Ugh, I’ve got loads of catching up to do on here, so best get started. The main plan for this trip was to get the Mexico country cred. I’ll do Mexico as a separate report later even though it was part of the same trip. When I started planning it, I added in Texas to finally get that cred cluster, then figured I might as well throw Atlanta in as well.
I got to Atlanta at a decent enough time in the late afternoon, but didn’t do anything. For anyone who knows it, I stayed at CNN centre, so it was walking distance to the aquarium and other touristy stuff. Here:
Decent view from the hotel:
The first proper day was obviously for creds.
Six Flags Over Georgia
This place was an absolute piece of piss with public transport: a metro ride from right at the hotel, followed by a short bus ride. Both of these were really regular, so there wasn’t the issue of any careful planning. Door to door probably took about 40 minutes. Buses back ran regularly until well after closing as well, so no issues there. To be fair, it’s only a 15-minute drive away anyway, so Uber was definitely an option.
Anyway, the first thing you see from the bus stop is this:
And this:
Since I was hitting four Six Flags parks on this trip, I’d booked an annual pass for some ridiculously low price, picking it up and getting into the park slightly early, which I wasn’t expecting. I went straight to Twisted Cyclone which is right at the entrance and had no queue at that point, going for an immediate reride.
There’ll be more pictures later; I’m just adding them as they were taken and they weren’t a priority at this point. Twisted Cyclone was amazing. I hadn’t followed construction at all and had kind have forgotten it was even a thing until right before the trip, but I loved it. It’s very compact, but does loads with it. The airtime is ridiculous, bordering on a bit painful on the thighs if I’m honest. After my second ride, the park had opened and the queue was up to half an hour already, so I moved on.
Oh, I’d intended to buy a Flashpass, but thought I’d play it by ear a bit first. It turned out that it really wasn’t necessary. I barely waited for anything all day.
Walk on to Georgia Scorcher:
Very good, especially for a stand-up. Of the B&Ms, I’d put it just behind Riddler’s Revenge. Most coasters had a “no bags” policy, but it was only $5 for all-day lockers, which were right at the front of any ride with that policy and took no time at all to use.
I’d forgotten that Dare Devil Dive was a thing.
This was the only real wait of the day at around forty minutes, though it was walk-on later. I thought it best just to suck it up though since I knew it was low capacity and I had no idea at that point that the park was going to stay quiet all day. It broke down twice during that time as well. Well, not broke down, but some fat bloke (definitely an enthusiast given the coaster T-shirt) screwed something since the restraints didn’t like him, causing things to be reset, retested etc.
Anyway, It was ok. I haven’t heard anything positive about the thing, but I had no complaints.
Saved this for a bit given excellent reliability and throughput:
Did this area:
I didn’t bother with the Larson Loop thing because why would you? Batman was solid. It was the first one of the trip, so I was relatively pleased to ride it. I’d say it was probably one of the better of the clones.
Mindbender was SO GOOD though! I’ve said for a while that most Schwarzkopf coasters, especially permanent park models, are overrated, but this one was excellent. Decent layout and used the terrain well, forceful, airtime etc. Great stuff.
It must’ve been Goliath next:
Fab! I did a few rides over the course of the day and loved it. Loads of airtime, even some ejector in the back rows, and easily one of the best B&M hypers I’ve done, if not THE best.
Roller Skater thing and Mine Train. Meh. +2.
And then onto Justice League and Superman, both of which I’ve done elsewhere.
Justice League is a surprisingly high-quality affair for Six Flags, but obviously they’ve run it into the ground by adding to so many parks. This was only the second one I’d done at this point though.
Superman. Whatever. It was walk-on though, or would have been apart from a short break down, so can’t complain. I only needed this one to complete the Superman set as well.
Oh, while I remember since Superman had this, this park has the most f**king stupid excuse for single rider lines EVER! According to the map, and in the stations, a lot of their coasters have single rider. However, you’ve got to go all through the normal queue, and then go to a single-rider area once you hit the station. I didn’t use it for anything since it was unnecessary due to being quiet, but IT MAKES NO SENSE. You would literally get on the ride maybe two or three trains earlier than normal, so you’ve stood in the entire queue only to not choose your own row at the end of it, just to save yourself a few minutes. “ Yeah, I’ll line up for an hour for Twisted Cyclone and then won’t bother choosing the back row. Assign me a row please so that I can get on two trains earlier.” WHAT’S THE F**KING POINT?!
Anyway.
Great American Scream Machine had about a 15-minute wait thanks to single-train operations. It was pretty brutal, but had some decent airtime at least.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
I secretly kind of loved Blue Hawk. It’s got newer Vekoma trains with the vest things, so, while you can tell where the rough spots are (most of it), it’s still pretty rideable. It looks fab as well.
This old dark ride (Monster Mansion?) was cute.
The gyrodrop was closed, which was annoying because I love them.
From there it was rerides on Goliath and Twisted Cyclone. Goliath had been walk-on all day, and so was Twisted Cyclone by the time I’d completed the circuit of the park.
