Trip to IOA, SWO, and BGT

well, just got back from my vacation on 6/25/05 and I finally decided to start this topic so below is pretty much what we did on what days, and if you haven't figured it out yet IOA=Islands of Adventure, SWO=Seaworld Orlando, and BGT=Busch Gardens Tampa

Day 1- Go 2 KCI and get on flight to St.Louis. At St.louis airport, we waited for our 2 hour flight layover to Tampa, when it finally was time to get on the plane I noticed a line of people standing in a row called "pre-board" and I thought how do you board before you board.Anyway now we are at the Tampa Bay Airport, and we got our bags, and rental car then drove to Orlando. At Orlando we checked into a Marriott Courtyard and then we slept.

Day 2- Drive to Cape Cod to go 2 Kennedy Space Center. Walk around aimlessly at KSC trying to seem interested so my dad would stop reading every single word in the exhibts(it didn't work).Drive back to Marriott Courtyard and sleep.(oh yeah, we got to c the space shuttle Discovery on the launch which was pretty cool)

Day 3- Go to Islands of Adventure. We started off the day riding Hulk 2 straight times then Spiderman all in 30 minutes. The rest of the day was riding Dueling Dragons, Jurassic Park, Ripsaw Falls, Poseiden's Fury, and Hulk many more times.Afterwards we went 2 City Walk and ate at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Day 4- Go to Seaworld. We saw Shamu,Blue Horizons(weird),some pet show,and some sea lion and otter show, so most of the shows. But we also went to several exhibits with other sea animals. Best of all though we rode Kraken.At the end of the day we drove to Tampa Bay so we were closer to Busch Gardens.

Day 5- Go to Busch Gardens. Started off riding Gwazi the dueling wooden coaster(only there was just the lion side running).Then went through the Bird Gardens or whatever and then rode the dive coaster Sheikra. After Sheikra we went to the Congo area and rode Python and Kumba. Then we did some other stuff like Rhino Rally,and Scorpion and soon we were on the other side of the park riding Montu, then back to Sheikra to ride it one more time.At the end of the day we drove to our hotel just outside of Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast.


Day 6-Go to the beach

Day 7-Go to the beach

Day 8- Go to Tampa Bay airport and catch direct flight home to Kansas City(on the Missouri side)

Now, I will rate the coaster and other attractions I rode on vacation(not all of them though)1 being the worst 10 being the best

Islands of Adventure
Hulk-9.5-A B&M masterpeice,very smooth,awesome launch,great inversions,only problem was that it seemed too short.
Dueling Dragons-8.0-Both were fun but really you have to be sitting in the front to get that dueling sensation.Everything was smooth, inversions were good and theming for the queues were good.
Spiderman-7.5-Consider I've been to IOA before, I really didn't get the feel I had when I rode it the first time.I loved the 3d effects and the movement of the car a lot.
Jurassic Park River Adventure-7.0-Not very thrilling but the theming on this ride is amazing.
Poseiden's Fury-8.0-Not what I'll call a walkthrough ride but oh well. You were basically walking through several rooms and stuff while you're being told about some war between Poseiden and his secreatary or whatever.At the end you're in a room where you see both god's on these screens fighting each other using their powers of water and ice.The only bad thing about this ride was the guy who took around the "ancient templ".I mean this guy sucked at acting.Through the ride you're struggling to not burst out laughing,or throw your "loose articles" at him.jk the acting was fine for a theme park ride.

Seaworld Orlando
Kraken-8.0-My only problem with this ride was really with the whole floorless coaster concept.Unless you're in the front car you don't get that feeling that your feet will run into the track on loops and such.Besides that though the ride was great nice and smooth, good inversions, good theming as in the tunnels and stuff.

Busch Gardens Tampa
Sheikra-9.5-Awesome ride!That first drop straight down(or so thay say)was breathtaking so was the second vertical drop I might add.Everthing was smooth, the Immelman(? spelling), the water finale, everthing.The only problem was the length of the ride(even though it is a dive coaster--a good one at that).
Kumba-7.5-Yeah, its a B&M and all but for a B&M it seemed rather rough on inversions, but it had a good length and was very unpredictable at times.
Python-5.0-Sucked, waste of time.It was short and rough.
Scorpion-6.0-not very thrilling, but it had some intense turns
Gwazi-7.0-Wasn't very impressed,it was rough, and there was not much airtime.Turns were intense, but only one side was going so I never got that dueling feeling.
Montu-9.0-A lot of fun, very long and unpredictable, good inversions, good theming, but the first drop wasn't very thrilling.