Urggh woke up around 0:25 and stayed awake til like 4:00. Then the alarm woke me up at 6:10. Zombie day hurrah.
Got ready and checked out around 6:50 then waited impatiently for them to bring out some food that I could takeaway. Had some fake yoghurt then made myself a cream cheese sandwich which I took with me.
Walked just a couple of hundred metres up the road to the bus stop and the 42 bus came like a minute early. So sat on that for an hour all the way across Orlando. I swear America feels like one giant parking lot. Everywhere you go all you see is parking lots. We drove around the Mall of Florida for like ten minutes and all I saw was parking.
At the Icon park I got off and walked to the other side of the huge parking garage and walked straight onto the Busch Gardens shuttle coach. I was there twenty five minutes early for that, and ate my cream cheese sandwich in the air conditioned comfort.
Huge Ferris Wheel at Icon Park
At 8:45 we left (actually 8:50 by the time we left), drove some more to another stop then at 9:15 (actually 9:20) we were on our way to Tampa. With 80s music blaring that the bus driver put on which was a bit of fun.
Arrived at Busch Gardens around 10:42 and David and Hayley (who had already been in to do a ride on Iron Gwazi) came out to meet me, and we walked back to the motel to dump my stuff in Hayley's room. On the map the motel looks close, it's literally across the road, but there's a massive solid wall around the entire park, so you have to walk half a mile east across the car park before you can get out, then you have to walk all that way back again. Takes like twenty five minutes just to walk from door to door. Lame.
Anyway, so stuff dumped and back to the park and by that time it was nearly midday.
Busch Gardens sign
Busch Gardens park map
Egyptian gate
First up (for me) was Cheetah Hunt. This is David's favourite ride and we did it twice in succession - first at the front then second at the back. This was a fun ride.
Cheetah Hunt roller coaster
Cheetah Hunt roller coaster
Next was Cobra Curse. This had nice air conditioning in the queuing area (which was deserted). The ride has two cars, but they spin around so some of the ride is going backwards. This was a bit of fun, but you do feel motion sickness a lot more easily when you're going backwards.
Penguin fascinated with a toy penguin
American White Ibis - white bin chickens!!
Next up was Montu. This was a hanging one but it was very rough and high G forces pretty much the entire ride. We came off it with headaches. Well I did, but David didn't feel fully right either.
Montu roller coaster (taken from the bus from Orlando earlier)
We did Cheetah Hunt again, this time in the middle.
Then we walked all the way to Congo Rapids. Where we got.. moist.. read: drenched. And yet there was one couple who remained almost completely dry. Silly really.
Entrance to Pantopia
Komodo dragon
Drying station near Congo River Rapids
We then shared a plate of chicken tenderloins and waffle fries before heading back to see Chi the cheetah have a couple of runs to chase a feather lure which was pretty fun.
Cheetah and keeper at Cheetah Run
American alligators
American alligator
Caribbean flamingos
It was mid afternoon before I saw my first hand sanitising station. There were only about half a dozen in the entire park
Next up was Shiekra. Once in the front, and again in the back. And my brain hurt again from the G forces. And before and after it we watched people (including David) getting drenched from the spouts it generates near the end.
SheiKra about to wet onlookers
SheiKra water splash
SheiKra water splash
SheiKra water splash
SheiKra water splash
Took a ride on the gas-powered steam train around the park which was very pleasant and saw lots of animals. Hayley called it quits after this and headed back to the motel.
Serengeti Express train
Rhinocerus
Hayley on the Serengeti Express
Cheetah Hunt roller coaster and Thomson's Gazelle
Cobra's Curse roller coaster
Addax
Zebra in Busch Gardens
Ostrich
Defassa Waterbuck
Next was Tigris. They have a sign on this one saying loose items will be destroyed. Lolz. But just before the ride left the station the lady was like, you can't wear glasses, and I'm like, what do I do with them, I had nowhere to put them and she wandered off. So I took them off and had to hold onto them. Silly really.
Kumba was next. This one was really rough and again with the high G forces. At one point my head got bashed from side to side and our brains hurt again. Neither of us liked this one.
Kumba roller coaster
We hit up the Dragon Fire Grill next so David could claim his free meal. But it was 16:45 and there really wasn't much food left. So he had a burger (I had a couple of bites and a few fries).
Did the Sand Serpent next, which is a Mighty Mouse style ride like they used to have at Luna Park. We were cacking ourselves laughing because it was so silly and we knew exactly what it would be like and still went on it.
And finally we went on Iron Gwazi which was pretty damned epic.
Iron Gwazi roller coaster (taken earlier in the day)
It was 17:45 at this point so we decided to call it quits and did the very very long walk back to the motel.
Thank you for visiting! Exit sign at Busch Gardens
Just before we got back we walked past a bottle-o, so I grabbed some beer. We checked into our own room and I had a beer. Then went back to the bottle-o because David wanted to get some juices. Had another beer and David had a shower.
Then went out to find some dinner. Prerequisites: had to be close because we were all hurting. We ended up at Four Brothers Eatery. I had some chicken wings and David had a kebab.
Back at the motel I downloaded my GPS and photos but it was after 21:30 by then so didn't do any blogging, just had a shower and went to bed.
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