Tom E.
Yelp
You ever live at a place where you pass it by 100 times and never even bother to pay a visit? That is kind of like how I felt about Ruby Falls. I live in the Metro Atlanta area for 30 plus years and finally decide to make a trip to visit Ruby Falls.
After visiting Mammoth Cave a few weeks before with my family, we were excited to check out other cavernous places, a little closer to home. This was my BILs birthday weekend, so I decided to surprise him and meeting him at Ruby Falls. We had bought tickets for a Sunday at 11 sharp. I was the first one there. There is plenty of (free) parking, but shade is limited, so bring plenty of protection. When I walked up to the entrance, I heard them call for the 1050 tour. I called my sister to see wth they were, as I didn't want to miss our spot (they drove even further than I did).
It was about 1058 as they arrived, but I never heard the tour call. We made our mad dash through the gift shop (conveniently located, however you can technically enter through the cafe if you already have your ticket, but they wont tell you that) only to see a mass of people lined up.
So, whatever happened between then and that moment, the elevator was down. However, they used the stairs to evacuate the rest of the people. So, I was thinking to myself, if its 260 feet underground, why cant we just use the stairs to go in and out if the elevator is broken (much safer option, and a cakewalk compared to MCs Extended Historic Tour). Then I kept hearing stories of "when it broke down last" and another family who came from CA who said this was the 3rd time they had to rebook due to the same issue- so I am wondering, how reliable even is this elevator?
They don't offer refunds, but will reschedule, which sucks, because what happens when you replan another trip only for a chance at this to happen again? I am not going to risk it, I guess the youtube videos will have to suffice. At least at the cafe, they have a cool pour your own beer thing, which had decent beers, but it literally capped you at 32oz. That didn't even wet my whistle.
There is a viewing tower we were able to utilize (since they said the elevator was down, they weren't really checking the admission for that) which had a nice view, and got our stair workout there, but yea, I just can't justify going out of the way to risk this mishap again. Maybe I should have brought some scratchies that day...