Back at Great America After 20+ Years: What 70 Coaster Rides Taught Me
EDIT: This is comprehensive... about a 20 minute read if you do the whole thing, or far less for the coaster reviews only. Way less than most YouTube reviews!
I used to go to Great America once a year through early college. Then life happened, and I didn't go for a single visit for more than 20 years.
This summer I came back with my kids, bought season passes, and somehow we ended up going seven times and logging about 70 coaster rides plus some flat rides.
I didn't expect that.
I also didn't expect repeated riding to change how I thought about coasters as much as it did. Or how much I’d reflect on the entirety of the parks.
When you ride something once a year, you remember the big moments. The huge drop. The launch. The inversion that scared the hell out of you.
When you can ride the same coaster repeatedly, in different rows, with different train loads and at different times of day, you start noticing completely different things.
Airtime. Pace. Whip. Flow. Restraints. Dead sections. How dramatically darkness can transform a ride.
And maybe most importantly: when you get off, do you actually want to get back in line?
That question changed my rankings more than anything.
So here’s a writeup. It starts with ride rankings/reviews, then goes into some other observations of the entire experience.
None of this is objective. Coaster rankings are ridiculously subjective. This is one guy rediscovering his home park after more than two decades and getting enough repetitions in one summer to realize that some things I remembered were wrong, some supposedly great rides don't do much for me, and some old rides are far better than I ever appreciated.
Note: I’m not a hardcore enthusiast. I don’t have a fast pass. My alt park comparisons are low. This is all a bit more: if you have time and go during the week, and have a chance to re-ride during different temps and times of the day, this is what you can get.
Top Tier: Batman and Raging Bull
Yeah, I really am a classic B&M junkie… I know.
Batman: The Ride, 12 rides
Still phenomenal.
There isn't a wasted second once this thing gets going. Constant motion, constant transitions, constant whip. It's smooth but relentless, and somehow it never feels particularly intimidating to me. It's just fun.
The front and back are almost different rides.
Up front, with nothing blocking the view, you get a legitimate sensation of soaring. Honestly, I get more of that sensation here than I do on Superman. In the back, Batman becomes surprisingly intense and the whip really comes alive, plus you get serious Gs in the loops.
And Batman at night? Magical.
The theming deserves credit too. It's probably still the most complete themed coaster experience in the park. Yes, it's themed to a Batman movie from another geological era. Who cares? The queue, station and atmosphere still work. If they're pumping Prince through the speakers, even better.
It was the first B&M invert, and more than 30 years later it's still one of the best rides in the park. There is no other ride I want to go on over and over and over again than this one. It was even the final ride of the final late weeknight ride of the year, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Raging Bull, 7 rides
Bull is almost the opposite kind of great.
It's huge and intimidating, yet somehow graceful. The transitions are incredibly smooth, the big swooping turns are wonderful, and I didn't realize how much I appreciated its airtime until I started riding this repeatedly.
The first drop doesn't bother me nearly as much as I expected. The minimal restraint initially feels a little unnerving on something this large, but I eventually realized that openness is part of what makes the ride so good. Put a giant shoulder harness on it and you'd probably ruin the experience.
Front row during the day is excellent for really feeling the wind in your face.
The back is a completely different experience. It pulls and whips you over everything without becoming harsh.
Back row at night was one of the best rides I had all summer.
Nearly 30 years later, it's still excellent.
I honestly can't choose between Batman and Bull. They're completely different experiences and both are fantastic. And likely also why Wrath gets kicked to tier 2.
Excellent, With Asterisks: Wrath, American Eagle, Viper and X-Flight
Wrath of Rakshasa, 5 rides
Probably the most technically advanced coaster in the park, and when you get the right seat it's excellent.
The hang before the dive is great. It's intimidating but brief enough that it doesn't become unpleasant. After that, Wrath has something I really value: pace. Like Batman, it keeps moving and transitioning. Lots of whip and very little wasted time.
But good grief is this thing seat dependent.
Front row? Fantastic.
Middle/middle? Surprisingly calm.
Back wings? Way jankier than I expected from a coaster that's basically brand new. And I think being that it exists in such a B&M playground and knowing how smooth others are, that’s what people compare this to quite a lot.
The bigger problem is that the station assigns rows and generally doesn't let you lobby for another one. That's a strange combination. Build a coaster whose experience changes dramatically depending on the row, then don't let riders choose the row.
This thing should also be running three trains whenever crowds justify it. A new headliner with enormous waits needs the capacity its station was designed to provide.
