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Having went to school down the street from it, I'm very familiar with Trenton Airport. We even had a banquet there, once. It's small and conspicuous, but it serves its purpose well. Haven't flown out of it yet, though, but I'm sure I'll have to take advantage of those flight prices whenever we decide to make the trip to Florida again.

 

Can't wait for Part 2!

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They can't be as bad as Delta after my disaster of a flight on Sunday night. 3 hour delay and sat next to a crazy woman.

It seems like all of the really bad stories I hear are from Delta, which I can understand since they made us miss our connecting flight coming back from our honeymoon. This caused them to have to put us up in a hotel in Salt Lake City.

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Great report! If you don't feel nostalgia or the "magic" at Disney than I can completely understand why you'd prefer Universal. There's just something about the atmosphere at the Disney Resort that is at another level to me, and is especially noticeable when visiting them back to back. But it's probably a little easier to pack more quality rides into one day at Universal compared to the Disney Resort. Enough of that tho, cause it really doesn't matter they're both great for their own reasons.

 

Being from New York I completely agree with your assessment of smaller regional airports haha. Spot on. Looking forward to more!

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Thanks everyone!!!

 

Haha. Nice cliff hanger. Glad you guys got home alive. I really need to take advantage of an airport 45 minutes from us that has Allegiant flights.

 

If you go in with realistic expectations I highly recommend them. They're NOT a good airline, there's nothing good about them except the price and the fact that they use small, convenient airports but I mean... it's a 90 minute flight to Florida. I can put up with being assigned a seat, not having wifi and sitting in a less than comfortable seat if for 90 minutes if it means I can go to Orlando for 39 bucks.

 

I have to take a look at Allegiant to see if they fly out from my area to St. Pete. I've been meaning to make a trip sometime in the next year to hit SeaWorld, Fun Spots, and Busch Gardens. They can't be as bad as Delta after my disaster of a flight on Sunday night. 3 hour delay and sat next to a crazy woman.

 

If you're like us and don't mind driving a few hours to get to the airport if it means ridiculous savings then yes. I don't know exactly where you live (I know you're in Massachusetts since it says it under your name) but you can fly from Newburgh NY, Portsmouth, NH or Providence, RI.

 

Just playing around with it quickly (I really didn't even try that hard), You can fly from Providence to Tampa on Oct 30th and come back a few days later on November 3rd and round trip after taxes and fees the airfare is $76.00 TOTAL. Seriously... stop reading this and book that!

 

Don't bring bags though. Don't do it.

 

Haven't flown out of it yet, though, but I'm sure I'll have to take advantage of those flight prices whenever we decide to make the trip to Florida again.!

 

You should! Remember though, in order to fly them you have to be flexible. Look a few months out and plan around them and their rates, if you go in with specific dates that you need to fly then they may not be the best option. Just start by looking at rates and see what works for you. I usually check that, then the ride rehab schedules and then go from there.

 

Great report! If you don't feel nostalgia or the "magic" at Disney than I can completely understand why you'd prefer Universal. There's just something about the atmosphere at the Disney Resort that is at another level to me, and is especially noticeable when visiting them back to back. But it's probably a little easier to pack more quality rides into one day at Universal compared to the Disney Resort. Enough of that tho, cause it really doesn't matter they're both great for their own reasons.

 

Being from New York I completely agree with your assessment of smaller regional airports haha. Spot on. Looking forward to more!

 

Thanks for the comment! Yeah, I don't get the whole nostalgia or "magic" thing. A one day park hopper is $170, you better be bringing more than nostalgia if you want me to spend that kind of money. To each his own though. It's all subjective and it depends on what you're into. Personally I just think Universal (as of right now) is providing the better experience overall. Disney has some exciting things on the way though.

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Alright, time for part 2 from Universal Orlando!

 

Going into Gringots I was HIGHLY skeptical that they would be able to top Forbidden Journey. Since our very first ride on it I had always considered Forbidden Journey to be the single greatest themed ride I had ever experienced. I don't think I've ever gone into a ride with expectations quite this high before.

 

Generally when I hype a ride up I end up being a little let down initially. When we were sitting in that car I couldn't help but think about my first rides on Intimidator 305 and Wicked Cyclone, 2 rides that I had hyped up to be so unimaginably great that I was initially a little underwhelmed despite the fact that they're completely awesome rides. Those rides have both grown on me and I'm at the point now where I absolutely love them, but I wanted this ride to be different, I wanted it to blow me away right off the bat. My expectations were completely unreasonable and I knew that but as we got the all clear and began our journey to Gringotts. I was completely unable to talk any sense into myself. I was all in, ready to experience a ride that I had already decided was going to be the greatest ride ever built.

 

 

 

Ho... ly... sh*t

 

 

 

Despite my ridiculous expectations that seemed impossible to meet, this ride absolutely met and even exceeded them. I've never ridden anything like Gringotts. The effects were unbelievable, the coaster sections were great, the technology was awesome, everything was perfect! Despite the overwhelming temptation I had never watched a POV of the ride, never read any spoilers and did my best to avoid any in-depth discussions about it and I'm so glad I did. (on that note... spoiler alert even though the ride has been around forever now) I thought it was awesome to see Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort make an appearance, that Dragon scene is out of this world and not knowing anything about the ride really served to make it even better. They were faced with the task of topping what I consider to be the single greatest dark ride in the country and they absolutely pulled it off. Wow. All I have to say is wow.

 

When we got off the ride it was impossible to fight the urge to ride again and keep riding it until park close but we figured we should see what else the park had to offer. While the temptation was also there to start exploring Diagon Alley, we figured it made more sense to hop on the train and ride Forbidden Journey so we could knock out the 3 rides that we didn't have Express Passes for before the park got too crowded and then come back to do that later.

 

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Choo Choo!

The train was also new for us, and I was completely blown away by Kings Cross station. They really do an incredible job of making you feel like you're in a train station. Everywhere you look they have great little details like fake advertisements and flipping old school signs with arrival and departure information (by flipping I mean literally flipping, I didn't stop dropping F bombs, don't worry).

 

On our way to the train we stopped to shoot dorky videos of us walking through Platform 9 3/4 and actually let some people pass us in line so we could check out the details but within a few minutes we made our way up to the platform and waited for our train to arrive.

