Besides Marriott's Great America

dth1971 · Post by **dth1971** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:41 pm

Besides Marriott's Great America, do you remember in the same 1976-1984 period the other rival theme parks in the areas of:

Santa Clara/San Francisco/San Jose areas: Marine World/Africa USA, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Frontier Village, Santa's Village, the original Winchester Blvd. in San Jose Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre first location.
(Of course, deep down in California there's the Los Angeles/Hollywood/Southern California area with theme parks Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios, Magic Mountain, San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park, Sea World San Diego)

Gurnee/Chicago areas: Three Worlds of Santa's Village (with a Racing Rapids water park opening next door in 1983), Kiddieland, Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom/Castle of Toys, Old Chicago, Pirate's Cove/Disney Pool, King Richard's Faire (Of course, you could even go up to Wisconsin for the theme parks of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin)

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:03 am

One of the big rivals of the Gurnee Great America was Old Chicago Amusement Park and shopping mall. http://www.negative-g.com/OldChicago/OCIndex.html It was located in Bolingbrook, IL. The concept was a good one, but I guess nobody realized that once you've been to the park a few times, the novelty wore off. The shopping mall had specialty shops and no anchor stores to lure people back either. The park was only open from 1975 through 1981 or so. It was torn down in 1986. I went to this park only once, but was impressed by how it was set up. It was very loud inside with all the rides running at the same time. My favorite ride there was the Chicago Loop rollercoaster.

I also remember going to Adventureland in Addison, IL. http://theimaginaryworld.com/sbpIL.html This kiddie park/amusement park was located just west of Route 53, on Route 20. It has been said that quite a few of Adventureland's rides were once located at Chicago's famed Riverview Park. I don't know if someone else can confirm that. They just don't have these kinds of parks around anymore. Adventureland's haunted house was something to remember though.

I grew up in Elgin, IL near East Dundee where Santa's Village is located, but hardly went to it. http://theimaginaryworld.com/svDUN.html The rides seemed outdated and more for little kids. Santa's Village is still open today and was once part of a string of Santa's Villages across the country.

Santa Cruisin · Post by **Santa Cruisin** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:32 pm

I worked at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk from 78-81 as a ride operator on the Jet Star. I rode the Giant Dipper regularly when I was a kid and young adult. I think my favorite and scariest ride at the boardwalk was the Wild Mouse. It was an old wooden structure with a steel track and I thought the cars would fly off the u-turn into the Autorama/Cave Train complex. I also remember Santa's Village in Scotts Valley. It had a sort of cozy feel to it.