Arieally Last Minute USA Trip - Day 2, Dollywood

[JoshC.]

So with Fun Spot Atlanta closing down, and more specifically ArieForce One potentially going down forever, I made the decision to do a last-minute state-side trip. I'd been loosely toying with the idea of a US trip next year, so I already had some funds set aside for such a trip, but not as much as I'd really have liked.

Obviously I didn't want a trip out there to just been for Fun Spot, and even adding in the nearby Six Flags Over Georgia, didn't feel like enough of a trip. A 4hr drive to Dollywood seemed appropriate to make the trip worthwhile. And so this trip was born...

Day 0 - Fun Spot Atlanta
I got up at 4am on a Thursday to get to Heathrow. The cheapest flight I had available to me was a flight to Newark, with a couple of hours transfer, to then take me to Atlanta, getting me there for 3.30pm.

In the build up to the trip, a lot of the weather forecasts were predicting storms for the entirety of my trip - eek. After I picked up my car, there was a downpour of rain, which seemed to be going on for a while. So rather than heading straight for Fun Spot, I went to my hotel and picked up supplies from Walmart. By the time that was done and the threat of storms subsided, I got to Fun Spot for 6pm. And there was only one place to head...

ArieForce One

The ride was only running one train, but was walk on. I got a third-to-last row ride for my first go...

And damn, what a ride. This was worth the last minute scramble to get out there. The first drop is perfectly floaty, the weird first inversion has a lovely bit of whip to it. The resulting drop goes into a mini air time hill, which serves the job of alleviating from the high positive Gs and actually providing air time, something few of these mini hills after a drop does. And that drives you straight into zero-g stall, which is done to perfection.



The rest of the ride is then relentless. And outerbank turn goes into multiple hills and rolls. This then leads to the finale of multiple, small, aggressive air time hills which fling you out of your seat. They're powerful, quick, aggressive but not painful. The perfect mix. It is an absolute joy to ride, and slamming you into the breaks.

It won't be to everyone's taste - the aggression is a lot. But if you are comfortable with that type of airtime, dear god you will love it.



Over the next two hours, there was a steady stream of people re-riding, with more and more people gradually being there. I managed to get 8 rides on it, including front and back row rides, as well as rides on the park's other two coasters. Every ride was as good as the last, with both front and back row rides being big, big highlights. The threat of storms had definitely gone away, but that led to very hot, humid, sunny weather.




By 8pm, I was shattered. The mix of jetlag and the heat, plus riding an intense coaster multiple, had left me feeling very tired. The queue was picking up, going to the bottom of the stairs. During those 2 hours, they had tested the second train, but made it clear they weren't putting it on for...whatever reason. Nonetheless, staff were incredible and worked quickly and efficiently, as well as being very friendly.

And so a quick 20 minute drive back to my hotel and my first day was done. 22 hours since waking up, I was knackered, exhausting and yet buzzing from riding what must have been one of the best coasters I've done.

ArieForce One doesn't crack into my Top 3 (which consists of Intamin launch coasters), but it is definitely in the upper echelons of my count. It's so close between AF1, Untamed and Skyrush as to what I prefer. I think Skyrush is possibly the slightly better ride of the 3, but harder to re-ride compared to the other two, which does rank it down a bit. AF1 slightly pips Untamed because the airtime is just a bit more aggressive, so that brings it up.

And so that's that. Coming soon: A Wet Six Flags Day!

 

[JoshC.]

Day 1 - Six Flags Over Georgia
With SFOG not opening until 11, and my hotel being pretty close by, I was able to have a decent lie in and get some much-needed sleep. I also had my first taste of an Ihop, grabbing some delicious pancakes for breakfast.

Now as mentioned, there were threats of storms for the entirety of my trip. The weather forecast for the day was pretty bleak - some rain at around 1pm, and then storms from 3pm until at least 7pm. As such, my action plan was simple: run and grab all the creds as quickly as possible, and then enjoy the park afterwards. I had no clue if roughly 4 hours would be enough to tackle the park or not, having no clue how busy the park would be, and knowing that the park was quite spread out.



I got to the park for about 10.30 and was held on the main street. My plan was to run to the notoriously low-throughput Dare Devil Dive first. But after hanging around for a few minutes, I noticed Twisted Cyclone had opened early. With plenty of time to spare, I figured I'd check it out. It was only running one train, but only had a one train wait: perfect!

Twisted Cyclone
I got a ride near the front. The twisted horeshoe inversions are pretty bland and forgettable, but the ride picks up quickly, with lots of fun airtime and whips around. It's the wackiness that RMC is now renowned for, but again not straying into discomfort. It is a short ride, but it packs a lot in and left me with a huge smile on my face. Definitely one to re-ride if I got the chance.



