witchfinder
Giga Poster
Six Flags Over Georgia – Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th June
Let’s wrap this trip report up shall we? Having spent five days in Nashville, we headed down to Atlanta for our flight home and one more Six Flags park. The plan was to leave Nashville early and aim to be at the park for mid-afternoon, but due to traffic problems, a planned detour through Alabama (for some great BBQ and another State cred!), getting caught up in a rainstorm and then Atlanta traffic, not to mention losing an hour due to the time difference, we finally got to our hotel a little before 6pm. Not good.
Luckily I’d booked a hotel that is walking distance from the park entrance so with Anna resting following her busy weekend, I headed into the park for the last two hours with the aim of tackling one half and grabbing as many creds as possible. The good news was that due to the earlier storm, the park was dead and every ride was walk-on, with some even allowing riders to stay on if nobody was waiting!
It was incredibly humid after the storm and still around 30 degrees, so my first stop was to fill my drinks bottle, and I must’ve looked like I needed it because the nice lady behind the counter gave me my first fill-up for free
I then headed to the side of the park with the best cred line-up, starting with Batman: The Ride. I was quite impressed with the theming around this, although it was all heavily based on the 1989 Batman movie. Still, it was pretty decent for Six Flags and I made my way through the queue line and grabbed a back row ride.
This was my fourth B&M Invert and by far the most intense. In fact, I’d go as far to say it was actually too intense to be completely enjoyable, as there were points where I could feel my face being stretched by the speed and forces. A second ride on the front was slightly better, but I still came off thinking this was one of the weaker Inverts I’ve ridden, ironically despite being the most powerful. 7/10
Next up was Mind Bender, the highly-regarded Schwarzkopf looper. This is one I was really looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint. Considering it’s nearly 40 years old, the ride is still pretty smooth, except for parts of the horizontal loop, and the two vertical loops have all the intensity you’d expect.
I rode on the front and back rows, and the front row was particularly surprising as it provided ejector airtime as you go up the hills! That was real WTF moment and something I’ve not really experienced in that way before. The back row had more traditional airtime as you go down the drops, proving that a ride anywhere on this coaster should be fun. Also if you’re lucky, the latter part of the ride syncs up with the first drop of Batman, with the Invert’s trains roaring alongside you, which just adds to the thrills. 8/10
With Dare Devil Dive closed, my next stop was another hotly-anticipated cred, Goliath. The massive but empty queue line still had to be negotiated, but once I reached the station the coaster itself was walk-on, and instant re-rides were also on offer if nobody was waiting. I grabbed a ride on the front row first, followed by two successive back row rides.
I absolutely loved this B&M Hyper! As a relative newcomer to modern hyper coasters, I’m not sure I’d really appreciated what floater airtime really was until I rode Goliath. It has at least 3-4 seconds of sustained floater on every hill, and even has a little bit of airtime on the tiny hill prior to the brake run! With no MCBR, it really tears around the track and the big helix turnaround is sublime. I also love the fact that most of it is actually outside the park, which makes it great to watch off-ride when you’re approaching the entrance. It may not be the tallest or fastest out there, but this was my favourite hyper coaster to date. 10/10
I next intended to ride the adjacent B&M, Georgia Scorcher, but a wrong turn saw me somehow end up near Monster Mansion and with less than half an hour till closing, I decided that rather than turn around, I wold just keep going and ended up back near the front of the park at Georgia Cyclone. Once again it was walk-on so I grabbed the front row.
I actually didn’t think it was too rough. It rattled around like crazy on the turnarounds, but on the drops it was fairly enjoyable. It’s nothing special, but if I’d had more time I may have re-ridden it at the back. But I didn’t have time so that was it! 6/10
After a quick stop to refill my drinks bottle (had to pay this time) I worked my way back around to the Georgia Scorcher, the B&M Stand-up coaster. It was pretty much the last train of the day so I just had to jump on where I could fit.
I truly have nothing to say about this ride. It’s short and uneventful, and standing up on coasters is just weird. There’s not many B&Ms that you’d just class as a+1 but this one was totally unremarkable. Even if they changed it to floorless trains I don’t think it would improve it much. Easily the worst B&M I’ve ridden to date, and I didn’t even take any photos of the ride in action. 6/10
The park then closed and I headed back to the hotel, hot and sticky and ready for a cool shower and some air con. That 2 hour rush around the park had got me through almost half the creds though, and left me in good stead for another short visit the next day.
