My First TPR TR: SFOG 05/20 and 05/21

[Jhcbiinoc]

This is being posted a lot later than I wanted to post it, but I have been having serious internet access issues up until this morning that have kept me from doing too much of anything online.

 

After not having more than a couple of days vacation for three years, and watching my boss (who has been with the company I work for for one year as opposed to my three years) take at least three one week vacations in that time, and dealing with serious job burnout, I thought it was time I put in for some time off and get away. My family lives in Alabama a little over two hours away from SFOG, and I started my week's vacation a day early by coming out here last Thursday and made plans to spend the weekend in Atlanta with my Dad (my Mother unfortunately cannot travel due to health concerns right now, or she would have gone as well; I would have asked my cousin, who is a coaster enthusiast, to go also but he's currently on vacation at Cedar Point).

 

We ended up leaving Chilton County (where my folks live) at about 9am, thinking we would get to the park around 11am, but I did not know that Atlanta is actually another hour ahead-I had always thought it was on Central time. After a brief stop at the Georgia Welcome Center where my Dad was able to get a good discount ticket for the park, we made our way towards the park. Once we got about five miles from the exit, traffic slowed to a near halt as the freeway was merging to one lane-putting us at the park at nearly noon! This was nearly as bad as some of the LA traffic that I have dealt with before. The $15 parking was expected, but was offset by the free poster sized map we got ($5 inside the park), and we fortunately were not too far from the entrance to walk up.

 

The entrance area with Goliath looks great; I had thought it would look cluttered but it didn't at all to me. My Dad got his ticket, I got my Xtreme pass scanned and we went in, and after a brief check of my camera bag we made our way to Goliath first and then the other rides in the park. To keep this from being too terribly long, I am just going to give my impressions on things one by one rather than a detailed description of the whole time:

 

The Park-WOW! SFOG was the first theme park I ever went to as a kid and some things, like how nice the park is kept, have not changed. The landscaping and the attention to detail is very well done. This has to be one of the cleanest and greenest Six Flags parks I have been to and it seems to have improved even more since the last time I was here. Trash cans were being emptied as they filled up. Ride ops and attendants were all extremely pleasant and seemed to care a lot about Customer Service. Great atmosphere; themed music in some of the ride queues; and little to no graffiti or defaced property. Nice balance of thrill rides and coasters and family rides and attractions. All rides operating, with more than one train and efficient operations, and the rides that shut down briefly were up and running soon after. Test seats were placed at the front of all of the major coasters, including Goliath, S:UF, B:TR and Scorcher; why in the world does SFMM not do some of these things?!?

 

Goliath-AWESOME coaster! With this and Tatsu, B&M is on a roll this year. Lived up to all my expectations and the hype and then some. Easily the best hyper I have ever been on, and now my favorite non-looping coaster. Beats the heck out of Goliath at SFMM, and I wish we would get one like this in Southern California. Line moved fast with very efficient dispatches (longest we waited without QBot was 1.5 hrs on Saturday and shortest was 10 minutes on Sunday) and I was amazed to see the constant attention given to the trash cans in the line. The ride itself-seats and restraints are very comfortable and minimalist yet secure, very smooth, and tons of airtime. Favorite parts were the first drop, helix (which made me gray out a few times), and the overbanked horseshoe, although the whole ride was good. The trim did not kill the ride and the "netting/fencing" which I imagined might detract from the ride experience I did not even notice while riding. Interesting theming with the concept of the "time machine" going from the 1950s to the 2000's. Rode once on the front right seat, once in the very back row left seat, and then all the rest of the rides were in the back row left seat, hands up and feet out! Ride ops were a lot of fun, talking to the passengers and getting them ready to go, yet being very efficient and using the headset mike correctly. (The Silver Bullet crew at Knott's could learn a lot from this crew!) This was my first hypercoaster, and the first B&M coaster, hypercoaster and first coaster of any kind my Dad had ridden in at least 10 years and he loved it as well. A huge hit for the park, and solidly in my top five coasters.

