Sunday, July 27, 2008

Great America in Guernee, IL

Sorry no pics for this one. My husband took my camera on his hiking adventure in New Mexico.

Thought I'd vent about Great America(GA) amusement park. . They make you park as far away from the park as possible. If you want to pay, I think it was $25.00 or more then you park in the normal parking places, so for $15. we still had to walk quite a distance, even if you get there early and buy your parking pass on line at home. What's the point, the price was the same. There was no discount. I also bought my tickets on line and then after I bought them I heard on the radio they were being sold cheaper at the local grocery store. ughhhhh I really hate being nickel and dimed all the time. You pay one huge fee to get in and then poor Molly had to pay an extra dollar every time she went on a roller coaster ride which is the whole reason we go. They put in new lockers at all the big rides and won't let you take your bag on and force you to pay the locker fee every time. Ticks me off that nothing is noted on the website about this new rule or when you come in the gate. Lockers at the swimming area were around $12. aghhh. We skipped that area altogether. How about $14. for 2 itty bitty wallet size pictures of Anna on a ride. Don't even get me started on the price of food. Except I've always known about the ridiculous rates they charge. 12.99 for a soda bottle, that you can refill for the day. crazy. They wouldn't let Molly in with her bag to begin with cuz she had too many snacks. Lets see I think it was 3 and a bag of carrots. We just divvied them up and went back in a different line. Showed them, didn't we? At least they let us carry one water bottle in. Wasn't that nice of them? I told her if we ever come again, we'll just wear baggy pants and stuff our snacks there. It's not like we still didn't buy $5.50 snow cones.
Enough of my complaining just thought I'd inform my friends out here what to expect.

Anna and I just happened to be in the parade area and they asked her if she wanted to be in it so of course she did and had a great time. The funny part for me was the people they asked to be in it were more happy than the paid employees driving the vehicles or walking along side. I don't think I saw one smile. Poor workers, have to be in a parade every day, doing the same thing over and over. It was a pathetic parade but Anna thought it was great from her view so YaY parades.

This place was fun for us the past couple of years but I was disappointed in how they handle the charging of every little thing, on line purchasing didn't save a dime and the parking situation made me mad this year. I don't think I'll be going there again. Or at least I know now that I need to spend a hundred bucks each. Ummmm I think I'll save up for Disney world. Is that any better?
Ok, so I just looked at my friends Stacey's blog on their fun and fabulous trip to GA. They went the day before we did and had a great time. so why am I so cynical? I think it started last year when we had season passes and with those season passes came a coupon book. We went to CA to visit family and one of the coupons states you can get someone in free at another GA, so off to Marine World we went which is owned by the same company. They let us in free with our passes but the coupons were not good there, even though, no where on the coupon did it state only in certain states or whatever. I felt deceived. Yeah, that's it. I'm feeling deceived by GA. I noticed in this year's season pass book there is nothing for any other parks.
I've been taking my family to amusement parks now for over 20 years and for some reason it just isn't as much fun anymore at GA with all the changes. Gee I wonder why their numbers are down. It's like my son said, they are acting like the airlines, charging for every little thing to make a buck.

3 comments:

  1. Mom, you truly are the amusement park queen.

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  2. we were just there last week and felt the same way. we knew it would cost a few bucks, thankfully the kids had thier reading free passes, but still spent probably $75 between parking and food, b/c we didn't expect to not be able to bring in our food. :(

    anyway.... hopefully they will forget about wanting to go back. we should create our own rides in that area behind your house and make them forget about GA LOL!

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  3. Wow! This makes Disney look great! I've never heard of so much extras in a park, but I have only been to Disney or Lagoon. Just think of all the exercise you got walking into the park though! Leslie

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