Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

[Serena]

Can't wait to hear what you think of Busch Gardens Tampa and Iron Gwazi @Matt N

Great reports so far, hope you and your family are having a fantastic time!

 

[Matt N]

21st June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida)
After an empty day yesterday, we headed back to Universal Orlando today! I was excited to head back to the park and hopefully try to get back on some favourite attractions I’d ridden earlier in the trip, and it was also my nan’s first time at Universal Studios Florida of the trip!

We left a little later today due to heavy rain, with us leaving at just gone 8:30am, so we did not arrive at Universal until after 10am:

Upon arrival, we split up. My sister, mum and nan started in Universal Studios, while me and my dad started in Islands of Adventure:

When we entered the park, we noticed that a certain headline ride was on an advertised queue time that wasn’t too bad (relatively speaking)…
Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
Hagrid’s was on only a 70 minute advertised queue time, so we decided to give it a go. This queue was hugely overstated, as we were on the ride within around 30 minutes despite a queue that looked slightly longer than it did the other day; it’s always great when that happens! One interesting difference with today’s ride is that we saw the pre-show. This was a fun little touch, with Hagrid and Arthur Weasley giving us a little background along with the added bonus of a few blasts of air and water squirters! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back row sidecar, and it was just as phenomenal and fun as it was the other day, with fun launches, fun low-to-the-ground turns and so much going on! However, I concede that I did prefer my initial back row bike seat ride last week, and my dad, who’d ridden up front last time, said that he preferred the front. Nonetheless, it was absolutely phenomenal, and definitely a firm favourite for both of us:

After Hagrid’s, we headed over to another big headliner of the other day…
Jurassic World VelociCoaster
VelociCoaster was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on it. The queue appeared slightly shorter than it was the other day, so without the technical stoppage that we also had the other day, the queue initially only took 25-30 minutes or so. However, my dad and I decided to wait for the front, as the queue didn’t look that long, so we ultimately took about 35 minutes. Even with the extra wait for the front, however, our wait was still 10 minutes less than advertised, so you can’t complain! But how was the ride? Well… wow! That front row ride on VelociCoaster definitely seemed better than the row 9 ride I had last week; the front row ride was truly mind-blowing, with even the first half feeling more thrilling than it did last week and providing bits of airtime I definitely didn’t remember last time! The second launch was absolutely obscene on the front row; I’ve never done anything quite like that! The top hat was perhaps slightly weaker on the front row than the back, but you still got a sensational bit of ejector airtime there! The second half delivered just as much as it did last week if not more so, and the ride overall just seemed to resonate with me more than it did last week, for whatever reason. Overall, then, VelociCoaster was absolutely sublime, and has definitely gone up somewhat in my estimations compared to last week, even though it was already a phenomenal ride I absolutely loved to begin with:

After VelociCoaster, the rest of our group informed us that they were taking the Hogwarts Express over from Universal Studios to meet us, so we walked over to Skull Island: Reign of Kong to meet them there. My mum, nan and sister had ridden Jimmy Fallon and the Mummy, with my nan thoroughly enjoying both. After sitting down for a bit around there, we decided to hop back over to the other park with them via a certain magical route…
Hogwarts Express
The Hogwarts Express over to Universal Studios was on only a 10 minute advertised queue, so we decided to take a ride. The advertised queue time was very accurate, with us getting on within about 10-15 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, as with the other day, it was a fun way to park hop, with some simple, but effective immersive mechanisms creating an excellent experience:

After getting off the Hogwarts Express, we took a brief stroll around Diagon Alley, taking in some of the sights for a bit:

After that, everyone apart from my dad decided to head onto the area’s headline attraction…
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
Gringotts was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so we decided to give it a go. This queue appeared to be somewhat understated, as the outdoor extension queue around the back was open, and we did ultimately end up queueing 45-50 minutes for the ride. That is still a far cry from when we rode Gringotts in August of its opening year, however; seeing those back extensions again today brought back memories of waiting for over 3 hours through every single one of them! So, how was the ride? Well, I have to say that as with our ride on Saturday, it was excellent, with stunning sets, brilliant 3D and a better coaster element than I’d previously remembered! My nan also thoroughly enjoyed it, having not ridden the ride since the aforementioned time we waited over 3 hours for it in its opening year:

After Gringotts, we headed out of Diagon Alley to meet my dad again and have a brief sit down before I headed to ride a favourite of mine within Universal Studios…
Revenge of the Mummy
Revenge of the Mummy was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a ride using the Single Rider Queue, as I did the other day. The queue was not deserted like it was the other day, but I still got on in only 10 minutes; the Single Rider Queue moved quickly! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 2, and it was just as great as it had been previously, with some excellent bits of airtime, some fun turns, and an overall fun experience provided:

After I got off Revenge of the Mummy and met back up with the rest of my family, it was getting towards 3pm and my family were keen to wind down, so we looked through a shop or two before leaving the park:

Our exit was actually very opportune, because a dark cloud was looming ominously on the horizon, and as soon as we made it back to CityWalk and the covered walkways, the heavens opened to unleash the mother of all thunderstorms, with lightning, wind fast enough to blow things over and all!

So, that covers our day at Universal Orlando Resort! I had an amazing day; I was so glad to get back on Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster for rerides, and VelociCoaster in particular has definitely gone up in my estimations since my first ride! I also really enjoyed going on the two rides at Universal Studios Florida, and overall, I just really enjoyed going back to two of my favourite ever parks and hopping between them!

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! Tomorrow’s report is one that I sense is hotly anticipated for a number of readers, as I’m headed to Busch Gardens Tampa to ride Iron Gwazi and other brilliant attractions!

 

[Matt N]

22nd June 2023 (Busch Gardens Tampa)
Today was a hotly anticipated day for me; today was our trip to Busch Gardens Tampa! I was really excited to get on Iron Gwazi, my first ever RMC, as well as to get on a couple of other new rides and get back on some of the other rides at the park!

Me, my mum and my dad set off for the park today (my grandparents and sister did not accompany us today, as my grandparents don’t like intense rides and my sister wasn’t fancying Busch) at just gone 8:30am, and the drive took just over an hour (despite Busch being quite a bit further than Universal, the drive time was broadly similar, which speaks volumes about the amount of traffic on the I-4 going east!), so we arrived at Busch Gardens at around 9:45am and took the tram to the entrance ready for opening time. After the tram ride, we went through the turnstiles just in time for park opening:

The day got off to a slightly disappointing start, as we’d looked at the weather forecast and it was showing as a 50% chance of thunder pretty much all day. We also ascertained that Montu, Tigris and Falcon’s Fury were all going to be closed for the day. Ride downtime and weather can’t be helped, but I’ll admit that I did grow slightly nervous based on the base we were starting from.

Thankfully, however, things were much better than expected. Let me get back to our day at Busch Gardens.

When we got through the park entrance, there was a rather ominous-looking grey cloud lurking over the area, so even though my original plan had been to leave it for later so that I could hit a milestone on it, I decided to start on a big anticipated ride so that I didn’t miss it altogether…
Iron Gwazi
Iron Gwazi was on a 35 minute advertised queue time, so me and my dad decided to have a go on it. The queue ended up being slightly less than advertised, taking around 25-30 minutes. I won’t lie, I was slightly nervous to ride Iron Gwazi. I wasn’t nervous because I was in any way scared of it, but I was nervous because it, and RMCs in general, is/are so hyped up; I was expecting something absolutely top-class based on the reviews. But after all the hype, how was the ride? Did my first ever RMC coaster live up to expectations? Well, I was seated in row 9, and it was absolutely sensational… but similar to my first ride on VelociCoaster last week, I perhaps didn’t love it quite as much as I’d hoped. Make no mistake, though, it was brilliant, and definitely a great ride. In terms of positives, there are a great many. There was some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime in places (possibly some of the strongest I’ve ever experienced), the thing was so incredibly fast throughout (it felt unstoppable), and overall, it was definitely an absolutely fantastic coaster! However, one thing that meant that it wasn’t my absolute, undeniable top coaster like it is for most is that while not rough by any stretch, it was certainly quite a fierce coaster in numerous places. I noticed that the ride transitioned very quickly and sharply in numerous areas, and it was sometimes a little bit… much in that regard for me. The ending in particular did a lot of this quick transitioning, and while the ejector air was undeniably ludicrous, it almost hurt a tad at times. With that being said, that was the most minor of niggles rather than a total deal breaker, and overall, Iron Gwazi was a truly fantastic coaster that I loved, albeit not quite as much as most seem to. My dad was a little bit underwhelmed with the ride, stating that while it was “really good”, he found it “overhyped” and said that it “definitely wasn’t as good as VelociCoaster” for him. With regard to the common Iron Gwazi vs VelociCoaster debate, I’d be inclined to agree with my dad and say that VelociCoaster reigns supreme out of the two for me:

After Iron Gwazi, we met back up with my mum and headed onwards, taking a look in the kangaroo exhibit as we walked by.

