Theme Park Discussion / SW/Fun Spot/IoA Trip Report

  • Kumba%s's Photo

    Better late then never...
     
    March 13th, 2014 at 5:28 AM
     
    I woke up early, got my things together and hit the road bound for Sea World Orlando. My goal was to get there by 11:30 AM to meet the guys who were starting earlier, around 10 AM I think. The drive up from Miami was as good as I could have hoped for with no delays and open road. I only stopped once at Ft. Drum and entered SW at 10:30.

     

    Sea World

     

    Waiting for me at the entry area were CedarPoint6 (Brian), Roomie (Dave) and In:Cities (Josh). They had just went on Kraken and we all went on Manta next. We all went back row and the pull on the pretzel loop was awesome.

     

    Wild Arctic was next and it was fun being on the Q with Brain. He works in construction for SW and took notes of a few areas of the Q that needed touch-ups. The ride itself was neat. Sitting next to Dave, I had to note during the ride that the only way to build it in RCT would be with a shoestring hack. The ride ended with a huge live penguin exhibit that was pretty cool. Those things seem to fly underwater and were fun to watch.

     

    Next we made a reservation for 5 at Sharks Underwater Grill for a few hours later. It was made for 5 because Adix (Andrew) was on the way. My past NE meets were always pretty small, but with JKay and Phatage we talked a fair amount about RCT and NE. It was rarely brought up by the guys on this trip, unless by me and I did bring it up often as I was pretty lost in talk about theme parks which dominated the conversations. I have said before that the Kumba area of BGT is pretty much the only real park area that I know very well and that held true. Heck, I did not even know Universal was doing another HP area. 

     

    Here is a group pic we got after Andrew joined the group:

     

    swtrip.jpg

     

    I think next we went on Journey to Atlantis and it was a pretty fun water coaster that I enjoyed mostly thanks to hardly getting wet. After Atlantis we went to eat and after about 15 minutes Andrew joined us. The founder of this forum is a fun guy and talked a lot with Josh about working for Disney resorts. Later he really hit it off with Brain and it's amazing how much they know about parks.

     

    We all had a great ride on Kraken and even got a nice on-ride photo that maybe Dave will upload some day. I was pretty beat at the this point around 4 PM and wanted to check into my room and get some rest after a long day. We had talked about a night meet at Fun Spot at the park and at 8 I walked (my room was only 3 blocks away) over and met Brain and Dave there. 

     

    Fun Spot

     

    Unlimited rides for $40 was what we all did and we started with a small, yet awesome GCI wooden coaster, White Lightning. Freedom Flyer is one really nice looking coaster, but the ride is pretty tame until a helix finale. With it's slow start and fun, yet abrupt, finish I could not help comparing Freedom Flyer to a premature orgasm, which naturally Dave and Brain both replied to with the only possible immature response "you would know."

     

    After the coasters it was on to the go karts. I talked a big game before the trip about being unbeatable at anything related to basketball or go karts, so it was time to prove I was not all talk. I started on the pole ahead of Brain and Dave and was not passed by anyone during the race while passing a few cars. The next race was almost the same, but at the end some guy managed to pass me. When he made his move, I slammed into his left rare wheel in an attempt to spin his car out, but these go karts are just so low to the ground its not easy like you see on NASCAR. My dad was famous for that move when he was a stock car driver and once spun-out three cars in one race, which he won.

     

    We also went on a few fair-ground style flatrides while at the park and they were fun. I think I found the key to enjoying a flat that night when I came up with the ingenious idea of pretending I was Christopher Walken on a sizzler and spreading my arms and acting like I was flaying. Unfortunately, neither Dave or Brian know who Christopher Walken is...

     

    Islands of Adventure

     

    Friday at IoA was just me and Dave since Brian and Andrew needed to work. Josh had a female friend in town and was also at IoA that day. We did not plan to meet, just to say hi if we crossed paths, but that did not happen.

     

    Considering it's just the entry area, I am always AMAZED by the Port of Entry at IoA. It's really the best atmosphere I can imagine. Our first stop was Hulk and we went with the single rider Q to speed things up. We got on in just a few minutes and the ride was great. With such a short Q, we went for a second ride, but it was up to nearly 20 mins the second time.

     

    Spider-man was next and it had a long Q which was compounded by a brief breakdown. I love the storyline video on Spider-man and enjoyed watching it run on a loop during the wait. The ride itself was really good and I counted two Stan Lee cameos!

     

    Dave had been to IoA only once before and did not get to ride everything and Ripsaw Falls was one of few things he had not done. After some talk, we decided to go right to the HP area while it was early and double-back to Toon Lagoon later.

