Lotologist492

We enjoyed a visit this past Sunday and were pleasantly surprised by the non existent crowds and decent weather. My friends were on hand as well to help me celebrate my birthday! With Holiday in the Park beginning next Sunday (The park is closed for a private event Saturday) I found some interesting info regarding HitP 2019: The new Screampunk District (including Pandemonium) will be OPEN! Additionally, the Sky Buckets will now operate normally on both ends. The Lickskillet area including Blue Hawk and Scream Machine will still be closed off. There will be a new show in the Crystal Pistol: "Step into Christmas" (No more "Because its Christmas") It appears the park has doubled the number of S'mores stations, which will serve nicely as warming areas. Most of the Christmas decorations were installed on this visit. None of the lights were turned on yet. Looking forward to my visit next Sunday! Brand new 'snowflakes' for the new "Screampunk Christmas" section! More Screampunk snowflakes. These are actually really cool! Updated Holiday in the Park map showing the new Screampunk Christmas area HitP 2019 show schedule

This park is (has been) only open weekends in April except for Spring Break week, which is the first full week in April. During that week, the park is generally crowded as most metro area schools are out for the week.

GASM does not have to be a bad ride. Hopefully the park will make good on its promise to gradually re-track the rest of the length. For those of you that have heard of Lake Winnepesaukah (Lake Winnie) in far north Georgia, they have a wooden coaster made by the SAME manufacturer - Philadelphia Toboggan, and like its Six Flags counterpart, it too has been designated an ACE Landmark. Theirs is called "Cannon Ball" - a callout to the battle of Lookout Mountain. Their woodie is very well maintained and not rough at all. Granted, their coaster is considerably smaller, but far more enjoyable. Hopefully GASM can be returned to its glory days. If the park was able to give Scorcher some badly needed love and attention, then there's hope.

The park has typically been open on Columbus Day these past several years as it is a school holiday, although the Fright Fest activities may not be happening. I would not expect a busy park at all, but a good day to catch up on rides.

Fright Fest has returned but the weather still says 'summer!' After a couple visits, here are my thoughts on this year's haunt lineup: MADELINE MENDOZA'S CASA DE MUERTE: (Fearman's Manor building) Changed up a little but essentially the same 3D type haunt. Decent but not very scary; best for the younger guests ZX-1: (Axis Arena) Maze layout changed significantly. Good solid haunt, made better thanks to the removal of the Siri-type voice that repeats over and over while in the queue. May be the final year this haunt occupies this building although some of the park employees are uncertain about the fate of the arena and whether it will be removed next year. ALIEN ABDUCTION: (near Goliath) Same as last year. Very decent. Even the building still smells new. CAMP SLASHER: (next to Pandemonium) Similar to last year but due to the addition of Pandemonium, this haunt has been relocated to an unused area of the parking lot next to the Go Karts. This is one haunt that is not quite as good as last year IMO due to the new location. PIGGY'S BLOODSHED (Thunder River) New haunt this year. This one is pretty graphic and probably not recommended for younger guests. Some of the scares are new but it is one of the shorter haunts. DR. FRIGHT'S DEAD MAN'S PARTY (Crystal Pistol) Same show as before; not much to say other than after 25 years, this show still rocks! THE UPRISING: NIGHTLY CALL OF THE DEAD and DEMONATRIX UNLEASHED (Dare Devil Stage) Essentially the same shows as 2018 The railroad was operating as normal, not as any type of haunted attraction. The scare zones are decent this year, somewhat different than 2018. Oddly enough, the new ScreamPunk District was still playing the Steam Punk music while the rest of the park was playing the usual Fright Fest soundtrack. The Bad Bob show was back although I did not get a look at it. Diamond Elite members pick up their free haunt wristbands at the membership lounge, where the skip-the-line passes are also available. Another observation with the dining passes is the park has gotten very generous and lenient with regards to hours. On the past few visits the cashier scanned my pass and gave me my lunch pass even though it was much later in the day. Today (Friday), there would not have been a lunch but the cashier again allowed me to use it first. It is nice to see the park being accommodating in this regard. The food lines were not bad at all. The park was pretty busy though, due to BAFF. Forget Pumpkin Spice, with summer hanging on, I could use a pumpkin-collata! This was really cool! The usual tombstones are replaced with 100's of Jack 'O Lanterns! The one truly new haunt this year: Piggy's Bloodshed...be forewarned...it's graphic!

