California's Great America

California's Great America is a prime example of a charming park. While it may not be the biggest and most grand of the Six Flags parks, I still found myself having a great time here! I took my first visit here in 2023 after had been trying to get out here for years since at the time I had a Cedar Fair platinum pass which got me in for free and I was visiting a friend in the area.This park has a surprisingly great coaster lineup. Their star coaster of course is the RMC Single Rail RailBlazer which is one of the BEST coasters I've ever ridden. Seriously the airtime on it is so strong that it bruised my legs and shoulders. Gold Striker (despite being overhyped) is still an excellent GCI Wooden coaster and is one of the better ones that I've done (better than Apocalypse Zambezi Zinger and American Thunder, not as good as Prowler and Thunderhead). Flight Deck is by FAR the best invert in California and is one of my favorite B&Ms period. Patriot's an okay B&M. Demon was surprisingly great with some good airtime and inversions. Psycho Mouse is a unique Wild Mouse. And then there's Grizzly (one of the worst coasters ever made, such a garbage ride).Outside of coasters, the park has some good flat rides too. Orbit being their star flat ride. This is one of the last Schwarzkopf enterprise models and, holy crap, THESE THINGS ARE INSANE. They also have a Huss Frisbee, a Intamin Drop Tower, A Zamperla Disk0 (Trash), and even a 4D Theater. Their water ride collection is also pretty good too with a rapids ride and a log flume (which were sadly closed) and a clone of Tidal Wave from SFMM (and gave me a good reminder as to why it's a good thing that ride closed). However, like I said, the park is very small. I think it took me 15 minutes to walk through the whole thing, not joking. What the park does offer is very good. But I do feel like this park should be bigger than it is. Like if they had some more coasters and gave Grizzly the RMC Treatment, HOLY CRAP. This could be the best park in California. But sadly, this park will never get there as in 2022, Cedar Fair announced it would be closing to make way for.... warehouses.... (cuz that's totally what we need more of in California! Screw the 25% homelessness rate! We need warehouses!!! F*ck you Gavin Newscum, I hate that piece of crap). So as you can tell, that pisses me off. If this was my home park, I'd probably be as devastated as I was when the Original Wild Rivers closed (thank god they rebuilt it, the new one looks so good and I can't wait to eventually visit it)! Hopefully they are able to save some of the rides when the park goes under (RailBlazer would be a NICE fit at Six Flags St Louis or Worlds of Fun!) because this park does have a lot of goodies. Until then, enjoy the park while you have it. You'll have a great time!

It had been over 20 years since I came back to Great America for their Winterfest. I couldn't even tell you the last time I was here compared to Six Flags in Vallejo, so I felt like a first timer all over again.My friend got a Groupon for $100 for four people ($25 each) which was a good deal. We entered right at 16:00 and there were a lot of people here for the festive lights and rides. While it wasn't super busy, each ride did have a 20-40 min wait so we did need to prioritize which ones to go on.The best one for me was RailBlazer. Loved the 360 turn and high drop on this one for sure. The Patriot was also a nice one to warm the body up for the adrenaline rush.Ride staff were fine - they all looked to be high school or early college-aged kids with some being more into it than others. The PA system on some rides were awful though and some could've used one or two more staff to do safety checks and reduce wait times.Parking costs $30 and there was plenty of it. While finding a spot wasn't hard, leaving was challenging because of how dark it was and the lack of wayfinding. We must've circled around 3-4 times before finally finding the proper exit.Cool visit but I probably wouldn't come back unless there was another good deal online.

Thank you Great America for another wonderful Winterfest! We all loved the festive atmosphere with the gorgeous light displays, ice rink, fun live holiday shows, and bold decorations everywhere. The whole park is done up! Everyone rode on the roller coasters -- more thrilling at night -- and all the other rides were fun, too. We are one happy family, especially since the park is *so* clean throughout. I wish I had better pictures to capture the experience.[I was not compensated in any way for this review. This is my honest opinion.]

As a local activity for families, Great America is worth the Gold Pass, which includes free parking. With other amusement parks being so expensive these days, this park isn't outrageous. There are rides for almost every age group, from thrilling rollercoasters to itty bitty ones for young kids. The lines can be long because the cars don't hold a lot of riders, but the attendants are as quick as they can be. I've been to parks where the rides hold more guests but the attendants are so slow that the wait ends up being a lot longer.The staff also does a decent job upkeeping the park to the point where I don't feel like they are running with my money and not putting any back into the park, which is how I feel about some other local parks, where the decor is dusty, faded, and decades old.The food is very expensive, $17.99 for an entree and fries, but it does taste pretty good and is on the hearty side. The kids enjoy it enough to ask for seconds. The chicken strips are large, the burgers have double patties, and the bread sticks are dense. The annual food pass provides a meal every 4 hours, which is a decent deal if it's used for about 10 meals (5 trips).They have cute Snoopy merchandise, too, like Charlie Brown shirts and sweatshirts and Snoopy beanies with ears that move.The park announced that they would no longer be hosting seasonal events, but if they ever change their mind, they did a good job this past year. The Octoberfest, Halloween, and Christmas decorations were very festive, and Christmas was pretty. They even had lots fun activities and photo ops for guests between rides. The kids loved running through the fog machines and Christmas Tree Lot aka maze.In Snoopy land, there are cute photo op backgrounds, and characters walk around regularly. During Winterfest, they had cast members dress up in festive wonderland costumes. During Halloween, they had scary zombies dancing around.