     

    SPOILER ALERT - Details of the HP ride divulged below

     

    We went right to Forbidden Journey and went with the single-rider again. I know went missed some of the main Q, but I just watched a YouTube video of the whole thing. Basically, there is no point to the ride... You get no storyline going into the ride where... Hermione magics you to Hogwarts... Your flying with Harry and Ron and a dragon attacks... your in the Forbidden Forrest with spiders... your in a quidditch match... your in the Chamber of Secrets...  Harry gets rid of a dementor and you all win the quidditch match. Okay... so I guess using expecto patronus successfully on a dementor is equal to catching the snitch?

     

    I mean, the actual ride itself (a robo-coaster mounted on a track) is pretty awesome. Still, the ride had NO story or point. It was fairly random aspects of the book all thrown at you so fast that you barely could follow what's going on.

     

    Spider-man owns Forbidden Journey for being the best adventure ride at IoA.

     

    Sure, the ride is not quite as advanced, but their is a clear story that is enjoyable to follow. I mean, if your going to put in all that money AND bring in the cast of the movies... have a point to the ride!

     

    The HP area itself was pretty impressive with its detailed themeing.The best thing was that you could buy items from the book/movie. I went for a pumpkin juice and it was pretty good. I normally look on the label to see where a drink is bottled, but this juice lacked that info. Butterbeer is about what I expected, but a little more like root beer than I expected, still pretty good tho. At this point I was a little worried about a sugar comma, so I saved the chocolate frogs and fudge flies I got for later. The fudge flies were nice, but the chocolate frog sucked. It was just a huge block of chocolate and I have seen lots of better molds. Worst of all, BOTH mine and the one I got for my sister had a Salazar Slytherin card...

     

    Dueling Dragons (as I will always know it) was as awesome as ever. The lighter HP themeing on it was pretty nice. We went with single rider on it and I went front row on Fire Dragon. I nearly had a "Fabio moment" when a few seagulls flew within about a foot of my leg. 

     

    After HP, me and Dave headed back counter-clockwise. I was not up for a water ride and decided to grab some shade and sit around in the JP area while he went on Ripsaw Falls. I sat a ways away from a basketball carnival game. The rim was clearly smaller than regulation and the balls were and full of air. I watched for quite a while without seeing anyone make it. Finally, on older Asian women who looked to be pregnant stepped up and easily hit 3 of 3 for $5. I did not plan to try it and wanted to save my money for NBA City, but had to try it. I guess I am no Asian pregnant women, but I hit 2 of 3 and won a fairly large plush toy huskie. Having no use for the thing, I waited around until a little girl tried and failed at the game and had her mom give it to her.

     

    I met Dave at Ripsaw Falls where he managed not to get soaked. We were both starving and went to NBA City (I had made it known to the guys that I really wanted to go there). At NBA City they have this huge 3-point shootout game. You get 45 seconds to make as many 3s as you can. My best was 12 years ago and I guess I am still the same now, as my top score was 12 again. A staff member told me the record is 16. Oh well, if I had all day I think I could have got close to the record, but Dave looked a little board after my 7th attempt... maybe because I insisted he record each just in case I set the record, lol.

     

    Our last stop of the day was the new sci-fi mini golf. I must say, it was a really a creative mini-golf that gave me a lot of ideas. Me and Dave were both pretty decent at mini-golf, but he started out ahead. His game slipped a little around the 10th hole and I was able to put-put all pars with a few 2s and even one hole-in-one... but I forgot to "peep whoop" on it, lol. 

     

     

    So that was the trip. It was great having so many of us in one place. Hopefully, we can do this again every year or so.

     

    Oh and one of the best parts of the trip for me came when I was coming back home and stopped to play poker just north of Miami. In less than two hours of play, I hit a poker jackpot that was just enough to cover all my trip expenses :-D

  • Coasterbill%s's Photo

    I actually made a similar trip with my girlfriend a few weeks ago. We went to both Fun Spot parks, spent a day at Universal with a Park Hopper, a day at Sea World and a day at BGT. All of those parks are absolutely amazing.

     

    It seems to be a common complaint that forbidden journey lacks a cohesive storyline but I really didn't think so... then again the story does make more sense after a few re-rides when you see new details you had previously missed. I thought this was easily the best non coaster ride of the trip (Kumba is obviously the best coaster in Florida... though Mummy is pretty awesome in it's own way).

     

    As far as Fun Spot goes, the night we got to Orlando we went there and had the place to ourselves (probably because it was 45 degrees which is apparently cold when you're from Florida so nobody wanted to be outside). We rode White Lightning about 20 times and that thing was insane. I'm glad you liked it as much as we did... for such a small coaster it really packs a punch.

     

    PS: Did you ride the Paratrooper at Fun Spot? I still can't believe a Paratrooper can go that fast.

