This weekend we've got to head up to Gainesville Florida for Alli's Gymnastics State Meet.
And since we've got nothing else going on today before we get to the hotel, we stopped along the way at a Chuck E Cheese that got a 4.1 review on google, better than many other CECs in the area.
Well, like I said, we weren't really feeling it at this CEC, but fortunately a few miles down the road and closer to our hotel is another CEC! Let's go!
This one got a 3.9 on google reviews, but we're crossing our fingers and hoping it's better.
Inside they do have a few more of the games we like. There was an Avengers coin pusher that Theresa loves, and shockingly it wasn't broken! Ian found games he liked, like the Nerf Arcade, and Alli and I moved on to the skill games.
I was able to play a few rounds of Milk Jug toss, but there is a broken sensor on it that was throwing off the games. I managed to get 4 jugs in 1 game though and win 100 tickets.
Quik Drop is fun, but only if it's working.
This one wasn't working so well. Press the button once and you might get 1 ball, but more than likely it'll drop 2 or 3.
After much patience, and a changing of strategy of only pushing the button once or twice instead of the usual 4 or 5 times, Ian was able to string together a win!
Here's the game that we really shine on though. The short shot basketball. Alli was already warmed up from the previous store. The high score was 80, and if you beat it you win 50 tickets. This machine was set up a little different than we're used to. Normally once you score 50 points you activate the bonus round. Here though you need to get 100 points to get 15 extra seconds where shots are worth 1 point each.
Alli and I got to work and look at that, she beat the high score! Very nice job! We saw a few adults playing before us and they weren't getting anywhere close!
Now that she's beaten the high score, it's my turn. We learned that even though the sign said if you beat 80 points you'd win the bonus, it was not true. You actually had to get over 100 points for it to give them out. At the end of the night, I was able to walk the score up to 135 points, gathering a few bonus tickets along the way.
It's been a long day driving, plus a little more playing, and now it's time to get to the hotel.
The hotel was nothing special, just an airport Marriott with a below average breakfast, but it's what's nearby that's important. We're headed to Six Flags over Georgia today! They've recently opened for the season and we've got season passes!
I was happy to see that they've changed the parking booths to be a little skinnier. The last time we were here in the truck it was a very tight squeeze and I had to fold the mirrors in on both sides.
Getting here right at opening at 11am. Not too bad of a line at all.
It's a little ridiculous how much our tickets cost to come today. Ridiculous in a good way. For $55 each, we get to visit not just today, but every day until the end of the year. And not just this park. Every Six Flags park. And we get free parking too! I'm shocked at how cheap it is. It's less than half of a 1 day Disney ticket. Crazy.
But we're in! We've activated our passes for the year and hopefully we don't have the problems we did last year at other parks like Magic Mountain. Theresa and I headed over to Guest Services to set a few things up and sent the kids off to ride on a nearby coaster.
They loved riding Twisted Cyclone and always prefer the back row. Oh! One of the things I bought that was new this year is the Photo Pass! In previous years, the photo pass was specific to each park. But this year, for $30 you can get all your photos and videos from every park for the entire year! We plan to go to a few different parks this year, so I think we can find some value in that.
The other big thing we got for everyone was a 2 meal dining pass. For just $109, we get 2 meals every time we visit a park. Since most meals cost $15-25, this will pay itself off in just a few visits.
And that's not the only thing we bought. They also have a drink plan that has improved since the last time we had it. Before you had a plastic cup and had to carry it around all season. Now, you can opt to get a paper cup instead (although a little smaller than the plastic cup). Every 15 minutes you can hop in line and get a refill. For $37 you can get soda/powerade refills, but for $54 you can upgrade that to get Icees, hot chocolate, and coffee too. It's pretty obvious which one we're going to get, right?
With an Icee in hand, we hopped into the line for our favorite ride here. Goliath!
And once we reached the front of the line... it went down. Grr. We waited a few extra minutes and fortunately it came back up.
We love the back row on this one. This coaster gets some major airtime. You are constantly flying out of your seat.
What's that? It's been 15 minutes? Then I guess we need to get another Icee! We hopped back in line for Goliath, had another breakdown, but then again a few minutes later it was working again.
This time we scored the front row! Theresa was close enough for us to yell to, and she got a photo of us going up the big lift hill.
Fun, but we like the back better.
Or close to the back. Whatever. If it's a long wait, we're not averse to moving up.
Checking the app, there were a few rides that were closed that I was tracking.
Superman suddenly came online, showing a 15 minute wait. We hustled over to the queue, stood around for 15 minutes and barely moved while we watched everyone with a Lightning Lane speed past us. We opted to leave it for another time.
The kids saw the Justice League Battle Gotham (a screen based shooting game ride) open and with just a 15 minute wait, I sent them over to it while I got an Icee refill. Waiting for them at the exit, it was 40 minutes later that they finally emerged. Yikes! Not doing too good with your wait time estimates today.
The nearby cowboy restaurant used to have pulled pork and other unique offerings, but now it's the typical burgers and chicken tenders.
We were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time for the giant swinging pendulum. It's been closed all day, but as soon as it was open, we were among the first in line. We love Pandemonium and immediately hopped back in line, hoping for a quick turn-around. Sadly everyone else in the park saw it was open, and once again we stood in place while the Lightning Lane queue took all the spots on the next ride, and started backing up again for the one after that. I think it's time for dinner.
I should have counted how many times I heard "what's the difference between the Gold Rush Burger and the Cheeseburger?" It's not listed anywhere, and I'm sure the workers are tired of explaining it.
A Cheeseburger has cheese, lettuce, and tomato, while a Gold Rush Burger has cheese, bacon, fried cheese curds, and BBQ sauce. Don't ask how it's less calories than the regular cheeseburger because it doesn't make sense to me either.
Theresa and Alli were happy to have a Crispy Chicken Salad as a healthy alternative, and shocked when it didn't just have iceberg lettuce in it. They were hoping to find a healthier option amongst all the fried foods here, and they did!
Sometimes the app will lie about wait times but in a good way. We saw a very short wait at Dare Devil Dive even though the app claimed 45 minutes. Let's go! Theresa waited in line with us, then quickly hopped out to take pictures.
Front row!
Back row for Ian!
Going up the big 95 foot lift hill.
Then diving and twisting through loops and turns. Fun!
Then we'll grab one last ride on Goliath in the back row before heading to the front of the park.
With 15 minutes before the park closes at 8pm, we hopped in line for Twisted Cyclone. The kids got to start the day with it, but I want to ride it too. We watched as all the people using the Fast Lane filtered through while we didn't move much. Finally 8pm rolled around and they closed both lines. Since only 1 train is running it's taking a while to load, ride, then unload everyone in the line.
At 8:20pm we got our ride, and while Twisted Cyclone (1:20) is fun, we're really looking forward to Twisted Colossus at Magic Mountain (3:40) and Steel Vengeance (2:30) at Cedar Point, which are similar style coasters but nearly twice as long.
It's still early in the season for Six Flags over Georgia, so many of the rides we were hoping to ride either opened late or didn't open at all. Alli really wanted to ride Acrophobia (the 200ft drop tower that leans you out at the top) now that she's gotten over her fear of drops. It was Temporarily Closed all day. Similarly, many food places we wanted to visit were closed today. But, for $55 for the entire year, I'm willing to give them a little slack
We had a great time at Six Flags today, and for those curious, we made very good use of our 15 minute drink pass, getting through 9 regular drinks and 8 Icees! Tomorrow we've got even more fun stuff planned!
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