Great ride. So cool how it interacts with the walkways. But being the newest and most advanced coaster doesn't automatically make it the best.
American Eagle, 8 rides
This was probably my biggest surprise of the summer.
I didn't remember loving Eagle. I wasn’t on a mission to ride it, initially. Riding it repeatedly completely changed my opinion.
With a loaded train, especially middle to back, there is serious airtime on this thing. It might actually have more noticeable airtime than Bull. I also strongly prefer Red's return leg after the helix.
But the key is RACING.
Eagle running one side is a good old wooden coaster. Emphasis on good. The helix in particular can become pretty boring.
Eagle actually racing is a different, far more intense ride.
There is something about two loaded trains dropping and hitting that first camelback together that changes the entire sensation. More vibration, more perceived speed, more energy. Suddenly the helix has a purpose because there's another train right there beside you.
I went into the season thinking Eagle was an aging relic.
I came out thinking**:** don't RMC this thing and thanks to those guys for kinda passing on it before they did Goliath. Take care of it, paint it, make it look like it’s actually a landmark, and KEEP RACING THE DAMN TRAINS. If that’s not in the cards after this year, then what the heck is the strategy here? No need to re-track, but oof are those trains made for early 80s bod sizes…
Viper, 8 rides
Crazily underrated.
Viper doesn't have one giant signature moment. It just keeps doing fun things.
Lots of action. Lots of airtime. Especially toward the back.
The back is where this ride really clicked for me. You get pulled over the camelbacks and airtime sections, but somewhat counterintuitively I also find the turnarounds less harsh and jerky than toward the front.
And Viper at night is fantastic. It gets genuinely dark back there; you drop into the abyss.
It's an old-school wooden coaster that still works because the underlying ride is good. It doesn't need a gimmick.
If Viper is down, I'm genuinely disappointed.
That's probably the best compliment I can give a coaster.
X-Flight, 6 rides
Another coaster where the seat matters enormously.
Front row is where this ride works. With nothing obstructing your view, you actually get the soaring sensation the wing-coaster concept promises. The near misses are much more effective because you can see them developing, and the rolling first drop has excellent hang, particularly on the left side.
At night it's even better. It feels faster and the near misses sneak up on you.
I actually wish it whipped more. You can't tell me a fighter jet doesn't make violent movements. The layout is a little too polite for the theme.
Toward the back, especially during the day, I find it surprisingly boring.
The restraints are another negative. They seem to get tighter as the ride progresses, and then you can end up sitting there uncomfortable while the painfully slow loading process finishes ahead of you.
Still fun.
Front row transforms it, especially at night.
Very Good, But I Don't Love It: Goliath
Goliath, 5 rides
I can hear your words, and they are harsh. Sorry, not sorry.
First, come on. Calling this a wooden coaster feels generous. There's an awful lot of steel frame involved. Hybrid… right…
The lift is intimidating as hell. The station sits low and you just climb and climb and climb. Somehow I find that first drop considerably more intimidating than Bull's.
And the first drop is legitimately spectacular, and carries a ton of speed into the first turnaround.
Then I start having problems.
The leg-only restraints contribute to the exposed sensation, particularly through the stall, but they can also hurt. Strong airtime can pull you violently into them, limiting the fun float sensation that makes airtime feel great. The stall is impressive but isn't especially comfortable for me, again due to the restraints.
For a coaster built around these enormous elements, the footprint also feels too compact. There are spectacular individual moments, but not enough consistently enjoyable coaster connecting them.
It's also the ride where I increasingly noticed blocked seats as the season progressed, along with substantial downtime during our visits. I can't make any broader reliability claim from seven park days, but it didn't give me the impression of a ride aging particularly gracefully.
There's some Great America archaeology here too. Goliath occupies Iron Wolf's old territory, and if you remember Iron Wolf well enough, you can still recognize pieces of the old queue and station. I can still remember the crotch crunch like it was yesterday…
But it's subtle. You have to know what you're looking for. The area feels like Goliath now, and I only bring that up because it will get referenced for a ride a little later.
Goliath is objectively a much better coaster than Demon. It's more impressive than Viper on paper.
But if Goliath is down, I'll shrug and ride it another day.
One Goliath ride per visit or every other is plenty for me.
The Classic: Demon
Demon, 9 rides
Demon is partly a nostalgia trip, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
It's old Arrow weirdness. It's jerky. It occupies a surprisingly large amount of land for what it actually does. Ride toward the back and it can absolutely bang your head and neck around. So yeah, you can kinda get that old shockware experience on a smaller scale.