 

I have to say, this ride was really cool. I may have hyped it up a bit too much but I really grew to like it. The crazy thing is that the coolest parts about it don't have much to do with the actual ride experience. The things that really stand out to me are the awesome queue / fake Kings Cross station, cool theming everywhere and authentic looking train cars. The ride was cool, but the best part about it is everything that leads up to it. Awesome job Universal. While it's obviously not on the level of their other Potter rides, Hogwarts Express gets a big thumbs up from me and we decided we had to come back later and ride in the opposite direction (since we knew it was different depending on which way you went).

 

Despite the snow theming, the first thing we noticed when we got off in Hogsmeade was that it had officially reached "Hot as balls" status. Lucky for us, we had the perfect way to combat that... frozen butterbeer! Despite the fact that we hadn't had it in years, this stuff is so good that I often find myself thinking about it and craving it. For those who haven't had it, it's made with a special recipe consisting of high fructose corn syrup, water, sunshine, rainbows, happiness and of course a few teaspoons of diabetes. The park hasn't officially confirmed the ingredients but I have it on good authority that that's the recipe.

 

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Okay, I took a picture of my drink with a sweet ass background. Am I finally getting this "Instagram" thing right?

After downing our butterbeers and knocking a good 7-10 years off our lives in the process, it was time for Forbidden Journey. Despite the fact that it's no longer the new hotness I can confidently say that it's still just as mind-blowingly well... mind-blowing as I had remembered it. Universal has an absolutely ridiculous 1-2 punch with these 2 rides. The line actually wasn't so bad so we went right back around and rode twice knowing that later on we may not be so lucky. Holy crap I love this ride!

 

At the end of our second ride we checked out a few things in the gift shop and dorked out a little more on Harry Potter before we finally realized we should probably leave the Potterverse to see what else Universal had to offer. Since we had Express passes we planned to follow the loop and ride whatever we wanted to ride in the order we came to it with no real plan. Initially we had come up with a plan of rides that we considered to be "Must Rides", then selected some other rides that we had hoped to ride but knew we might have to cut out. While we did finally get down to a realistic list I was really relieved that we were now in a position that we could ride whatever we wanted with no stress whatsoever.

 

Upon (reluctantly) leaving Hogwarts we made a right and headed over to Jurrasic Park. I was always a big fan of this area and it's flagship attraction and I was really excited to finally get another ride on River Adventure. I'm normally not a fan of these types of rides but the insane theming actually makes it one of my favorite rides at Universal Orlando. While Brit doesn't have the same affinity for water rides that I do she loves basically anything that includes Dinosaurs (yes, even Dinosaurs Alive) so between that and the oppressive heat it didn't take much convincing to get her to ride it. The ride was posting almost a 60 minute wait (which made sense because of the ridiculous heat) but we were on in 5 minutes with the Express Passes.

 

The ride was just as awesome as I remembered it and while it was wetter than I remembered we didn't really mind since we knew the Florida heat would take care of that within 10 minutes. Big thumbs up to River Adventure!

 

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I'm a motherf*kin T Rex!!!!! (that seems like a nice tasteful caption... seriously, what's that from? Did I just make it up?)

After River Adventure, our next stop was Kong. This was another new one for us and despite the fact that it generates a lot of b*tching due to it's dependence on screens we were excited to try it out. The facade on this thing is ridiculous... it's so awesome looking that it almost doesn't even look real. Even with Express Passes we still had a little bit of a wait but since the ride was posting an absurd 150 minute wait time (the longest of any ride in either park) we couldn't really complain about waiting 20.

 

The ride itself was honestly pretty exceptional. The technology with the trucks was super cool, the physical sets were great and the screens were so convincing that we really didn't mind them at all. We absolutely loved this ride and I actually thought it struck a pretty good balance between screens and physical sets with that great outdoor section and insane animatronic at the end. I guess I'm in the minority but we really loved Kong.

 

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We approve! Bring on the screens. We F*cking love screens.

After Kong, we continued on our circle of IOA and that led us to (my f*cking favorite...) the log flume! I'll be honest, I don't have as much of a hardon for Ripsaw Falls as I do for most flumes because of it's ridiculously drenching nature but every flume is a great flume so I was more than happy to drag Brit on the ride and hope she forgot how ridiculously soaking it was. What this ride loses by being FAR too wet, it makes up for by having awesome theming. We had a great ride as always but when we exited we couldn't help but notice some dark clouds moving in. The park announced that some rides would soon be closing for weather in the area (not surprising in the Florida summer) but we figured we'd see if we could hit Spider-Man quick and then the 2 remaining outdoor rides that we had planned to hit at Islands of Adventure before heading back to the other park where there were tons of indoor attractions we could hit while riding out the storm.

 

Despite the long wait time, Spider-Man was a complete walk on with the Express passes and delivered an awesome ride like always. Our next stop was Dr. Doom, a ride that we had somehow never ridden before. I have to say, I was really impressed with the theming of this (otherwise very basic) ride and even more impressed with the insane pop of air up top. I know this is really just an S&S tower but it's a REALLY good S&S tower and it really doesn't get enough praise for that. Cheers Dr. Doom! You're alright!

 

Unfortunately once we got off Dr. Doom it had started drizzling with a few rumbles of thunder and the next ride on our hit list (Hulk) would have to wait until later. Feeling brave we decided to park hop once again, this time walking through CityWalk and hoping we could get over there before we got caught out in the storm. We had already ridden all of the indoor attractions we wanted to ride at Island's of Adventure but we hadn't ridden anything at the other park aside from the two Potter attractions so it seemed like the obvious thing to do.

 

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Hell yeah we are! Looking at screens and being sprayed with water is lit, we could do this all day. Keep on hating, this place rules.

We DEFINITELY got lucky as we just made it to the Studios park when the sky opened up (then again if it had happened while we were at CityWalk we would have been forced to take shelter in Margaritaville so I guess it was sort of a win-win situation no matter what). As it was, we figured we'd dip into one of the rides right up front. We thought Shrek was okay, but not really all that amazing so we decided to go with Minions instead. The ride itself is pretty unimpressive with the same 3d theater technology that used to be all over Six Flags and Paramount parks but I won't lie, I like this thing.

 

The pre-show is actually very funny and well done (it may be my favorite part of the ride) but the ride itself was actually really fun (and funny) too. What this ride lacks in technology it makes up for by being incredibly entertaining and having a great IP to work with. I joke that this is the "Peter Fan's Flight" of Universal Studios because of the fact that it's location and capacity means it always gets obscenely excessive wait times that it doesn't deserve but that's probably not entirely fair. While neither ride is worth the wait, at least this ride is actually a good ride. Lucky for us wait times were a non issue anyway. Thanks Amex! So far the only purchase I've ever made with that card is a $10 beer at a Mets game just to keep it open so I'd say this transaction is working out swimmingly for you guys .

