This was my first time visiting Wild Adventures and not to beat around the bush, I think this park is horrible. Well, it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the $45 price tag and $10 parking to get into a park with sub par rides and a major lack of infastructure (though it's 1 ticket for park and water park which is why im assuming most people go). Knowing the coaster collection consists of an SLC, Boomerang, and what is probably a hit or miss CCI I wasn't going in with high expectations (and the mouse was closed) but i've heard that Herschend has done a pretty good job at turning around the park itself. Personally I have no idea what Herschend saw in this park, it is very far off the interstate, doesn't have much of a population to draw from (seriously who is going to go here when it's between SFOG and Orlando). I've heard that it's completely dead on weekdays and we decided to go here on a Saturday figuring it would be better than going to SFOG on a Saturday expecting that since they have a water park it would be mostly people visiting that.
We must almost be there
You know your in the south when...
Valdosta seemed like a pretty nice little town, then as you drive closer to the park it turns into long gravel roads, cotton fields, and this
Yes this gravel road goes to Wild Adventures
Yes this is a corporate park that costs over $40 to get into
The park reminded me of Holiday World in the sense that it's nowhere near anything
The last thing you see before turning into the parking lot
We bought our tickets at a Walgreens in Valdosta and were sent to the season pass processing center outside the park to redeem them for the parks ticket-stock
The first coaster you see when you enter the park is a Vekoma roller skater
I have no idea what an ant farm has to do with a roller skate
You can tell in some areas where Herschend has tried to improve the parks landscape, but many of the areas are just unshaded tarmac which is a major problem for a park that gets so hot consistently (heat index was 105 on this day). Also, they have a major lack of indoor resturaunts as most are just windows and the slow food service led to long lines at ALL of them which made it near-impossible to get water. We ended up waiting in line at a pizza resturaunt (which was the only indoor resturaunt I saw) and got a small cup of water then was once again out of water with no way of getting any more without waiting in line again. There are water fountains outside the bathrooms, but that water and the water in the sinks in the bathrooms was boiling hot.
The mouse coaster was closed when we entered the park then opened for about an hour later, then as we were about to head over there to ride it, it closed again for the day
The junior SLC is one of the most popular rides in the park
Just like the ones at Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland, i'm not a big fan of these rides (junior coasters should not have shuffling like SLCs)
We watched this thing cycle and it looked terrifying...very oddly banked turns at high speeds
Cheetah, the main draw for us
Didn't really know what to expect from this CCI coaster that runs Gerstlauer trains. I remember Villain at Geuaga Lake being extremely rough but had heard Cheetah had just gotten re tracked.
The second train sitting on the storage tracks
Heading up the queue
Cheetah was pretty good and surprisngly not very rough. Not great, but decent.
Random path
Back to this thing
It's a crazy fast, super rough, miler coaster that was relocated from Celebration City
This was the only coaster in the park running 2 trains
The wave is so strong that they have windows on the bridge
Pretty sweet chain
Not only does this ride have an amazing layout, just in case you didn't get it the first time the train goes around for a second lap
Typical Zamperela setup
And now for some water park pictures
Like many small parks, the water park has gotten a lot more attention in recent years than the amusement park
This guy was mean, and apparently really wanted out as he tried to eat his way through the fence
A big random empty space in the middle of the park
Theres a nice little garden
But sadly the plants were a bit neglected
We saw the ride had opened, but by the time we got there it was closed again
Found it funny that the only ride-specific merch they had is this Boomerang shirt, nothing even for Cheetah
The most enjoyable part of this day, leaving
As I said before, the park is nowhere near the interstate. To exit the parking lot you drive around the perimeter of the park, onto a gravel road, onto this state highway for a bit, past a power plant, and over rail road tracks that have no gates
Well, I think the reason why all these parks have started to add the water park rides is because it's cheaper to add a waterslide / lazy rive for the most part compared to a big roller coaster. Plus, this is a Georgia park so I imagine it gets a whole lot hotter than midwest, but still I feel it's really about not spending so much for water attractions compared to another roller coaster. Even comparing the Dark Knight to that new Holiday World longest water coaster, they probably feel they are getting more for there buck. Dark Knight seems sort of small for 7.5 million, but they have the longest watercoaster for 9.5 million. The thing with a waterpark though is that's it's about capacity. You could have the largest waterpark of Noah's Ark (at least it was) get an attendance of ONLY 637,000 people, and Disney (the highest attended parks anywhere) only get 2 million people for their waterparks! 14 million compared to 2 million is a huge difference, and you know Florida is a warm place too a lot of the year.
So, my opinion is that if you want attendance, you have to spend more money than just a waterpark. Also, a waterpark is going to cost you a lot more in employees with 2 or 3 rides in particular like the wavepool, the pool as in what we have now with Riptide Bay, and the Lazy River. I never actually counted them, but you could have 25-30 employees just for those water "rides" combined at Hurricane Harbor. However, for the wavepool alone, I could just trying to figure it out, maybe they have 10 people plus the watcher guy (supervisor). So, if it's 10 people, and they get paid $8 a hour, that's $640 just for them a day. I don't know what the watcher guy makes though. Maybe, with him it's $725 a DAY just for the wavepool. Now, you figure Batman the Ride with 4 people plus the Flash Pass person in which they are making money on, that's a lot less money per hour.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
believe it or not, the park looks 100x better in your pics than it looked last time I was there in 2004. Also when I was there Cheetah was beyond awful, I think it goes though cycles, how it runs probably depends on when was the last time they closed it to do maintenance.
Luckily I think I can count this TR as having visited the park, and now I don't have to go back again for another 7 or so years
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
Before, I was thinking about going to this park as I'm into flats as much as coasters. This park used to have all of these rides: Chance Wipeout, Chance Yo-Yo, Zamperla Power Surge, in your pictures they still have that Flying Bobs rides, and I believe a Tilt-A-Whirl besides the coasters. Now, they got rid of at least the Power Surge, but they added that Max Air ride (you have in pictures). Also, with the Power Surge going, I heard horror stories about people have to ask employees to move from ride to ride, and it was hard to find employees. Well, now that place doesn't look like it's worth that much money just as I feel Cypress Gardens was pricing themselves out of the ballpark.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
