Chadster's Vacation Adventures: Final Edition!

[chadster]

^ True that.

 

So the next big question is, does anyone want to see what Dixieland Funland has going on?!?!? They were pushing some dirt around on my visit, but in all honesty, if no one pipes up and says they want to see it, I'm going to skip on down to Florida.

 

If you want to see it, tell me soon!

[chadster]

Aiight guys, looks like no one wants to see Dixieland Funland (honestly, its not that great) so next up I head to Old Town and Fun Spot in ORLANDO!

 

Note: I love smaller parks with old school and new school flats so get ready, my next adventure will be full of love for Fun Spot and maybe a little for Old Town!

[larrygator]

Aiight guys, looks like no one wants to see Dixieland Funland (honestly, its not that great) so next up I head to Old Town and Fun Spot in ORLANDO!

 

Note: I love smaller parks with old school and new school flats so get ready, my next adventure will be full of love for Fun Spot and maybe a little for Old Town!

 

Can you give us another choice besides: Dixieland, Fun Spot or Old Town? I don't think you have hit the bottom of the barrel, I think you are looking underneath the barrel now.

[chadster]

Aiight guys, looks like no one wants to see Dixieland Funland (honestly, its not that great) so next up I head to Old Town and Fun Spot in ORLANDO!

 

Note: I love smaller parks with old school and new school flats so get ready, my next adventure will be full of love for Fun Spot and maybe a little for Old Town!

 

Can you give us another choice besides: Dixieland, Fun Spot or Old Town? I don't think you have hit the bottom of the barrel, I think you are looking underneath the barrel now.

 

You do make a valid point, I have sunk to new sad and pathetic lows haven't I?

 

Ok, so more choices, lets see what do I have...ok, here we go. 4 Disney Parks, 1 Day; Small Busch Gardens Bash report, State Fair of Texas, Silver Dollar City Christmas, plus one more that I've been saving behind door #3.

[PAL]

Some of us like pathetic.

[chadster]

Because I can, I'm sharing my experience at OldTown and Funspot. I know that a lot of people make fun of Old Town, after all it is a little ghetto, but its not that bad of a park for tourist. Personally I prefer FunSpot over OldTown for the overal experience and bang for your buck. With an unlimted ride wristband at FunSpot you get go-carts, Screamin' Swing, and a spin and spew coaster.

 

Both parks were dead when I visted on 10/13/11. FunSpot by far had the better staff who were very friendly and bored. The ride ops were on rotation but were quick to show up whenever you entered a queue line. Food and beer prices were decent and a Burger Kind and Checkers sit out in the parking lot if you so desire.

 

Much like most tourist traps, admission is a bit pricey to either parks compared to Six Flags of Cedar Fair but I see it as a nice mid vacation break for famlies.

Well, here we are at stop 1. 75 shops eh? Ok, sure.

I prefer not to drink squirt.

Park map for you park map enthusiasts.

Pricing for the pricing enthusiasts

And here we are in the park armed with tickets for two coasters.

Lets get the good one outta the way first.

Up up and away

Just in case you didn' trust me.

weeeeeeee

See all those happy faces? It's really not that bad of a ride.

But then again, I like these types of coasters. It has some decent speed and lats. Anyway. Moving on to coaster #2

Yuuuuuuuuuup!

I was sure to keep appropriate seperation between myself and kid that was riding up front.

Lets go check out the mall with 75 stores.

Found one! Most were closed....

Pass.

Well, I've seen enough.

Time to drive next door to FunSpot.

That's what she said!

Score!

Fun tilt, packed full of spin!

You have your choice of flyers, one slightly taller than the other.

Nice setting IMO.

It's the Poweraide coaster!

Climbing up for a spin!

Cruising along

And this is about the point where you spin and spin and spin and spin and spin and....

Love.Screamin'.Swings. Basically there were 7 who wanted to ride, one arm operation, we basically rotated out for 30 minutes, could ride these all day. Yes. I'm strange.

Bobs flying.

Time for a little swing before I go.

Goodnight FunSpot, thanks for the Fun!

[QueerRudie]

There's nothing wrong with a little Windstorm action now and again... especially since the design is loosely based upon the Schwarzkopf Wildcat 54 model...

 

(And great TR, too...)

[PAL]

I was expecting sad and pathetic, and you only give us one Wacky Worm! False advertising. (How about some kart action?)

 

Keep the trip reports coming - good stuff.

