Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!
Entry posted by Avohkah Tamer
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Okay, so as a few of you know already, I went specifically to the Six Flags Great America park the other day, because it was closest to my area (which I will not tell to you. =P). I got there probably somewhere around 9:30 AM or so, and stayed until... waitaminute... 9:30 PM!!! Oo... Okay, readers, I literally didn't notice that until I typed this. =P I didn't get photos, unfortunately (you aren't allowed to have a backpack or anything with you on the rides, they make you leave it at the beginning of the line in lockers or a friend's hands)
I went on a lot of rides, mostly the coasters, throughout the day. Some of them multiple times. Almost all the experiences of I absolutely loved.
(I'm not a coaster person, personally. I only got into them late April and early May on my Disney World trip. When I say "got into them", I mean went on each about 7 times per park day on average. =P)
I think I'll start with some of the worst and go to the best, though this list may be slightly hard to order considering I liked a whole bunch equally. Readers, don't take this list as the official countdown list by me, I'm just trying to make a list.
The Dark Knight coaster
This brand new ride was VERY surprisingly not very enjoyable to me. I had assumed, what with all the hype, and the extremely long wait, and the (very cool) theatrics before the ride, that it might actually be a really thrilling ride! I was wrong... I'll type a long description/review of this ride, since many are unfamiliar with it, and its features are not incredibly well-known: The ride starts out with you going in a room watching an HD TV showing a press conference With Harvey Dent, talking about how he plans to rid Gotham of organized crime. After a reporter asks about the new calling card showing up, a Joker card, at the scene of elaborate crimes, the video fades, and you hear maniacal (obviously the Joker's) laughter. The video starts getting warped and mixed up, saying things like "The people are... hooligans... The people are... wrong..." and more laughter. It all ends with clips of other tapes getting mixed with the press conference tape, producing phrases similar to "Batman... Won't you come out and play with me?", and faux light-projected graffiti showing Joker phrases all over the walls suddenly appearing. The video ends with the quote "Why so serious..." and an alarm blares, telling you to head to the "Gotham emergency transport" or something like that, I couldn't hear very well. You walk down a long tunnel, coming to the loading dock, which looks kinda like the elevated trains from the movies, except without a roof and each only housing 4 people (2 rows of 2). That's right, you get in a strange little miniature train-looking thing. Oh, and there are no head restraints whatsoever, something I wasn't expecting. After pulling the lap restraint down, you find yourself going rather slowly through the interior of the building, at first climbing up a long generic roller coaster lift, and then basically winding around past various creepyish Joker crime thingys, like burning buildings with henchmen coming out, or a sign that has a left arrow and the flashing word "LEFT" just before making a sharp right turn. There are a few small drops, but the ride is almost solely turns. The end result is a banged-up head if you can't see in the dark well enough to know what's next, and a very disappointed "I just waited in line for an hour for THIS?!?" look on your face. I don't recommend this ride to anyone except those who are obsessed with the movie (I'm going to LOVE the movie, I'm just not obsessed), can see well in the dark, and don't like very exciting thrill rides.
Iron Wolf
This is a pretty unique coaster in that you stand up, kinda sitting on a bicycle-type seat while riding it, and it actually inverts (goes upside-down) a couple times. It's a really neat concept, but the ride is quite painful if you either don't know how to best adjust your "seat", or have ears that can feel pain. Okay, I think I literally bruised my ears on this ride. The outer ear, not the eardrum from noise. This ride bangs your head back and forth between the thick shoulder restraints so much everyone I noticed was holding their bright red ears in pain coming out. I imagine this ride would be very fun if I either had softer pads for my ears to hit while riding sharp turns, or if they had a different way entirely of having the shoulder restraints attached.
