We went to the Georgia Aquarium yesterday – To say the least this wonderful aquarium was very popular, and we got to see their parking at its most stressed.
The large structure adjacent to the aquarium and Coca Cola center is large, and what I call a “double Helix” garage. If you enter from one set of lanes, you park on levels 2 4 6 and if you enter on another, you park on 1 3 and 5…There are crossovers, most blocked with cones, which I watched some intrepid parkers move the cones so they could park in an empty space being blocked by them…
The place is fairly easy to find you way around, we had no problem. The revenue control system is a bit dicy. It’s a pay on exit, but it’s a single price garage. You can pay for your parking as you buy your entry tickets and we did so. However since I lost the coupon for that payment I had to pay again on exit. The line wasn’t long, but was growing, and they had only one of the two exit lanes open. We didn’t wait long, but I’m guessing that exit is a problem when they have an event that ends so all people leave at once.
R noticed that there were a lot of private lots all around the place doing a land office business. It’s obvious they didn’t build this garage for holidays, but then you don’t build a church for Easter and Christmas, either.
My suggestion to the Georgia Aquarium – invest in Pay on Foot, place POF machines around the elevator entrances to the garage, and speed up the exits. On days when you are full, collect on entrance – you will save a lot of pain at the exit lanes.
All in all, a good parking experience.
By the way – this is an excellent aquarium. The attendees seemed to be having a great time, and frankly I enjoyed the Beluga Whales, the tunnel through the shark tank, the penguins (South African) and the Otters.
JVH
