Have A Head-Spinning, Puking, Brain-Numbing, Body-Shaking Good Time
Written: Jun 27 '01 (Updated Jun 27 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Kid's Area, Lots Of Rides, Fun For The Whole Family
Cons: $$$ Costs Way Too Much! Long Lines, Smell Of Puke
The Bottom Line: Lots Of Fun-But Very Expensive-Bring Lots Of Hard Cold Cash!
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| mtbat's Full Review: Six Flags Elitch Gardens |
It’s been a Long time since I’ve been at an amusement park. In fact, this visit was my first visit to the re-incarnation of Eliches-now known as Six Flags Elitch Gardens. The Elitches I grew up with is now a Six Flags(multi-billion, nationwide chain) Amusement Park. While the new Elitch Gardens was, for the most part, a blast-I found myself missing the old Elitches.
Before You Begin :If you are planning on visiting Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver Colorado there are a few things you HAVE to have A Boatload Of Money Elitch’s isn’t cheap. I will get into prices latter but each entry ticket costs $34(or more or less depending on the day you go and where you buy your tickets) per person-this entitles you to unlimited rides and access to the Water Park-but you have to pay the same amount regardless of whether or not you plan on riding the rides or not. (Children under 3 and Adults over 65 are free). Tickets are Non-Refundable even if the weather turns bad.
A Bathing Suit-if you want to take advantage of the HUGE water park, swimming pools, slides and best of all Hook’s Lagoon-then you have to have a swimming suit. Also-it gets HOT fast, and being able to strip down to a bathing suit and cool off is a big advantage. I really wouldn’t even bother bringing a towel. The park is hot enough you will dry off fairly quickly.
Sun Block And A Hat Make sure you have PLENTY of sun block and make sure each person-especially the kids-in your party have hats. Re-apply sun block throughout the day, especially on smaller kids. Always reapply sun block after riding a water-ride or toweling off.
Water-LOTS of drinking water-you are not “allowed” to take any food or drink INTO the park, but my water bottles were not challenged. You can buy 24oz bottles of Aquafina Bottled Water and Pepsi Brand Products out of vending machines throughout the park for $2.50 a bottle. If you do buy a bottle, I suggest you buy one and refill it at the water fountains throughout the day..
Getting There. Six Flags Elitch Gardens is located close to LODO(Lower Downtown Denver) and within spitting distance of Coors Field (baseball stadium) and the new Invesco At Mile High Stadium (Football Stadium). You get to Six Flags by taking I25 and getting off at the exit where you see the giant roller coaster( exit 210 if the MapQuest map was correct).
Parking-parking in the park lots costs $8.00 per car (Ka-Ching). I’m not sure where else you could park within any close distance that is wouldn’t cost you-so be prepared to shell out $8.00. The earlier you get there the better. My mother in law tells me that the last time they went to the new park for a company picnic, they had to park near Auroria Campus and take a shuttle to get to the park itself.
Getting In The Park. The entrance to the park is a giant madhouse. We were lucky in that we had
Purchased tickets through my daughter’s Brownie troop at a discount ahead of time. All we had to do was find the troop leader, get our tickets and get in line. In line I felt rather like one of the cows on it’s way to a slaughterhouse, crowded together, pushing and shoving-a giant mass of hot and sweaty people. You have to go through metal detectors to get into the park proper-I didn’t count but there were at least 10 metal detectors manned by what appeared to be volunteers from the local senior center-total confusion reigned.
Oh and did I mention that if you have a stroller or a wheelchair you have to enter through the FARTHEST metal detector to the left. Now, they don’t tell you this when they give you your ticket, and it’s not clearly marked that you have to go through the far detector if you have a stroller. I was there with my Mother in law, my daughter, my stepdaughter and my 15month old son-who was in a stroller. We got all the way up to the entry way where we were told we would have to go down to the OTHER end to enter. Getting there, two children and a stroller in tow was no easy task. There were at least 5 other strollers trying to weave their way through the crowd, G*d forbid we block any line for more than a nano-second-I got yelled at by several Elitch Garden workers-told to not block and by numerous citizens in the lines who I had to block. Being me-I yelled back and told them-either make it clear where I am supposed to enter with the stroller or basically-BITE ME. (Yeah, the more you B*tch at me, the less likely I am going to do what you want me to do-I’m funny that way).
The Park AT LAST! If you manage to make your way through the entranceway you will find yourself in the park. Close to the entrance there is a long boardwalk like area filled with a variety of shops selling a variety of over-priced junk everything from candy to T-shirts. When you reach the end of the boardwalk you are in the park proper.