The next morning, after packing and heading out for a final breakfast at Cracker Barrel (if you haven’t tried it, try it!) we got back to the park just before 11am. We needed to be at the airport by 3pm so that realistically gave us three hours to try and grab all the remaining creds plus whatever else we could manage. The car park looked pretty busy and we had to queue at the entrance, none of which boded well, so we headed to the half of the park I hadn’t done the previous day, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.
Well, it turned out that wherever the crowds were, they weren’t at any of the rides we wanted to go on. It’s highly possible given the high temperature and humidity that they were all aiming for the water park or at least the water rides. It was good news for us anyway, and we were already in need of a cool down so we headed for the park’s brand new dark ride and a bit of air con!
Set in a nice new Metropolis-themed area, Justice League: Battle For Metropolis is a fun interactive 3D dark ride. The theming in the queue line was pretty decent, though the big animatronic cyborg guy was a bit naff. The technology seems pretty good, with trackless cars that also shake a round, and large HD screens. The guns on the cars were a bit flimsy and there was way too much going on video-wise, resulting in a lot of shoot and hope tactics. They worked though, as I got the best score of anyone on my car!
Right next to Battle for Metropolis is Superman: Ultimate Flight, the fourth and last B&M in the park. This was only my second B&M flyer after Air, and it certainly offered a more thrilling experience than that. I’m still not sure if I liked the pretzel loop or not, and sadly didn’t have time for a re-ride to help me decide. The theming was again pretty good here (albeit mostly just big character cutouts) and it certainly looks impressive.
The big issue we had with this ride was that due to the non-existent queues, we had to wait several minutes on the brake run before they dispatched the next train. Hanging face down in 30 degree heat is not fun at all, and probably marred our enjoyment of the ride a little. The fact they have a dual loading station for this coaster but don’t use it was particularly galling. 7/10
Next up on our circuit of this area was the Great American Scream Machine. Once again it was walk-on so I grabbed a back row ride, while Anna sat this one out. Good decision by her as it was probably the roughest Woodie on our trip and I banged my knee on the first drop. I can see it would’ve been an impressive and amazing ride back in the mid-70’s and there was still plenty of airtime, but it just hurt! Shame, as I was quite keen to ride one of these classic big Out & Back woodies. 5/10
That brought me to another ride that is renowned for its roughness, Blue Hawk (formerly Ninja). Repainted and refitted with new Vekoma trains with vest restraints, I wondered whether this was going to be a repeat of the Mind Eraser experience, where nothing can save an old Vekoma from being rough.
Well, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. From my front row ride I experienced very little roughness (though I could feel where headbanging would’ve occurred with OTSRs) and I really enjoyed the ride. It’s intense, with typically snappy inversions and one of the best headchopper moments of any cred I’ve ridden to date. If I’d had more time I’d definitely have re-ridden it and you don’t say that about old Vekomas often! Hopefully more parks with these old clunkers will consider changing the trains as I’m sure it would help make them more ridable. 7/10
(So photogenic - the cred I mean!)
With the back section of the park done, it was time to pick up any remaining creds, but not before cooling down on Splashwater Falls. Unfortunately this old Shoot the Chute had a very slow queue and only one boat in operation, but it still had the shortest queue of any water ride in the park and we desperately needed a splashing!
By now we had less than an hour left and still 3 creds to hit, so I made the decision to skip the Joker Funhouse coaster, even though it looked quite decent for a kiddie cred, and we headed for the oldest steel coaster I’ve ever ridden – Dahlonega Mine Train, the 1968 Arrow mine train. In retrospect I think the kiddie cred would’ve been more fun than this slow and rough old thing, but I suppose it’s a piece of coaster history if nothing else. 4/10
For the last cred of the day, and our trip, it was back to the front half of the park for Dare Devil Dive. It had been down not long before we arrived and that probably helped keep the queue short, but this was still the longest queue of the day at around 15 minutes. This was my first experience of a Eurofighter with lap bars instead of OTSRs, and boy does it make a difference! The ride was still quite jerky in places, but without anything to bang your head on it was much improved and that, combined with the swooping layout made this one of the best Eurofighters I’ve ridden, although I was so hot and bothered by this point I struggle to remember it all! 7/10
By this point it has passed our original 2pm deadline and was fast approaching 2:30, and after an aborted attempt to get food we decided to just get out of the park and head to the airport, which was a more arduous experience than it should’ve been but one I’ll spare the details of.
