Southeast TR: GA and FL!

Well, seeing as how SFOG was open a week for spring break and I hadn't been there before, and had nothing else to do, Monica and I decided to head down to the southeast for a week.

Monday 4/4

Flew into ATL at 430pm and got a $5 upgrade on the rental car (Impala) and set out to find the park. The park is just west of town on I-20 about 10min from the airport and is wasn't long untill we crossed the Chattahoochee and spotted Acro through the trees.

We stayed at the Wingate which is basically on property for $69 which with breakfast and free parking (along with a nice room+fridge+micowave) was pretty good.

Got into the park at 515 or so and set about in a clockwise fasion. Mindbender was the coaster i was looking forward to the most so we headed off in that direction. Scorcher had a line so we passed it for the time being and head to Gotham.

Mindbender Closed. I had heard it hadn't opened for the season from a prior TR so I wasn't absolutely shocked. We had plans to be at the park on Friday anyway so we went over to

B:TR- Best themed Batman that I've seen (all but SFNO) and no wait. Definately a good change from riding Bullet all off season. Probably the best B:TR ride I've ever had. I love all the trees the park has too. Great ride 4/5

Left Gotham and continued to explore the park. Found Deja Vu and completed my conquest of non-operatable GIBs and continued over to

Ninja- Prayed to the "Please make it smooth" Ninja Idols and walked on to row 3:1. This was absolutely the best Vekoma/Arrow type sit down loopers. After Ninja at SFStL I really wasn't looking forward to this but once I saw that the first drop led into, a crazy double loop inversion, I got pretty excited. Overall the ride was smooth for its type and the incessent headchoppers were first rate. We both really enjoyed this ride which is rare, especially for a Veko. 5/5

GASMs wait was about 30-45 min and we only had about an hour left in the park so we passed on that and S:UF (temporarily down) and climed the hill to ride their mine train.

DMT- Interesting tri-lift Miney. seems like the kind of coaster I would get if I had a huge backyard. Kinda bumpy but very unique layout. The seat divider hurt my butt but the final drop into the tunnel was worth it. 3.5/5

Acro had a line and the Cyclone had blown a lift motor or something so we went back to the front of the park to ride

Scorcher- People had been talking alot of crap about how this was the bestest B&M standie so I was fairly anxious to try it out. 3 train wait later and were in a middle row heading up the lift. Great compact layout with great transitions. I like how they went with high banks in places where you know the could've put in a corks. It didn't hurt my nuts and I didn't get a headache so I'm putting this at the top of the list right under RRv. RRv still gets my vote for best B&M Stander but Scocher is light years ahead of either Chang or ughh...Mantis. 5/5

After putting our "feet to the fire" we doubled back to go ride S:UF and stopped at

Monster Plantation- AWESOME! I still have that song in my head. Sometimes it's best not to know anything about a ride before going on it for the first time. Of all the SFOG info on the web there is a derth of info about Monster Plantation. At first it felt like someone had flooded the Haunted Mansion and filled it with Hippy crackheads. Once we got to the Marsh I knew we had found something better than any Sally Scooby ride. Frikken great. 5/5

At this time we had a few minutes left so we went and joined the S:UF line to close out the day. This was our final Supes Flyer and we both decided it was the best. Partially because of the terrain useing layout, partially because you can't see a parking lot from this one. I didn't even notice the missing row and it was a great way to close out the day. 5/5

SFOG is an awesome park. Every coaster that they had open was running two trains. Most of the flats were operating as well which was suprising given how early in the season it was and the lack of any crowds in the park.

We were planning on going back in the morning but seeing as we had already ridden almost every coaster that would be open we decided just to get up early and head down to orlando.

More to come,

J-

SFoG really is one of my favorite SF parks. You really should have ridden Achrophobia since it's pretty much the best drop tower.

