Six Flags Great America announces more winter dates, new cashless policy

Just over two weeks before Six Flags Great America in Gurnee is set to finally open after almost a year of pandemic-induced stasis, park officials announced more dates for their winter season, called Holiday in the Park.

In addition to the previously announced schedule, which will see the park open Friday, Nov. 27, and on every Saturday and Sunday through the end of 2020, the park will be open Mondays to Wednesdays the last two weeks of the year.

Great America will be closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. No 2021 dates have been announced.

The park also will go cashless during the winter season, officials said Wednesday.

Caitlin Kepple, a Great America spokeswoman, said guests will need to use a credit or debit card, or mobile payment, such as Google Pay and Apple Pay. Guests can convert cash to a prepaid debit cards at kiosks throughout the park to make purchases.

Kepple said the new policy was a Six Flags initiative that will be rolled out at all its theme parks.

Though Great America has remained closed this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced last month the state had granted permission for it to open for Holiday in the Park.

This will be the third time the park has hosted a winter season. It will be festooned in 2.5 million holiday lights, and guests will have socially distanced photo opportunities with costumed characters, according to park officials.

But unlike the previous winter seasons, the roller coasters and other rides won't be running.

Melaney Arnold, a public information officer with the Illinois Department of Public Health, said last month the rides pose an elevated risk for potentially spreading COVID-19, including people being close together on the rides and while waiting in line.

"After reviewing the plan and speaking with local leaders, (Great America) was allowed to move forward with its plans to open the park to visitors to view the holiday lights only," Arnold said last month.

Though the theme park did not operate this year, the state did give permission for the adjacent Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water park to open in July. Many of the safety procedures in place during the summer, such as stepped-up sanitation and high-tech thermal imaging for temperature checks, will be used during Holiday in the Park, officials said.