Alabama Adventure 7/29 and SFOG 8/2

Alabama Adventure 7/29/07
Every summer I make a trip to Birmingham to visit my sister and this year she suggested visiting AA since both her and her son have a season pass. Parking was I believe $8 and I got in the park with a coupon for 17 bucks which isn't really too bad. The real reason we were there was for the water park (although I wanted the coasters too) because of the heat but they were predicting storms in the afternoon so we arrived at the park before gates opened.

First we found a couple nice lounge chairs by Castaway Island, the large play land, only to find out it was not open because it was still filling up?!?! This is where my nephew could spend 5 hours out of the day so it put a negative start to the day. First we headed off for their black innertube slide complex (forget the name) and got on three of the four. This early they were all walk ons and pretty fun, though a little short.

My sister doesn't really like intense stuff and my nephew is too young so I hit up their tallest slide, Acapulco Drop, a regular drop slide I'd guess around 50-60 feet. It was fun and gives a pretty good rush but everyone knows how these slides end... wedgie!!

Next I was off to what I call the "toilet bowl" slide, Splash Down. It was the first time I've ever been on one and it was pretty fun although not too intense. But make sure you can swim well since the splash pool is deep.

Next we took a trip around the lazy river which I wouldn't even call a trip since we walked around it. There were only in my estimation 30 inner tubes on the whole thing so most people just walked it. It was a pretty uneventful lazy river and without inner tubes rather pointless.

We made our way back to the chairs only to find out the playland was still closed. We laid around for a while until out of nowhere some clouds came and started pouring. After about 15 minuets my sister gave up and we decided to just head out. Although we had only been there for a few hours I could see we had done the whole water park except for the wave pool which I never really enjoy.

Before we headed for the exit I told my sister I wanted to run and ride Rampage. I ran back and got on with no wait. By now the rain had stopped and I was hoping for a good, fast ride. I sat in the last seat and we were off. From the looks of it it's not all that big. It turned out to be a really fun ride. The first drop had good air and the rest of the ride was surprising fast with good air and nice laterals throughout. It wasn't too rough, it tossed you around, but in a good way. The only thing I noticed was the track work was a little...shaky is probably the best word. I'd give it a 7/10.

Before I left for good I thought I should just hit up Zoomerang since I was there and I probably wouldn't be back. The whole ride looks/feels old and the station is just odd. The best was to describe it was unprofessional to say the least. I sat somewhere around the center of the train and by this time the rain had started again. My restraints were never checked and we were off! The ride it's self is what you expect and I wouldn't have missed anything by not riding it.

Overall: The park is fairly nice, clean but pretty small. For the price of regular admission of around $35 it's a little steep but I'm betting most anyone who goes there is a pass holder. The water park side is pretty small with not much to offer as of now but I'm sure there is plenty of room for it to grow. As for the amusement park side, it's full of quite a few carnival rides with 2 coasters, one being surprisingly fun.

As for the employees, the two girls running Rampage couldn't be more disinterested in what they were doing and Zoomerang was even worse considering my restraints were never even checked. As for food prices I never bought anything but they seemed comparable to most other parks. It was a fun few hours but I probably won't be making another trip anytime soon.

Six Flags Over Georgia 8/2/07
My younger brother and I made the trip from Nashville to SFOG and arrived around 11:45 AM. Paid the $15 to park! Way too much but got over it. This was my first time to a Six Flags park and even after reading about all the negative things I tried to have an open mind.

We decided the best deal was to buy him a season pass for $49.99 (out of market price) and then get me in for $9.99 which is the special going on now through Labor Day. I expected the park to be somewhat busy since there was a free concert that night but it turned out to be a great day to visit. We were in the park in and in our first line by noon.

(I'm just going to give a couple sentence reviews of each ride in the order I rode them.)

Georgia Cyclone: 30 min wait, last row. Didn't expect much and left A LOT of slack in the seat belt and lap bar. Turned out to be a good idea cause I got INSANE air. So much so I was actually holding on for dear life. Turned out to be the best ride of the day. 9/10
Second ride later in the day, third row, nowhere near as intense. 7/10.