The first real ride is the Ferris Wheel. We decided at the very beginning that this would be the Last ride we would do. I am not particularly fond of hights, but I had promised my daughter that we would ride the Ferris Wheel at Elitches. We had attended a city run county style fair several weeks ago with my mother that had a Ferris Wheel and I refused to let her on that one. Past the Ferris Wheel there are rides in every direction. Throughout the park there are maps, but it is very easy to get lost or separated from a group of people.
To the right of the Ferris Wheel there is the Kiddy Park-the Loony Toons Themed Kids Park that features a variety of rides for smaller children. They have several huge play areas (think McDonalds Playland but bigger and better). There are kiddy bumper cars, airplanes, a boat ride, a mini-roller coaster, a train ride, a bus like ride and several others besides. What I liked best about this area was that I was able to take the 15-month-old on several of the rides-he loved every moment of it. The older kids had mixed feelings-they are at that difficult stage-not quite large enough for a lot of the Adult rides, but too old really for most of the Kiddy rides-although they did like the boat ride and the bumper cars. The one area I wasn’t too thrilled about was the Special Effects Studio Funhouse. This “ride” is a giant funhouse that has, among other things giant “guns” for shooting off nerf like balls at other people. I HAD to go INTO this funhouse with the kids-they were not allowed in without an adult-for what reason I couldn’t figure out. Picture a crowd of mom’s and dad’s standing off to the side while their children race madly around shooting nerf balls at one another.
The Water Park: After our first time through the Kiddy Land park, we headed for the Water Park. Your entry into the water park area is included in the price of your ticket-which makes the cost of the ticket a bit easier to swallow. I could easily see spending the entire day just in the Water Park. There were a variety of slid rides including a GIANT rafting/slide ride that looked like a blast. There are lots of plastic beach chairs for hanging out in, a changing room and lockers to store your stuff (for a fee of course).
Our favorite part of the water park was Hook’s Lagoon. Hooks Lagoon is a giant Fun-House-but with water. There is a shallow wading area for all ages and a variety of different sized slides in two separate water saturated structures. Kids and adults alike can run through the giant fun house and play, climb and get wet.
The Tropical Water Park opens at 11am-an hour AFTER the main park opens.
After we visited the Water-Park we headed into the “Amusement” park. My daughter and stepdaughter are not quite tall enough to ride a lot of the rides, but there were still a few that they could do. My daughter who is quite a little dare-devil wanted to ride The Mind Eraser - a giant roller coaster where you are strapped into a seat with your feet hanging and sent flying upside-down, sideways and more through space at a zillion miles an hour. Fortunately for all of us, you have to be 52 inches or taller to ride The Mind Eraser, my daughter is only 48inches tall. There are several other roller coasters in the park including The Boomerang and the old Sidewinder which is a holdover from the old Elitch Gardens.
After being told that she couldn’t ride the giant roller coaster-this year-God help me when she is actually big enough to do so-I wanted to make it up to her. So I agreed to take her on the ride next to the Mind Eraser called BatWings. Batwings was a ride that involved being strapped into a little yellow chair, then lifted 150 feet into the air and spun around for several minutes. The ride is styled after Batman and the chairs have Wings of a sort that are movable-two people to each “chair” and there is a little lever in-between that you can use to make the wings and therefore your chairs move around.
An Epiphany: 150 feet up above the ground, my 30+ year old, somewhat overweight body strapped into a lightweight plastic seat and held in place with a combination of plastic, metal and who knows what else with my legs dangling free, I came to a sudden and life altering conclusion: Somewhere, somehow in between the last visit to an amusement park and this visit-I grew up. I no longer WANT to have my innards spun, shaken, jiggled and wiggled. I don’t particularly care to have my heart race, my stomach roll and my head spin on an “amusement” park ride. Now, ideally the place for such an Epiphany would have been down on the ground-not 150 some odd feet up in the air, spinning around in a circle wondering if that somewhat thin metal bar that my batwings chair was attached to isn’t going to suddenly snap and send me and my 6year old daughter hurtling through space and to our untimely deaths. I was extremely happy when we were lowered to the ground. I walked away; somewhat sad that I had in fact grown up, but glad that I had survived the ride.
I grew up going to the old Elitch Gardens. When I was a teenager, my father lived within walking distance of the old park. He would give me $20 a day during the week and I would go to Elitches and ride all the rides over and over and over again. Now, looking back that in and of itself says something about what kind of a father he was- but at the time I loved every minute of it. I remember going to sleep to the sounds of people screaming on the roller coaster during the hot summer months. The old Elitch Gardens was a family owned park that started in the 1800’s. A few years ago, the park was purchased, then rebuilt by the Six-Flag Theme Parks People. Honestly, bigger isn’t necessarily better. Yes the new park boasts some cool and nifty new rides but I miss the old park.