Ugh I hate that park. I was there on Thursday and JUST wanted to get my season pass processed but of course the processing office was closed (before we got there at 3pm) because "they sent em home early since there weren't many people getting them" or some lame line. Whatever, so we told her we were going to SFMM in two weeks and we lived in Orlando and were leaving that night so she was actually cool and had someone in the office take our picture but it wasn't until the end of the day she could do it.

Yay, three hours in SFoG hell.

But wait, there's NO ONE HERE. In fact it was supposed to close at 8pm but there was a sign announcing 6pm as the new closing time. Cool, let's ride Acro.

Ride closes for weather. Hmmm, a quick turn of the head skyward reveals bright sunlight, and some white whispy clouds. Maybe they can't run Acro in nice weather? Who knows, either way, EVERY MAJOR RIDE was down from about 315pm until 540pm. It rained at about 400 until 410. Why in the hell were the rides closed for that long? No other park in the planet would have done that.

I hate that friggin park. Thank God for its cheap season passes though.

Joe "bitter about not getting to ride Acrophobia" C.

^ your going to hate me.

I was there on thursday as well due to Wild adventures being closed because of rain. We got there at around 2 and then things started closing. We waited out the severe rain in the canyon blaster queue and walked around looking for stuff to do.

Monica went back to the hotel but I was determinded to wait for something to open.

Just after 515-520 Acro started testing! I waited at the loading gate for a few test cycles and got on for my one and only Acro ride. I went around to ride again but it went down for the rest of the day due to the tilting mechanism not retracting.

I was actually one of only 6 people to ride Acrophobia that afternoon.

Don "Really fricken lucky" G

BYW, Here is part 2...

Tuesday 4/5

After Breakfast at our hotel we hit the road south for Orlando. After looking at the map I realized that the distance from ATL to Orlando was about the same as the drive we do from San Fancisco to OC about every month.

We were passing through Valdosta in no time but were saving Wild Adventures for the drive back (which turned out to be a mistake, more on that later) so we continued into FL.

The whole drive had me thinking about Tommy's "Careoke" segment from '03 which had me chuckling to myself from time to time which in turn got me some strange looks from Monica.

We pulled into Uni Orlando about 6.5 hours after we left ATL and went to pick up our passes. I had bought each of us a Power Pass before we left home as their only $20 more than a 1 day parkhopper. We got to the automated "ceosks" by the ticket booths but only had one of our passes actually print. After a short stop at guest relations we were rewarded with an express pass for our troubles and went into USF.

We had both been to IOA once before but this was our first time in the studios park. Me being the tool taht i am I made a bee line for Mummy just as Mo got stopped by a Surveyist and signed us up for a product test.

Great, I just flew 6 hours and drove 200 miles to get within 100 feet of good mummy just to go inside some trailer in an alley behind Twister.

15 minutes and 4 Universal bucks later I was finally able to serve my own indugences for once and walking into Mummys' single rider line. The posted wait was 45 min but Monica and i were able to single rider ourselves into a walkon in the back row and we actually sat together. Now for the review....

caution...Bold Statements Follow......

Mummy- OK, I have been on USH Mummy about 10 times. I heard the comparisons, I've watched some on-rides, but nothing had prepared me for how much ass this Mummy kicks. I don't even think I can ride bad Mummy anymore. This one simply has more of anything and everything you could possibly ever want in a theme park attraction. It had more Fire, more Animatronics, and more suprises that I had thought. From the Soul sucking, to the airtime, to the trip to hell, this ride doesen't let up. I'm not trying to be a fanboy but I love this damn ride. It was better than Spiderman, better than TOT, and (when the fire is working) better than Indy. I'm gonna get off the Mummys nuts now but only reluctantly. 6/5

Well, that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. For the first time I wasn't upset about not going to WDW this trip. I had some pretty low expectations for USF, thinking it was all soundstages and little themepark but I was so wrong.

