Sorry in advance if this is too long for you. Pictures are spread throughout the report if you are just here to glance at pictures...
So this last Wednesday (June 17th 2009) Steve (gatorchomp83) and I went to what was my first ever visit to Six Flags over Georgia. I had attempted several times to get up there since I moved to Orlando, but failed each and every time. I've been trying to visit this park since I heard about Scorcher being built, so you could even say it was my "#1 must hit park".
Originally, I was supposed to work 7-5 the day before, and planned on coming home, sleeping until 1 a.m. and then drive up. This didn't happen as I had to switch with a co-worker and worked 10-8 instead, but managed to leave by 7. This left me little time to sleep, but I figured what the hell, I've done worse in terms of lack of sleep. Getting home from work I had some things to get done like feed the dog, give him a bath, charge batteries, eat, and most importantly sleep. As soon as I got home I started hearing what sounded like 2-3 dinosaurs running around in circles outside. Turns out it was just a real nasty thunderstorm rolling in to central Florida. Within minutes, the power went out and the lightning was steady to the point that it looked sunny out. With the power being out, I couldn't charge my phone, charge my batteries, clean the dog, or set an alarm to wake me up in time to accomplish everything needed. I wasn't sure how long it would last, but it lasted a few hours, and took even longer for the power to come back. News reports indicated that there were over 1,500 bolts of lightning and numerous houses on fire throughout Orlando. The strongest part of the storm was in a 5 mile radius of Orlando International, which is 3 miles from me. Our complex must have had about 4-5 strikes within the perimeter of the fencing. It was crazy, kind of nerve racking, and annoying. I ended up not sleeping at all before we decided to drive up to Atlanta. This was a great start to the trip :-/
After giving Kumba (my dog) a bath, and getting everything ready finally, it was close to 1:15 a.m. One of my good friends, Matt, down here agreed to watch him while we were gone, so I dropped him off there and was on the road by 2. Hunger hit us hard, so we stopped at a Waffle House in Orlando before getting on the turnpike. Somehow I managed to stay wide awake the entire drive up. It took about 6-7 hours, 1 speeding ticket, and a little over a tank of gas, but we were greeted by Atlanta around 8 a.m. We needed gas somewhere in the outskirts of the city and saw this place...
Could've been interesting, but we kept going
Steve played skee-ball on my phone most of the drive (at least the part where he was awake) and got annoyed by my taste in music.
^ There's Atlanta. I would have liked to explore the city and see a few things, but we were on a mission. The mission was clear. SFoG was our target, and with this visit (granted everything was open) I would hit my 400th credit. We saw where the Brave's play baseball, and then a few miles later an exit for Six Flags, and Goliath.
I was getting a little antsy at this point and was running out of fingernails to bite off...
Once we got there, we were tricked into parking in a lot next to the regular lot. People waving us in made me think it was a "cheaper" lot. Wrong $20. We tried to get in the regular lot, but it wasn't open yet. We got there a little before 9 and they didn't open the lot until 10 so I drove around Goliath a bit and parked to get some other early morning pictures that didn't come out to wonderful...
Steve took a picture of me, taking a picture with my phone and has the nerve to call me a nerd...
My partner for the day needed to use the facilities, so he tried to see if he could use the parks, but got denied...
Once we realized we had too much time to kill, we drove over the Waffle House about a mile away so he could do his business and I'd call Melissa to let her know we made it safely. Turns out the line to get into the park ended up being about 20-30 minutes just to get to the parking gate. They had a really good system going, where there were a few attendants going up to cars in line and having them pay while waiting to save time once the crowd got moving. This park really is beautiful to look at while driving/walking in. You get so many good views of Mindbender, Batman, Goliath and Scorcher.
Yay, we are in. First plan of attack was to figure out what we would do about lockers since I have a larger than average camera bag. We got an all day medium locker for $11 right next to guest relations. Not a bad deal since the other ones are all on time limits and whatnot.
My first reaction to the park upon entering was it was a lot like SFStL in that its heavily wooded and they built a lot of the park into the terrain of the land. Beautiful to say the least. We decided to save the "best" coasters for last (Goliath, Scorcher, Mindbender and Batman) and worked our way around the park to the right. Cyclone was our first destination.
