The following are from yesterday
I just love this pic of Delilah
Jacquie, just after arriving at my house.
They finally got to our house around 9, and then we had breakfast and got directions before leaving around 10. We arrived at the gates around 11:15 or so, but then had to sit in a gridlock for about half an hour. By the time we got inside, it was almost noon. The first thing we did was hit the bathroom
and then we wandered around for a little bit. We tried to go on Viper (a wooden roller coaster), but the attendant yelled at me about my purse and told me to put it in a locker. We walked away and then wound up going out to the car to get our water park stuff and went there instead. Great America includes admission to Hurricane Harbor, but I have no pics of that because my camera was locked in a locker that we got because we didn't want to leave our stuff just laying out.
The water park was nice, but crowded. Not only was it Memorial Day weekend, it was in the high 80s and very sunny. I'm somewhat sunburned, but Jacquie's worse. I also found out I need a new bathing suit. We managed to get on the lazy river and go around it once before they made us get out. They apparently don't let you continue around. We went in the wave pool, and then all tried to go on this family raft thing. We got all the way up to the load deck (up a three-story staircase) and then the attendant looked at me and said I couldn't go because I was over the weight limit. I asked if I could ride alone, and she said no. So I walked back down by myself. I've had issues with Six Flags and my size before. When I was about sixteen, I went on their Batman ride and the attendant literally JUMPED on the harness to get it to close on me and then yelled at me about how I was too fat for the ride and not to come back instead of just politely telling me that my size would be an issue and please wait for my party at the exit. It's the main reason I hadn't been back until this year. They claim to be all about guest service, but they're really not.
We left the water park and went out to the car to have lunch (since Six Flags doesn't allow outside food or drinks except for medical reasons). No pictures of that, again, because my camera was in Jacquie's fanny pack. Unlike Disney, Six Flags doesn't allow you to bring ANYTHING on rides unless it's in a zipped/snapped pocket or something like a fanny pack. So when I get paid on Friday, I'm not only ordering a new bathing suit, but a fanny pack from the
Disney Store *eyedart*
After lunch, we went back into the park and made our way onto the first non-water park ride.
Great America has this two-story carousel, so we went on that. We were all feeling a little heavy from lunch and the heat.
Ian was too big for his horse.
It was really quiet on that ride, and the breeze was nice and cool, so when they offered to let people ride again, we stayed on. We switched to the benches, though.
Jacquie found this statue. She loves Tweety, so she needed to get a picture with it.
It was pretty hot and sunny, so we kept ducking into stores to cool down.
Which led to Jacquie trying on crazy hats.
And squeezing various plush products.
We didn't go on this, but I took this for my parents. Long story short, this ride used to be at a park here in the Chicago area called Kiddieland, which was built to be a place that young kids could enjoy. As such, this was the first roller coaster that MILLIONS of Chicago area kids ever rode. My parents, my siblings, and Jacquie and Ian went there as kids, and recently, we took my niece there when they were visiting last summer. At the end of last September, Kiddieland closed for good. A lot of the rides were auctioned off, and Great America bought the Little Dipper and installed it in time for this season. My mom was absolutely thrilled when she found out. The smaller blue sign in front of the coaster just tells about the history of the ride.
We wound up in another shop, and I found this amongst the Batman merchandise. I'm a huge Jeffrey Dean Morgan fan, so I saw Watchmen because of him (and read the graphic novel before I saw the movie), so I had to take a picture of this.
In another part of that store, there was a display of hats.
At this point, we were tired and waiting a little bit before we went to the Memorial Day picnic we'd bought tickets for, so we got on the train and took it around the park. It's not as nice as the WDW train.
After getting off the train and on the way to the picnic, Jacquie met her idol:
And after dinner, we wound up in another shop. The blue bear was actually hers, as she'd won it in a game.
We sat down along a walkway for a while and just people watched.
And then eventually left the park.
We got back to my house around 8 or 8:30 and sat on the couch watching Finding Nemo for a little while. They left around 9, since Ian had to be at work, and I went upstairs, laid down, and passed the heck out. I woke up around midnight and then went back to bed around 4am.
All in all, I MUCH prefer Disney and think this will be the last season I go to Six Flags. Between how rude their employees are, the fact that they're not accessible when you're overweight, how they gouge you on all of their prices (parking is $15 and that's to park in the FAR lot; the "preferred", closer, parking lot is $25!), and other things, I just would rather save the money and go to Disney. They don't even let you bring in water bottles. They're also claiming that Great America is the "cleanest theme park in the world", and I literally burst out laughing when I heard that. They also claim it's the "roller coaster capital of the world" and that their water park is the "best in the nation". Whoever designed their marketing campaign must have never visited a Disney park, Cedar Point, or any of the water parks up in the Wisconsin Dells.
There's very little theming. They play pop music throughout the entire park and have various advertisements throughout the entire park (mostly for Discover Card). Their photo staff is VERY pushy. We got one photo taken while at the water park and then went to pick it up, but when we were on our way out of the park at the end of the day, they had a photo guy standing there going "DID YOU BUY YOUR PHOTOS OMG NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW" and was being INCREDIBLY rude to the guests who were leaving. He tried doing that to us and Jacquie just held up our photo folder and he was all "YAY HIGH FIVE". I know he's just trying to get commission, but there's absolutely no reason to be that pushy about it.
Regardless, we are going again on Wednesday and probably a couple more times before the end of the season. My brother and I are planning on going to Fright Fest, which is right around his birthday.
So... Yeah. We had a good time, but I still like Disney better. I know I keep comparing the two, but I just like it much better at Disney.
I dunno, maybe it's the abundance of pixie dust.
But yeah, I've also heard good things about Kona, and she was really excited about it when she saw the menu on AllEars, so she's really happy that it's back on the plan 
I would love to try the DxDP someday but knowing me I would probably eat until I made myself sick!
That's horrible Dana with the weight issue and how you were treated my weight has been all over the place in the past 20 yrs from 110 to 220 ( I have no idea now & that's a subject I'm not worrying about now) but the ONLY places in the world that I have not experienced such rudeness and disrespect is WDW and when I went to Discovery Cove. Six Flags & Hershey Park was a nightmare so 
I empathize 
Hope you enjoy reading it 
I'm sorry they treated you like that. They are probably just mad because they wish they worked at Disney! 
makes a huge difference, especially once you're used to it.