Food: Remember what I said about you not being allowed to bring in your own food? Well that means you have to buy theirs-and let me tell you-it isn’t cheap. In approximately the center of the park there is a large building called The ChuckHouse. This is an air-conditioned building that hosts several different restaurants (all western theamed), a large seating area and a stage for dancing. Throughout the park there are also different stands selling hotdogs, cotton candy, popcorn, pizza and the like-but so far as I could tell-this particular Old West style building was the only AIR-CONDITIONED building where you could sit down and eat. But it didn’t come cheap. (Okay, I know I keep harping on the prices-sorry but the prices on things were pretty out of hand).
For $7.50 I was able to buy my 6-year-old a three-piece chicken dinner. Dinner included three pieces of chicken that looked like they came off the world’s smallest chicken, a dinner roll and a little container of potato salad (you know those little containers they give you at other restaurants with Sour Cream in them-that’s the size of the potato salad). For $5 more I bought her a plastic 32-oz cup full of soda (Pepsi Products only in Elitches). Refill price for said cup-$3.50.
I bought my self-a 6inch sub at the Subway shop for $5. They offered Meatball, Turkey, Tuna and A MT style cold cut sandwich only. Soda-$5. Chips-$1 for a .25cent sized baggy. My mother in law bought my stepdaughter a hamburger, fries and a plastic cup with Pepsi. I didn’t ask her how much she spent-I figured for the two of them she spent about $25 on lunch.
Besides the chicken place and Subway there was a BBQ place and a grill for burgers and fries. The prices ran more or less the same-between $5 and $10 for an item and drinks averaging $3.50 to $5.00 each. Ka-Ching. There was also a frozen custard stand-but we didn’t bother with that. After spending nearly $50 to feed 5 people including a toddler, ice cream wasn’t in the budget.
We spent the next half-hour or so in one of the Arcades playing video and skilled games. I think we had more fun in the Arcade than on most of the rides. I got $5.00 worth of quarters and divided them up between the girls. They figured out that the Strong-Man skilled game (rubber mallet hitting pad and sending the little round puck up game) kicked out an average of 10 tickets per quarter and spent their money playing there. When all was said and done each girl had about 150 tickets and each child was able to exchange their tickets for some pretty cool junk. Compared to other arcades, the prizes offered were much better in quality and affordability. My daughter got a stuffed Dalmatian puppy for 100 points and was still able to fill a little junk bag with rings and such. She was also able to get her younger brother a Cookie Monster toy.
By about 1pm we were very hot again, but the Water Park was very crowded, so we went looking for the water rides in the main park. In a far corner of the park we found the “old” rides-the ones brought over from the old park. There we found Shipwreck Falls, the old Rainbow the old roller coaster, the old Sea Dragon and a few other old rides.
Shipwreck Falls was a hit. Basically, you and 15 other people (4per seat-4 seats) get in a roller coaster like car that takes you up high up above the park. Then like in a roller-coaster you come crashing down, but into the water causing a Huge tidal wave of water that soaks you, anyone standing near the ride and people standing on a bridge nearby. While we were on Shipwreck Falls-we spotted another water ride. Disaster Canyon -this ride had the longest wait of our day. It was hard to tell exactly how long the line was-it curves around boulders, etc. We spent about an hour in line then were strapped into a large tire shaped raft, then sent spinning down a white water type river. That was fun and we got wet, which was a needed change. By one o’clock the park gets HOT. For a quick cool down I suggest going and standing on the bridge by Shipwreck Falls and getting soaked.
In the older section, the last ride we went on was the Sea Dragon. This ride is a holdover from the old park. At the old park they had this ride splash in water, here it didn’t. In short, a bunch of people get in a Viking ship shaped ride and are swung back and forth, higher and higher. I had fun; my 6year old had fun. The 8year old did not-she hated every moment of it.
Ah, The Smell Of Puke Unfortunately, the smell of puke was somewhat pervasive near the Sky-Viking ride. My daughter and stepdaughter wanted snow cones-I refused to buy anything from a stand that smelled like throw-up. I also refused to pay $8 for two snow cones when I knew I could buy them a little snow cone maker at Wal-Mart for $6.88 on the way home-which I did. I can’t help but wonder about the prices of the food in the park, it seemed a lot to pay for food that might be tossed back into trashcans partly processed after a ride.
Our final ride was the Ferris Wheel which is the first ride when you come in the park (excluding the carousel which had a line from heck by the time we got near it so we just skipped that one). Up on the Ferris Wheel, we were able to see all the rides we didn’t have time to go on. Maybe next time.