 

While the storm was definitely still going strong the rain had died down a lot so after leaving Minion Mayhem we headed past the asinine Fallon ride (that we had no interest in riding) and over to a ride I was really excited to re-ride, Mummy!

 

Aside from the Potter attractions I think I can confidently say that Mummy is my favorite ride on Universal Orlando property. The coaster sections are great on their own but the theming and "fake ending" really put it over the top for me. I love this thing, I could ride it all day. I was actually really hoping to get back to it again later even though we'd have to stand in line (since we had the Express Pass that was one-use per ride) but sadly that wasn't to be. Still I was really happy to get one ride in and happy to see that it was just as awesome as I remembered it being.

 

The rain was clearly starting to let up but the rides were yet to re-open so we figured this was a perfect opportunity to cut back into Diagon Alley and grab some lunch at the Leaky Cauldron.

 

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The ominous sky made for some really cool pictures of this guy on the way to lunch. I still can't get over how awesome Diagon Alley is.

While British food was never my favorite thing in the world I enjoyed Leaky Cauldron. I ended up with the bangers and mash and it was definitely quite flavorful and the fact that I washed it down with another ice cold Butterbeer only served to make it better. The building itself was also really cool, though it's large cafeteria nature means there weren't as many cool details to explore as there were with a lot of the other shops and eateries in Diagon Alley. Leaky Cauldron gets a thumbs up from me, it's not quite "kabob place over in Lost Continent" good, but it's good.

 

When we left Leaky Cauldron we were pleased to see that the rain had stopped and saw a Rip Ride Rockit train cresting the hill so we figured we'd head back that way and then finish our loop of Islands of Adventure.

 

We had only ridden Rockit once before and back then we didn't know about the secret song list so on our way over I pulled it up and we each decided what we wanted to listen to and memorized the codes. I of course picked the stupidest song I could which ended up being "Float on" by Modest Mouse (come on, you know you secretly love it). I won't lie though, I felt bad picking anything other than Kenny Chesney's "Living in Fast Forward" which is really the ultimate Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit song if I do say so myself. Damn, between this and our annual visits to the Punkin' Chunkin' World Championships in Delaware I feel like I was a redneck in a past life.

 

Anyway since we caught Rockit just as it reopened it only had about a 20 minute wait and no wait at all for us so within minutes we were strapping in. The ride was it's usual, rough-as-sh*t self but for some reason I still enjoy it. I honestly don't know why I enjoy this thing, it's rough, the layout sucks, it should really be called "mid course brake runs, the ride and it's not really anything special but for some reason I really like it anyway. Who knows... maybe it was the song. It's impossible to hate anything with a Modest Mouse soundbed behind it.

 

After that bit of Rip Ride Rockin' mediocrity we figured we'd kick it up a notch and head back to Islands of Adventure to ride a good coaster, the new Hulk!

 

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Meet the new Hulk, same as the old Hulk

I'll be honest. If you hadn't told me that they updated this coaster I would never have noticed aside from the new entrance (which looks amazing by the way) and launch tunnel. That sounds like a knock, but I loved the ride before so I'm thrilled to see that it's still running like it always has. The elements are actually sort of forceful and snappy which is nice to see from a B&M sit down and the layout is unique and that great launch tunnel and barrel roll out of the tunnel really take this ride to the next level. While it's not like I'll be confusing it with Kumba any time soon it's a solid ride and I'm glad to see it running so well.

 

At that point we had really ridden everything we "needed" to ride at IOA. We knew we wanted to take the train back towards Diagon Alley to see the other video and we knew we wanted to ride Forbidden Journey again but at that point in our day we were really pretty happy with all we had accomplished and really slowed our pace quite a bit.

 

We walked through Seuss Landing and Lost Continent, admiring all of the impressive theming but not really stopping to ride anything since there wasn't anything that appealed to us from a ride standpoint in either area. I still marvel at Seuss landing. Whoever had the idea to use trees that had been warped by a hurricane to create a Dr. Seuss area is a genius. While there wasn't anything there we wanted to ride, we were perfectly happy just walking around and taking in the atmosphere.

 

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Brit loves her some Lorax

As we kept walking I couldn't help but be a little distracted by Dragon Challenge. I had the heard the rumors (which have since been confirmed) and while the ride was never really a priority for us we figured we should probably give them a ride just in-case.

 

I've got to be honest (god, I say that a lot don't I? I guess that's my crutch. ), I don't know why we didn't really see Dragons as a priority during our visit. I've said elsewhere that I don't really go to Universal and spend $179 per day to ride un-themed coasters but for some reason I did consider Hulk and Rockit (which isn't nearly as good of a ride) as higher priorities than Dragons.

 

I don't know why that is, maybe it was the annoying and cramped locker area where we actually had to wait for a locker, maybe it was the absurdly long walk to the ride, maybe it was the fact that it's a shadow of what it once was, maybe it was the knowledge that 2 days later we were going to ride the best invert in America... I really don't know and I can't make sense of it because despite all that it IS objectively a great ride.

 

We rode the fire Dragon (or whatever it's called now) since I remember being underwhelmed by ice and we really did enjoy the coaster. It's fast, snappy, fun and is actually running smoother and better than any other coaster at Universal despite it's age. We really liked Dragons but we did pass up a short wait for ice (knowing it could be our last chance to ever ride it) for our third ride of the day on Forbidden Journey even after that awesome ride on fire dragon so I guess that says a lot about my stance on all of this. Is it a great ride? Of course. Would I rather they remove the Sinbad sh*t or basically anything in Lost Continent that's not my awesome kabob place for the new Potter thing? Sure. But the unthemed coasters are really a one-and-done for us at this park anyway because as good as they are, the unique dark rides and themed rides / coasters are a much bigger draw for us.

 

After Dragons we decided we'd head over to Forbidden Journey for one more ride and then take the train back to the studios park for the rest of the night. Forbidden Journey was as awesome as ever and as an added bonus it had absolutely no wait thanks to it's ridiculous capacity... score!

 

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Cheers to Forbidden Journey walk-ons! And hats off to the woman who offered to take our picture. That's perfect! Why would we want the f*cking castle in it? I guess I shouldn't be mean, it was very nice of her to offer but LOL wtf????

