I flew into MCO on Saturday August, 15th around 7pm. Since I'm still under 25, I couldn't rent a car and had to take a shuttle to my hotel. If you ever visit Orlando, I highly recommend Mears for shuttles to your hotel. You have to pay for it, but I paid $29 for a round trip shuttle as opposed to a taxi which would have cost me ~$45 one way. Anyway, I finally got to my hotel at 8pm and the latest parks were open was 9, so I wouldn't be able to visit anything until Sunday. WARNING: Wall of text ahead, skip to the end if you only want to see pictures.

On Sunday, we took a shuttle from our hotel to SeaWorld. We arrived there at about 9:45 am (the park opens at 9). They have an interesting setup at the gate. There are no metal detectors, just guards checking bags. When you get to the turnstiles, there is no attendant to take your ticket or pass like at SFGAm; you just put your ticket under a scanner and then scan your finger to gain entry. Once we were in the park, we headed straight for Manta. The line was out of the designated queue area, but they weren’t allowing the line inside to fill. They said the line was about 40 minutes long, but we ended up waiting only about 20 minutes. There are actually 2 loading stations on the ride and a switch that controls which one goes to the course. When the trains fold up to leave, a loud “WHOOSH” sound is played over the speakers. After that it’s out the door and onto the 140 foot lift. The ride was amazing. It is a lot more graceful than S:UF. The loop also seems to be much larger than S:UF’s as well. One odd thing I noticed is that if you are near the front of the train, you will pull a lot more G’s coming out of the loop than you do in the middle. After that it’s a few more graceful swoops over the midways and then through the MCBR. Just after this is where the splash effect is. The tip of the train does not actually touch the water. Instead, it is a well timed series of pumps that spray as the train passes. On ride it looks really cool, and off ride this makes for some great pictures. There is another barrel roll and a waterfall flyby, and then it’s into the brake run. It was a great ride and broke into my top 10.

After Manta, we headed for Kraken. Seeing as how this has been there for a while, Manta was taking the spotlight, and it was still shortly after open, the wait was not very long, only 10 minutes at max. Since this is a floorless, it has OTSRs. Due to this fact, there was a little head banging, but nothing as bad as Iron Wolf after the MCBR. There was not a lot of airtime, but it was very fast and you experience a lot of different forces through the 7 inversions. This also broke into my top 10, but just under Raging Bull.

After Kraken, we rode Atlantis. This had about a half hour wait. Atlantis is a water coaster that is basically a dark ride followed by a log flume, and then into a mini roller coaster. The dark part of the ride has a lot of effects, most of which spray you and tells the story of Atlantis and why it disappeared. As you get close to the log flume part, it gets very misty in the tunnel and then you ascend the hill to the actual flume. I was in the front row of the boat and got very wet. There’s a little going on outside of the ride, and then it’s back into a dark tunnel and into the roller coaster part of the ride. The ride was okay and worth riding as long as you’re there already. This is not something that will make or break the trip.

After riding Atlantis, we rode everything we had intended to ride, so we aimlessly wandered the park for a little while and ended up at the Shamu show. I don’t have a lot to say about it, but it was good, and cool to see orcas flipping through the air. The kiddie coaster, Shamu Express was near the Shamu Stadium, so we shamelessly rode it to get the credit. I won’t go into details, but I think Spacely’s Sprockets Rockets is a better ride than this.

After that, we got every coaster in the park and wandered around and saw a lot of the other exhibits like the penguins, Shark Encounter, and some other ones I can’t really remember. We did get around to riding Kraken and Manta one more time though before we left. The park closed at 10, but the only shuttle back to our hotel was at 5:30, so we left then. I wasn’t feeling well anyway and we had done everything we wanted, so this seemed like a good time to leave. Sea World is a great park, and comes with a high recommendation. I don’t think I would visit again until they build a new coaster, but I would go if I was with someone who had never been there before or really wanted to go. Admission is regularly $75, but if you buy online 7 days in advance, you can get in for $65, and even get an extra day’s admission free. Tomorrow (Monday, August 17th), I will be visiting Islands of Adventure.



















































Some bigger pictures available upon request. There are also more pictures than this. These are only my best pictures. Between me and my friend, we took over 250 pictures today.

