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YES!!! I was hoping the rumor about the Millenium Flyer trains was true. ZOMG I am SO excited! Yea I'm going to Busch Gardens on the 22nd to ride! I'm actually going this Saturday too. If I happen to catch them testing the trains I'll be sure to snap some pics!

I haven't had a chance to try again. Either the line is full or I don't have 8 hours to kill waiting.

Huzzah! I've been very patiently waiting for my Bag of Crap to be mailed out (it's seriously been months). Can't wait to receive it!

Wonderpup is also quite a lush. And he likes to play games. He also has his own Facebook page (link is under my avatar). (BTW, we're going to be spending a lot of time at Busch Gardens Tampa next couple years thanks to my new 2 year pass... so if you & Ice Bat are in the area, give us a holler!)

I've been in line for over 5 hours. I'm now 87th in line. Sloooowly getting there. A friend of mine is about 10 behind me in line.

Nice report! That coaster is really looking effing AWESOME. Was nothing but a bunch of mountains of dirt when I was there in early November. Amazing how fast this is thing is going up. I was told about the re-tracking on Gwazi when I took the Montu coaster tour in November. It needs it BAD. Last time I rode it, I had a horrible headache afterwards (could still feel my brain rattling in my head hours later). Hoping the Millennium Flyer trains become a reality. Could be exactly what this coaster needs to get it back on track (no pun intended). Gwazi was a great ride when it first opened but holy hell it just got way too rough. The shots of the kangaroos and wallabys killed me. I love those critters to death. I want one! I hope one day they expand Walkabout Way a little and add some koalas and wombats. Australian critters are so messed up but most of them are beyond cute. I can't wait until I go to Busch Gardens next Saturday... my first visit using my shiny, new 2 year pass (well, once I redeem my voucher that is). Woo-hoo!

Yay Big Mike is back!

Ice Bat really needs to meet Wonderpup some day. I think hijinks would ensue.

Coaster/Theme Park related: *Cheetah Hunt! I plan on using my Busch Gardens Tampa pass quite a bit over the next 2 years... starting with my first visit of the year in 2 weeks! *Maybe visit Sea World Orlando for the first time in many years. *Legoland Florida - opening in the fall! Other: *Baseball season! I'm counting down the days until pitchers & catchers report. *Hopefully catching some good concerts (so far I got Blondie Feb 13 at Busch Gardens & Scissor Sisters April 7 at Hard Rock Live lined up.... and already planning on Duran Duran's tour once dates are announced).

Yikes! Scary! I've never been on the ride (I don't like getting wet), but I loved shooting unsuspecting riders with the water cannons after the big drop. I wonder how the fire started? Glad no one was hurt.

I did it last month and it is well worth $20. And regarding Gwazi, I'm glad I've never seen any of the stuff you guys have mentioned. I've never seen any issues there except they never dispatch the trains at the same time so you lose the whole dueling concept. I can't even ride Gwazi anymore because it's just too rough and I got a MAJOR migraine last time I rode it. But when I took the Montu coaster insider tour, my tour guides told me They're rehabbing the trains one side at a time to hopefully give it a smoother ride. I also heard a rumor Gwazi is going to get Millennium Flyer trains, but who knows how true that is?

When I took the Montu coaster insider tour last month, I asked my tour guides (and I was the only one on the tour that day, so I could ask as many questions as I wanted) why on busy days I've only seen one train running on Montu & Kumba but 2 or 3 trains running on ShiekRa. They said it has something to do with the number of hours/days of service for each train. I can't remember exactly what they told me, but it was something like, if they put a train on the tracks, even for just a few hours, it counts as a "day of service" and each train can only do so many "days of service", then has to go in for routine maintenance. It was a little confusing and didn't totally clear it up for me, but I kind of understood the gist of it. No idea how true that actually is though. That being said, Cheetah Hunt looks AMAZING so far. That is one sexy coaster coming together! I just got a 2 year pass for Christmas (I live 30 min away in Clearwater... used to live 10-15 minutes away when I lived in Tampa). I don't have time to redeem my voucher for a couple weeks yet, but I'm planning on visiting January 15th and will snap some shots of the progress at that point. When I was there in early November, all that was behind the walls were a bunch of mountains of dirt. That things has been going up FAST since vertical construction started.

