Vacation 2018 Day Six Stone Mountain Park, GA

We were up early to head to Stone Mountain Park for the day only to realize that most of the rides didn't even open until 10:30 or 11:00.  Being from Florida you try to get anywhere early before it gets too hot but they work on a different time schedule here.

Everything is pretty much self-serve and we figured out we needed to get our tickets ourself from a kiosk.  We hardly saw any employees or workers.  It's pretty much a self-serve amusement park.  Very odd.

After realizing we had almost 2 hours until anything opened up we walked around a bit and went to the museum.  It was pretty interesting but was a self-guided tour and I never saw an employee.

Stone Mountain Park, Ga

 It's hard to believe that the engraved photo is almost 3 acres, it looks so tiny from here.

Girl M at Stone Mountain Park

 The skylift was shut down due to inclement weather.  (If you would started earlier, you might have been able to let some people ride).  We finally found the 4-D movie about to run at 11:40 and even though it was a short 12 minute movie it was very good.

Then it rained.........and ALL the rides and shows shut down.  If you would have started at an earlier time, maybe you could have gotten things started!

When I purchased tickets to the park I also bought meal tickets.  When we went to eat Lunch, the staff was minimal and there were no clear directions on what food to purchase or who to ask.  We picked out some food, headed for the checkout and the employee said what we chose was fine.  Fine!

After eating lunch the rain stopped but there was absolute nothing to do since everything was still not running or open.  We decided to go back to the campsite, walk the dogs and go to the pool for a while.

The pool at the campground was nice and the swim very refreshing.  The Crepe Myrtles were in full bloom and the trees were huge compared to the bush/small tree types we have in Florida.

Crepe Myrtle & Girl M.

 The weather cleared up and we decided to go back to the park about 4pm to see if there was anything open yet.  Dear Hubby was a good sport but I was starting to feel his frustration with the park.  With our park passes we purchased tickets for the Ride the Ducks, after waiting in line to get onto the ride with our tickets we were informed that we had to get out of line, go into the office, make reservations and schedule to ride.  OMG I'm so over this place.  There was not a sign that said my tickets in hand were not for  the ride no one said I had to make a reservation, no employee was around before hand and those stupid duck noise makers were driving me crazy!

We finally were able to get back onto the ride after about 10 minutes in the office, but nothing was done and we entered the ride with the same tickets I had in my hand to begin with!  There are no pictures of us on the ride because even though looking back it was ok (but not worth $12.95 per person) We can say we did it & we survived.

After getting away from all the duck noisemakers we found the Train.  This was the one thing Girl M wanted to do.  The Railway attendant at the platform was very nice and helpful.  I'm sorry I didn't get his name but a high 5 to him!  The train ride was running about 20 minutes late but it was not busy and we just relaxed a little bit on the benches.

The train itself was much bigger than I was thinking it was.  I was pretty impressed........but it stopped there.

Scenic Railroad Ride

Train ride

 I'm not sure what part of Scenic Railroad we rode, but the view from the train was not so scenic.  Nothing spectacular or even close to interesting.  We really couldn't hear what the overhead speaker was saying so it was just a word here or there.  Maybe he was trying to give us a little history or talk about the mountain but it was very under water sounding so we just rode and looked at garbage and the rocks and more garbage and junk, things broken down or abandoned.  Then we came to some stop that performed a game show that was pretty cheesy.  The players never spoke and the host of the game show talked so fast I couldn't hear a word she said.  So I know Dear Hubby couldn't hear anything.

Please don't think I'm grumpy, but after a week of thinking about the Stone Mountain Park, my opinions have not changed and we really could have spent our day elsewhere.

Waiting for something to open at the park

Patient Dear Hubby

We decided that since nothing else was going to open at the park we would just go back to the campsite, walk the dogs, fix dinner and then see the laser show at 9:30pm. 

Stone Mountain

 Since the show started at 9:30, we made our way back about 9:00pm.  We had reserve seating tickets from when I purchased the package deal.  But the lawn wasn't busy at all so we found great seats on the lawn instead of walking all the way to the bottom to the Georgia terrace reserve seating.

Stone Mountain Laser Spectacular Lightshow

 Ok, to be honest, this was the best part of the entire day.  The lightshow was fabulous!  It lasted over an hour and I was amazed, entertained and really enjoyed every minute of it!  This is the only good thing today that we saw.

Laser Show

But I wouldn't pay for the terrace seating or the snacks, or any of the other fluff they offer, just bring a lawnchair, a drink and snack, sit back and enjoy!

Finally something GOOD!

This is a breakdown of our ticket bundle we bought.  Not one person asked to see our wristband.  We never used the VIP stuff because it wasn't busy, never found a place to take our photo and didn't use the lightshow terrace seating option, snacks or see anyone with glow in the dark necklaces.  Our day was probably only worth $19.99 per person.

3	Duck Voucher (Ride The Ducks Tour Voucher)			$0.00	$0.00
3	Meal Ticket Voucher (MEAL Ticket )			$0.00	$0.00
3	VIP Experience Voucher (Voucher VIP)			$0.00	$0.00
3	Adventure Bundle (Adult or Child) : Georgia : TERRACEGA, TERRACEGA, TERRACEGA		06/28/2018	$49.95	$149.85
			Subtotal		$149.85
			Discount		$0.00
			Taxes and Fees		$16.86
			Handling and shipping		$0.00
Total Price $166.71

We gave the campground an A grade.  We really liked it.  But the park we give a D and the lightshow we give an A.

We're leaving tomorrow to head to High Falls State Park in Jackson, Ga.  Hopefully our trip will get better.

Until next time................

Bonnie