SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA
Chicago, Illinois
Six Flags Theme Parks
 Park News - (10/19/21) A Screamscape reader sent in a couple of pictures taken this week of The Demon at Six Flags Great America. While we’ve been watching V2 get repainted in red and yellow tones, it looks like the paint and maintenance crews has also been spending some quality time over at The Demon, working on the station. According to the report, there is new fire going into the station over the trim, new black paint inside with stunning yellow and red trim, and the tunnel on the queue side has now been painted red instead of green. They’ve also added a bunch of fire themed accents throughout the station, as well as bright red station gates and more. You can check out the two pictures sent in for a taste.
I know The Demon is a special ride to many enthusiasts, so it's great seeing it getting some love from Six Flags.
(10/16/21) Flash Themed V2 Paint Job Nearly Finished
(9/22/21) The Repainting of V2 Has Begun
(9/12/21) Six Flags Great America Shuts Down Vertical Velocity For Possible 2022 Surprise
(9/1/21) According to a new official update from the park, as of August 30th due to a new mandate from the State of Illinois, guests and employees will be required to wear face masks once again while visiting any indoor locations in the local area parks: Six Flags Great America, Hurricane Harbor Chicago, and Hurricane Harbor Rockford.
(4/10/21) When Six Flags Great America opens to guests again on May 29th there will be one major change former guests will need to keep in mind. There will no longer be direct access into the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor waterpark from the theme park, and starting this year a separate ticket will need to be purchased to visit each of the two parks. I’ve kind of been anticipating this move to be made for a few years ago, as most of the full scale Six Flags owned waterparks have been run as separate gates for years now, such as the Hurricane Harbor waterparks located next to SF Magic Mountain and SF Great Adventure.
Current prices to Six Flags Great America are set at $39.99 and tickets to the Hurricane Harbor waterpark are $24.99. It is worth mentioning that Six Flags Passholders and Members will continue to have access to the water park included with their passes, with season passes starting at just $59.99, which is already cheaper than buying two separate one-day passes.
(11/12/20) Last week it was mentioned that the Six Flags corporate office planned on removing 15 rides from the chain of parks over the winter break. These would be rides identified as having maintenance issues, or rides with low guest satisfaction scores that also have very high maintenance costs, and so on. With 15 rides to be retired, this works out possibly being one ride from every park, though the breakdown may not work that way.
Thus far the most suggested ride that Six Flags Great America might retire over the winter could be the Yankee Clipper. The old flume ride is one of the oldest rides in the park that not only takes up a good amount of space, but likely has high maintenance costs due to its age. We’ve also been told that it isn’t uncommon for the ride to sit closed for long periods of time each season, which makes it a good candidate for removal.
2021 - Tsunami Surge - (5/30/21) Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Chicago has now opened their new Tsunami Surge water-coaster slide. You can get a look at it in action on our Facebook page.
(7/23/20) Six Flags Great America has now confirmed that the new Tsunami Surge water coaster intended for the 2020 season will now not open until 2021.
(3/24/20) New renderings of the Tsunami Surge slide coming to Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags Great America can be seen here and here. If this water-jet coaster slide layout looks a little familiar, it should, because it appears to be a mirror-clone of MASSIV, the slide that opened at Schlitterbahn Galveston back in 2016. Well… almost a clone, as Tsunami Surge will take the record away from MASSIV to be the world’s tallest water coaster by increasing the height of the slide from 81 to 86 feet. You can catch a POV video of MASSIV below for a good refernece of what the experience will be like.
Of course, MASSIV doesn’t have the AquaLucent effects in the tunnels that Tsunami Surge will have. Oh… and I guess you can ignore all the incorrect images Six Flags has posted on the website that heavily feature those big saucer shaped hairpin turns, because you wont find a single one on Tsunami Surge.
(8/29/19) For 2020 Six Flags Great America will add the ‘World’s Tallest Water Coaster’ to their Hurricane Harbor waterpark. The new slide will be called Tsunami Surge and will stand 86 feet tall and use water jets to propel guests on a raft through a 950 foot long slide with tunnel sections at speeds up to 28mph. There will be three uphill blast sections, five hairpin turns, five drops and for the first time at any Six Flags park, they say that this new slide will feature “Aqualucent” visual effects in the slides to create “mind-blowing bursts of colors and dreamlike patterns”. Look for Tsunami Surge to be built in the Riptide Bay section of the waterpark.
2022 - The Flash - Rumor - (10/16/21) As you can see in the latest photos sent in to Screamscape, what we assume is intended to be a “Flash” themed repainting of V2: Vertical Velocity at Six Flags Great America is going swiftly. With most of the station, track and supports all now sporting the new Red / Yellow color scheme.
(9/22/21) The repainting of V2 at Six Flags Great America has begun! One of our readers has sent in some new pictures from the park where you can see the new colors start to appear on the station and even the twisted spike.
(9/12/21) Interesting news from Six Flags Great America today, as a guest to the park confirmed that Vertical Velocity is now listed as being closed for the rest of the season. The big logo for the ride has also been removed as well, but before you think they might remove the coaster, the sign out front teases a new idea entirely. According to the sign, “V2 is closed for the rest of the season… will be back in a flash in 2022”.
The obvious hint they seem to be getting at is that Vertical Velocity may be returning next season with a new name and theme, based around The Flash character from DC Comics. This wouldn’t be the first time Six Flags has done this, as V2 at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom was also re-branded as “The Flash: Vertical Velocity” in 2019 and repainted to have yellow supports and red track. This was also part of an area wide re-branding, as the nearby area also contains a lot of DC character related rides, so it was officially relabeled as the DC Universe area of the park.
While I don’t know if a “DC Universe” is in the cards for Six Flags Great America, it is worth noting that Batman: The Ride and The Joker roller coasters are located fairly close to V2, so either way the rethemeing of the ride will make sense. The park will also get a little free marketing from the switch from Warner Bros, who will be promoting a Flash feature-film set currently to hit theaters in November 2022.
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