-OT, but why was DCA not built like this? USF's San Francisco area was so authentic. It was literaly an exact replica. DCA may have San Franciscan themes mixed in but USF has actually relocated the city. OT-

We wandered around the park clockwise from mummy and grabed Express passes for Earthquake and rode

Jaws- Dude this ride is awesome, much like the whole park. It is hard to review Jaws without references to the Jungle Cruise. Kudos for them keeping their guns, rifles at that. Big plusses for more fire, water explasions, and violence. Can you imagine how much it would rock if the JC Hippo pool ended the way Jaws does? 5/5

MiB- Silger rider in the house! 10 minute wait, front seat. Not much to say other than Best. Shooter. Ever. I know this ride cost them alot but it was so worth it. The interactivity is great, and the aliens are funny and gross, I loved it. I realized that they used the same ride vehicles as the Cat in the Hat does which is cool because the spinning is great on these. I of course scooled the 4 yr old gir next to me. She only got 3000 pts...pfft! 5/5

We went back over to Earthquake to use our passes and proceded into the preshow. Does anybody even remember U-571? Being from CA I was certainly curious as to how this attraction was set up. The long trams they use are pretty efficeint if a bit akward looking. The show scene is identicle to it's Hollywood couterpart, which is to say, quite good. It was neat to see the effect seated in the opposite direction though, as we were near the front of the train. 4/5

We decided to skip some things as they are virtually indenticle to attractions in Hollywood like Shrek and T2. We skipped Back to the Future because, well, it sucks.

Woodys Vekoma went down when we walked over to it so we jumped on ET because we miss the little guy. I'm so glad FL still has this. It even has the "ET queue smell" the old one did. I miss ET. 4/5

We then processed our passes and hopped over to IOA. We had about 2 hours left before park closing so we skipped Mythos and instead went to the Enchanted Oak for yummy corn and chicken. It had been about three years since our last visit to IOA so we wnt to get reaccuainted with the Dragons.

Ice- We used our uni pass GR gave us and queued for Ice first. I forgot how cool the near misses are. I've ridden all but one of the B&M inverts in this country so I really got to appreciate these two for the awesome rides they are. I'm going to go ahead and say it, Fire is way better. They are both great rides but Fire man, whoa. 5/5

Next we wandered over to Hulk stopping at Cat in the Hat on the way. Since this was the only park on our trip that we'd been too before we kinda just walked around and hit our favorites. We were able to use our Uni pass again (nobody ever took it) for Hulk and got a killer back seat ride. Hulk is just a great coaster. Everything you could want in a major ride is here. Expedition G-Force better be a dang good ride to knock Hulk down a peg or two on the polls because as far as I'm concerned, nothing at Cedar Point can touch Hulk. 5/5

We were happy to see that the P-Flyers were running (they were down the only other time we were here), but were pretty upset when we realized that we neede a kid in order to ride. This is the forth caprio batflyer that I've been to but didn't get to ride for one reason or another. I'm starting to think I'll never get on one. 0/5

The park was closing so I jumped on Fire again while Monica shopped. We left the park and headed to our hotel.

We stayed at the Days Inn on 192 east of I-4, next door to Old Town. After checking in the uber present Timeshare guy gave me some ticket books and a buy one get one free coupon for the two coasters at Old Town.

Me and Mo went out to check out the rides and stuff. We really wanted to ride the sling shot and skycoaster but $25 a person was more than we wanted to spend. Now admitidly, both rides looked pretty much better than any that we'd seen before, but they'd have to wait for another time.

I purchased 7 tickets ($7) because the lady said that we would be allowed to ride the Dragon Wagon (Take that IOA!) The Windstorm was fun, they always are. Plus i was able to shoot some night POV, sweet. When we went to ride the DW Monica had started to feel a little self concious. Luckily i was able to channel her inner coaster tool "chi" and she took a seat next to me. 4-5 circuts later we went back to our hotel.

We didn't stop there though. Anyone who knows me knows that i can't be within two offramps from Disneyworld without going so we set out for DTD so I could go pick up a Tech N9ne CD from the Virgin Megastore and weep at the Richard Branson shrine. I took the long way back to the hotel just so I could drive by TOT and Spaceship earth, yes i am a tool, and no I'm not ashamed.