I made my way back to the holding area that led towards DDD and noticed some people being let through, and quickly realised it was for passholders. 'Hang on a moment' I thought, "I'm a passholder!". I bought the SFOG Silver Pass, as it was cheaper than a park ticket and parking ticket combined. And so I got through! I had no clue if this meant that there was some sort of ERT but hey, I'll take it.

Wandering past the park's B&M Stand Up, which was open, I came across Dare Devil Dive...with a chain and a bin in front of the entrance. Ooft. No matter, maybe it opens at 11. Let's go back to an open ride...

Georgia Scorcher
I've done one B&M Stand Up before, Green Lan-turd at SFGAd. I was not a fan. I'd also done Shockwave at Drayton Manor, and didn't like that either. So I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn't hate Georgia Scorcher.
I didn't like it, and it did leave me feeling a little worse for wear, but it was fine.

With 11am now been and gone, I re-checked in on DDD and it still had the bin of doom in front of it. Instead, I found myself gravitating towards Goliath, the park's B&M Hyper.



It really dominates this half of the park and looks cool. I've always had a bit of a hit and miss relationship with B&M Hypers. They're rides which I find need time to warm up to show them at their best, and usually require multiple re-rides for me to 'get' or appreciate them. But since time might not be on my side, I figured it was worth getting it out the way.



It was running 2 trains and I was able to walk straight on to the back row. And I...enjoyed the ride. A lot. I think I've finally got my expectations for a B&M Hyper right and know what to expect. It was filled with nice, floaty airtime and had a decent layout to boot. The ending in particular was good fun.
Goliath does seem to have a bit of vibration going on, especially during turnarounds, but it didn't detract from the experience.

It's nothing special, but it's damn good fun.

Now at this stage, I was close to the park's Gotham City area, featuring two creds, including a Batman clone. I did notice the park seemed quiet, and so I should be able to do everything, but I thought I'd rather maximise time and get on rides I haven't done before going towards clones...just in case. That led me towards the 'back' of the park, and I saw something flying around. Was it a bird? Yes, a....Blue Hawk.



I got a solo ride on this Vekoma beast at the front. And honestly, it was brutal. Okay, that's me exaggerating a bit. It wasn't awful...but it definitely bashed my head around a bit and just wasn't all that enjoyable. To be honest, it's what I expected from this and I never like these types of Vekomas.

Great American Scream Machine followed. Cool name. Rubbish ride. I'd loved to say something like "well it's old and a ride of its time", but the Blackpoo woodies are older and better, so I can't say that.

Carrying on around the park took me to Superman - Ultimate Flight.
"But hang on Josh, you said you've been to SFGAd and you were avoiding clones at first to get new rides. AND SFGAd has a Superman and you've done that, no?"
You'd be right if you were thinking that. But Superman happened to be en route, and the park was pretty dead, which had pretty much alleviated my concerns of getting everything done on time.

Anyways, Superman. I didn't like it at SFGAd, particularly the pretzel loop, so was a tad apprehensive. I got a row 2 ride, with 6 of us on the ride. Anddddd...it was surprisingly alright. I don't know if being near the front made it better. Or just being better prepared for the pretzel loop helped. But the ride was enjoyable enough. Nothing crazy, but it was fine.

I ticked off the two smaller / family creds, Joker Funhouse and the Mine Train, which were basically +1s, before heading over to Gotham City. I'm not a big Batman / superhero person in general to be honest, but I think this is one of the better done superhero areas I've see actually, especially for an outdoor area.
Anyways, Batman The Ride was decent. The queue wasn't as cool as its counterpart at SFGAd, but the ride was. And Riddler Mindbender was fine for what it was...an aging Schwarzkopf cred.



And breathe. I checked in on Dare Devil Dive, and it still had the bin of doom in front of it, with no visible work going on. So it felt like it would be spiting me. Which was a real shame, as I was actually really looking forward to trying Anubis-sans-launch.

But at this point it was 12.30. So in 90 minutes, I'd checked off all the open creds on park. I could relax on that front. And the park was quiet. And also...I was actually quite enjoying myself. There's a decent selection of coasters here, the vibe around the park was pretty cool and there was still plenty of other rides to try.

Then came the dreaded announcement - "Due to imminent bad weather, may of our attractions are temporarily closing down". It wasn't unexpected. There was no rain yet, but it was coming...

This seemed like the perfect time for lunch, at "one of the best theme park restaurants".