With Tigris being closed, my initial roadmap for hitting 100 coasters at Busch Gardens had hit a considerable roadblock, but I did have a backup plan… in spite of me not normally riding children’s coasters, my mum had kindly offered to ride on the park’s kiddie coaster, Air Grover, with me, to ensure that I still hit 100 coasters at the park. So, to keep my race to triple figures on track while also ensuring that Air Grover itself was not my 100th coaster (I’m not sure I could quite bring myself to ride a kiddie coaster as my 100th…), we decided to continue along the path left past Iron Gwazi (well, sort of… as I would encounter a lot throughout the day, Busch Gardens is quite an unwieldy park to navigate, with a complicated layout) and ride Air Grover as we walked by.

Or so we thought… because when we got there, the ride appeared to be in a state of complete inactivity. It was closed and cordoned off, and even though the park app later stated that it was open and on a 5 minute queue, it still appeared to be out for the count just like Tigris when we returned there with this information (on a somewhat related note, I should point out that the queue times and operational statuses shown on the app were often quite misleading and did not parallel the situation at the ride itself). As such, my mission for 100 conclusively failed at that moment, and I left the park, and will ultimately be leaving Florida, on a tantalising 99 coasters… I guess my 100th will have to wait until September, when I go to Chessington and ride Mandrill Mayhem for the first time. Ah well; what can you do?:

After the blow of realising that I would not be riding my 100th coaster today as I had hoped, we decided to continue onwards, and my dad and I decided to ride a big coaster that had been a previous favourite for him in particular…
SheiKra
SheiKra was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so we decided to give it a go. The queue times board was true to its word, as me and my dad quickly waltzed onto the back row. But how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered SheiKra being a brilliant ride last time I did it, and I have to say that it was quite possibly even better than I’d remembered; perhaps controversially, I absolutely love a good B&M Dive Coaster, and SheiKra was an absolutely phenomenal one! Both vertical drops packed absolutely sublime sustained airtime, the sense of speed was amazing, and overall, me and my dad absolutely loved it! My dad, who had previously held up SheiKra as his favourite coaster, was particularly enamoured with the ride, turning to me and saying that he preferred it to Iron Gwazi. In that moment, I dare say that part of me was almost inclined to agree with him (although I later concluded that I did probably prefer Iron Gwazi). Overall, though, SheiKra was a phenomenal ride that firmly exceeded my previous memories of it:

After SheiKra, we decided to head on around the park, stopping to look in the orangutan exhibit in the way:

Our original plan of action was to head to Pantopia, as Falcon’s Fury (the main indicator of the area from afar) looked very close by and the two remaining coasters I was missing from this park (I just forgot to ride them on my first visit, for some bizarre reason!) were located in this area. However, Pantopia was a lot further away in path terms than we’d anticipated, and we ultimately ended up stumbling along a completely different major draw. With this in mind, we decided to ride…
Kumba
We’d come across Kumba on our travels and it was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so my dad and I thought that we may as well take a ride on it whilst it was nearby. Even though the ride was seemingly only running one train, we pretty much walked on to the ride, and we were seated in row 4 in no time! So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered it being a relatively decent B&M looper 7 years ago, and my previous impression was reaffirmed; it was a thoroughly decent ride, and quite possibly my favourite B&M sit down/floorless coaster of the 3 I’ve ridden during the trip (well, I liked it considerably more than Hulk and maybe a little more than Kraken, anyhow; it’s very close between Kumba and Kraken for me). There was brilliant pacing and speed, with the ride holding its speed throughout and having some brilliant inversions, and remarkably given it’s easily the oldest of the B&M loopers I’ve ridden this trip, it was also extremely smooth, with no notable rattle or vibration present and only some very mild head banging in one place. I have no idea how Hulk, whose current track is technically only 7 years old, has a noticeable vibration and quite a few moments of headbanging when Kumba, which is 30 years old and has never been retracked, is as smooth as it is. I’ll admit that I did find one or two sections of high g slightly unpleasant; one area between the loop and the dive loop packed a particularly sustained grey out. With that being said, the ride overall was decent, and even though B&M loopers aren’t exactly a favourite ride style of mine these days, it was a good, solid B&M coaster that I enjoyed my lap on:

After Kumba, we made our way around to Pantopia, where my mum and I went to ride one of two non-kiddie coasters that I had missed on my previous visit…
Sand Serpent
Sand Serpent had a fairly short-looking queue, so as it was a coaster that we hadn’t done on our previous visit and is closing permanently on 9th July, my mum and I decided to give it a ride. The queue ultimately took around 10-15 minutes, and we were on relatively quickly. But how was the ride? Well, I’m not a fan of wild mouse coasters at the best of times, so I had pretty low expectations, but the ride was somehow even worse than I was expecting, and is quite possibly my least favourite of the wild mouse genre and one of my least favourite coasters ever. I hate to give a negative review, but this was absolutely dire. The hairpin turns were easily on the rougher end of the spectrum for a wild mouse coaster anyway, but the icing on the cake for me was the horrifically abrupt braking; all of the brake runs threw us forward pretty painfully like no other wild mouse I’ve ever done. Overall, I get that Sand Serpent does well and is popular in its niche of a family coaster, but it’s not a ride that I enjoyed at all and my mum seemed to agree; I’m sorry to say that I won’t miss it when it’s gone in a few weeks’ time, and I hope that its replacement is more enjoyable:

After Sand Serpent, we decided to head to the other coaster that we’d previously missed in Pantopia…
Scorpion
Scorpion looked to have a short wait, and as with Sand Serpent, we’d missed it on our last visit, so we decided to give it a go. I was interested to try a Schwarzkopf looping coaster without the shoulder bars that Olympia Looping has, as I felt that those were a big detractor from the ride and were one of the most significant reasons why I didn’t overly enjoy it. So, how was the ride? Well, I’m afraid to say that I still didn’t particularly enjoy Scorpion, albeit for different reasons to why I didn’t enjoy Olympia Looping. I’ll admit that the restraints were a lot more comfortable, and the layout was a bit less uncomfortably intense than Olympia Looping, but I still felt a bit weird going through that circular Schwarzkopf loop, and the ride was pretty rough, which surprised me given Schwarzkopf’s general reputation for smoothness (and how smooth Olympia Looping admittedly was). It jolted horribly around every corner, and the slam into the final brake run was especially harsh. I apologise, as I know I’m probably being overly harsh given it’s a classic 43 year old Schwarzkopf looper, but I didn’t especially enjoy it and my mum didn’t either:

After Scorpion, we headed on out of Pantopia in the direction we hadn’t travelled in yet, stopping to view the Asian elephant enclosure as we walked by:

