GREATAMERICAparks.com

Hi, I don't remember them all right now. I mainly remember Andre's Prize-Winning French Fries. http://www.greatamericaparks.com/food001.jpg They were so good. In the photo above, btw, she's wearing the popular MGA Bugs Bunny rabbit ears. She also has on a Marriott's GREAT AMERICA heart-shaped pendan...

Hi, Jeff, Nope! There were no underground tunnels for hidden employee circulation at MGA. That's a Disney thing. MGA's rough equivalent was the central service corridor. It ran all the way from the back of the park up to just beyond the railroad tracks at the front of the park in Orleans Place. Steven

Hi, Jeff,

I'm happy to see that the forums have been taking off nicely. I'm glad to see the information exchange and the sharing of memories. I enjoy reading the posts. Thanks for being such an enthusiastic participant!

Steven

Hi, Badfingerboogie, Welcome! While the primary focus of the site is on the Marriott years, I expect to eventually cover some post-Marriott developments, too. A look at post-Marriott developments would serve to highlight how the parks have changed over time. Despite the change to separate ownership,...

Hi, Jeff, It was located on the internal service corridor, in between the TIDAL WAVE and the Sky Whirl. It is the building with the white roof in the lower right-hand corner of this photo: http://www.greatamericaparks.com/sg/galleries/rides/orleans/cross/southerncross019.jpg Yellow umbrellas for out...

Was it "The Last Buffalo"?

Steven

Here is the original Gurnee sign in a grainy photo:


Steven

SHOCKWAVE was built over what was originally the bus and trailer section of the guest parking lot. Employees were instructed to park in that section while "playing" in the park. A key difference between Gurnee and Santa Clara was that a road connected the employee lot to the guest lot in G...

The third park was originally supposed to open in 1976 along with the other two. Actually with the 1976 Bicentennial, the DC area park was expected to draw a lot of crowds from the throngs of visitors to the nation's capital that year. It was first proposed for Howard County, Maryland -- around the ...

Hey, Joey, Well, they've finally taken care of the noise problem there for you in Santa Clara. Yukon Yahoo: renamed Berserker and moved over next to DEMON TIDAL WAVE: gone Sky Whirl / Triple Wheel: gone The constant whirring of the Sky Whirl motors, though, was music to my ears! :-) For that matter,...

Yes, that's Santa Clara all right. Most of the photos are archive shots. Some of the photos that I took myself are also included here and there. This particular Sky Whirl archival photo was taken prior to the start of the first season, I believe.

Steven

Welcome, Tanya!

Did you ever get to see yourself in the commercials?

I agree that working at MGA was the most fun that I ever had.

Steven

I believe that the international workers were brought in during later, non-Marriott years. When I was there, the vast majority of the employees were from the surrounding region, including a large number from Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Steven

It curved along the Sky Whirl site. Here's a photo of it before the plants were added:



In the foreground, you can see the uncovered walkway that went alongside it.

Steven

I believe that these misters were a Six Flags thing.

Steven