Keeping with the theme we were pleased to see that the train was also a walk-on. It seemed like the storms really helped clear the parks out which was great news for us. This station is definitely a little strange and not nearly as impressive as King's Cross. It's cool but it's really shoehorned in around Dragons and you can definitely tell when walking through it. Again the ride was fun, though I definitely prefer riding it To Hogwarts as the animation is a little more eventful that way.

 

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Hedwig stopped by to see us off, thanks Hedwig!

When we got back to the Studios park we were a little light on time, but since we had the Express Passes we managed to score some quick rides on Men in Black, Simpsons and ET before giving ourselves about an hour in a half to end our night in Diagon Alley.

 

There's not too much to report on with any of those rides, they're all a lot of fun... probably skippable on a busy day but still great rides and thanks to the Express Pass we got to ride them. Like Minions, the Simpsons ride is more about being funny and creative than it is about impressive technology. Still, it's one of the only theme park attractions that legitimately makes me laugh with it's jokes and I think that counts for quite a bit. E.T. was actually a lot better than I remember it. Funny enough it would probably be my fourth favorite non-coaster ride at Magic Kingdom but at Universal it's really all but forgotten about. Because I'm a f*cking child I told them my name was "Dick" but E.T. didn't say goodbye to me. He sees right through my sh*t. F*ck you E.T. ... go home

 

Once we left E.T.'s planet (which we saved by... um... I really don't know what we did to save it actually, wtf this ride makes no god damn sense?!?!?!?!) and landed back on earth we decided to spend the rest of our night in Diagon Alley.

 

I don't really know what's left to say that hasn't been said. I legitimately think I could spend an entire day in Diagon Alley without even riding everything and there would still be things I didn't get to see. There are awesome little details absolutely everywhere and things to discover around every corner. Knockturn Alley was a great suprise for us, it's really well hidden but absolutely awesome. They really made it feel like it was somewhere you weren't supposed to be and it had an incredible creepy vibe to it. Everything about this area was amazing.

 

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Nightfall at Diagon Alley

Finally at about 5 minutes to close we decided to pry ourselves away from all the awesome things in Diagon alley and get one last ride on Gringotts. There was almost no line at this point and we ended up being on one of the last cars of the night. The ride host was initially loading front to back and assigned us to row 3, but when he realized there was nobody behind us he quickly changed his tune and told us to go to row 6 because "it was the best". I have to say, he wasn't lying. The dragon effect from that row was so vivid and so awesome that it's all I think about whenever I think of this ride. Once again, our ride was absolutely awesome and it was the perfect way to end a perfect night in the park.

 

I know the place gets a lot of hate, but in our mind Universal Studios is absolutely amazing in every possible way. I can confidently say that that was one of the best days we had ever spent in a theme park and I can't wait until we get to go back there. I really couldn't recommend it enough.

 

Up next:

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SHAMU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I have less than zero interest in Harry Potter and Universal sits pretty low on my park bucketlist but this report actually may have just changed that. Sounds like a great day.

 

I haven't commented in the USO thread because of my limited knowledge of the parks but I do think its a huge bummer they're scrapping two (apparently solid) B&M inverts. Ah well.

 

Also Modest Mouse are awesome and I didn't know you were a fan. Think that may be the first time you and I have had a mutual interest in a band. No one should be afraid to admit they like "Float On". It got played the f*ck out, but I still think its a great song. *fires up iTunes*

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Great report! I prefer Disney, but everything I am in Orlando I need to spend at least 1-2 days at Universal since I like how their rides are different from Disney's in both style and intensity.

 

I have to take a look at Allegiant to see if they fly out from my area to St. Pete. I've been meaning to make a trip sometime in the next year to hit SeaWorld, Fun Spots, and Busch Gardens. They can't be as bad as Delta after my disaster of a flight on Sunday night. 3 hour delay and sat next to a crazy woman.

 

If you're like us and don't mind driving a few hours to get to the airport if it means ridiculous savings then yes. I don't know exactly where you live (I know you're in Massachusetts since it says it under your name) but you can fly from Newburgh NY, Portsmouth, NH or Providence, RI.

 

Just playing around with it quickly (I really didn't even try that hard), You can fly from Providence to Tampa on Oct 30th and come back a few days later on November 3rd and round trip after taxes and fees the airfare is $76.00 TOTAL. Seriously... stop reading this and book that!

 

Don't bring bags though. Don't do it.

 

One day when I'm retired, Allegiant seems like a good option when I can have a more flexible schedule. That is assuming they don't have a catastrophic, company ending accident of course.

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We are thinking about taking a trip to universal next year and with all the Potter stuff they have and that they're adding, I have to ask;

Having never read or seen any of the Potter books or movies will I still be able to follow along with and enjoy the Potter themed rides?

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One day when I'm retired, Allegiant seems like a good option when I can have a more flexible schedule. That is assuming they don't have a catastrophic, company ending accident of course.

 

That's a bold assumption.

 

Think that may be the first time you and I have had a mutual interest in a band.

 

Wow, I think you're actually right. Alright already we all float on...

 

We are thinking about taking a trip to universal next year and with all the Potter stuff they have and that they're adding, I have to ask;

Having never read or seen any of the Potter books or movies will I still be able to follow along with and enjoy the Potter themed rides?

 

The first time we went to Universal, Brit knew absolutely nothing about Harry Potter. She was blown away by everything, declared Forbidden Journey her favorite dark ride of all time, loved checking out all of the shops and thought it was all completely awesome.

 

Before we went down this time we noticed some channel (I think it's called FreeForm) that exists solely to show every Harry Potter movie on loop 24/7 so I DVRed all of them and we binge-watched them. It's not necessary to do this, but knowing more about the IP does make you appreciate the details even more. That's probably true of any IP based attraction though.

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One day when I'm retired, Allegiant seems like a good option when I can have a more flexible schedule. That is assuming they don't have a catastrophic, company ending accident of course.

 

Scheduling is the worst part about Allegiant as their flight schedule really dictates your trip, but they're usually around a weekend which helps. I have found in some of the bigger or more popular markets they fly to it seems like they offer more flights than the 2 per week. Last time I looked to fly back to Kentucky they had Orlando Sanford to Lexington flights 5 or more days per week, which helps.

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The real $64,000 question: so, have you had your identity stolen yet from the sketchy print-out-a-credit-card-on-the-spot-for-you guys?

 

Kidding, of course. Now that I know that's a thing, I'd be tempted to do the same in exchange for free Express Passes.