I have only been to SFFT twice in 2017 and 2018 (My home park is Over Georgia) and both visits I was blown away with how nice the park looked and at how friendly most of the employees were. Was I there on 'good' days? IDK - but my memories of this park are of a much, MUCH cleaner park than Georgia ever seems to be, and with much better operations, both for rides and food. In fact, my exact thoughts were "I hope Six Flags management in general does not ruin this place." We took a break from the Texas parks this year to visit SFGA and St Louis. Those parks were not bad either. We will definitely be back to this park, can't wait!

Railroad is operational again! They brought out the Texas locomotive. This is great news with Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park around the corner.

Alien Abduction is a permanent haunt building which operates during Fright Fest but sits dormant the remainder of the year, similar to the Fearman's Manor building near Dare Devil Dive. From what I heard from a manager, SFoG was granted some capital from corporate last year in response to the crowded conditions during prior Fright Fests so they decided to add capacity with a new haunt building. I have never tried calling that phone# - kind of surprised they used a 'real' number. They could do what SFFT does with their teaser phone number which is a real recorded message. At any rate, we know what one of the 2019 haunts will be. ZX-1 will be there as well, for what will likely be the last year in Axis Arena.

I remember Swampwater Jack and that very elaborate queue for the Viper. The entrance to that ride was more entertaining than the coaster itself lol. And after riding and re-riding Viper over and over, (it was a people-eater and almost always a walk-on), his voice got stuck in my head on many occasions! I believe Axis Arena will be utilized for this year's Fright Fest before it comes down, so you have one more chance to walk through this once grand venue of Gotham. Agreed, Monday was a great day at the park for short ride lines. Dining locations were another story though. It was nice to see Thunder River still open. This time last year it was already closed for the season so they could convert the queue to a haunt. Lots of Fright Fest props installed already; overheard park management as they walked by discussing plans for Fright Fest i.e., where to put certain elements, etc. Looking forward to a couple more pre-Fright Fest visits. It looks like Sponsor Day has been moved to Saturday November 23rd, so there will not be a Saturday in September when the park is mysteriously closed to the public.

I got to ride this as Green Lantern at SFMM in Summer 2017 - and I was among the last riders before the ride was closed for good. This will be a completely new ride experience for this park. Interestingly, SF White Water in Atlanta, GA is getting a massive new water slide called "Python Plunge" in 2020 - and the 'python' in the logo is IDENTICAL to the 'viper' in the logo for Vipere!

The addition to White Water sounds exciting. I did make an interesting observation: the "python" in the logo of Python Plunge is IDENTICAL to the "viper" in the new Vipere ride going to La Ronde! That is vintage Six Flags right there...they are masters of recycling and reusing everything, from old ride buildings and fixtures, all the way down to logos!

Not a coaster but I love these additions. I still miss the Wheelie and am glad we are getting a 2nd generation. Also nice to see White Water getting some love. All this plus more announcements yet tut o come should make for an interesting 2020.

There are readers over on some of the Six Flags discussion pages resisting the strong urge to throw things right about now....

Isn't most of everything at SF lost in the tree line, especially Mind bender? Mindbender benefits tremendously from the wooded setting. For that matter, any 'fast' coaster does, whizzing past nearby objects, trees, etc. A ride like an S&S 4D would not really gain (or lose for that matter) anything from being nestled in the woods. If nothing else, from a pure marketing perspective, the park would want such a ride to be in the open and take full advantage of the eye candy that this type of ride is. While anything is certainly possible, I would not expect the park to start clearing away much forest from the beautiful Carousel Hill area to make room for any new attraction.

I have to admit I have been impressed with the dropping of hints and mind games this park does annually. This park sure likes to have fun teasing up new attractions! If only other SF parks would drop more hints. Speculation season is in full swing after all!

I have noticed too that SFOG is the only park (I am aware of) that goes to such great lengths to require riders to make arrangements for loose articles other than drink bottles. Ride ops will hold up the entire train dispatch to wait for a rider to claim a ball cap left harmlessly on top of their drink cup. Of course loose articles can be left with a non-rider but the money grab hope is you will pay for "personal storage" - and the park is willing to foster bad will to achieve that extra revenue. Again, this seems unique to this park. When I travel with my friends to other SF parks, this is a non-issue.

