Photo TR: My First Trip to SFoG, June 17th 2009

[Guest]

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...

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next coaster stop would be the ride I was looking forward to more than any other coaster in the park. Mindbender.

 

 

After riding Shockwave at SFoT a few years ago, I needed to get on this. We took our initial ride in the last row and I was not disappointed one bit. This ride really kicks ass. It didn't totally blow me away after my first ride, but I knew just by the one lap it would certainly grow on me. Rerides would be a must, but I had to get on each of the coasters in the park before anything silly happened (like a breaking ride) 10/10

 

 

 

At this point, I'm really starting to fall in love with this park. It started off kind of sketchy, but saving the better rides for last really worked to our advantage.

 

Goliath was the next on the list of things to accomplish today. You can see this thing from pretty much everywhere in the park. It's not the biggest ride in the world, but the way its set up in the park, it looks HUGE. I kept hearing great things about this ride, with the occasional "it's a B&M so you can pretty much tell what you're going to get" We took our first ride in the back row, I sat in the outside right. After 15 minutes, I was in, lap bar down and ready to go. I can honestly say I wasn't expecting much from this ride, let alone walking away from it as my new #1 steel coaster. Oh yeah, did I mention it's my new #1 steel coaster? I never thought I'd see the day when I found a coaster I liked more than Superman at Six Flags New England, but that day has come. The first 2-3 hills before the helix were amazing with stronger than Nitro airtime. The helix made me black out a little and then the brakes hit, HARD. I was worried it would kill the rest of the ride, but going over the first hill after the brakes, I soon forgot the brake had even slowed us down. The return run was simply amazing. It blew my mind. I can't say enough about the experience I had, but in steel form, it's as close to perfect as I'll ever know. I don't really need to get into a play by play of the ride, but after my first ride, i had no trouble saying it was my new favorite. Parts of the ride even feel like a wooden coaster. The way it bottoms out after each hill is awesome, the airtime going over and down each hill is amazing, the speed it maintains is amazing... I think it's safe to say I think it's an amazing ride. 11/10 GRAVITATIONAL EXCITEMENT GETS ME EVERYTIME!

 

 

 

 

 

^If you look close enough at that one, you can see the girl in the front row is throwing a tennis ball. WTF?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, Sorry I got carried away with taking pictures of Goliath. I couldn't help it though. It's visible from all over the park and I fell in love with it so fast...

 

So at this point I was at 399 different coasters and had one left to ride. Georgia Scorcher.

 

 

This was a very fun ride. Some of the elements looked like they'd hurt, but thankfully they didn't. I still give the nod to Riddler in terms of my favorite stand up coaster, but that certainly doesn't mean this wasn't good by any means. We got the back row for this one as well, and only took about 3 trains to get on. This was a nice way to top off my coaster checklist at a nice even 400 and give it a solid 7-8/10

 

 

 

 

After getting the last credit, it seemed as if it were a good time to get some food since we hadn't eaten since 2 a.m. and it was now close to 2 p.m. Wendy's was our first choice, but after standing in line for 10 minutes with about 4 people in front of us, it seemed like it wasn't the right place to spend our money at. They didn't bother to take any orders the entire time we were standing in line, so we went to McDonald's, ate some food, filled up on soda and Powerade, watched a bum get kicked out and made our way back to the park.

 

Now that we had ridden everything, it was time to relax a bit and try not to dehydrate. We rode the Skyride, which offered nice views but was way to short of a ride honestly. Walking would really save time if you intend on using this for transportation purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

After "strolling" through the park again, we ended the day power riding Mindbender and Goliath, riding each anywhere from 5-10 times, a ride on the flume and one final ride on Cyclone.