 

Sounds like you had a really fantastic time at the park. Wish I was getting back there soon (if I could figure out a way to get there before Dragon Challenge closes, I'd be there posthaste)... but I'm under strict orders from the wife to not visit any Universal parks unless I bring the whole damn family, so it's probably still gonna be a few years out. We don't trust the two year old on a flight.

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Nice update! I agree with you about how great Mummy is. Probably my favorite ride at the resort outside of Potter rides. That and Spiderman are the two non-Potter attractions I think Universal really did well.

 

I do find it funny that as you said Dragons are by far the smoothest outdoor coasters at the resort but they are the ones getting the axe. The combo of transforming them into Potter rides, the lack of dueling, and the addition of the metal detector and lockers has really taken away from the experience tho. Whatever they add there will probably feel way more cohesive and still be great.

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We are thinking about taking a trip to universal next year and with all the Potter stuff they have and that they're adding, I have to ask; Having never read or seen any of the Potter books or movies will I still be able to follow along with and enjoy the Potter themed rides?

 

I read and saw the first 2 HP books/movies in the series and know next to nothing about it after that but was still able to enjoy Potterville because I knew all the characters and some of the details. If you have the chance to at least do a little research on it or watch one of the beginning movies before you go I think the experience would be greatly improved. The first 2 books were an easy read. I've been using Amazon's audiobook app called Audible and am enjoying it so that's another option too.

 

Bill - your trip reports keep getting better and better! Sadly I wasn't a fan of the Butterbeer - I don't particularly like butterscotch and it was too sweet for me, but one person in my group went bonkers for it and we joked that she needed a Butterbeer IV haha. Looking forward to Sea World!

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Having never read or seen any of the Potter books or movies will I still be able to follow along with and enjoy the Potter themed rides?

I haven't read any of the books or seen any of the films either, and so the ride's story confused the hell out me. I've found that to be true with most of the stuff at Universal though (at least the Hollywood version). While being steeped in blockbuster movies and the latest commercial products will only add to the experience, the rides are still all enjoyable even if you have absolutely no idea what's going on. The storyline for the Transformers ride appears to be "OMG Robots! OMG Explosions! OMG Car Chases! OMGOMG Robots!" (which I think is probably the extent and depth of the film's plot as well), but it's still a visually-impressive and enjoyable ride. Forbidden Journey is more like "Dragons! Spiders! Ghosts! Thanks for Riding!"

 

The funny thing about the Forbidden Journey ride is that I've ridden with both young and elderly family members who absolutely love the thing, but it makes me nauseous pretty much every time. This is largely due to the movement in and out of screens, but also the motion effect is more like being on a boat than flying to me. There's a part that tips you backwards pretty far so the blood rushes to your head, and then it spins you around and propels your forward into a screen at the same time (barf).

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Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

The storyline for the Transformers ride appears to be "OMG Robots! OMG Explosions! OMG Car Chases! OMGOMG Robots!" (which I think is probably the extent and depth of the film's plot as well), but it's still a visually-impressive and enjoyable ride.

I feel the same way. I know nothing about it but I like the ride. Speaking of which, you may have noticed that I made no mention of it at all and that's because we COMPLETELY forgot to ride it. We planned to ride it, we walked by it a few times and then as we were leaving the park we realized we never did. Honestly it's not a big loss. We love it but we rode Spiderman already and even though it's undoubtedly better than some of the other rides we rode at the end of the night (ET, Simpsons, Men in Black) I sort of enjoy those rides more for some reason. I'm okay with missing it but your post reminded me about how we completely screwed up and forgot about it.

 

====================================

 

Anyway, on to day 2 of our Florida Trip!

 

As you can probably gather, Brit puts up with a lot of sh*t. She has fun on these coaster trips but I'm totally the one dragging her on them and she pretty much goes along with any stupid itinerary I come up with. She really doesn't ask for much, she just goes with the flow but there's one notable exception to this rule and that's that if we EVER go to Orlando and don't spend a day at SeaWorld she'll divorce me before we even get married.

 

You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Our entire house is full of SeaWorld merchandise... SeaWorld beach towels, SeaWorld ornaments, ceramic SeaWorld orca things, she's even downloaded the entire One Ocean soundtrack to listen to in the car (which has a SeaWorld inspired vanity plate and a SeaWorld sticker on it).

 

The point is, she loves SeaWorld, and honestly who wouldn't? As we parked the car and walked through the gates, she was totally hyped up and ready for an awesome day with Shamu.

 

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Brit is geared up and ready to go!

Our day took an unexpected turn (and got an unexpected upgrade) as soon as we walked through the gates and noticed the Dine with Shamu cart up front. We'd heard of Dine with Shamu and hadn't had the opportunity to do it but when we saw the awesome price point our minds were pretty much made up for us. With our passes Dine with Shamu came out to about $22 per person which seemed unbelievably low. We didn't know exactly what it entailed, but we knew Shamu was involved and according to Brit it's impossible to put a price tag on anything involving Shamu anyway so we went ahead and made a reservation for noon (which I think was the only available time). That gave us about 2 hours to kill before we had to be over at Shamu stadium.

 

When we go to SeaWorld I pretty much just take a back seat and let her drive, but knowing I couldn't contain myself we decided that Mako should be our first stop since the last time we were at the park it was still under construction. On the way to Mako we couldn't help but marvel at the new Shark area. What was formerly a very dated part of the park got a complete facelift with the addition of Mako and it turned one of the uglier parts of the park into one of the nicest. The ride itself looks great too with the finale taking place right over the midway.

 

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Good Morning Mako!

As we entered the queue I couldn't help but notice that the queue itself was pretty nice but it also looked like it would be absolutely miserable on a busy day. While they have plenty of fans the first half of the queue is mostly in the sun which seems pretty insane for a park in Florida. Luckily lines are rarely much of an issue for coasters at Sea World but I'd hate to be there on a day where they were. Yikes!

 

Lucky for us we only had a 10 minute wait and within a few minutes we were strapped into the back row and ready to take our first ride. Given the family friendly nature of the park I expected this to be a totally forceless B&M hyper, probably on par with something like the Carowinds Intimidator and I was perfectly okay with that. Even a forceless B&M hyper is fun and would be a great addition to any park's lineup. As we dropped off the lift I felt like I had reasonable expectations and was ready for my forceless, floaty a** ride along the lake so I put my hands up, and... woah, holy sh*t.

