robbalvey Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Hey everyone. This is just a quick TR from our day. No pics. I'll post them tomorrow, but we're REAL DAMN tired from a LONG day after a redeye! Flew in at 6am. Went straight to BGT and met up with thier PR dept. Rode Shakira twice. Much better than I thought it would be. Really quite a lot of fun! I would "kind of" compare it to the SUF's in that there are parts of it that are REALLY good, and parts that are just 'ok.' Overall, I think I liked it better than SUF and it was VERY well themed up! The splashdown ending, for example was just REALLY well done. Thumbs of from all of us! And with the recent B&M's, we didn't think it would be. We did a lap around BGT - rode Montu twice, Kumba once, Cheetah Chase (finaly rode this after, what two years it's been there?), Scorpion and then we headed out. Got to Royal Pacific around 3:30, got our front of the line pass and got to the park around 4ish. We managed to do nearly a complete lap including Hulk, Spiderman, Buzzsaw, Bluto, JP, F.U. (Flying Unicorn), and dragon hopped three times! The only thing we didn't hit was Cat In The Hat and 1 Fish, 2 Fish. We'll do those on Saturday. Anyway, we're off to bed now....More pics and updates to come tomorrow. We'll post pics from Shakira and IOA today, and from Epcot and MGM tomorrow! --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 ShaKira, one coaster thats probably been B&M's best as of late... noting the only other post-2000 B&M I rode was S:UF at SFOG. Cheetah Chase has been at Busch since late Februrary 2004. My only pet peeve with ShaKira is the ops acting like teachers, assigning you seats instead of you choosing like on all of the other rides at the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coastercameron Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 woo hoo... I'm going to Orlando on the 4th. I cant wait to get on all the new stuff that has opened since 2000. Also, I wouldn't blame the operators themselves, they are under instruction to assign seats, and not doing it just to piss you off or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryH Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 So how are the brakes on the Flying Unicorn? Are they still slam in your gut or they better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhishyBrewer Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Hey Robb, How do you rate the Royal Pacific? I was thinking about staying there, or the Portofino when I do my Florida trip in Sept. Can't wait for the pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterFanatic Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Glad to hear that Shakira is a pretty good one after all. After a red eye, I don't know how you guys do it. See you in a couple days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCTfan Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 If you are headed to Epcot tomorrow, come visit at Turtle Talk or just the Seas between 10:45 - 7:30, thats my shift. I'll be there, or on break. Just ask for Jeremy and they'll call for me if I'm on break, if they know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hattuchili Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 I am glad, to hear you have some fun there in Florida. I can not wait to see your pictures. --Soeren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan h Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Sounds like you guys had a really cool day at BGT. Shame my trip to Florida was like a month before Skeikra opened. Gonna have to get back there real soon. BTW, this si probs a stupid question but whats a redeye? Is it a night flight or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackcurrent Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 yeah its a nickname for a night flight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemmy Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Yeah. It's named for people that don't sleep and get red eyes. Like me. Only I don't get red eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterFanatic Posted May 29, 2005 Share Posted May 29, 2005 Well ... I just finished my first half-day in Florida and of course SheiKra had to be the first order of business. We arrived at TPA at around 2:30pm and grabbed a bite to eat and chilled for a couple hours before going over to BGT at around 6pm. I figured that it was a pretty hot day and a lot of people would probably start to clear out in the evening. Turns out ... I was right We walked back to SheiKra and after about 45 minutes or so, we got our first ride on the American debut of the B&M Dive Machine. The ride was (like Robb noted) much better that I expected. No pictures could prepare me for the size of this thing. We only managed to get one ride, but I managed to get into the famed "rear-right" seat. The ride itself is smooth as glass and the vertical