 

 

 

Our last ride on Cyclone left me feeling the same way I did before about it. It's OK. I still see how it COULD be awesome, but I'll have to wait for another day to get the good rides on it. Overall, I love the park. It could easily be my #1 SF park, but it could use some more flat rides. It's just a notch below SFoT in my book. The absence of flat rides isn't totally noticeable though because there are no empty areas, or areas with giant holes where rides used to be (see: SFGAdv). The park is very beautifully landscaped and there's enough coasters and water rides to keep you busy for an entire day. Mindbender and Goliath both only got better the more we rode them. I would have liked another ride on Scream Machine, Acrophobia and 1 lap on Monster Mansion, but I'm 100% positive I will be going back to this wonderful park. I'll leave you with some more random pictures from our day and end with a quick recap of our 'exciting" drive home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So long Six Flags!

 

So we SHOULD have gotten home around 2:30 a.m. After driving about 30 minutes south on I-75, we noticed my A/C stopped working, and then the temperature gauge was telling me my car was over heating. WONDERFUL. I pulled off the first exit I could find and we sat at a gas station in the middle of nowhere Georgia for a good hour before being able to move. I still don't know exactly what happened, but after checking a few things under the hood, talking to a few people on the phone about what to do, and letting it cool down, I decided we should start driving again. We stopped at a Walmart to get food and coolant/water for my car to keep if from over heating again. We made it back to Orlando around 6 a.m. I ALMOST made it all the way home without needing sleep too, but by the time we got to Valdosta, GA I had to call it quits. I passed out immediately and Steve drove the rest of the way home. We picked up Kumba, got home, took a shower (separately, thanks) and slept like kings. So in a 48 hour time span, I worked a little over 9 hours, drove 6 hours to SFoG, spent close to 10 hours there, sweating my ass off, and managed to stay up until about 3 a.m. I'd say it was a successful trip and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat for more Goliath rides. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

[Erik Johnson]

Great Photo:TR, and congrats on your 400th credit. For Cyclone, I have always found if you sit in the very back car in the front bench you can get some truly amazing rides. Anywhere else usually equals death. The same goes for Ninja. While it is still not a great ride, you just do not get banged up quite as much in that seat. Great Scream Machine I usually have somewhat descent rides sitting in the middle of the train in a middle row of a car (non-wheel seat). It still isn't really anything too special though. Dahlonega is named after a small gold mining village in north Georiga.

[MidtownCoaster]

Thanks for the report from my home park! Glad you have fun. I haven't made it this year, but I hopefully will toward the end of the season once it cools down a bit.

[Speeddeamon128]

Great TR & congrats on #400! I hope to hit 300 sometime this year.

[Maximo37]

Also located in Orlando, and have been dying to hit this somewhat, close park up... I moved to FL 12 years ago, and been talking about it ever since... I'll probably make this the year to do so... and now I'm even more excited, partly because of this photo update... great job... super excited to check this park out... Thanks...

[Mr. Starr]

 

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.

 

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=janky

[nitrofan]

Haha, you guys are talking about 300 and 400 credits? I'm not even over 100 yet!

 

I love SFOG, but I have never seen lines that short there anytime except the day I was there during a Tornado Warning (27 rides on Goliath without standing up )

 

I'm still not sure why everyone likes Mindbender so much, I found it to be slow and boring.

[gatorchomp83]

I'll tell ya what Dahlonega means....

[timberskara]

Awesome photos, Rob!

 

Glad you guys finally made it there after several failed attempts. While I certainly don't trust Steve's taste when it comes to his top 5, I can't help that my ears perk up when you say Goliath is your new #1 Steel. Those are some big shoes to fill and makes me really want to make another trip there and give the whole park another try.

 

Get some sleep .

[gatorchomp83]

^Wildfire is in your Top 5, as well, hater. And "perk up?" On Wednesday you said we were a disgrace for rating it #1. I believe you also said Rob could go "have fun" visiting the park with me since you won't go back.

 

And besides, mine and Rob's tastes are the same, considering we both have Goliath, Nitro, Kumba and Manta in our top 10 steel. What's in yours? Mystery Mine? Avatar? Whose tastes should be questioned?

 

Your public display of opinion is vastly different than that of what you were saying a couple days ago.

[Guest]

^Wildfire is in your Top 5, as well, hater. And "perk up?" On Wednesday you said we were a disgrace for rating it #1. I believe you also said Rob could go "have fun" visiting the park with me since you won't go back.