It was okay, but the meat was a bit too fatty and the beans far too sweet. But the cornbread was LUSH. Still, not one of the best theme park restaurants I've been to...

With that done, time to tick off the two dark rides at the park. And one thing I've learnt is that, surprisingly, Six Flags, is pretty decent at doing dark rides!

First up is the seeming cult classic Monster Mansion. An indoor boat ride where you are invited to to go on a picnic with some monsters. The animatronics are decent. There's a good amount of theming and it's just done pretty well on the whole.
Next up is the Justice League shooting dark ride. I make it no secret that I love shooting dark rides, and this one is done pretty well. Solid theming, a good blend between real sets and screens and a great length. My only downside is that it does leave me feeling a bit motion sick by the end due to the vehicle's movements in front of screens..


I also got in the Top 1% of scores, apparently.

I moved onto some re-rides, getting another go on Twisted Cyclone and Goliath before another weather warning played out. And this time is was the big one. Thunder, lightning and heavy rain all came quite quickly. And there was no sign of it letting up.

I did a bit of mooching in some shops, and tried to re-ride Monster Mansion, but that was closed (possibly because the station is outside?). And with this storm predicted to be lasting for a few hours, and me already being soaked, I decided to call it day, 4 or so hours in.



Despite knowing this would likely happen, I was disappointed as I was really enjoying my time at the park, and I'd have loved the chance to experience rides after they properly warmed up. But heyho, these things happen. Still, I had a good, albeit very wet, Six Flags Day!

After returning to my car and completely changing out of my completely sodden clothes, I began the 2 hour journey to my hotel, which was a nice half way point between SFOG and my next park, Dollywood...

 

[JoshC.]

Day 2 - Dollywood
Now Dollywood has been a bucket list park for me for...almost 20 years. So when I was flying into Atlanta, and Dollywood was a mere 4 hours away, I simply had to do it. I was stoked that the park had amazing opening hours for my day, 10am-9.30pm, but gutted to miss out on the new Nightflight Expedition.



As mentioned, I'd driven half way the day before, and so I made my way to the park for 9am. Now I went against the recommendations of some and paid for on-site parking (it gave me peace of mind, which was priceless, especially since I'm a little paranoid ever since my car issue in Madrid...). I was able to park in Lot F, which was a couple of minute walk to the entrance (as opposed to a bus ride).

Gates opened at 9.30am, and I made a beeline towards to Mystery Mine, knowing it gets long queues and has a poor throughput. And come 10am, I was first in the queue.

The first thing to say is how incredible the exterior of the ride looks. And more broadly, the area in general looks fab. The audio in the area and queue is catchy, plus the song that plays is a really cool bonus too.



So straight away I'd been mesmerised by the aesthetic of the ride, but how would the ride itself go...The start into the drop is decent, and then the dark section is quirky. The world's smallest vertical lift hill follows, and gives us an outdoor section which isn't all that memorable but does the job. An indoor vertical lift hill comes ahead, and the top of the hill features an fabulous fire effect, leading to a decent drop and double inversion to finish it off.



As a pure coaster layout, it's nothing special - but it ends strongly. But the complete package is WONDERFUL and something which really struck a chord with me.



The Mystery Mine area does lead nicely to the park's newest area, Wildwood Grove, and I decided to tick off the park's newest coaster which is tucked away here as a result. In hindsight this was a mistake, but I'll get there.

Wildwood Grove is a nicely presented area, which obviously is growing. But it's an interesting one, because it's a large area, which goes away from the circular shape of the park, and is a dead end. Necessary for the park's growth, but inconvenient right now for guests.

Anyways enough rambling, I made my way to the back of the area and came across Big Bear Mountain with a 15 minute queue. With 3 launches but only 2 trains, I was worried it might be a slow moving queue, but it does move well. And 15 minutes later, I got a back row ride. It does the job for a family launch coaster - good pacing, very good length and overall good fun.



The issue is the landscaping. The ride largely takes place in a field, with little else. There's a cool water feature, and that works well. But it needs more. Just some trees / bushes would work and really elevate the ride.



The other thing is the ride is called Big Bear Mountain, and it's all about finding bears. But there's no bears anywhere. The onboard audio references it, but there's none about. Having some shrubbery would help imply the existence of bears at the very least.

Speaking of the onboard audio, that is good. In fact, it made me burst out laughing when it says "bear left" and you turn left, "bear right" and you turn right. Yes, I'm easily amused.



So yeah, in short: good ride, but needs more landscaping.

