We were on a journey of nostalgia. Danny experienced the World of Coca Cola 19 summers ago while in town for a barbershop quartet competition. This is the man I married, ladies. Try to contain your jealousy. Anyway, he was here before with another nerdy singing boy (and one of our bestest friends) and we decided we just had to take the girls. Yelp reviews were pretty mixed on this particular Atlanta attraction and I wasn’t sure it’d be worth the expense or the fact that every time you get in a car in Atlanta, you’re likely to die a loud, messy, boisterous death at the hands of its idiot drivers.
I’m so glad we went. Danny says it was entirely different than it was when he was here previously. This could be true or it could be that the World of Coca Cola is just the latest in a long line of experiences lost in the void that is Danny’s long-term memory. We just don’t know. After entrance we each received an ice-cold Coke to sip while we toured the building. We watched a video that made me gooshy inside as all good Coke propaganda does. After the video, we wandered the facility at our leisure. We watched classic Coke commercials, designed an original Coke bottle, read the history of Coke and finally, deliciously tasted Coke products from around the world. Watch out, the tasting room floor is indeed sticky from spilled soda pop but we didn’t really care. We flit from dispenser to dispenser sampling everything and showing each other our tongues in case (or maybe in hopes that) the blueberry Fanta dyed them.
We also experienced a 4D movie for the first time! It got us extra excited for Disney next month. Paige squeaked and laughed and jumped. I barely watched the movie (but somehow managed to keep up with the major plot points) because I took such joy in watching our youngest experience that chair. It was hilarious and there’s something so wonderful about children freely enjoying themselves over such innocent delights.
We realized as the building was closing that we hadn’t gone down to the vault where they keep the actual Coca Cola recipe. We raced down but discovered it was locked for the day. A WofCC worker saw our dismay and reopened the exhibit for us. We had a private tour through the vault and took photos and meandered because a kind woman had pity on us. It was a real treat.
Another highlight was watching the actual bottling process. When we toured the Tobassco factory, they were not bottling that day so we saw the assembly line but didn’t get to see it in action. Coke did not disappoint! We watched the robots and all the shiny machines as they moved bottles, filled them with just the right amount of Coke and put the crown on top. They’ve slowed the line down considerably so we could actually see what happens in each section. We saw them bottling at 20 cans a minute but some of their factories actually do more than 2,200 cans a minute!
It was a goofy and relaxed two hours and we are so glad we risked it and drove over there. Danny may or not remember it in a few years but the girls and I will and I know it will make all of us smile when we do.
