Hank Salemi will wear a superhero cape when he greets visitors at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee on Saturday, opening day.
“Our new attraction Justice League: Battle for Metropolis — which opens later in spring — has an all-superhero theme,” said Salemi, the park’s president. So the park is starting off the season with Superhero Cape-A-Palooza.
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For each $15 superhero cape a guest buys at the gate, Great America will donate a cape to a child patient at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Bugs Bunny will deliver them in early May.
Great America also hosts another fundraiser, April 29, Blacklight Run in the dark, in which park visitors can get doused with glow-in-the-dark materials to find their way around. The theme park also will celebrate its 40th birthday Memorial Day weekend with special attractions.
Great America will be open weekends beginning this Saturday and then daily beginning May 24 through Aug. 28. Hurricane Harbor opens May 28 for weekends, then daily beginning June 11.
Great America will announce the opening of Justice League, the new 4D interactive thrill ride, soon, Salemi said. He took his first ride in Mexico City a week ago when the Great America theme park there unveiled Justice League.
“The ride is amazing. It’s fantastic,” Salemi said. “I just love it. You are riding in a vehicle that goes from scene to scene in the city of Metropolis, and you are helping Batman and Superman battle (with) the Justice League.”
“You’ll have a laser gun and be able to shoot the villains of the Justice League. The ride is very interactive, but also very thrilling. The cars tip and spin. They have a lot of movement, back and forth. It is an interactive 4D gaming experience with that Six Flags thrill of the ride.”
“I think the best part of it is that it is so universally going to be ridden,” Salemi said. “Young kids can ride it; older folks can ride it. You are going to be competing against your friends. It keeps score. You’ll want to ride it again and again to beat your friends.”
Other special events are planned this season including Blacklight Run, which focuses less on speed and more on the glow-in-the-dark environment. Participants can be avid runners or walkers on the three-mile course. Wearing white shirts, they’ll get doused with neon glow powder that helps them find their way around.
Part of the ticket price funds will be donated to charity, said Katy Enrique, Six Flags communications manager.
Great America in Gurnee also celebrates its 40th birthday this season, and visitors to the park on May 28 and 29 can join in the party activities, such as dancing to music of the 1970s and 1980s. Salemi said rumor has it there will be “a big huge birthday cake.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
Six Flags Great America Opening Weekend
Time: 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday; 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday
Six Flags Great America, Grand Ave. at Illinois 94, Gurnee
Tickets: $24.99
Information: 847-249-1776 or sixflags.com/greatamerica