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A day at SeaWorld Orlando

InvertsAreMyJam

Mega Poster
Once again, I’m a bit late on my trip report. I went 6 days ago, on the 1st. Whoops. Oh well. This time I think I’m going to describe what happened throughout the day, and then at the end put all of my coaster reviews.

I was staying at a hotel that had a shuttle, so I got to the park a bit after it opened at 10. But luckily I was able to walk right in. The first ride my dad and I planned to go to was Pipeline. So we handed our stuff to my mom and started looking. I had heard it was in a weird area of the park, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard to find. It was that hard. After 15 minutes, which was made worse by the fact I had already taken off my glasses, we gave up. I think I said something along the lines of “Screw this, let’s go to Manta instead.” Manta was supposed to have a 5 minute wait. But then the ride broke down, so it ended up being about 20-30 minutes. And I felt bad for my dad, because after all of that, he chickened out of going on the coaster! He’s claustrophobic and the restraints scared him. But oh well. After getting off, it was almost 11. And I had only ridden one coaster. Not exactly the best start to the day.

But oh well, we continued on. We went to see some animals. And let me tell you, wow this park layout is confusing. It’s not just Pipeline. It’s the whole freaking park. Busch Gardens had like one area that confused me. But here I was getting lost like every five minutes. Eventually I stumbled over to Kraken. Which luckily was a walk on. After that, I wanted to see some penguins. I didn’t realize that the whole area was closed because of Penguin Trek. Which kinda sucks, but oh well. Then I was hoping to get to Mako before lunch, but everybody in my party was starving at this point so we decided to eat. We ate at a barbecue place. The brisket was actually really good. We did the shark thing and then went to Mako, but it had a 35 minute wait and I didn’t want to wait that long. So we went to Ice Breaker. It had a 45 minute wait. Whoops. After going through the Arctic building, the wait was the same. So we went across the bridge to Pipeline.

Here’s a warning: there are no restrooms anywhere near Pipeline. You have to walk a very long way to find some. I learned this the hard way. But after that I was able to get on Pipeline. It said a 15 minute wait but it was a walk on. I didn’t even have to wait for another train, there were already multiple empty rows. We actually rode this one twice in a row, at my dad’s request. Then it was back to Ice Breaker. Still a 45 minute wait. So I bit the bullet and waited. It was actually closer to 30 minutes, so that wasn’t too bad. Although there was a very loud group in front of us, which was quite annoying. Anyways, after Ice Breaker, we went back to Mako. Now it was only a 5 minute wait. Even though this was the one I was most nervous about, I went on it five times in a row. My dad only went on it once because it scared him so much. Lol.

Now it was pretty close to closing. I rerode Manta two times, then tried to go over to Kraken to ride it again. But that whole area around Kraken and Journey to Atlantis was closed. So I rode Pipeline one final time. After that, my family rushed over to the shuttle back to the hotel and barely made it in time. Overall, it was a very fun day.

There were a few disappointments though. I wanted to be able to see the penguins. And ride Penguin Trek, of course. I’m a bit upset that they removed my favorite ride there from when I was a kid, and the replacement wasn’t even open when I went! Speaking of not being open, Infinity Falls was broken all day. I rode it when I went in 2021 and wanted to ride it again, this time with my mom. She can’t ride coasters because of back issues but water rides are fine. Oh well, it’s not the end of the world. Now onto my coaster reviews!

Manta: When I first rode Manta, I placed it above Montu as my #1. The feeling wonder from my initial ride was immense.. But as you can see from my signature, a few rerides made me change my mind. I absolutely love this ride, but the restraints can be very uncomfortable. Especially in the chest area, since I’m a woman. And getting stuck in that position on the final brake run if they have multiple trains running sucks. But the main issue is the pretzel loop. I do love it. It’s so intense, I can’t breathe for a few seconds. But that’s the problem. After riding Manta, I literally become shirt of breath for around 30 minutes. I can’t inhale deeply without coughing. And I blame the pretzel loop. It‘s still an amazing ride, I just wish it didn’t give me that shortness of breath.