Holy crap, It bringing me back memories when I was in Florida. I have not been there since 2000. I Went to MK, Ecpot, MGM Studios, AK, Gatorland, and Sea world with my family and it was so much fun. I remembered Sea World watching dolphins and rays. I never rode on the Atlantis or Kraken because I was just too scared to ride it.

I will bring you a trip report on IOA shortly, but there is a breaking news story. I can confirm that Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit has started doing public soft openings because I have now ridden it. Some of the video features weren't working correctly, but the audio does play for your seat, and you don't really hear anything else since the speakers surround you. The vertical lift is awesome, and this thing hauls ass through the course resulting in major air time as you drop off from the block brakes. This is truly awesome and lives up to the hype it gets. 10 out of 10 and instantly goes to my #3 spot.

WARNING: Same as last trip report, skip to end for pictures.

Today was my visit to Islands of Adventure. The gates here were much like SeaWorld, but there was an attendant there to help you. We went on Hulk first and that had only a 10 minute wait. They had an employee telling people which rows to go to, and on this day, there was an asshat performing this task. He told us to go to a row, and then once we were there, he turned around, thought we were from the Flash Pass lane and then told us to get back in line. I tried to explain to him, but he was very convinced that he knew how to do his job. I should have broken his other arm (one was already in a cast). After I argued longer, we eventually got on and I got #43.

Next up we rode The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and a few water rides including Popeye and Bluto’s Blige-rat Barges and Jurassic Park River Adventure. These both get you very wet. We tried to get Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls, but it was broken for all of the day.

We wandered through the Jurassic Park area after the River Adventure and ended up at Dueling Dragons. The actual dragons were blocked off as was most other stuff around it because of the Hogwartz construction. We did get on Dueling Dragons and I got #44 as Dueling Dragons Fire. I was feeling a little nauseated after that, so we went back to the Jurassic Park area for a little while. We then wandered and ended up in Poseidon’s Fury. It is just a walkthrough with some cool effects, but it was not worth the 40 minute wait time we had. After this we ate lunch at Mythos. I had the Fire and Ice wrap, and this was interesting to say the least. The shell was like an undercooked burrito shell, and it seemed like rubber. I won’t get this again if I happen to go there again. The restaurant sat on the lake in the middle of the park and we got some good shots of Hulk from there.
Then we wandered around in the Dr. Seuss area and rode the Cat in the Hat ride. I don’t have much to say on this, but it was okay.

We completed the circle and ended up back at the front of the park and ended up at Dr. Doom’s Fearfall. The wait wasn’t bad at only 30 min, and the ride was awesome. On the peak of the first blast, I was about 3 inches above my seat. This is my new favorite tower ride. Sorry Giant Drop.

After this we made the trip back to Dueling Dragons so I could get #45 on Ice. Ice seemed a little more tame than Fire, but overall the same kind of experience. In line though, a single rider got mixed in with us and he was a lot like Joe from Family guy, but he could walk. I talked with him for a few minutes and on the ride about other coasters and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. I thought this would be the last big ride of the day, but I was wrong.

We made our way to the Dr. Seuss area again and rode the train there. It was from here that we spotted Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was running with people on it, so after we got off, we literally ran to Universal Studios. We got in the park about 45 minutes before close and were able to get in line for HRRR. They make you put all your loose items in a locker, but unlike SFGAm, these lockers are free during the estimated wait time. They quoted us a 2 hour wait, but really only because it kept breaking down and no one knew what the actual wait time was. About 5 breakdowns and an hour and a half later, we were in on the vertical lift. This ride was simply awesome and had so much airtime. As I mentioned earlier, it made my #3 instantly.

Tomorrow will be a slew of Disney parks.

Today I hit Disney's Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. I hit 50 today on Expedition Everest, but I will not be issuing a huge trip report right now because I am too tired.