After viewing the elephants, I headed on to ride a new-for-2023 flat ride that I was keen to have a go on…
Serengeti Flyer
Serengeti Flyer was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a try. This queue time was if anything overstated, as I walked straight onto the ride. So, how was it? Well, despite not normally being big on flat rides, I love Rush back at Thorpe Park, a similar S&S Screamin’ Swing, and my first ride on Serengeti Flyer was similarly awesome to that, with some absolutely brilliant speed and weightlessness! Overall, I loved Serengeti Flyer; it was a great flat ride! Upon getting off, I was informed by my parents that I had in fact ridden the “milder” version of the ride, with the “wilder” version commencing at 1:15pm according to a nearby sign; prior to riding, I’d honestly never have guessed that that was the mild version, as I liked it just as much as Rush:

After Serengeti Flyer, we headed around to the cheetah section of the park, where I split off from my parents (who decided to look at the animals for a bit) and initially pondered a ride on Cheetah Hunt. However, I decided against this, as the queue was billed at 95 minutes on the entrance and looked massive when I briefly ventured into the queue. My parents later informed me that the ride broke down and shut for the day not long after I split off from them, so I think I made the right choice:

After I vetoed Cheetah Hunt, I decided to scope out another previously ridden coaster…
Cobra’s Curse
In spite of the queue time for Cobra’s Curse being billed at 75 minutes on the app, the entrance advertised it at just 15 minutes, so I decided to take a ride. When I last visited Busch Gardens Tampa in 2016, Cobra’s Curse was the big new thing for the year, so we waited quite some time for it and there was a palpable buzz around it. I waited far less time for it this time around, with the queue starting all the way in the pre-show room (the pre-show was not on this time, I should add) and ultimately taking around 20-25 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered it being a fun, albeit slightly underwhelming, coaster in 2016, and my impression was similar today, although I perhaps liked it somewhat less. The final spinning section was fun and just the right level of spin for my liking, and the controlled spinning at the start is certainly clever and novel, but if I’m being picky, I wasn’t huge on the first two sections, with the backwards section in particular feeling like it’s there for the sake of it rather than doing anything overly purposeful, in my view. I should also add that while the ride was by no means rough, it has picked up a noticeable degree of vibration that wasn’t there in 2016. Overall, though, Cobra’s Curse was a perfectly fine, albeit unremarkable, family spinning coaster, and I should add that it has excellent theming and a truly stunning queue:

After Cobra’s Curse, I briefly met back up with my parents to reapply suncream and eat some ice cream before heading for a reride on Serengeti Flyer on a 20 minute queue, which had now transitioned to the “wilder” mode of operation. I have to say that I did notice a difference; the ride swung noticeably higher, and the airtime and speed were absolutely sublime:

After Serengeti Flyer, I headed back over to Iron Gwazi for a reride, which was advertised at a 15 minute queue. I rode in row 6, and while I did perhaps appreciate it a little more than I had earlier, my opinion of it didn’t radically change unlike with my reride on VelociCoaster; my overall feeling towards it was much the same as it had been in the morning, and while it was an absolutely phenomenal ride, the minor flaws keeping it from being an absolute #1 for me were still very much there, and perhaps exacerbated with the ride having warmed up:

After my reride on Iron Gwazi, I met back up with my parents before taking a 3rd ride on Iron Gwazi. The queue was advertised at 100 minutes by this point, but as I’d just gotten off and not waited very long for it at all, I was confused by this and decided to scope the situation out. My hunch that this was overstated was proven correct, as the queue wasn’t much longer and I waited only 30-35 minutes. For my 3rd ride, I was seated in row 9 and my opinion was very similar to before; a phenomenal ride, but almost a little much for me in areas, and definitely one that is quite fierce.

After my 3rd ride on Iron Gwazi, it was heading towards 4pm, so I met back up with my parents and we left the park:

So, that just about concludes our day at Busch Gardens Tampa! Even though there were some bad omens at the beginning, and I ultimately didn’t ride my 100th coaster as I’d hoped to, I had a great day! Iron Gwazi, although I didn’t love it quite as much as I’d hoped, was phenomenal, with some ludicrous ejector airtime, and I’m so glad to have finally ridden an RMC coaster! I was also really glad to get on other great attractions like SheiKra, Serengeti Flyer and Kumba, and overall, it was just nice to get back to the park after 7 years! It is a nicer park than I’d remembered, with generally short queues, nice theming and greenery, and some epic coaster hardware. I did find the park slightly difficult to navigate at times, and my parents were not pleased with the park app, but these are minor niggles, and overall, we had a really nice day at a great park!

Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! The plan has changed a tad, as we’re no longer doing anything tomorrow, but there will be one final Universal Orlando trip report coming on Saturday before we fly home!

 

[Lori Marie Loud]

22nd June 2023 (Busch Gardens Tampa)
Today was a hotly anticipated day for me; today was our trip to Busch Gardens Tampa! I was really excited to get on Iron Gwazi, my first ever RMC, as well as to get on a couple of other new rides and get back on some of the other rides at the park!

Me, my mum and my dad set off for the park today (my grandparents and sister did not accompany us today, as my grandparents don’t like intense rides and my sister wasn’t fancying Busch) at just gone 8:30am, and the drive took just over an hour (despite Busch being quite a bit further than Universal, the drive time was broadly similar, which speaks volumes about the amount of traffic on the I-4 going east!), so we arrived at Busch Gardens at around 9:45am and took the tram to the entrance ready for opening time. After the tram ride, we went through the turnstiles just in time for park opening:

The day got off to a slightly disappointing start, as we’d looked at the weather forecast and it was showing as a 50% chance of thunder pretty much all day. We also ascertained that Montu, Tigris and Falcon’s Fury were all going to be closed for the day. Ride downtime and weather can’t be helped, but I’ll admit that I did grow slightly nervous based on the base we were starting from.

Thankfully, however, things were much better than expected. Let me get back to our day at Busch Gardens.

When we got through the park entrance, there was a rather ominous-looking grey cloud lurking over the area, so even though my original plan had been to leave it for later so that I could hit a milestone on it, I decided to start on a big anticipated ride so that I didn’t miss it altogether…
Iron Gwazi
Iron Gwazi was on a 35 minute advertised queue time, so me and my dad decided to have a go on it. The queue ended up being slightly less than advertised, taking around 25-30 minutes. I won’t lie, I was slightly nervous to ride Iron Gwazi. I wasn’t nervous because I was in any way scared of it, but I was nervous because it, and RMCs in general, is/are so hyped up; I was expecting something absolutely top-class based on the reviews. But after all the hype, how was the ride? Did my first ever RMC coaster live up to expectations? Well, I was seated in row 9, and it was absolutely sensational… but similar to my first ride on VelociCoaster last week, I perhaps didn’t love it quite as much as I’d hoped. Make no mistake, though, it was brilliant, and definitely a great ride. In terms of positives, there are a great many. There was some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime in places (possibly some of the strongest I’ve ever experienced), the thing was so incredibly fast throughout (it felt unstoppable), and overall, it was definitely an absolutely fantastic coaster! However, one thing that meant that it wasn’t my absolute, undeniable top coaster like it is for most is that while not rough by any stretch, it was certainly quite a fierce coaster in numerous places. I noticed that the ride transitioned very quickly and sharply in numerous areas, and it was sometimes a little bit… much in that regard for me. The ending in particular did a lot of this quick transitioning, and while the ejector air was undeniably ludicrous, it almost hurt a tad at times. With that being said, that was the most minor of niggles rather than a total deal breaker, and overall, Iron Gwazi was a truly fantastic coaster that I loved, albeit not quite as much as most seem to. My dad was a little bit underwhelmed with the ride, stating that while it was “really good”, he found it “overhyped” and said that it “definitely wasn’t as good as VelociCoaster” for him. With regard to the common Iron Gwazi vs VelociCoaster debate, I’d be inclined to agree with my dad and say that VelociCoaster reigns supreme out of the two for me:

After Iron Gwazi, we met back up with my mum and headed onwards, taking a look in the kangaroo exhibit as we walked by.

