Summer Coaster Tour - Day 01 - Traveling to Georgia - 2026/05/21

It's time for another fun summer adventure! We've got these Six Flags passes that are good for every Six Flags Park, plus a Meal Plan, all-day Drink Plan, Photo Passes, and Unlimited Fast Lane, so I think we can have a pretty good time at any Six Flags park we go to. And luckily Theresa is a master planner who also loves earning hotel points, giving us cheap lodging anywhere we go. This time we're going to leave the RV in Florida and take the Prius (with its bonus 45mpg) on a major road trip!  

Some of the highlights will be 5 different theme parks (visited on 8 days), 1 National Zoo, 2500 miles, all over 11 days. It's a lot to squeeze in and we're covering a lot of ground, but it's going to be a lot of fun, visiting lots of new roller coasters, along with some bonus stops along the way. 

For our first leg, we're driving from Clermont Florida to Atlanta Georgia. Without any stops it would be about 6:30 hours, but today is going to be a long day of driving, so we'll make sure to break things up. We got things mostly packed up the night before, loaded into the car shortly after waking up, and started our journey northward. 

I always like seeing the Bronner's Christmas Wonderland sign. Even though we're all the way in Florida, if you keep driving over 1000 miles north, you'll end up in Frankenmuth Michigan and the largest Christmas store in the world. We've visited there a few times and it's pretty overwhelming. 

It's time to stop for lunch. Who is driving that dirty blue truck?

The little Thor figurine on the dash hasn't been able to clear the bugs out of the way of the windshield. Who could be driving this beast? 

It's Jacob! He thought a roller coaster trip sounded like fun too, so he's going to be coming along with us for a lot of the stops! 

Welcome to Georgia! 

Dinnertime. Chinese sounded good, so we opted to stop at Panda Express. I know one little girl who really loves pandas. 

So much that she wanted to borrow my phone to take photos of her cup and all the pandas that are hanging out on it. 

Weren't we just here in Atlanta a few weeks ago? Yes, we were. Before Alli's State Gymnastics meet, we popped up to Atlanta to visit Six Flags and a few other places, including this Chuck E Cheese. 

Last time we were here, there were a few broken games and some lying ticket payouts. Has anything changed? Well, yes and no. They've changed out a few games with new ones, but things are still broken and tickets still aren't correct. 

Ian - How does this one work? 

I think you're supposed to shoot the crabs, but it seems to be broken. 

Avengers is working though! Theresa does like the coin pushers. She's got the timing of everything down so she can get to the bonus much more quickly than random play. 

Here is where my girl really shines. Basketball! Just starting to warm up though. We'll focus on it a little more in a few. But supposedly if you beat 80 points you win 70 tickets. 

Ian was pretty happy with this installation of the Nerf Arcade, giving a few extra seconds of gameplay, letting you get that bonus. 

Ian was happy to win 3 times! 

Alli put up 81 points, but we watched the tickets count up and it only gave 10 tickets. We also noticed the bonus ticket payout changed from 70 tickets to 50 tickets (and they don't pay that out either). I played a few more times inching the score up higher and tickets stayed in the 10-12 range. 

It wasn't until I put the score over 100 that it finally paid the 50 ticket bonus. 

Last time we were here, they had a Milk Jug toss game that was so glitchy it didn't work. Without throwing any balls, scores would trigger and the game would end. They've replaced the game entirely now with Down the Clown, though the entire second row is broken and doesn't raise up. That'll make it difficult to beat the high score. 

Difficult, but not impossible. Alli and I worked together to clear the clowns as quickly as we could, but only won 25 tickets. 

Not the 100 tickets that it shows. We beat the score a few times to verify and yes, it was 25 tickets every time. Lame. 

Jacob is here! We all took a Dippin Dots Ice Cream break. 

The glitchy Quik Drop game from last time (that would drop 2-3 balls with a single button press) has been replaced with Gear It Up, which itself is broken and unplayable today. Hmm. 

She's warmed up now. We'll take those 50 tickets at a time as we walk the score up. Nice job Alli. 

Always getting better. 

Before we go, might as well see what I can do. 144 points. Not bad. 

Not too bad on tickets. We've been to lots and lots of prize counters at Chuck E Cheese, and the kids were very happy to see the candies they give to their school friends at half the ticket cost of any other CEC. Just 15 tickets for Airheads Bites and 30 tickets for suckers, versus the 30 and 60 tickets they normally buy them for. 

Time to get to the hotel. Tomorrow morning we're headed to Six Flags Over Georgia!