Wrath of Rakshasa is a brand new roller coaster opening at Six Flags Great America on May 31st. Designed by B&M it looms over the path from the Whizzer to X-Flight, feeling like you are invading the roller coaster's space instead of a previously quiet walking path to the back of the park. This coaster routinely sweeps low past the walking path at high speed, lending itself to easy pictures and a high intimidation factor.
The queue has some theming that, while nothing in the realm of what Epic Universe is up to, gives it just enough punch to amuse people who are waiting in the queue. A Rakshasa is a shape-shifting demon which thematically fits in with the Demon coaster that this coaster partially runs parallel to. While it doesn't show in the ride video below, I have it on pretty good authority that before the ride opens, they are going to add some speakers to the top of the lift hill, and have the Rakshasa demon roar right before you're dropped.
This coaster is a Drop Coaster model from B&M featuring the model's signature vertical drop, although with Wrath of Rakshasa, the vertical drop is more than vertical, clocking in at 96 degrees (no matter what a supposed insider may say while filming on board the ride). This drop feels like a true free fall, unlike most of its predecessors.
What is missing from this coaster model is the usual mid-course break run followed by a second, yet much less impressive, vertical drop. Instead of brakes or splashdowns, Wrath of Rakshasa uses all of its speed and momentum to power through a record-breaking five inversions.
After the impressive first drop, there are five different types of loops: an Immelmann, Dive Loop, Zero-G Roll, Corkscrew, and finally a Barrel Roll before performing some tight low-to-the-ground twists and turns before hitting the brake run. Add to this a vertical loop from the Demon coaster next door, and you can pretty much fill up your inversion Bingo card for the day.
Wrath of Rakshasa is silky smooth throughout the duration of the ride, although slightly bumpy on the far edges of the wide ride vehicle. It ticks several boxes in the coaster portfolio that Six Flags Great America was missing and should thrill fans of extreme roller coasters well into the future. Thanks to everyone at Six Flags and Six Flags Great America for letting us ride their impressive new roller coaster before it opens.
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Great job, Mr. Elliott! It's not easy to describe what's happening while you're being whipped around on a great coaster, but you did a good job of describing the elements as you entered them. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your reports from other parks in the Midwest!
It's great to see SFGAm back to getting real investment that suits the park, that junk they were getting during the Jim Reid Anderson era was embarrassing. This looks like a solid addition: looks great in the park, reliable, decent capacity, and while the "theme" really irks me (Indian folklore in a park that's themed to America?) I will admit most people don't care about that. Amazing view from the top as well.
Though what they did to the parks entrance is criminal.
Looks like a very solid attraction and probably the most intense of the dive coasters. Despite the park being stacked with B&Ms, it also manages to bring something new to the lineup, and while I doubt it will displace Goliath as the enthusiast favorite, I imagine most will be ranking this in the top 3-4 at SFGAm. Looking forward to making a return visit to the park to check it out for myself, though I'm not sure if that will be able to happen this year.
Those last 2 inversions look like the highlight of this ride. I still wish SF would have done a bit more with the on-ride theming here with some type of trench, tunnel, tower, or SOMETHING to enhance the visual appeal for guests on the coaster.
I also don't get this name at all, and why they've gone with this bizarre foreign concept. Given the lack of overall theming on the coaster, they could have just as well called this "X-Drop" with a post-apocalyptic theme in the station/entrance and it would have connected better with typical SF guests.
I live 20 minutes from California's Great America. This must be what it feels like to sleep under a freeway overpass while your brother sleeps in a mansion.
And the freeway is getting demolished for an office park in a couple of years, too.
I forgot to mention a couple of things.
This coaster has 3 trains and can launch a new train every 45 seconds. Since there is no mid-course break run, this coaster can run with one train actively on the lift hill, one on the downward slope, and one in the station. So this coaster should be able to eat a line with quickness.
They are also using a monorail system to ferry your loose articles from one side of the station to the other. This has been done at least twice previously before but is new to the Midwest.
We were at SFGA, yesterday, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. As excited as I am about this ride, it is clear that the merger is exacerbating some of the worst tendencies from both companies.
The new entrance looks good, but created some very significant security issues on Friday. While, these appear to be limited in duration, they highlight the "on the cheap" management of the merged park. Yesterday, they were filming a commercial for Wrath of Rakshasa, and their normal entry procedures were not in use. Everyone was let in at 10:10 (right around the usual time), only everyone was held at the carousel... by 2 "security guards." The two "guards" were expected to hold back thousands and thousands of guests, most of which were high school students. The forward creep as the clocked ticked down to 10:30 was intense, and then a retail supervisor came over to "assist." His assist was to scream to everyone to: "go, GO, GOOOOOOO..." As I attempted to protect my children, I watched an older woman fall, tumble and get trampled. This put the old Black Friday rush at Wal-Mart to shame. Once arriving at MaxxForce, the crowds' push into the chain that held the queue closed hurt a number of younger, smaller guests. Staff undid the chain, which created mad rush #2. As we walked through the gift shop after our ride, there was a guest berating the retail supervisor telling him that he hopes SF (and the supervisor) get sued for their actions.
The ops team on Raging Bull should be commended, they were hustling and had both trains dispatched at all times, there was never a delay on the track for loading/unloading. This further illustrates that Raging Bull needs to return to the three train operation. Goliath was down most of the day (from before noon to close), and Superman Ultimate Flight was running single train operations on Memorial Day weekend! SINGLE. TRAIN.
The worst experience remains their food service operations. I accept that their food is lower quality and more expensive than Disney or Universal. (This was something I did expect CF to address, however.) What I refuse to accept is that every food service location had a roughly hour wait. 52 minutes for an Asian rice bowl, and my wife and daughter waited 47 minutes for a slice of pizza at the same time (2:00pm.) What was the most galling thing about the entire day... A food service supervisor being asked to assist in the kitchen at Chop Stix, and the supervisor replying, "I don't have to cook food anymore, I am a supervisor," while laughing. She continued, "who cares, people will wait." If that doesn't just sum up the general SF attitude toward their customers. People get trampled because we have staff acting like it is the beginning of a marathon. People waiting an hour for food..."who cares."
If not stacking at Raging Bull with only 2 trains is an accomplishment then something is terribly wrong with the current state of the park. When I used to operate Raging Bull (long time ago) we didn't stack even with 3 trains and that was the norm, and the company was in worse financial shape back then. We usually had the next train dispatching when the train in front of it was in the hammerhead (first element after the drop). It is not complicated to operate a B&M hyper TBH it might be one of the simplest jobs in the world.
Also ironically since SF just eliminated the park president position, SFGAm's long-time (like 20+ year) head of food service has been named the parks "manager" and is also still the head of food service
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You mean to tell me that the man himself, Jeff Elliott, came out of retirement to stop by my neck of the woods, and I wasn't there for the meet and greet opportunity?
Ah well, thanks for letting us know how the new coaster is Jeff. Admittedly, it has been a few years since I last hit up Great America, so it may be time to plan a follow-up visit. For science.