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Dr Pepper. I love me some Dr Pepper. Probably my favorite "cola" type drink out there.

I saw The Fixx last night. Was my 3rd time seeing them and as usual a great show. That band is just so underrated. I've met them a couple times too and they're very nice guys. Only disappointment last night was I was hoping they'd play "Built for the Future" and they didn't. Oh well. I did get the drummer's setlist, so I've gotten one at every Fixx show I've been to so far. Yay! In 8 days I'll be seeing Duran Duran for my 12th and most likely final time. I love them to death (been a fan almost 30 years), but I am so tired of hearing the same tired setlist over and over. It's at the point I do beer runs during Hungry Like the Wolf, Ordinary World, The Reflex, etc. I'm just tired of the "hits". They have an new album out that's probably their best in 20 years or more and they're only doing a few songs off it. WTH? They did some rehearsal shows in the UK where they played some old obscure stuff and even stuff they've never played live before. We're maybe a week or so into the US tour now and they have yet to play any of those songs yet, which is disappointing to me since the songs of theirs I like the best are mostly non-singles and b-sides.

Wow they really need to clean up the water in the botanical gardens. That's just sad looking. Shame on Merlin for letting it look like rotted swampland. This is what it looked like back in the day:

Wow this park is shaping up nicely! Looking forward to visiting at least once to check it all out. I hadn't been to Cypress Gardens since the late 70's (I think), but I love they have Lego statues of the southern belles. I hope they have one in a blue dress! When I was 3 I was hellbent on getting my photo with the one in the BLUE dress (because it's my favorite color). I dragged my poor parents through the whole park until we found her too.

Great photos! Nice to see the differences between the Williiamsburg and Tampa parks events. The only similarities are the Fiends show and the "Dark Side of the Gardens" theme. Looks like BGW has a solid event.

Does waiting nearly 6 hours for Cheetah Hunt to open on opening day count?

Wolverine Wildcat - Michigan's Adventure (former home park) Gwazi, Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (current home park) Not my home park: Iron Dragon, Magnum XL 200 - Cedar Point Rock 'N Roller Coaster - Disney's MGM (now Hollywood) Studios Splash Mountain (Disneyland) Splash Mountain (WDW)

My favorite quote from someone who went through this last year: Ceci, it's not a traditional haunt like those others. You go through alone and you're touched. A lot. Bags over your head, handcuffed, staple-gunned (no staples in it obviously), last year we had to lay down on a filthy bed next to a rapist/serial killer and his victim, and I once had to wrestle a key away from a naked man dressed like a little girl (he was naked from the waist down). And I had fake period blood smeared all over my cheeks like blush. Stuff like that. Ummmm... woah. Wouldn't surprise me if anyone needed therapy after experiencing all that. Yeah it's all fake but to go through that... yikes. There is NO WAY I could do that. That is seriously messed up. And I'm not a bug haunt fan anymore, but back home in Michigan in the 90s I liked the Haunted Mill in Greenville (north of Grand Rapids). I remember a friend of mine won passes to it off the radio and we had a blast going through it. Sadly it burned down in 2003 about a month before it was supposed to open for that season. Arson.

Going to WDW for a couple days next week. Going to hit up the MK for Mickey's Not-So-Scary and a day at EPCOT.

^ Your timing must have been off, because my friend and I ran into the hoards just about everywhere. The only place we didn't see any was the dark pathway along Sesame Street and it was funny because I told my friend that's where the werewolves have been in the past, so we were totally on guard.

Last night at Busch Gardens I rode every coaster in the park (except Air Grover). And they were all walk-ons except for Cheetah Hunt, which had a 15 minute wait at the time (it jumped up to 45 minutes later in the night).

I seriously can't wait. I hope I can last all day. I was at the park for Howl-O-Scream last night too (posted my TR & pics in the BGT thread) and even though I was too chicken to do any of the houses, the atmosphere out in the park was a lot of fun. Kind of regretting I didn't add on Fright Feast, but you're going to have to sit through the kind of lame "Midnight Hour" show there, so maybe not.

