
very nice, relaxing way to view the entire park, and provided a great place
to take some pictures. I had been taking a bunch all day, and Deb was
starting to get a bit annoyed at it-which means I had to take one of her.
Isn't there rules about trying to beat people up in these things? If there
is she ignored them and gave me a nice bruise to remember the flight by.
:)
After exiting in "Pavilion Plaza" (the former New Orleans Square) we took a
round on the Rue Le Dodge bumper cars. Jon Zerkel will be happy to hear,
there are still a set of awesome bumper cars in CA!! These babies ran flat
out, fast, and had no direction rules-meaning head on's were ok. This is
the way bumper cars are supposed to run, so you can FEEL the collisions.
It was enough that the one time I had a good shot at Deb and Amber's back I
yelled to them first so I didn't give them whiplash when I hit. Wow! The
other parks need to take lessons on this one.
Deb and the kids then headed into the Great American Outlet-a store with
all their outdated and marked down merchandise. I took a quick look at Top
Gun, but it had a substantial line and as much as I wanted to ride I wasn't
going to make them wait, so I joined in on the shopping. Maybe it's just
me, but I think every park should have a shop like this. What better way to
get rid of old unsold merchandise is there? We bought t-shirts for $7,
coloring and souvenier books for 50 cents, giant pencils for $1, keychains
and magnets for $1.50 or less (one keychain for 25 cents), and more. I
bought a bunch of stuff and was still able to stay well within budgets,
which was very nice.
We walked back to the Celebration Plaza-home of the entrance, carousel,
etc, and while Deb and the others took a bathroom break, I took several
pictures of the Columbia Carousel, which was looking gorgeous as it should.
It's nice to see Paramount at least taking care of this area of the park.
Of course we took our rounds on the Columbia with the kids in awe of being
on the second floor of the carousel and enjoying the views. As we got off
the carousel we came into a an area that was very open-much more so than I
remembered, with a large round paved area standing out, and leaving me
wondering what used to be here, but for now I was at a loss. There would
be opportunity later to figure it out.
|
| 1-21-04 12:56:55 |
|
Sir Willow
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 3553
View Park/Ride Count
|
Part 4 of 4
However we arrived at the end of the "Nicktoons Live" meet and greet, where
they had various Nickelodeon cartoon characters arranged around this
circle, with small carpets set out in front of them to help guide the
lines, and signposts with the character's name and picture on them if you
couldn't tell for some reason. It was quite funny that out of all of them
(Rugrats, Thornberry's, Jimmy Neutron, Blue, Dora) the ones with the
longest line by far were Sponge Bob and Patrick. None of the others were
even close. It was a nice opportunity for the kids, and they made a show
of a little parade with a fire engine as they left.
It was as they were leaving that I figured out what was wrong with this
area, and why it seemed so open with the pavement. What really gave it
away was when I noticed the floral clock on the hillside nearby. That used
to be on the hill with the train station, and the exit and entrance were on
opposite sides of it. And then it occured to me. I knew the train had
been removed, but that wasn't all. Not only had them removed the train
track and the station, they had actually removed the entire hillside that
the station sat on and replaced it with a wonderful piece of flat cement!
Yes it made it more open, but it certainly wasn't any better looking than
the station and trestle bridge was, and just made me shake my head at how
much it must have cost to remove all of that without even really replacing
it. It just seems like a waste to me.
It was also while standing here that we looked over to the Pictorium, one
of the very first IMAX theaters ever built, hoping to find out what was
playing since it hadn't been listed in the shows guide. Sadly we found out
why-it was closed, with no shows playing and looking like it was being set
aside and forgotten. Even the name had been removed from the building and
the arches leading to its entrances. And while I hope that's temporary for
this year, with the other changes I've seen I'm not so optimistic.
The kids took a round on the Celebration Swings, a pretty standard version.
Don't know why but these have just never done a whole lot for me, but the
kids love them, so that's good. Next stop was Triple Play, their troika.
This used to be one of our favorite rides as kids, and it was still a lot
of fun. One of the things that used to be so fun with this was on the
upswings you'd hit the tree branches from the Willow and other trees
around. They formed a wall around this ride and you weren't able to really
see anything past them to the rest of the park. Unfortunately, the trees
are almost entirely gone, removing part of the mystique that made it fun,
and giving wide open views to Vortex and the chain link fence around it. I
still love toikas, and the kids had a blast on it, but I'm left wondering
why they ripped down the trees and didn't make any effort to replace them
at least.
