cwgator

From Screamscape: www.screamscape.com/html/industry_news.htm#General It just says when the series starts. I can't wait to see when they did Manta (since I was there...lol).

We were told in July.

I'm not big on flat rides, but will usually try them at least once when I come across a new type. My favorite so far would have to be the frisbee type rides. I've been on a Moser Sidewinder (@ Wild Adventures), and can't wait to try a giant frisbee. Other than that I liked the Aviator, Flying Scooters (flyers), Drop Towers/Double Shot & Orbiter (Sandstorm @ BGT).

Trip Report March 23, 2012 As part of my 35th Birthday celebration, my friend Kijofa took me to Wild Adventures for the first time. I had no idea where we were headed as it was a surprise. Once we hit I-75N from Gainesville, I had a few places on my mind. When we got off in Valdosta, I knew. I had been wanting to go there ever since I heard of the park after I moved to Savannah from Charlotte in 2006 (I moved to Gainesville, FL in '09). The park opened up at 10AM and closed @ 7PM. We arrived at opening and got in line to park. $10? Pretty decent I suppose. It was the first time he had to pay to park in a long time since we have annual passes to the parks we normally go to. Fortunately since it was a Friday, the local schools were in session, with only some neighboring areas out for Spring Break. The park was in general not busy, which was great for us. After finding a nice shady place to park we get out and head to the entrance. As expected the "photorazzi" was waiting to take everyone's pic...lol After picking up our tickets we head towards the turnstiles and get ready for a day of fun and excitement. After the usual restroom break and getting our bearings, we head out into the park. First ride of the day: Ant Farm Express; Coaster Credit # 61. Who can resist a credit right? Since the line was non-existent, they were running it through twice, sometimes more every cycle. Next up was Go Bananas!, a Maurer Söhne wild mouse coaster; Coaster Credit # 62. First time riding one by them and thought it was more enjoyable than those by Mack (Sand Serpent, Ricochet, etc.) even though the layout was basically the same. Moving on we ride Pharaoh's Fury, a swinging ship. Surprisingly to some I had never ridden one before. I had only been on a looping ship before (Southern Star @ Carowinds when it was still called Frenzoid). After that we rode the Century Wheel. Now for Coaster Credit # 63: Swamp Thing. Now I have ridden one of these Vekoma Suspended Family Coasters before at Carowinds, and it was not an experience I would say I enjoyed. However, this one did not knock my head around into the restraints like the other. I would say it was somewhat enjoyable, and it also cycled through twice due to no line. After tackling the "kiddie coasters", it was time to take a little break and visit Lorikeet Landing Aviary to check out the birds. The nectar was only $2 so we decided to feed them. This aviary had many of the same birds seen at other parks (like Busch Gardens Tampa), but is a bit smaller with narrow paths. Since the park wasn't busy there were only a few other people in there at the time. Outside the Aviary there were a few more animals and a new show called "Do You Zoo?" in a small theater next door (didn't watch). It appears that the other animal trails in that area are closed either temporarily for refurb or permanently. This meant we didn't get to see the bears, wallabys and other animals back there. As we continue back to the rides, we come across some peafowl by the Fresh Corn Dog Co. They are scheming to try and snatch a bite from some unsuspecting tourist. They didn't have to try very hard though as the children were throwing them fries. I'm sure that isn't very healthy for them. I'm just surprised they were roaming free through the park. Across from there is the boardwalk around the park's lake where this beautiful Mute Swan was watching over it's nest. Here is Aviator. I've always wanted to ride one of these and now I had my chance. It was quite nice and the views were great. Next up is Boomerang (geez what is this, Vekoma Park? LOL); Coaster Credit #64. This was my first time riding a Boomerang. I can say the coaster was fun and ok, however I really didn't like going through the cobra roll backwards on that second ride I took. For me it's a try once coaster just for the credit, but couldn't see riding one over and over again. It still had the old restraints too, so I'm not sure if it's much better with the new ones or not. After that I realized we hadn't eaten anything yet all day so I wasn't feeling my best. So my friend and I decided on what to eat. Unfortunately we didn't eat at any of the places posted above...lol. He ended up eating from Mamas Pizza and had some fries from the Fresh Corn Dog Co. I had the corn dog/fry basket from there. It was ok I guess. The fries were obviously fried in the same needing to be changed oil the corn dogs were fried in. I must say I wasn't impressed at all by the quality or pricing of the food here at this park. I would have to give this park the lowest quality/pricing rating of the parks I've been too based on what we had. They did offer a discount for buying 2 souvenir cups which included your drink though. Perhaps we should have tried one of those places pictured above...maybe next time. Knowing that it isn't a good idea to go on coasters or spinning rides after eating, we decided to take the Safari Train and view some of the Asian and African animals on display. The theme song you ask? "Africa" by Toto. I love the song, but can imagine the ride operators are sick of it...lol. The 7 minute or so journey took us under the Cheetah coaster into the Asian area. In here there were Llama (pictured), Water Buffalo, Black Bucks, Fallow Deer, Nilgai and more. Then we journeyed into Africa where there were Ankole Watusi, Zebra, Greater Kudu, Impala, Oryx, Sable Antelope, Scimitar (pictured), Addax (pictured), Thomson Gazelles, Waterbuck, Wildebeest and more. At the end of the journey