We were on the road to my friend Nanette’s place in Atlanta, Georgia and we had two choices ahead of us once we were through the everglades – head up the West Coast or head up the East Coast of Florida. The lure of Roller Coasters was too strong. We chose East Coast because that would take us to Tampa and in Tampa is Busch Gardens one of the bigger parks in the US in terms of the number of Roller Coasters.

So I’m sure Tampa is a nice town and everything but we can only comment on the Hotel La Quinta and Busch Gardens. La Quinta was great – comfy, clean with a flat screen TV and good Wifi but Busch Gardens? Absolute FUN. Again if I lived in driving distance (and in Australia 6 – 8 hours is driving distance) I would have a season pass to one of these places. But really a love of Roller Coasters is required.

We initially were going to invest in the jump the queue type passes at $15 each but the girl at the window was most helpful by letting us know that since it wasn’t peak season and the lines to get in were not huge that we should see if we needed them first before purchasing. And if we did we could get them inside. Great advice that she didn’t have to give us and saved us $30 we did every ride as many times as we liked and I don’t think we queued for more than 10 minutes at any point during the day. This really was one of the best days to go to the park.

I’ll admit I thought they could have put a little more effort into the name of this ride. I have a thing against poaching and this name certainly, however unintentionally, made allusions to the practice. And it was a GREAT ride. Actually I would say the smoothest, longest ride I’ve been on. It’s all about speed and length and it goes for over 3 minutes and we did it at least twice. This coaster really did feel like it was letting you fly and I loved it. I think I would have called it The Cheetah TerraFlight or something, anything that let you feel like you got a chance to experience the speed and motion of a Cheetah in full speed mode moving across the land.

You can see it here:

We rode a number of Roller Coasters:

Montu

We were the first couple on the Montu with one other couple that morning. The ride had looked closed but we rocked up just as they opened. I think I felt a little nervous then….I didn’t want to develop a stupid superstition or anything but there was just something about being the very first rides on this coaster that day that unnerved me a little. Didn’t stop me though! Still did it and loved it! Good solid, value for money coaster. Not as speccy as Sheikra or as smooth as Cheetah but still good fun.

Gwazi

The Gwazi is a an old wooden roller coaster which I’m sure back in the day was AMAZING. And to be honest it still impressed me with the length and turns. But it was so freaking loud and has no shock absorbers whatsoever. Rickety and bumpy and HARD! Glad we did it so I know now I can live without the nostalgic feelings.

Kumba

 

Sheikra

We both really loved this one. Tim in particular. Pretty sure we rode it at least 3 times. It’s addictive in such a good way. Made me wonder whether there are health benefits connected to jolting your heart with spikes of adrenaline like that. I’m sure there must be. Those health nuts are always telling you – get those heart rates up!! Hmmmm. Now that I think about it – if you’re having too much fun and not feeling any pain it might not work that way. Needs further research on my part anyway. It has a huge 90 degree vertical drop, and a second almost 90 degree drop. The twist: on the first drop the ride suspends the vehicle so the first row stares down the drop for a few seconds! Then it just falls down!!!

This was a great day! Loved it all…and got to try my very first funnel cake.

This was delicious. Got through about half of it. It was so deliciously good I know how greasy phenomenally bad it was for me. But I put it in perspective. One funnel cake in 38 years cannot be bad for you. Everything in moderation as they say. Hmmm this is probably more like Certain things as a once off experience thing. So long as they don’t bring funnel cakes to the Perth Royal Show I’ll be just fine.

Onto the next stop…Atlanta, Georgia!!