[chadster]

I was expecting sad and pathetic, and you only give us one Wacky Worm! False advertising. (How about some kart action?)

 

Keep the trip reports coming - good stuff.

 

But I gave you a kiddie coaster too! I looked for more cart action shots, didn't have any that were good of the two towers, and honestly, those are hard to photograph, very compact and tons of crap in the way.

[chadster]

Here I am on the 14th of October for a full day of Disney. Thankfully Epcot was having their Food and Booze Festival which helped get me over the midday hump.

 

So, can you visit 4 Disney parks in one day and manage to ride stuff? Yes. The Studios opened at 9am and the Kingdom closed at 11pm giving me ample time to get my money's worth.

 

Somehow I managed to lose some of the photos I took at Epcot Food and Wine but they were mostly me eating stuff like Ravioli, Strudel, Pork Sliders, and Beer.

Welcome to Disney's Hollywood Studios! The brooms indicate the cleanliness level of the park.

First on my to do list was something I had been wanting to ride since it was built. Why, well it looked fun on T.V. and looked even better in person. What did I think of it? Well, the weightlessness was cool. I grabbed a fast pass when I arrived that was good for 30 minutes into the future, by the time I get thru the line and finsihed my ride, I took a second ride on the opposite side to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Its fun, I can see how people make fun of it, but yeah, its good for what it is.

Next up, Vekoma's best. Seriously. It's their best. Not sure that's saying much. But it truly is their best.

The theme makes the ride. Sponsored by Hanes eh? Hmmm, ohhh, I get it, hahahahaha.

Someone stole my idea for a record label, jerks.

I give Disney props on this ride, and Vekoma as well. With multiple trains you never wait, never, to get on. Loading takes maybe twenty seconds. Get in, put your crap in front of you, lift up, push the button, empty train rolls in, gates open, sit down, next train....A certain other park across the state should learn from them. Seperate load/unload stations are golden for capacity. Oh yeah, great ride, music, theme, it's the total package.

YUUUUUUUP! Star Tours. Full of awesome.

For the Disney history buffs

It would appear they were already setting up for Christmas. Anyway I'm headed over to take their "backlot" tour.

So the tour was not what I expected, I guess I am spoiled after the USH studio tour. But for the families and kids, this one is decent.

 

For those that have not been on it, this is scene one where they show you how they flood and blow up things. Here they are flooding things.

Here they were blowing up things.

Then you walk through a "prop" house.

 

Hey everyboday, what time is it? It's TOOL TIME! Hell yeah! It was worth doing just to see this. Honest. No joke. Home Improvement still makes me laugh today.

Lets go touring.

Awesome.

I wasn't expecting to pass thru the sweat shop.

They build stuff in here.

Then like the USH tour, you get to see cars and crap used in the movies. Did you know that space vehicles use Tractor-Trailer tires? I didn't. But I do now.

Where is LiLo? Oh yeah, jail. Or do she get out again? Who cares.

Disney International is nearby.

Well things are starting looking up.

Where there is water...

There is FIRE!

Fire go out.

This stuff makes water go wooosh.

Flight of the Navigator. Best.Movie.Ever.

 

Tour was 'Ok' You should do it at least once. After about three hours, it was time to head to the bus (I parked at the Magic Kingdom, took the bus to the Studios) to head for Animal Kingdom.

Wow, that was quick, I'm at Animal Kingdom now!

First up, squeezing my way into Dinoland.

Well, I know of a ride that needs to be...

Could this be that ride?

Why yes, yes it is that ride that needs to be extinct. Very un-Disney like to put in cookie cutter rides. I think they've realized that it was probably not the best choice since some of this cookie cutter stuff has already left some of their parks.

Looks legit.

Is this where I sign up?

Backwards was pretty amazing. This part is almost as amazing.

I can't leave without a few reflection shots.

Nor can I leave without a reflection shot without a train in it.

Goodbye big living tree, I'm hungry and the bus is waiting for Epcot.

When you see a big nobbly ball, you must be at Epcot!

Epcot is so awesome, can you believe they float their own Cranberries?

Soarin' was pretty amazing. Even more amazing being a single rider I got my wait time cut in half, good thing because all the Fast Passes were gone. How did I get bumped up? Well, one of the ops noticed my TPR shirt, asked if I was alone, and said come with me. I was on the next flight out, front row. Thanks!

After picking up a few tasty treats, I headed for Mexico and found the beaner boat ride.

I thought it was called something else.

But when I looked it up on my phone, FB Places said it was the beaner boat ride, so, that's gotta be what its called now.