I was at the park last night for Howl-O-Scream as well (so bummed I didn't know you were there too Joe... we probably walked right by each other and never noticed). My friend and I were too chicken to do any of the houses, but the "whole park is a scare zone" was pretty cool. The crazy thing was I wasn't as scared as I thought I'd be. A few of the scare-actors got me (they were in places you normally wouldn't expect, like on the ground hiding behind the big planters), but others my friend and I had a blast messing with. We ran into a hoard of clowns and we started singing "Send In The Clowns" which was hilarious (and clowns normally freak us out). Saw the new "The Midnight Hour" show, which was kind of lame, but had a few really funny bits. Caught the end of "Fiends", which looked like a lot of fun. Will check out the whole show for sure in a few weeks at Busch Gardens Bash! My friend and I hit every coaster in the park, including 2 rides on Kumba. We were going to do a 2nd time on Cheetah Hunt, but the humidity was really bad last night as there was NO wind blowing. It was really awful and I ended up getting sick as a result, so we ended up leaving a little before midnight. Pictures! Zombie Zombie bride The "Lady of the Gardens" zombie from the ads There were a LOT of fog machines. Glowing boogers! Frankenstein's Monster getting his groove thang on in the "Fiends" show. This was my favorite monster of the night. He was just so cool looking! Right after this guy took the photo, the monster next to him ripped his head off and drank his blood.

Ok that just made me laugh REALLY hard because it gave me the most hilarious mental image.

Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa on Sunday. But I also rode Gwazi, Air Grover, SheiKra, Kumba, Scorpion, Sand Serpent and Cheetah Hunt that same day. Yeah I hit every coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa in less than 5 hours (got there at noon and left around 5:30 & the park closed at 6:00). The park wasn't crowded at all and the longest wait I had was 10 or 15 minutes for Cheetah Hunt (so I rode that one twice).

Woo-Hoo!

Busch Gardens announced their new show for 2012... an ice show called "Iceploration"! http://www.buschgardenstampablog.com/busch-gardens-announces-all-new-epic-ice-show There's concept art of the costumes at the link above. Sounds like it's going to be a pretty good show! Looking forward to checking it out next year. I'm glad it's going to be an ice show! The park hasn't had one (besides the Christmas show) in a long time.

That just makes me want to cry. Awful.

Well, things kind of worked out and I just bought my ticket! Hope my Paypal payment went through ok (Robb or Elissa, can you check to be sure... I got an email confirmation but we had problems in the past. Thanks!). Not doing the Howl-O-Scream tour our Fright Feast. I'm still debating whether I'll stay after dark for Howl-O-Scream because I am a chicken of epic proportions. Hopefully there are other chickens who will be there and we can form our own chicken clique or something. Looking forward to meeting everyone! Yay my first TPR event! I am beyond excited!!! Oh and Dave... bring Ice Bat and I'll bring Wonderpup!

I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this now. I found out on Monday my job is being cut at the end of September (I work for a non-profit and the effing government keeps cutting needed programs), so I'm scrambling to hopefully find a new job before then. I was planning on buying my ticket for this when I get paid again in a couple weeks, but now I'm going to have to watch every penny I make. Ugh... so not fair.

Love the volcano pics! Can't wait to see more!

Busch Gardens Tampa as usual, but in October I'll be making a visit to Disney World (Magic Kingdom & EPCOT).

That thing the cast member gave you at Tower of Terror is one of the "story papers". There are ones for Turtle Talk, the Venetian Gondolas, Journey, Stormrider, Mermaid Lagoon Theatre, Magic Lamp Theatre, Sinbad, Mystic Rhythms, Indy, 20,000 Leagues, Raging Spirits and the Transit Steamer as well. They're for those who speak English to have an idea of what's going on since most things are in Japanese. I have a friend in Japan who sent some to me, which are pretty cool souvenirs in themselves.

There's a Holiday Inn Express on Busch Blvd that's newer than most of the hotels near the park. I've never stayed there since I'm a local, but I've had good experience with the Holiday Inn chain since they revamped their image and refurbed a good number of their hotels over the last 5 years or so. Plus they offer free hot breakfast (so does the Hampton Inn) with lots of choices and it's pretty decent in my experience. And if you don't want that, there's a Dunkin Donuts and a McDonald's across the street from the park. Doesn't look like I can afford my ticket until next month, but I can NOT wait to finally meet Piers!

Need to check the financials to see if I can swing getting my ticket soon. Otherwise I'm going to have to wait another paycheck to do it. How have ticket sales been so far, Robb? Just curious. I don't want to wait to long and have it sell out on me, which would make me a very sad panda.