Six Flags Over Georgia announces Ultra Surf

Marketing team is exceeding their KPIs for buzzwords.

The Thrill Capital of the South

I am pretty sure Carrowinds has something to say about this, and a few places in Va and Fla.

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So why go with Ultra Surf as a placeholder? To afraid of Pipeline: The Surf Coaster?

I just don’t understand Six Flags today and their capital improvement decisions. Why would you go with this low capacity, Intamin ride when the Aquaman ride was such a success at SFoT?

So it's a bigger version of a Half Pipe with a water splash. The Half Pipe at Elitch isn't super reliable, hopefully they worked out the kinks before expanding it and making it wet.

Sharpel007:

I am pretty sure Carrowinds has something to say about this

Only on the days they don't close early for fake bad weather

Oh God. What could go wrong.

Does anyone think this will actually be installed in 2024 given the fact that they can’t even get there kiddy coasters that were promised for this year up and running?

I think it’s a legitimate question and criticism. Sure, it’s exceptional that the park is adding something new. Parks shouldn't promise new attractions that aren't ready. It’s unprofessional. Most people need to plan ahead for park visits. The only reason they may choose one park over another is because of a newly advertised attraction. Why would a park just shrug off disappointing their guests?

Glass half empty = “Dang! I made plans to visit the park and try this new ride, and it’s not open when they said it would be open.”

Glass half full = “Dang! This new ride isn’t open yet, but since I’m here, I might as well enjoy all these rides I already experienced the last time I was here.

I actually quit trying to get a ride on Kinda Ka because it was always closed every time I visited the park. It was my main reason for return visits to Six Flags Great Adventure. I just quit going, because they offered me disappointment again and again.

Therefore, I think it’s important for parks to get their new rides open when they say they are going to open. Going further than that, I’m old school. I think new rides should be ready for opening day of the season.

I'm not excited about this new coaster style, even after the above rant. Back and forth, back and forth, splash.

LostKause:

The only reason they may choose one park over another is because of a newly advertised attraction.

Approximately no one is choosing between two parks. Most people are choosing to go (or not go) to their "local" park. The vast (vast) majority of people in or near Atlanta are not trying to decide between SFOG and Dollywood for next May. That's because....

LostKause:
Most people need to plan ahead for park visits.

No, they don't, unless "plan ahead" is something like "What do you want to do next Thursday?" or maybe "What are we going to do with the kids this summer?" sometime in very late April.

Most people who do not visit CoasterBuzz do not consider regional amusement parks destination travel. We are the only people who do that. As Bill Murray put it in Stripes:

(Edited to add: for some reason, the "start the video at 51 seconds" part gets stripped by the site. But, start there.)

In Ohio people absolutely choose between two parks. All my life I’ve heard locals (non-enthusiasts) say things like “We went to Kings Island this year because of X New Ride but next year we’re going back to Cedar Point”. And if people from around my region aren’t “planning ahead” for a trip to the Smokies I’ll eat my hat. It’s absolutely a destination- locals alone don’t fill Dollywood or the hundreds of hotels and cabins. And Tennesseans visit and spend vacation time in Atlanta, and if they like parks they make Six Flags a stop. So if X New Ride isn’t available and that sort of trouble is consistent people will choose to spent their money elsewhere, especially if they went there last year and it sucked. You’re from Michigan- surely you know people who bounce back and forth between Cedar Fair parks and Six Flags. I do. I don’t think the reasoning is that far fetched, and it would behoove these companies to mind their p’s and q’s on account of that.

Atlanta isn't Ohio, and folks might be planning trips to "the Smokies" but they aren't planning trips to "Dollywood."

Yes, there is something very, very wrong with us. LOL

But I think it depends on where you live. Someone who lives in Columbus has to choose between Cedar Point or Kings Island.

Families who live in my hometown (Huntington, WV) usually choose between Kings Island or Dollywood. Although, I've heard a few non-CoasterBuzz people mention Kennywood and Carowinds before.

If you live in central PA, like I used to, you have a lot of parks to choose from. A lot of people I knew chose between Kennywood, Hersheypark, Knoebels, ect.

But I see your point. No one in my area talks about Kentucky Kingdom, and it's just as far, or closer than KI and DW. I don't recall a normal person in central PA ever talking about visiting Great Adventure or even Cedar Point, but those are a little further away.

Different people travel for different reasons. We have visited parks that were near other destinations that we wanted to visit (such as various national parks). The parks were more ancillary to the trips though. In addition to that, we were not visiting for any particular ride. So if there was a ride scheduled to open the following year, we were not altering timing for our trip. And if that ride was supposed to open the year we were visiting but didn't, it wouldn't have mattered to us. I would expect that is consistent with a lot of people's visit to parks (though not everyone's).

Brian Noble:
Atlanta isn't Ohio, and folks might be planning trips to "the Smokies" but they aren't planning trips to "Dollywood."

Says you! People from here go to “Dollywood” and plan for it. They stay there. They make a couple days of it. Your ridiculous argument is saying that what?, that any trip into the amusement park is a side trip- after thought? That nobody, but nobody plans trips to Dollywood? They’ve done a great job of establishing themselves as a destination- it’s a major commercial draw, it falls in right behind “hiking” and people know of it. It’s quite possible that many visitors look at Dollywood first then fly by the seat of their pants around Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. It would be more accurate to say that nobody is planning trips to Paula Dean’s, Guy Fieri’s, Goats on the Roof, or the fake Titanic. Those are the things they do after/in addition to Dollywood. Get outta here.
“Atlanta isn’t Ohio”. I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me, but thanks. They do have this very Six Flags though, which is the subject of this thread. And people in the south will plan a trip to Six Flags. I know people from Alabama and people from Tennessee that use SFOG as their home park. Once again, non enthusiasts.

No, it's saying that the precise opening date of the New Hotness is not the thing that ordinary people plan their trips around. I indulged in a little hyperbole around that, because it is useful for us to remember that we here on CBuzz are in no way representative of 99% of the people who walk through the gates.

And it is probably larger than 99%.

To quote Stripes again: Lighten up, Francis. (Gosh that movie was good.)

I think you're dismissing "ordinary people's" interest in amusement parks. They are parks' bread and butter; we are merely a drop in the bucket. I can easily see some families discussing vacation: "We haven't been to XYZ park in a while and they're adding this New Thing next year, maybe we should go there instead of the beach." Not so much choosing one park over another, but rather choosing to see something new and exciting And when the park fails to deliver that newness on schedule, guests might be disappointed and regret choosing the park over the beach.

Back when I worked at a park, we'd have people complain at guest relations that they came from out of state to ride the spider or some other underwhelming piece of equipment. However, I suspect they were just saying whatever was convenient to get free stuff.

I lost count of the number of vacations that I personally ruined when I worked as a Main Entrance Coordinator at Epcot and went out of my way to make sure Soarin' or Test Track would have a day with a large chunk of downtime as I scheduled the assignments and breaks for the Cast Members working the turnstiles and parking lot just so Bob from Indiana couldn't ride the cars that went fast, which was the only reason he flew to Orlando for 5 days in the first place.