dvdjunkie wrote:There are so many Great Americas theme parks, which state is this one in? Gurney, Illinois has a Six Flags Great America, California has a Great America, and I think of two or three other states with the same name themed parks.
Roller Coasters are my favorite. This one sounds great, and I could be persuaded to drive to ride it if it is within a reasonable distance from Kansas.
Even though Sky Syndrome answered the question, I wanted to comment further (for dvdjunkie or anyone else interested).
Theme parks, both the Disney parks and the more coaster-oriented regional and traditional parks, are my biggest passion in life - even more than movies and music.
Dvdjunkie, if you like coasters, I guess you've been to
Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, which is the closest major regional theme park near Kansas that has several coasters. I've always enjoyed my visits there, especially on Mamba, their 200 foot high steel "hypercoaster".
Six Flags Great America (in Gurnee IL) is a very nice regional theme park in north Chicagoland (about halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_Great_America
Its sister park is the Great America in Santa Clara, CA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California ... at_America
These are the only two parks to have ever had the "Great America" name.
Both Great Americas began life in 1976, and both were known as Marriott's Great America, as they were built by the Marriott corporation. They were the first regional theme parks to feature the Looney Tunes characters. Both parks were built as practically identical "clones", even moreso than Disneyland and Magic Kingdom - with the exact same attractions in the exact same locations.
In 1984 Marriott got out of the theme park business, and sold their Gurnee property to Six Flags, and it became Six Flags Great America; and it was at this time that Six Flags also acquired the rights to use the Looney Tunes characters in their other parks.
Meanwhile, the Santa Clara park came into the Kings Entertainment family (who also operated Kings Island, Kings Dominion, and Carowinds), and became known as simply Great America.
In the early 90's, Paramount acquired the Kings Entertainment parks and the Santa Clara park became known as Paramount's Great America.
In 2006, Cedar Fair (owners of Cedar Point, Valleyfair, and some other regional parks) acquired the Paramount Parks, and the Santa Clara park became known once again as simply Great America. One year later, it's name was expanded to
California's Great America, as it is still known today.
It is interesting that while the 2 Great America parks started out as clones, their history and evolution have been radically different due to having different owners for most of their history. While the basic layouts of both parks are still the same, and some architectural landmarks common to both parks are still there, many original rides still present in one are missing in the other, or vice versa. One example is the Gurnee park still has their railroad circling the park; while Santa Clara does not. And of course, new attractions and coasters added over the years are completely different in both parks.
As far as parks with similar names, there are quite a few:
Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, was opened by Warner LeRoy in 1974 and had an adjoining drive-thru Wild Animal Safari which is still open today.
In 1977, both the park and safari were acquired by Six Flags, and the property is now known as Six Flags Great Adventure and Wild Safari. It has become one of the premier thrill/coaster parks in the northeastern United States, and one of the only drive-thru safaris left in the US - a genre which was much more common in the 70's and 80's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Adventure
Six Flags America in Mitchellville, MD (just east of Washington, DC) began life in 1974 as a wildlife park, "The Largo Wildlife Reserve". As rides were added it became known as Wild World. By the mid 80's the animals were gone. In 1992, park owner Premier Parks changed the name to Adventure World. In 1999, as a result of Premier Parks buying out all of Six Flags from Time Warner (which by 2005 led to bankrupting the company and a shareholder revolt), the park became known by its current name, Six Flags America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_flags_america
Lastly, (but not least), there is
Six Flags Over Mid America, in Eureka, MO, on the southwest side of metro St. Louis. This park opened in 1971 as the third and final Six Flags park that the original Six Flags company built from scratch as a brand new park. (The others were Six Flags Over Texas in 1961 and Six Flags Over Georgia in 1967). After these original three, all other parks to bear the Six Flags name would be built by other developers, and bought out by Six Flags (who themselves changed hands several times throughout their history).
In 1996, for the park's 25th anniversary season, the park's name was changed to its current name,
Six Flags St. Louis, to give a more specific idea of it's location as well as to avoid confusion with the relatively nearby Six Flags Great America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_St._Louis
As for X-Flight, being a coaster fan myself, I look forward to riding it as it is definitely new and innovative. But since I have more "old-school", "meat-and-potatoes" taste in coasters (ie, I like drops, camelbacks, lapbars, and the airtime that those elements give, more than loops/inversions), it will be hard for any new coaster in Gurnee to replace Raging Bull as my favorite steel coaster in that park. And of course I love their classic wooden coasters, Viper and American Eagle, as well!
Raging Bull is a 200 foot tall steel "hypercoaster", my favorite type of steel coaster, meaning it is all about big drops, big airtime, and no loops. It is my #4 favorite steel coaster out of 217 steel coasters ridden - the remainder of the 279 coasters I've ridden are wooden, which are less common than steel coasters but my favorite kind compared to steel as a whole. (The elements of wooden coasters inspired the steel hypercoaster genre, but by using steel, they can build bigger with less maintenance than wood).
Here is a reasonably steady (though unmounted) POV of Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL.
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="
http://www.youtube.com/embed/eb8mDY5RD1Q" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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