But it's just fun.
The old theming still has personality. The tunnels, rockwork, Demon mouth, the old "Beware, Demon Sighting" stuff. At night, when the tunnels and corkscrew area are lit, the entire ride gets better.
The old-school restraints are also a reminder of another era when you could actually move around. Once you learn how to ride the corkscrews, they're not nearly as bad. The back can still beat you up regardless.
And here's increasingly what I appreciate about Demon:
Nobody is ever going to build this ride again.
Nobody is designing a modern coaster with this combination of Arrow track, those restraints, tunnels, cheesy horror theming, rockwork and corkscrews jammed through a giant illuminated demon's head.
Modern coasters are technically superior in almost every measurable way. But even when newer Great America rides have a theme, it often feels less immersive. The theme gets applied to the ride rather than the ride being embedded in some weird little environment somebody created decades ago.
Demon isn't Disney. It never was.
But it has identity.
That's worth preserving.
Is Goliath a better coaster?
Absolutely, and it pains me to admit it.
Would I sometimes rather go ride Demon again?
Yep.
And it was also entertaining how often I’d be in a line for Wrath and hear a fellow Dad telling his kids about how they would hit Demon right after, and now Demon was the first coaster they ever double looped on, and still cherish it. I’m in that camp as well.
The One-Trick Rides
Maxx Force, 3 rides
That launch is phenomenal. I feel my heart racing in anticipation as soon as you come to the stop after the station as the launching mechanism locks into place.
It's intense, intimidating and genuinely fun. Everyone should experience it.
Then you immediately realize the problem:
There just isn't enough coaster afterward.
The train sheds a noticeable amount of that incredible launch speed early, even before the climb, you get some twisting elements, and suddenly you're approaching the stall and end.
It feels like the beginning of a great coaster attached directly to the finale.
It needs more track. Let it carry more of that speed. Hell, give it another acceleration later in a longer layout.
Combine the short (under 30 seconds) ride with frequent downtime during our visits and a line that's almost always substantial, and my threshold became simple.
If Maxx Force is under about 30 minutes, sure.
Otherwise, no thanks.
Phenomenal launch. Surprisingly low re-rideability. No, the launch does not compensate for its brevity after a long, long line.
Superman: Ultimate Flight, 2 rides
My least favorite of the park's major coasters.
The pretzel loop is incredibly intense. Then the rest of the ride is surprisingly boring.
The flying position isn't particularly comfortable, loading takes forever, and sometimes you finish the ride only to remain hanging there waiting for the train ahead to finish loading or unloading.
It's an enormous footprint and an interesting concept, but it feels like a squandered opportunity. And its low profile just seems inadequate for those who remember how hulking shockwave was from the gate.
One huge element surrounded by not enough interesting coaster.
And the whole area has always felt like an afterthought.
Nearly 30 years after ShockWave disappeared, you can still see remnants of the old ShockWave colors and infrastructure while standing in Superman's painfully slow line. Yeah, yeah - it was last minute because it was going to be elsewhere and it was put up rather hastily in that spot… blah, blah, blah.
Compare that with Goliath. If you remember Iron Wolf, you can spot what was reused, but you have to look for it.
Superman's area still feels like somebody removed ShockWave, dropped another coaster onto the property and said, "Malort with an Old Style backer, please."
That's particularly disappointing because Superman is a concept begging for immersive theming that might make it better if you were really in the mood for it, yet the surroundings do very little with it except make you feel like you’re prodding along to a meh ride.
I'd ride Maxx Force over Superman every time. Besides, the lines are usually about as long as each other. I truly believe this is the next coaster to be replaced, and I don’t think many would be sad about that.
Lower Tier, Limited Sample
These are rides where I only got one lap this year, so take these impressions accordingly.
The Flash: Vertical Velocity, 1 ride
Intense launch, then back and forth, some hang in the spikes and...meh.
I've heard the original operation included a hold on the spike, which sounds like it would give the ride a much-needed signature moment.
During our visits it was also rarely operating, and with the low capacity, I wasn't willing to spend a long time waiting to collect another data point.
Whizzer, 1 ride
This one surprised me negatively.
I remembered it being cool. Weaving through the trees, low to the ground, unusual layout, felt faster than it was.
Now it felt rickety and boring.
And the line always seems dramatically longer than I'd expect for the experience.
Maybe another ride would change my mind. The first one didn't make me particularly interested in finding out.
