Whack-a-Mole

All about everything else at Marriott's GREAT AMERICA
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JW65
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Whack-a-Mole

Post by JW65 »

Post Marriotts but a hilarious game. Just the name Whack-a-Mole....Whoever could knock out the greatest number of moles (intermittantly popping their heads out of holes) would be the winner. You used a pre-historic looking club to do it. Fun to watch the whackers...at a distance!

Also entertaining was the shooting gallery. The shooting gallery was during Marriott's heyday I do remember. Some of the things you could do when you hit a target were amazing. Did the guns shoot a blast of air or were they laser?
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BrianPlencner
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Post by BrianPlencner »

The Gurnee Park (and I'm guessing Santa Clara) had 2 Shooting Galleries. One was called Pirates Alley, in Orleans Place, and the other was the Northwest Shooting Gallery, in Yukon Territory.

The way they worked was that the guns actually shot a "flash" of light directed at the target. That is the reason why the signs were posted about no flash photography. As a side note, it was quite funny to "take a flash picture" with a camera in front of the Shooting Gallery....everything in it went off at once, and it made this really funny sound! :D

In later years, Pirates Alley was removed, and the one in Yukon Territory was moved to the Southwest Territory. Last year, the one in Southwest Territory was removed as well.
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ewilson
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Post by ewilson »

This is the first I have ever heard of shooting galleries. I don't believe we ever had them at the Santa Clara park.

But of course Santa Clara is in California and we know how thier politics goes. :?
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Tanya
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Post by Tanya »

I was racking my brain trying to remember if I saw any in SC. I can picture the one at Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the one in Disneyland, but don't recall one at Great America.
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steven
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Post by steven »

I would guess that Santa Clara had them, too. They didn't necessarily stand out, so they could have been easily overlooked. In Gurnee, I only remember seeing the one in Yukon.

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Whack-a-Mole

Post by dth1971 »

I never saw Whack-a-Mole at the Gurnee Marriott's Great America in 1979-early 1980's, but I remember the Skee-ball areas (one Skee-ball area was called "Skee-Daddle").
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Tanya
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Post by Tanya »

Trusty map never fails... There was a Northwest Shooting Gallery in Yukon. Just over the bridge from Yankee Harbor. I remember it now! There was a Skeedaddle in County Fair and another skeeball called Cirque Electrique Arcade in Orleans Place.

One of my favorites was the County Fair Boats. Those little remote control things.
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