A little more walking brought me over to Test Track. At the line entrance was another TPR regular who promptly shoved me into the Single Rider fast lane.

Well sh!t. No Lesbian hour for me.

Amazing food, hit all the highlights including Space Ship Earth, and as the sun started to set, I was off to the Monorail(middle car) in what would take me 45 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom. Hind sight is 20/20, should have taken the bus.

And here we are, three hours left, and well, I think everyone else had the same idea. The entrance queue was horrid, but within 2 minutes 15 entry lanes were magically opened, not sure how that happened, and honestly I didn't care.

Lots and lots of people, it was right after the parade, so I hot footed it over to Pirates, awesome ride, then made it to the fast pass machine for the Runaway and took a splash on Splash Mountain. Got lucky, was able to watch the fireworks from the boat.

Still having a lot of time left, I made it to the effed up Alice in Wonderland ride where I was the only one in queue. The ride op asked me "How many" I looked around, confused, and said "Well unless casper is coming, just me"

 

Space Mountain had a 60 minute wait, so I passed for the time and hit up the Carousel of Progress ( A must) the transporter thingy, and headed back over to the Mountain for an epic night ride.

It was 11 o'clock, people were still packing the streets after the last show of the night and I was headed to the car.

I could have rode Space Mountain, the opportunity was there to get in line 10 minutes before park closing, but I had an hour+ drive to Tampa and and passed.

 

All in all you can do all 4 Disney parks in one day if planned out while hitting all the highlights. I didn't feel rushed, enjoyed the Food and Wine Festival and in general had a good time. Next time, I'll do Disney right, with friends, and drinks.

[QueerRudie]

Wow- I'm exhausted reading this TR entry... as it's nucking futz. It's interesting to see the parks- but I think Epcot is not quite the same without Ellesbian's energy adventure and the cheesiness of "Listen to the Land". (I'm old-school, what can I say???).

[chadster]

^ It was a crazy weekend, that's for sure. Only three adventures left, four if you post a comment!

[-Edge of Beast-]

God, I miss Florida. Shown in your Fun Spot TR, it's still looking nice and warm even in October (which Kansas Citians never get). But yeah, nice pictures and descriptions! I enjoyed them!

[aimster]

I've done 3 Disney parks in a day (started at the Studios for a few hours, took the boat to Epcot and then ended at Magic Kingdom (which was open til 3am for extra magic hours for resort guests... I lasted until about 1:30am and was ready to drop).

[eddytheviper]

Yep, managed to do 4 parks in a day... wow, it was... tiring.

 

Certainly something I wanted to do, managed to hit the major attractions in each park except for Aerosmith in studios as it was temporarily down and we couldn't be bothered to wait for it really.

 

Was a fun day though rushing around and stuff.

[A.J.]

The first time I saw the sign that said Living with the Land had all its Fastpasses distributed, I was like, "WTF?" because it was right after opening.

 

Then I went to it (getting a Fastpass for Soarin' along the way) and got right on. Must've been a bad business decision to include Fastpass on the boat ride in the first place. It certainly doesn't need it, or didn't the four months I was down in Orlando.

[aimster]

Yeah Living With the Land really doesn't need FastPass usually, but around lunchtime the line can get pretty long because a lot of people will ride it just before or just after eating lunch since the Sunshine Seasons food court is right there too.

[chadster]

I jumped right on the boat, maybe 15 people in front of me, they acted like that was pretty normal.

[aimster]

I usually hit Living With the Land first thing in the morning when everyone else is running to Soarin' or Test Track. I'll have a quick breakfast at Sunshine Seasons, then go on the boat ride. Great way to start the morning.

[chadster]

Alright, so here we are at Busch Gardens Bash in Tampa, FL. I don't think we could have asked for better weather, I doubt it got about 74 degrees. As per usual the park was vibrant and clean, nothing that wasn't unexpected. I give them three thumbs up for Haunt; easily some of the best Haunts I've been through and it showed. The place was packed around 11pm to the point in some areas you felt like you were on I-5 during Rush. But having been there since 7ish, I bowed out as the crowds rolled in. The early entry to Haunt with Dinner and the cut in line passes were invaluable, it allowed us to hit all but one attraction on the evening.

 

So, without further rambling, I present to you my take on Busch Gardens Bash. And please, I beg of you, comment if you like

Yawn, my it's early! But to meet up with friends I haven't seen in months and ERT at BGT, it was well worth it.