Ok, I'll try an abbreviated 2 day trip report here:

Tuesday was Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. At Hollywood Studios, we did Rock n' Roller Coaster (#47), Tower of Terror (good airtime), and a few random shows. After that we took one of the Disney shuttles to Animal Kingdom and hit Primeval Whirl (#48), Dinosaur (awesome motion ride) Primeval Whirl (other side, #49), a show (It's Tough Being a Bug), and then my much awaited 50th coaster, Expedition Everest. We rode that 3 times and did Kilamanjaro Safari and then left for Epcot. Here we got Imagination, Spaceship Earth (very corny at the end), Mission Space, walked around the international area, and then watched the fireworks.

Wednesday we did Magic Kingdom and got 3 rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a ride on Splash Mountain and some other random things I just can't remember (it's been a long trip) met Mickey (it was my first trip to Disney) and rode Barnstormer. I eventually split from my friend and went back to Hollywood Studios and got another ride on Rock n' Roller Coaster and then saw Lights, Motors, Action.

I spent the remaining 2 days at Universal Studios.

Thursday I had overslept, so I didn't get to the park until 11am. It's been a little while, so I can't remember all the details, but I still have the basic flow of the day. The line for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was already very long, and since we had already ridden it on Monday, it wasn't top priority. We first stopped out front of Mummy where the Blues Brothers made a show. It was alright, and I thought the actors did a good job. We then made our way over to Revenge of the Mummy and got one lap on that. Then we continued the loop and hit up Disaster. Before the ride, they have a very interactive part and make it seem like all the riders have been cast in a new disaster movie. They select some people specifically to be filmed in larger parts (like being filmed for 30 seconds instead of 5 seconds). It was fun, but the whole time I just wanted to ride. Eventually we got to the ride part, an earthquake simulator. I thought it was very weak and the movements were hardly realistic. The train just shifted a little as opposed to shaking violently. Anyway, we continued the loop through to Jaws, and this seemed like much of the same. The effects and themeing were done very well, but still slow moving, and not enough to elicit any fear out of me. After this we moved through to the Simpsons Ride. I like most of you have watched the Simpsons since the early 90s, so I really looked forward to this. I loved everything about this ride. The scenery through the queue line and TVs playing clips from the shows made the wait so much less odious. Everything about this ride poked fun of something that happens at every amusement park, and even the video on the ride poked at just about every park in Orlando. This ride was good old Simpsons parody at its best and it had a motion ride mixed in. We then made our way over to the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster just so I could get the credit on it. After this we wandered through the Hollywood area and my friend got his picture taken with a few celebrity look-a-likes. At this point we got back in line for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. We decided to wait for the front row since I’m probably not going to be back in Orlando for a few years. This time though, the ride was not quite as awesome as I remembered it from Monday night, but that’s probably because this was during the day and still very warm. I preferred the night ride more because it is a lot cooler and it doesn’t feel like standing in front of a giant hair dryer. I still loved the ride though. The music didn’t play this time around though, so I was slightly disappointed. It was getting near closing time so my friend ran over to Mummy for one more lap while I sat it out since my cousin had just gotten there to meet us for dinner. We had dinner at the NASCAR Café on the Citywalk and then saw District 9 at the theatre there. I thought it was pretty good, but I’m not going into details since this is mainly a coaster trip report :P

Friday was the final day actually going to parks. The highlight of the day for me was waiting in line for Rockit twice and not riding either time. I was in the station both times, and the first time it broke down for an extended period of time, and the second time it began to storm badly. I can’t remember the exact flow of the day, but I got a few more laps on Mummy, 2 more on Simpsons, one on MIB, one on ET, watched the Terminator show, and got a ton more pictures, most of Rockit.

Well, this concludes the trip report since I am typing this from my home in the Chicago suburbs.

How is that Hollywood rock n roll roller coaster? I have never been to Universal.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is #2 on my list. In terms of the ride itself, it's #1. I thought it was an awesome ride, and nothing even came close to it. I could have been caught up in the excitement of riding it during the soft open because I wasn't even expecting to ride it. In terms of new coasters for the year, it blew Manta away, and I liked Manta a lot. It's a very good ride and the only thing wrong with it is that it took so long to open. Unfortunately, that's going to hang in the minds of most people, like people who haven't ridden it, and it will ruin it's reputation.

tl;dr: It's really awesome.

Oh, and the one at Universal is Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. The one at Disney World's Hollywood Studios is Rock n' Roller Coaster. Completely different rides.