 

S:UF-Very good coaster, but nothing compared to Tatsu. Saturday they were running both sides of the station and all three trains, and line moved pretty efficiently, Sunday they were running two trains and one side and the line seemed to move slower. Rode both second row and back row, back row was better. Drop and Pretzel Loop as well as the turn and drop right after the Pretzel were good, after that the ride seemed to lose steam somewhat. Still a very good coaster and my Dad said it was his second favorite ride there, probably mine as well. The final verdict: SFMM has the better flyer, but SFOG has the better hyper IMHO.

 

B:TR-For some reason this one seems more fierce than the B:TR at SFMM, just very, very forceful. Rode front row, left seat both times, Saturday we waited an hour, Sunday I literally walked on the ride. This has to be the longest queue line I have ever seen in my life, and I thought the theming was well done.

 

Georgia Scorcher-A pleasant surprise; it's not as big or as intense as Riddler's Revenge at SFMM but it's a great little stand up. I loved the 90 degree banked hill just before the flatspin. Waited 20 minutes Saturday and walked on the ride Sunday.

 

Acrophobia-I rode this one by myself on Sunday and it was a one cycle wait. Not as tall as the drop ride I am used to (Supreme Scream at Knott's) but very well executed and effective. Ride ops do a great job psyching people up. I loved the slow rotation on the climb up and the seats tilting forward was just so not right to me! The drop itself was not as intense as I thought it would be and seemed to be really short, but overall a great drop ride. I loved the signs in the queue.

 

Deja Vu-as soon as we saw Deja Vu cycle on Saturday, first thing my Dad says is that's what he wants to ride next. I had never ridden the Deja Vu at SFMM, and thought I would finally ride this one. We got in line and wait was going very slow, he said it was too long to wait (looked to be over two hours at that point, sign said three hours) so we backed out. When I went back on Sunday, it was open later in the day and had about a 40 minute wait so I rode it. I was put in seat 2B. Ride turned out to be pretty good (although a little rough on the inversions), but it didn't live up to the expectations I had; I had expected it to be a lot more thrilling on the drops. I would definitely ride it again at SFMM if I was with people who wanted to go on it or using the single riders line.

 

Ninja-and the award for the absolute worst steel coaster I have ever ridden goes hands down to this coaster. Ride LOOKS awesome with the location and the shiny new paint job but it was extremely painful to the pount of not even being enjoyable. We rode front row and when we got off had to sit down for a half hour; my Dad had to sit out the next few rides because it gave him a headache. All through the park I heard people complaining about how rough the ride was. I know Shapiro is not big on adding new coasters, but I think they really should consider taking this out and replacing it with a floorless coaster at some point and time.

 

Mindbender-Great classic coaster. I am not as big of a fan of the Schwarzkopf coasters as many, but this was the best one I have been on. Favorite parts were the horizontal loop (once used to advertise this ride as "the only triple looping coaster") and the last loop and tunnel by the waterfall. Short wait, was on and off in about 15 minutes.

 

Monster Plantation-I hope and pray they never take this ride out or retheme it to a brand name cartoon character. Still a great little ride and one of my favorite dark rides. The animatronics and figures could use a little work and TLC (I noticed the bird/monster that suddenly swoops down at the boat after you enter the Marsh and scared the %^$* out of me when I rode when I was younger was taken out) but overall, a great dark ride. Would be great to see SFMM get something like this.

 

Georgia Cyclone-Ouch. Rode mid train and it was a walk on, and I was thrown and shaken around so much I felt ill after getting off.

 

Sky Buckets-nice to see a park still running these.

 

Crime Wave-well done Wave Swinger and one of the better ones I have been on.

 

Skipped Thunder River, the Log Jamboree, Splashwater Falls, Mine Train, Freefall, GASM and the other few flat rides but rode everything else at least once.

