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Chandu is the cutest tiger EVER!!! I love the Chandu plushie a friend of mine brought back for me from a trip to DisneySea a few years ago.

I cry with jealousy reading the Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea reports. One of these days... I will eventually get my butt to Japan and visit these amazing parks. This is very high on my bucket list. Even if I'm 90 years old and in a wheelchair, it WILL happen! Gorgeous photos and the videos are awesome. Almost feels like I'm there.

It's no worse than driving through Lowry Zoo's and BGT's neighborhood, and you managed to survive. Touche. And I actually used to live about 10 minutes from both before I moved across the bay (and even then felt the area I was in was borderline ghetto). So yeah I'll survive, but have a slight case of heebie jeebies. Now if only the Fazoli's in Winter Haven was still open... I miss their breadsticks & Italian ice strawberry lemonade thingies.

Nice Busch Gardens pics! Even though I'm there every couple weeks, I love to see other's perspectives of the park. Air Grover. Fun little kiddie coaster. The ride ops always have a good laugh when I bound up to the load platform to ride... because I'm a big effing credit whore.

Wait... I have a credit less than 5 miles from my home and I didn't know about it?!?! I drive by Celebration Station at least a couple times a week going home from work! Well... CRAP! I'm going to have to do something about that soon! Maybe next week after I get paid if the weather cooperates. Oh and the name of the movie that's coming out about Winter the dolphin is actually called "Dolphin's Tale'. Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick, Jr, Ashley Judd & Kris Kristofferson are all in it. A lot of the movie was filmed here in Clearwater. And it comes out September 23rd, not next year.

That's too bad the boat jumpers aren't back, but at least the ride itself it back. Maybe one day the boat jumpers will return? And I just have to say Meat Cow/Meat Sheep/Meat Rooster has to be one of the greatest things EVER!

I'm hoping the single rider line will be open for Cheetah Hunt when I'm back at the park next weekend. I asked at a couple different times on Sunday and it wasn't open.

Ideas for the free day in Tampa: Lowry Park Zoo - spendy for a zoo as admission is around $25, but it's nice and as mentioned, they have a credit (a kiddie coaster, which is OMG BRUTAL... they sent the train around 3 times when I rode it), a log flume, carousel & some kiddie flat rides. Florida Aquarium I heard is nice. There's also the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, home of Winter the Dolphin (she uses a prosthetic tail). The Clearwater Beach area is kitschy & touristy. Pier 60 always has something going on. The sunsets there are gorgeous. Downtown Dunedin has some great mom & pop shops and antique stores, as well as some awesome local restaurants and bars. There's the new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg if you're into art (and like Salvador Dali).

The video of the coaster at Hanayashiki is made of pure awesomeness. LOVE IT!

^ Yeah I'm really anxious to ride Cheetah Hunt at night. It's already a run ride, but looks to be even more awesome after dark. Hopefully next weekend crowds won't be as bad as this past one (due to the holiday, of course). And I forgot to mention in my other post that's great news about Rhino Rally getting an expansion! I remember hearing rumblings about that before Cheetah Hunt opened. Will be interesting to see what they come up with.

No one was banging on the glass where I was. This cheetah was just weird. He/she would come up to the glass and be all, "Take my picture! I'm so pretty!" and totally pose, then all of a sudden hiss! Cranky kitty. This cheetah was totally posing for pics, then would suddenly hiss at everyone. WTH? LOL!

I rode Kumba and Montu yesterday. 2nd row on both as the line for front row was too long and I have the patience of a gnat.

I was at the park yesterday and it was pretty busy. The Brazilian tour groups were out in force! Luckily I kept running into them going in the OPPOSITE direction I was going. While waiting in line for Kumba, someone somehow managed to lose a shoe nearly halfway up the lift hill, so they had to stop the ride, then 2 employees walked up the lift hill to get the shoe, then they had to send out a couple test trains. Oh and yesterday was the first time in a LONG time I've seen 3 train ops on both Kumba and Montu. Made the lines a little more bearable, but dispatch was still slow. No idea how many trains they were using on Gwazi, but even that wouldn't help how slow their ops are. Cheetah Hunt had a continuous posted 90 minute wait from around at least 3:45pm until nearly 9:00pm, so I didn't ride. Finally saw Kinetix and was very impressed. I plan on seeing the show again in a couple weeks. Saw the holiday fireworks and while they were generic, they were nice. I wasn't expecting "Disney quality" anyway since this is pretty much the ONLY time Busch Gardens ever has fireworks (because of the animals). The cheetahs were quite active especially around dusk. There was one who was totally posing for photos, but then would hiss at people! It was quite comical, but made you glad there was a big pane of glass separating you from the kitty.

This just makes me want to go to Japan more and more. What a wonderful, messed up country!

Greatest. Ride. Safety. Video. EVER.

^ LOLOLOLOL!!!! I agree the "meet the keepers" presentations are nice. The keepers know a lot about the animals they care for and you can tell they love their jobs. I've had some good conversations with the tiger keepers and elephant trainers.

There's a theatre in Tampa called the Tampa Pitcher Show that's a similar concept. I did it once with a former boyfriend 10 years ago (ironically that ended up being our last "date" as I ended up dumping him a couple weeks later). I remember getting pizza and it was really good. They also do screenings of Rocky Horror with a full (and really good) shadowcast once or twice a month. There's also a similar theatre in Clearwater called the Clearwater Cinema Cafe. Haven't tried that yet.

That mug had me laughing so hard I had tears forming. Wow that's just the most awesomely messed up souvenir ever. I hope you bought it!

Busch Gardens Tampa... probably next weekend.

I seriously can NOT wait since BGT is my "home" park. Finally being part of a TPR event there is just going to be icing on the cake for me. Back on topic, I'm looking forward to checking out Legoland when it opens. The sucky part will be having to drive through ghetto Winter Haven to get there, but I'll deal. I see 4 new credits with my name on them just waiting to be ridden. My parents are even looking forward to checking it out because they were big fans of Cypress Gardens and are glad the botanical gardens and waterski show will still be there. They just wish the park sold passes for just the gardens because all the old folks who are snowbirds in the area would like that... not the rides or coasters. But the way the park is laid out, the gardens are in the back, so you have to cut through the whole park to get back there, so that wouldn't work. Regardless, it looks like it's going to be really nice.

Yeah that's definitely the Team Disney Orlando (TDO) building, not the Casting Center, which is further down the road (next to/behind the Hess station, I believe), across the road from the Marketplace side of Downtown Disney. TDO is across the street from the Westside. Really awesome pics though, Adam! You're braver than I am because there is NO WAY I would get in one of those little puddle-jumper planes like that.

Cheetah Hunt actually feels longer than it is... at least to me. I've only ridden it 3 times so far but because the track is so long, to me it feels a little longer than a minute and a half ride. regardless, it's SO MUCH FUN. Can't wait to ride it again... probably next weekend.

Kumba last Saturday. Also rode Cheetah Hunt, both sides of Gwazi and Sheikra... all before noon!

The characters at the park are really cute and have kind of a Disney vibe to them. Adventure Lagoon looks bizarre and awesome at the same time. Same with the escalator ride. I could easily spend a half hour just going up and down the escalator and dancing to the music... because I'm a dork. Pyrenees looks freaking awesome. Glad to know it ranks up there with Montu (my all-time favorite B&M invert).

On Hollywood Dream is song #4 "Osaka Lover" by Dreams Come True? I know that and another J-Pop song are part of the song choices.