Acrophobia: 10 min wait. Pretty intense drop, the tilt is crazy but the restraints are uncomfortable. 6/10

Superman: 10 min wait, last row. This was my first flying coaster and was surprised at how comfortable the restraints are. The ride it's self is not too exciting but the pretzel loop in the last row is REALLY intense and unexpected. Biggest rush of the day. Because of that, 8/10

Great American Scream Machine: 5 min, last car middle row. Pretty good, not too rough but a little boring with only ok air. 5/10

Ninja: <5min, last car. Heard bad things about it being rough, but it wasn't too bad. It was just kinda, eh. Lots of head choppers though. 4/10

Deja Vu: 1h5min, 4b. Was excited that it was running since it has so much down time. We got in line right around the 30 min wait sign and it turned into over an hour. I'll explain why below but in short, flashpass. This ride is very overrated but the lift backwards is a "holy crap" moment. I see why there is a seatbelt before the restraint, without it I wouldn't feel safe AT ALL (especially with how rides are ran but again I'll explain below). 5/10

Dahlonega Mine Train: 10 min, towards the back. Three lift hills and not much going on. Cracked my spine pretty good on the last drop into the tunnel. 4/10

Georgia Scorcher: 15 min, front tow. Pretty smooth but stand ups are not one of my favorites. Only two inversions. 5/10

Mind Bender: 0 min, towards the back. Very little legroom but was highly impressed. I liked only having the lap bar and it was extremely smooth. Very fun, tied for second best of the day. 8/10

Batman: 25 min, row 6, outside. The themeing of the ride is great but the ride it self it ok. The loop-inline-loop is fun though. Pretty short too. 6/10

Goliath: 25 min, last row. Steep lift hill and ok first drop. The rest are just airtime hills with some giving some good negative g’s. The helix is pretty intense. The general public seems to eat this ride up and looks like it was a good addition for the park. 8/10
Second ride in third row, 7/10.

Other than all the coasters, we also rode Thunder River and got a pretty well soaked, which is what we wanted. Monster Plantation, an ok dark ride. The small log ride, has the perfect amount of splash on the final drop. Overall the park was very clean and I liked the designated smoking areas and didn’t see anyone smoking anywhere else. It’s a rather pretty park with lots of trees in the areas that aren’t just slabs of concrete (mostly around the newest rides). The paths are kind of hilly which, by the end of the day, seem like large mountains to climb but I think it adds to the park. Now for the negative, here goes….

The employees have to be kidding! I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Are they only being paid 5 cents an hour because that’s how they act, but in reality they would be getting over paid! Heaven forbid you have a question because you just get a blank stare. Here’s an example;

“Can I have an ice water?”
“Huh?”
“Can I have an ICE WATER?”
“Huh?”
“CAN I HAVE AN ICE WATER?”
.......
“Can I just get a cup so I can get water from the drinking fountain?”
“Huh?”
“CAN I JUST HAVE A CUP FOR WATER?”
(Points to a cup with a questioning face)
“YEA!”

No joke that is just one of the many pleasant conversations I had with an employee. I mean I know the people running rides are hot and it’s hard to keep a smile on your face all day every day but at least try to do your job half assed. That’s 5 times better than they are doing currently.

The only reason I had a line at most the rides all day was because of lazy, inconsiderate, uninterested employees. I’ve never seen such slow ride dispatching. Maybe I’m just spoiled from CP and even KI is 100 times better. But you know I’m pay around the same price and getting half the goods. Yea the rides are pretty good but what about the other 8 hours you’re in the park not in the seat of the ride. Six flags needs to consider this if they want to avoid what may be coming in the near future.

Not only do lines move slowly but also when the employees act the way they do I honestly don’t feel safe. I have never felt unsafe at CP or KI, ever. At SFOG, I honestly had a queasy feeling in my stomach because something just didn’t feel right. When your employees are that uninterested and something was to go wrong, then what. Could you possibly have another SFKK incident (I know it’s not proved it was negligence but still). I tried to not let it bother me but when you go ride to ride and it’s the same thing it’s just too much.

Now to the other complaint. Flash pass. I know a lot of people have problems with it but I didn’t really think it would be a problem as I’m familiar with what is at Disney and Universal and it never seemed to interfere all that much. At Deja vu, the line for flash pass would get so long they would fill an ENTIRE train except for 2-6 seats with flash pass. The basic pattern was a train off all flash passes, followed by a train of mostly “regular people,” back and forth. It was ridiculous. Obviously six flags is making money with the flash pass, but at the same time they are ticking off the “regular people” customer who come to the park with money to spend too.

Even though the park experience was the absolute lowest I’ve ever had, the ride selection was pretty good. For the price to get in it was overall worth it.

I haven't been to Alabama Adventure, but some of my family who live in southern Alabama say it's only worth a trip every few years. So carelessness runs the whole state regarding that park.

