Christmas in Florida (Massive 4-part Photo TR)

[RollerManic]

This Christmas, my parents offered a different holiday proposal than any other year past – a winter vacation at SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Orlando Resort, and Busch Gardens.

 

Following hard week of exams at school (and lots of bullshit teachers cramming in untaught content), the trip finally came on Friday, December 16th. While school was not yet over for the semester, I had enough. I slept in that morning, laughing as I woke up at 7:00 AM, the time school normally starts. I didn't have to go to school that day, just to the airport for an 11:00 AM flight to sweet, sunshiny Florida (and away from the seriously crappy Memphis weather)!

 

 

pt 1: "My parents told me to go see the world – so I went to SeaWorld"

 

9:30 AM CT: My younger brother, father, and I arrive at Memphis International Airport for our flight to Florida. In my hands are my boarding ticket, suitcase, and camera bag. Even with the tight schedule we will be on, I refused to leave my DSLR at home. I couldn't. It is my addiction.

 

We made it through security by 10:00 and quickly proceeded to our terminal. Boarding was in 40 minutes. I was flabbergasted: In just a few more hours, I would be hundreds of miles from home, riding Mako, all within the same day. I had never imagined myself, so soon, riding roller coasters during December, in Florida, and around Christmas. My parents, I thought, would have never allowed for it.

 

Our flight departed on time and arrived at Tampa International Airport 15 minutes before its scheduled 1:30 EST arrival. However, due to airport ground traffic, our plane did not dock until 1:35, meaning the gained time was lost. I am pretty sure, because I sat in the back, I did not get out of the plane until 1:45, and thus even more precious time was lost.

 

Somewhere on the tarmac, I track of time as I soaked up the beautiful sun's warmth radiating through the window. Memphis that morning had been overcast, 40 degrees, and wet. Yuck. I felt like I had just been transported to a much better place.

 

We went downstairs to pick up our rental at Alamo. Next to Alamo's booth was the empty National booth, another car rental company owned by the same parent company. The nice lady behind the desk at National called us over to process us and help us to avoid the wait over at Alamo.

 

Originally, my father had reserved a cheap rental from Hotwire.com. However, the clerk politely told us about a 50% off holiday special on convertible sports cars, and with a little extra holiday magic, was able to drop the price another 50%. Not very much later, we drove away in a 2016 Mustang convertible ...

 

I NEVER thought I would ever see the day my parents would rent a convertible car or even WILLING drive a sports car.

 

But this was a Christmas vacation in Florida. For my family, it was already pretty surreal.

 

Unfortunately, the convertible required an extra 15 minutes to pickup. We didn't leave Tampa international till 2:15 PM, 30 mins behind schedule. But the car was worth it.

 

Oh, and I loved how Florida's weather is the exact opposite of what you think of Christmas. Christmas trees, hollies, and reeves in subtropical environments? Santa hats in hot weather? Huh?

 

 

Sometime around 2 PM …

 

We scrambled around for a place to eat. I really hate Apple maps. Based on the scale of your map, it searches by area. Locating our favorite restaurant became very difficult as the maps program at first gave us no results and we were already on the road, driving by interstate exits. Just in time, I searched the area around us, and got a result not far off the interstate and with easy access back onto i4 right before we passed the exit. For whatever reason, this location had not been a result in any of the other previous searches.

 

It turned out that location was in a shopping mall. Urgh. None of us would have it.

 

By now, the car was full of commotion. It was cramped. Two people were trying to navigate and music was playing loudly in the car, of which my father refused to turn off. We weren’t sure whether to get back on the interstate or to search the area again.

 

To make things worse, my father answered a former co-worker's call in the middle of the heat.

 

It took close to 45 minutes to get back on i4, but at least we did manage to eat at a different location nearby.

 

3:15 PM.

 

We were back on i4, making our way to SeaWorld. I was super excit – annnddd TRAFFIC. urghhhhhh The off an on traffic drained a great deal of our time of what should have only been an hour and a half long trip.

 

Finally, we arrived at SeaWorld at 5:30. That night, they closed at 9:00. We only had 3.5 hours, and no time to spare. Unfortunately, the time constraint forced me to have to abandon my camera in the car. Additionally, I left my phone in the car to avoid the hassle of loose articles on rides. Accordingly, there will be very few pictures in this part of the report. What pictures there are will have come from either my brother or father’s phone.

 

But it wasn't a total lost. All the stations were empty, with the exception of Mako, a station wait. We had already been to SeaWorld once, which helped simplify the night.

 

First thing, my brother and I took off to Kraken. I wanted to start at the back of the park and work forward until we met up again with our father, checking in at the hotel. I also remember Kraken never having a wait last time we were here, and I had a serious craving for a zero-g roll that needed filling quick.

 

The walk to Kraken was more gorgeous than I remembered. Is it just me, or has SWO really let the foliage grow since 2012?

 

Once at Kraken, we hopped onto the front row for an underwhelming empty-train lap. Without walking back around, we hopped onto the back for a much better second ride, albeit still on an empty train. Per SeaWorld policy, we were limited to two re-rides before we were compelled to walk back around. At that point, my brother was ready to move on anyway.