I have mixed feelings about SFOG. Undoubtedly it was the best of the three Six Flags parks we visited, with an excellent lineup of steel coasters and some really nice theming on some rides. With two dark rides, several water rides and decent landscaping too, it was a really nice park with something for everyone. My problem is that due to the intense heat and having to rush round, our experience there was rather unpleasant and a bit of a blur, so I’d definitely love to return as there are half a dozen rides I never got to try and plenty of creds I’d love to re-ride. In terms of improvements, the only things missing are a launched coaster and a decent modern woodie. If they gave Cyclone the RMC treatment (or just tore it down and replaced it with a GCI), retracked GASM and replaced the Scorcher with a decent launch coaster, I think this park would be near-perfect.
That completes my report on this huge trip that took in 14 States and 8(ish) parks. Overall it was a great trip, although by the end I was starting to feel my age and I doubt we’ll ever do anything so hectic again!
It was obviously disappointing to be spited by Lightning Rod, and missing a few other creds due to closures or lack of time was also annoying, but I still managed a healthy +45 new creds, with five of them making my Top Ten. I also achieved two of my main aims which were to ride some RMCs and enough wooden coasters that I could actually assemble a reasonable Top Ten Woodies. I now feel I’ve experienced enough coasters (good and bad) and theme parks to call myself a certified Goon!
To finish things off, here’s a few lists charting the highlights of my trip:
Top 5 New Steel Coasters
1. Wicked Cyclone (SFNE)
2. Goliath (SFOG)
3. Superman (SFNE)
4. Storm Chaser (Kentucky Kingdom)
5. Wild Eagle (Dollywood)
Top 5 New Wood Coasters
1. Thunderhead (Dollywood)
2. The Comet (Great Escape)
3. Yankee Cannonball (Canobie)
4. Kentucky Rumbler (Beech Bend)
5. Thunderbolt (SFNE)
Park Rankings
1. Dollywood
2. Six Flags Over Georgia
3. Canobie Lake Park
4. Kentucky Kingdom
5. The Great Escape
6. Six Flags New England
7. Beech Bend Park
8. Fun World
Weather-themed Coaster League Table
1. Wicked Cyclone
2. Storm Chaser
3. Thunderhead
4. Lightning Run
5. Tennessee Tornado
6. Thunderbolt
7. Georgia Cyclone
8. Thunder Run
Chicken and Fries League Table
1. Dollywood
2. Canobie Lake Park
3. Kentucky Kingdom
4. Six Flags New England
Thanks for reading!
Let’s wrap this trip report up shall we? Having spent five days in Nashville, we headed down to Atlanta for our flight home and one more Six Flags park. The plan was to leave Nashville early and aim to be at the park for mid-afternoon, but due to traffic problems, a planned detour through Alabama (for some great BBQ and another State cred!), getting caught up in a rainstorm and then Atlanta traffic, not to mention losing an hour due to the time difference, we finally got to our hotel a little before 6pm. Not good.
Luckily I’d booked a hotel that is walking distance from the park entrance so with Anna resting following her busy weekend, I headed into the park for the last two hours with the aim of tackling one half and grabbing as many creds as possible. The good news was that due to the earlier storm, the park was dead and every ride was walk-on, with some even allowing riders to stay on if nobody was waiting!
It was incredibly humid after the storm and still around 30 degrees, so my first stop was to fill my drinks bottle, and I must’ve looked like I needed it because the nice lady behind the counter gave me my first fill-up for free
I then headed to the side of the park with the best cred line-up, starting with Batman: The Ride. I was quite impressed with the theming around this, although it was all heavily based on the 1989 Batman movie. Still, it was pretty decent for Six Flags and I made my way through the queue line and grabbed a back row ride.
This was my fourth B&M Invert and by far the most intense. In fact, I’d go as far to say it was actually too intense to be completely enjoyable, as there were points where I could feel my face being stretched by the speed and forces. A second ride on the front was slightly better, but I still came off thinking this was one of the weaker Inverts I’ve ridden, ironically despite being the most powerful. 7/10
Next up was Mind Bender, the highly-regarded Schwarzkopf looper. This is one I was really looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint. Considering it’s nearly 40 years old, the ride is still pretty smooth, except for parts of the horizontal loop, and the two vertical loops have all the intensity you’d expect.
I rode on the front and back rows, and the front row was particularly surprising as it provided ejector airtime as you go up the hills! That was real WTF moment and something I’ve not really experienced in that way before. The back row had more traditional airtime as you go down the drops, proving that a ride anywhere on this coaster should be fun. Also if you’re lucky, the latter part of the ride syncs up with the first drop of Batman, with the Invert’s trains roaring alongside you, which just adds to the thrills. 8/10
With Dare Devil Dive closed, my next stop was another hotly-anticipated cred, Goliath. The massive but empty queue line still had to be negotiated, but once I reached the station the coaster itself was walk-on, and instant re-rides were also on offer if nobody was waiting. I grabbed a ride on the front row first, followed by two successive back row rides.