Kraken: A fun, solid B&M looper. Funnily enough, this one made my dad really dizzy even though I was completely fine afterwards. But the main issue is the head banging. I think it has gotten a bit rough over the years, and the head banging is pretty bad. Other than that though, I really enjoyed this ride.

Pipeline: I had heard some negative things, so I didn’t expect to enjoy this ride as much as I did. But I really loved it. As you can see, it’s just above Cheetah Hunt in my rankings. And maybe reriding Cheetah Hunt would change that. But Pipeline is just so unique. I’m a very light person, under 100 pounds. And so I got absolutely insane airtime on this thing. My legs completely came off the ground about 5 times. I’d say the one downside of the rides is the restraints. They can be quite uncomfortable. And getting slammed back down after airtime moments did hurt my crotch area. But it wasn’t too bad. One thing I would like to say: what rattle are y’all talking about?! This ride is butter smooth.

Ice Breaker: I feel like I should call this one “Bruise Maker.” Because that’s what it did. I had numerous bruises across my stomachs and hips for days. All because of those stupid restraints. I don’t know what removing the comfort collars accomplished because the restraints are still stupidly uncomfortable. Every airtime moment was painful, and I am quite skinny. However, the actual ride is quite fun. It honestly feels too intense to be a family coaster. I know the stats are crazy or anything, and it has no inversions, so on paper it's definitely a family coaster. But in practice…I don’t know. It’s strange. I can definitely see why they’re adding Penguin Trek as a true family coaster.

Mako: Like I said earlier, I was so nervous about this ride. I could see the drop from my hotel room, and it definitely is intimidating. Going up the lift hill was nerve racking. But now Mako is my #1. The first drop isn’t even as scary as you think it would be. After that, it’s just fun. Those airtime hills are insane. You do hit the MCBR pretty hard. I do like how there’a one more airtime hill right after the MCBR. But after that airtime hill the ride doesn’t really do anything. Oh well, it’s still an amazing ride. I don’t really know what else to say. It’s just top tier. The park is worth going to literally just for Mako. If you haven’t rode this ride yet, get yourself a plane ticket to Orlando IMMEDIATELY. I’m not even kidding. Mako is a must ride.

After riding Mako, I feel like I could ride anything. I hope I get a chance to go back to Busch Gardens so I can actually ride all the coasters this time. Who knows, maybe it’ll happen! And if you got this far, have a great day. Thank you.
 
Awesome report @InvertsAreMyJam; I'm glad you had a good day and were able to go on all of the coasters!

I must admit that I always enjoy reading first time coaster reviews from a park I've been to myself, as I find it interesting to see how other people's opinions compare to my own.

I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with you on Mako; it's a sublime coaster, in my view, and it remains my #1 nearly 8 years on from my first ride (although we'll see what Shambhala has to say about that come September...)! I also agree that Kraken is pretty decent; it often gets a bad rap, but I found it to be a pretty great ride, with nice speed and intensity and relatively minimal roughness!

However, we diverge somewhat on Pipeline, Manta and Ice Breaker. I didn't overly rate Pipeline, as while a cool idea, I found the bouncing quite uncomfortable, and I kept getting slammed in the crotch (although being male may not have helped there...). I also didn't overly rate Manta, as I'm not a massive lover of flyers and found the pretzel loop a bit too intense for my personal liking. With Ice Breaker, though... I went in with very low expectations, but I have to say that I absolutely loved it and thought that it was a simply fantastic little ride, with a fun swing launch and some surprisingly excellent airtime! I'll admit that I found the trains terribly awkward to get into and out of even sans comfort collars, but I personally didn't find them overly uncomfortable once I was sat down, so I'm sorry to hear that they gave you so many bruises.

I also find it funny that you should mention SeaWorld's strange park layout, as one key theme from my visit to SeaWorld last June was getting lost... from the second we first got into the park, my mum was getting irate because nothing was where she thought it would be, and it was often hard to tell where to go. I think ease of navigation is a bit of a weakness of both the SeaWorld parks in Florida, as I found Busch Gardens Tampa to have a similarly unwieldy park layout and similarly confusing navigational signage.

