Invertalon

Thanks everyone for the compliments! Harper, Sorry for the late response! I currently use a Canon 5D Mark III and a few different lenses (17-40mm f/4L, 24-70mm f/2.8 II, 135mm f/2L, 400mm f/5.6L) that tend to change monthly in some form. Hopefully you had some good luck with your camera for the parks you went to! If you ever need any help with anything feel free to ask or PM me or something and I will be glad to give you any advice I can offer! For that shot you liked of MF and Mantis, that was shot with the 400mm from quite a long ways away. 400mm can be challenging to use within a park but also can be very rewarding because you are forced into unique perspectives you normally don't see. Gisco, Yeah, it will for sure turn into one of the most photographed parts of any ride, for sure. That was probably why I avoided that shot on media day (it was one I did not have), but walking into the park this day with the sun where it was just behind the building was something I could not pass up!

I should have clarified... I am not talking about ALL Intamin rides, just specialized drop towers such as Acrophobia. Nothing wrong with me having an opinion, if you agree or not is your call. I love Intamin rides, I just am a bit pessimistic with their reliability when it comes to some of their prototypes. Looks fun, though... Should be a perfect addition for the park.

Looks cool... But too bad it is Intamin... I expect endless downtime. I mean, look at Acrophobia.

Scorpion is OK... I rode it a few years ago and have not been back on it since. I much prefer the larger Anton layouts such as Mindbender, Revolution, etc... The smaller, compact ones I don't like as much. But for what it is I guess, it is not a bad ride!

Not a very big TR writer,I prefer just to show photos... So this will be quite short Here is a summary of these three parks: Fun Spot: Fun Spot is a great place to burn a few hours each night! We settled with a season pass and utilized it all week we were in town. White Lightning is one insane little ride. The day we arrived was supposedly the day they greased the track heavily, and you could clearly see the grease all over the rails... It was running out of control! It was basically continued ERT all week as we rarely ever had to leave the train for long periods of time. The staff at Fun Spot is top notch and we all had a lot of fun. Freedom Flyer is a nice little scenic ride more than anything, but still worth the ride. The midways look fantastic and the park was very clean. The Go Karts were pretty fun, although not as good as I expected. I enjoyed the level, twisty course over the other two endless helix courses. We are excited to make it back to Fun Spot when back in town again! Sea World Orlando: We had gotten the Discovery Cove park-hopper deal ticket so we stopped in two days during our trip. Both times, the new penguin exhibit had lines of 120+ minutes... No thanks.. We did try the Arctic Chill drink and it was quite good. A very good cream-soda if you will. Kraken and Manta both running great! I really love Manta, I think it is somewhat of a flyer design perfected with the great execution at the end of the ride with the water, rock walls and shrubbery. I prefer it quite a bit over Tatsu and MUCH more than the SUF clones. Turtle Trek was fun and a great improvement to what used to be there. We had a great time overall though... Spent a few hours here between the two days. Busch Gardens Tampa One of the best visits I have had to this park... Montu and Kumba were just running EXCELLENT. I am sad to see Gwazi in the state it is in though... If only it got some love. The layout is great IMO, it just needs trackwork to shine with those MF trains but the future does not look so bright. I must say operations were atrocious at this ride though and in general throughout the park for the most part. Crews slow and no desire to hurry in the least bit. I would say Kumba probably had the best crew as well as Cheetah Hunt. Speaking of, Cheetah Hunt was a fun little ride. I liked the interaction with the canyons, water and the long, sprawled out layout. I really think the ride would be better though without the heartline roll and lapbars, but that's minor. I was bummed to see how neutered Rhino Rally was now, though Sheikra is a very solid ride as always and for what it's worth, I think one of the more effective gimmicks for me. I really enjoy these B&M dive machines. Not many pictures from this park, mostly because I only had my camera with me a very short time. So don't expect too much here! Now on to some photos from these three parks! 6M3C5594.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5573.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5596.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5604.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5685.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5620.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5584.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5656.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5625.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5633.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5647.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5658.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5659.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5693.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5704.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5715.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5718.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5720.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5748.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5756.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5761.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5763.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5768.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5791.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5795.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5810.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5829.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5836.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5951.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5953.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5957.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5965.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5968.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5976.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5979.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr Sea World Orlando: 6M3C5841.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5845.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5848.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5857.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5853.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5873.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5893.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5899.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5901.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5902.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5903.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5904.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5905.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5906.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5907.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5909.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5910.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5914.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5920.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5921.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5925.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5931.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5936.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5944.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5945.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5948.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr BGT: 6M3C5082.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5110.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5117.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5121.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5133.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5140.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5141.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5145.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5187.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5202.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5203.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5211.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C5214.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr For more photos from these parks:

I agree with above... Gatekeeper is a fun ride, but it was underwhelming for me as well. I really love the first half up through the keyhole, but then the ride fizzles out quite a bit. I don't really like the ending of the ride and I just wish the layout was a bit different after the first keyhole. I really dig the first few elements though.

I think it was better... I only saw it once or twice last year but I really enjoyed this years show. It was done in-house so there was some changes and IMO was better. It should improve as weeks go on as well since it just started, so the acts may tighten up a bit. Even though I did not really see any real flaws to be honest. Singing was good for a park show... No real complaints! I am not super picky about park entertainment as long as it is a fun time.

Honestly, the only quirk about this show is the random rides they pair together. Personally made no sense to me why Tatsu was even on yesterday and why not Leviathan or something. But overall at least it is something to watch.

We were at the park Saturday night for a few hours mostly to check out the shows for this year... Well, two of them at least... First, Happiness is... Snoopy, which is the same show from last year with an updated cast for the most part. Not our favorite iteration of this show, but still worth a watch if you need to cool off from the hot sun! Afterward, we strolled the park and bit and caught Luminosity and the dance party afterward... Luminosity was quite improved from last year we thought... Singing was a bit better and the dancing was pretty good as well. Of course, we think most of the fun happens after the show when the DJ pops out of his hole and everybody starts dancing... This goes on for about 30-45 minutes and is a blast! The crowd really gets into it and really ends the night out on a high note... Especially compared to that atrocious show they used to have on the big screen and the dancing stick figures... So here are some photos from that night... I am currently working on putting together some video of the dance party which I will post when I get it uploaded, hopefully by tomorrow. Some other misc images thrown in here, but mostly a focus on the two shows we caught that night. Of course, can find these images in higher resolution at my page: Enjoy. 6M3C6387.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6395.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6411.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6414.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6416.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6422.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6428.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6430.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6436.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6447.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6466.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6488.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6489.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6499.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6510.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6514.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6517.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6518.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6532.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6534.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6537.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6544.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6548.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6615.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6608.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6588.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6583.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6577.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6571.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6566.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6662.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6632.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6671.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6676.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6725.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6742.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6721.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6811.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6813.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C6815.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr Gatekeeper Lot Pano by invertalon, on Flickr

X2 no doubt... That ride is abusive (in a good kind of way) and intense as all hell. Nothing came close to that first ride for me.

Some photos from Fun Spot I just uploaded:

Just do Forbidden Journey via Single Rider line... I have never waited more than maybe five minutes that way. Unless you really want to see the entire queue. Same goes for most of the rides at Uni/IOA... Single rider is key if you don't buy express. Just rush to the rides that don't have single rider lines right away (Despicable Me, for example).