we come to the park's Asian Elephant "Shirley" (pictured). She is 68 years old; the oldest elephant in North America and 3rd oldest in the world. Next we go over to the Giraffe viewing area. Here they do daily feedings with trainers. You can get very close to these giraffes as you can see from the pictures. I'm not sure what the cost was to hand feed them, but it's definitely cheaper than some tours you can take at other parks. You can see the Cheetah coaster in the background of the picture on the left. Speaking of Cheetah...it was next; Coaster Credit #65. This CCI was actually a very smooth and fun ride. I guess the recent refurb job they did actually helped, as I’ve heard bad reviews of it before they did it. I would have to put it in my top 3 of wooden coasters ridden. It delivered a descent amount of airtime and as stated before was pretty smooth so I didn't feel beaten up after riding. Next is Viking Voyage; Coaster Credit #66. This family coaster by E&F Miler Industries, came to the park in 2010 from Celebration City in Branson, Missouri. I didn't expect much from this coaster considering it's size. However, was I ever surprised. The airtime on this coaster was amazing (I know I was shocked too). The back row of course delivered the best ride. I kept getting back on this one. This coaster ended up being my favorite at the park. Too bad only a few of this model were built. It's a great family coaster and a good stepping stone from smaller junior coasters and a bigger woody or a looper of some sort. Wild Adventures actually has a decent selection of flat rides. In the pic above are Rattler, Firecracker and Falcon Flyer. They also have a Yo-Yo, Whirling Wildcats (scrambler), a Frog Hopper, Kite Flyer, Swinging Safari (Matterhorn/Music Express type ride), bumper cars and more including many children's rides. The park's 2 water rides (Tasmanian River Rapids & Blackfoot Falls) and waterpark were not yet open for the season. Here is Rattler, a Moser Rides Sidewinder, similar to the Huss Frisbee. This was my first time trying this style ride as well. I quite enjoyed it, which was a shock since I rarely get on rides with such circular motion. This was my favorite flat at the park. I wish Carowinds and Busch Gardens Tampa would get one of these. Of course I would think they'd need a much larger one to handle the crowds. Next is Firecracker, an S&S Double Shot tower. It was pretty much your standard double shot ride. I've been on similar and always like the feeling of launching into the air. Another first for me (sad, but true) are the Falcon Flyers. I skipped the one at Carowinds not knowing how fun they could be. A Greater One Horned Rhino. It was located behind the Twisted Typhoon coaster. Final coaster at the park to ride is Twisted Typhoon (formerly Hangman); Coaster Credit #67. This is a standard Vekoma SLC (689m). This was my first time riding one. I attempted to ride several times earlier in the day, but was unsuccessful. If it wasn't the storm that blew through shutting it down for over an hour, it was the e-stop that occurred on the brake run after it opened back up, causing them to evacuate manually. I thought it was odd they didn't do a test run after not running for that long. Oh well at least I wasn't stuck on it. After about 45 minutes or so it had re-opened. I had always heard the horrors of the SLC. Well, those stories were not far-fetched. The first half of the ride going through the rollover and into the sidewinder was ok. However once it went around and hit that double in-line twist...HEADBANGER CITY. Needless to say I only rode this once and got a massive headache from my head slamming into the OTSR. Why in the world would they make them like that? I usually can prepare how my head is positioned to avoid the banging, but it didn't quite work out. Perhaps if I had ridden again, I could have fared better, but I wasn't going to make things worse. Hopefully they will have newer trains with comfortable restraints soon. Until then, I won't be riding....lol After all that head banging, it was time to relax while my headache went away. So we watched the Tigers Of India show. It featured 7 Bengal tigers. There are 4 different color variations present: orange and black stripe (standard), white and black stripe (white), snow white and a golden tabby. This was an ok show showing some of the agility of the tigers and how they interact with trainers. I was a bit uncomfortable at one part of the show where the trainer had to discipline one of them for trying to bite his arm. I was thinking "Where is PETA"? After that feeling subsided some, the show continued and they brought out a male golden tabby (pictured above with trainer). It was the "bad boy" of the bunch, or so they would make you think with it's theme music: "Bad To The Bone". Well I'm not sure about it being a bad boy, but it got a bit frisky with one of the females and had to be pulled away. They did some "tricks", nothing too over the top, just stuff they would do anyway such as roll over and sit up. Tigers are my favorite animal and despite the discipline earlier, I enjoyed watching them do more than lay around half comatose. I had a great time for my first visit to Wild Adventures. I'm sure the light crowds helped. The most I had to wait to ride anything was about 5 minutes, or about 1 or 2 cycles for each ride. Most were a walk on. The weather cooperated for the most part as the high was about 84. There was a quick-moving storm that came through around 2pm which shut the rides down for about an hour. The only real complaint I have about the park is the food. Perhaps It was just a bad day, or was the places we chose to eat at. It wasn't horrible, but wasn't great either. I will definitely be back someday. I don't see it in the near future though, unless I take my nephews and nieces. If I lived in Valdosta that would be different of course (which isn't gonna happen...lol). This park does have potential and hopefully it will get a signature coaster in the years to come to keep people like me coming back.

