(My First) Trip Report - Orlando

[Rooey]

Well, here is my trip report from Orlando, forgive me if its not up to the standard of other people's, but i think i got most of what i wanted to say.

 

Well, we arrived in Orlando on Wednesday 27th April, went throught the (rather scary since last time i went) immigration section, and made our way to our hotel, which was located in Little Lake Bryan, nice and near to Disney and local to I-Drive etc.

 

On the Thursday, our first port of call was Islands Of Adventure. Last time i went to Orlando, in 1998, they were constructing this park, so this was the first time i had been there, and i was not disappointed. What a beautiful place this is, great rides, theming etc, i was very impressed. It was quite a busy day, lots of school trips there, but on the course of our two week holiday, we returned to IOA another 4 times - yes, we thought it was that good! Our first stop was The Hulk. We had a little trouble in our 40 minute queue for this ride, with a large group of schol kids queue jumping - the final straw came when they barged past a girl who was wheeling her mother in a wheelchair, causing the lady to get rather emotional. I called out a security guard and informed them, and to her credit, the guard rounded up the culprits and ejected them from the line. Hmm, not a great start i thought. Anyway, we decided as we had queued enough as it was, we would go for front row. My friend who i was with likes rollercoasters and rides, but unlike me, doesnt read up about them, and he had no idea that it launches up the tunnel. It was a nice suprise for him. I thought this was a great coaster, and towards the late afternoon, when the crowds had died down, we got another 3 rides on this, at the back this time.

Dr Doom's Fear Fall was next - now i am not a fan of these types of rides, well, the only one i have ever been on is Detonator at Thorpe Park, but acually, i found this quite tame. I like the way you go in sections through elevator type doors and you have no idea when it is going to blast off. Erm, i guess all i can say is..nice views.

Spiderman next - i really didn't know what to expect here, but when i came out i was grinning insanely - what a thoroughly enjoyable ride this is, the sensation, especially at the end as you "plummet" into the spider web. Awesome.

As you can probably tell, i am going through the rides in the order we walked through them, as i said, we went there a few times on our trip, so this is a summary of what i thought of each ride. Next up, Dudley Do Right's Rip-Saw Falls - now i did enjoy this, i kept getting the giggles when the horse would make his "neiggghhh" sound. On one ride on this, we got stuck on the small lift as you go round the mountain, and caused a logjam, we were stuck there for about ten minutes, then we got stuck again on the big lift hill - all good fun. Moving on to another favourite of mine (isn't it strange how much more fun you find water rides when you aren't in chilly England), Popeye and Blutos Bilge Rat barges. I would have to say that this is one of the best rapids type rides i have been on, i thoroughly enjoyed it. We were on a barge with another group of English people and an American family, who were hysterical - the large girl in the white top should SO have been wearing a bra, however)! Naturally, as what happens when i am on these rides, i got soaked the most, and those damn kids with their coin operated water pistol machine things always got me!

Onto Jurassic Park next - there was the inner child inside of me that desperately wanted to go on those Pteranodon Flyer things - shame! Tho it shakes a hell of a lot when its going it seems. So it was off to the River Adventure - i had been on the one years ago at US Hollywood, but all i can recall from that was getting soaked and then going to see the Backdraft show after to dry off. It was an enjoyable ride, it seemed that most rides we went on, we were seated with real 'characters', three girls who had the loudest, most piercing screams ever! Having gone on this a few times during the course of our trips, the first time was the only time the man waved at us in the control box near the top, and the T Rex appeared. Ho hum.

We didnt get to go on the Flying Unicorn, on the grounds that my friend felt embarrassed for me wanting to go on " A bloody kids ride" - such rudeness. So it was onto Duelling Dragons. Is it me or is the queue for this like a ride in itself - it was like being in a maze. Anyway, first time we rode, front row, the "Fire" side first, then straight on to "Ice" after. In my opinion, overall, i preffered "Ice" - probably the bit that got me was flying up towards the castle wall. Also on this ride, it seemed every time we went on it, the other train would do something, and we would be chugging up the chain lift ever so slowly - all adds to the fun i guess. We didnt do much in the Seuss part of the park, tho i am guessing once my sister and her family move to Orlando later this year, i will get an opportunity to go on some of the rides here, and finally get the novelty of going on the Jurassic Park flying thingy.

All in all, Islands of Adventure was just a fantastic place. And upon reading such good things on here, we thoroughly enjoyed out meal at Mythos. Gorgeous.

 

Next stop - Universal Studios. Another pleasant day, and this time it wasn't so crowded. Revenge of the Mummy was superb - excellent theming, and again, my friend didnt know what to expect, and quite frankly, neither did I, all i knew is it had a launch element to it. An excellent ride, lovely and smooth, and full of suprises, especially the "false ending" part. We spent the rest of the day doing the usual things, like Twister, Back to the Future, Earthquake and Terminator.

 

Onto - SeaWorld. We went here on a Sunday, and it was very quiet, not dead, but not exactly bustling. First we went on Atlantis, and got absolutely soaked, our boat got flooded! Again, i had the pleasure of my friend afterwards tellling me "you didnt tell me it turns into a rollercoaster" - its times like this i wish i wasnt so into theme parks and rides, so you still get that suprise element. Well, i hadnt told him about Kraken being a "floorless" either. This was my first time on a floorless coaster, and we rode the front first, but all our re rides were at the back. I must say, its a good novelty, but most of the time you dont even notice. I thought this was a great coaster, the first drop especially, though i love the bit when you go into the cave part with the waterfall.

