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Pat's Mini Florida Trip


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Hey all,

Just wanted to share some photos of my first trip to Orlando in over 12 years, and my first time to Universal and Busch Gardens Tampa.

 

My buddy and I flew down this past Saturday and spent some time with friends on the weekend but Monday through Thursday was all about the parks!

Monday we hit up Islands of Adventure. Yes I'm bummed about no Hulk, but that just means I have to make a return trip! Weather was fantastic and crowds didn't seem too bad. We hit up Dragon Challenge first. Really enjoyed both, would love to see them duel again in the future. Only thing I hated about this was the locker situation. I get the policy, it may be stupid in my opinion but it is what it is. If they are going to have the no items policy, then they need to expand the lockers next to the entrance, it was a pain trying to get a locker and even just re-opening your locker. After that we hit up Harry Potter, took advantage of the single rider lines and didn't wait more than 10 minutes. Absolutely loved it. The first couple of times I rode, I was so interested in how the whole thing actually worked that I forgot to just watch the story line and what was happening. Really enjoyed the ride though.

 

We got some Butterbeer then lunch at Burger Digs in Jurassic Park. Had the Chicken sandwich and it was very disappointing. Chicken was small, barely took up half the bun. Oh well, moving on. Loved the Jurassic Park River Adventure at USH, so I had to try it here even though I hate water rides. Single Riders line made that much more bearable as well, didn't wait more than 15 minutes. We hit up Spiderman next. Didn't know what to expect but I enjoyed it a lot. We made our way back around to Hogsmeade after just walking around for awhile and checking things out. We rode Flight of the Hippogriff, very nice little family ride. The ops were really running it well too! Had a few more rides on Harry Potter and Dragon Challenge and then we headed out. Really enjoyed IOA.

 

We got some dinner at the Cowfish in Citywalk. If you haven't had the Burgushi, it definitely is something different but pretty good! Not too terribly priced either. After dinner we got a second wind and decided to head over to Fun Spot for some White Lightning! Holy crap, absolutely loved it! It shoots up near the top of my favorite woodies. Small but boy does it pack a punch!

 

Tuesday we headed to Universal Studios. Went straight to Diagon Alley. 5 minute wait for Gringott's thanks to single riders line again! Really enjoyed this ride. I hadn't done any research into what either Harry Potter Ride was so I was very pleasantly surprised by both! I lost track of how many times I actually rode it. I am not a Harry Potter fan by any means but I was just really impressed with the Harry Potter areas. I really just enjoyed walking around or having a seat and just trying to take in all the details. We had dinner at the Leaky Cauldron, my Fish and Chips were very good, reasonably priced too. My buddy had the Bangers and Mash which was also very good. I think we got on just about every major ride on Tuesday. Really enjoyed MIB, ET, Mummy, RRR, Simpsons, and Transformers. Wasn't a huge fan of Terminator and Shrek. We skipped Minions because it was consistently the longest line of the day. We had lunch at Louie's Italian Restaurant, I had the Chicken Parm sandwich and it was also really good! It came with a nice sized side salad and I got some Cheesecake on the side that was also very good. Much better food at Studios than at IOA. Really enjoyed this park so we came back Thursday with our 3rd day free deal. Hit up Diagon Alley for most of the day, RRR once again, and another spin on Mummy. Really like Universal, can't wait to come back and check out Kong, Furious, and interested to see what the Jimmy Fallon ride will be like.

 

