Photo TR: Erik and Leanne go to Tampa

OK we just got back from an awesome trip to Tampa for Friday and Saturday. There are a lot of pictures as always so lets get on with it!

The world's largest wooden structure.

Unlike the Haunted Mansion, this hallway actually goes that far back.

WoW! This place looks swanky!

I would love to move to Clearwater so I can go live on Belcher street.

Yes, this is Tampa Bay.

Downtown Tampa.

Now that SheiKra has been built, you can now see BGT from 275.

Most of the time we go to the left, but for this trip we go right.

These things look like fun to fly.

Not until Saturday.

At least I beat David Carradine and Slyvester Stallone to these 2500 points.

Wild Waters sits right next door to the world famous, Silver Springs. (a lot like Cypress Gardens without the thrill rides.)

Florida's version of The Silver Bullet.

Though its only open late spring until Sept.

Yes this is the Wild Waters, its about 40 miles from our house.

This is where Six Gun Territory used to stand in Ocala (they had a credit!). Its called Six Gun Plaza now.

At least Leanne got us some high quality food for lunch.

But as always, I got to do some work.

We are off to Tampa!

More pictures.

The food here was awesome!!

Then we has some yummy steak.

Look what we started off with. Yummy...oysters and king crab.

We ended up with this Pinot Noir.

Even has small print as well.

Its thick like a yearbook.

Holy Cow! Check out that wine list.

Almost like an E-Ticket Disney attraction, but much more tasty.

This place really was amazing!!!

The highest class place to eat in all of Tampa.

My brother-in-law Chris, brought a couple bottles of M&R Asti Spumante.

Its been a few years since we have been in a limo.

Here comes the limo.

Cheers!

Yes, they were surprised.

We all surprised my parents since it was thier 40th anniversary.

The resort even has its own ice cream parlor.

Leanne also got dressed up.

Though its has been since our June 2003 trip to New York, that I wore my black suit.

Yes, we sometimes do get dressed up.

I wonder what the sink did to deserve to be all the way over there.

Check out our room's bathroom.

Oh its even gets better!

We really were full by the end of that night.

Oh baby, this was really good stuff.

I think that flame was almost 2 feet high.

They like to set things on fire here.

Looks good so far.

Yes, they make the Bananas Foster right in front of you.

My sister, Debbie, looks very excited.

Did I tell you how amazing this place was? Its almost a theme park.

That looks good!

Yes, this is the DESSERT menu. Take that Mythos with your one dessert now.

We received another yearbook menu.

They had an entire other section for desserts.

Check out the date of this wine.

We only got to see a small part of the wine celler. This area was pretty amazing.

There was even wine above us.

We were told they have the world's largest private wine collection.

Onto the wine collection.

I wonder whose dish these guys are going to end up on?

Are sprouts Elissa friendly food?

The kitchen is actually twice the size of the entire dining area.

We got to take a tour of the kitchen.

Nice TR Eric. How many days did you stay at the restaraunt? It seemed like it took two days for a complete meal.

Guy "That's my kinda meal!" Koepp

Have enough foo foo stuff? Ok unto coasters and donkeys.

Bye bye Montu.

Make sure when you ride Montu that you sit in one of the back rows, its much better.

Yeah, coasters are cool!

There was some slight stacking, but not too bad.

Even though the sign lied, this line only took 5 minutes. They were running three trains effeciently.

Cool a zero minute wait time.

Time to experience the terror of Montu.

I guess I will never experience the Akbar ride.

Has anyone ever done this attraction before?

But we all know who deserves all the respect at BGT.

They had some horses as well.

This is the picture of a donkey I promised.

Wally's logo made out of flowers.

They had a bunch of these banners everywhere around the park.

Looks like all the important rides are open today.

Cool, they opened the side gate. First time I ever used this gate.

We are all ready to ride some coasters. It was been at least 2 weeks now.

Ok, here is Montu. Plenty of coaster pictures ahead.

They raised the parking fee by one dollar.

Can you tell that there is a theme park about a mile away? Make sure you lock up your cars in this part of town.

Almost there.

Hello Hooters!! The Clearwater Hooters is actually the very first Hooters built.

Bye bye hotel.

Unless this bird eats all your food first.

Got to get some food before hitting those coasters.

Everything you may want to know about it.

Its almost 2 stories tall.

Look how tall this thing is.

I tried to eat a gingerbread house.

I may be lame. But I'm not lame enough to wear my Miller shirt to BGT again.

Very, very nice TR. I miss BGT Must...go...back.

Eric

I may be lame. But I'm not lame enough to wear my Miller shirt to BGT again.

Thank you!

Ready for more coasters??

Yes, I really like Kumba.

The cobra roll kicks some butt.

Though the zero-G roll is pretty cool as well.

I think the dive inversion is my favorite part.

Finishing the second corkscrew.

Diving into the tunnel.

While Kumba has a MCBR, it does not distract from how awesome this coaster is.

Derek has now got me in the habit of yelling "Vertical Loop!" everytime I see one now.

OK, back on track.

Well they stopped the ride, while all this was happening (restraint question) they ended up adding another car to the track.

Effecient ride ops today!

Kumba time!

Kumba! Kumba!

Time for an awesome coaster in the park.

So that is where all the crowds are today, at the bumper cars.

I love skyway rides, but we did not ride them today.

It looks like they added more track to SheiKra.

I bet half the people in this train just earned thier first looping credit.

Scorpion has an intense helix.

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Scorpion may be old, but its still a good one.

An elephant and a coaster.

SheiKra looks amazing against that blue sky.

Hooray! for BGT!!

BGT is a nice park.

They had some Christmas stuff up, as well as Christmas music.