drops are killer. I actually prefer the second as it has a little bit more "yank" in the last row. Also, the splashdown is one of the cooler things that I have ever seen on a coaster. I will post a Photo TR and all that good stuff once I get the pics of the camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted May 30, 2005 Author Share Posted May 30, 2005 (edited) Hey everyone! I finally made it back to the laptop! Our days have been INSANE, so I haven't gotten the chance to go online much. It's actually been nice NOT being able to spend time on the computer! To give you an example, here is how our days have been since Thursday: Friday morning - started out at Epcot. Went right to Soarin'. Nice queue, identical to DCA's other than that. Did Test Track and Mission Space, then did the tour of boat rides in World Showcase.' Ok so Norway isn't that great, but it's weird! Friday afternoon - Went to lunch at Big River Brewery. Good beer (says Elissa's dad) and good meatloaf. Next up MGM, where we managed to get in 4 rides on "Good Tower" (Jon was all...man this Tower craps all over DCA's!), 1 on coaster, Elissa got into the hot seat in Millionaire, we saw the stunt show (which I actually think the Paris version might be a little better), and did a little shopping. Friday night - Back to Universal, went to dinner with Reed & Stacey (Hi guys!) and just 'crashed' out in the lobby lounge with them chatting about the most random stuff in the world. It was SOOOOO much better than being at any theme park! Saturday - Today would be our 'all day at Universal/IOA day.' And it really did kick ass, especially with the front of the line pass all day. We did pretty much EVERYTHING! Mummy a bunch of times, MiB a bunch of times, Jaws, Shrek, Jimmy Neutron, Dragons a bunch of times, Hulk a bunch of times, Spiderman, Posiden's Fury, JP, Ripsaw, 1 Fish 2 Fish, Doom, Cat In The Hat, etc, etc, etc..... It ROCKED!!! Lunch was at Mythos, and OMFG this is still the best food in any theme park EVER!!! And this time my normal entres were not there! No Balsamic Chicken, no Spicy Asian Wings, no Tortillia Soup. But I had the most KICK ASS nachos....hard to even describe, and this HUGE chinese chicken salad. Followed of course by the warm gooey banana chocolate cake! Yum! Anyway.... Today (Sunday) was more randomness.... We started the day off at Epcot, mainly to take the monorail and we headed over to MK. The park was PACKED...like I'd never seen it before! It looked like "Tokyo Disneyland" PACKED! :shock: But we did good. We got on Thunder, Splash, Mansion, and Pirates in about 2 hours. Space went down, but we got our fastpasses exchanged for rider switch passes so we can come back later. Then off to MGM for lunch at Mama Melroses (yummy stuff!). Played Millionaire again and Elissa was #1 on the board the whole time, but she couldn't go into the hot seat since she was just there. Oh well. Tried to get on Tower, but it was down. Boo... Next up was Sea World for a quick run in, get two rides on Kraken and one ride on Journey visit. Then BACK to MK again to use our rider switch passes only to find out that Space was down.....AGAIN! Luckily they let us use one pass on Buzz, and by the time we were out, Space was open again, and we got our two rides on it! Yay! We're now back at the hotel ready for sleep and ready for our Typhoon Lagoon and Epcot day tomorrow! That's it everyone! We'll post photos soon. --Robb Edited June 22, 2020 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhishyBrewer Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 I don't know how you guys do it. Ever think about changing your name to THE EXTREME ALVEY'S? Can't wait for the pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted May 30, 2005 Author Share Posted May 30, 2005 We just got back from Typhoon Lagoon and I just wanted to post a quick TR about that visit. Crush N Gusher is AWESOME! I was really not expecting them to be that great, because we didn't think any of the Master Blasters at Schlitterbahn were anything that special. These were better than all three of those! They are VERY short, but each one of them is FAST, has a couple of good drops, and Coconut Gusher has this camelback hill that gives you airtime...TWICE!!! We rode all three of them and Coconut twice. They really were that good...although short. Make sure you get there first right after the park opened as we spent about 25 minutes at the Crush N Gusher complex and when we left the line was already about 20-30 minutes long. The rest of the park was pretty easy to do at this point, since most people were at Crush N Gusher. The Family raft ride wasn't as bad as Elissa said it would be. It's short...REALLY REALLY short, but then again it was one of the first family raft rides in the world. The wave pool is great with the 6 foot waves that it makes and the other body and tube slides were fun too. There isn't as much to do at Typhoon