Orlando/Tampa Photo Trip Report

[therick311]

I just got back from my Orlando/Tampa trip, so it's trip report time! In this trip report you will see Fun Spot America, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens Tampa, Yuengling Brewery, beach, good food and good times.

I wanted to start by sharing my playlists for the trip. If you follow the Music Recommendation thread, you probably have guessed that music is important to me. That being said I normally create a playlist of new music when I go on a trip.

You may see many of the music videos for these songs in the Music Recommendation thread

New music playlist (new to me):
1. Foster The People - Coming of Age <- this is my theme song for the trip
2. K'NAAN - Take A Minute
3. Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King
4. Grouplove - Ways To Go
5. Ben Folds - Not The Same
6. The Neighbourhood - Afraid
7. Lorde - Team
8. Greek Fire - A Real Life
9. Blue October - Bleed Out
10. Aranda - One More Lie
11. Bastille - Laura Palmer
12. Family of the Year - Hero
13. Tiësto - Chasing Summers
14. Greek Fire - Doesn't Matter Anyway
15. Itch - Homeless Romantic
16. Avenged Sevenfold - Shepherd of Fire
17. Bad Suns - Cardiac Arrest
18. Foals - Inhaler
19. NEEDTOBREATHE - Keep Your Eyes Open
20. Bastille - Bad Blood
21. Foals - My Number

I also just recently purchased 311's new album Stereolithic, and it's damn good!

311 - Stereolithic:
1. Ebb and Flow
2. Five of Everything
3. Showdown
4. Revelation of the Year
5. Sand Dollars
6. Boom Shanka
7. Make It Rough
8. The Great Divide
9. Friday Afternoon
10. Simple True
11. First Dimension
12. Made in the Shade
13. Existential Hero
14. The Call
15. Tranquility

And one final playlist that I made for beach time:
1. Family of the Year - St. Croix
2. 311 - Speak Easy
3. Pearl Jam - Amongst the Waves
4. Kings Of Leon - Back Down South
5. Rob Thomas - Streetcorner Symphony
6. Weezer - Island In The Sun
7. Bob Marley - Three Little Birds
8. Ziggy Marley - Be Free
9. 311 - Sunset in July
10. The Naked And Famous - Young Blood
11. Incubus - The Warmth
12. The Expendables - Bowl For Two
13. Incubus - Are you in?
14. Incubus - Echo

So go get your listen on while you wait for Part 1: Fun Spot America

 

[therick311]

Part 1: Fun Spot America

After flying into Orlando, the very first thing I did was change into my flip flops.

We had a colder than normal winter in St. Louis (as I'm sure many of you did as well), and it's still not flip flop weather back home. So, this felt amazing!


Then it was time for hotel goofy-ness.

Apparently this is a "Cup"


Or is it?


I think I prefer very small hat


Then we made our way to Fun Spot America.

In case you hadn't heard


I hadn't noticed how far Freedom Flyer comes out onto the midway from other photos and videos.


It's an average family coaster with a bit of force around the final helix.


The real reason we went to Fun Spot, White Lightning!


This is a good little coaster with some nice pops of airtime. There is a little jolt through the 90 degree turn, but other than that, it's GCI smooth goodness. It was a great start to the trip!


Potty dance?


The wife getting her Time Crisis on


Nice light package on Enterprise


Murica!


One last shot of White Lightning


Up next, Part 2: Universal Islands of Adventure

 

[therick311]

The next morning we were off to Islands of Adventure.


This is what my wife was most looking forward to on this trip, as she is a Harry Potter dork. I like the books and movies, but I don't consider myself a fan boy.


The wife geeking out while we waited for Olivanders


Then it was on to Forbidden Journey. I was impressed with the technology of the ride, but it did make me a tad nauseous. Overall, still a very good ride.


Lemon drop


Ron's car


Triwizard Cup. I touched it...nothing happened.


Goblet of Fire. My favorite of the HP movies/books.


On to Dragon Challenge. I liked Chinese Fireball better.


Hog's Head


Yummy, yummy Butterbeer!


The wife enjoying some Pumpkin Juice

I have to say I was impressed with the attention to detail in the Wizarding World. I especially like the ride warning signs that are signed with the Ministry "M". It's a nice touch.

After walking through the rest of the park we realized that the only other thing of interest to us was the Marvel island.


Hulk time!


