Chicago
Six Flags Great America
Raging Bull, Goliath, the original Batman invert and a pair of racing woodies from 1981 — Chicago's coaster park.
8 attractions6 height limits3 tracked snacks
Gurnee, Illinois
Chicago
Raging Bull, Goliath and Whizzer at Great America — Chicago's coaster park, with an American classic wooden racing coaster in the back corner.
Six Flags Great America is the Chicago area's answer to the big regional parks, and its coaster lineup is deeper than its reputation. Raging Bull is a 200-foot B&M hyper with a 65-degree first drop and the floating airtime that company's coasters are famous for. Goliath, the 2014 Rocky Mountain hybrid, inverts a wooden coaster twice and holds its own against anything in the region. Whizzer, a 1976 suspended family coaster, is the beloved anachronism worth riding between the giants.
Batman: The Ride here is the original — the 1992 invert that cloned a generation of coasters nationwide — and American Eagle's racing wooden tracks are a piece of 1981 Americana that still runs when parks twice as rich would have bulldozed them. The Mardi Gras section added in the 2020s gives the middle of the park a party-district feel with a first-rate freespin in The Joker.
The park's season runs May through December with a big Fright Fest overlay in fall and Holiday in the Park to close the year — one of the few parks on this site where a December visit is a real option, if you pack for Lake Michigan wind off the flats.
The practical bits
- Getting there
- Chicago O'Hare (ORD) is 35 to 50 minutes south of the park in Gurnee. A Metra train to Waukegan or Grayslake plus a short rideshare is the car-free route; most visitors drive.
- Getting around
- One park, ring-shaped, with the County Fair entrance section at the south and Southwest Territory's coaster corner at the far west. The full loop is over a mile; do it clockwise and hit Raging Bull before the crowds round the bend.
- How many days
- One weekday day covers everything with re-rides. Summer Saturdays and Fright Fest nights justify the line-skip arithmetic in the guide.
- When to go
- Late May and early June weekdays before summer camps mobilise, or September weekdays during Fright Fest season with mild weather. October weekends are busy but the best vibe the park has.
The 1 parks
The question everyone asks first
Height requirements across the resort
Every ride at Chicago with a minimum height, shortest first. Sort any column.
| Attraction | Park | Height | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whizzer | Great America | 42" · 107cm | Roller coaster |
| American Eagle | Great America | 48" · 122cm | Roller coaster |
| Goliath | Great America | 48" · 122cm | Roller coaster |
| Batman: The Ride | Great America | 54" · 137cm | Roller coaster |
| Raging Bull | Great America | 54" · 137cm | Roller coaster |
| Superman: Ultimate Flight | Great America | 54" · 137cm | Roller coaster |
line-skip passes here
THE FLASH Pass covers the headliners here — see the line-skip guide for pricing as of July 2026 and where it actually saves time.