With Tigris being closed, my initial roadmap for hitting 100 coasters at Busch Gardens had hit a considerable roadblock, but I did have a backup plan… in spite of me not normally riding children’s coasters, my mum had kindly offered to ride on the park’s kiddie coaster, Air Grover, with me, to ensure that I still hit 100 coasters at the park. So, to keep my race to triple figures on track while also ensuring that Air Grover itself was not my 100th coaster (I’m not sure I could quite bring myself to ride a kiddie coaster as my 100th…), we decided to continue along the path left past Iron Gwazi (well, sort of… as I would encounter a lot throughout the day, Busch Gardens is quite an unwieldy park to navigate, with a complicated layout) and ride Air Grover as we walked by.

Or so we thought… because when we got there, the ride appeared to be in a state of complete inactivity. It was closed and cordoned off, and even though the park app later stated that it was open and on a 5 minute queue, it still appeared to be out for the count just like Tigris when we returned there with this information (on a somewhat related note, I should point out that the queue times and operational statuses shown on the app were often quite misleading and did not parallel the situation at the ride itself). As such, my mission for 100 conclusively failed at that moment, and I left the park, and will ultimately be leaving Florida, on a tantalising 99 coasters… I guess my 100th will have to wait until September, when I go to Chessington and ride Mandrill Mayhem for the first time. Ah well; what can you do?:

After the blow of realising that I would not be riding my 100th coaster today as I had hoped, we decided to continue onwards, and my dad and I decided to ride a big coaster that had been a previous favourite for him in particular…
SheiKra
SheiKra was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so we decided to give it a go. The queue times board was true to its word, as me and my dad quickly waltzed onto the back row. But how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered SheiKra being a brilliant ride last time I did it, and I have to say that it was quite possibly even better than I’d remembered; perhaps controversially, I absolutely love a good B&M Dive Coaster, and SheiKra was an absolutely phenomenal one! Both vertical drops packed absolutely sublime sustained airtime, the sense of speed was amazing, and overall, me and my dad absolutely loved it! My dad, who had previously held up SheiKra as his favourite coaster, was particularly enamoured with the ride, turning to me and saying that he preferred it to Iron Gwazi. In that moment, I dare say that part of me was almost inclined to agree with him (although I later concluded that I did probably prefer Iron Gwazi). Overall, though, SheiKra was a phenomenal ride that firmly exceeded my previous memories of it:

After SheiKra, we decided to head on around the park, stopping to look in the orangutan exhibit in the way:

Our original plan of action was to head to Pantopia, as Falcon’s Fury (the main indicator of the area from afar) looked very close by and the two remaining coasters I was missing from this park (I just forgot to ride them on my first visit, for some bizarre reason!) were located in this area. However, Pantopia was a lot further away in path terms than we’d anticipated, and we ultimately ended up stumbling along a completely different major draw. With this in mind, we decided to ride…
Kumba
We’d come across Kumba on our travels and it was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so my dad and I thought that we may as well take a ride on it whilst it was nearby. Even though the ride was seemingly only running one train, we pretty much walked on to the ride, and we were seated in row 4 in no time! So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered it being a relatively decent B&M looper 7 years ago, and my previous impression was reaffirmed; it was a thoroughly decent ride, and quite possibly my favourite B&M sit down/floorless coaster of the 3 I’ve ridden during the trip (well, I liked it considerably more than Hulk and maybe a little more than Kraken, anyhow; it’s very close between Kumba and Kraken for me). There was brilliant pacing and speed, with the ride holding its speed throughout and having some brilliant inversions, and remarkably given it’s easily the oldest of the B&M loopers I’ve ridden this trip, it was also extremely smooth, with no notable rattle or vibration present and only some very mild head banging in one place. I have no idea how Hulk, whose current track is technically only 7 years old, has a noticeable vibration and quite a few moments of headbanging when Kumba, which is 30 years old and has never been retracked, is as smooth as it is. I’ll admit that I did find one or two sections of high g slightly unpleasant; one area between the loop and the dive loop packed a particularly sustained grey out. With that being said, the ride overall was decent, and even though B&M loopers aren’t exactly a favourite ride style of mine these days, it was a good, solid B&M coaster that I enjoyed my lap on:

After Kumba, we made our way around to Pantopia, where my mum and I went to ride one of two non-kiddie coasters that I had missed on my previous visit…
Sand Serpent
Sand Serpent had a fairly short-looking queue, so as it was a coaster that we hadn’t done on our previous visit and is closing permanently on 9th July, my mum and I decided to give it a ride. The queue ultimately took around 10-15 minutes, and we were on relatively quickly. But how was the ride? Well, I’m not a fan of wild mouse coasters at the best of times, so I had pretty low expectations, but the ride was somehow even worse than I was expecting, and is quite possibly my least favourite of the wild mouse genre and one of my least favourite coasters ever. I hate to give a negative review, but this was absolutely dire. The hairpin turns were easily on the rougher end of the spectrum for a wild mouse coaster anyway, but the icing on the cake for me was the horrifically abrupt braking; all of the brake runs threw us forward pretty painfully like no other wild mouse I’ve ever done. Overall, I get that Sand Serpent does well and is popular in its niche of a family coaster, but it’s not a ride that I enjoyed at all and my mum seemed to agree; I’m sorry to say that I won’t miss it when it’s gone in a few weeks’ time, and I hope that its replacement is more enjoyable:

After Sand Serpent, we decided to head to the other coaster that we’d previously missed in Pantopia…
Scorpion
Scorpion looked to have a short wait, and as with Sand Serpent, we’d missed it on our last visit, so we decided to give it a go. I was interested to try a Schwarzkopf looping coaster without the shoulder bars that Olympia Looping has, as I felt that those were a big detractor from the ride and were one of the most significant reasons why I didn’t overly enjoy it. So, how was the ride? Well, I’m afraid to say that I still didn’t particularly enjoy Scorpion, albeit for different reasons to why I didn’t enjoy Olympia Looping. I’ll admit that the restraints were a lot more comfortable, and the layout was a bit less uncomfortably intense than Olympia Looping, but I still felt a bit weird going through that circular Schwarzkopf loop, and the ride was pretty rough, which surprised me given Schwarzkopf’s general reputation for smoothness (and how smooth Olympia Looping admittedly was). It jolted horribly around every corner, and the slam into the final brake run was especially harsh. I apologise, as I know I’m probably being overly harsh given it’s a classic 43 year old Schwarzkopf looper, but I didn’t especially enjoy it and my mum didn’t either:

After Scorpion, we headed on out of Pantopia in the direction we hadn’t travelled in yet, stopping to view the Asian elephant enclosure as we walked by:

After viewing the elephants, I headed on to ride a new-for-2023 flat ride that I was keen to have a go on…
Serengeti Flyer
Serengeti Flyer was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a try. This queue time was if anything overstated, as I walked straight onto the ride. So, how was it? Well, despite not normally being big on flat rides, I love Rush back at Thorpe Park, a similar S&S Screamin’ Swing, and my first ride on Serengeti Flyer was similarly awesome to that, with some absolutely brilliant speed and weightlessness! Overall, I loved Serengeti Flyer; it was a great flat ride! Upon getting off, I was informed by my parents that I had in fact ridden the “milder” version of the ride, with the “wilder” version commencing at 1:15pm according to a nearby sign; prior to riding, I’d honestly never have guessed that that was the mild version, as I liked it just as much as Rush:

After Serengeti Flyer, we headed around to the cheetah section of the park, where I split off from my parents (who decided to look at the animals for a bit) and initially pondered a ride on Cheetah Hunt. However, I decided against this, as the queue was billed at 95 minutes on the entrance and looked massive when I briefly ventured into the queue. My parents later informed me that the ride broke down and shut for the day not long after I split off from them, so I think I made the right choice:

After I vetoed Cheetah Hunt, I decided to scope out another previously ridden coaster…
Cobra’s Curse
In spite of the queue time for Cobra’s Curse being billed at 75 minutes on the app, the entrance advertised it at just 15 minutes, so I decided to take a ride. When I last visited Busch Gardens Tampa in 2016, Cobra’s Curse was the big new thing for the year, so we waited quite some time for it and there was a palpable buzz around it. I waited far less time for it this time around, with the queue starting all the way in the pre-show room (the pre-show was not on this time, I should add) and ultimately taking around 20-25 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered it being a fun, albeit slightly underwhelming, coaster in 2016, and my impression was similar today, although I perhaps liked it somewhat less. The final spinning section was fun and just the right level of spin for my liking, and the controlled spinning at the start is certainly clever and novel, but if I’m being picky, I wasn’t huge on the first two sections, with the backwards section in particular feeling like it’s there for the sake of it rather than doing anything overly purposeful, in my view. I should also add that while the ride was by no means rough, it has picked up a noticeable degree of vibration that wasn’t there in 2016. Overall, though, Cobra’s Curse was a perfectly fine, albeit unremarkable, family spinning coaster, and I should add that it has excellent theming and a truly stunning queue:

After Cobra’s Curse, I briefly met back up with my parents to reapply suncream and eat some ice cream before heading for a reride on Serengeti Flyer on a 20 minute queue, which had now transitioned to the “wilder” mode of operation. I have to say that I did notice a difference; the ride swung noticeably higher, and the airtime and speed were absolutely sublime:

After Serengeti Flyer, I headed back over to Iron Gwazi for a reride, which was advertised at a 15 minute queue. I rode in row 6, and while I did perhaps appreciate it a little more than I had earlier, my opinion of it didn’t radically change unlike with my reride on VelociCoaster; my overall feeling towards it was much the same as it had been in the morning, and while it was an absolutely phenomenal ride, the minor flaws keeping it from being an absolute #1 for me were still very much there, and perhaps exacerbated with the ride having warmed up:

After my reride on Iron Gwazi, I met back up with my parents before taking a 3rd ride on Iron Gwazi. The queue was advertised at 100 minutes by this point, but as I’d just gotten off and not waited very long for it at all, I was confused by this and decided to scope the situation out. My hunch that this was overstated was proven correct, as the queue wasn’t much longer and I waited only 30-35 minutes. For my 3rd ride, I was seated in row 9 and my opinion was very similar to before; a phenomenal ride, but almost a little much for me in areas, and definitely one that is quite fierce.

After my 3rd ride on Iron Gwazi, it was heading towards 4pm, so I met back up with my parents and we left the park:

So, that just about concludes our day at Busch Gardens Tampa! Even though there were some bad omens at the beginning, and I ultimately didn’t ride my 100th coaster as I’d hoped to, I had a great day! Iron Gwazi, although I didn’t love it quite as much as I’d hoped, was phenomenal, with some ludicrous ejector airtime, and I’m so glad to have finally ridden an RMC coaster! I was also really glad to get on other great attractions like SheiKra, Serengeti Flyer and Kumba, and overall, it was just nice to get back to the park after 7 years! It is a nicer park than I’d remembered, with generally short queues, nice theming and greenery, and some epic coaster hardware. I did find the park slightly difficult to navigate at times, and my parents were not pleased with the park app, but these are minor niggles, and overall, we had a really nice day at a great park!

Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! The plan has changed a tad, as we’re no longer doing anything tomorrow, but there will be one final Universal Orlando trip report coming on Saturday before we fly home!

After the results of this update I now truly believe it will be a LOOONG time before Mako is dethroned. Lol

 

[Matt N]

After the results of this update I now truly believe it will be a LOOONG time before Mako is dethroned. Lol

Or perhaps I simply don’t rate RMCs quite as highly as the majority? I’m sure there are still plenty of other potential contenders out there in the sea; I’ve only done 99 coasters, after all!

I won’t lie, though, riding both VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi in the same trip and having them both not quite dethrone Mako has worried me slightly. It makes me genuinely worried that I’m getting overly jaded and cynical, and that nothing will ever have that type of impact on me again. I’ve just ridden what are often considered two of the best coasters on Earth and by far the two best in Florida, and neither topped Mako for me; what on Earth does that say about me and how I view things? Iron Gwazi is often considered the best coaster in the world, so what does me placing it below a mere B&M Hyper say about me and my perspective? It does worry me, I’m not going to lie… what if nothing ever becomes my #1 and has that type of impact on me again?

Are my concerns justified?

I have to say, though, VelociCoaster was very close, and that front row ride in particular definitely saw me having dangerous thoughts of “is this my #1 coaster?”. I’ve settled on the #3 spot for it for now, but there’s a part of me that almost thinks I’m ranking it too low, and that it deserves #2 or dare I say #1. It was so, so good! I’ll see how I feel if I get to reride it on Saturday… it’s conundrums like the goodness of VelociCoaster that do make coaster ranking incredibly tough for me at times!

 

[Nitefly]

@Matt N sorry to hear that you didn’t hit your milestone!

The hype ‘imposed’ upon you by everyone (including me) would have set the expectation ceiling for IG so high that your mindset would be ‘here comes the ecstasy!’ transitioning into a critical ‘spot the flaw’ when it’s not taking you to the peaks of your imagination. It’s just not a great place to enjoy a ride from. Steel Vengeance (my current number 1) was underwhelming for me on my first ride, probably for this reason. Indeed, you appear to have experienced this (to a degree) with VelociCoaster: when approaching VC later in the trip from a fresh perspective, without such hype, it left a much bigger impact on you.

I also think it’s totally reasonable to come off an RMC and have your overall first impressions dominated by thoughts that the ride is uncomfortable or violent. I had similar thoughts when I first rode Zadra, which was my first RMC. That isn’t as snappy as IG but I still found the restraints annoying and uncomfortable and for that reason alone, it didn’t make number 1 for me either. This impression wasn’t fixed with same day re-rides. ‘Gut feeling’ disappointment takes time to dissipate.

There is a certain amount of defensive riding and purposeful leg positioning that I have learned to deploy with an RMC; feet’s on tip toes and as far towards the back of the seat as possible (avoiding the shin guards and raising my upper thighs into the restraint). Obviously, you don’t have to bother with any of this fussing with a B&M clamshell. It took me some time to ‘get over’ this nuisance but once I did, I was able to focus on the strengths.

It sounds like the discomfort bothered you very significantly as in the above post and your separate ‘last cred review’, which are normally overflowing with detail of highlights, you haven’t given specific attention to any of the obvious signature elements (first drop, death roll, wave turn over the station). Your preferences may not change significantly in the future, but if any single thing about the ride is ‘objective’ then I’d say first drops don’t really get ‘obviously better’ than IG.

What you value the most may change over time, or it may not… just like the rest of us!

P.s. @Howie share your bank details.

 

[EmmaUK]

I still think it’s Shammy B that will dethrone Mako when you get over to Port Aventura.

 

[FistedColossus]

@Matt N I think Zadra could be the one for you. Probably the least violent RMC. Big, smooth and graceful.

What I will say though is that we (enthusiasts) do tend to take the humble B&M Hyper for granted and I'm guilty of this myself. Mako is absolutely incredible and a worthy number 1!

 

[Rob Coasters]

@Matt N - there is no such thing as the "best roller coaster in the world", or at least from an objective standpoint. There's 'what a lot of people believe to be the best in the world', but them trying to spin that as fact is simply nonsense. Your rankings are based on how much fun you have on the coaster, and if you thought Iron Gwazi was a bit too much to handle and was on the upper end of violence that you started to dislike, then why should it be your #1 or any higher than your current placement? Mako is your #1 because you find it to be incredibly good & consistent. And it's the ride that you enjoy the most.