 

Sunday after staying at the Baymont we had planned to go to the Georgia Aquarium and the World Of Coke, but decided not to and ended up going to eat lunch at the Varsity (best onion rings I have ever had, period), drove around Atlanta for a while (I was amazed to see really nice new homes for sale at $140-150,000!), and then headed back towards the park. As much as my Dad had enjoyed Saturday, he said he was too tired to go back Sunday and did not want to pay to get in again, so he rested and did some stuff he wanted to do while in Atlanta, and I went into the park from 3-9pm and managed to take a ton of photos (that I will post when I get home) and get a ton of rides in, mostly on Goliath, all in the back row.

 

There were only a few negatives I experienced:

 

-The lockers by Goliath where one person told me the $10 fee ($5 deposit, and $5 locker charge) was for all day use, and another tried to tell me it was only while riding Goliath. They ended up letting me keep it, but $5 for a per ride locker is ridiculous! Sunday I used the $10 wristband lockers across from one of the smoking areas.

 

-Smoking areas and policy; I smoke, and I got really angry more than once when I saw one person after another either smoking in a non-designated area or while in a queue! I think the reason for this is how they have their smoking areas set up: there are only two small areas in the center of the park right next to each other. While I am grateful that they have these and I had no problem walking over there when I wanted a smoke, I think they could use one or two more small areas in different locations set up more the way they are set up at SFMM.

 

-This isn't the fault of the park, but one of the times I rode Goliath, sat next to some kids who were spitting on people exiting the ride from the brake run. It wasn't pleasant and I felt really uncomfortable.

 

The only things ride wise I wished the park had were a floorless coaster (would be great to put one in place of Ninja), a 4D coaster like X (they could probably fit one over between Gotham City and Deja Vu) and although I myself am not a huge fan of flat rides, they really need to get a few more as they only have the Crime Wave, Wheelie (which was broken most of Saturday). Even without those, this is an awesome park, very well run and one I will definitely visit again next time I am out here!

[ParkTrips]

Excellent report! I am glad you enjoyed the park, the coasters.. all of it. Very good read. I do have to comment on thing though...

 

Monster Plantation-I hope and pray they never take this ride out or retheme it to a brand name cartoon character. Still a great little ride and one of my favorite dark rides. The animatronics and figures could use a little work and TLC (I noticed the bird/monster that suddenly swoops down at the boat after you enter the Marsh and scared the %^$* out of me when I rode when I was younger was taken out) but overall, a great dark ride. Would be great to see SFMM get something like this.

 

I totally agree, I think its a neat little dark ride that would be hurt by a modernization! A little fixin's here and there, yes, but that's constantly happening as is so I'm cool with just keeping everything in line with what it is now. Glad I'm not the only one who likes the ride!

 

Thanks again for the good read.

 

- Joe

[Slacking]

A little more than 12 hours until I experience Monster Plantation (oh, and a little something something called Goliath), I can't wait!

 

Nice report!

[Erik Johnson]

A little more than 12 hours until I experience Monster Plantation (oh, and a little something something called Goliath), I can't wait!

 

Nice report!

 

LOL! I hope you can handle the smell of the Monster Plantation.

[Slacking]

A little more than 12 hours until I experience Monster Plantation (oh, and a little something something called Goliath), I can't wait!

 

Nice report!

 

LOL! I hope you can handle the smell of the Monster Plantation.

 

MP has a smell to it?? It has just gone up in my priority list! A cheesy old dark ride wouldn't be quite the same without it's own unique smell (whether it's intentional (Hello E.T.!) or natural due to the water)

[easytoremember]

ya, I love Monster Plantation, but it does have a musty smell to it. It is not unbearable, but deffinatly noticeable.

[Slacking]

Hijacking this thread momentarily (MP here I come!) but I'm off (at 12:30am) to Atlanta for the day. Too bad I did not get a nap in tonight and that I am driving back after the park and will have to go to work on Wed (calling sick for today, shhhhh) with very little sleep. Hope its all worth it!