I got: *a 2 year pass to Busch Gardens Tampa *a new Coach purse *a nifty John Lennon print for my music room & a Life Magazine book thingy about John Lennon *a new Eiffel Tower print for the living room *gift cards to Kohl's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chick-Fil-A, Dunkin Donuts & Disney *a Tampa Bay Rays calendar *remastered box sets of The Cure's "Disintegration" and Duran Duran's "Notorious" *a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver/pen (the 10th Doctor's) *little stuff like candy/snacks The cats got catnip, toys & some cans of wet food.

Oh man I remember visiting Autoworld once when I was a kid! The park was technically in Flint, not Detroit (but I get where you mention Detroit because not everyone knows where Flint is). I remember we were on our way back from Frankenmuth (home of the HUMUNGIOD Bronner's Christmas store) and BEGGED my dad to take us to Autoworld. Amazingly he said ok and we went for awhile. I remember it had a few dark rides (one was about racing, another was about the history of the car, hosted by an animatronic horse). I thought it was so cool to visit an indoor theme park. I've been hunting high and low for photos/video of the Sid & Marty Krofft park (it was in what's now the CNN Center in Atlanta). It sounded all kinds of creepy psychedelic wrong, which of course made it sound all kinds of awesome for the wrong reasons. LOL! They filmed some opening sequences of the Krofft Saturday Supershow (with Kaptain Kong and the Kools) there.

Ok here's some of mine... Midway at the Florida State Fair View from Montu's brake run tower ShiekRa The cutest wallaby EVER!!! Hogwarts is so awesome! Stuck on Forbidden Journey FTW! A different view of Imagination

I spent Thanksgiving at Downtown Disney in Orlando. We had lunch at the new Pollo Campero. Yummy fried chicken! Had dessert at Ghirardelli. NOM!

I've been to that Bargain World! I love how kistchy/ghetto International Drive can be. As for that "Orlando Attractions" postcard, take a closer look at the Mexico pavilion... the pyramid is photoshopped to look wider! And the Spaceship Earth pic shows the entrance plaza before the graveyard came around.

LOVING these updates! Can't wait for more (and video too when you finally get the chance... I'm a patient woman... to a point ). Seriously though, keep up the awesome work!

Heh. That will never happen. The Tigers have been in Lakeland for almost 100 years (or something like that). Plus the land Joker Marchant Stadium/Tiger Town is on isn't big enough for a park like that (I know Joker/Tiger Town like the back of my hand). But it *is* easier to get to that area off I-4 than it is to get to where Legoland is in Winter Haven (for those who don't know, you have to go WAY off the highway and go through that little ghetto town).

One side of Gwazi (Tiger) is down because from what I was told when I was there last Monday and took the Coaster Insider tour of Montu, they're rehabbing the trains on Gwazi one side at a time to make the ride not so rough. Even my tour guides agreed Gwazi has gotten really bad over the years (it was great when it opened). So hopefully when the Tiger side comes back, it'll be a smoother, better ride. And at that time, the Lion side will go down for a similar rehab of those trains. Considering Spring goes from March 20-June 20 in 2011, they got until then to make good on their "Spring 2011" promise for getting Cheetah Hunt open. Oh and the monorail station is going to be the the loading area for Cheetah Hunt (and the old Clydesdale barn area is going to be turned into a cheetah encounter attraction similar to the tigers at Jungala. Looking forward to that! And skyway will reopen once Cheetah Hunt is complete, so there's that to look forward to as well. And seeing as they're working on getting everything ready to get the track installed, once that starts happening, it's going to go fast. They just need to get all those big piles of dirt out of the way first. I think 2011 is going to be a great year for Busch Gardens. I'm actually considering finally getting an regular AP instead of one of those FunCards (that way I don't have to pay for parking every time... that adds up after awhile). It's really one of the more underrated parks here in Florida. I really regret not going more when I lived 10-15 minutes away (now I live about twice that, which is still pretty close, but...).