I had heard so many good things about this ride, and I was real pumped to try it out. There was a bit of "anticipointment" with this one though. It wanted to be an awesome coaster, but the park wont let it. 2 real hard brakes kind of ruined the fun of it. We sat in the back for my first ride and left the ride with mixed feelings (I did anyway). Being as it's a woodie, and it's still early, I didn't form a real opinion of the ride yet, and decided we'd come back later on in the afternoon once it warmed up in hopes of a better ride. At this point I give it a 5/10. One more thing, I still can't figure out which one is "the drop".
Next stop was Acrophobia. I was semi-worried that this wouldn't be open for some reason but thankfully it was. I had heard that it doesn't spin on the way up anymore, and sometimes doesn't run the "tilt", we got the whole shebang, if you will. Even though it isn't that tall, it still gave a crazy sensation that you just don't get on every drop ride. Steve kind of doesn't like drop rides, but went on this and loved it.
Unfortunately that is the only picture I have of the ride minus this one...
Next was the Mine Train, Kiddie coaster, a few free glasses of water and then the back of the park where the really cool rides are (sarcasm).
The Mine Train wasn't horrible. I was told the back seat is "janky" and I really, still to this day, have no idea what janky means, so I had to try it out. I think I have a good grasp on the definition of the word now, but not 100%. It was kind of jerky, and not very nice. I think we spent more time on lift hills than we did picking up any type of speed or going through elements.
(PS - if anyone knows what Dahlonega means, please tell me)
The kiddie coaster was OK. Pretty random, but OK. Moving on, I was walking towards the back area of the park, enjoying the scenery...
^Must've had about 10 free waters there.
Ninja was my next stop. Steve decided to sit this one out as I took one for the team. I didn't expect it to be too bad, but I was surprised. I'm not one to complain about rides being rough, because I like a good ass kicking on a coaster from time to time, but come on now, seriously? Of all of the coasters I've been on, this is at the bottom of my list now, taking the crown from Borg at Carowinds. Here's some pictures I took for some reason or another... 0/10 in my book.
Ouch, moving on, next stop was either Superman or Scream Machine... I'm not too sure right now honestly.
Scream Machine looks like such a great ride. With a little TLC, I'm pretty sure the layout could provide a top notch ride, but unfortunately, it struggles on a few different sections of the ride. We sat in the front row and waited about 2 trains to hop in. There were a few hills that gave really nice
gravitational excitement which caused me to like it more than Cyclone at this point in the day. It would end up ranking around a 6/10 after my one and only ride.
Superman, the original US flying coaster. I remember a time when the pretzel loop on this thing made me nearly black out and feel like I was on the verge of death. Being used to Manta now, this ride honestly feels like a kiddie coaster. We waited about 10 minutes for the back row and just kind of looked at each other once it was over, both of us saying "Wow". I figured Manta's pretzel felt so intense because it had been about 2-3 years since I've ridden S:UF at Great Adventure, but I was wrong. Manta's pretzel really is INTENSE.
Before we headed to the other side of the park, I couldn't help but notice "Skull Island" calling our names. It was getting extremely hot/humid out and the water looked like it would be sooooo refreshing. But we skipped it and I took some more pictures of the GASM/Ninja area
After leaving that area, we went towards Monster Mansion to see what all the fuss was about. I had never ridden it before this year, and still haven't to this day. The first time we walked by, the wait was close to an hour, so we figured we'd come back to it. We did later on and it was still about 30-40 minutes and we had been spoiled by the lack of lines in the park so it'll be saved for another day. :-/
Next stop on our journey was Batman: The Ride. We had to walk through Georgia's version of Gotham City. This area seems to be the most realistic of all the Six Flags parks in regard to how they theme this "area". Batman greeted us with a 25-30 minute wait, which would end up being our longest wait of the day for any of the coasters. These rides really need air conditioning in their queues. Sure, it's indoors, but come on now. With hundreds of people in a little dark tunnel, it gets even worse in there than it does outside. Enough ranting about A/C and on to the ride. The ride itself is pretty straight forward. It's a Batman clone, not mirrored. Somehow though, this was the least enjoyable Batman I'd been on so far and I think the only one I need is SFFT's. Anywho, here's some Batman and Gotham City pictures...
.... more coming in a minute.
Topic: My First Trip to SFoG, June 17th 2009 (Read 2442 times)