Negative-G - Six Flags Great America 2024

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Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois

A visit to Six Flags Great America without a spin on the Rue Le Dodge is just wrong. These are the second best bumper cars on the planet after the Scooters at Knoebel's Amusement Resort in Pennsylvania. Rue Le Dodge has a massive floor to speed around with cars that have some heft to them in a chaotic frenzy of vehicular rage. Rue Le Dodge is worth the price of admission.

Italian beef, like deep dish pizzas is one of the greatest dishes that Chicago has added to the culinary world. As someone who was born and spent my developing years growing up in the Chicago area I absolutely love an Italian beef sandwich with sweet peppers that has been dipped. it is absolute heaven. Sadly living down in rural Western Illinois I have to drive a couple of hours for a goof Italian beef sandwich. When planning this visit I saw that Six Flags Great America had added an Italian Beef restaurant. My plan was to hit it for lunch. When I saw this sign out in the midway my taste buds got all worked up....

...to sadly find out that Big Lou's Italian Beef was one of the many restaurants NOT open that day. Yes I was at the park on a slow day and yes it is obvious that this year Six Flags has been spending as little as possible before the merger with Cedar Fair but come on if the restaurant is going to be shuttered for the day pull the "Now Open" sign from the midway.

Having visited Great America since the Marriott years for forty plus years I have never seen this park look this bad. Everywhere you looked there was a store, ride, game, or restaurant closed up. Hopefully this was the last bad mistake of Six Flags corporate's perpetually bad management of the chain. Thankfully Cedar Fair is supposed to be in the drivers seat management wise with the merger as I couldn't see them make a park look as bad as Six Flags Great America did on this visit.

Heading over into Southwest Territory the Giant Drop called to me. Sadly it seems that Intamin free-fall rides are kind of a dying breed despite being so much fun.