It would have made sense to do the nearby Dragonglider at this point, but it had a long-looking queue. So I instead ventured away from Wildwood Grove and headed towards FireChaser Express. And this is where the aforementioned mistake was: this had a 45 minute queue at this point, and seemed to move slow. But it surely had a shorter queue earlier. After hanging around for a couple of minutes, I saw via the app that Wild Eagle had no queue. So I decided to head there instead.

So, Wild Eagle. I only had a one train wait for the back row. And I love how this ride has been incorporated into the natural surroundings of the park, is tucked away and yet so central. It's also great seeing it from afar: it is so high up being built on a hill, yet you don't fully realise that on the ride.



As for the ride itself, it's got quite a classic old-school B&M vibe to it. Good length, good inversions and nice pops of airtime here and there. The first drop also gives some nice floater too. As cool as the dive drop is on wing coasters, it's a shame more of them don't have this straight drop.

At this point, it was now a case of tackling the park in a clockwise-esque fashion. I stumbled across Tennessee Tornado, the multi-looping Arrow sit down coaster. Now perhaps a hot-take, but this gave me a very Nemesis vibe: it uses terrain well, and feels very built into its surroundings. It's an impressive ride with how it all comes together. It's an intense ride, and not my style of ride, but it's altogether a decent attraction. It also never got a queue during the day, but it definitely has a place in the park.



Carrying on the cred-counting, next up with Blazing Fury. Stretching the definition of a cred in some ways, but hey-ho, it's a nicely presented experience.

Next up should have been one of the park's more famous rides, Flash Stick or something like that, but as soon as I joined the queue it shut down, and loads of people were leaving the queue. So it seemed not to be. Instead, I ticked off the rapids, which were fun, and then ventured back for some world-famous Dollywood cinnamon bread. And my god this by itself would have made the trip worthwhile. Delicious. Stunning. Also worth getting a pot of apple butter for dipping; extra tasty.


If you go to Dollywood and don't each cinnamon bread, did you really go to Dollywood?

The park had only been open a couple of hours at this point, and though the park was lively, it wasn't exactly busy. And despite weather forecasts previously suggesting there would be storms during the day, that threat had completely disappeared. So I was excited to be able to enjoy the park for the next 9 hours.

Queue times suggested that Dragonflier was the shortest wait of the remaining creds, so I ticked that off. Again, my on-park planning wasn't the best here. Given Wildwood Grove is in its own dead-end area, it felt a bit of a waste doubling back on myself. It was also a double kick as Big Bear had a long queue; one not worth waiting again. Ah well.
Anyways, Dragonflier is an Orkanen clone. It's nice, but not much else to say.

Thunderhead was advertising a 45 minute queue, but that seemed to be a mistake...it was only a 2 train wait! Brilliant luck.
Now Thunderhead is a ride I'd heard very little about prior to my visit. And frankly, I'm not sure why. This GCI is a cracker of a ride, which is just go go go from start to finish. Maybe the reason I've heard very little about is because, outside of what I've just said, there's not much else to say. It's just a damn solid ride, but one that should be shouted about a bit more.

I was left between two rides at this point: FireChaser Express, or this little coaster...Bolt Pole or something? Anyways, FireChaser had a 65 minute queue and Electrical Discharge Shaft had a 40 minute queue, so the choice was obvious.

Lightning Rod's queue ended up being just over an hour in any case, but oh well. You don't see much of the ride, just the lift (featuring no launch now, sad) and the end of the quad-down into the final turnaround. And to be honest, though I had watched a POV of the ride (from everyone's favourite coaster site, CoasterForce) many years ago, I forgot the rest of the layout.



But damn, what a ride. The pre-drop is fine, though would have been better with a launch for sure. But the rest of the ride is filled with airtime, from the drop to the outerbank turns, to being fast-paced and just a ton of fun. And then, woah boy, the quad-down hits. And each down throws you out your seat more than the last. And then the final turnaround into the brakes gives a huge sense of speed to help you fully appreciate what the eff you've just experienced.



I'm genuinely gutted that I didn't get the chance to ride this with a launch. But equally, if it still had a launch, there's no guarantee it would have actually been operational on the day I visited, so...give and take and all that.


Do you think I can use this as an Out of Office response at work?

Final cred to talk about is of course FireChaser Express. I ended up queueing almost 90 minutes for this, partially because it seems to run so badly, partially because of terrible Fastrack merge management, partially because it's such a popular ride. And honestly? The ride is fine, but it's in no way worth that 90 minute wait. And it's not as good as its French counterpart, Pégase Express. So a bit of a sour note to finish the creds on.