Had a fantastic visit here on the Sunday of a long weekend. Download the app, sort by wait time, and ride whatever has the shortest wait! It worked beautifully, even tipping me off to the fact that a popular ride which was down for service had just reopened and there was no wait!The 3pm pass was also a great deal and worked out so well. The park is a tad run down in spots but you can't beat this place for the price -- a third of what you pay for Disneyland. We thought it was a great value. Snoopy is a bonus!Extra points added for the incredibly awesome app, efficient lines, and the value of the 3pm pass! Go before they go out of business!

Maybe I've got too high of standards, having gone to Cedar Point every summer growing up, but California's Great America didn't really blow me away.It made for a fun little weekend thing to do with my girlfriend, but it definitely has its flaws.The price of the ticket isn't bad, but it really feels like they are scamming you with the $30 parking at the gate. Plus, no discount for buying ahead of time online, like they offer for the entry tickets.Not only that, but there aren't really that many serious rides here. We had set aside the entire day to be at the park, but found ourselves kind of bored after hitting every rollercoaster by like... 2 PM. And the rides were kind of filthy... Doesn't seem like they have taken that great of care of this place.The food prices in the park were also exorbitant, but that's kind of normal for places like this.The big pluses for me was the patriotic/America theming, and the couple rollercoasters that were pretty good.If you go here during the hotter months, and are more into the rides AND water park, you might enjoy it a bit more, but I can't say it really did it for me.

We all are aware the great America is closing but it didn't become evident until this trip. Not being a local I've been excited to finally have the opportunity to visit Great America and the experience was eh.Many of the rides were shit down, the rides we did go on broke down whilst waiting in line (this happened multiple times not just once). The park itself is beautiful and hopefully the spirit can withstand the next few years. The water park area was so much fun. Prices are affordable For what you would expect for a theme park. I wouldn't rush back but the different seasonal events would definitely entice me.

Last weekday entry before the Fall season, we went to Great America by purchasing online to save on entrance and food. The orange Trail Blazer roller coaster with its 90 degree drop looks insane and is a fueled adrenaline rush to experience! The wait was long and sleepy, but the ride shook me wide awake! It's a 'must ride' to get the fear of heights out of you. Food is palatable mass cooked type. The burgers are better than the pizzas imho. The water park is included in the ticket, but we didn't go, as the kids wanted the metal thrills.Restrooms were very clean on this day.Enjoy the rides!

Used to come a lot as a kid/teenager and used to have so much fun staying there all day on the rides. As an adult on a Saturday in the summer, the park somehow seems smaller but still fun. However, it seemed there were less staff as lines for the rides were longer and either one coaster at a time or every other ride going by empty on White Water Rapids. The site says no outside food or drinks, but everywhere I looked, people had their Stanley mugs and other items. Will note if I go back the next time.The carnival games were empty and a bit pricey, but glad they accept credit cards.

Can be fun but lots of issues really add up. It's nice that Great America is an amusement park with rides, arcade games including claw machines, carnival games, and a water park. But the amount of problems present can really ruin an experience. Buying the fast pass is extremely worth it if you're a roller coaster fanatic. Your time is worth more than waiting in 90 minute lines for a 3 minute experience. If you have a big group though, it's not as bad because there's lots of conversation and then the roller coaster isn't the main purpose of your visit. So gauge your priorities.However, the fact that you pay an entry fee and then have to pay separately for arcade games or carnival games is quite annoying. I mean it doesn't have to come with, but there should be some discount or way to add it onto the entry fee because it is part of the park. You can buy rides and dining together which are part of the park, obviously, but the others are still very present in the park. Also lots of rides just aren't operating.Website claims that "the food and drinks at California's Great America will satisfy all tastes" because they have classics and "Bay Area favorites like boba tea and sushi rolls" but pretty sure that's a bait. The latter (boba and sushi) aren't open or available.Though I will say food is actually not bad. The Premium All Day Dining is valuable and I highly recommend it. Roughly three visits will make back the money as some entrees and sides can be close to $20. Though the variance between places is weird, like Panda Express only offers a bowl which is a rough $10 value versus a $16 entree at other places. Also the drink system doesn't include Icees and even though it says Coca Cola products, Fairlife that they display isn't included either. So a tad misleading.On the gondola ride, the Eagle's Flight, we were paused at the top for 20 minutes and later it was explained that some of the employees just left in the middle? I noticed everyone else had a smooth ride and was confused why we were stuck, almost worrying that the ride broke. After we got off we got an apology and note that "some of us," referring to employees, just left.Whitewater Falls is a fun experience because you get wet and suffer together and the ride itself isn't as frightening as others. Highly recommend doing it early on so that you have tons of time to dry off from the heat. We opted to do it at the end on a whim and well, we spent extra time at the carnival games in order to dry.Some carnival games accept the Great America game card whereas others do not so it's a poor experience that you have to either be selective with your choices or rely on a regular credit card. The latter is fine, but don't even give us the option of getting a game card if it's not compatible. The purpose of getting a game card is for the extra credits when you buy large amounts but if they're not usable, it's worthless.