I always forget about that sing-a-long. Next time I'm in Orlando for a few days I'm going to try to check it out (if I remember). They do movies on the beach at the Beach/Yacht Clubs too (or they used to at least).

That was fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

I highly recommend the Coaster Insider tour. It's 45 minutes and costs only $19.95! Oh and after the tour I got to ride Montu with no wait and they gave me a couple front of the line passes, which I didn't even need to use since crowds were so light the longest I had to wait for anything was maybe 5 minutes.

I rode Kumba, but I forgot to take pics. Actually I rode every single coaster on Monday as like I said, it wasn't crowded at ALL. The longest I had to wait for anything was maybe 5 minutes (or less) for Cheetah Chase (which re-aligned my spine, thankyaverramuch). I hadn't ridden Scorpion in years though and forgot it doesn't have OTS restraints even though it has a loop. Holy crap that freaked me out!

This past Monday, my faithful companion, Wonderpup, and I visited Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (since we only live 30 minutes away). The weather was perfect (in the low 70s), crowds were VERY light and the animals were active due to the cooler weather. We also had reservations for the Coaster Insider tour, where you get up close & personal with Montu. Ok let's get on with it! Wonderpup is excited to be back at Busch Gardens! First stop, the new Australian exhibit, Walkabout Way! Big, hoppy things ahead! Kangaroo! For , you can buy a cup of food and feed the kangaroos and wallabies in the exhibit... and pet them too! Wallabies are Wonderpup approved! I haz a sexy! G'Day! Lazy Roo! Pretty albino wallaby! I seriously wanted to take this little guy below home. He wanted the big carrot piece in the food cup I had. While I was fishing it out, he put his little paws on my knee and got all in my face. I about DIED from cute overload. I haz a carrot! OM NOM NOM NOM! Next up, we checked out the new Sesame Street kiddie area (formerly Land of the Dragons). It was very nicely themed and if I were a little rugrat again, I would love playing in this area. Sign for Larry Only took me 30+ years, but I FINALLY got my photo with Cookie Monster! I'm a dirty credit whore, so I had to get my Air Grover credit. Wonderpup thinks Flamingos should be called Flaming O's. Lorikeets! Very pretty birds & total hams, but they crap EVERYWHERE! At noon was the Coaster Insider tour. I was the only one signed up that day, so I got my own private tour! Sweet! Wheels! More Wheels! Nerd shot! OMG! NAKED TRAIN! The highlight of the tour was when they took me up on the break platform tower. They used to take tours right up onto the platform, but they started having problems with idiots on the tours and on the coaster reaching out trying to reach out & grab hands as the trains go by, so now they take you to the landing just below the brake run, which is still pretty high up. They let me watch a couple trains go by snap some photos. Love that barrel roll! Coming up into the brake run. Wonderpup & I with our awesome tour guides, Norman & Kelly. And some random shots..... ShiekRa! Future home of Intamin goodness! This big pile of dirt will transform into a juicy, new Intamin by Spring 2011! Skyway is currently closed while the sexy new Cheetah Hunt coaster is under construction. New show taking KaTonga's place starting in December. Wonderpup normally doesn't like cats, but thinks tigers are pretty awesome. Tigers are my favorite animal. Schweepy baby! Elephant! This hyena failed to see the humor in any jokes. Unamused Lion is unamused. Meerkats are weird. I'm way cuter than that Timon hack! ♪♫ Walk like an Egyptian... ♪♫ Hope you enjoyed! Busch Gardens is really one of the more underrated parks here in Florida. I remember visiting as a little kid in the early 80's. The place has grown by leaps and bounds since then. The park even celebrated it's 50th Anniversary last year! Looking forward to another visit soon!