Posted November 9, 2010 Which is the rollercoaster at Busch Gardens where you walk across a little bridge to get to it which has all those mist machines on it?... I found that one a complete let down, but the rest of the park pretty great. haha, though as you say, Montu is ReZdiculously out of the way as the park is atm!! Also, Meerkat Win!!... Want to see how my day at Busch Gardens ended... (this doesn't even begin to portray the ammount of rain that fell in about 30mins... CRAZY!!) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Jeeeezzzz. Thats mental. o_________0 Don't know what the one across mist is. What type of ride was it/what colour? Was it black and blood orange? If so may have been Scorpion (Looping with lap bar FTLULZ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Go "on" Montu! Online! Its sicko. Bled. Bonus, Sheikra. [/color] I was with a couple of friends on a day trip to Heide-Park in Germany not long ago, and I was a horrible chicken. Several times I was about to go on some of the big rides since I wanted to face my fear, but I was literally stricken with horror as I looked up at them. It still bothers me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 I was with a couple of friends on a day trip to Heide-Park in Germany not long ago, and I was a horrible chicken. Several times I was about to go on some of the big rides since I wanted to face my fear, but I was literally stricken with horror as I looked up at them. It still bothers me. *Jealous* Heide Park is run by the company who runs our theme parks (the UKs) (Well the three big ones anyway) Their 2011 coaster will be sick. Its a Dive Machine (like Sheikra) but its got "new" (different) trains (three rows of six, considerably smaller than other DM's) and it drops...into the mouth of a Kraken, then you come out a Pirate ship the other end. Sounds so cool. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 You may very well be the influence that pushes me over the edge and makes me try out the big rides one day, ReZ. If I get horrible trauma, I'm blaming you! :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 (edited) Jeeeezzzz. Thats mental. o_________0 Don't know what the one across mist is. What type of ride was it/what colour? Was it black and blood orange? If so may have been Scorpion (Looping with lap bar FTLULZ) Looking at a map quickly, it was Kumba me thinks, next to the river rapids... though clearly you don't agree with this :p I genuinely think I had become so incredibly accustomed to Florida's rollercoasters by the time I went to Busch Gardens, rides like Kumba just seemed perhaps much more tame, than they perhaps would have earlier on. I'd been spoilt by The Mummy, Rockn'Roller, Kraken, Manta, Hulk etc... Maybe the mist machines weren't all on when you went, it was Rediculously hot there the day I went... hence the insane thunderstorm late afternoon! Edited November 9, 2010 by Retro_Link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Looking at a map quickly, it was Kumba me thinks, next to the river rapids... though clearly you don't agree with this :p Maybe the mist machines weren't all on when you went, it was Rediculously hot there the day I went... hence the insane thunderstorm late afternoon! Wait....clarify your opinion of Kumba for me please. *Clenches fists* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 (edited) ^ I've just edited my post slightly. I just didn't think there was anything unique or overly brilliant about it. It was just a fun coaster, kinda like I now view Shockwave over here. Edited November 9, 2010 by Retro_Link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Shockwave at Drayton Manor? Did you just compare Shockwave with Kumba. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Yep, sure Kumba has a better design, better scenary etc... etc... but there was nothing to get particularly excited for. I was honestly a little bored riding it, thinking, is this it, and whose I went on it with said the same. We came off wondering whether Florida had ruined us on all rollercoasters forever, lolz! Like I said, maybe it was just coaster overkill! :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 (Reasons why its amazing) - Smooth - A rhymimthic layout that flows beautifully - Huge inversions and plentiful - Things like the chainpull through a loop! Thats crazily awesome/unique. Shockwave in comparison is rough, and all it does is goes up, turns and drops, loop, zero-g roll, double corkscrew, end. Its linear with an excruciatingly boring layout. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 I'm not comparing it to shockwave in terms of design, where it clearly wins, plus it's newer so it should! And you're right actually, I did enjoy Kumba more... I remember this bit being great, but all I'm saying is it just didn't excite me as much as so many other rides I went on in Florida. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 (Shockwave is newer than Kumba) :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Thats better. :p (Interestingly ~and I imagine why you said its newer is its gorgeous paint job~ it really does look brand new) anyway, its like 17 years old, but still super smooth. Speaks for the longevity of B&Ms. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2010 Thats better. :p (Interestingly ~and I imagine why you said its newer is its gorgeous paint job~ it really does look brand new) anyway, its like 17 years old, but still super smooth. Speaks for the longevity of B&Ms. Yeah Shockwaves just been at the park for so long, guess I just assumed it would be older. Kumba is very impressive in its look and design. Mind you, Drayton Manor has unfortunately become more run down and chavy on the whole in recent years. American theme parks don't seem to show their age anywhere near so easily. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 14, 2010 SeaWorld October 12th Trip Report! Giant trip report herein therein within in. We awoke on Tuesday, and decided again that breakfast was a thing of the past, and thus we headed straight for Sea World. Once again we found the priority parking to be considerably better than the other ones, and we were practically at the gates to the park. The first real thing to greet you as you walk in the park is the magnificent Manta! After watching it for a little bit we queued up. Queue time said it was an hour. I had imagined it would be high (due to the only...3 attractions at the park, apart from the animals and shows) anyway, so that was fine. Queue seemed to not move at all for soooo long. It was running on one train which just did my head in and I just couldn't understand, luckily they put another train on about 3/4 of the way through though. So anyway yeah....queue would have been better if we weren't standing still for so long. I believe it was down to the huge amount of fast track or whatever. Anyway we finally got on the ride....some pictures of it first! *Drool*. Beautiful ride. Actually one of my favourite looking rides. The train is absolutely gorgeous with a wonderful colour scheme and the track itself is a brilliant colour scheme. Set over water with the fountains and all the tropical trees, its niiiiiiiiiiiiice. The ride itself was brilliant. It was good to finally experience a proper drop on a Flying coaster. First drop is awesome and huge, very super hero-y. Then that pretzel loop is something else! WOW! To see the track so.....steep in front of you, and be like "Wow I'm about to go on that bit" its just awesome. Very intense, and then the rest of the ride is a bit of a blur, but sheer awesomeness. The water fountain "wing dip" is SOOOO sweet. Stick your hand out and catch the drops. Brilliant coaster. Next stop was the rays....feeding section. I touched one. They were slimey. Not for me. Claire had a whale (lol) of a time though. So that was fine. Then we went to see the Dolphins. That was fine, if you like that sort of thing. I don't really have any kind of feelings on it. I don't really give (a crap) about animals really, don't like zoo's particularly (understatement tbh) and this was all just "okay" in my eyes. We saw them both above and below water. Then we meandered over to Journey To Atlantis........ ...................... .............................. (Which we didn't do) queue time of an hour and despite me telling the other chicks that it was the best water ride in Florida and that it was a serious must-do neither of them were willing to do it, and I didn't really want to queue up on my own for an hour. Fail. Will do next time. Fo sho. Next door to Journey To Atlantis was....Kraken! Ah. A MUCH much anticipated Coaster for me. I had always looked at it and loved the (albeit light) theming and colour scheme, and layout...it was one of my most wanted to do's. Whilst in the queue my sister just...couldn't get her head around the queue for front row. I pointed to where she was standing and then to the sign but she just started getting pissed off with me not understanding what I was saying. So I just left her to it. Anyway. Thats a crap anecdote huh? Queue time was only about 30 minutes, so that wasn't too bad. Excitement was building and we finally got to the batching dispatching seating area station win blog hax tewb. So smoooothh.... So yeah you go up, with the vast water to your left, and...god...I actually love the first drop. One of my favourites. OH OH...and the ride is a Floorless B&M so it had a similar "HI TECH!" station drop away and fold in bit just like on Sheikra. So that was cool. So YEAH. God, I loved the first drop. Then the inversions...brilliant...it was just silky smooth and amazing. Just....all so open, and...I don't know why I loved it so much but I did. Just its all big, and nice and smooth....god. I loved this ride so much. For me it comes SECOND only to Montu. Brilliance. Not many places to get amazing photos of it though unfortunately! People who say its crap need a slap (lolpoet) SO THEN THAT WAS the end of the rollercoasters. We did......some....shark crap...or something (lol) as you can see I don't particularly remember the animal stuff. But seriously we did some shark thing, which was just "okay" the fact on the tunnel was the best thing. Unfortunately the Whale show (Shamu?) wasn't working. Or rather I say "wasn't working" as if its some mechanical ride...no, it wasn't showing due to a new born baby Killer Whale Shark Black and White Sea Cow thing. So that was having some "quality" time with its parents. YOu could go in the stadium though and have a look at a few of them. We went in. Some chick came round and asked if we had any questions about the killer whales. The thought of asking "Yeah, did you know the person who died?" went through my head, but I of course used my better judgement and INSTEAD just pushed her in to see if it would happen again. Bit