My mum has a ton of UK coasters under her belt. All Thorpe coasters, Nemesis, Oblivion, Grand National, Icon, Speed just to name a few. And her favourite rides of all time are Wild Mouse-style coasters because she erupts into laughter on the lateral corners and the funny dips. My brother's girlfriend has ridden every Alton Towers and Blackpool coaster, and her all-time favourites are Crush's Coaster and Big Thunder Mountain. These people's #1's are rides that most seasoned enthusiasts would call "almost definitely worse than stuff they've already ridden", but who cares? It's the ride that they enjoy the most and that's why it's their favourite.

Enjoying Mako more than an RMC is not the wrong thing to do. You just simply enjoy B&M hypers more and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

[Howie]

Guys, you can try to explain it, quantify it, rationalise it all you want, but the fact is, y'all owe me a tenner!

 

[witchfinder]

I still think it’s Shammy B that will dethrone Mako when you get over to Port Aventura.

I was going to say exactly the same thing. Eventually he will ride a B&M Hyper that's better than Mako and Shambhala is the obvious candidate. Personally, Mako isn't even in the top 3 Hypers I've ridden, but each to their own.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

It makes me genuinely worried that I’m getting overly jaded and cynical, and that nothing will ever have that type of impact on me again. I’ve just ridden what are often considered two of the best coasters on Earth and by far the two best in Florida, and neither topped Mako for me; what on Earth does that say about me and how I view things? Iron Gwazi is often considered the best coaster in the world, so what does me placing it below a mere B&M Hyper say about me and my perspective? It does worry me, I’m not going to lie… what if nothing ever becomes my #1 and has that type of impact on me again?

Are my concerns justified?

No.
As you've also said, there are plenty more coasters out there, and the world doesn't consist entirely of B&M hypers & RMCs. I'm still getting surprised by which new ride has that special impact on me and which doesn't. It's happened to me more than once this year already.

I feel you also need to try and at least somewhat detach from the hype around these big names and enjoy things on the merit of your own personal experience. Trip report threads being filled with this constant 'X coaster will be your new #1' likely isn't helping matters. Let the man visit theme parks and enjoy rollercoasters without bias, not every single visit has to be a search for some holy grail moment.

 

[Howie]

Also to be fair, my first encounter with an RMC (Wildfire) was met with a similar reaction. When you're bracing yourself for some sort of epiphany, an out-of-body, otherworldly experience, the realisation that it's actually 'just a rollercoaster after all' is inevitably something of a disappointment, no matter how good that 'just a rollercoaster' actually is.
As a result, Wildfire just about scraped into my Top 10ish at the time, rather than the instant no1 smash that I was hoping for, and then gradually got shoved further and further down as I rode more stuff.
I enjoyed it much more on my second visit though, a full 6 years later, when I guess my expectations were calibrated correctly and I was free to fully appreciate what it does offer, rather than what it doesn't. Now it sits comfortably in my Top 10ish again.
In short, Matt, chin up, sunshine! You've only scratched the surface of what's out there, plenty more 'current no1's' for you to ride yet, although I suspect that Mako may well end up being your 'Number 0 Coaster'.

 

[Matt N]

Now I’ve slept on it, I feel I should elaborate a little more on my opinions of Iron Gwazi, as I was pretty tired when I wrote the Last Cred Review in particular and feel like I didn’t quite specify some things well enough.

I don’t want it to be construed that I didn’t like the ride, because I really did. I thought it was absolutely sensational, and there were some real highs!

This might be controversial, but I dare say that my favourite element on Iron Gwazi may have been its first drop. The ejector here was insane, the airtime was pretty sustained, and rushing towards the ground at 76mph while flying far out of your seat was absolutely nuts; as far as first drops go, it’s definitely right up there, in my view!

In terms of other great elements; I absolutely loved a lot of the elements in the initial part of the layout. Off the top of my head, the big outerbanked turn was excellent, with some awesome and reasonably sustained out of your seat forces, and the death roll was also an excellent inversion, really whipping you out of the seat (although of the “fast barrel rolls” in Florida, I personally preferred the one at the end of VelociCoaster), and the often-mentioned wave turn over the station was also brilliant, with some truly ludicrous sustained sideways airtime!

If the whole ride was like the aforementioned elements, I think I would have liked it even more. I was a little less keen on the stuff that comes mostly towards the end of the layout. Prior to Iron Gwazi, I had never ridden an RMC before, but I had noticed from POVs that they are quite keen on what I’d call “snapping” sensations, where the ride twists and jumps about very abruptly at high speed and delivers high forces in a very abrupt manner. These look great on POVs and I’m sure they look great in NoLimits or whatever, but in my opinion, it’s almost a little fierce for my liking in terms of how it actually rides based on my experiences on Iron Gwazi. It’s incredibly fast and the ejector airtime at points in the ride’s ending is undeniably ludicrous, but I found the violent whipping about slightly uncomfortable, and I found that the more abrupt moments of ejector were a tad taxing on the thighs in a way that the sublime ejector-based moments towards the beginning of the layout weren’t. I know that this is ridiculously petty, and it could have been caused in part by RMC’s specific restraints, which, while I didn’t have any huge problem with them, aren’t the most comfortable I’ve ever sat in, but that was how I honestly felt.

It was mainly the “snapping” and slightly uncomfortable abrupt sensations that I was less keen on on Iron Gwazi, and they were what meant that while I loved it and thought it was an absolutely phenomenal ride, I didn’t love it enough to be my absolute #1 or whatever. Now for the avoidance of any doubt, this was a niggle for me rather than a deal breaker, and the highs of the ride were brilliant enough that I could override this to some extent, but this niggle did mean that I do overall rate the ride lower than Mako, VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s of the coasters I rode on this trip. I rate things by how thrilling, fun and rerideable they are, and while Iron Gwazi is undeniably intense and impactful, I simply found the aforementioned rides more fun, and fun will always win out for me.

 

[Matt N]

24th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida)
Today was the last day of our trip and the day of our flight home, so we decided to head to Universal Orlando for one last visit. If I’m being honest, today’s report will probably be short and quite dull, as we only spent around 4 hours in the parks themselves and it was one of those days where few things seemed to go right. Let me start from the very beginning.

As we didn’t have to check out of our house until 10am and my family didn’t want to spend ages at Universal before heading to the airport, we left our house at slightly before 10am to arrive at Universal Orlando at around 11:15am:

After going through security at CityWalk, we split up, with me and my dad heading to Islands of Adventure and the rest of our group heading to Universal Studios Florida. We got into the park at just after 11:30am:

Our initial aim was to try and get on VelociCoaster, as we’d noticed that it was on only a 60 minute queue on the app when arriving. However, we were just a touch too late, as the ride was delayed and cycling empty trains. As such, we instead decided to look at a different headline coaster…
Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
Even though Hagrid’s was on an advertised 110 minute queue time according to the app, we decided to scope it out anyway, as we’d noticed that its queue time was often substantially overstated during our trip. The advertised queue time fell as we got closer to the ride, hitting just 80 minutes by the time we got there. The queue looked a little longer than it had been on our previous rides, but as our longest queue previously had been around 40-45 minutes (breakdown aside), we decided to stay in the queue and ride. We got the pre-show again, which is always quite fun, but when we were in the cave section of the queue (around 40 minutes in), the ride encountered a “short delay”. We were initially optimistic given that these “short delays” elsewhere in the trip had traditionally been resolved in 10 minutes or less, so we waited it out, but this delay later turned into an “extended delay”, and when the emergency exit doors were opened by the staff, we bailed and left the queue after almost 70 minutes of total queueing. This was ultimately for the best given that many fellow guests near us in the queue seemingly left not long after and the ride did not reopen all afternoon:

After our failed attempt to ride Hagrid’s, we headed back over to VelociCoaster, which had reopened and had an advertised 45 minute queue time according to the app. This had gone up to 50 minutes by the time we arrived in the plaza, and in the time we were walking towards it, the queue time was increasing exponentially, going up to 60 minutes and then straight to 75 minutes. With the queue time ever increasing and us needing to meet the others in Universal Studios Florida for food in less than an hour, it was decided that joining this queue was not a good idea. We were later vindicated according to the app, as the queue time did nothing but increase further and eventually peaked at 135 minutes:

After this, we realised that quite a few other attractions in Islands of Adventure were either delayed or had rather long queues, and we needed to meet the rest of our group over in Universal Studios Florida anyway, so we declared our visit to Islands of Adventure a bust and headed over to Universal Studios Florida.