 

While it's not exactly El Toro or anything, I got way more airtime on the first drop than I expected. We went over the second hill, made a swooping turn and then headed into another hill that delivered some of the best airtime I've ever had on a B&M hyper. Damn, Mako... sorry for talking sh*t.

 

After that great airtime hill, the ride heads into a hammerhead (hammerhead? I thought it was a Mako, ah whatever SeaWorld, I'm not gonna tell you how to do your job) and then into a hill with the patented B&M unnecessary trim brake on it. While the trim definitely slows the coaster way down, the rest of the ride is still a lot of fun. You get a few more pops of air, absolutely fly through the midcourse and the unconventional swooping turns at the end are a lot more fun than I expected. While most of the ride feels like a pretty typical B&M, the first drop and airtime hill before the hammerhead are pretty bad a** and the ride as a whole (like all B&M hypers) is great. SeaWorld definitely has a winner on their hands here.

 

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The last few turns really are a lot of fun!

After our ride on Mako we were already hot as balls so we decided it was the perfect time to check out the Shark Encounter. I was always a big fan of the Shark Encounter because not only is the shark tunnel totally awesome, but it's a great, air conditioned, go-at-your-own-pace thing to do if you have your eye on the time because of a show you want to see or (in our case) a Shamu we needed to dine with.

 

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This is a lionfish, this fish is kind of an a**hole. Well... it's not his fault he's an a**hole, people are a**holes and dumped unwanted lionfish into the Atlantic Ocean where they're totally invasive, have no natural predators and are destroying the ecosystem. The moral of the story is that people are a**holes. Don't be an a**hole.

As we traveled further into the exhibit we finally came to the cool shark tunnel. While other aquariums / marine parks have these too, they're super cool and really never get old. Basically it's just a giant tube where you walk (or in this case travel on a conveyor) through a shark tank and get to see sharks on either side of you AND above you. Awesome.

 

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Brit's loving the Shark Tunnel

Upon exiting the Shark Encounter we still had about 40 minutes before our lunch date with Shamu so we headed over to one of my favorite areas in the park, the Pacific Point Preserve! For those unfamiliar, Pacific Point Preserve is the park's sea lion area where you can watch a great mix of sea lions and seals (but mostly sea lions because they're way cooler... f*ck seals) and for a few bucks you can buy some fish to feed them. If it weren't for the heat, I could honestly stay here all day. Don't tell Brit I said this, but the sea lions are probably my favorite animal at SeaWorld. They're adorable... they're basically sea puppies.

 

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This guy was awesome, every time someone threw him a fish he would catch it, throw it back up, catch it again and basically juggle it before finally eating it. Needless to say, he got plenty of our fish.

As our reservation time approached we decided to finally pry ourselves away from the sea lions and head over to dine with Shamu. We didn't really know what to expect but when we arrived we were taken into a covered dining area right next to one of the back pools of Shamu Stadium and our waitress came over to inform us that it was an all you can eat buffet that included all you can drink beer.

 

... this was off to a good start.

 

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Shamu!!!!!!!!

It was honestly hard to pry ourselves away from the tank to get our food but eventually we found our way up there. The food was decent... definitely not as good as a lot of the food in the park but it was okay. My favorite thing up there was probably the chicken nuggets from the kids buffet which probably sounds ridiculous, but they were really f*cking good. They had some other good stuff too, I suggest waiting until the end of the buffet to get anything though, don't fall for the chicken and pork at the front. It's a trap. The seafood and prime rib is hiding in the back (and so are the chicken nuggets. Don't judge me.).

 

After about 30 minutes we had eaten our food and had a few drinks and were already pretty happy with the experience. The whales were just swimming around, occasionally breaching and doing whale stuff (as whales often do). We didn't know if there would be any type of show associated with this and would have been happy either way but a few minutes later a bunch of trainers came out carrying buckets... this was about to get awesome.

 

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Shamu being awesome

What followed was a 20-or-so-minute show where the trainers explained their training techniques, how they use positive reinforcement and how they help whales in the wild. They had a cool device that played underwater sounds that the whales responded to and they did some really cool behaviors for us. Overall it was an awesome experience... especially considering that the entire time they were serving FREE BEER.

 

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Dine with Shamu rules!

Seriously, I can't recommend Dine with Shamu enough. It ended up being about $22 per person (I think it's $29 without a pass) and it included an all you can eat buffet with all you can drink beer for about an hour. That alone would make it an absolute steal but factor in the hour long semi-private orca show and I honestly feel like anyone who goes to Sea World and doesn't do this is severely missing out.

 

After Dine with Shamu we decided it was time to start planning our day. My one complaint about Sea World is that since the park is so show-heavy you REALLY have to have a schedule and stick to it. We came up with a plan that involved seeing One Ocean at 3:30 (or something like that), and then going to Dolphin Days and Clyde and Seamore later on. In the end that would end up getting blown to hell by the Florida weather, but at that point it was the plan so we had about 2 hours to do whatever we wanted while waiting for One Ocean.

 

We stopped by Shamu Underwater viewing for a little bit upon leaving the show and then decided to try something a little different and ride the Sky Tower. Somehow in all of our visits we had never ridden it and we figured it would provide some cool views and a little air conditioning... 2 things that sounded pretty awesome at that point. Unfortunately, this ride's line really sort of sneaks up on you. Upon entering the ride area it looks like a complete walk on but you're directed to a queue over to the side where we waited for about 20 minutes, then they let you in to a small cramped hallway where you wait for another 10 minutes before finally boarding. The ride itself was enjoyable, but it definitely ate up more time than we thought it would.

 

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An aerial view of the best coaster in Orlando. Yeah... I said it.

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Kraken VR testing. This was about a week before it opened and we found out later that it had apparently soft opened but only for a few cycles before (spoiler alert?!?!?!) the storms moved in. That's sort of a bummer, but whatever. We don't go to SeaWorld to ride Kraken anyway.

After Sky Tower we checked out the new rescue shop and continued making the rounds. We had hoped to ride Atlantis or Antarctica but both were posting long wait times so we decided to go check out the dolphins instead. We were disappointed to see that you can no longer touch the dolphins, but we're not surprised since as I mentioned in my last trip report, people are idiots who can't follow the rules. From what we've personally witnessed and seen reported from other SeaWorld parks, people constantly put their hands over the dolphins blow holes and in their faces and then call the local news when the dolphins lightly nip them because THEY didn't follow the rules or exercise any common sense whatsoever. Still, it's always fun to watch the dolphins but it's a shame that yet another thing has now been ruined by stupid people. Anyway, after watching the dolphins for awhile and thinking about how dumb people are the time was starting to get away from us so we figured we'd head back towards the other side of the park.

