I was at Fun Spot Atlanta last Sunday. The park was absolutely deserted, AF1 was a complete walk on. I actually felt a bit sorry for the park that they couldn't attract more people on the opening weekend. And those that did ride AF1 were mostly enthusiasts that just came for the ride. Yeah, from a business perspective, I'm not so sure this was the best decision but it's clearly an enthusiast's dream - no lines, world-class coaster. Let's hope it works out well also with the GP.
First appearance of the park was better than I'd have thought. From the street AF1 makes a very good impression. Then the entrance area of Fun Spot gave me some vibes of an old school family-owned park for kids. Actually, I somehow liked that front area of the park, even though some rides look pretty worn out, but I have a soft spot for this kind of small parks as it reminds me of some places I went as a kid. Also, the lake and picnic area looks pretty nice. The part between that area and AF1 has less appeal IMO, just looks like a fun fair put down on a parking lot. And then the region just around AF1 looks pretty neat again. Actually, the appearance of AF1 kind of wowed me. It really looks as shiny and almost unreal as on the pictures. Overall somewhat inconsistent appearance but let's put it by saying it has character.
Despite the absolutely low crowd levels, they went for two-train operations on AF1, thumbs up. Funnily, they announced a 15min wait at the entrance. I'm sure it did not have any line worth mentioning during the few hours I was at the park. Maybe later that day.
Regarding the ride experience: it starts with a neat pre-lift sections that, however, does not do a whole lot, just fine. The first drop is very solid, good ejector in the back and even some good floater in the front. It very much reminded me of the drop on Untamed, very similarly shaped but bigger. The dive loop that follows is the real highlight on the coaster for me. It's very well executed, very nice flowjector before diving down. On the left seats it feels surprisingly fluent despite the twisting, on the right seat you are tossed around a bit more. It is most similar to the dive loops on the raptors but still it feels different, and I liked it more than those (I'm referring to both raptor layouts here). Hope to see it on more coasters in the future.
The following speed bump is fine, quick pop of airtime with a pinch of laterals. The zero-g stall, again, is very well done. Even more so the outwards bank airtime hill, this feels really good. I think they have perfected the profiling on this one. Clearly another highlight for me. The following double up provides solid airtime. The zero-g roll over the arcade is a very cool sensation due to the structure around the roll. The turn and final inversion is very well executed as well. The only passage I am not a big fan of is the quad down in the end. I'd prefer two bigger airtime hills instead of the four very small ones. It's just feels they wanted to be a bit nasty here and I know some people will like that but I'm not in that boat. The final brakes hit surprisingly early and pretty hard. So if you are in the back you are still slightly before the top of the final hill. It actually took me by surprise the first time I rode it. Not sure, why they did it like this, they seem to have enough space to accommodate a slightly later onset of the brakes, but whatever, wasn't particularly good or bad just a bit unconventional.
Regarding my favorite seat, thanks to the non-existing crowds I was able to ride front/back/middle left/right so I got a pretty good feel for it. I'd say I like the back left most. But, actually, there is no bad seat on it, even the middle was not so far behind the front or back.
As to where I would rank it among the (14) RMCs I've ridden. This is a very well profiled layout with no dead spots and (except for the quad down) there is nothing I would do differently. But still it's not that far up. Steel Vengeance, Iron Gwazi (just rode it two days before), Wildfire, Lightning Rod and Iron Rattler are clearly above it. I'd say it comes somewhere after those (not sure yet if I'd place it above or below Twisted Colossus and Untamed which would come next in my ranking). If I think about it, it's probably the (neat but pretty) bare bone appearance and the plain out-and-back layout that makes it a bit less exciting than the coaster ahead of it. But still, this is an excellent coaster and surely the lonely star at Fun Spot.
Maybe one last points regarding the park in general. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. For instance, they were a bit late with opening one of the food stands so that I had to wait a little longer and they actually offered me the food for free. Also, that day parking was free even though the website didn't advertise it. Nice surprises and very positive contrast to parks like Universal's where you get the feeling it's all about milking each and every penny out of your pocket (was there three days before, hence I know what I'm talking about).
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