Batman: The Ride
No, I'm not talking about The Dark Knight coaster again, I'm talking about the older ride. This ride is essentially suspended chairs hanging from a roller coaster track, but it goes upside-down a few times and has some quite fun turns. I sorta enjoyed this ride, and yet again only have a couple problems. First, after a long wait it's a quite short ride. Second, MY EARS!!! =P This ride has almost identical shoulder restraints as Iron Wolf, and actually turns, therefore my ears hurt afterward. It was a shorter ride, so it was bearable, though. I'm beginning to wonder if there are some people with different-shaped ears that don't get banged-up on this ride...
The Whizzer
This ride has two seats per car (in a line, not perpendicular to the track), with each car capable of holding two people at once (one in another's lap, meant for parents/kids) maximum. I went single in one of those long seats, so the ride felt loose, but I was secure. It starts out going up a spiral instead of a regular lift, but the ride is essentially the same otherwise. No upside-down, but lots of cool banked turns and fast drops. It's the kind of ride I'd try to get my youngest brother (who isn't used to thrill rides yet) to go on, but not the kind I'd ride over and over in a day. The fast banked turns between the trees were quite awesome, though. It looked as if you could reach them as you were going past. It was a decent length of a ride for the wait time.
The American Eagle
I actually didn't go on this ride, because it was my turn to hold everyone's things while they went on it (It was either that or pay $1 for a one-use locker... ><). From their descriptions after the ride, it was a pretty intense ride, but it was so rickety that your fear of flying off the track is greater than your fear of the upcoming drops. I'm almost glad I didn't go on this ride, and the rest of the youth group actually didn't want to go on it again afterwards. I think if you can overcome the fear of falling off the bumpy track, this ride would be pretty fun.
The Viper
This all-wooden track was actually not rickety-feeling at all to me. It seems very well-built, with the track interweaving with itself so many times that seeing the track from the outside makes you think the ride is shorter than it really is. It goes up and down over and over when it's not making a banked turn through a narrow opening, and the feeling is quite cool. Everyone in the youth group agreed after the ride that this ride was one of their favorites, with the only con was that it was a little bumpy.
Vertical Velocity
Ooh, boy. Now we're getting into the FUN rides. =D
Vertical velocity is basically a coaster that you're in a hanging seat on, that accelerates rapidly forward and sharply goes up a slight turned track, drops back down the way it came going past the loading platform to another lift that the coaster climbs backwards, with everyone facing down. This repeats 3 times, and eventually brakes to a stop. I found my favorite part facing down on people's heads from reeeeeally high. I was in the very back, you see, and that means I was in the highest car when it went backwards. The turned track when you go forwards is not intense at all, really. I find the most intense part going forwards and down from the backwards position past the loading platform. This is the kind of ride everyone's smiling after, and showing two thumbs up to each other. It's DEFINITELY one I'll go on multiple times next time I go to Six Flags.
The Raging Bull
The Raging Bull is one of your generic coasters, that doesn't go upside down but has some really neat curves at the high points, and near-sideways banked turns. It was a really nice ride, very smooth and not too intense, and the huge drop at the beginning is very awesome. Oh, also, it's a nice long ride that has a relatively short line (at least while I was there)! It is either second, or tied for first in my favorite coasters at Six Flags list. =P I liked that ride so much, I went on it a total of three times while I was there!
Superman
Ok, now THIS coaster is really neat! You get in a seat and strap yourself in. When it is about to "take off", the floor goes down and the seats all turn so you're in a "flying" position, facing the ground. After going up a long lift, you go down very fast around turns and swoops, and even doing a really intense vertical loop once! It is really an awesome experience on this ride, but it ends all too short (a little over a minute, I believe). I went on it twice, and I would have gone more if not for the really long lines. I HIGHLY recommend this ride, as it really almost feels like flying.
Well, that's all I have to say about the coasters I went on or my group went on! I definitely want to go back to Six Flags before the end of this year, and I have no idea why I hadn't gone since I was six years old. This park is awesome! (Though not as cool in some ways as Disney World. =P)
~ 
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