My first SF park was SFMM a couple years ago and i recently went to SFGA. But I do agree that, besides SFOG being my favorite SF Park on the East Coast, it has changed for the worst. I went last summer, and agree with the lack of appreciation from the employees. It could be the heat...but it is a SF park, it's expected.

Flash Pass is a disaster, especially for those in the CF area who aren't close to SF parks. It varies not only between parks, but rides within the parks, of the policy of the flash passes. They also, set aside certain section for flash pass, or they go right onto the platform with the regulars to board the train.

As for Acrophobia, I'm not a huge fan of drop rides, but Acrophobia is a lot of run, the tilting aspect of it.

But also, of those who rode the two-seat row Goliath at SFMM, or Titan at SFOT, and rode the Goliath at SFOG, have you felt that the 2-seater was a better ride than the B&M? Maybe it's just myself, but I don't like the B&M remake as much as the original Goliath.

In the first part of your SFOG you said you paid 9.99 to get in than you complain and say you paid the same price as you do for CP and KI. So my question is when did CP and KI start charging 9.99 to get in? You got what you paid for and I wish I could get into CP for 9.99!

The crew running Acrophobia last year were great, they were counting down the drop over the loud speaker. My family and I stayed at the WynnGate or whatever it is beside the parking lot after Hurricane Katrina, and until 10 all you heard was the ride ops counting down the drop.

yea now that you mentioned it the acrophobia crew was probably the best of the day. He was taunting people and trying to get people who were nervous even more nervous which was funny. Other than acrophobia though the only other crew I remember being halfway decent was Goliath. There was an older guy (probably a retiree) that joked around. I wouldn't have thought much of it otherwise but it was the standout of the day.

As far as price, in total I paid $60. As far as I know you can get tickets for KI online for $29.99 so for 2 people that is what it would cost. Sure my brother got a pass out of it but in reality we probably won't make another trip this season. As far as CP I paid $35 with a coupon at the gate and parking was cheaper. So yea, in reality it does pretty much all cost the same, give or take $10.

BANDandDCI, Goliath at SFOG is not a "remake" of SFMM's Goliath. They basically just reused the name Goliath. Technically, SF built 4 coasters with the name "Goliath", and none of them are the same. SFMM has the original, then they built that one at SFH (which isn't SF anymore) that is an Intamin, then they built the 2 B&Ms at SFOG and La Ronde (though La Ronde's looks like theirs should be called Superman).

As far as my personal preference, I tend to prefer the B&Ms to the Giovanolas. They just tend to have more air to me, plus, I think they are more comfortable, though the Giovanolas aren't uncomfortable.

^Agreed.

It's a shame things were they way they were. I am thinking of doing Alabama Adventure next season. Also when I went to SFOG it was great in 2005. I guess things are changing for the worse.

I have always loved SFOG. I went last Monday with my two neices. Batman was running two trains, but the dispatch was over 5 minutes per train. I thought they were running 1 train because of the slow load time. I have never seen such apathy in employees. They were so slow, talking on the phone and not paying attention. Then my neices purse was stolen out of the holding bin at Batman. I asked several questions of the employees and none of them new what to do or seem to care. Two other girls purses were stolen at the same time. I will keep going, but my expectations are much lower now.

I have no problems with this TR and enjoyed it.

BUT WHY WOULD ANYONE MENTION Even if they did.

"I LEFT MY BELT LOOSE AND BAR UP SO I COULD GET A GOOD RIDE?"

Just the reason parks go overboard with stapling and suspicion.

Chuck, who thinks if you can't get a good ride with the restraints properly in place. Well it's not a good ride to begin with.

Glad you enjoyed it! That's what its there for.

As far as the seat belt thing, I didn't leave it loose just to get a "good ride". I agree, you shouldn't have to do that to get a fun ride, I was just saying that at the looks of it I wasn't expecting much of anything and really didn't even think about cramming myself into the seat. It wasn't like 5 notches too high just not cutting off circulation. I just hopped in and pulled the bar as far down as I could with out having to lean forward and use all my weight to latch it down one more. I guess in retrospect I shouldn't have said "A LOT" of room, just an exaggeration, my bad.

The second (third row) and third ride (3rd to last row) later in the day I did latch myself in better because, well, I knew I actually needed too. Regardless, the ride was fun. Although the back is better than the front!

Even after almost a week I'm still thinking about that pretzel loop on Superman! The ride as a whole....kinda boring, but that loop, probably as big of a rush as a TTD launch!