I think I left around 5pm - can’t remember exactly now - and I’d managed to get everything done, with plenty of rerides, when I’d had it in my head that I’d be needing a Flashpass and I’d be there until closing.
Overall thoughts then. I really liked this park! The coaster selection is pretty excellent even if the park itself is pretty bland. Being quiet helped a lot, but even with that they were running the place really well. The vast majority of coasters were running two trains when they could have got away with one, and they were getting those out really quickly.
I haven’t heard many positive things about this place. Most reviews I’ve seen have been pretty negative, especially regarding staff and clientele, which I didn’t find to be an issue at all. Granted, the staff were more perfunctory than friendly, but that doesn’t bother me if they’re getting their job done. 95% of the staff and clientele all have something in common, so I’m going to just say that all the negativity in that regard must basically be coming from racists, so there.
Atlanta
I’ll just throw this in while I’m here. I had a full day the next day for tourist s**t since my flight out wasn’t until quite late. I don’t know if it was jetlag or whatever, but I was feeling decidedly s**ty for most of the day, feeling all shivery and feverish and s**t, so didn’t really enjoy it. I decided to walk for a bit down to where the Martin Luther King Jr. stuff is, via the Walking Dead bridge.
There’s a small museum next to the burial site, which was interesting but didn’t warrant more than an hour.
The aquarium hadn’t really been on the cards, but I was stuck for much to do and wanted air conditioning. It’s bloody expensive as well. It’s VERY impressive admittedly, but I’ve been spoiled now by Chimelong Ocean Kingdom which just kicks the arse of every other marine park and aquarium.
I contemplated going to the Margaret Mitchell House then realised that would be stupid since I’d never even read her book, so didn’t give a flying f**k about where she wrote it. Since I was near the hotel anyway, where I’d have to go back to pick up my bags, I just decided to stay around that area. The Coca Cola Museum is opposite the aquarium and is, as expected, just a big advert for Coke, only the bastards get you to pay for the privilege of looking at it. S**te.
I can’t be arsed to write any more to be honest. There was nothing wrong with Atlanta necessarily – I liked the whole area around the hotel/CNN Centre - but I just wasn’t feeling up for much that day and there didn’t seem a massive amount to do anyway. I had friends from there later doing the whole “You should’ve gone to this restaurant and this bar” thing, but I don’t go to places to search out food and just couldn’t be arsed.
Sorry for the negative tone; it really was mostly down to me feeling crappy that day and forcing myself to try and do stuff. The rest of the trip is much more positive since I felt loads better the next day.
Next bit: Six Flags Over Texas
I got to Atlanta at a decent enough time in the late afternoon, but didn’t do anything. For anyone who knows it, I stayed at CNN centre, so it was walking distance to the aquarium and other touristy stuff. Here:
Decent view from the hotel:
The first proper day was obviously for creds.
Six Flags Over Georgia
This place was an absolute piece of piss with public transport: a metro ride from right at the hotel, followed by a short bus ride. Both of these were really regular, so there wasn’t the issue of any careful planning. Door to door probably took about 40 minutes. Buses back ran regularly until well after closing as well, so no issues there. To be fair, it’s only a 15-minute drive away anyway, so Uber was definitely an option.
Anyway, the first thing you see from the bus stop is this:
And this:
Since I was hitting four Six Flags parks on this trip, I’d booked an annual pass for some ridiculously low price, picking it up and getting into the park slightly early, which I wasn’t expecting. I went straight to Twisted Cyclone which is right at the entrance and had no queue at that point, going for an immediate reride.
There’ll be more pictures later; I’m just adding them as they were taken and they weren’t a priority at this point. Twisted Cyclone was amazing. I hadn’t followed construction at all and had kind have forgotten it was even a thing until right before the trip, but I loved it. It’s very compact, but does loads with it. The airtime is ridiculous, bordering on a bit painful on the thighs if I’m honest. After my second ride, the park had opened and the queue was up to half an hour already, so I moved on.
Oh, I’d intended to buy a Flashpass, but thought I’d play it by ear a bit first. It turned out that it really wasn’t necessary. I barely waited for anything all day.
Walk on to Georgia Scorcher:
Very good, especially for a stand-up. Of the B&Ms, I’d put it just behind Riddler’s Revenge. Most coasters had a “no bags” policy, but it was only $5 for all-day lockers, which were right at the front of any ride with that policy and took no time at all to use.
I’d forgotten that Dare Devil Dive was a thing.
This was the only real wait of the day at around forty minutes, though it was walk-on later. I thought it best just to suck it up though since I knew it was low capacity and I had no idea at that point that the park was going to stay quiet all day. It broke down twice during that time as well. Well, not broke down, but some fat bloke (definitely an enthusiast given the coaster T-shirt) screwed something since the restraints didn’t like him, causing things to be reset, retested etc.
Anyway, It was ok. I haven’t heard anything positive about the thing, but I had no complaints.
