What I Would...

An Editorial

Someone asked me (heck, a lot of people have asked me) what I would do to improve Six Flags Over Georgia. I've thought about it a little and here are my ideas. Again, most of these are fantasies, but you can always dream, right?

Big Dreams (long term planning)

1. Open up a new midway between Lickskillet nd Gotham City, using the parking lot to come around to the Axis Arena, then install a couple of very good flat rides - a Top Spin and Frisbee would do nicely - and call it "County Fair."
2. Get one of the many Top Spin clones and a programmable water fountain package. After seeing these in action in many parks, and the lines of guests (many re-riding) in the Southern heat such an attraction would be sure to please. And they are even nice to look at when loading with the water jets making nice patterns. Putting this on the site of the old Rabun Gap stage would work with Thunder RIver in the background (they don't take up much space).
3. Open up a walkway from Cotton States behind the SFRR maintenance shed, coming out at the employee gate. OK, you'd have to man the gate - but there's already a security guard standing there.
4. Buy a kids ride package and and put them elsewhere than Bugs Bunny World. A kiddie ride or two in Gotham City or Cotton States would keep the little ones occupied in other areas of the park.
5. Replace the Georgia Cyclone trains with new PTC models that have comfortable upholstery (NO HARD FOAM! I know it's "easy to maintain" but many parks run with upholstery just fine). New seats would be wide enough for an average adult. Probably just sending them to PTC for refurbishing would do the trick, but this ride has become unrideable for many adults.
6. Plan a year that would have a half dozen flat rides, one for every flag, improving capacity throughout the park. Sprinkle these around the park.
7. Replace Free Fall with a huge ferris wheel - a focal point for one of the tallest points in the park. Or, if that's considered too tame, use one of the Huss Giant rides - a giant Frisbee spinning up in the air behind the theater would probably get some attention.
8. Add a wild mouse (Maurer Sohne spinner would be very nice; "The Revolution", not a standard carnival Reverchon spinning mouse) to the USA section plaza, right out in the middle for all to see.
9. A real water coaster over and around Thunder River - Ripsaw! - to play off Georgia's lumber industry. Use those dead water spots in the channel for splashdown sections - narrowing the channel and adding fun to Thunder River as well.
10. Find and retore two old Opryland rides in storage somewhere in Six Flags arsenal; Chaos and Delta Demon - reumored to have been sent to the scrapyard and are no more but I've been told they still exist. Put Delta Demon near Lickskillet, Chaos in Gotham City rethemed to the Joker's Warehouse.
11. Add more picnic shelters and put in a "main tent" catering area so that groups are fed via a standard buffet line. Easy to manage and understand. Also add more picnic shelters towards the parking lot.
12. Get a new or refurbished band organ for the Riverview Carousel. A really good band organ's music would be able to be heard all around the hill - helping bring life to a quaint by pretty dead section of the park. Thankfully the audio system was upgraded in the last year and the carousel no longer runs silently, but a band organ would do so much to liven up the hilltop.

Little Things

1. Put benches along the pathway up Carousel Hill, and in other shady spots around Thunder River. Put benches back above to the Scream Machine brake run as these were the most popular spots to sit on a sunny day.
2. Stop using asphalt everywhere for construcing new pathways. This is the south, and hot asphalt isn't fun. I know it's cheaper to install but isn't guest comfort what the park experience is all about?
3. Bring back live musicians to at least one of the shows.
4. Install at least double the trash cans, probably more, and put ashtrays everywhere. You should never be able to look in a direction and not see a trashcan. Reduces your staff requirements for picking up trash that guests don't throw away because they can't find a close trashcan.
5. Get better water blasters for Thunder RIver - soak those guests! See Six Flags Magic Mountain for supplier (Tidal Wave exit). Take the guns that are now on Thunder River and put them on the log flume or Splashwater Falls.
6. Re-do the mine train by adding a tunnel at the far turn and make sure the lights are always turned off in the tunnel. Play up the MINE theme with equipment and/or sounds. This could be a very, very fun ride if a little TLC were paid to it.
7. At Fright Fest, "haunt" the Hansen Cars with costumed characters and trolls. A few well-placed spooks and props could transform this ride at night. The Spooky Town stuff could be moved over here, and the candy could be given out by the goblins around the track. This could be a lot of fun - and really liven up the hill.

Anyway, I don't know if any of these things are in consideration, but since I get the question often enough here are my ideas. Take them as you will.

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