Awesome TR!

It's funny it sounds like you and I have nearly the same take on all the rides at Universal Studios!

I think Mummy is in my Top 10!!!!

Elissa "but I'm mad at you for not going to Mythos!" Alvey

^ Don't worry, I found out Mythos has pizza so were going there next month!

After I realized how much fun FL is (and that we were going to get rained out of Wild Adventures) we made plans to go back next month.

Heres part 3: Wispers in the night

Wednesday 4/6

We woke up and went to the Ponderosa across the street for the $3.99 breakfast buffet. Overall I prefer the Pondy on west 192, this one was just OK.

Crucial Warning about the Ponderosa Steakhouse!!,

DO NOT eat the strawberry syrup! It tastes like melted hard candy if melted hard candy tasted like horrible cough medicine. Stay far, far away!

After breakfast and a trip through the obligatory kissimmee gift shop we went over to Sea World. We still have our Sea World CA Platnium passes so we parked for free and went into the park.

We were short on time again today because we wanted to do more at Uni and then drive back to GA. Luckily we got there at opening and walked right on to

Journey- Cool little boat ride. It's the Apple to the Orange in San Diego. I wasn't blown away by the story on this one but the theming was cool and the ride itself was top rate. Usually I don't like getting wet at parks but I was willing to do so for a credit, plus the ride seemed pretty cool. After the first drop we got a lttle wet, not too bad considering we were in the front. Little did I know that once we rounded the bend and went down the small drop a tsumani would wash over the front of the boat and right into both of our laps. Not cool journey, not cool.

The Coaster parts of the ride are real fun and I'll definately ride next time I'm at the park, just not in the front 5/5

Kraken- Man has this ride been hyped over the years, and for good reason. The First half didn't really blow me away, it was pretty much like any first course, albeit in a great location. The last half however is one of the greatest anywhere. Flat spins into trenches and tunnels do it for me every time.

I think that if you were to take the first half of wildfire and replace the MCBR with a warp gate to the second half of kraken, and put the load and unload in IOA you'd have the very best looping coaster in the world. I got 3 rides on Kraken and they were all really good. I love Florida! 5/5

Since we were at Sea World we figured we might as well see some aquatic mammals. We were able to catch the first Killer Whale show. Having seen Killer Whales shows at 3 Sea Worlds as well as the new one at SFMW this one definately was the best. They had the best enclosure, the most Whales, a great theater, and some tricks that I hadn't seen before. We wuv the animals. 5/5

By this time we had spent more than 4 hours in FL without being at Uni so we headed back over there. We decided to start off in USF again as there were still things we hadn't done plus open seats on Mummy that wern't being filled.

After my Mummy fix we queued for Twister. I knew that this was Floridas answer to Backdraft (which I love) and I was very eager to see it. The preshow was missing that certain Opie Cunningham quality of backdraft but Helen Hunt has a full head of hair so i guess it's a draw.

The actual show is strikingly similer to Backdraft. So much so that I believe they could swap these two out if the shows ever got stale. Backdraft would be awesome with a flying cow. I like Twister, very windy. 5/5

We had lunch at the Monster place east of shrek(forgot the name) and I grabbed 2 more Mummy rides while Mo finished eating. One bit of staleness though, none of the fire effects on Mummy were working that day. So glad I got to ride on tuesday when they were working.

We finally went over to get out Nuthouse coaster credit. Man, Uni has express on EVERYTHING, including the coaster. This is the place to go if you want to spring for onsite accomodations. Even Disney doesn't give you perks like you get here. Oh, the coaster was fun. As was tooting whistles in the queue.

The last thing we did before leaving USF was ride Jimmy Neutron. Monica, who is a big Spongebob and Zim fan, and I both loved it. Even though we've never been huge Neutron fans. I never got a chace to ride the Hanna*Barbarra version, so I don't know how this compares, but I liked it even better than the Spongebob 4D sims. 5/5

Time for our last time in IOA this trip. We just rode both Dragons, shopped around a bit and went through Posidons Fury and then it was time to go.