That park is a fun little spot in Orlando! We went there probably 4 nights last week and had a blast. It is nice how you can pull up, ride a few times and be driving away in 20 minutes... Can't do that many other places. Accessibility is so easy. We ended up buying a season pass, although we feel in general the place is bit overpriced at the time. The passes at $120 IMO *should* include the other Fun Spot as well to make it a better value. It is just crazy to think you could buy a Universal/IOA pass for not much more. Either way, it was our only real option as the price per ride at $9 a pop would of added up quickly, and the day ticket was $40. So we had to suck it up and buy them. That being said, the employees are amazing here. The crews were simply fantastic and full of energy. They all appeared to genuinely love their jobs. It was quite unexpected! I ended up with 40+ rides on WL throughout the week and my girlfriend had around 65 I believe. Its nice when they let you just sit on the train for as long as you want without getting off. Again, the crews were simply amazing. I recommend stopping by if you are in the area, for sure.

Expect it to be very busy. If you have a platinum pass, this will help out quite a bit to ride everything in one day. My advice: Go for early entry, go right to Gatekeeper. Hopefully it opens on time and can get a lap within 20 minutes. Go right to MF afterward and try to get back by Maverick by the time the park opens. Get to Dragster shortly after and the line should not be too bad yet... Hopefully a half hour or less. Within an hour or two, you have done most of the large attractions. After Dragster you can easily hit Magnum without any wait, Gemini, Mean Streak, etc... Go back up to the front of the park in the late evening when it is less busy for Raptor, Blue Streak and Wicked Twister. If you play your timing right (and the park opens everything on time), you can easily get everything done for the most part. Just hopefully they don't open stuff late like usual. We generally go for early entry though and ride everything we want within an hour or two and leave. If you do not have a platinum pass though for early entry, I would probably recommend fastlane or whatever they call it, if you only go to the park once a year or so. That way you can enjoy it more.

Is this ride extremely low capacity? We went twice last week and both times over 120 minutes. We got in line the one day and the line barely moved at all the 25 minutes we waited until we decided it was not worth it. Went by the exit of the ride and it was like 4-6 people came out every 30 seconds or so. I did ask two groups how long they waited and it if it was worth it, both immediately said "No!". Not a good sign for a new attraction. Although I am sure it is amazing, the lines are just too long for what it is. If the lines were only a half hour I am sure it would get much better reviews. I was bummed we did not get to see it, but it was just not worth the 2-hrs to find out for us. The area looked pretty good though, and the drink was great (a really good cream soda, basically).

Transformers was open from about 6:30 or 7 through close today. Got on quickly and was fun. Had been on USH's so nothing really new but better than I remember. Rode Spiderman right after to compare and the edge goes to Transformers I think. Glad we caught it open though!

Yeah that was me! Girlfriend was riding the coaster with you at some points, she was in the back I believe. She is close to 50 rides on it in the past 4 days or so, I am at around 30ish. Hoping to make it back tomorrow night prob for some last night rides before heading back to Ohio Saturday... But after IOA/UNI during the day. Such a great little ride.

Where you by chance there today in a yellow plaid shirt? Riding up front a bunch?

Got another 18 laps or so tonight... The ride is flying through the course! Running much faster compared to the POVs from media day.

Just rode it three times tonight... Such a great little ride! It surprised me how fun it was... Smooth with great, quick elements. Very rerideable. Hope to make it back again before we leave to ride it more.

Hopefully going to stop by and ride it tonight! Looking forward to it!

Yeah, we stopped by again Saturday night for a few hours and Sunday morning... In those times, nothing ran due to wind. It was OK though, we went mostly to see old friends and such anyway... Plus we rode some of smaller rides and had a great time regardless. I felt bad for all the paying guests though that expected to ride something lol

Trip from the zoo yesterday 6M3C3032.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C2967.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C2946.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C2908.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C2819.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C2791.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C2991.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr 6M3C3019.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

Thanks again everybody! I am happy to share these photos with everyone. It is probably one of the most beautiful rides, that is for sure! Especially at night. Stopping by CP both Saturday and Sunday I could not get over how much better the whole front of the park looks without Disaster Transport and the needle (plus the main gate, huge improvement).

Thanks everyone! Glad you all enjoy them.