Wednesday was a day I had been looking forward to for years. BGT had always been on my bucket list for Kumba and Montu. Crowds were basically non-existent which was awesome. Longest we waited for a ride was 30 minutes for Cheetah Hunt near the end of the day. Montu and Kumba were station waits. Sheikra was one or two train wait max. Scorpion even moved quickly as well as Sand Serpent. We hit up Cheetah Hunt first, did that twice in a row before the line got long. What a fun coaster! Really enjoyed the layout, some good airtime pops, just a lot of fun! Next was Montu. What a fantastic ride. B&M really knew what they were doing back in the 90's. It's up there for my favorite Invert along with Banshee and Raptor. We then took a stroll over to Pantopia since Sky Ride was down due to wind. We looked at Falcon's Fury and I just couldn't talk myself into it. I absolutely hate drop rides, couldn't imagine getting on it...more to come on that later... Scorpion was next, I enjoyed this classic Schwarzkopf. But while waiting for Scorpion, I got thinking, no adult coasters at BGT do not have an inversion. I'm glad they addressed this with Cobra's Curse, it really looks great and will fill a much needed type of ride. Wish I could have booked this trip some time later, but schedules prevent that, oh well. Next up was Sea Serpent...woo, another Wild Mouse. Next was Kumba, so excited to get my first ride on this coaster I had been hyping up since I first even knew about it. I wasn't disappointed. Absolutely loved it. In the front on the Zero G roll was really intense, not like any other 0G roll I'd ever experienced before, the feeling took me off guard. Such a photogenic coaster as well! Next was Sheikra, my first Dive Coaster. What a great ride. I am really looking forward to Valravn after riding this. Great airtime in the back, awesome feeling being held over the edge at the front. Rode Sheikra maybe 8 times, but I could have done it all day. We worked up quite the appetite so we headed to Zambia Smokehouse after smelling it on Sheikra. I got the Smokehouse sampler and holy crap was it a ton of food. Never have I been stuffed at an amusement park, but this did it. Best of all it really wasn't that expensive. It came with 3 slices of Brisket, 1 Rib, 1 signature baby back Rib, 1 chicken, and fries, for $16. It was absolutely delicious and just a lot of food. I barely finished. Plus it had nice views of the Sheikra splash down! We hit up more rides on Sheikra, then hit the train for a lap around the park. We did most of the animal exhibits and just walked around, taking in all the sights. Park was nearing closing so we hit up Sheikra and Cheetah Hunt one more time. I thought it was kind of strange that none of ride ops really talk to you as you board, leave, and return. Just made it seem less exciting that you are getting on to a roller coaster. After Cheetah Hunt my buddy said who knows if we'll ever be back so let's just go do Falcon's Fury. I didn't want to because of my hate for drop rides, but nobody has ever died on one so why the hell not (if someone has, please don't tell me). I'm so glad I went on. Best drop ride I've been on and the only one I've actually enjoyed. I liked it so much that we did it twice more after that just as the park was closing. Great day at the park, great weather, great crowds! Looking forward to a return trip!

 

Enjoy just a few pictures! Thanks for reading!

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The Adventure Begins!

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Soon, he'll be Hulking again

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Need to try this restaurant next time I'm here.

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Hogsmeade!

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Looks a lot busier than it actually was!

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Kong looked great!

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Spider pig, Spider pig. Does what ever a spider pig does. Can He swing from a web? No he can't, he's a pig...oh wait wrong ride? Sorry.

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Hate drop rides, no thanks.

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How does that snow not melt???

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Some Burgushi from the Cowfish in City Walk.

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Sorry for the terrible picture and lack of pictures. I was too excited to take pictures.

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Universal Studios time!

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There's no entrance!

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No Platform 9 3/4 for us, didn't get the Park to Park tickets.

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Time to blast some aliens

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And now some beer.

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I see you RRR

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Current status of Jimmy Fallon. Also the entire back of the building is basically gone. You can get some decent looks on RRR.

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My lunch at Louie's! Tasty!

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Mr. Dragon has heartburn

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Busch Gardens time!

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Oh Falcon's Fury and how you scare the crap out of me.

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Good ole Schwarzkopf

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My favorite part of the ride!

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Typical Kumba Shot

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The chicken is covering up 2 more brisket slices, and 2 ribs! So much food...SO GOOD!

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Weee!

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The Cobra is seriously cool! Well done BG!

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Lots of soaked people coming off this today.

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My personal favorite picture I've taken this trip, inspired by a Jack Crouse photo. Go donate to https://www.gofundme.com/jackcrouse if you haven't already!

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Splashy!

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Twisty!

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Let's take a ride! Oh wait, let's not...

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Such a photogenic coaster!

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We skipped Minions because it was consistently the longest line of the day.

 

You have to ride Minions first thing in the morning to avoid interminable lines. It took me two visits before I rode Minions, and the ride was OK, at best--definitely not worth waiting more than 10 or 15 minutes for.

 

Glad you had a great time at these great parks.

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I'm glad that you seemed to enjoy both parks! Kumba is definitely one of my favorite coasters. I admit, I am a bit of a B&M fan-boy, but Kumba is just so different in the forces it delivers.

 

A bit off topic, but I think the faux-wood columns shown in this photo are new. What intrigues me is that they look almost exactly like the new Le Scoot sign at their sister park in Williamsburg. I wonder what contractor they both are using. Maybe Oak Island?

 

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