Just visited the park Saturday for the first time in a few weeks. I was only there a few hours at the end of the day but am planning a full day tomorrow. I was in the area and thought I would look for hints of project 2020, paying close attention to the Splashwater Falls area. Alas - nothing has changed, no survey markings, etc. Also I am quite surprised the park has not added an entrance sign for ScreamPunk coming from the Piedmont section. I know this area is very underdeveloped and am sure there is much more to come. Which got me thinking about what may be coming next year. I share a popular theory that the park will likely add an S&S 4D Free Spin coaster as it seems to fit well in the former Splashwater Falls area. However, while that type of ride would fit, the size and height of such a coaster would be lost in the tree line. In fact, the only real clear view of this ride in that location would be from an angle, and it would seem to me that such a ride would look much better in the open area behind Pandemonium. What if the new attraction coming to the SWF area is NOT a coaster? (The park could still receive a coaster in 2020 but maybe not in that spot - with the aforementioned lack of survey markers there.) There is a rumor going around that SF Fiesta could possibly receive a Zamperla NebulaZ model - and there is a video of a similar installation in Luna Park. I have to say this is one cool and fun looking flat ride! This type of ride would fit in PERFECTLY with the ScreamPunk theme with all the gears and such. And - it would fit in the space where SWF sits, thus taking on a ScreamPunk-themed name. For arguements sake, if such a ride were to get a DC theme, with its proximity to other DC attractions, it could receive a Cyborg theme too. Speculation season is here! Let's enjoy every minute of it!

Actually the park has done pretty well giving guests a way to get wet on hot days. I remember in 2003, the park did the unthinkable for Splashwater Falls when they installed splash deflectors on the boats, presumably to protect the adjacent Dahlonega Mine Train wooden supports from damage as well as the wooden observation bridge itself. It sounds crazy but that was the explanation I was given from then park management. This brought an end to that glorious splash on the bridge and forever ended my interest in this ride. But - fast forward to 2005 when the park added "Skull Island" (now "Paradise Island" inside Hurricane Harbor), guests were given an instant way to cool off without waiting in any line. Although the rest of Hurricane Harbor would not be added for another nine years, I spent many hours cooling off in this standalone water play structure. If anything, our park would be smart to add water sprinklers around the park like SFoT has. This would fill the need for guests not wanting to enter the water park or for after hours when only the 'dry' park is open. I know many here complain about cloned rides but quite frankly, I would much rather get an off the shelf model of something which has been tested and is reliable versus some prototype first-of-its-kind ride that wows the media but may or may not be a hit or may or may not function reliably. (Batman & Robin: The Chiller anyone?) Right now, my money is on an S&S 4D Free Spin for 2020. If they give it a Scream Punk Theme they might use the previously discarded "Total Mayhem" name and have 'gears' on it, similar to Pandemonium. Otherwise if they go with DC, they could use Cyborg or the previously suggested Wonder Woman theme.

While this park is one of the only SF parks without a launched coaster - and such a ride would be a great fit, I do not believe the space currently occupied by SWF would be the most ideal for a launch coaster. An S&S 4D would fit there while a launcher would be better suited for the back of the parking lot adjacent to Pandemonium. Whatever does get built in the former SWF location will be part of ScreamPunk District. It looks like this underdeveloped theme area will be getting the most attention in the coming years.

I would not be OK with riding that. I've ridden it too many times to count when its a walk-on. I would not be OK with waiting a long time to ride Mean Streak unless I needed the credit. At Cedar Point, I try to buy to the FL+ to get my production on Steel Vengeance. Any more negativity or trying to poke holes in my logic guys? I guess I'm just a little surprised at how people don't try to factor in ratio of wait time to ride length. Think less...party more.... Waiting in line is not always a bad thing. It is nice to be able to talk with your friends and other enthusiasts while waiting. Plus if a queue house is themed well and tells a story, all the better.

He says his home park is SFOG. They have a Superman Ultimate Flight there and in my opinion, it is better than the one at Great America. It plays with the terrain better, has a tunnel, just more enjoyable to me anyway. Bull does do a pretty good job of running people through and speaking of running, SUF is typically a coaster people do run for and is toward the front of the park. That's why I would recommend Bull and Goliath since they're towards the back. Thanks for the suggestions. I failed to mention in my prior post that we have the dining passes so we will be eating inside the park. Any food and beverage location recommendations? I did see there is a Strutters chicken wing location - SFoG added one this year and it is really good actually. We are also hoping we can get a decent salad somewhere. We will have two full days inside the park so we do not plan on purchasing flash passes. We will also strategically use our Diamond Elite S-T-L passes - two per day - for some of our coaster credits. In related news, I have learned there is a major event occurring nearby: Nickelodeon Slime Fest. With thousands of families and children expected to attend that event over the June 8-9 weekend, perhaps that might reduce the SFGam crowd a bit - we will see.