We drove about 3.5 hrs to Valdosta and stayed the night at The Ramada Limited one exit north of Wild Adventures.

Thursday coming up in a few...

-Don

I'm glad you guys are enjoying my TR. It's a slow day at work so I'm spending 3 hours typing up a trip report. Gotta make more money for trips!

Anyway, heres part 4: The Phantom Menace

Thursday 4/7

I woke up before Monica which was odd but there were credits to be had! I have been looking forward to going to Wild Adventures for a while. This year the bought a Screamin' Swing that I could ride for free so I was pretty psyched.

I went over to the window and opened the curtain and saw...rain. Alot of rain. Accident on the freeways rain. Flood watch rain.

I was so bummed, plus I had already gotten dressed. I was making plans to go to Wal*Mart and buy some umbrellas when I figured there was probably a good chance of the park not opening today.

Ever the optomist I checked out and headed over to the park as lightning crashed around us and lakes began to form.

We got to the park and saw a line of cars heading out of the employee lot and a CLOSED sign at the parking booth. Especially frustrating was the fact that the day before we had drove right past the park but decided not to stop in for an hour as we'd have to pay for parking and we really wanted to get to Uni.

At this point we cemented our plan to come back out next month. WA is only 3.5 hours north of Orlando and their waterpark will probably be open then. Plus we can ride SheikRa and sepend a day at WDW.

There wasn't much else we could do that day. Orlando was too far and I didn't feel like exploring historic downtown Valdosta, GA in the rain. We sheepishly turned northward to Atlanta.

The day wasn't all bad though, on the way back to GA we stopped at the "Clothing Circus" or some damn thing to look at John Deere mesh hats (Very vouge right now in the south) and some outlet mall so Mo could go shoe shopping. I got to beat my head against a wall out of boredom several times so there was fun had by all.

We ended up back at the SFOG Wingate at around 2 and beat the rain so we went back to the park. Mindbender was still not up yet and Canyon Blaster was still testing with Dummies. The Rain started as we were in line for the Antique Cars. About half way around the course I felt like walking up to the carousel but monica made me stay put.

I rode the Carousel next to get another HorseyPole credit while monica filmed my hilarious antics. We got caught in some sever rain so were took shelter underneath the Canyon Blaster enterence and i practice my british accent for a while while Mo floated bugs on leaves in the streams that were developing. I think she was racing them, I'm not really sure.

Once the rain let up a bit we wandered the park for a while trying to find a ride that was open. Finally the sun came out some activity was taking place. Monica went back to the room to dry off her new shoes while i went over to Acrophobia to pine.

Acro-As soon as I walked pu the hill it started testing! Yes! I was the first in line and i stood through 3 test cycles and then the gates opened!

This was to be my first Gyro drop ever. I decided that when the time was right this would be my first. Because of lines and closures at other parks it turned out to be my first too, weird.

First thing I noticed about it was that it looks really short. I'm like "That's Acrophobia? Helevator is taller than that!"

As I went up the rotation was cool but it felt like I was at PGA as far as height goes. Then the tilt started. I slowly went from "oh this isn't so bad" to "OMG! Not Cool! NOT COOL!!"

The drop was fan-freakin-tastic. I ran around for another ride when the ride-op declared the ride closed for the rest of the day. The seats failed to retract. By this time a crowd had formed and they were all pretty let down. As far as the ride, awesome 5/5 very scary, on par with Swat.

Unbeknowst to me at this time was that they had changed the park closing time from 8pm to 6. I walked onto the front row of the mine train then I decided to get my GASM credit (finally) and essentially have 2 hours of S:UF ERT.

I walked into the empty GASM queue as a train was leaving full of guests. Sweet, I'm gonna get the credit before monica! Nope.

As I get to the gate the ride-op tells me that that was the last train of the day and that the park is now closed. Even though they send another train empty after I leave. Grrr....