Overall, though, I'm glad you had a good day! I'm glad to hear that conquering Mako seems to have given you the courage to try the remaining coasters at Busch; if you feel up to it on your next visit, Iron Gwazi is phenomenal and well worth a ride, in my view!
 
Awesome report @InvertsAreMyJam; I'm glad you had a good day and were able to go on all of the coasters!

I must admit that I always enjoy reading first time coaster reviews from a park I've been to myself, as I find it interesting to see how other people's opinions compare to my own.

I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with you on Mako; it's a sublime coaster, in my view, and it remains my #1 nearly 8 years on from my first ride (although we'll see what Shambhala has to say about that come September...)! I also agree that Kraken is pretty decent; it often gets a bad rap, but I found it to be a pretty great ride, with nice speed and intensity and relatively minimal roughness!

However, we diverge somewhat on Pipeline, Manta and Ice Breaker. I didn't overly rate Pipeline, as while a cool idea, I found the bouncing quite uncomfortable, and I kept getting slammed in the crotch (although being male may not have helped there...). I also didn't overly rate Manta, as I'm not a massive lover of flyers and found the pretzel loop a bit too intense for my personal liking. With Ice Breaker, though... I went in with very low expectations, but I have to say that I absolutely loved it and thought that it was a simply fantastic little ride, with a fun swing launch and some surprisingly excellent airtime! I'll admit that I found the trains terribly awkward to get into and out of even sans comfort collars, but I personally didn't find them overly uncomfortable once I was sat down, so I'm sorry to hear that they gave you so many bruises.

I also find it funny that you should mention SeaWorld's strange park layout, as one key theme from my visit to SeaWorld last June was getting lost... from the second we first got into the park, my mum was getting irate because nothing was where she thought it would be, and it was often hard to tell where to go. I think ease of navigation is a bit of a weakness of both the SeaWorld parks in Florida, as I found Busch Gardens Tampa to have a similarly unwieldy park layout and similarly confusing navigational signage.

Overall, though, I'm glad you had a good day! I'm glad to hear that conquering Mako seems to have given you the courage to try the remaining coasters at Busch; if you feel up to it on your next visit, Iron Gwazi is phenomenal and well worth a ride, in my view!
Thanks for your insights! I definitely hope to ride Iron Gwazi. The main factor that intimidated me was the lap bar. But after riding Mako I think I’d be able to do it without any issues.

And yeah, Busch Gardens can be confusing too. But I’d argue less so than SeaWorld. And what makes it better is the navigation service on their app actually works! SeaWorld’s navigation service sends you in such weird ways. But the Busch Gardens one works fine.

Funnily enough, I also had the crotch slamming issues on Pipeline. Two times in a row was definitely enough for me. Though somehow my dad didn’t experience that. Which is definitely strange considering he should’ve hurt more.

I kinda agree on the pretzel roll part. Like I said, it literally left me short of breath for like 30 minutes. But I really enjoyed the flying model, which made up for it. Honestly, that makes me quite excited to hopefully one day ride Tatsu.

Maybe I treated Ice Breaker a bit harshly in this trip report. I actually quite enjoyed the ride. The backward spike was very fun and I got good airtime. But it would have been much better if the restraints weren’t so uncomfortable.
 
Great report... Thanks for sharing... It's a shame about Ice Breaker, I was just as disappointed, the incredible airtime is there, but it's ruined.

P.s if you're a 'bit late' then what am I? Been back a week today!!! Nearly 2 weeks since I arrived at Europa :eek: (I'll do it soon.)
 
Great report... Thanks for sharing... It's a shame about Ice Breaker, I was just as disappointed, the incredible airtime is there, but it's ruined.

P.s if you're a 'bit late' then what am I? Been back a week today!!! Nearly 2 weeks since I arrived at Europa :eek: (I'll do it soon.)
There’s nothing wrong with writing trip reports a bit after you went! I just like to do it sooner so everything is fresh in my memory.
 
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