The New Park is a huge rambling place. There are lots of rides, lots of corners and turns and lots of ways to get lost. Most of the rides require children to be over 48 inches tall to ride the rides by themselves but many allow 42-46inch tall children to ride-if they are accompanied by an adult-oh lucky me! The lines are long and it is better if you get there early. We came in at 10am when they opened. The Water Park opens at 11am. The first few rides we rode, the lines were not that long-perhaps a 10 minute wait. By 1pm however, the lines were long, the parks crowded and the wait for the more popular rides was an hour or more
Six Flags Elitch Gardens is almost too big. There is no way that you could ride All the rides in one visit. If you were lucky, you might be able to do 2 or 3 of the more popular ones and maybe-Maybe a half-dozen of the less popular ones. I could see easily spending the day just in the water park all by itself, but honestly-there is another Amusement Park- Water World on 88th and Pecos that is 1-cheaper and 2-LESS CROWDED and most importantly “PICNIC’S ARE WELCOME! -you can bring your own food and drink into Water World.
Odds and Ends: Visiting Elitches isn’t cheap. Even with discounted tickets, and my daughter’s ticket was paid for by her Brownie Troop-I still spent over $150 on gas, food, parking, drinks, tickets etc. I have a friend who went the week before-also using tickets purchased at a discount through the Brownie Troop who spent over $300 total. If you really enjoy Amusement Parks and are willing to spend that much money, well then Elitches is worth it.
If you are a Denver resident (or not) you can purchase a Family 4 Pack of season tickets with each ticket costing approximately $47 each. Not only does the pass pay for itself in about two visits, the package comes with free guest passes, discount passes and more. I have another friend whose teenaged daughter went in on a Family 4 pack with three other teens. They go to Elitches about once a week-or more so this is a great deal for them. These passes are also good at other Six Flags Parks so if you are traveling with teens during the summer, this might be an ideal way of keeping them entertained during a family vacation.
Elitches offers a variety of summer concerts-the most recent one being the summer of love or whatever that played opposite Shock Rocker Marilyn Mansion. If you are interested in the summer schedule for concerts etc, you can check the website for Elitches at: sixflags.com/parks/elitchgardens
Six Flags Elitch Gardens has a huge “Picnic” area that is used by large groups. I believe the name of the Picnic area is Pepsi Gardens. A lot of local business such as UPS have their company picnics at the Amusement Park. You do have to be part of an official group to get into the picnic garden area.
One neat thing-throughout the park there are massage things for your feet. For a quarter, you can sit in a little chair and put your feet on a vibrating massager-believe me, after walking the park for two or three hours it’s worth a quarter to make your feet feel better.
Old Vs New I still call the park Elitches because that’s what I grew up calling it. My daughter and her sister call it Six Flags and when we say Elitches, they always say-“oh, you mean Six Flags. I’m not sure that the new park is any better than the old one. The old park featured a historic playhouse and there were always plays, concerts etc. The new park just doesn’t have the same feel that the old park did.
That doesn’t mean we won’t go back to the new park. In no time at all, my daughter will be tall enough to ride all the rides. She seems to have inherited that same “devil-may-care” spirit that I had when I was younger, so I understand her fascination with the rides, the danger and the thrill of being shaken, rocked, jiggled and wiggled through the air at breakneck speeds. I figure that we will probably go once a year. More than that is simply not in our budget.
There is a new ride area called Carnival Of Caos which is a Batman style theme area. The park is open until 10pm on weekends(Friday through Sunday) and 8pm the rest of the week. The park stays open for regular use until early fall and then they usually have an Octoberfest during the last month.
Final Advice and Observations Would I recommend Six Flags Elitch Gardens as a travel destination? When all is said and done-yes. I would recommend that you try to visit on an ‘off’ day-Monday through Friday if possible when the tickets are slightly cheaper, and the lines somewhat shorter. Get there early and park close to the entrance-the one thing I was glad of when we left was that we only had a short walk to the car.
IF you have a stroller-you have to leave through the same gate you came in on. This is not marked-we went to the gate marked Exit assuming of course that we should exit through the marked Exit-nope, we were sent back down to the gate we came in-after a few choice words with a Over-Zealous security guard. (Okay, I’ve been in the park for 5 hours, I have hot, tired, grumpy children all I want to do is leave. I’m at the exit-but wait-I can’t leave-I have to walk all the way down to the other end and exit there? ARGHHH)
Look in the papers and at local fast food restaurants for discount coupons. Anything that can save you some money is worth it A fool and their money soon parted. A trip to the park will cost you a pretty penny. But if you like Amusement Parks-Go, spend a few bucks and have a fun time.
For more information please go to: digitalcitydenver.com or sixflags.com/parks/elitchgardens
Recommended:
Yes
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mtbat
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