Anyways, I had a ton of time left to enjoy the rest of the park, eat lots of the good food the park has and get some re-rides in. I also got the opportunity to ride the park's steam train (thanks @toofpikk for the recommendation there), which gave some good views. I didn't experience any of the park's shows, since shows are less my thing, but it's something I would have liked to have done if time was on my side.

The park did quieten out as time went on, which led to some dusk rides on Lightning Rod thanks to a 5 minute queue. And by god they were glorious, especially at the back row.



I haven't done that many American parks (including Fun Spot, it's up to 7). But Dollywood is my favourite, by some distance, and the first US park that I'm itching to get back to already. And Pigeon Forge in general is somewhere I'd love to spend more time in.


Dollywood: I will be back.

 

[JoshC.]

Round Off
So after that day at Dollywood, that bought me to Sunday, and my flight home. That involved a 4 hour drive back to Atlanta.

Now I did have a SFOG pass and in theory could have squeezed an hour or two there for free if I wanted, or I could have spent out on a few extra laps on AF1, but I wasn't that fussed and wanted a calm day. Sadly my flight was delayed by 2.5hrs so I probably could have had a couple of stress-free hours at either place, but oh well. Annoyingly, it meant I missed my connection at Newark. Fortunately I was put on the next flight hour, which should have meant an hour transfer time at Newark, but that one was also delayed by 2.5hrs. Argh.

So the overnight flight went down, with a person puking their guts for most of the time. What a lovely way to end the trip.

Some goony bits:
Coaster count before: 458
Coaster count after: 481 (closing in on 500!)
New parks: 3
Best new coaster: ArieForce One (#4)
Worst new coaster: Great American Scream Machine
Biggest surprises: Thunderhead being as good as it is and SFOG not being as awful as I expected
Biggest disappointment: GASM being a bit rubbish

 

[Will]

I still don't understand how we didn't manage to bump into each other - I landed in Atlanta about two hours after you, and seemed to remain a few hours behind the whole time!

I went to Georgia Aquarium on the Friday morning, thinking it would be slightly quieter and I might avoid some of the bad weather, then did Fun Spot in the evening. It didn't take me long after arriving to work out why the place was closing - I think Brean Leisure Park has a better first impression - but Arie Force One was definitely worth the trip. A lot of the highly rated RMCs have felt a bit overhyped to me, but this wasn't one of them, it's so fast and yet so smooth - even that ludicrous ending doesn't really feel like it's beating you up in the same way as something like Untamed or Steel Vengeance. I hit the brakes laughing moreorless every time and had a stupid grin on my face throughout the entire ride. In fact, I liked it that much that I returned the next evening - the weather caught up with me in a big way, but the ride managed to keep running (Luckily some of the queue is indoors - one train got stuck on the brakes and the passengers returned looking a little like drowned rats!) Another highlight was the fact that basically everyone in the park seemed to be an enthusiast on the Saturday evening - the wait times for the coaster really picked up, but I got talking to a lot of people, which was reminiscent of accidentally visiting Holiday World during their enthusiast event. I'm having an internal debate about whether I can keep a closed coaster in my top 10.

I've had to adjust my own expectations for legacy Six Flags parks - Great Adventure is fairly forgettable aside from El Toro, and SFoG is even moreso. I'd say you missed very little with Dare Devil Dive (the lap restraint improves things to a degree, but it's still far from comfortable) - Georgia Scorcher wasn't fun, but is a hell of a lot better than Vortex (surely the worst B&M on the planet). I was surprised by the intensity of Goliath - perhaps weather and jet lag were taking their toll, but I greyed out on the turnaround every time - one of the better hypers, but not worth the trip if you're not in the area. Batman is also significantly better than it's New Jersey cousin, but really made me feel my age. Everything else was kind of a 'one and done' - I'd forgotten about that dreadful mine train, so thank you for reminding me... After seeing everyone's reviews, I bought a Fastlane for the utterly ludicrous Monster Mansion - and exited to find the sky had entirely changed colour. A thunderstorm and very heavy rain ensued and looked like it was there to stay, so I gave up - annoyingly, that meant I had to go back the next day for Twisted Cyclone which was on one train and had a fairly horrendous queue - good fun, but not in the same league as AF1.

I'd heard horror stories about Atlanta roads (they didn't look much fun, but not as bad as Florida) so did the whole thing by Uber, so Dollywood will have to wait for another time - it sounds great (outside of Orlando, Busch is the only 'themed' park I've done over there). And finally - no, Atlanta airport wasn't my favourite either. I went for the direct flights - they weren't too bad once the World Cup was out of the way. Even for my standards, that was a short trip - and I wouldn't usually visit touristy places at this time of the year - but it was still very much worth it. Think that will have to be me done for the season now though