A few questions about SFOG

[Jhcbiinoc]

I'm on vacation staying with my parents in Alabama (about 2 hours away from SFOG) and am headed out tomorrow morning to check out Goliath as well as the park in general, and I just had a few questions for those who have been to the park before:

 

1. I will be using my Xtreme Play Pass from SFMM to get in, but do I just go through the normal Season Pass entrance or will I need to go to guest relations first? Also, do they give any kind of discount for parking if you are a passholder from another park?

 

2. Are there any special discounts available to non-passholders? My Dad is going with me and so far found a decent Triple AAA discount but wanted to ask if there are any other good ones.

 

3. What are the lines usually like on Saturdays? I would imagine that they are pretty crowded this time of year; the main rides I want to hit are Goliath, Mindbender, S:UF, B:TR, Ninja, GASM and Georgia Scorcher. Any suggested strategies for being able to do those all in one day?

 

4. Any suggestions for good food in or near the park?

 

5. Any suggestions for a decent hotel? We are planning to stay until the park closes, stay there, and hang around in Atlanta for the afternoon Sunday.

 

Thanks for any tips/suggestions!

[ParkTrips]

1. I will be using my Xtreme Play Pass from SFMM to get in, but do I just go through the normal Season Pass entrance or will I need to go to guest relations first?

If I recall correctly, we don't have a season pass gate, and you will be cool at any of the entrances

 

Also, do they give any kind of discount for parking if you are a passholder from another park?

No, sorry, $15 for all.

 

2. Are there any special discounts available to non-passholders?

Fill up with gas before you get there, and keep your receipt. That will save you $15 on an admission ticket at the gate, making it $35.

 

3. What are the lines usually like on Saturdays?

It will be busy tomorrow, so bring comfy shoes.

 

Any suggested strategies for being able to do those all in one day?

IF Deja Vu is open and something you'd like to do (you didnt mention it so I dunno if you dont like the ride or something), hit it first. Otherwise, I'd hit Superman first, do Scream Machine and Ninja, then work back to do GOLIATH and then down into Gotham for BTR and Mind Bender. Then, hit the coasters at the front of the park in early evening then go back and do your rerides or pick up your Mine Train & Canyon Blaster credits if you're into that.

 

4. Any suggestions for good food in or near the park?

Daddy O's BBQ near GOLIATH

Plantation House Chicken Fingers near Monster Plantation

Panda Express near Acrophobia

 

5. Any suggestions for a decent hotel? We are planning to stay until the park closes, stay there, and hang around in Atlanta for the afternoon Sunday.

Wingate Inn or Baymont Inn near the park, but don't try to stay ANYWHERE ELSE in the area.

 

Thanks for any tips/suggestions!

 

You may want to get a Q-bot.

 

Erik Johnson, his wife, his friend (Darlene?) "WillMontu", "CoasterCrazy" and myself will all be there tomorrow, so if you see us, say hi!

 

- Joe

[GeorgiaDawg278]

Crowds=bad.

[Jhcbiinoc]

^^Thanks very much for all the advice.....I would have responded a lot sooner but I am just now able to get back online and post for the first time since the day I posted that message (Friday!) The computer I am using at my parents house is a 2001 Compaq with an early version of Windows ME and a whopping 64MB of RAM and a seriously outdated version of IE. I was completely unable to access this forum or any others until I installed Firefox on here.

 

After I had posted that initial message on Friday, I came back and looked at the reply, wrote down the names of the hotels you gave me and was about to post a response back, but and system was very slow, decided to reboot first. When I rebooted, I would come back to TPR and when I clicked to enter the forums, I kept getting a DNS error.....same thing was happening with my AOL (could not login to Webmail), and just about every other site I went to. I have tried my best since we got back from Atlanta on Monday morning to fix the IE errors on this machine to no avail. I finally ended up calling my friend long distance this morning and he suggested Firefox, and thank God it worked!

 

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the tips. We ended up staying at the Baymont and found it pretty good, and ended up eating at the 24 hour IHOP a few hours after we left the park (we had left at 10:30pm and got lost looking for a way to get to the Varsity without having to take the still packed freeway). Had I realized that I got the 20% discount on food and merchandise in the park with my pass sooner, we probably would have eaten in the park! As it was I bought a ton of Goliath stuff-on ride pics, coffee mug, shirt etc. The park itself was great, and I am going to post a TR in the main forum (I am probably not going to be able to access my pics or my server until I get back to LA on Sunday afternoon). The only bad parts were the terrible traffic on the Interstate going to the park (one lane for miles) coming from Birmingham, the crowds on Saturday (as opposed to Sunday when pretty much everything was literally a walk on between 6pm-9pm), and a dispute over the cost of Goliath lockers. I looked for you guys througout the day Saturday but did not see you, but from your trip reports it looks like you had a great time as well. I can understand why people have so many good things to say about SFOG.