 

And besides, mine and Rob's tastes are the same, considering we both have Goliath, Nitro, Kumba and Manta in our top 10 steel. What's in yours? Mystery Mine? Avatar? Whose tastes should be questioned?

 

Your public display of opinion is vastly different than that of what you were saying a couple days ago.

 

Hi, Manta is no longer in my top 10. Goliath and Mindbender kind of ruined that one for you

 

Thanks for the all the positive feedback.

[Solid Gold]

Dahlonega, GA

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlonega,_Georgia

 

Monster Plantation is great, BTW. Probably my 4th favorite ride in the park, behind Goliath, Mindbender, and Acrophobia.

 

Also, GA Cyclone this year is nothing like GA Cyclone back in 2004-2006. The airtime hill is supposed to be the one you have a picture of, but something is off this year. Used to be so intense that you could get thigh bruises with two or more rides.

 

Also, Superman is indeed boring (and uncomfortable), and since my second or third ride I've wanted Viper back. And also Deja Vu.

[Erik Johnson]

^ My rides last month on Cyclone were among the best I ever have had on it. At least it was while in my favorite row on the coaster. It might be that its a bit tempermental.

[Solid Gold]

I rode June 5th, and while it wasn't the roughest it's ever been, the fourth drop was not the most a coaster can beeeeee.

 

My most extreme moments list so far would be something like:

 

1. GA Cyclone 4th Drop back seat

2. El Toro 1st, 2nd hills

3. Raven 5th Drop back seat

4. Hypersonic Tophat

5. Maverick 1st Drop Back row.

6. Goliath SFOG Return Run

 

And that visit it didn't even rank in that group.

[Pufferfish]

Great TR. Sean and I were there on Friday and I think they must have just recently greased GA Cyclone's track, because I thought I was going to die in the back row. I mean last month it was okay and I gave it a 6/10, but my god on Friday I was flying up over the seat separator on almost every hill. I was seriously scared for my life. It was more airtime intensive than Goliath was. Sounds like you just missed the good rides by a couple of days.

[DarkStitch626]

Yea the back row and second to back on Cyclone were insane. I actually can say I heard Andrew(pufferfish) scream about the coming out of the seat and through the seperator a bit. If it had any more force I'd have been all "WTF!" at seeing him in the seat NEXT to where he actually started.

Sounds like you had as much fun as we did!

 

All I can say for the few times I have been there so far is I am a proud "Acro-holic" .

[fallen xxi]

You have 400 credits and BorgHawk is the roughest coaster you've been on? WOW.

[Guest]

I didn't say Borg was the roughest. It was just my least enjoyable coaster experience until Ninja making it the "worst" to me.

[coasterbear30]

SFOG is my home park too and I think we have a pretty good selection of rides. I am super glad to hear you say that Goliath is your new number 1. I have ridden it over 150 times and it is my number 1 steel as well. Mindbender is also great. I try to ride it as many times as possible when I go to the park.

Wish I would have known you guys were there. I could have met you up and hung out since I am out of a job right now.

I got a ride on the new Monster Mansion a few weeks ago and their were some cool improvments but overall a pretty boring ride that is good for cooling off in the hotlanta days. I still to this day cannot tell you why people absolutely love GA Cyclone. I swore it off 2 years ago after the roughest coaster ride of my life (and yes, I have tried about every seat possible.) I came off with bruises after that ride and it was in the suggested seat. I would also throw Borg up there as one of the roughest things I have ever ridden and Shockwave at KD as a close third. Ninja jumped into my top 5 worst this year too. They changed the OTSR's and I rode it a couple of months ago and wanted to die. AWFUL!!!! I would also say that next time you go, give GASM another chance in the non wheel seat of the last car and it is awesome. I still love this coaster and ride it every time. It has some great pops of airtime.

I am glad you had a good time and let me know next time you are headed this way!

[coastermotion]

Look at this video on youtube of people getting stuck on one of the wooden coasters! Lol (video footage not mine)