On the whole i relaly enjoyed SeaWorld, apart fromt the incident when we were watching the Shamu show, i was in a world of my own, writing a text message to home on my phone, and the ad came on regarding "Supporting our troops", and people started clapping - because i was a little late clapping, and wasnt shouting and cheering, i got a nudge from some obese woman behind me calling me an "ignorant FFing English faggot" and other things - totally unprovoked and she was quite nasty. My friend then snapped and said "The whale show is about to start love, hadn't you best get your costume on". THAT shut her up. So apart from that blip, we had a great day.

 

DISNEY MGM STUDIOS - this was the first time i had been here, and i was anxious to get on the Tower of terror and the Rock n Rollercoaster. First off, the Tower of Terror was a great ride, we went on a couple of times, as the queues weren't that big. The whole feeling of not knowing what is going to happen, and the shutters opening and closing, and the feeling that, hell, we actually are in an elevator was great. Next up the Aerosmith Coaster. Hmm, well i wasnt that keen on this to be honest, i dont know if i am in a minority here, but it didnt really do much for me, except nearly make me deaf. After this we went on other things, like Star Tours, and the Backlot Tour, which was superb, especially the water part. So again, another enjoyable day out, apart from the embarrassment of posing next to a large Desperate Housewives poster for a photo.

 

BUSCH GARDENS - We were supposed to go here on a friday, we rang up the hotline like you we were told and reserved our seats, got there half an hour before, hoards of people there, one coach turns up and the lady says "Only got room for 14" so people just rushed in - no other coach came, so that was our plans ruined (we compensated by going back to IOA). We eventually got there on on the Saturday. The ride there wasnt so bad, as we got to see The Lion King 2, which i found quite fun, but the ride back was awful - some mad english woman requested the John Travolta film "Michael" - hideous. Anyways, the park. Well again, i had been here before, in 98, and had fond memories of Kumba and especially Montu. I was not disappointed. We saw Sheikra towering above everything, and it looks an impressive height, bt quite compact to what i was expecting. After a drenching on the Tidal Wave ride, we went on Python (oh dear) and then headed onto Kumba. It was a virtual walk on, so we went for the back. What a great ride, all my memories of it came flooding back. Absolutely superb. Next off we went into Timbuktoo, where my friend wanted to go on Cheetah Chase for some reason. After a dreadful experience last year at my local park, Dreamland in Margate, on the Wild Mouse, i wasnt so keen, but this was ok for what it was, basically a kids ride. We then queued up for The Phoenix, but just as we were being allowed on, a girl on the last ride had thrown up so they had to hose it down and give it a good spin drying. We eventually got on it later, i dont know why, i just have a thing for these inverter type rides. Moving on to the Scorpion, which i haave a soft spot (most probably cos, again, my local park used to have a Schwarzcoft Looping Star then replaced it with a Silver Arrow) - there is just something cool about a Schwarzy looper i think.

We then made our way over to Rhino Rally, and again, just as we got to the front of the queue an announcement was made about "technical difficulties) and for the rest of the day they werent operating the water section. Which was a shame, cos again, i wanted it to suprise my friend. Oh well. Montu next - a great ride, it seemed to slow down a lot on some sections, but nonetheless, this still ranks up high in my opinion. And then finally , we rode Gwazi -hmm, well it was good, but my god did my neck get a battering! We had an excellent day here.

 

As well as the theme parks, we also had some great nights out at Pleasure Island and Universal CitiWalk. At first i was flattered to be ID'd all the time, but after a while it gets a bit annoying. So, that is that. On the whole i had a fantastic time, the weather was, on the whole, great, except for one day when it rained for hours and the temperature dropped, i thought i was back home, and am now looking forward to my trip to California at the latter part of the year (supposedly to see family, but that's just an excuse to go there).

[Movieguy]

Well, I'm sorry you had to have that woman at the Shamu show harass you and most likely re-inforce the stereotypes of the "ignorant American." Hey, I love this country and the life I've been able to live in it, but I would hate it if someone accused me of being "ignorant" or somehow un-american just because I don't shout "suport our troops!" or "America kicks ass!" on a regular basis, or cover the house in American flags and yellow ribbons, or blast Toby Keith 24 hours a day. You can love America and not be a fanatic about it you know.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you seemed to have such a good time over there in Orlando. I've been planning a visit myself sometime in the future while I've still got the extra money to.

[Rooey]

Oh it was just that one woman, to be honest i didnt take any notice of her whatsoever. I've always loved America, hell, half of my family live there now.

[Meteornotes]

Good TR. Glad you had a good time and experienced IOA. It is my favorite out of all the parks I've ever been to (well, it's tied with Knoebel's ). Mythos is indeed amazing. Hell, the whole park is amazing. And you do need to check out the stuff in the Seuss area. One Fish Two Fish is amazing fun!

 

I haven't been to Sea World since 1986, I need to get back there some time. Your friend's comment to the obnoxious woman behind you at the Shamu show was hilarious! What an ass, I can't stand people like that, she needs to be a volunteer at a new Sea World exhibit on how sharks eat people...

 

dt

[PhishyBrewer]

Nice TR! Glad you enjoyed the Busch parks(SeaWorld & Busch Gardens). It's good to know things are still all good there without me around anymore.