Meep

Hardly "all that research" I typed that off the top of my head... You have probably spent an equal or greater amount of time trying to be too clever by half...

Goodwill stores operate as Independent nonprofits that are assigned exclusive 'territories' by Goodwill international, the 'territory' that covers most of the Chicagoland area is under the 'Amazing' namesake...

Yeah, I was going to include that they generally they also have private events that week as well but it slipped my mind as I typed...

End of summer change over to set up for fall Fright Fest...

Huh? These are basically across the street from the Grand Ave. entrance to the park Timothy O'Toole's Pub (quite popular in the area for those seeking the pub/eatery atmosphere) Royal Thai These are about 1/2 mile West of the Grand Ave. entrance to the park Hooters Outback Steakhouse Olive Garden Cracker Barrel Golden Corral (reasonably priced all you can eat buffet) Culver's About 2 miles West of the Grand Ave. Entrance in the Gurnee Mills Mall area Portillo's (a cult favorite chain in the Chicago area for hotdogs and Italian beef, they also have salad offerings) Rainforest Cafe Steak 'n Shake MOD Pizza Uno Pizzeria Red Lobster Five Guys (burgers) Red Robin (burgers) Chipotle About 3 miles West of the Grand Ave Entrance Giordano's (authentic Chicago pizza) On the East side of the park, about 1/2 to 1 mile from the Grand Ave Entrance Primo Italian American Cuisine Tacos El Norte (quite a popular local Mexican chain) Stevens' (steakhouse) And that is just touching the surface, I skipped most of the fast food chains and some smaller places and didn't go out beyond give or take 2 miles except for Giordano's as that was mentioned earlier...

May I suggest if time permits you visit an Amazing Goodwill before hand and get a free rewards card, there is a dedicated Amazing Goodwill entrance that saved me easily 45 minutes to an hour of waiting in line to enter the park the other day! https://www.amazinggoodwill.com/stores As for eating Gurnee Mills and the plethora of restaurants around it, is just down the street... If you want to avoid the high cost of beverages, bring a refillable water bottle, there are several water fountains and water bottle refill stations... I also agree that if your goal is rides, generally heading left (clockwise) upon entry is best, most people head to the right (counter clockwise) and the older rides on that side that are normally only a moderate or short wait later in the day like the Whizzer and Demon will generally be long waits during the early gate entry times... As for temps, it's the Chicago Land area, might be 100° during the day and 90° at night or it might be 70° during the day and 50° at night, look at the forecast when the date gets closer... And last but not least, pay attention to the time if you are on the West side of the park around 6pm, as Hurricane Harbor closes there can be a huge inrush of people existing the water park into the regular park at that time driving up the wait times on rides in that area...

In regards to the 'violence', I don't know if I witnessed the Mardi Gras area one referenced previously or another one in the same area on the same day... Either way we had just exited Roaring Rapids and there was a heavy police presence as well as easily a two dozen park 'security' in the area keeping people apart and trying to calm everyone down... One dolt that was clearly a 'suspect' in the incident started to get quite belligerent both physically and vocally with the park staff, while proclaiming to the staff he was leaving because he didn't do anything, let's just say that didn't go well for him as he was quickly met by three officers and a K-9 unit, and informed he was patently incorrect about just leaving, albeit in the end he actually might have been right about leaving as he was given a pair of shiny bracelets for his actions... It definitely was not a crowded day so it wasn't a crowd-driven conflict, in fact the park was quite empty, probably due to the heat, I don't think any line was longer than 15 minutes on Fathers Day, even the Joker was only about a 10 minute wait... On that note, we were there again this weekend and there was a clearly bigger police presence, both police in the parking lot driving up and down the parking lanes and in the park itself where I saw several Gurnee police on bikes and also walking around the park... Oh and BTW I do love how they tell you to report line jumping then do nothing about it, we were in line for X-Flight and when the gates opened to get on the ride two line jumpers literally pushed past my brother and his wife that were next, jumped on the ride and harnessed up in haste, we reported them and easily a half dozen other people in line confirmed what had happened, but the two individuals refused to move and said everyone else was lying thus nothing was done by park staff... Talking to a few other people about it afterwards, apparently, they too have reported line jumpers but faced the same dead-end reaction from staff, apparently as long as the line jumper denies they jumped nothing happens, so that policy is a little disappointing...

IMO, if they want to extend the season they should just extend Fright Fest into November, the idea that Fright Fest has to end with Halloween is silly, fact is Fright Fest draws crowds and I don't believe for one second that the crowds would just stop coming because it's after Halloween... If they wanted to switch it up to get repeat visitors, they could flip the theme of Fright Fest into a Spooky Thanksgiving and/or Nightmare Christmas look...