Trip Report Friday April 6, 2012 As many of you know, the Travel Channel did some filming @ Seaworld Orlando April 5-6. It will air sometime in mid-late July. In addition to the posting here by Indigo Films, the park did a contest through Facebook and I was selected to come on Friday the 6th. All thanks goes to my friend Kijofa who entered me while I was sleeping...lol We got up at 4am to get ready and head to Orlando from Gainesville. I think I slept for all of an hour. We left about 5 and arrived at the park just before 7. The event was scheduled for 7:15am-10am. After filming, all those who participated were allowed to stay in the park for the rest of the day. This was nice of them as some parks will escort you out after the filming/event is over and you have to either pay or have a season pass to come back in. Parking was free for participants as well and was kind of funny not having someone greet us at the parking toll booths. Since we both have annual passes, we would get in and had free parking anyways. However we did end up parking in the preferred area, so it was nice to have a freebie upgrade (not to mention we were only feet away from the entrance...lol). After parking and heading to the gate, we all signed our lives away. Well, for 3 hours anyway and using the footage at their discretion...Hope I looked ok...lol. Then we went into the park. I obviously edited the form above so not to show my personal info. Today they were filming Manta for the show. They filmed Kraken the day before. After receiving some general directions on what was to take place, it was definitely a process of waiting & watching and seemed to go on forever. There were about 52 of us and several were picked for interviews, wear hand cams and/or camera harnesses during the ride. It was interesting to see and be part of filming this type of show. Here I am just waiting to get on...I waited...and waited... ...and waited even more...lol Stuff on TV looks like it was done with ease, but all the takes, waiting and behind the scenes seems to take forever. I saw one lady reading a book. I guess she's done this before...lol. Finally I get on! This pic was actually my second ride. The first ride I sat on the other end and got a little wet on the splash down. I like this seat better because you come real close to the waterfall and it looks like you are going to fly right through it. Even sitting there waiting to dispatch was a waiting game....lol Yes! Finally...Here we go! This was definitely nothing like an ERT session whatsoever. I still had a good time; even while waiting. Also it was interesting hearing others points of view about the ride experience in person vs. reading them over a forum post. When it comes to the camera, I’m a bit shy, so I didn’t do an interview. I should still show up there somewhere giving a thumbs up and/or smiling in footage on the ride and queue areas. My friend Kijofa however, did an exit interview. He had quite a different perspective of the ride compared to the others. You’ll just have to see the show to see what I mean...lol Here are some other shots of Manta from around the park taken after the filming was over. The park was quite busy even before the official opening @ 9am. While riding Manta during filming, I could see a huge group of people waiting behind the ropes at the holding area. On my last ride @ around 9:15, they had opened the queue for Manta, and I could see it backed up to the splash down effect. I was like wow. I knew it was spring break & Easter weekend, so I expected the park to be quite packed. Since this was the case, the rides that were open had long waits, and show theaters filled up quite fast. I knew I wasn't about to wait an hour (or more) for rides I've been on many times. So we just kept moving on, taking in the scenery & whatever was manageable. I was a bit disappointed that several attractions were down for various reasons. Some were to be expected due to construction of new & updated attractions: The Manatee area was still under construction for Turtle Trek; opens April 27… The Penguin Encounter turning into Antarctica Empire of The Penguin; opens Spring 2013… & the underwater viewing area for the Killer Whales was still under construction (& Dine With Shamu), so we didn’t get to see them this time. This was all to be expected since I follow several forums…no biggie. In addition to the above, some attractions were closed due to weather and/or technical difficulties. The Skytower was closed due to high winds, so I was unable to take pics of the construction from overhead. I'm not sure if it ever opened later. Kraken was closed for some unknown reason when we went over after