And maybe, just maybe, the park is going to watch how many flock to the newer family ride in 2027 to get a better idea for what the outcry may be to put this ride to pasture. I know the sentiment, but it’s from a time when there were a lot less alternatives to choose from.
Joker, 1 ride
Painfully slow-moving line for a tiny-capacity ride. 8 people at a time is not sustainable. Full stop.
Then our car barely flipped.
Without the flipping, what remained was mostly jerky and weird. Maybe we got a lousy cycle. That's the danger of judging it from one ride.
But the line moved slowly enough that none of us wanted to try again.
Dark Knight, 1 ride
Nope.
Jerky lateral movement wild mouse without any real flow. It felt like getting thrown side to side without purpose.
It's indoors and air-conditioned.
I have now identified its best feature.
Don't Forget the Flat Rides
One thing I caught myself doing this summer was reducing the park to coaster statistics.
Height. Speed. Airtime. Inversions. Credits.
Meanwhile, Fiddler's Fling is fantastic.
It's an old-school permanent Scrambler that's considerably more intense than I remembered. There's no record to break. It just pins you sideways and makes everyone laugh.
Lobster is another one, particularly at night. The spinning, elevation changes and unpredictability are simply fun.
And that's why I miss things like Cajun Cliffhanger and Space Shuttle America.
And sometimes after repeatedly throwing yourself around on coasters, slowing down on the train or going up Sky Trek Tower is exactly what you want.
A great amusement park isn't simply a collection of coaster credits.
Great America Has Always Changed
Watching old Great America footage from 1998 recently made me think about this differently.
I'm not arguing that everything old should have survived.
ShockWave had real problems and took up an enormous amount of land. Iron Wolf was massively historically important but eventually became known as a crotch crusher.
Rolling Thunder especially had a freedom of movement that you just don't encounter much anymore. These weren't destination attractions. They were part of a deep bench of weird, distinctive rides.
Some rides reach the end.
In fact, one of the coolest things about Great America is how experimental this park has historically been.
It was essentially an early B&M playground. Iron Wolf was B&M's first coaster. Batman was the first B&M invert and created an entire genre. Great America kept experimenting afterward.
That's a history worth celebrating.
But experimentation inevitably leaves casualties. It's not any one attraction. It's the cumulative effect.
Watching that old footage, the park looked more open, greener and shadier. Children's areas were larger. There were stunt shows, roaming characters, live performers like mariachi bands and more little things happening between the rides. I’m not a musical guy, but other shows would be nice.
Even the remote-control boats capture it perfectly. The controls and payment hardware were still sitting there this year. Kids would walk up expecting to use them, only to discover the boats themselves were absent.
Tiny thing.
But those tiny things add up.
Today's park feels much denser, yet strangely, much of that density isn't active. Restaurants, food stands, kiosks and former venues occupy space while often sitting closed or barely used.
The older park somehow looked like it had more empty space and more happening in it.
I understand the economics. Live entertainment is labor intensive. So are characters and little staffed attractions. Labor costs dramatically more than it did in the 1990s. Automation has replaced employees throughout the business.
Maybe customers changed too.
We check wait times. Optimize rope drop. Count credits. Race to the next coaster.
I'm guilty of it.
Maybe parks stopped giving us reasons to slow down because we stopped valuing them. Maybe we stopped slowing down because parks removed the reasons.
Probably both.
And recreating the old model wouldn't be cheap. I can't imagine what a Great America ticket would cost today if you combined the current coaster lineup with the staffing, entertainment, landscaping, kids' attractions and supporting ride collection of the older park. Disney's pricing may give us some idea.
But I think there's an important distinction:
Great America has unquestionably improved its coaster collection over the decades. It hasn't unquestionably improved the park around those coasters.
Keep experimenting. Build the next weird coaster or even flat ride, and definitely a new flume. That's part of Great America's history.
Just don't become so focused on what's next that everything old, slow, small or difficult to quantify becomes disposable.
The Full Operating Season Feels Way Too Short
Operations were one of my biggest concerns early in the season, but also one of the biggest improvements as summer went along.
Our first couple of visits honestly made me wonder whether buying passes had been a mistake.
A surprising number of rides were running one train or otherwise reduced capacity. That wasn't confined to the first weekend or two. On many attractions, the ramp-up seemed to continue almost until the Fourth of July.
That's a substantial chunk of an already short Midwestern amusement-park season.
Those early mornings could be particularly rough. We'd arrive near opening and find multiple rides closed, opening late or moving lines glacially because of limited capacity.
Then, by July and into August, something clicked.
The park was often running really well.
