Less than two weeks ago, I took my semi-annual trip to Indiana Beach. The park improved in so many areas this year, and Six Flags has tumbled in so many areas that I now believe Indiana Beach is the better park.


NEW FOR 2008:
This year, Indiana Beach's new main attraction was Steel Hawg, a small compact coaster that has some wicked drops and inversions. It was a great, fast ride with an insane 120 degree drop. My biggest complaint with the coaster was that IMO, it has bad park placement.


At Great America, we got the Dark Knight. We needed a Dark Ride, but not another Wild Mouse. There are open patches in the ride, with no theming whatsoever. The wait in line, which is supposed to be a subway in Gotham City, is nothing more than crappy music and TV's blaring adverts about Six Flags. Indiana Beach wins.



Atmosphere:
Great America, up until 2005, has always had a great atmosphere. Whether it was the western feel of Southwest Territory, or the games of County Fair. That atmosphere still exists, its just buried under GEICO, Dannon, Kodak, Papa Johns, Cold Stone, Johnny Rockets, Nintendo, and all other advertisements that litter the park.


Indiana Beach has always had a small park charm, the whole park is no bigger than 11/3 of Six Flags. Right next to a lake, and to campground the atmosphere is very rural. My biggest complaint was the fish. People were throwing popcorn into the lake which gets the fish excited, except it also makes them behave differently and messes up the ecosystem. But, still, Indiana beach has the better atmosphere this year.


Value:
Tickets are only $34.99 online, and season passes are still under $100. So, as far as getting in the park, the value is there. Except...$12 for a sport bottle, $5 for a regular drink, $8-12 for food, $1 almost every time you ride a coaster, $15 at least for parking.

For $23 you get to ride everything for 7 hours. Of course, IB doesn't have the ride selection SFGAm does. If you don't ride anything, it's only $2.50. Drinks are $3, food is $5-7, some ride are NOT free, games are cheaper, parking is free. Indiana Beach gets an edge on food, drinks, games, and parking but for admission, Six Flags is more valuable.

Wait Times: on a quiet day
SFGAm: 30 minutes or so for coasters, no more than 10 minutes or flats, 30 minutes for water rides

IB: 10 minutes for coasters, 5 minutes for flats. These would be even faster, except IB only runs one train for their wood coasters, two cars for all the others. Indiana Beach wins.



Water Park:
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. Enough said.

Indiana Beach has a great waterpark, but it's a seperate admission. Six Flags wins.


So in 5 areas, IB wins 3.5 times. This year, IMO they are better than Six Flags. Unless of course you're going to the waterpark.

I pick both because the 2 parks are awesome!

I have never been to Indiana Beach. I was going to go definitely, but than that was the year the Chaos left. So, I chose to go elsewhere. Indiana Beach is a whole lot of gas just looking now, but anyway. Wow.

To me, Indiana Beach doesn't seem to have the goods as Great America does. The thing that I think it's strong is in the flats (Others would probably disagree on this, but who knows.) that they have a Yo-Yo (Now, another carnival company in Chicago area has one, so no big deal anymore for me.), a Tilt-A-Whirl (Which carnival doesn't have one even though some aren't that great?), and more.

They also have a Falling Star (I used to really like this thing before, but the last one I went on, it wasn't like it used to be when I was younger.), a Paratrooper (Tried one of these more recently somewhere, and it's nothing more than a Cliffhanger sitting down. It's nothing to go there for. It was a ride at the time I have ridden, but I forgot how it rode.), a Musik Express (I think these are good, and nothing to scream about. I could skip it, or go on it. No big deal here.), and the biggie for me now would be the Flying Bobs. There are 2 Flying type bobs around the Chicago area traveling around, but they are kind of hard to find (Spectacular Midways owns a Music Fest, and Modern Midways owns a Thunderbolt.).

The roller coasters just don't look that impressive. I have tried the Galaxy before at Santa's Village, but nothing to scream home about. Sure, it's not the same exact ride, but it would be close enough. I think I would consider that ride good, but nothing like Batman the Ride, Superman Ultimate Flight, and so on at Great America.

The difference I seen from Six Flags from last year to this year is that the state of the park has changed. The music is annoying playing those darn songs to advertise concerts all the time, some workers don't know what they are doing more than before, you can't hear the good music at Hurricane Harbor that good as you did before, and the areas that were rides look horrible.

The good thing they did is added the Dark Knight coaster which I like, but yet at the same time the crowds will be heavier (if they come which they aren't coming as much) because they got rid of the theater venue, and the other venue is hardly used except for a concert once awhile. Hometown Fun Machine looks better than it did before which I see as a plus, but it still has ugly colors.

The Whirligig also looks a little better than before. The parking increase was dumb. The promotions at very discount prices is just not a smart thing to do. Disney still doesn't have discounts on their tickets. It's the worst year for me at this park, and it's not ONLY because of Deja Vu.