Lagoon as there is at Blizzard Beach, but Crush N Gusher is worth the trip alone. Anyway, we're off to Epcot in a little while... --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Volcano Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 Wow! It sounds like you guys are really fitting alot in, sounds like an insane trip to me. (But hey, you guys are the Alveys, so everything is pretty much insane!) Glad to hear you guys are getting alot in! SheiKra sounds way awesome and I cant wait to ride it (If I ever get to BGT!). I'm not surprised that it resembles alot of SUF's ride experience, It looked amazing but in some ways it looked like some parts would just be alright, Cant judge the ride before I ride it though. I'm glad you liked Crush N' Gusher, its been like 9years since I've been to Typhoon Lagoon, and I dont really know much about the ride (or the park for that matter). Also sounds like you covered almost everything (thats good anyways) at Universal Resort! Always fun going there because they have rides you can ride continuously and NOT get tired of. Well I guess I'm off to Epcot to meet up... I guess I'll see everyone later... Hope you guys have a great rest of the time down here as you already have! -Justin "I've missed out WAY too many fun TR's on the boards" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnrose Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 You should write a book called Extreme Theme Parking: The Guide to the Good Stuff I would certainly read that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBOrrell Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 You should write a book called Extreme Theme Parking: The Guide to the Good StuffI would certainly read that! Nice Avatar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 So today ended our Florida Memorial Weekend trip. The TRP meet went pretty good. 13 of us showed up for dinner, then another 5 showed up for Illuminations, although not everyone made it through the show since it started to downpour about 10 minutes before the show was to start! So we had about 20 people meet up in total. Thanks to everyone for hanging out, even if it was for only a short time! We got back to Epcot around 5ish and went looking for Jeremy at Turtle Talk, but he wasn't around, so off we went to go meet up with people. We found George, then met up with Kevin Yee and his wife and son and we went into our Imagination. After that we headed over to Japan, checked in with the restaurant and met Ted, Jeff, Justin, Reed, Stacey, and the whole group. Dinner was kick ass like usual, but then it started to rain....HARD. A few others met up for Illuminations, but not everyone stayed since the rain kept coming down. We all snuck inside the margarita bar to keep out of the rain. About 20 minutes later, the rain stopped and Illuminations was on! Yay! Other than the fire barge not working (which was weird), the show was GREAT! After the show we said our goodbyes and came back to the hotel and packed up. Time to head back to the real world. =( It was a GREAT trip and hopefully we'll have a photo update and a SheiKra video up soon! --Robb "Thanks for reading!" Alvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider1 Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Congratulations, you survived. The Adventure Continues... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCTfan Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 I'm saddened that I didn't get to see you guys at the Sea. But it was a blast to see you all in Japan, hopefully our paths will cross again. Muhaha. I'll try not to get pulled to Soarin' next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackcurrent Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 these kind of trips and great trip reports make it all worth while, good stuff guys look forward to the photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 I always enjoy a good Trip Report... but it would be so much better if the photos would already be there Only Goofing around... but serious now... where... are... the... picturesssssss..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterFanatic Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Here are a few pictures from the Japan meet. Sorry for the quality on some. I think the smoke from the grill messed with the flash. Too bad, as they would have been pretty entertaining. Another shot of the chef Our skillful chef at work Catrina and I (Thanks to RCTFan for taking this shot) The big table The big table Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hattuchili Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Hey Ted, looks like you have had some real good fun, and food there. It is great to meet some people from the boards, and see how they look like. Thanks for posting! --Soeren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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