More capacity. Better dispatches. More attractions consistently available. We could move around the park, watch the waits and get a ridiculous amount done.
Those were the visits when having a season pass really made sense.
And then:
August 17. Weekday operations over.
Two weeks before Labor Day.
So the season almost felt like three acts.
May into June: open, but a surprising amount of the park still seems to be ramping up.
July into early August: great. This is the park operating the way I hoped it would.
August 17: weekdays are done, now two months of Fright Fest crowds.
That's an awfully narrow full-operating window.
I understand the staffing realities. This is a seasonal business heavily dependent on students and other seasonal employees, and school calendars don't necessarily line up with summer weather.
But from a customer's perspective, the result is still jarring.
It takes a substantial part of the season for everything to reach full stride, and then the weekday season ends remarkably soon afterward.
And right now, two weeks before Labor Day, I'd genuinely like to go again.
I have the pass.
I have a free weekday.
I'd make the drive.
The park just isn't open.
Heat Doesn't Wait for Peak Season
The slow early-season ramp created a more serious problem too.
By mid-June, we'd already experienced legitimately hot days, yet on our visits many bottle-filling stations and drinking fountains still weren't installed, activated or readily available.
At the same time, the park's water-ride capacity was badly diminished.
Logger's Run wasn't operating. Splashwater Falls and Buccaneer Battle are long gone. That left enormous demand for Aquaman.
And on one particularly hot day, Aquaman was a mess.
The line was enormous, but boats were being dispatched partially empty because loading was so inefficient. The ride repeatedly went down.
We personally saw multiple guests faint in line, with additional stoppages while EMTs responded to people who appeared to be experiencing heat-related medical distress.
I don't know their medical conditions, so I'm not diagnosing anybody.
But I don't need to.
If it's hot enough that people are collapsing in a long outdoor queue, the only major water ride is operating inefficiently, and reliable free drinking water still isn't universally available, something has gone wrong.
And this wasn't simply one freak hot day.
Water-ride availability and difficulty finding working fountains or bottle fillers remained an issue during hot visits well into June.
The definition of "early season" needs to change.
Hot weather doesn't wait until the park decides it's peak summer. It can arrive early and linger well after schools return.
That means water, shade and cooling capacity have to be ready when the weather requires them, not when the operating calendar says they should be.
I'm not a water-park guy. I've never even gone to Hurricane Harbor.
But Hurricane Harbor doesn't replace water rides inside Great America.
Sometimes on a 90-degree afternoon, I don't want to spend half the day at a water park. I want to ride Bull and Batman and then deliberately stand on something like the old Splashwater Falls bridge and get absolutely annihilated by water.
Great America needs that form of relief, from both an entertainment and safety standpoint.
Restore Logger's Run if it's viable. If it isn't, replace it. Add another reliable, high-capacity water attraction. It doesn't need a record or giant marketing campaign.
It needs to move a lot of people and help them cool down their bodies.
More shade is needed too, particularly in exposed queues.
And working drinking fountains and bottle-filling stations need to be treated as basic infrastructure from the beginning of the season. I’m not drinking gallons of soda, I need basic water.
Heat isn't an edge case anymore.
The park needs to operate accordingly.
And Please Give Us Regular 10 PM Weeknights
This is probably the issue that will have the biggest effect on whether I buy passes or memberships again.
Keep regular 10 PM summer weekday closes.
Not necessarily every weekday. I understand the staffing and attendance realities.
But give us several dependable 10 PM weeknights as a regular part of the summer schedule, and keep weekday operations going considerably later than August 17.
I don't need fireworks.
I don't need a parade.
I don't need a nighttime spectacular.
Just operate the rides well and keep the coasters running until 10.
Because those two hours fundamentally change what you're selling.
We're coming from an hour away. That's close enough that Great America should be an obvious repeat destination, but far enough away that operating hours dramatically affect whether a trip is worthwhile.
With a 10 PM close, we can leave home at 3 or 4, arrive later in the afternoon and still have four or five legitimate hours in the park.
That's a real visit.
Ride some coasters. Grab food. Hit some flat rides. Let the crowds change. Get several night rides. Head home.
Now a season pass isn't merely admission for three or four carefully planned Great America days.
It's convenient access to Great America whenever we feel like going.
That's a completely different product.
An 8 PM close takes away much of that flexibility. With close to two hours of round-trip driving, it's much harder to justify making the trip for 90 minutes or two hours in the park.
Weekend-only operation eliminates the spontaneous weekday visit altogether.