I absolutely loved this B&M Hyper! As a relative newcomer to modern hyper coasters, I’m not sure I’d really appreciated what floater airtime really was until I rode Goliath. It has at least 3-4 seconds of sustained floater on every hill, and even has a little bit of airtime on the tiny hill prior to the brake run! With no MCBR, it really tears around the track and the big helix turnaround is sublime. I also love the fact that most of it is actually outside the park, which makes it great to watch off-ride when you’re approaching the entrance. It may not be the tallest or fastest out there, but this was my favourite hyper coaster to date. 10/10
I next intended to ride the adjacent B&M, Georgia Scorcher, but a wrong turn saw me somehow end up near Monster Mansion and with less than half an hour till closing, I decided that rather than turn around, I wold just keep going and ended up back near the front of the park at Georgia Cyclone. Once again it was walk-on so I grabbed the front row.
I actually didn’t think it was too rough. It rattled around like crazy on the turnarounds, but on the drops it was fairly enjoyable. It’s nothing special, but if I’d had more time I may have re-ridden it at the back. But I didn’t have time so that was it! 6/10
After a quick stop to refill my drinks bottle (had to pay this time) I worked my way back around to the Georgia Scorcher, the B&M Stand-up coaster. It was pretty much the last train of the day so I just had to jump on where I could fit.
I truly have nothing to say about this ride. It’s short and uneventful, and standing up on coasters is just weird. There’s not many B&Ms that you’d just class as a+1 but this one was totally unremarkable. Even if they changed it to floorless trains I don’t think it would improve it much. Easily the worst B&M I’ve ridden to date, and I didn’t even take any photos of the ride in action. 6/10
The park then closed and I headed back to the hotel, hot and sticky and ready for a cool shower and some air con. That 2 hour rush around the park had got me through almost half the creds though, and left me in good stead for another short visit the next day.
The next morning, after packing and heading out for a final breakfast at Cracker Barrel (if you haven’t tried it, try it!) we got back to the park just before 11am. We needed to be at the airport by 3pm so that realistically gave us three hours to try and grab all the remaining creds plus whatever else we could manage. The car park looked pretty busy and we had to queue at the entrance, none of which boded well, so we headed to the half of the park I hadn’t done the previous day, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.
Well, it turned out that wherever the crowds were, they weren’t at any of the rides we wanted to go on. It’s highly possible given the high temperature and humidity that they were all aiming for the water park or at least the water rides. It was good news for us anyway, and we were already in need of a cool down so we headed for the park’s brand new dark ride and a bit of air con!
Set in a nice new Metropolis-themed area, Justice League: Battle For Metropolis is a fun interactive 3D dark ride. The theming in the queue line was pretty decent, though the big animatronic cyborg guy was a bit naff. The technology seems pretty good, with trackless cars that also shake a round, and large HD screens. The guns on the cars were a bit flimsy and there was way too much going on video-wise, resulting in a lot of shoot and hope tactics. They worked though, as I got the best score of anyone on my car!
Right next to Battle for Metropolis is Superman: Ultimate Flight, the fourth and last B&M in the park. This was only my second B&M flyer after Air, and it certainly offered a more thrilling experience than that. I’m still not sure if I liked the pretzel loop or not, and sadly didn’t have time for a re-ride to help me decide. The theming was again pretty good here (albeit mostly just big character cutouts) and it certainly looks impressive.
The big issue we had with this ride was that due to the non-existent queues, we had to wait several minutes on the brake run before they dispatched the next train. Hanging face down in 30 degree heat is not fun at all, and probably marred our enjoyment of the ride a little. The fact they have a dual loading station for this coaster but don’t use it was particularly galling. 7/10
Next up on our circuit of this area was the Great American Scream Machine. Once again it was walk-on so I grabbed a back row ride, while Anna sat this one out. Good decision by her as it was probably the roughest Woodie on our trip and I banged my knee on the first drop. I can see it would’ve been an impressive and amazing ride back in the mid-70’s and there was still plenty of airtime, but it just hurt! Shame, as I was quite keen to ride one of these classic big Out & Back woodies. 5/10
That brought me to another ride that is renowned for its roughness, Blue Hawk (formerly Ninja). Repainted and refitted with new Vekoma trains with vest restraints, I wondered whether this was going to be a repeat of the Mind Eraser experience, where nothing can save an old Vekoma from being rough.
