Today was a day I've been looking forward to for weeks now, because I was going to meet up with fellow blogger Beth and her husband Kevin so we could go to WORLD OF COKE!!
This is actually the NEW WORLD OF COKE, which only just opened in May. It replaces Old World of Coke (which I visited years ago), and is twice as huge... with an advertised SEVENTY different Coke products available for sampling from around the world! Sweet!
This was going to be an awesome opportunity to meet some readers (which I always enjoy) AND drink my beloved Coke with Lime until I pass out from a sugar-induced coma.
The tour starts out with a waiting room where they inundate you with Coke memorabilia, then brainwash you into submission with an all-Coke audio soundtrack that features Coke soundbites, jingles, ads, and slogans throughout the years. Kevin was too smart to be brainwashed and found it all to be pretty funny, but I was converted into a Coke Zombie almost immediately. I'd like to blame it on the fact that I'm not in my native time zone, but the simple truth is that I'm a sucker for a good advertising jingle...
Coke Zombies ate my brain!!
They don't let you go to the Coke sampling room immediately... oh no... you have to watch a Coke film, walk through a Coke room, say hello to the Coke polar bear, see a mini Coke bottling plant, experience Coke in 4-D, and visit the Coke pop-art display first.
Then, AT LAST, it was time for my Coke with Lime!
I was so excited! Soda dispensers with drinks from around the world were here!
I didn't drink anything all day in anticipation of this moment!
Only to find out that WORLD OF FRAKKIN' COKE DOESN'T HAVE COKE WITH LIME!!!
That's right... NO COKE WITH LIME IN THE ENTIRE WORLD OF COKE!! They will let you sample the most horrendous tasting substance on earth (a soda called "Beverly" from Italy, which makes you want to die it tastes so bad) but you can't sample the divine elixir that is Coke with Lime.
Bastards!
My day was pretty much ruined. I went to World of Coke all happy and full of joy and stuff... but then left with nothing but a crappy free souvenir bottle of regular-old Coke...
The only reason I didn't kill myself right there in the middle of World of Coke was that Beth had given me this super-sweet baseball cap which she custom-embroidered with DaveDevil on the back...
Yes. Yes I know. It's like one of the coolest things ever. And having it put me in such a good mood that I didn't even feel like taking a flame-thrower to World of Coke until it burns the ground... even though it's totally justified, given that you can't get Coke with Lime there.
But I still kind of want to go back tomorrow with a crate of limes and vandalize the building with them. Maybe knock out a few windows and smear pulpy bits of smashed lime all over the walls...
Or maybe I could just alter their signs so that everybody will know the TRUTH...
Oh well. Life sometimes sucks that way.
Before we parted ways, Beth decided to improve her Dave Number...
She now has a Dave Number of TWO, which means she's part of that elite class of people who no longer have to pay taxes, always gets upgraded to First Class, and gets a 25% discount on chocolate pudding and cheese products at her local grocery store. The real advantages of such an awesome Dave Number, however, cannot truly be measured... it's the psychological benefit of knowing that you're a much cooler person than most everybody else on the planet who hasn't been lucky enough to meet me yet.
After seeing World of Coke without Lime and saying goodbye to Beth and Kevin, I walked across the plaza to visit the Georgia Aquarium, which is kind of nifty. It's a pretty big building, but it kind of has to be since they have WHALES inside of it! They're those freaky white Beluga whales, but still fun to watch.
In order to kill time and miss rush-hour on the MARTA train, I walked back to the Hard Rock Cafe so I could have a quick bite before returning to my hotel. They've changed things around since my last visit, but it's still a great property with a really good staff. I wasn't going to buy anything, but they had some cool new city pins, and I couldn't resist. But, then again, I never can. Hard Rock pins are like my Kryptonite or something.
I am still totally loving my iPhone. One of the coolest pieces of tech I've ever owned. But today I did find something that's not so great about it... the camera. I purposely left my little Canon camera back in my room because I thought I'd take all my photos with the iPhone camera. But it turns out that the thing sucks pretty bad for photos. Low-light situations render the camera practically useless, and iPhone isn't much better in really bright light. Unless everything in the frame is perfect lit in a way that's not too dark and not too light, you ain't going to get very good pictures. Kind of sad for a $600 mobile phone, but I guess it can't do everything. Fortunately, Beth had her camera with her so I had something to post here today.
Tomorrow it's back to work work work...
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So when’s Salt Lake on your list of places to visit? Big City Soup awaits.
Then maybe I can raise my Dave Number.
Looks like your activating “wonder twin powers”.
That is so sad – no Coke with Lime. But we have it here, I know we do! So it’s not really from all over the world, is it? False advertising.
Love that hat.
When I was but a wee lad growing up in Houston, my class took a field trip to the Coca-Cola bottling plant. I was stoked about it, but when the day came, I was sick as a dog. Not to miss out on the trip, I faked out my mom like everything was hunky-dory, then faked out the teachers and everybody else when I got to school. I was suffering, but I was NOT going to miss out on the Coca-Cola bottling plant tour! We’d been promised free Coke! So we make it there, and before the tour starts, they have some guy come in and speak to us about what they do there, and he answers questions, and then they pass out the soda, at which point I choose a Big Red, because that’s my favorite. (I think it was Big Red…whatever Coke’s “strawberry” drink is). So the tour starts, at which point I suddenly have a rumble in the tummy. There’s a bathroom in sight, so I run in, and immediately spew red strawberry soda all over the floor. My memory is fuzzy after that part, but if I remember right, I still got to finish the tour.
