Admission Price: 1 Arm + 1 Leg

By Rachelle Bowden in News on May 1, 2006 12:00PM

Chicagoist hasn't been to Six Flags Great America for years, but we used to love to go and remember the last time we went (1999?) we thought it was really expensive. Great America opened for the season on Saturday, and we were shocked to read that the price for a single adult admission (anyone over 54 inches) is now $54.99. For one day! Holy shit! And that doesn't include the cost of gas to get up there or soda or anything to eat or a wacky souvenir Bugs Bunny tshirt. Not to mention that the price of parking also went up this season. It's now $15 to park for the day.

For kids (under 54") the price is less, but still: $34.99? For a family of two adults and two kids it's gonna cost you like a few hundred bucks just for one day of fun. The admission price does include Hurricane Harbor, which will open for its second season on Memorial Day weekend, but still, what a rip-off!

Theme park officials there said that the new rates are comparable to the cost of going to a Major League Baseball game in Chicago or Milwaukee, and they pointed out that going to a theme park is an all-day thing, not just a few hours of fun.

At Six Flags Over Texas it costs an adult $45 to get in, and at Six Flags Over Georgia it costs $49.99. At each of these parks the admission does not include admission to the nearby water park. So maybe $54.99 is a good deal because it does include admission to Hurricane Harbor. Still, Six Flags St. Louis is only $44.99, and it includes admission to the water park. Ten bucks less.

What do you think? Is it worth the money to get on the roller coasters? Is it even viable for most families with kids? Call us old and stingy, but we don't even want to pony up the $50 for ourselves, let alone if we had a few rugrats running around who wanted to go.