Well, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. From my front row ride I experienced very little roughness (though I could feel where headbanging would’ve occurred with OTSRs) and I really enjoyed the ride. It’s intense, with typically snappy inversions and one of the best headchopper moments of any cred I’ve ridden to date. If I’d had more time I’d definitely have re-ridden it and you don’t say that about old Vekomas often! Hopefully more parks with these old clunkers will consider changing the trains as I’m sure it would help make them more ridable. 7/10
(So photogenic - the cred I mean!)
With the back section of the park done, it was time to pick up any remaining creds, but not before cooling down on Splashwater Falls. Unfortunately this old Shoot the Chute had a very slow queue and only one boat in operation, but it still had the shortest queue of any water ride in the park and we desperately needed a splashing!
By now we had less than an hour left and still 3 creds to hit, so I made the decision to skip the Joker Funhouse coaster, even though it looked quite decent for a kiddie cred, and we headed for the oldest steel coaster I’ve ever ridden – Dahlonega Mine Train, the 1968 Arrow mine train. In retrospect I think the kiddie cred would’ve been more fun than this slow and rough old thing, but I suppose it’s a piece of coaster history if nothing else. 4/10
For the last cred of the day, and our trip, it was back to the front half of the park for Dare Devil Dive. It had been down not long before we arrived and that probably helped keep the queue short, but this was still the longest queue of the day at around 15 minutes. This was my first experience of a Eurofighter with lap bars instead of OTSRs, and boy does it make a difference! The ride was still quite jerky in places, but without anything to bang your head on it was much improved and that, combined with the swooping layout made this one of the best Eurofighters I’ve ridden, although I was so hot and bothered by this point I struggle to remember it all! 7/10
By this point it has passed our original 2pm deadline and was fast approaching 2:30, and after an aborted attempt to get food we decided to just get out of the park and head to the airport, which was a more arduous experience than it should’ve been but one I’ll spare the details of.
I have mixed feelings about SFOG. Undoubtedly it was the best of the three Six Flags parks we visited, with an excellent lineup of steel coasters and some really nice theming on some rides. With two dark rides, several water rides and decent landscaping too, it was a really nice park with something for everyone. My problem is that due to the intense heat and having to rush round, our experience there was rather unpleasant and a bit of a blur, so I’d definitely love to return as there are half a dozen rides I never got to try and plenty of creds I’d love to re-ride. In terms of improvements, the only things missing are a launched coaster and a decent modern woodie. If they gave Cyclone the RMC treatment (or just tore it down and replaced it with a GCI), retracked GASM and replaced the Scorcher with a decent launch coaster, I think this park would be near-perfect.
That completes my report on this huge trip that took in 14 States and 8(ish) parks. Overall it was a great trip, although by the end I was starting to feel my age and I doubt we’ll ever do anything so hectic again!
It was obviously disappointing to be spited by Lightning Rod, and missing a few other creds due to closures or lack of time was also annoying, but I still managed a healthy +45 new creds, with five of them making my Top Ten. I also achieved two of my main aims which were to ride some RMCs and enough wooden coasters that I could actually assemble a reasonable Top Ten Woodies. I now feel I’ve experienced enough coasters (good and bad) and theme parks to call myself a certified Goon!
To finish things off, here’s a few lists charting the highlights of my trip:
Top 5 New Steel Coasters
1. Wicked Cyclone (SFNE)
2. Goliath (SFOG)
3. Superman (SFNE)
4. Storm Chaser (Kentucky Kingdom)
5. Wild Eagle (Dollywood)
Top 5 New Wood Coasters
1. Thunderhead (Dollywood)
2. The Comet (Great Escape)
3. Yankee Cannonball (Canobie)
4. Kentucky Rumbler (Beech Bend)
5. Thunderbolt (SFNE)
Park Rankings
1. Dollywood
2. Six Flags Over Georgia
3. Canobie Lake Park
4. Kentucky Kingdom
5. The Great Escape
6. Six Flags New England
7. Beech Bend Park
8. Fun World
Weather-themed Coaster League Table
1. Wicked Cyclone
2. Storm Chaser
3. Thunderhead
4. Lightning Run
5. Tennessee Tornado
6. Thunderbolt
7. Georgia Cyclone
8. Thunder Run
Chicken and Fries League Table
1. Dollywood
2. Canobie Lake Park
3. Kentucky Kingdom
4. Six Flags New England
Thanks for reading!