We end the night back at the hotel feasting on frozen food from the Sprawl*Mart doen the street.

Don "Stupid Rain" G

Friday 4/8

Dang, By this time it feels like we've done a week and a half worth of stuff in 5 days. I picked a 6pm flight incase we still needed some things at SFOG, which was a good thing because we did.

The weather was great today. No rain and plenty of sun. First thing,

GASM- After 5 days of trying I finally get on a woodie. Monica and I get the front seat in a train all by ourselves! We even get a reride when there is nobody in line when we return! Very fun woodie, good speed, nice layout with some good floater over most of the hills. I was able to shoot a really nice POV on the first ride and then just enjoy the second. This is why I am an enthusiest, to enjoy good morning rides on a great wooden coaster 1600 miles from work.

It was so nice after being denied so many times to finally ride GASM. One of the best rides in the park. 5/5

Next up was a two train wait on S:UF. I went to ride while monica went to film. I got my first backseat ride on one of these. OMFGDude, the pretzle takes you from like -1 to +14 in the back. I would like to try it in an inverted train just once.

We noticed that Canyon Blaster was testing without dummies so we headed there next. There were rideops on the platform but they weren't ready to open just yet. No problem, lets head to Mindbender.

As we walk around the crimewave I see a Minbender train go through a loop. Yes, Yes, Yes! The coaster I came to GA for is actually open...with one train...and a mostly full queue. Still, I don't care and I get in line.

Mindbender- Shockwave at SFOT was my first Looping coaster. When I first learned about Mindbender I knew I'd have to ride it someday. We took a seat in the front of the last car. I love loopys with lapbars. IMO this coaster is what revolution should be like, looping through the trees, dipping into low areas without boxing your ears. Great ride, even though it only has TWO loops and a tilty helix. I thought there was going to be more of a tunnel but whatever. 5/5 Very glad I got to ride it.

Canyon Blaster was open by this time so we took a ride. This would be my 4th canyon blaster coaster. It was pretty fun actually. Much better than the one at SFMM. I'm glad they built a larger "kiddie" coaster. It almost classifies as a terrain coaster as it dips toward a nearby creek. Fun. 4/5

At this point we went around and shot video, rerode a few things, rode the skyway, bought a shirt and left the park. We went down I-20 and ate at an Olive Garden at the mall because monica wouldn't let me go to Waffle House. j/k

We were plenty early for our flight and really enjoyed our trip. The rain notwithstanding I don't know how we could have done it better. I'm glad we don't have to wait long before our next trip, I'm fiending for some mummy right now.

thanks for reading!

-Don

Hmmm...

Looks like someone should have paid more attention to our site (especially the Sea World updates!!!)...

http://www.themeparkreview.com/flfall2004/swo1.htm

Great TR's! I hope they'll switch out Twister and Backdraft, I like Backdraft so much more!

Elissa "haha to riding in the front row!!!" Alvey

Ugh I hate that park. Waah, waah, waah. I hate that friggin park.

 

Joe "bitter about not getting to ride Acrophobia" C.

Man, I didn't whine THAT much when I didn't get to ride my Cyclone two days in a row. Ah Joe, you poor thing. Go ride Mummy... a lot.

Have fun in Cali! 8)

Well, thery're a bit late, but here are some pix from our trip!

Dude, how awesome IS Kracken!

Monica likes they Batman

OMG this is like Windstorm #4 for me

Since I feel I have to choose...Fire.

I make friends wherever I go!

Gangsta Tut!

Check out this Mini-Mullet!

Why even go to Hollywood anymore?

Mummy USF last week was running FAR more intense than it was in October/Nov as well. So if it was running the same intensity, then you definatly got the same treat.

However, Imhotep wasnt working (the awesome animatronic) so his casket stayed closed and a light of eyes was shone on it instead...lame.

Advice: In the fire room before the last segment, DONT LOOK UP at the billowing fire unless you want your eyes to burn. I didnt think it was that hot...till I looked up.