First order of business was CHunt. This is probably the shortest line you will ever see on a Saturday for CHunt this year.

Yuuuuup! Ready and waiting.

This is why you should come to bash events, or join a TPR Tour.

I confess, I didn't watch the video Robb did on purpose, I wanted to form my own opinion on CHunt. And while I was somewhat disappointed the ride didn't have more umph, there were certainly many aspects of the ride that were unexpected. The detail they put into the rides theme was nothing short of amazing.

Logan was fascinated by the Dog and Cat playing together.

On the way to Gwazi we stopped by to play Croc Hunter.

Taking Gwazi in the rear was one of the most terrifying experiences of the day.

After getting A$$ raped, we went over to pet and feed the Roos.

How amazing was this! Being able to feed the roos was totally unexpected!

 

This one took a liking to Shawn.

Personally I was fascinated at how soft they were. I think Amy would have taken one home.

"Ahhh, he likes me!"

Time for a quick group photo before lunch with the Big Man himself, err, Big Bird! Thanks to the park employees who put up with all of our cameras and took our picture!

They served whale for lunch, shockingly unexpected.

After lunch and before our VIP tour of Montu, we stopped by to watch a friendly game of leap frog already in progress. It was an unexpected discovery.

 

Seriously, if you have not watched the video below DO IT NOW! Be sure to turn the sound up

It's VIP Tour time!

 

Here we have Norman, our awesome tour guide, telling Robb he is his biggest fan.

We got this close to the brake run.

We got to walk down these cool stairs to the holly land.

Somehow, this helps the ride operate.

Big brother is watching.

Inside the maintenance building they have a few demo's setup like this harness mech. This was a nice unexpected touch.

"This is a wheel assembly"

#5 has been disassembled for rehab

The wheels are HUGE! either that or I have a small head.

If you want to build your own Montu, here would be a good start.

You might also need these spare parts.

Upstairs we unexpectedly found a naked Montu.

Coaster sits on rails while in storage to prevent rider discomfort.

Uber cool bogey porn

More unexpected porn.

And even hotter porn.

"All restraints have been checked, visual scan, 5,4,3,2,1, clear, dispatching Montu" HAHA, they don't do that nonsense at BGT, gothcya!

"You lied to me you bastard, you said there was Yager in my restraint"

Enough of that, let's go outside and get personal with Montu.

That's what she said.

With a full load, Montu was hauling the mail.

These people were all like, "How did they get down there?"

Hi!

This was freaking amazing.

Rock on dude!

Such a beautiful setting for a kick a$$ coaster, my #1 Invert. So that concludes the Montu tour, what next, hmmm.

Nappy Nap Nap Nap Nap, Nappy Nap Nap Nap! Nap! Nap! Yay, it's Nap Time!

After a nice dinner and a crazy dinner show, it was time for Haunt. Anton never looked so good.

We also checked out this show which was totally awesome and unexpected.

 

So the Haunts were awesome, sorry no pictures allowed and about all I can say is you have to do it at least once and Haunt Front of Line Pass is a must.

Joe says taking Kumba in the rear at night is AMAZING!

 

Another thing that was amazing was the time I had with old friends and new friends, a great time was had by all.

 

Hope you enjoyed this Adventure, and if you did, be sure to post a comment!

 

Only 2 more adventures remain in the season!

Edited December 14, 2011 by chadster

[SuperShawn]

Nicely done Chad thanks for bringing back the good memories, and the horrible nightmare of Gwazi in the rear... Ouch. Overall though Busch Gardens Bash was a great day and like your trip report had some unexpected things.

[xmichellex]

Picture of Scorpion at sunset = awesome

[aimster]

Yay! I had such a great time hanging out with you and everyone that day. The turtle porn still cracks me up! And yes I still want to take one of those wallabys home with me. Oh and I want to thank you guys again for helping me build the courage to do the houses during HOS. Once I got over my initial freak out, I was having a blast (until that one vamp snuck between Shawn & I and scared the crap out of me in the vampire casino house ). Hope we can all do it again next year!

 

I'm going to Busch Gardens tomorrow and will tell the roos you say "hello".

[jjune4991]

I am Joe June, and I approve of the picture of me. Great TR. I had a blast that day as well. Definitely an unexpectedly awesome day.

[Jojo19799]

I reeeeeeeeeeeeally wish I could have been there that weekend. Maybe next year if there is an event. I miss you guys and can't wait until our playdate at WCB (even though Joe might not be there, he'll be there in spirit).