And that's why I think Great America should evaluate those 10 PM closes as more than the ticket, food or merchandise revenue generated between 8 and 10 on a particular Wednesday.
Those hours help justify the pass itself.
They expand the park's practical geographic draw.
The northern Chicago suburbs are obvious, but southeastern Wisconsin and the Milwaukee metro contain a huge number of people sitting within striking distance.
Distance isn't measured only in miles.
A park an hour away that closes at 8 can functionally feel farther away than the same park staying open until 10.
Those hours also give passholders alternatives to Saturdays. If I can get a meaningful visit on Wednesday evening, that's one fewer visit I need to make during a packed weekend.
And Great America has another advantage here.
The park gets better after dark.
Batman becomes magical. Bull in the back at night is phenomenal. Viper disappears into the trees. Demon suddenly gets the atmosphere its theming deserves. X-Flight's near misses work better when you can't see everything coming.
The temperature drops. The lights come on. After hours of summer heat, the entire park becomes more comfortable.
Those aren't throwaway operating hours.
Some of my favorite rides of the entire summer happened during them.
And there's a strange irony in ending weekday operations in mid-August just as darkness begins arriving early enough to make those experiences easier to get.
By the end of the summer we'd gone seven times and ridden around 70 coasters.
You'd think I'd be done.
Instead, here we are roughly two weeks before Labor Day. The kids are going back to school, I have one more free weekday, and I'm genuinely bummed that we can't go one more time.
Not because our passes expired.
Not because the drive is too far.
Not because we've had enough Great America.
Because weekday operation is already over.
That's the problem if you're trying to convince me to spend more for another season pass or commit to a 12-month membership.
I wanted to use the product again.
The product wasn't available.
I understand that every Tuesday night until 10 may not make economic sense.
So don't do every Tuesday.
Maybe it's three late weekdays. Maybe the schedule changes once schools begin returning. Find what attendance and staffing can support.
But make several late weeknights regular and predictable enough that families can count on them when deciding whether a pass is worth buying.
Because when I'm looking at the price of passes or memberships for a family, I'm not only asking how many days the park is technically open.
I'm asking how many days it will be convenient enough that we'll actually decide to go.
Give me several summer afternoons when I can look at my kids at 3 PM and say:
"Want to go to Great America tonight?"
That's an experience I'll pay for.
Take that away, and Great America becomes somewhere we visit a few carefully selected days a year.
Keep it, and it becomes part of our summer routine.
That's a much stronger reason to buy the pass again.
What 70 Rides Actually Taught Me
I came back after more than 20 years expecting the new rides to be the story.
They weren't.
Repeated riding taught me that I care much more about airtime, pacing, flow, comfort and re-rideability than records or giant individual elements.
That's how Viper became one of my favorites. It's why racing Eagle completely changed my opinion of that coaster. It's why Batman is still elite more than 30 years later. It's why Goliath and Maxx Force don't rank nearly as highly for me as they do for others.
Seat and conditions matter enormously too.
Front and back Batman are different experiences. X-Flight needs the front. Viper comes alive toward the back. Bull is brilliant at both extremes. Darkness transforms several of them.
But after seven visits, I also rediscovered something bigger.
The park matters.
Not just the coasters.
The old flat ride nobody would build today matters. The ridiculous Demon theming matters. The train matters. Shade matters. Water matters. Capacity matters. Staying open late enough to actually use the place matters.
After more than 20 years away, Great America unexpectedly became part of our summer.
And that's probably the best review I can give the place.
I can complain about operations, dead attractions, water capacity, shade, shortened hours and everything Great America has lost because I liked the place enough to keep coming back and notice them.
It gave me one of the most unexpectedly fun summers I've had with my kids.
So keep building great coasters.
But take care of the classics that still deliver. Don't discard rides merely because nobody would build them today. In some cases, that's precisely why they're valuable.
Remember the smaller rides and weird little experiences. Keep experimenting, because that's always been part of Great America's DNA. But don't confuse newer with automatically better.
Get the park fully operational earlier. Have water and heat infrastructure ready when the weather requires it. Give the rides enough capacity to move people.
And with such a short full summer operating window, give us several regular weeknights until 10 and keep weekday operations going later into August.
I don't need a parade.
I don't need fireworks.
Just let me ride Batman at 9:45 on a Wednesday night.
Because after 20 years away, I finally remembered why I loved this place.
And two weeks before Labor Day, I'm sitting here pissed off that I can't go again.
I'd say that's a pretty damn good argument for giving me more opportunities to spend money there.