We then met up with the rest of our group, who had ridden ET Adventure and watched the Animal Actors show. They described ET Adventure as being “very retro” with “some of the worst animatronics you’ve ever seen”, while the Animal Actors show seemed to go down quite well.

We all sat down to eat lunch together before heading to ride…
Men in Black: Alien Attack
Men in Black was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. The queue ended up taking around 30 minutes overall, so slightly less than advertised; it’s always great when that happens! Interestingly, my grandad even came on with us, making MIB only his second ride of the trip (with the first being Jurassic Park River Adventure on our inaugural visit to Islands of Adventure). But how was the ride? Well, it was just as fun as it had been the other day, with some great theming and an interesting touch in the way of spinning, and I got a surprisingly high score of 30,000! My grandad, however, did not enjoy the ride, saying that the spinning was a bit too much for him thrill-wise:

After we got off of Men in Black, all outdoor attractions had gone down due to weather, so no outdoor attractions were open and the indoor attractions mostly had elevated queue times.

I was informed by my mum that was allowed to go off on my own and ride Revenge of the Mummy on the condition that the single rider queue was open and not too long. Alas, it wasn’t to be as the single rider queue was closed and the main queue time had risen a fair amount since I set off:

After my failed attempt to ride Revenge of the Mummy, I met back up with my family, who had decided that all of the open queues were too long and that even though we weren’t due to leave for the airport until 4pm and it wasn’t much after 3pm, their preference was to look through some shops and leave the park an hour earlier than planned. As such, we left Universal Orlando for the last time to make our way to Orlando International Airport:

So, that concludes our day at Universal Orlando and the trip! It was good to go to Universal for one last time, but I’d be lying if I said that today was a highlight of the trip, and I was slightly sad that the trip had to end on a somewhat flatter note. I guess it wasn’t the worst day overall, as I did at least go on Men in Black and beat my earlier score, and weather, long queues and ride breakdowns can’t be helped. However, I was disappointed that I couldn’t have one last go on VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s, and what seemed like a litany of bad luck did, rightly or wrongly, leave me feeling a tad flat. I apologise, as I know that none of what happened was the park’s fault, but I can’t lie about how I felt. Still, at least I got plenty of great Universal visits earlier on in the trip, and at least I managed to ride Men in Black today!

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! I’m sorry that it was a shorter and slightly more negative one… I know that that isn’t always the best to read, particularly seeing as I’m probably being a tad unfair on Universal here; none of what happened was their fault. When I’m back in the UK and over the jet lag, I’ll write a trip summary talking in a bit more depth about some of the specific things I experienced!

 

[Serena]

Or perhaps I simply don’t rate RMCs quite as highly as the majority? I’m sure there are still plenty of other potential contenders out there in the sea; I’ve only done 99 coasters, after all!

I won’t lie, though, riding both VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi in the same trip and having them both not quite dethrone Mako has worried me slightly. It makes me genuinely worried that I’m getting overly jaded and cynical, and that nothing will ever have that type of impact on me again. I’ve just ridden what are often considered two of the best coasters on Earth and by far the two best in Florida, and neither topped Mako for me; what on Earth does that say about me and how I view things? Iron Gwazi is often considered the best coaster in the world, so what does me placing it below a mere B&M Hyper say about me and my perspective? It does worry me, I’m not going to lie… what if nothing ever becomes my #1 and has that type of impact on me again?

Are my concerns justified?

Dont be concerned @Matt N - Mako is awesome! A very worthy Number 1 coaster. I've ridden Silver Star, Candymonium, Behemoth, Shambhala, Intimidator, Apollo's Chariot, Diamondback and Nitro; and for me personally, Mako easily takes the crown of the B+M hypers. It is a world class coaster, more consistent than Shambhala, super re-rideable, fantastic airtime, and so much fun. I've also ridden over 700 coasters and Mako has sat very comfortably in my top 10 from 2016 to now, everytime I re-ride it I love it more. It's definitely not a "mere" B+M Hyper.

One thing I will say with VelociCoaster, is that it took me 4 rides to love it - I wasn't blown away by my first couple of rides. It took quite a few rides for it to grow on me.

Also, it was a night ride on VelociCoaster that made me rank it higher. I understand you didn't get one of these. So yeah, it's a super awesome ride but not the best in the world. Don't worry!

 

[Matt N]

Trip Summary
All right, then! Now I’m back in the UK after a 7.5 hour flight from Orlando to London Heathrow, I think it’s about time I posted the trip summary I promised at the end of the last report!

To cut to the chase; this was an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved getting back to Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens after 7 years, and I loved getting on some of the brilliant new rides that have been installed since my last trip! As well as that, Volcano Bay was also a real positive surprise (I’ll touch on that more later), and I thoroughly enjoyed myself there!

I’ll start by ranking all of the parks I went to in this trip, and I’ll say a little bit about each:

1. Islands of Adventure - This is still easily one of my favourite parks ever, and I dare say that it now has possibly the most well-rounded selection of top-class major rides I’ve ever seen. I always felt that the coaster selection at IOA was one of its relatively weaker links in the past, but the additions of Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster have strengthened its credentials as a coaster park considerably, in my view, with both of these rides providing absolutely top-class experiences. The park also has some truly top-class dark rides and water rides, with Spider-Man being my favourite dark ride and Jurassic Park River Adventure being my favourite water ride out of the non-coaster offering! The theming is also wonderful throughout the park, in my opinion, and overall, I think it’s a truly stunning theme park! I’ve always loved how Islands of Adventure is a bit of a “jack of all trades”, and masters quite a number of different areas of the theme park experience, and I feel that the additions since my last visit have only strengthened that, personally! I will say, though, that if I’m being phenomenally picky, I think it can sometimes feel like the park has quite a hectic atmosphere with not much room to relax, and that is one thing that I feel the other Universal park does better. Overall, though, I absolutely love IOA; the combination of amazing rides and amazing theming make it easily one of my favourite parks ever!
2. Universal Studios Florida - I may prefer Islands of Adventure, but it’s a close race between the two for me, and this is still definitely one of my favourite parks! The ride selection isn’t quite as varied as Islands of Adventure’s, and I don’t think that any of the individual rides quite match the best IOA has to offer for me, but there are still some absolutely fantastic headliners, with Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts and Transformers being real headline draws of the park for me! There are some other really solid rides at the park too, and I also think that the overall theming is better than I’d remembered. Diagon Alley is the big standout thematically, but the rest of the park is also wonderfully detailed and has loads to look at! As I inferred above, the park also has a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere than IOA, in my view, with it often feeling slightly less crowded and there being more areas to slow down and take a breather. My whole family apart from me actually preferred USF of the two parks due to the more relaxing atmosphere and the fact that they felt that the theming was “way better”, as well as the fact that USF’s rides were more “grandparent-friendly” on the whole than IOA’s. Overall, while I may prefer Islands of Adventure overall, Universal Studios Florida still has a lot going for it, in my view, and it’s also one of my all-time favourite parks!
3. Busch Gardens Tampa - I had a great day here! The coaster selection is second to none, there are some decent non-coaster rides, with the flat ride department in particular really shining, and the park is nicer in terms of landscaping than I’d remembered, being very green! It’s not the most heavily themed park I’ve ever been to, but I also feel that Busch does decently in terms of theming in numerous places, with the Egyptian section containing Cobra’s Curse and Montu being a favourite of mine. If I’m being picky, however, I personally found the park to have a somewhat confusing layout. Something I noticed a fair amount during my day is that attractions would look very close as the crow flies, but you’d try to find them and struggle, with them turning out to be absolutely miles away in path terms, which would see you passing numerous other totally different attractions on the way. The park also lacks indoor attractions despite being faced with the ever unpredictable Florida climate, and while stormy weather wasn’t a problem on our visit, some indoor entertainment might have been nice as a respite from the humidity. Overall, though, I had a great day at Busch Gardens, and it’s a fair amount nicer than I’d previously remembered!
4. SeaWorld Orlando - Despite this park being last, I actually find it to be a really nice park that I seem to like more than most, and I had a great day here! The coaster selection is getting to be really excellent, queues are often short, and the park generally has a really nice, relaxed atmosphere; what’s not to like? While not particularly heavily themed, the park also has nice theming in areas and generally looks nice. However, I think the reason it’s not as high as the other 3 for me is because the park fundamentally doesn’t have that much to do rides-wise. In particular, it has very little to do rides-wise aside from the coasters; the only major non-coaster I can think of is Infinity Falls (which I was unable to ride due to unreliability and lightning). Similarly to Busch Gardens, I do feel that an indoor attraction of some description wouldn’t go amiss here, both to provide some entertainment in the event of a thunderstorm and provide a respite from the Florida humidity. This wasn’t a massive problem for me overall, though, as I’m pretty content just riding coasters all day! Overall, SeaWorld is a great park, and I really enjoyed my visit!