 

We hoped to score a ride on Manta on the way but it was down so we continued on and decided to hit up Mako again on our way to Shamu Stadium. We thought about waiting for the front but we were in a bit of a time crunch so we headed for the back and were treated to another awesome ride.

 

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We love this ride!

After another great Mako ride we took a little time to explore the gift shop and enjoy the air conditioning before making our way over. On our walk over to the stadium we checked out the rapids ride construction a bit (I'm not a fan of these rides but I'm sort of intrigued by this one for some reason) and then came across a few trainers and animal ambassadors which is always great to see.

 

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Hey look, it's a sloth

Despite their lazy appearance, sloths are actually very intelligent animals. Tests have shown that their level of cognitive function allows them to do things like complete mazes, perform basic reasoning tasks and their level of laziness has actually been scientifically proven to be slightly lower than the average Six Flags New England ride operator. The more you know...

 

After checking out the animals we popped into the pretzel place real quick to get something to eat for the show. I absolutely love those prezel dogs and couldn't help but try out their new Mako beer (which was quite good by the way). Pretzels in hand we headed over to the stadium and took our seats. The pre-show started, the One Ocean music came on, Brit had probably already started crying (yeah, lol) and...

 

They made an announcement that the show was cancelled due to weather in the area. Damn, well that really screws with our day.

 

At that point we really didn't have too much time to come up with a plan. We figured we'd cut out the other two shows in favor of coming back to One Ocean, but now we needed to do something to pass the time. We figured everybody in Shamu Stadium would head over to Wild Arctic but we were feeling bold and thought of trying to get over to Turtle Trek or Antarctica before the storm.

 

Unfortunately, once we started on our way the sky opened up and we realized that was never going to happen. We figured we might as well give in and join the hordes of people in line for Wild Arctic. This ride and (basically the entire exhibit) is super dated, but they have belugas so we always make a stop in there. I really wouldn't be shocked if this thing gets an update soon, but as it was it was a nice way to wait out the rain.

 

When we exited it was still raining, but it had slowed down enough that we figured we could get over to the other side of the park. We walked over the wooden bridge and over to Atlantis (which had re--opened, but Brit was having none of it... damn ). She didn't want to ride, but we went in the aquarium which is always cool. The tank in the ceiling was empty and dark (hopefully that's temporary) but on the plus side I managed to get a great picture of the eels.

 

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First thing's first I'm the eelest.

With Manta still down for weather and Brit refusing to budge on Atlantis, our next stop was Turtle Trek.

 

I really like Turtle Trek, the video is cool, the turtles and manatees are fun to watch and I've never seen such a well produced recycling PSA in my life. It's also highly effective, this ride is the sole reason that we sometimes bring a bag to the beach just to pick up sh*t that people are too lazy to throw in the trash themselves (If you take one thing away from this trip report, it should be that people are a**holes). According to Turtle Trek, we, on the other hand are "everyday heroes"... and quite humble about it too.

 

My only real complaint about this ride is that before you enter the theater you're in a holding area where you can view the turtles and there's a trainer there telling you about them and answering questions. Unfortunately, you can never hear anything in this room because people (remember... they're a**holes) REFUSE to shut the f*ck up and listen. I've never once been in there when people actually shut the f*ck up.

 

You'll shut the f*ck up when you're in the theater watching a movie about these amazing turtles with fake CGI turtles, how come you won't shut the f*ck up when there are ACTUAL, HONEST TO GOD SEA TURTLES in front of you and a trainer trying to teach you about them. Why are you here? Go back to a**holeville with your a**hole friends where you can all go and be a**holes together ... a**holes.

 

... okay sorry, I just had to get that out there.

 

When we left Turtle Trek (or "Journeyed on" from Turtle Trek

 

 

... nobody?

 

 

You suck...)

 

we realized it was time for One Ocean (attempt #2). Despite the rain keeping the coasters down, this time the show went on and played to a near capacity crowd. One Ocean was great as always. It definitely gets Brit right in the feels, but I can't fault her too much. It's a great show.

 

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Eat a d*ck PETA

Unfortunately after One Ocean we only had about 30 minutes left in our day. I had been keeping an eye on Mako and Kraken from the stadium and unfortunately neither of them had reopened yet so I figured I was SOL on riding Manta. It was only raining and the storms were long gone, but aside from Atlantis and the kids rides it didn't seem like the rides had ever reopened.

 

Despite the rain delay, it was a great day. Since the coasters were closed we thought of hitting Antarctica on the way out but we were soaked and the thought of going into a 32 degree building while soaking wet seemed sort of miserable so we decided to skip that and just head out (we only had about 20 minutes before park close anyway). We never have enough time to fit everything in to one day but as we headed up to the front along the boardwalk we were pretty happy with our day and figured we'd pop in to the gift shop and head home. Dine with Shamu was super cool, Mako greatly exceeded expectations and overall we had a blast. As we headed towards the exit carrying (yet another) bag full of Sea World stuff we were in a great mood, totally content with our day. Bye Sea World! Thanks for an awesome da...

 

 

 

 

 

"Holy sh*t, what was that?"

 

 

 

"What?"

 

 

 

"It sounds like..."

 

 

 

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WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!

We seriously couldn't have been 50 feet from the gate when we turned around and saw the first Manta train in hours barreling down the drop. Immediately we turned around and made a b line for the entrance. Did I have a great day without getting to ride Manta? Sure... but was I a little bummed? Absolutely. I love this thing. We knew we wouldn't be able to ride up front since they only had time to send a few more trains before the park closed so we opted for the back, thrilled that we were riding at all and not wanting to be greedy and push our (so far awesome) luck.

 

We put our stuff (and at that point we had a lot of stuff) in the bin, got locked in and within a few minutes we heard the familiar "woosh" sound effect as we flipped up into position and headed up the lift on (let me say it again) the best coaster in the Orlando area.

 

Yeah, this ride kicks all sorts of a**. It's so ridiculously awesome and so ridiculously underrated. The ride has an amazing location, it's insanely forceful for a B&M, it has a great layout and is just all around awesome. As soon as we hit the brakes I looked over at Brit who just out of nowhere exclaimed "Superman sucks!" (referencing Superman Ultimate Flight at Great Adventure of course). Yeah... I agree, Superman sucks and this thing is absolute greatness. What a great way to end an awesome visit to Sea World!

