Six Flags Great America
Gurnee, IL 60031
Phone: (847) 249-1776
- Cross Street:
- Six Flags Drive
- Directions:
- Take I-94 or I-294 West. Exit Grand Avenue (Rt 132) East in Gurnee, IL
- Hours:
- Summer: Daily 10am-10pm
Editorial Review for Six Flags Great America – by Elisa Kronish
The Appeal
Great America is a sprawling 110-acre park with themed areas of adventure, thrill rides, live shows and video and arcade games. The main events are the rides--over 40 in all. General-admission tickets include everything except food, drinks, merchandise, special attractions and carnival games.
Facts and Features
Best bets are Superman: Ultimate Flight, Raging Bull, American Eagle, King Chaos, Ragin' Cajun and Giant Drop. For state-of-the-art stomach dropping, get in line for two favorite rides: Vertical Velocity is a suspended spiral coaster on which riders rocket up two vertical towers at speeds around 70 mph in less than four seconds--and then back down. The Deja Vu coaster is the world's tallest and fastest of its kind. Strapped into ski lift-style chairs suspended from above, riders launch straight up backward, then plummet down head-over-heels over the outside of a vertical loop and giant boomerang turn.
Editorial content is independent of paid advertisers. Any expenses are paid for by Citysearch.
Insider Tips
Save TimeTo combat lines, head immediately to the County Fair area or to the back of the park--most people start with rides near the entrance.
The ExtrasYounger visitors may enjoy the Bugs Bunny National Park and the Camp Cartoon Network, located on four acres with rides and games for children.
User Reviews for Six Flags Great America
10/22/2007 Posted by luna47
My boyfriend and I went to Great America for Fright Fest on Saturday, 10/20/2007 from 4PM to 10PM. At 5PM and 6:30PM, we walked around the entire park looking for the shortest food line and found that they were all extremely long. We figured the lines must move reasonably fast even though they were long. Several food stands and restaurants were completely closed, despite it being one of the busiest days of the year for the park. We figured the folks behind the counter must be doing the best they could to keep the line moving, so we waited patiently.. For OVER AN HOUR EACH TIME! When we got to the front of the line, we saw that they were completely and totally taking their sweet time, despite a LONG line of hungry, overcharged, tired people waiting in line. I'm fine with waiting a while if the folks behind the counter are doing the best they can, but they were reeeeeeeally taking their time and moving verrrrrrrrry slowly. No sense of urgency whatsoever. None. And the few managers we saw were clearly not telling their employees to pick up the pace. When we were hungry the second time, we thought we got lucky finding a food booth out of the way by the kids land and there was just one lonely nearly elderly woman behind the counter. However, it turned out the line was on the other side of the stand with about 40 people waiting in it. Why would they have ONE person (moving slowly, might I add) working a LARGE food booth? I think that management really just does not care. If they did, they would at least have managers advising employees to move a little quicker. Granted, it was an extremely crowded day, but it looked like they anticipated an extremely slow day, not even an average day. Whoever's job it is to manage these things is either surfing the web all day instead of planning or they are doing it on purpose for some reason, like to keep the lines for rides a little shorter because people are waiting hours just for a water or some food! NOT cool!
Pros: Great atmosphere for Fright Fest!!! Great rides!
Cons: Absolutely the worst food service EVER
10/09/2006 Posted by shecat88
What an awesome park! HOWEVER pack your lunch . I went with a group of five. Fright fest was amazing, but DO NOT get the food, besides being pricey , we ordered hamburgers. . all were over priced and under cooked. My boyfriend had 'problems' (in the toilet) all night after digesitng the "meat" - we should have known but -we were starving - and how can you mess up a burger. But . . . positive speaking - rides are great,. big park- gr8 fun.
Pros: fun rides, games, and activities
Cons: food, long lines, expensive ( games and food)