 

Next, we passed through Antarctica.I really appreciated this cut-through. it was closed for construction on my last visit, and made the park a total pain in the ass to navigate. Now, it was easy just to hop on over to Mako for some airtime satisfactions.

 

 

While there were lights and a massive, blue christmas tree at the entrance, the walk to Kraken had been pretty dark. I found out why - all the lights were hanging out on the other loop of the park around the lake. The short walk from the observation tower was PACKED with lights. The choice of light colors for Mako's area was awesome too - hues of red, purples, and blues lit up the night sky.

 

Mako is amazing. I loved everything about it - the ride, the trains, the station, the views, the pathway interactions, the theming, the colors - it is a perfect B&M hyper in my books. I of course do not love the infamous single trim, but I am fairly certain the second half would kill you without it. As a bonus, the MCBR was off on all but one of my rides, and only grabbed a bit on that one occasion. I was totally caught off guard by the forces of the first transition after the MCBR. It was super weird but I adore it.

 

My first lap on Mako was in row 7 during sunset, so you could easily say my night was off to an excellent start. We waited the longest for this lap - a mere 20 minutes.

 

In row 7, the airtime down the first drop is insane. It was solid, prolonged ejector until we hit the bottom. Even though the ride ops stapled me in, the restraints fit me slightly more over the leg than the hip, and I could feel myself sliding up some each drop.

 

I knew Antarctica is supposed to be a terrible dark ride, but I was curious to try it for myself. I've learned that you can't always trust enthusiasts' opinions.

 

Antarctica really does suck. I choose the Wild (spinning) adventure and got what I asked for - a bunch of spinning around in the same room, empty cave walls, and a little tiny penguin exhibit behind glass at the end. What a stupid ride.

 

However, the penguin exhibit at the exit was awesome. The exhibit offered plentiful views from numerous angles, including underwater, and the penguins were very active. You could also get really close to the penguins swimming in the water - you could stick you face right into it if you wanted to break the rules. One penguin took advantage of the very low wall and close spectators and splashed visitors for several minutes, and there was no denying he intended it. He swam in circles, and precisely performed a move that did nothing to affect his speed or direction but that sent splashes of water into the onlookers faces. Each lap was precise and identical. Impressive, actually.

 

My father was now back from the hotel and joined us, starting his night out the same way we did. We all snagged a walk-on front row ride on Kraken, walked around, and then hopped on the second to last row for another lap together. After this ride, I stayed on, moved back to the last row, and took my final lap on Kraken. The front row, we all agreed, was nothing spectacular. Father even noted it was forceless (those are big words coming from someone who is not an enthusiast). Our experience in the back was great. Both the train we all rode together in the back and the one in which I took my final lap on were full. The back is good in general. but Kraken hauled those rides.

 

We stopped on a dock and at a patio on the lake to admire the christmas trees. It took us a minute, but we finally realized the trees were playing in sync to the light show at Shamu Stadium across the water. My dad really enjoyed the little bit of this show we ran into and wishes he could have seen the whole show. Between all the Christmas light we would see that week, the trees on the water reamined among my father's favorites.

 

Next, we went over to Mako for three laps together. First in row 6, second in row 2, and lastly in row 8. We waited fives minutes for the first and walked on the second two. Row two delivered the same airtime intensity as the back, but for slightly less duration each time. My dad loved Mako too and felt it really completed the park's lineup.

 

We walked through Shark Encounter after Mako. The sharks had grown a ton since I saw them. All those fishies in the tank are dead, though.

 

It was 8:15 now and my father left the park to go pull up the car. My brother and I went to get two laps on Manta before leaving. We both got a front row ride the first time, and I got a ride in the middle the second time. I'm not sure where he sat on his second ride because we somehow got separated. Manta is still the great coaster it was in 2012. I really dig the view going into the pretzel loop in the front row.

 

Now, it was 8:58. I watched as the last train of the night dispatched from Manta's station and dashed to the entrance. I promised myself to get a group portrait at the entrance to each park this trip, and I wasn't going to let some measly closing time prevent me. I rushed through the gates, grabbed my camera from the car, and dragged my family to the front entrance (outside the gates, of course). My dad had left my tripod at the hotel, and we had to make sacrifices to get each other's photos. Unfortunately, I never got one us together, because I made no attempt to ask a stranger to take our photo. Very few people I run into are able to operate my camera properly. (Warning: geek rant ahead) They either can't get the composition right (changing it after I give them the camera and politely designate a spot for them to stand) or just don't understand how the focus system works. Add those to working in low light, in a tight space, using a short telephoto prime lens with a small Depth-of-Field and no image stabilization, and voila! even I had trouble getting sharp images.

 

After all this text, I think pictures are long overdue:

 

Memphis International Airport showing some American pride.

... "double ticket machine" - Dad

"Ticket machine" ...

We settled on the lesser ticket machine...

SeaWorld!

This tree at the entrance was still not the largest in the park.

Color one...

Color two

One little known fact is that they actually call this park SealWorld.

I swear I will become more photogenic later in this trip.

Edited December 30, 2016 by RollerManic

[PKI Jizzman]

Nice read! As a 23 year Ohio resident who had done Christmas in Florida once, it is a shock at first to be surrounded by lights, Christmas music, etc in the sunny warm weather haha