 

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God this thing kicks a**.

 

Okay, say it with me... hey Superman...

zemxi.jpg

 

Just kidding, it's not Superman's fault. It gets a solid C+ for effort.

 

After leaving Sea World we decided to grab something to eat on I Drive and reminisce about our awesome day. I think we ended up at an Applebees or something. We had been walking around a park all day so we were a little wet and not dressed for a nice place, we learned our lesson about overpriced tourist trap restaurants on I Drive like Senor Frogs so we weren't going there and I was in the mood for some half price mozzarella sticks anyway so it fit the bill.

 

After dinner we were definitely tired and had definitely had a pretty full, overall awesome day but we still had one more pit stop to make and I'm pretty sure everybody knows where that was...

 

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After the party it's the Fun Spot party!

We were a little early for Mine Blower (it opened about 2 weeks after our visit), but Fun Spot was running an awesome promotion for $19 wristbands so I snatched some up and decided to hit the Orlando location for a few rides. Because of the weather we pretty much had our run of the place so we got plenty of rides in.

 

New for us was Freedom Flyer VR. I didn't really expect much from it but it turned out that it was probably better than any VR I had seen at a Six Flags park and was right up there with Iron Dragon as one of the best VR coasters I've ridden. Fun Spot has a great system where VR riders take up the back 4 seats while everyone else rides normally. This helps split the lines nicely and keep dispatch times manageable. If Fun Spot can figure this out, what gives Six Flags?

 

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Great VR coaster!

After Freedom Flyer we just made the rounds, hitting the awesome flats, grabbing a cheap beer and then ending our night with tons of consecutive rides on White Lightning without getting off.

 

Overall this was an awesome day! Sea World was a blast (as it always is), we got really lucky and managed to get on Manta at the end of the night, Dine with Shamu was great and then we ended the night riding great flat rides and marathoning White Lightning. You really couldn't ask for a better day!

 

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Goodnight Fun Spot!

Up next, Busch Gardens Tampa!

Edited by coasterbill
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As always, Bill, your updates never cease to be less than amazing. Glad you had fun!

 

It's interesting how much of a dichotomy there is between "Brit-type" whale people, and "my sister-type" whale people (*cough* Blackfish *cough*). I think it's a more divisive, caustic subject matter than most stuff in politics today. I can't even broach the subject with her, so I've learned to let sleeping dogs lie.

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Great update as always!

 

Considering all the trips I've taken to Orlando it's hard to believe I've never spent a day at Sea World. Mako and Manta look awesome and the shows and animal exhibits seem right up my alley. And I can't believe that deal for Dine w/ Shamu. It seems way too good to be true. Can make up for half the price in beer and then you're looking at about 15 dollars for a meal and a show. Seems like a good deal anywhere never mind a theme park in Orlando.

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$22 for Dine with Shamu? Dang, they must be hurting worse that I thought, great that you got to experience it though.

 

It seems like I've read nothing but mixed reviews for Mako since the day it opened, good, bad, lots of air, not enough air, floater, ejector, trims killed it, loved it, hated it, guess I'l just have to check it out myself someday.

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As always, Bill, your updates never cease to be less than amazing. Glad you had fun!

 

It's interesting how much of a dichotomy there is between "Brit-type" whale people, and "my sister-type" whale people (*cough* Blackfish *cough*). I think it's a more divisive, caustic subject matter than most stuff in politics today. I can't even broach the subject with her, so I've learned to let sleeping dogs lie.

 

Yeah, Brit has pretty much less than zero tolerance for those people. I'm completely with her (though I appreciate that those people generally have good intentions), they're shooting themselves in the foot by making Sea World out to be the problem.

 

I could write an essay on this and I really don't have the energy (I also realize that I'm preaching to the choir anyway), but Blackfish is full of non peer-reviewed research and activists pretending to be whale experts with no credentials of any kind. SeaWorld put out a ton of information that refutes basically everything in the film. While obviously SeaWorld is a biased source on this, they cite sources (something Blackfish does not do) and the sources themselves are unbiased and peer reviewed.

 

We're big supporters of SeaWorld and accredited zoos and aquariums, now more than ever. They're pretty much the most powerful force for conservation we've got. Are they perfect? No. They probably shouldn't have captured wild orcas but they haven't done that in over 35 years. I highly doubt that a single person who was involved with that still works for SeaWorld. Earlier this year, SeaWorld hit a milestone of 30,000 animal rescues over the last 50 years (more than one per day on average for 5 decades). Almost all of these animals were rehabilitated and released into the wild. Those deemed non releasable were given a forever home at SeaWorld (the Turtle Trek attraction is a great example of this, most of those animals are missing fins and clearly would never be able to survive in the wild).

 

So yeah, we don't really understand why there's such a backlash against an organization that's saved over 30,000 animals over the last 50 years... especially from PETA who euthanized 2,454 animals in 2014 alone while SeaWorld was out saving them. There are plenty of species that exist today that wouldn't without the efforts of SeaWorld and other accredited zoos and aquariums.

 

It's easy to watch Blackfish and hate SeaWorld until you realize that most of their claims are complete bullsh*t that blindly ignore peer reviewed research and (in most cases) reality in general.

 

$22 for Dine with Shamu? Dang, they must be hurting worse that I thought, great that you got to experience it though.

 

It seems like I've read nothing but mixed reviews for Mako since the day it opened, good, bad, lots of air, not enough air, floater, ejector, trims killed it, loved it, hated it, guess I'l just have to check it out myself someday.

 

I think it's $29 without the passholder discount, but I still consider that a great deal.

 

As for Mako, I think it's probably a middle-of-the-road B&M hyper with one surprising hill and a better than average first drop. A middle-of-the-road B&M hyper is still a super fun ride though. We loved it!

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I'm enjoying the hell out of your report as always.

 

I am a fan of the Pacific Point Preserve as well. I can easily spend the majority of a day there just watching the Sea Lions - as long as I get a fix of Manta and Maco

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Manta is an awesome coaster! That pretzel loop in the backseat is a proper "Oh F*ck" moment! The pull force as you're being pulled down the first half loop is just crazy!

 

The Dine with Shamu experience looks amazing, and it doesn't matter if you pay $22 or $29, it's still an absolute steal. I never even thought about checking the price of this, as I just assumed it would be on the expensive side. That was definitely a mistake!

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