A Goliath among Wooden Coasters

As I am sure you know by now Six Flags Great America has a new roller coaster this year and like many of the other Six Flags parks, Great America now has a "Goliath" roller coaster.  This coaster was announced last August after a lengthy teaser campaign by the park.  After finally receiving approval and permits for the Village of Gurnee, the team from Rocky Mountain Construction began placing pre-cast concrete footers in November with vertical construction beginning in December.

There have been plenty of delays as you might expect with such a condensed construction schedule and a ride attempting to break 3 world records.  The original media day was scheduled for May 22 with the intended public opening being Memorial Day Weekend.  That didn't look like it would work out so the park sent out Invitations for May 29.  This too, was cancelled and postponed to June 9.  It wasn't long before they were canceling that date as well; and it looked as though they may not even have a media day event.

Finally the park came out with a date of June 18 and all the enthusiasts cleared their calendars and plotted trips to Gurnee to ride what was certain to be 2014's best new Roller Coaster.  The event began at 4AM and everyone made their way back into County Fair, Goliath's home.

[Rant]
The park only had one train ready for media day.  Ok, if that's the worst thing that happened, it would have been no big deal.  On that one train they had 4 rows reserved for media and camera equipment leaving just 16 people to ride each train... REALLY?  Efficiency?  What is Efficiency?  They sent a train out every 30 minutes.  Even upon queuing up for a "non-media" row, you weren't guaranteed a ride on the next train, as they continually escorted VIPs into random rows throughout the train.  By 7:30 I had only been on Goliath once and I was craving more so I returned to the line.  Another 2 hours went by and we made it onto the front row of the last car.  Now a polyurethane wheel on the car in front of us shreds itself apart.  Time for Goliath to go down once again.
[/Rant]

Goliath dominates the Skyline at Six Flags Great America

Goliath has a very sturdy looking structure

I could go on for days complaining about how poor the event was, but let's face it; The park was not ready and they rushed into this event.  I have been fortunate enough to be able to return to the park since and enjoy the coaster waiting in the stand-by line.  The longest I have waited so far is 90 minutes.  The park is now doing a great job trying to get the trains dispatched in a timely fashion, as well as prevent line jumpers.  There is a guard at the entrance who distributes a paper "boarding pass" to everyone entering the queue.  This pass is then collected by a guard at the bottom of the station stairs, and the passes must be in numerical order.  For Great America regulars, this is nothing new, but I have never seen this system at another park.

As for the ride experience:

Goliath was designed to fit around the train

This ride is smooth, quiet, tall, and definitely fast.  In fact it might be too fast.  It takes less than 40 seconds to complete the 3,100 ft course once you reach the top of the lift.  Yes, the ride time is very short, but is short always a bad thing?  (i.e. Top Thrill Dragster, Batman the Ride, etc.)  The first drop is good, but I would argue the 15 year old Raging Bull still provides a better first drop.  Entering the over bank turn is very fast and loaded with air time.  In fact this ride seems to have airtime in all the wrong places.  Being the coaster fanatic that I am, I rarely get scared or anxious on rides.  However, that 0g stall will take your breath away.  Overall, I have learned to start loving Goliath, and it now ranks in the lower-half of my Top 10 woodies.  Would I make a trip just for this ride? Hell no.  But Great America and both Chicago and Milwaukee offer so much more than a wooden coaster.