We also took a brief look at Vortex. This is a B&M standup coaster, but
the map guidelines say that the height requirement is 48"-a good 6" less
than every other standup I'm aware of. Their website however has it
correct, but I checked anyways. Sure enough, 54". Since guest relations
was right there, I stopped in just to point it out, as well as mention the
mess over at the Sponge Bob theater from earlier. To say they were
surprised would be an understatement, and hurriedly starting writing the
information down, but it left me a bit shocked that they would be this far
into the season and not have a clue about this typo since it would
seemingly affect a good number of people.
We did a little more shopping, then headed into the theater for the Legends
show, which they bill as "The greatest musical tribute show featuring some
of the world's most recognizable celebrity impersonators." Sounds great,
especially considering the history of great musical shows I've seen in this
theater. Lets just say it didn't live up to it's billing. The first was a
Garth Brooks, who did a very good job. He was followed by Faith Hill, who
was a so so version-a good voice but Faith Hill she wasn't. The last was
Ricky Martin, who didn't have the voice or anything else but attempts at
the pelvis thrusts. And forgive me if I don't consider the last 2 to be
legends. I was hoping for a musical review; instead we got 3 impersonators
who spent to long on the stage. If we had known that's what it was, we
might have rethought seeing the show. ah well.
At this point we were about done, but I noticed that lines were short, and
Vortex being right there was calling to me. So I abandoned Deb and the
kids for a few short minutes while I jogged up and grabbed a back seat
ride. As the others have said this is a short, intense stand up coaster.
But with that intensity it's also added some roughness over the years and
gave me a couple of good headshots to add to my already minor headache.
Fun, but no longer great and wonderful. I'd still rate it way ahead of
Mantis though. Score-6 or so.
It was while taking an extended rest on Vortex's brake run to that I was
able to get a good look at what was left of Tidal Wave's station. The
queue areas were easy enough to notice earlier in the day over near the 3D
shows' theater. Here the station itself was visible, though about all that
was left was the floors and the concrete footers of the track (all of which
looked intact). Tidal Wave used to be the one enclosed station at the
park, so they had done some work scrapping it, but certainly left a lot
standing behind. We sat there long enough for me to be able to reach down
to my belt, unzip my camera, take it out for a couple of picture, adn get
it back in and zipped up. A long wait.
With my last ride done, we got together, took a last look at the carousel
as we got my son his smashed pennies, and headed out for the long drive
home.
Overall, I thought that the park was much improved over my last visit. It
was far cleaner and neater looking than it had been in the past. Thinks
looked freshly painted, and the landscaping was nice. The rides were also
generally very well run, with minor nitpicky things. It was also very
obviously a Paramount park now, though there were no longer Klingons and
Ferengi running around the Yukon (much as I love Trek, that was annoying)
Far more of the Mariott's has been removed than kept, and it seems like
more is on the way out to, and personally that's a bit distressing so there
was so much there that I liked. In many ways this park no longer has a
heart and soul, though it sure seems like they are now making progress
towards finding a new one, but one very different than what it used to be.
In many ways, I guess I could use the name of the park as a summary of my
thoughts. It's no longer Great America, and really has little to nothing
to do with America anymore. The name no longer fits the park or what
you'll find inside. Maybe it's time that Paramount took the time to
explore a name change for the park-one that might fit it better. After
all, Six Flags has done it, I don't see why they can't here to. Because
really, that's where most of my complaints are, is expecting what is no
longer there. It really isn't a theme park anymore, and hasn't been in a
while. It's now an amusement park, and having the name reflect that, at
least for me, would be nice. Even with that, though, we really enjoyed our
day at the park, and had a lot of fun-even if my sis was going crazy with
all the pictures I was taking. :)
And with that, I'll bring this mammoth thing to a close. Thanks for
reading along with the whole thing! :)
|
| 1-21-04 12:57:55 |
|
DLI Evan
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 36
View Park/Ride Count
|
When I visited in August 2001, this park was a hellhole. I plan to never visit it again.
|
| 9-11-04 23:03:13 |
|
|
|