of black comedy for you there....thats fine though, I didn't really do that. Steered clear of the whole death thing in fact. So that was good, finally we went to the other stadium thing and watched a show. It was had Dolphins, Porpoerosiseses, and birds in it. Honestly it was FREAKING amazing. So brilliant. This giant bird (Eagle?) came swooping from the back at one point, seriously it was gigantic, never seen anything like it. You had the people Dolphin surfing, the dolphins jumping, yadda yadda. I will eventually upload a video, but for now here are some photographic images. The show culminated in birds flying everywhere, dolphins jumping, showmen/women diving...it was all quite overwhelming actually, and I felt a little teary eyed through joy. Don't tell the chicks though. But yeah, it was SERIOUSLY immense. So that show along with the two (three) other rides definitely make Sea World a must visit attraction. VBRILL day. TBH. THX. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 14, 2010 My god. Next time take a man with you. Missing out on Journey To Atlantis due to your femmes is inexcusable (but I know the feeling). It's so great/it's good/worth doing. Kraken was my VERY FIRST roller coaster. Even before indoor ones (well no I did Thunder Mountain first but that hardly counts), and it makes everything else pale in comparison. Very glad I did that first (my uncle convinced me to go on, dunno how he persuaded me, I was always very intimidated by it), as it's certainly large and kinda... "..!". But such a nice ride, as you said. Things like Hulk were so jerky and like gave me a headache, as my head was actually hitting the back of the seat itself. This was gorge. <3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 14, 2010 (If your head was fucking around on Hulk you probably had it too far forward or something, as that is also smooth!) And I know. I really do hate that I missed JTA. I wanna go back when I'm 25 (so I can drive) and like....go to the good ones again and skip the shit ones then we can do like a hover boat ride thing, and whatever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 14, 2010 (edited) Yeah I didn't get to go on Atlantis either, due to it being INSANELY hot (and everyone wanting to go on the water ride) and on both the times we went to Seaworld on the holiday, the queue was over an hour... you just couldn't stand around for that long! Manta is beyond brilliant, I love everything about that ride! Kraken is awesome too, really fast and a great layout! Yeah I absolutely loved the Dolphin & Bird show. We also went back to Seaworld at night to watch Shamu Rocks, which was also fantastic! Edited November 14, 2010 by Retro_Link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 23, 2010 Hollywood Studios and The Final Florida Days! Trip Report! We awoke on Wednesday to another fantastically sunny day in Florida. My sister was feeling uberly knackered from the muchos of theme parking in the previous days and thus, she wanted to skip this theme park - a mistake I felt. But alas she didn't want to do it, so she dropped off Claire and I at the park and drove off for a day on her own of sitting by the pool. Claire and I entered the park! (Again we decided to not have breakfast) The Hollywood Tower Hotel....towers...over everything and can be seen from very far away. It looks very impressive, and it looks very awesome. We went over there to check out the queue. It was around 45 minutes, so we grabbed a fast pass and then headed over to Rock N Rollercoaster which is right next door. Queue for that was about 30 minutes, so we joined the queue. The queueline was pretty sweet with some interesting aspects. It had some posters of popular artists and "Disney" artists like the Jonnas Twat Pack and Selena Gomez. As far as I gather this coaster and the one in Paris are practically identical apart from a few MPH in speed, and of course the theming. In this the music partly seemed to be a second note (scuse the pun) but yes...erm, it was good I guess. Maybe it was because I wasn't familiar with the soundtrack of the ride but Paris seemed to have more of a rhythmic jaazzzzz/fun about it. it was good though. Theming on the actual ride was just okay. We got out and our fast pass for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was in time, so we headed over to that. The joys of Fast Pass. The ride is so brilliantly themed its spectacular. Lobby and ride attendants all look fantastic, then you go into the pre show and then its like the dingy and mechanical basements next to the (service?) elevators. We got on the ride and fastened our vital seatbelts. What happened next shocked me in ways that you cannot imagine. The doors closed (the bit after is the bit that shocked me....to be honest, I was expecting the doors to close) ~ Spoilers for the ride ~ yeah then...we moved forward. I'm like "say whaaaaa" so I had no idea that the ride "got into position" like this. Anyway there were some awesome effects, you go up and the doors open out to a creepy The Shining-like hallway and lightning/stuff happens. Then....I can't remember if you go to the top and the doors open and you see outside, or it drops first and then does it...but.... Yeah then it drops and goes up and dowwwnnn and uuuuupppp....and by jove its freaking stonking. I "dislike" drop tower rides. I don't particularly enjoy the feeling, and I find them boring and short...they're