With SFoG being our home park, we have decided to skip our annual trip to the two Texas SF parks and instead are traveling to this one and SFStl. This will be my first visit to SFGAm since 2001 and my friends have never been. While my memories of Raging Bull are great, I know a lot has changed and been added since then. (We are REALLY hoping Maxx will be operational by June 8th.) We generally do not buy Flash passes but we do have our Diamond Elite two skip-the-line passes. We are also interested in checking out the Hurricane harbor area as well. We will have TWO days - Saturday and Sunday June 8-9. Any pro-tips for the major rides? After our two days here we will be off to SFStl (my first visit to that park since 2005).

Me and my friends braved the heat and had one of our longest days at the park in a while. It was almost like attending a second 'grand opening' as the park officially kicks off full time summer operations with the opening of Pandemonium and Hurricane Harbor. All in all - it was a great day albeit HOT! Food lines were not bad at all. It may just be the improvements the park is trying to make in the food and beverage service are for real. I never had to wait longer than a minute or two to refill my drinks - and today that was important! Hurricane Harbor was somewhat a flop as the wave pool remained closed for the final 3 hours of the day. The Diamond/Elite seating area has been relocated to the area directly at the foot of the wave pool and not underneath Tsunami Surge. We had reservations and the attendant just let us right in. No scanning or wristbands. However it was a free-for-all as the seating area was full with no one really enforcing anything. As one would imagine with the heat, the area was extremely crowded. Fortunately the Skull/Paradise Island was fully open so we cooled off there. In spite of the wave pool woes, the new paint and décor at the head of the pool looks nice. Now...on to PANDEMONIUM! Although we rode a copy of this ride in SFoT (Riddler's Revenge), I forgot how wicked and fun this ride was! And when the sun went down, the lighting package on this thing is amazing! There were a few more set pieces added to the Screampunk District area but it still seems under-themed. There is so much more potential for this cool theme. The area immediately around Pandemonium looks really nice though. Overall, the park was not too terribly busy. The heat surely played a role and once Hurricane Harbor closed for the day, many guests headed for the exit. We got in lots of station waits after dark. The staff were very friendly and considering they have to wear long pants and uniform for hours in the heat, that is impressive. Tomorrow we head to White Water. Happy Memorial Day! Crowded Hurricane Harbor Wave pool closed but nice looking refresh paint job! Here's what we really came for! Inside the shaded portion of the Pandemonium queue house, formerly Thomas Town train station! The new gift shop at the ride exit. e really (and I mean REALLY) unique items for sale in there! This new sign was located at the former Splashwater Falls exit.

Across town, SF White Water had their opening day, in spite of a terrible weather forecast. Good news is there were NO storms and the weather was quite pleasant! Crowds were at a minimum and every attraction I observed was a walk-on. A few observations: The Little Hooch (Lazy River) got a major overhaul with resurfacing of the trough as well as new paint for the entirety of the circuit. The walls and fencing adjacent to the lazy river were extensively cleaned as well making this attraction look really nice. There is an all new small retail location located near the park entrance next to the tube rental station. The 2019 Dive In Movies list banners were posted at the head of the wave pool as in years' past. Looks like there is some rehab work taking place near the movie screen building. in talking to an operations manager, he confirmed the Rapids ride would remain closed permanently; it has been removed from the park map. He also indicated this would eventually be the location for a new attraction. The Diamond / Elite seating area has been reconfigured somewhat and looks much better. A new membership lounge and charging station has been set up near member services. I cannot comment on improvement (or lack thereof) in the food and beverage service as the park was very much empty and lines were non existent. Hopefully this will be improved from last year; the next busy weekend will tell the tale. Welcome back, summer!

Had a great visit today - not at all crowded; most rides were station waits including Twisted Cyclone. This was surprising as the weather was excellent. We got our first rides of the year on the (newly repainted) Scorcher. The trains got some love too as the restraints all look new. Oddly enough the ad wrapping for Georgia's Own CU was still present. The new membership lounge has added more features including serving as the location to pick up Skip-the line passes (no more going to Flash Pass HQ) as well as more refill stations. Pandemonium is built; the construction on the surrounding areas continues. We got a great look from the top of Sky Screamer, which incidentally was doing extra long cycles today - up to the top, halfway down; back to the top; halfway down; back to the top and then a long slow descent down - never seen that before. I really hope they add more theming to the Screampunk District. I admit I am spoiled by the immersive SFMM version; I will reserve judgment until they are officially done though. I can really tell the park is working hard on improving food and beverage service. We did not wait longer than 5 minutes anywhere to get food today. The new refill stations are helping cut down the actual food lines. Still not sure what the plan is for the former Goliath games area...all the shade canopies installed at the top of those tall poles has been removed. For now it is a large seating area with no shade. Next visit: Sunday May 5th. Cheers.....