Since it's Memorial Weekend more rides are continuing to open across the country and one of the most anticipated rides in the Mid-West opens this weekend, The Joker at Six Flags Great America. We were invited out to their media day yesterday and as you'll see from Scott's report below it went off perfectly. Not only was the event amazing but all indications are that the ride is running amazing. And as you can see from the video below, it looks smooth and fun! Written by Scott Michels We'll start off with our full Reverse POV, B-Roll and opening ceremonies. Our ride back to Joker. Nothing but top of the line service. We're all ready to go!! We got a lot of awesome off-ride pictures of the ride The ride entry The Joker packs a lot of thrills into a very short footprint The trains You can see just how close it is to the original Batman. They'll be duking it out for years. The extended queue for The Joker You flip right over the bridge More inside the queue Heading up the vertical lift As you can see, dispatches were happening pretty quickly, especially for a media day event. A quick little action video Everything blends in very well Thanks Six Flags Great America for having us out. We loved the new ride and can't wait to ride more this summer! Some addition ride pictures provided by the park Related Updates: Today we're headed to Six Flags Great America to take a look at the first "preview weekend" and also at Joke construction. While the official park opening for the season isn't until April 29, just like all those Macy's 2 day sales with a preview day, Great America was open last weekend. It's awesome that the weather was so great for the preview. Written by JoAnna Galayda Welcome to a beautiful (and quite crowded) Six Flags Great America Because it was so crowded we just did a lap around the park, enjoyed the beautiful weather and of course checked out Joker progress. Trains are being loaded which means testing should be starting soon. The Joker sign And because RD, and the Whizzer is awesome ... Thanks for reading, now that the park is open we should be having some more updates soon. Related Updates: We’ve been incredibly impressed this year with all the changes and additions Great Adventure has made to their annual Fright Fest event. This up charge attraction seems to just keep getting better with age. For guests that have previously experienced fright fest numerous improvements await them this year. We've also got some EXCLUSIVE pics of Justice League Battle for Metropolis as well as a look at Rage of the Gargoyles. Written by Chris Connolly Perennially, The Dead Man’s Party: Graveyard Rock has been the official start to the Fright Fest festivities. This year numerous improvements have been made to the event including a noticeable addition of production value with more dancers, ghouls, lasers and pyrotechnics on stage. The largest improvement though, has been the complete relocation of the event into the former Batman Stunt Show Theater. This gives the event formal seating and improved sight lines for all guests. It also allows the party to go on throughout the entire length of Fright Fest. We saw dancers still rocking on stage at 10:00pm as we rode up the lift of hill of Nitro. Another new entertainment addition this year is Slash, an illusionist that mixes gore and dark humor. Think “traditional magic show” meets “horror movie”. The show is located in the Adventure Theater and is performed multiple times each evening. Its another great new use of Six Flags using their existing venues to add new entertainment. Guests entering the Dark Carnival area of Fright Fest will also be entertained by two new shows. The Donniker Bros. Worlds of Mirth which is an entertaining dark clowns meets carnival barker humor and Bilkum, Burnham & Laughs Side Show Spectacular which needs to be seen to be believed. The other noticeable change to the non uncharge events is The Awakening (a parade of ghosts and ghouls that starts the events as become more of an informal walking of the scare actors to each of their mazes. You can refer to our coverage last year of the event to see how the awakening was much more of a formal parade. The diminishing of this event might seem like a negative on paper, but it allows the scare actors to surprise guests in more organic nature; and they are all doing an amazing job of that this year. Scare actors seem to be hidden in nearly every public area. Mazes and scare zones Big Top Forgotten Carnival - This remains one of my favorite mazes where it appears that they may have added additional set pieces. The make up of the actors, the use of 3D glasses and the heavy use of black lighting and back light paint really make this a must see attraction The Manor- The manor is one of Great Adventures oldest attractions and like its sister maze Total Darkness is probably in need of retirement soon. These mazes do serve one singular purpose and that is allowing the mazes to open 3:00pm since this and the dark carnival are the only indoor mazes. While we enjoy both of these mazes we have noticed no changes or “plussing” to them in recent years. Voodoo Island- Voodoo Island Seemed really amped up this year with changes to make the maze seem more claustrophobic and added spots for the scare actors to really surprise you. This was easily the most improved maze this year. Waste Land- Waste Land remains another maze that has change little over the years. This year we were fortunate enough to have some of the most amazing scare actors which made a maze we typically aren’t impressed by, a must do. Blood Shed - Best outdoor theming. Great scare actors. interesting layout. Since this is a relatively new maze we won’t give away too many spoilers. But this is not to be missed. Cell Block 6- If we had to give you just one reason to visit Fright Fest this year, it is the new maze Cell Block 6. Six Flags has truly outdone themselves with this prison themed maze. This maze is easily on the level of anything Universal has ever done. The scare actors are top notch, the theming is amazing, the layout is unprecedented. Do not miss this. Of course if all of these things seem a little too scary for you or the younger members of your party, there are numerous events during the day with no frights including a great Trick or Treat Trail, Dance Parties and Character Meet and Greets. There are also safe areas throughout the park if being scared isn’t your cup of tea. All in all, we felt Great Adventure took an already amazing event and kicked it up many notches in nearly all aspects of the event. If you can only visit one haunt in the north east this year, this is that event. We've also got a few surprises ... first, we got an exclusive look at Justice League. It's not much more than dirt right now but thank you to the park for allowing us to get these awesome pics. Next up, we've got some great pictures of Rage of the Gargoyle's VR Lastly we thought we'd share some park photos since we don't have as many updates from this great park as we'd like. Related Updates: |
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