coasterbill

No, it's a park original. Much older than that. I've said my piece but they should not remove that flume.

I wish I had a better picture of it, but like I said I never planned on making a trip report. They really are spectacular though. I was really impressed.

Great Bear is so underrated, it always has been. Just throwing that out there. After Storm Runner I think it's likely my favorite coaster in the park.

I wish we had time for the Go Karts, they really are top notch (at both locations actually). We saw some pretty horrific crashes on there and (as you described) the ride ops couldn't even begin to care. It was great.

I hadn't heard about this but it makes sense. I assume they just took that 3 point challenge and moved it to the Blue Streak midway?

Alright, so time for part 2 from Friday night. After Busch Gardens closed for the day we went back to Orlando for some shenanigans on I Drive. I know some people hate them, but we love tourist traps. Love, love, love them. We have a tradition whenever we're in an insufferable tourist trap to go out of our way to find the absolute sh*ttiest place on the entire strip and go there after a few drinks. This led us to "Dracula's House and Currency Exchange (no refunds)" in Niagara Falls and we were determined to top that experience Friday night. I think we succeeded. I've never seen a miniature golf course that was entirely hidden from the road before. They had a flashing neon sign out front and huge walls everywhere, it looked like a strip club only there was some guy out front who looked like he'd just done all the drugs in Florida holding an alligator for absolutely no reason. That's right, I'm talking about Gator golf... Little did we know the crappiness that would ensue Gator golf advertises "over 200 gators" which is entirely B.S. The concept is actually pretty cool, the combination of miniature golf and tons and tons of alligators but in reality there were only a dozen or so gators and a golf course that looked like it may have been cool once but was now in horrible shape. Luckily for these guys I doubt anyone ever went there because if anyone did they would have PETA on them faster than you could say "holy sh*t what a ripoff". Most of the "theming" was rusted and discrepant, some gator pools were abandoned and are most likely the origin of west nile virus and some holes didn't work at all. No seriously... Somebody tell me how this is supposed to work. Sure we had been drinking, but when we came up to this hole we still had a pretty good concept of what gravity was and why this hole never got the memo. If you hit the ball under the green that's elevated for no reason at all it would just disappear forever because there were no ramps or openings on the other side. You don't start from the top because that's stupid (plus then what's the point of the front section) and... and... god get us out of here. Luckily when we turned around we saw a bunch of wood lying around so I guess they were working on correcting the problem. Hopefully somebody figured out what a ramp was. lol wtf??? After we saw that we quickly rushed through the last few holes, happy to get out of there as fast as possible and proud of ourselves for finding the absolute worst tourist trap on I drive. Goodbye Mr. Gator. Sorry about your horrendous living conditions, we'd help but we've got some drinking to do. After Gator Golf drove us to drink we figured we'd head to (brace yourselves locals) Señor Frogs! I get the idea that no locals would ever be caught dead in this place since everything was overpriced and you had to pay for parking for seemingly no reason but we didn't know any better. Live and learn I guess... As you can see, we decided to start acting like adults and were no longer wearing cheetah's on our heads. Truth be told we had a great time at Señor Frogs in a "that was cool but we're never going back there" kind of way. We were exhausted by that point but we weren't about to let our night end yet. It was time for one more pit stop, one of my favorite places in Orlando. Fun Spot! I have to admit, I'm incredibly jealous of everyone that lives in Orlando. You can ride world class rides 24/7, 365 days a year, you have great weather, you have Disney and Universal right on your doorsteps but for some reason I'm more jealous of Fun Spot than anything else. They're open until midnight every night, there are never any lines and you could just stop in for 10 minutes whenever you want and ride a killer wood coaster and get a cheap beer. What's not to love about this place??? First stop, White Lightning! This is a great little coaster. It has tremendous pops of air, a fast paced layout, fun laterals and all things considered probably more airtime than any other coaster in Central Florida (until Mako opens). They added some new lights to it which really make it pop and the ride was just as good as we remembered it. Everyone needs to stop by and ride White Lightning when they're in Orlando. White Lightning and Freedom Flyer: Note the new lights We weren't planning on staying so we bought individual tickets but we knew we had one more ride to ride before we could leave. Feast your eyes on the most messed up Paratrooper on planet earth. It looks innocent but it WILL try to kill you. We learned the last time we were at Fun Spot that this thing puts all other Paratroopers to shame. They crank this thing up to 11 both forwards and backwards (yes... backwards) and when you reach the top you feel like you're almost about to go upside down. I don't know what they're feeding this thing but it's nuts, and the long ride cycle makes it the best bargain in Orlando at 3 bucks a ride. Kudos to Fun Spot for managing to turn a nice little family ride like a Paratrooper into a white knuckle thrill ride. After our ridiculous paratrooper ride it was about midnight and we decided to call it a night, but not before grabbing a beer and laughing at the unsuspecting people riding the Paratrooper from hell while we sat out by the water. What a great way to start out trip. More to come! We love Fun Spot!

I still don't know what half of those things mean and they're already not cool any more? Dammit getting old sucks. Oh well, KI. Don't remove the log flume for a coaster #goals log flumes are bae How is that? Terrible? Well screw this then.

Panda Express isn't on the dining plan so if you go there you won't feel ripped off. Really it's the only logical choice. Team Panda has all the answers.

You need Kumba in your life.

Seriously... what is so freaking special about B&M Dive coasters? They look so boring to me. The world doesn't revolve around coaster enthusiasts. Most people lose their sh*t over the holding brakes. Valravn's promo video went viral simply for that reason.

Join Team Panda. We'll never steer you wrong.

Knoebels: "Make new memories the old-fashioned way", or, "Waiting on parts from Europe".

Turbo Drop, but SFNE runs combo mode sometimes which would be the clear winner.

https://www.sixflags.com/

That's like saying clouds are not accepted in the sky,

I tried to hit on everything. Joker is, but that's it. No What area around the park? Just stand at the gate and play Candy Crush or something. As far as Flash Pass, you won't need it but you can benefit from it. Kingda Ka does not run in the rain so if it's in the forecast, ride that first. Everything else runs pretty much regardless of weather except of course the Skyway and Parachutes.

Really? While I think Cheetah Hunt is at best the 4th best coaster at BGT, Farenheit doesn't even belong in the same conversation as Cheetah Hunt. To each his own but I think Cheetah Hunt puts it to shame.

Very few modern Intamin's have me getting off and going "meh" but that's how I feel about Farenheit. It's okay, any time the lift hill is the best part of the ride there's a problem. It's a very forgettable ride.

Knoebels has posted on social media that Fandango's parts have arrived from Europe and the ride should be reopening soon.

It ran yesterday morning but was FUBARed by about noon. Its Dragster, who knows? Lol Edit: It sounds like they were telling guests at the gate that Top Thrill Dragster will be closed all day today.

let's see...

That's not odd at all. Sky Ride never breaks so they're all wind closures but I've noticed that early in the season if it's windy and they're short staffed if it's too windy at park open they wait a long time after the wind dies down to open it back up. I'm guessing this is because they don't want to have staff standing around having to open and close the ride over and over again due to wind. In the summer they're more than willing to do that, probably because they have plenty of staff. It's operated the last few days though. Not that I watch the webcams way too much or anything.

Tempesto first, then it doesn't really matter. Apollo is a great night ride.

I'm living proof that Boldikus has no standards and will hang out with absolutely anybody at the park.