You do not want to know what is inside those carry cages.

Here comes the train, but what is it you see in the background?

One of Robb's old friends wanted to say, "Hi!"

During our trip to BGT in July 2002, some of our group went to ride Kumba. I figured I'd ride it later, but when I was ready to head over there, I noticed a train stuck on the lift.

Needless to say, Kumba was down for the day. I should have gone with the others to ride it because they took four rides on it that day.

I went all the way across the country to BGT and rode it zero times.

But they have two new coasters that I haven't ridden, so there's definitely a reason to go back. And they have a sky ride, a rare thing in California these days.

Eric

Loooks like you had alot of fun, can't wait for more pics!!! And that is one baaaaaad sink *nono!* !!!

Ok even more coaster pictures.

We actually skipped the water rides today. Its got to be around 20 years since I rode this ride.

Its the first time I ever seen them do more than sleep.

The Tigers came out to play.

It all began in this building. Python is the first coaster at BGT, in case you did not know. I also believe its the first coaster in Florida with inversions.

Yyyeeeeeaaaaahhhhoooowwww!

Embrace for impact.

Python heading up into that blue Florida sky.

Actually, these parts look pretty new.

Ready for some Arrow corkscrew action?

Hee hee...they got all wet.

SheiKra time!

Yes BGT, you have a real winner here.

Looks really nice now. I got tired of seeing all that brown dirt 6 months ago.

They have finished up with all the theming for the area.

You can get a fuller picture of SheiKra here.

Look how far the water spray goes.

Take that little kids.

Hee hee hee!

Time to get some people wet!

Before you do this one.

You do this fun section of the ride.

The second drop. I almost like it better without all the mist around.

Leanne is doing her SheiKra pose with SheiKra.

It actually looks much taller in real life.

This part is quite an amazing part of the ride. Upsidedown airtime.

Sorry no on-ride pictures. Thanks for a great ShieKra experince ride-op crew.

Getting ready to load ShieKra.

They must have hired away Universal/IOA ride ops, because this crew was amazingly fast today.

Well all know that the back row give you insane air time. Its really cool.

Look how steep that lift hill is.

Did you ever find your onride DVD yet Elissa?

The bottom of the lift hill.

I like how you can see parts of the ride as you are waiting in line.

Look how wide the coaster trains are.

The first drop.

I think the scariest part of SheiKra is the lift hill...no joke!

You have to climb up to a higher level to the loading platform.

Ok, lets head on over to SheiKra

Ok last post....I hope you enjoyed these.

Leanne was really happy that the McRib was back. Anyways...have a good one all!!!

As well as another 5 star place to eat.

Hey, we got to see another limo on our trip back.

So we decided to head on back home early...which is fine by me.

We wanted to see Harry Potter on Imax, but they were all sold out. I guess we should have used Fandango.

They also wish you a Merry Christmas.

We went over to Channelside which is located downtown Tampa.

BGT and Wally wishes you a Merry Christmas. (Sorry Wally, we only spent $8 at BGT today.)

They almost pulled off a dueling dispatch of both the trains. Actually Tiger Gwazi was running well today, espeically the front car.

While this is a picture of the lion side of Gwazi, we did ride Tiger.

Great pics! I miss BGT now! I work there as a vocal coach, but currently I am in Roanoke, VA until Christmas eve music directing a show.

I also LOVE Sheikra! I think it just has a great combination of drops and thrills, and it is just long enough. I also love the way they can run 5 trains VERY efficiently. It is also cool how the entire lift hill up, all you can see is the vertical track going straight down, and there in no way to avoid seeing it!

Now if only they would re-track Gwazi and replace the trains with Millenium Flyers. THAT is what I want for Christmas!!

Thanks again for the pics and comments!

Great Trip Report!

I Can't Wait to Visit!

You guys clean up pretty good!

Bet Leanne's real pleased with that last photo...!!!

Mc ribb and Kumba does it get any better. Thanks again for a great P:TR

MmmmmMcRibbbbbbb.

Nice TR guys.

Nice TR Eric. How many days did you stay at the restaraunt? It seemed like it took two days for a complete meal.

 

Guy "That's my kinda meal!" Koepp

Heh heh. I think we ended up staying there almost 4 hours or so. Your right, you could stay there for days.

Hey Erik,

great Photo TR! It looks like you had a good time. I hope I´ll finde the time to go to Bush Gardens, next year! Oh, the McRib is one of my favorite, too!

--Sören

Is anyone else sick of Erik's Florida TR's?

Damnit!... I need to go turn up the heat.

Just kidding Erik. **Cough**Damn Floridians**Cough**

Is anyone else sick of Erik's Florida TR's?

 

Damnit!... I need to go turn up the heat.

 

Just kidding Erik. **Cough**Damn Floridians**Cough**

Yeah we really need to visit other parks sometime, maybe I will slow down on the Florida PTRs for a while. Though I really try to feature different aspects the parks with each visit. I focused on coasters this last post. Well, I guess we could do a Wild Adventures PTR sometime soon (A Georgia Park), plus we are planning to hit the Dania Beach Hurricane before too long. I have yet to go back to Sea World since they added rides.

I was just kidding Erik... I'm just very jealous of you... and your hurricanes

I was just kidding Erik... I'm just very jealous of you... and your hurricanes

hee hee hee, yeah I figured. Though honestly we do need to branch out a little more than the Uni/IOA/Disney/BGT parks. I guess we go back to those so often because of our AP passes for em. Since Wild Adventures is technically my home park (by about 4 or 5 miles), I really should go visit it sometime. I have yet to go.

^You do that, and I'll finally do that Bogel TR I keep meaning to do