  • In:Cities%s's Photo

    I had a blast on this trip, and ended up hitting all the parks that I wanted to within two days. I came up on Wednesday night and stayed with Brian [CP6]. We picked up David [Roomie] in the morning and went straight to Sea World.


    Before Darren arrived, we were followed closely by a group of tourists in pink, however none of them seemed interested in seeing the selfies I shot with them on my phone.
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    We hit all the big rides throughout the day, with the exception of Wild Arctic I believe. But overall it was absolutely perfect. The weather was a bit chilly, but to be honest we couldn't have asked for a better park day. I finally got the chance to ride the new Penguin ride, and although it was great, it WAS very short. The exhibit outside the off-loading station was fantastic though, and I even managed to snag a fun picture showcasing my happiness at this moment.
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    We met up with Andrew [Adix] for lunch, and went over to the Shamu Up Close experience. We managed to catch the presentation just in time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it even more than the actual Shamu show in the stadium. 

    Overall, Sea World was an absolute blast, and was made even more fun by the company I was with. David was an absolute pleasure to be around, and I enjoyed hearing his ridiculous travel stories throughout the day. Andrew was another great surprise, and I'm sure we'll be keeping in contact and meeting up again in the future [fellow castmembers and all]. A huge thank you to Brian for housing me, and overall just being a great friend. His apartment has enough maps and theme park books and collectibles and cool stuff to keep any one of us occupied for days on end. Not to mention letting me play Assassin's Creed IV on his xbox One and killing everything in sight.

    I wanted to join the fellas at Fun Spot, but as Darren stated, I had other plans:] I had been seeing this girl for a few weeks now who lives in South Florida, but during this week she was staying with her old roommates in Orlando. I took her to Magic Kingdom, which ended up being an absolutely perfect date. [Dole Whips, Mickey Ears, Fireworks, Space Mountain, etc]
    She is still technically seasonally employed at the Wizarding World in IOA, so she took me to Islands of Adventure on Friday. I have never dated a girl before who actually joined me on roller coasters and who wasn't afraid of heights, so I was ecstatic when she dragged me on ALL the rides haha. [She even bought me a butterbeer] So I'm keeping her.

    Overall, our time at the Wizarding Kingdom of Mickey Potter was fantastic, and a perfect way to cap off the week.
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    [Sad I didn't get to run into Kyle [nin] at all. That tricky bastard is always so hard to find everytime I go to Orlando. I'm thoroughly convinced he's a mythical creature.

  • nin%s's Photo


    Sad I didn't get to run into Kyle [nin] at all. That tricky bastard is always so hard to find everytime I go to Orlando. I'm thoroughly convinced he's a mythical creature.

     

    I love you so much hahaha. I really wish I had been able to meet up with everyone, but sadly I was working both days.

  • Roomie%s's Photo

    I tried to spot you on Everest when I was there but no luck :(

  • Kumba%s's Photo

    Most of the guys were disappointed that Kyle was not there, but I was all like... "fuck nin"

     

    :p

  • Roomie%s's Photo

    img006_zps8e62576d.jpg

     

    KRAKEN: In order from left to right - Roomie (me), CP6 (Mr Burns), Incities (Rock God) & Kumba (Mr Cool). The arm you can see bottom right is Adix. 

  • csw%s's Photo

    This might be the greatest on-ride photo ever. 

  • Louis!%s's Photo

    I love how the americans are all wearing hoodies and jackets and there you are all british in your t-shirt and shorts.

  • Roomie%s's Photo
    To be fair it was Florida and every other day was warm, then BAM it was freezing at Sea World. A feat that the USA then repeated the day i went to Sea World in Texas. Thankfully I had learnt my lesson.
     
    The most annoying thing is that I've lost the SD card from the day we all went to Sea World. It's possibly at my friends place in Vegas but I dont hold out hope. 
  • Roomie%s's Photo

    10369586_10100357718938042_5331048801019

    InCities..... Cue Reservoir Dogs soundtrack

     

    10372221_10100357719457002_3277880107374

    Damn Good Ride

     

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    Best ride in Orlando

     

     

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    CP6 loves rides.

     

    10338434_10100357875379532_3493208845929

    CP6, Kumba and Roomie rock. 

     

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    Kumba getting a hole in one.... don't encourage him 

     

     

     

     

     

  • Kumba%s's Photo

    The only problem with my hole-in-one was that I forgot to do a "peep whoop"

  • Roomie%s's Photo

    Bit late... but here's my video of the trip.

     

     

    Florida, Vegas, Chicago, San Antonio and Atlanta included. 

  • Austin55%s's Photo

    Awesome video man! Looks like a blast.

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