Let me move onto some of my personal highlights of the trip in terms of new stuff… there were so many, but I’ll try to name just a few!
New Highlights

• VelociCoaster - My favourite new attraction of the trip was VelociCoaster, a stunning Intamin LSM Launch Coaster! This sensational ride has a stonker of a layout with some really impactful elements, including a euphoric second launch, a top hat with some sublime ejector airtime, and a final heartline roll that really whips you out of the seat and leaves you blown away upon hitting the brake run! There are also loads of other great elements including some great inversions and excellent pops of ejector airtime, the ride maintains a great sense of speed throughout, and all of this is also packaged within a wonderfully comfortable and rerideable coaster, with absolutely superb restraints! Overall, I loved VelociCoaster; I had high expectations, and it did not disappoint for me!
• Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Hagrid’s may not have many standout moments of extreme thrill, but what it does have is a truly spell-binding sense of pure fun throughout! Despite having high expectations, the whole thing was a huge amount more fun than I’d expected, with the launches being great fun and surprisingly punchy, the low-to-the-ground twists and turns being surprisingly thrilling, and the whole thing just being magically fun overall! This coaster always left me with a huge smile on my face, and overall, it was a definite highlight among the trip’s new experiences for me!
• Iron Gwazi - I may not have rated it quite as highly as many do, but my first RMC coaster was still a definite highlight of the trip for me! The ride had some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime, it was absolutely relentless throughout, and the layout had some truly spectacular elements; that first drop in particular was absolutely absurd! I did find it a tad much for me in terms of violence and being thrown around towards the snappier end portions of the layout, which is why it wasn’t my favourite coaster of the trip, but it was still an absolutely phenomenal ride overall!
• Universal’s Volcano Bay - This isn’t a theme park, but a new attraction I did manage to experience and was absolutely floored with was Universal’s Volcano Bay! The consensus towards this waterpark is somewhat mixed, with the chief complaint being the TapuTapu system and associated problems. However, I thought it was brilliant, and it definitely exceeded my expectations! In general, TapuTapu worked really well for me, and Volcano Bay is a really great waterpark with some brilliant attractions; some particular favourites of mine include the Krakatau Aqua Coaster, Honu, Taniwha Tubes and the enormously fun TeAwa: The Fearless River! Overall, Volcano Bay was brilliant for me and my family; I’d firmly recommend a visit!

Those are just some of the highlights; that isn’t necessarily an exhaustive list by any means! Now I’ll move on to my main positive surprises of the trip…
Biggest Positive Surprises

• Universal’s Volcano Bay - I’ve already spoken at length about Volcano Bay in the above section, so I won’t dedicate too much to it here, but it was a big surprise for me and the rest of my family, so I thought I’d mention it here!
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong - I had never ridden this dark ride at Islands of Adventure before; it was the big new thing at IOA when we last went in 2016, but we didn’t manage to get onto it. I went into this ride with low expectations, as reviews are generally quite negative, but I have to say that this ride was a massive pleasant surprise; it’s an absolutely fantastic dark ride, in my opinion, and a real asset to Universal’s dark ride lineup! The 3D is excellent, with some awesome action sequences and a brilliant 360 degree screen, there is some excellent physical scenery (including a stunning Kong animatronic that's absolutely huge!), and overall, I just thought it was a brilliant attraction! Kong far exceeded my expectations, for sure!
• Ice Breaker - I had pretty low expectations for this coaster, as its reviews are generally middling to negative, but I ended up absolutely loving it! The swing launch was my first ever swing launch, and I found it brilliantly fun and punchy! The backwards spike provided some brilliantly fun floater airtime, the ejector airtime got surprisingly strong towards the end of the swing launch, the top hat provided some more brilliant (and surprisingly sustained) airtime, and the rest of the layout consisted of some more surprisingly brilliant pops of airtime and some really fun twists and turns! Overall, I thought that Ice Breaker was a phenomenal ride that was just so much fun, and it hugely exceeded my expectations for sure!

Let me move onto a slightly less positive category... my biggest disappointment.
Biggest Disappointment
You may be wondering why I have named this category "biggest disappointment" rather than "biggest disappointments". Well, that is because I only experienced one new attraction that I would call a true disappointment for me. Yes, I was slightly less enamoured with 1 or 2 big hitters than most, but they were still excellent, and I think it would be terribly harsh of me to consider them "disappointments" because they were still incredibly, phenomenally great.

For me, I'm afraid to say that the main damp squib of the trip, by a considerable distance, was the new-for-2023 Pipeline: The Surf Coaster. I had heard some very positive initial reviews, so I went in with high hopes that it could be a top 10/20 contender and a ride that I really enjoyed. However, it just didn't do it for me. In short, the ride has everything on paper (fun layout, punchy launch, surprising airtime, an interesting new idea in the form of the jumping seats... it has so much going for it!), but it's ruined for me by the fact that it just isn't very comfortable, in my view. The "jumping" airtime is an interesting idea, but it just hurts in numerous different places for me, and in general, I think standing up on a roller coaster is an inherently uncomfortable riding position that Pipeline hasn't really improved, in my view. I went into Pipeline really wanting to like it, but it just didn't do it for me, I'm sorry to say.

Finally, let me display some stats:

• Unique coasters ridden: 18
• Unique parks visited: 4 (Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa)
• New coasters ridden: 8
• New parks visited: 0
• Total rides: 45
• Total coaster rides: 29
• Total park visits: 10 (4x Islands of Adventure, 4x Universal Studios Florida, 1x SeaWorld Orlando, 1x Busch Gardens Tampa)
• Favourite coaster ridden: Mako (overall #1/99)
• Favourite new coaster ridden: VelociCoaster (overall #2/99)
• Favourite non-coaster ridden: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
• Favourite new non-coaster ridden: Skull Island: Reign of Kong
• Most surprising coaster: Ice Breaker
• Most surprising non-coaster: Skull Island: Reign of Kong
• Biggest disappointment: Pipeline: The Surf Coaster

So, that summarises my June 2023 Florida trip! Thank you so much for following this series of trip reports; I really hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed this trip! I'm unsure when my next trip report will be, but I should be back at you with another trip report before too long (September at the latest, as I've got a locked-in park visit booked for that month...)!

 

[Nicky Borrill]

My Orlando trip spreadsheet would have had a crisis over a 'nothing' day but it's actually great to find time to enjoy where you are.

Your spreadsheet was spitting and cursing when we weren't in at least 2 parks each day