Review of Great America with a Pre-Schooler

Today, we took X-man up to Gurnee to visit Six Flags Great America. He has an appreciation for the Wiggles, so we thought we'd check out Wiggle World. I looked into going about a month ago when it was still cold and gross outside. I decided a Monday before Memorial Day and before school got out with be a great time to go. We waited to see if the weather would agree, and today we took off for the 3-hour drive to Gurnee. 

X-man didn't know much, besides the fact that we were going to see the Wiggles and he'd get to drive the Big Red Car. He was a little grouchy on the way up, but once we stopped for lunch outside the park at Panera, he was a pretty happy camper. 

We took our own stroller and packed a few snacks at the bottom of the diaper bag. They don't allow coolers into the park, but the security didn't seem to care about my raisins and granola bars. They had a metal detector on the way in, which seemed strange because you have to put your items into their bucket by reaching your hand through the detector (thus setting it off). Plus, the stroller sets it off. 

It was a very clean park. Something they apparently pride themselves on because signs to pick up are everywhere and all of the park security are armed with one of those litter picker uppers.

What was nice was that they have a deal online now through July 10, 2009, where you can pre-purchase your tickets at a discount. Everyone gets in for the children's rate -- which is still expensive -- $34.95 per person, but beats the $55 per adult without it. Kids 2 and under are free. Children who are 36" tall can ride on most of the kiddie rides with parents, but the key height is 42". Then they can ride by themselves or with an adult on most "medium" level rides.

Once in the park, we took X-man directly to Wiggle World. He was very excited. He climbed into the big red plane all happy with MacTroll (see below) and immediately got scared and freaked out and they both had to get off the ride.

When he bailed on the plane, we took him over to the Big Red Car ride, and we all got in the car. X-man liked that we could all go together. And it gave him enough confidence to go back to the airplanes (after playing on Capt. Feathersword's pirate playground) with Mom. We also caught part of the Wiggles show, which was a female singer with the costumed Wiggle friends: Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog and Captain Feathersword.

X-man's favorite ride was driving the boats. By the time we got to it, he was a champ at rides. And he loved that he got to go, "ALLLLLLL by myself!" He rang the bell on the boat, let the employee help him in and buckle him in and didn't fall in the water. I'm so calling that a giant big boy success. You'll note in a lot of these photos -- he's the only one on the ride. We waited in NO lines. No roller coasters had over a 10-minute wait as far as we could see. Spinning rides were literally walk up and get on, so were all the kiddie rides. Some of the rides weren't open yet (including the train that goes around the park) because they haven't gotten all of their summer staff hired yet (college did, after all just get out), but I think I'd rather have no lines with an antsy 3 year old than worry about the fact that the Tilt-a-Whirl wasn't open. 

And here was the biggest surprise of the day. In the cartoon area across from the boats was a mini Jetsons' roller coaster. X-man went on it with Daddy. He held on tight, but he did it!
Outside of the cartoon area X-man heard the Sheryl Crow song from Cars. (I was shocked that the WB haven would do that with a competing movie company.) X-man sat down on the bench and listened to the speaker in the foliage bobbing his head until the song was done.
We all went on the Mystery Machine ride, where X-man's favorite part wasn't the ride going up and around -- it was putting his arms up so the safety bar could spring up. :-) 
X-man and I also went on the double decker carousel. He named his horse, Cutie. I named mine Marlow. He held on tight and liked seeing the rest of the park from up  high. 

And the sign of a really good time -- a pre-schooler who fell asleep within 10 minutes of getting in the car in a fresh diaper post juice box. You'll see what he chose to purchase for $10 or less -- a stuffed Superman for $7. 

You can also purchase meals and parking online, which helps with shortening lines into the park because no transactions have to be made. You just hand them a print out to scan. Parking is $10 for the cheap parking -- which is NOT that far away. Expensive parking is $25 to be like 100 yards closer to the door. I wouldn't find that a worthwhile extra expense. 

All of the extra games in the park appear to cost extra ($5) each at least (including the "family dryer" for after water rides -- which it was a little too cold for in MacTroll's opinion.) There are some discounts for food available online, if you pre-pay, but none of it is healthy. They do advertise a fruit bar at the water park (which is still closed) and "steamed vegetables" at the Panda Express... which are your only really non-junkfood options. And all of the food is 3x more than you'd pay out in the real world ($26.99 for a large 2-topping pizza from Papa John's versus $7.99 according to the billboard in downtown Champaign). We stayed longer than the 3 hours I had anticipated because we were having a pretty good time. We were on the highway at 4 p.m. (about an hour later than I'd hoped) but the drive was pretty painless minus a bit of slowdown around O'Hare airport.

We went to Six Flags not just because it's a fun thing to do, but because we're going to Disney in California in a few weeks and I wanted to see how he'd do with rides and a park for $35 before we spent a mint and thought about a 2-day park hopper pass. As it is, I think he'll do really well. He was excited and once he knew the rides he could go on he'd run from one to the other, and learned to wait for his turn. Obviously, I think you'll have more to do with a child who is over 42" and is not afraid to go on things by him or herself or with a brother/sister or friend. But it was a great introductory experience for X-man, who tends to lean heavy on his parents before finally flying free.