just bland as hell (I much prefer push up towers) and anyway...this was completely different. It was as if you are weightless for huge portions of the ride, as it goes up and down its just absolutely fun. As hell. Adored the ride. Probably my favourite non roller coaster ride that I/we went on. Great theming, unique (despite there being four in the world lol) and just...utterly awesome. I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than I thought I would. Oh and hay, here's an on ride photo. After this we wandered down to the other areas of the park, and came across "The Great American Movie Ride" or whatever it was called. Taking you through a tour of props and scenes from movies. It was very cool! Nice and big so a large capacity meant a wait of just 5 minutes, and the ride itself was nice. Here is a multitude of photos. After this we walked through the Pixar area and were dissappointed to find a huge queue for Toy Story. I can't actually remember exactly how long but I recall it was about 90 minutes or something, and the fast pass for it was closed (boo!) so we couldn't do it. We headed over to the Studio Tour ride. I was happy to see some loving for "No Ordinary Family", a TV show I am greatly enjoying. The ride is very similar to the one in Universal Studios, but this one tours the actual behind the scenes bit and is awesome. It was great going through the ....clothes department bit, as we went through they must have been celebrating something or other because a stack of Dominos pizza boxes had been put on the table and they all walked over, eager to tuck into a free lunch. Unless they have Dominos for lunch every day. In which = jealous. So you see that awesome rock flooding scene, and some props from movies and its all very awesome. After that we found ourselves near the Honey I Shrunk The Kids Play Area Place Thing. We decided to go in. Tee Hee. It was very cool, I loved the theming, with batteries and I particularly dug the Super Soaker with old school logo! All very amusing. We then had a look at Pizza Planet! After that time aligned us with the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular! Excellent stadium show it was brilliant. Entertaining, fun, stunts, explosions, blog, hax, tewb, funny/. It had it all and we thoroughly enjoyed. Do they do the Pedro thing every time? After that we had lunch at the ABC Commissionary, which was a surprisingly great meal! We both had cheeseburger and chips, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable meal. Probably one of the best/only meals we had at a park actually (lol at this sentence, and my tomfoolery) We then watched The Beauty and the Beast stage show. It was fine, if you like that kind of thing. We were then picked up by my sister and that was the end of the theme parks of Florida. However we still had a day and a half left in Florida and we weren't going to waste that time! Soooo we sat and watched TV. More specifically some Chilean folks being dug out of a hole. :p. After this excitement we popped into the pool for a short while and then we headed out for dinner. Good lord. I've just discovered that TO MY HORROR I didn't capture...wait...WAIT......WAIT....I REMEMBER...I REMEMBER TAKING PHOTOS. I was about to say that to my horror I didn't get any photos of the establishment but I remember getting some and then OF THE FOOD ITSELF. Right. I'm gonna grab my SD card. Good thing I didn't delete a single KB of the 16GB yet. Okay, finally found them. They were taken with Claires camera on a different sim card, and she didn't upload (some) them. Win. Anyway. You must have been eager to find out where we went for dinner. Well it is a well known place. I place I have seen and mildly encountered before in America,....but never actually been inside and eaten there. And that place is.... Yes! Red Lobster. So we went inside and were seated by the helpful waiter. Almost instantly they bought out some (I think they were cheese scones/biscuits) we were like "Win". They then took our order for drinks and asked if we wanted x or x or x (I forget the options, but they included Coleslaw and salad) so we ordered. Soon after the girls got duplicate bowls of coleslaw which was either a mistake or they were trying to drown us in food. God. The food came. OMG. It was just incredible. I had a triple combo thing so it was basically "choose three things". I chose some regular type shrimp/prawns, salmon and some coconut fried prawns. Seriously....the coconut fried prawns. Seriously. Like not even joking they were IMMENSE. The portion was huge, I should have just had the two combo. Just brilliant. It tasted so awesome. Here is a picture or two. You can see the immense fried coconuttiness in the above photo. And you can see a prawn tail in my mouth in the below photo. So dinner was amaazzziiinnngggg. We waddled home (it was just across the street from our hotel) and collapsed. I later had Ben and Jerrys. ------------ So our last full day rolled around. We went to Publix which is a supermarket. If Super Target is like our ASDA, then Publix is like our Waitrose essentially. Upper classer than ASDA but not as upper class as M&S. Anyway it was a brilliant super market and we should have gone to it sooner. Claire bought me a croissant for breakfast from there, and we bought a few little few extra treaty bits. We then went to a tattoo parlour (Is that what they're called?) a tattooist....and my sister