filming. All they would tell us was that it was currently not in operation, but to check back later in the day. So I was a bit bummed I didn't get to ride my favorite coaster this trip. It was still not running by the time we left the park. Since I did ride Manta during filming (the main reason for coming), it was not a wasted trip. However I do feel bad for some people who actually paid to come to the park or first timers with all these areas/attractions being closed. I even heard several complaints while walking around the park. But hey, progress is coming and things happen. Of course safety should always come first. Even with all that closed, we still managed to find a few things to do: Always fun to watch is Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island. Since I've seen the show several times, I just sat back and enjoyed it instead of taking endless pics or recording this time. After the show it was time to each lunch. The place desired was Seafire Inn, but they had changed their menu so someone wasn't going to get what they wanted. So we ended up @ the other usual place we go to...The Spice Mill. Then we went through the Shark Encounter. Unfortunately, unless you have a real high powered (expensive) camera, you won't get many decent pics in here. I also hate using a flash in these types of environments since it reflects off the glass, so I refuse to do so. We also played Skeeball and won a couple prizes....Ok, so Kijofa won but I was 10 points from winning as well. I still got one....lol Most of the animals were readily available and glad to pose for a picture or two: Here are some of the egrets, a wood stork and harbor seals in the Pacific Point Preserve. The underwater viewing @ Dolphin Cove is always a nice place to escape the heat and relax while you see these graceful creatures swimming and playing. The dolphin feeding was going on above. I still haven't done this, but I may next time. They had already closed for this feeding and the next one was later. The park has a few rescued Sea Turtles on display. The poor guy on the right has been amputated. My guess is the leg was cut by a boat propeller. The park does do a great job with rescuing animals and releasing them back into the wild when they can. Inside the Manta Aquarium is an array of sealife. Of course this lil guy on the left is not a manta ray....I didn't get any decent pics because of the lighting in there. This is a still from video footage. To the right is a Sea Urchin. We skipped One Ocean this time. I'm sad we didn't get to see "Shamu" this go around, but we saw it in December and should still be running next time we come, as it's still fairly new. Plus I know that stadium was going to be a mad house and packed. Instead, we opted to see the 2pm showing of my favorite show Blue Horizons before leaving the park. Unfortunately when we arrived at the theater it was already closed do to capacity. It was about 15-20 minutes early too. I've seen it more times than I can remember, so I guess that's ok. This just wasn't our day to enjoy our favorite attractions and shows, but we accomplished the objective for coming. We left the park around 3, mainly to avoid the afternoon traffic after walking through the Waterfront shops. Despite the crowds and attraction closures, we still had a good time. We had both been to the park several times in the past and I’ve been going since ‘07. We’ll be going back after they open up Antarctica sometime next year. A visit to the park wouldn't be complete without an obligatory photo of the lighthouse at the entrance. I usually take it when I arrive, but didn't because of lighting that early in the morning. So I just waited until we left....I almost forgot!

These are the 3 oldest I've ridden: 1. Dahlonega Mine Train @ SFOG; opened 1967 (45 years old). First rode in 1998. 2. (tie) Great American Scream Machine @ SFOG; opened 1973 (39 years old). First rode in 1998. 2. (tie) Carolina Goldrusher @ Carowinds; opened 1973 (39 years old). First rode in 1990.

Already Visited This Year: Busch Gardens Tampa (will continue to go throughout the year) Seaworld Orlando Wild Adventures Possibles (In Order of Likelihood): SFOG Carowinds Dollywood My list this year is small, but I plan on expanding out more next year.

I'll be @ Seaworld Orlando tomorrow for the shoot. We are riding Manta. If nothing else, it will be nice to get some rides in before they let the general public in. I expect the park to be busy with it being Spring Break, plus Friday and Easter weekend. I'll take some pics while there tomorrow and post them if it's allowed (I know in some cases they request you wait until the show has aired, etc.).