New Attractions

Atlanta certainly cannot be accused of being stale or outdated by any measure (except transit).

Many of the popular attractions that have been around for decades, have been busily renovating and expanding their offerings. Zoo Atlanta for instance is in the midst of constructing an entirely new exhibit, Six Flags over Georgia, a new water park due later this year.

Stone Mountain Park, fresh from adding three new attractions last year, continues to seek new ways to entertain as has the Georgia Aquarium which also added several new exhibits recently.

Needless to say I've been forced to add a few already visited items back onto my bucket list.

But expansions aside, a wave of development has begun in Atlanta, promising a dizzying array of brand new attractions to the City, attractions which will serve only to further cement Atlanta as the premier travel destination in the south east. This year alone, Atlanta will hopes to welcome the Atlanta Streetcar, the College Football Hall of Fame and the National Civil Rights History Museum.

But there is no need to wait till the summer to try something new, two recent additions have taken the City by storm: Skyview Atlanta and the Global Winter Wonderland (one of which I'll touch on today) have proven to be exceedingly popular already.

Global Winter Wonderland

Big Ben

With little forewarning, Global Winter Wonderland showed up one day at Turner Field's "Parking Lot C" and took Atlanta by storm. Promising to bring many of the world's Christmas traditions together in one place, the park dazzled patrons with a wide array of lighted displays featuring reproductions of many of the world's wonders, Big Ben, The White House, San Francisco's Bay Bridge and the Taj Mahal, to name a few.

In addition to the light displays, the park featured different cultural shows. On the night I attended, there was soca feature on the main stage, complete with costumes and the obligatory "jump and wave" session. I was thrilled to see my culture represented, though I didn't understand it's appearance at a Christmas focused event especially when parang might have been more appropriate.

To be honest, despite being billed as a Christmas-themed event, I didn't really sense much of a yuletide atmosphere. Apart from the gigantic Christmas tree near the entrance, I'd have easily mistaken the place for an ill advised, winter time carnival complete with the typical assortment of carnival rides, a carousel, bumper cars, funnel cakes, etc.

The carnival rides were an interesting choice for a winter time event because it was freezing that night. Who's  riding a carousel in December? There was even a circus on site, Universoul Circus to be exact.

All in all, Global Winter Wonderland turned out to be a smashing success its very first year in Atlanta. By the looks of it, the event will be returning every Christmas, my only hope being that next winter not be nearly as cold as the last, maybe I'd be able to enjoy the event a bit more then.

I'll eventually get around to trying out Skyview Atlanta but it's newness still results in ridiculously long lines. Atlantans are worse that Trinbagonians when it comes to "never see come see," I swear.

~fin