I believe a lot of the problem especially in the Midwest is that they are essentially hiring temporary help at minimum wage (many of them foreign exchange student workers) they are basically getting the bottom of the barrel work force that have accepted that it's a 3 month temporary job, there is no desire for most of their employees to even try as they know the gig will be up in short whether they are employee of the month or the employee that gets written up every week, they won't be getting a raise or continued employment... Combine that with the fact that they deliberately under staff the place just adds to the misery... I mean seriously on a perfect 90 degree mid summer day with the capacity pushed to the limits most of the 'food and beverage kiosk' that are clearly designed to have 2, 3 or even 4 or more cashiers have a SINGLE teenager that is day dreaming about hanging out with their friends when they get off, acting as not only cashier but also as server and stocking person resulting in everyone waiting 30 minutes or longer for a drink refill... And to add insult to injury the 'managers' are most just the lucky teenagers friends that got a different colored uniform so there is no accountability or supervision... There was a incident this summer where one of the ride operators, in one of the designated child areas appeared to literally be having a physiological breakdown, she was talking and yelling at herself, pounding her fist on the control panel repeatably and banging her head against the wall (and I mean literally she was hitting her head on the wall)... It was quite a scene that was quote disturbing so several adults including myself tracked down a so called manager to report what was going on, the result was the manager telling the employee she would take over ride control for a bit and that she should go on her break to compose herself, her break consisted of going over to one of the other ride operators in the kiddy area and continuing her antics for 15 minutes and then returning to work as if nothing just happened...

Come next year there will be a brand new Great Wolf Lodge (replacing and drastically expanding upon the now gone Key Lime Cove) mostly indoor water park and resort across the street... I like the fact that now with the Great Wolf Lodge coming to the area you will be able to get a Disney like full fledged resort/hotel experience combined with the theme park... Something I have always felt Great America (and many other Six Flags) lacked as a family and child getaway place... I'm actually really looking forward to having a no travel full fledged resort weekend getaway with a theme park across the street, as I'm only 10ish minutes down the road....

To get a better understanding of how crowded it will be, you will have to wait until they release the pass holder special days and any events for next year... But, yes it's open every day in June... Do note, that June is when most schools are getting out in the area, so the park will be busy regardless as many schools officially or unofficially plan end of year trips and/or the kids are out for summer and hitting the park just because they are out of school... If there is a bring a friend for free or whatever pass holder promotion or other special event going on that day it will be stupid crowded... I would aim to attend on a weekday or two consecutive days if possible if you want to maximize your ability to hit up rides...

It's never a sure thing, and weather plays a part as always... But, based on our several visits already to Fright Fest this year, the park attendance by my estimation nearly doubles after about 5-6PM, on Saturday/Sunday... During the day on Saturday/Sunday adult ride lines have not been crowded at all as it's a lot of families with young children, but as soon as night rolls around all the rides are packed like a high attendance mid summer day... Friday is a wild card, if the weather is good, expect attendance and lines to be high as it's only night time hours, if the weather is bad it generally kills the attendance... If you want to visit the haunted houses, the lines are even longer or should I say slower, expect at least an hour wait for each haunted house or more as the night progresses... From my observations, the haunted house lines are doing little to reduce the ride lines, it appears there is an excess haunted house crowd over and above the regular ride crowds....

The speculation that I would conclude is this man had a previously diagnosed underlying and undisclosed medical condition... I base this speculation on the fact that his personal physician signed off on the death certificate as 'natural causes' right after the death, thus no autopsy or toxicology report will ever be performed... Thus there is really no sense in beating the dead horse at this point...

The best time to go is early in the season before many schools gets out, that or on weekday evenings during the summer when there was rain forecast during the day, whether it actually rained or not isn't as important as what the forecast said would happen as that keeps many of the people home... I live about 15 minutes away and I have always found it best to go at the above times, if you want to avoid crowds, you can get more rides in with only 3-4 hours on a slow day then spending all day there on a crowded day, so it has always worked out for me, especially now that I have young children that tire out after about 3-4 hours and have little patience to stand in line... And I'll let you in on a little secret I used this year... Download the Six Flags app (if nothing else it's convenient to have all your family passes in one place) and if your phone allows it (easy on Android) download a GPS spoofing app, I use 'Fake GPS' by Lexa Apps... Fire up the GPS spoofing app and have it spoof that you are actually standing inside the park, then run the Six Flags app, you can now check their live ride wait times and get a real time estimate of how busy it is that day before you head out...