Sorry for the long comment, but your post totally brought back that memory.
Dave! You missed Augusta! Don’t you want to see the trees and bamboo that line the fence line of the Master’s??!! If you got time in Georgia you should come over to Georgia’s second largest city (only because the city and the county consolidated)!
I think you should take World of Coke to court!
Hi there Dave,
The least you could do is leave Coke feedback.
Hope it’ll help.
The zombies t’s look frigging sweet. I want! I also want Coke with Lime. Apparently it was available for a limited time in Ireland and now they sell Diet Coke with Lime. Boooo.
You’d think that bad-monkey would be throwing poo in addition to limes at the Coke building.
You’re such a limey. Um.
Tell me you got permission from her to go ahead and start marketing your own hats. Please?
I feared they wouldn’t have Coke with Lime…So sorry. The most disgusting soda I had while visiting the Old World was some litchi fruit flavored one from Asia. The Beverly one from Italy is pretty not-so-good, but the litchi soda one had me putting my cup in the rubbish and leaving. Eck!
Hey wait a minute, I’ve had a Dave Number of 2 for a couple years now and all I ever got was somebody let me into traffic once when I was leaving the spa where I got my pedicure.
Was I supposed to make you a HAT to get the taxes thing?
Because no one told me this.
Ewwww! Beverly! We used to challenge each other to see who could drink more of that nasty stuff on school field trips. I haven’t been to the new museum yet, but I hear it’s pretty sweet. Glad you had a (somewhat) better Atlanta experience!
I had a dream I was drinking a coke last night. I wouldn’t have remembered that if I hadn’t read this… weird. Vivid. Me and cokes are kind of a long story, but still… weird.
Glad they authorized the change to the signage; it’s clearer now what a person can and cannot expect.
Oh, you can have a hat, but it will release nanoprobes into your head which will cause assimilation to the Universe of Dave and you will forever be a Dave Drone because RESISTANCE IS FUTILE – believe me – Dave is the beginning…the end. The one who is many. He is the DAVE.
I need one of those hats! Too cool!!
You would think that the WORLD of coke would at least be able to tell you where to find Coke with Lime….
… though actually I can tell you too! I just bought an awful lot of it from the wholesale club off of the blue route in the Philly Suburbs… though that may not help you much…..
But did they have Diet Coke with Lime? Because in the end, that’s all I care about.
My head is spinning out of control with thought patterns, strings of things to say here, etc…..I’m going nuts! I just wonder if the Coke Polar Bear talked back or if you heard voices in your head…like maybe a little mind game with him. And I think you should quit your job, go under cover, and get on the inside of the Coke building….and dump, like, a bazillion crates of limes into the Coke dispenser. Now, that’ll take care of them…….Hurry Home. We miss you.
That hat is freaking awesome.
I was going to say “I hope to meet you someday! YAY!” and squee a little and stuff.
But there’s no way I can compete with that kind of awesome gift giving. I’m afraid I have to bow out.
Okay, my Dave Number is currently 8, and without wanting to sound like a stalker, it would please me so to reduce that number.
So tell me, if someone (read: me) sent you a case of Coke with Lime – would their number only reduce to 5? Surely Coke with Lime would garner some sort of bonus points?
So have you done a Petition online? http://www.petitiononline.com. Get Coke w/Lime BACK! and I bet you could make a neat little button icon for the petition and I bet a lot of bloggers / daveaholics would put their button on their blogs and I bet you’d get a lot of signers and I bet I stop using “I bet” in sentences real soon and I bet I don’t and I bet I’ve had too much Coke w/Lime already (we still have some down here in Texas, I bet)
Hey what gives?
We still have Coke with Lime in Canada – I think. I’m certain that there’s still Diet Coke with Lime, as I’m drinking one right now. Why would they don’t have this at Coke World? Weird…
My funniest soft drink memory involves The Neverhood. In the extras at the end of the game, you could see a staff member drink a whole two litres of soft drink, and then puking it! Gross (but funny).
I want to be a DAVE NUMBER 2 !!! 🙂
Yes coke with lime should conquer the world!
Since it does not violate any known commandment I am henceforth coveting that hat.
for so many reasons i am glad i made it to tequilacon but the fact that i was elevated to a 2 and get “the psychological benefit of knowing that” i’m “a much cooler person than most everybody else on the planet who hasn’t been lucky enough to meet” you yet is truly the BEST reason.
i really think you should have hit the place with a lime bomb. that’ll show ’em!
I want a hat, no, I NEED a hat.
And thank you very much sir, my t-shirts arrived.
Here’s something for your coke collection (sung to the tune of Things go better with Coke!)
Kol yoter im kokakola
koly youter im koke.
Which is things go better with coke in Hebrew. I can get you the t-shirt too!
Do we wear our Dave shirts to Davecago?
Italians do not understand cola. Only coffee!
This is a place to get lost for a while, full of fun and very creative. I may become a Dave-phile Phew! Thanks to Caffeinated Librarian for linking you in her “tour de blog”. I’ll be back! (not spoken in the Terminator voice -smile-)