enquired as she wanted a new one. The bloke in there was a nice guy, and we booked an appointment for a little later in the day (no actual artists were in at the time) and we....then just popped to Target and then went back to get Emma's tattoo. I enjoyed seeing her in immense pain, it was hilarious to me. Trying not to show the pain; Abandoning the effort to conceal the pain; The finished product; And then we went around all the "tacky" gift shops that were down our road. They were pretty much all the same. We stopped at an ice cream parlour and I had a Nestle Butterfinger ice cream scoop and a bubblegum ice cream scoop. That was a great ice cream. For dinner we had TGI Fridays again, as we skipped lunch. We all had a starter, I had something that I adore/am obsessed with - mozzerella dippers. My sis had potato skins and Claire had sesame JD chicken strip things. All amazing, bit of tuck in n' share occured. I had the same main course as when we previously went to TGI - A steak and...erm....oh was it just steak? Yeah think so. Anyway, I don't think I had ever tried "medium well" before the first TGI visit, but good lord. They were both the best steak I've ever had. I don't think it can even be beaten, not just the cooking method, just....I've had about 5 or so steaks from TGI Fridays in America now, and they have all been utterly brilliant and put anything I've had from the UK to shame. I <3 American food. After this, we went home and chatted or whatever. 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Posted November 23, 2010 ---------------- Friday. Home time day. Hate. The photos of me speak a thousand words, or rather more than I could ever hope to try and get across through a keyboard. We popped around the shops for a final time and I (am an AFOL ~ Adult Fan of LEGO ~) picked up Hogwarts LEGO set which I had been umming and arrring about all holiday. I also picked up Pokemon Ranger 3 for the DS, both from Super Target. We then went to Golden Corrall for lunch, this was an all you can eat buffet lunch with various cuisine. You know what....its always the way with holidays...you find out the great little spots on the last days. Publix and now Golden Corrall both really excellent establishments! Golden Corrall wasn't exactly the highest quality food...but it was very tasty, and more importantly it was HONESTLY criminally cheap. Criminally. I felt like a thief. I think it was like $3.99 or something. There was loads of stuff. We went back to the hotel, packed up the car, checked out and despite being very early decided to just leave for the airport to prevent any problems and such. Surprisingly the long wait went fairly quickly. There were a lot of shops at the airport and such. As I was low/out of money (and Claire knew it) she treated me to a cap that I really wanted. Which was very nice of her. It is the Monster (energy) logo, Fox racing logo and I had "REZ" embroided onto it! Awesome. Then (I) had a Nathans as I was mildly hungry and Claire needed to get rid of some loose change. I had a hot dog and chips, unfortunately it was pretty shitty and I regretted it immediately. Burger King would have been the smarter choice. Time had gone really fast now, and it was almost time to get on the plane. Various activities were had. I tried entertaining the girls....to this response; There was a meal onboard, the highlight being the dessert was nice - a lemon and ginger biscuit type thing pudding thing. It was nice. Some sleep was had. Somehow (I don't even know how) but my sister got a hold of my camera when I was asleep. I was mocked profusely by Claire and my sister for having my glasses on over the top of my eye mask....BUT there was nowhere else to put them! And then we got home. End. I will upload a few more photos and videos and post them soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 23, 2010 You always make me hungry with your posts about food, ReZ. But it sounds like you had an awesome trip. Was it very expensive in general, the trip/hotel/food/rides/etc.? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 23, 2010 You always make me hungry with your posts about food, ReZ. But it sounds like you had an awesome trip. Was it very expensive in general, the trip/hotel/food/rides/etc.? I mean...in the grand scheme of things I guess it was expensive, just because the flight and theme park tickets are pricey (£650 flight, £400 approx for theme park tickets) the hotel was cheap as fuck as was all food/spending money. Totally worth it though. Totally. I plan on going back when I can drive out there (without having to pay £25 per day) so in 2012 probably. With a bigger group/in a villa or something Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 23, 2010 I mean...in the grand scheme of things I guess it was expensive, just because the flight and theme park tickets are pricey (£650 flight, £400 approx for theme park tickets) the hotel was cheap as fuck as was all food/spending money. Totally worth it though. Totally. I plan on going back when I can drive out there (without having to pay £25 per day) so in 2012 probably. With a bigger group/in a villa or something Can I join you? =( Read your reports. Am still seriously jealous. And yay for Rock'n'Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror, my two favourites from Disneyland Paris! Would love to try them somewhere else too. =) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
