More theme parks than ever are offering Christmas events and opening for more days of the year. The reasons for this are obvious in that more operating days equals more potential revenue from the same capital. Most northern parks end with Halloween as the winter weather is generally too much for both people and rides, but even in Southern states like Georgia and Tennessee see temperatures of freezing and below in December. So what are some of the considerations for a park being open these months in terms of crowd comfort and ride operations/safety? Will your favorite roller coaster be running?
Honey, Can We Go to To the Nicest Restaurant in Town? OK, Let’s Go to the Swiss House at Busch Gardens!
Many of the buildings at Busch Gardens have interesting previous lives. A haunted house is a former horse stable, Cobra’s Curse queue is a former Egyptian walk through attraction and Cheetah Hunt’s station was previously used as the station for an inverted monorail that provided views of the Savannah. However, one of the more interesting examples is the Serengeti Overlook, now home to the Giraffe Bar, Oasis Pizza (a quick service food spot) and the pass holder lounge. Would you believe this used to be considered one of the nicest restaurants in all of Tampa?
A day at Wild Adventures is a perfect compliment to your trip to Disney World, Universal Studios or the beach.
If you live in greater Atlanta you probably make the drive south to Florida every year or so to visit one of its many theme parks, beaches or another destination. Our family has made this trip annually for years as part of our trip to Captiva Island and numerous other trips to Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, Disney World and cruises. Passing through Valdosta we’d always see billboards for Wild Adventures theme park, Google it, see that it looked pretty cool, but never manage to stop. That changed for us on November 25th when we made our first trip Wild Adventures and we had a simply spectacular day!
The walking trails at Busch Gardens. (Image courtesy of Undercover Tourist)
Tracking Steps in Theme Parks with Log Ride App Feature!
So there’s a cool new “Year in Review” in Log Ride, the app I use to track my credits and visits to parks. In addition to showing roller coasters, locations, tallest, fastest, etc., it also shows steps and miles. I was shocked to see that I had walked 174 miles in theme parks so far this year with over 300,000 steps!
So it’s good to have goals right? This year I set the goal to ride every roller coaster in the State of Georgia. For Georgia that’s 27 coasters spread across several theme parks and a couple of oddballs. Georgia also gained 3 new coasters this year with the opening of ArieForce One and the two dueling tracks of Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster. On the last Saturday in November I finished off my list adding the 6 credits available at Wild Adventures with the last one being the Swamp Thing, a Vekoma suspended family coaster pictured above. I can’t claim this goal has any redeeming value, although I did walk 170+ miles at theme parks this year according to the Log Ride tracking app, but it sure was fun.
Our Family’s Experience and Review of this Great New Event
Most theme parks in moderate climates have some sort of holiday event whether that “Smokey Mountain Christmas” at Dollywood or “Holiday in the Park” at Six Flags. New for 2023 at Wild Adventures is their Christmas event “Wild & Bright”. We had a chance to experience Wild & Bright the Saturday after Thanksgiving and absolutely loved the abundant and varied activities throughout the park. This event has so many things happening that it’s ridiculous, much of it geared toward families, kids and the young at heart. We went on a Saturday and there were 45 events (some duplicates) on the schedule! There were literally several Christmas somethings going every hour all day, so much so that we didn’t even come close to seeing everything. Here’s our family’s review and experiences of our spectacular day that really got us into the holiday spirit.
Batman: The Ride (picture from Six Flags Great America)
Without Robert Mampe of Six Flags Great America we may not have Montu, SheiKra, Kumba and the upcoming Phoenix Rising!
Every company starts somewhere and that includes Bolliger & Mabillard, better known by coaster enthusiasts as B&M today. It’s an origin story you can read elsewhere, but essentially Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard used to work for a steel manufacturing company called Giovanola (who built some roller coasters), but struck out on their own after Giovanola had a restructure. They had a relationship with Robert Mampe, a Six Flags Great America staff engineer, from some previous projects and asked the new company to design and build a stand-up roller coaster for the park. This ride would eventually be known as Iron Wolf (POV here) it still exists today as Firebird (formerly Apocalyse) at Six Flags America where it was relocated in 2012. This would be the first B&M roller coaster that at the time was probably most famous from being featured in the Richie Rich movie. Two years later in 1992 they would design and open Batman: The Ride, the world’s first inverted coaster, also at Great America and this cemented B&M as a prominent roller coaster manufacturer.
A Review of the New P’Sghetti Bowl Coaster by Skyline Attractions from a Parent/Coaster Fan and a 7-Year Old
Opening day for a new coaster is a special day you’ll seek out once you’ve done it once. The buzz in the air and the party atmosphere makes for loads of fun. I had a chance to visit Six Flags Over Georgia for the Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster opening ceremony and the technical rehearsal on Saturday, November 4th. I was a “Six Flags” day (as they say at the park) that did not leave me disappointed. This is a great new set of coasters that kids will love and parents will enjoy too.
According to the Accela database it appears the Zagora Cafe is getting an overhaul. Of all the dining options in the park it was probably most in need of some refurbishments. The actual food service area looks quite dated and the dining area is essentially a covered patio. With the recent renovations the the Giraffe Bar, Springs Taproom and Coaster Coffee, it was probably next up in the rotation.
Update April 2025: The “all parks” benefit is here! By buying anything as low as the Gold Pass and then adding the All Park Passport (which could be $75 to $150 more depending on your park) you can visit all the parks of both legacy chains. It is more expensive than the old Diamond pass from Six Flags which included all their parks, but it’s also a lot more parks now with the addition of all the legacy Cedar Fair Parks.
BGT Safari 