Saved this for a bit given excellent reliability and throughput:
Did this area:
I didn’t bother with the Larson Loop thing because why would you? Batman was solid. It was the first one of the trip, so I was relatively pleased to ride it. I’d say it was probably one of the better of the clones.
Mindbender was SO GOOD though! I’ve said for a while that most Schwarzkopf coasters, especially permanent park models, are overrated, but this one was excellent. Decent layout and used the terrain well, forceful, airtime etc. Great stuff.
It must’ve been Goliath next:
Fab! I did a few rides over the course of the day and loved it. Loads of airtime, even some ejector in the back rows, and easily one of the best B&M hypers I’ve done, if not THE best.
Roller Skater thing and Mine Train. Meh. +2.
And then onto Justice League and Superman, both of which I’ve done elsewhere.
Justice League is a surprisingly high-quality affair for Six Flags, but obviously they’ve run it into the ground by adding to so many parks. This was only the second one I’d done at this point though.
Superman. Whatever. It was walk-on though, or would have been apart from a short break down, so can’t complain. I only needed this one to complete the Superman set as well.
Oh, while I remember since Superman had this, this park has the most f**king stupid excuse for single rider lines EVER! According to the map, and in the stations, a lot of their coasters have single rider. However, you’ve got to go all through the normal queue, and then go to a single-rider area once you hit the station. I didn’t use it for anything since it was unnecessary due to being quiet, but IT MAKES NO SENSE. You would literally get on the ride maybe two or three trains earlier than normal, so you’ve stood in the entire queue only to not choose your own row at the end of it, just to save yourself a few minutes. “ Yeah, I’ll line up for an hour for Twisted Cyclone and then won’t bother choosing the back row. Assign me a row please so that I can get on two trains earlier.” WHAT’S THE F**KING POINT?!
Anyway.
Great American Scream Machine had about a 15-minute wait thanks to single-train operations. It was pretty brutal, but had some decent airtime at least.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
I secretly kind of loved Blue Hawk. It’s got newer Vekoma trains with the vest things, so, while you can tell where the rough spots are (most of it), it’s still pretty rideable. It looks fab as well.
This old dark ride (Monster Mansion?) was cute.
The gyrodrop was closed, which was annoying because I love them.
From there it was rerides on Goliath and Twisted Cyclone. Goliath had been walk-on all day, and so was Twisted Cyclone by the time I’d completed the circuit of the park.
I think I left around 5pm - can’t remember exactly now - and I’d managed to get everything done, with plenty of rerides, when I’d had it in my head that I’d be needing a Flashpass and I’d be there until closing.
Overall thoughts then. I really liked this park! The coaster selection is pretty excellent even if the park itself is pretty bland. Being quiet helped a lot, but even with that they were running the place really well. The vast majority of coasters were running two trains when they could have got away with one, and they were getting those out really quickly.
I haven’t heard many positive things about this place. Most reviews I’ve seen have been pretty negative, especially regarding staff and clientele, which I didn’t find to be an issue at all. Granted, the staff were more perfunctory than friendly, but that doesn’t bother me if they’re getting their job done. 95% of the staff and clientele all have something in common, so I’m going to just say that all the negativity in that regard must basically be coming from racists, so there.
Atlanta
I’ll just throw this in while I’m here. I had a full day the next day for tourist s**t since my flight out wasn’t until quite late. I don’t know if it was jetlag or whatever, but I was feeling decidedly s**ty for most of the day, feeling all shivery and feverish and s**t, so didn’t really enjoy it. I decided to walk for a bit down to where the Martin Luther King Jr. stuff is, via the Walking Dead bridge.
There’s a small museum next to the burial site, which was interesting but didn’t warrant more than an hour.
The aquarium hadn’t really been on the cards, but I was stuck for much to do and wanted air conditioning. It’s bloody expensive as well. It’s VERY impressive admittedly, but I’ve been spoiled now by Chimelong Ocean Kingdom which just kicks the arse of every other marine park and aquarium.
I contemplated going to the Margaret Mitchell House then realised that would be stupid since I’d never even read her book, so didn’t give a flying f**k about where she wrote it. Since I was near the hotel anyway, where I’d have to go back to pick up my bags, I just decided to stay around that area. The Coca Cola Museum is opposite the aquarium and is, as expected, just a big advert for Coke, only the bastards get you to pay for the privilege of looking at it. S**te.
I can’t be arsed to write any more to be honest. There was nothing wrong with Atlanta necessarily – I liked the whole area around the hotel/CNN Centre - but I just wasn’t feeling up for much that day and there didn’t seem a massive amount to do anyway. I had friends from there later doing the whole “You should’ve gone to this restaurant and this bar” thing, but I don’t go to places to search out food and just couldn’t be arsed.
Sorry for the negative tone; it really was mostly down to me feeling crappy that day and forcing myself to try and do stuff. The rest of the trip is much more positive since I felt loads better the next day.
Next bit: Six Flags Over Texas