I really liked Hulk! From the launch to the final brakes, this thing just doesn't let up!


It also has a kick ass sign!


Me sporting the sweet 3D specs for Spiderman.

I was really impressed with Spiderman! I wasn't sure what to expect since I didn't really do my homework on this ride. I know it's not as technologically advanced as Forbidden Journey, but I had a lot more fun on Spiderman. I also really liked the 3D, and I normally hate 3D.

Then some Marvel characters were parading around on trikes.

Captain America


Rogue


Storm


Spidey


The whole group


This talking fountain was hilarious! It was taunting and soaking the kids.


ZOMG Master Sword!


Clearly we were way more hardcore than anyone else who parked near us


Up next, Part 3: Universal Studios

 

[DelPiero]

Glad you enjoyed WL, it really is awesome. I found the jolt in the turnaround to be the only issue I found with it, love it so much.
I spent ages gooning at the Harry Potter area, it's so well done, some great pics in there.
Where the hell was the Master Sword?!?! I didn't spot that.

 

[therick311]

There was a little shop, I think it was in The Lost Continent, that had various swords and knives in a large glass case. I think they also sold jewelry (why we stopped there in the first place). I was just faffing about while the wife looked at jewelry, and then I saw it out of the corner of my eye. That was my goon moment of the trip. :lol:

 

[therick311]

Time for Universal Studios



Hollywood: Rip, Ride, Rockit surprised me a bit. I wasn't really expecting anything at all out of this coaster, but it did deliver a bit of airtime and some force. I didn't think the music added anything though. After the first drop, I didn't even notice there was music playing until the final brakes. Also, the brake runs ruin the pacing.


I did enjoy this helix.


Twisty


Since I liked Spiderman so much, naturally I liked Transformers.


I really like the queue, because I LOVE BUTTONS!!!


Mummy was quite fun as well


Now time for some London construction photos








Since I am a big fan of The Simpsons, I was pretty excited to visit Springfield.

I wasn't really impressed with The Simpsons ride, but I loved the Springfield themed food!




Mmmmmm...donut


I had to order a Ribwich (now without lettuce!)


I have eaten the ribs of god!




I'm looking for a B. O. Problem...


Surly only looks out for one guy...Surly!


Duffman! Oh, yeah!


Ordered a Duff Dry at Duff Gardens. It was a dark chocolate stout, and it was quite good!


A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man


We went to Burger 21 for dinner


The food was delicious. Thanks to rtotheizzo17 for the recommendation!

Up next, Part 4: SeaWorld

 

[Ian]

This is what my wife was most looking forward to on this trip

I'm trying to think of a way of linking those three images together to satisfy my childish sense of humour. Any ideas?

 

[therick311]

=D> Well played sir! And by the looks of that post, I win!

 

[therick311]

The next morning rain was looming. We were lucky to have enough time to get the SeaWorld credz in before the skies broke loose.


But first breakfast, and this place is seriously good!


Look at this amazing pancake. Just look at it!


Yummy omelet



On to SeaWorld


Liked this a whole lot better than Superman: Ultimate Flight


I love pretzel loops! My favorite inversion!


Fly! Fly like a...manta?




Go home, Kraken, you're drunk!




Kraken balls?

...and then it started raining, with no end in sight, so we drove to Tampa for the rest of our trip.



Dinner at The Pub. Excellent food here too!


This is the only time I have ever seen brown sauce in the States


Beer cheese burger!


Up next, Part 5: Busch Gardens Tampa - the coasters

 

[therick311]

We were lucky enough to get to Busch gardens Tampa after the rain storm from the last post had passed. It had rained all morning in Tampa and there were only about 1,000 people in the park, so it was cred run time! We finished off the park in about 2 hours. This left us plenty of time the next day to do a proper photo walk of the park.

Since there is so much to see at this park I decided it would be best to split it into 2 parts: the coasters and the wildlife.

So here are the coasters


Montu was great! I put this right next to Raptor as my co-favorite invert. I really loved the snap on the entry to the batwing!





Cheetah Hunt was a lot of fun. The launches were good and there's some great airtime as well.





Scorpion wasn't bad for it's age





I did grab one shot of Falcon's Fury. I had to switch to my wide angle lens to do it.



Average wild mouse, meh.



Kumba was great, too! Although, I have to admit I was starting to get B&M looper fatigue by this point of the trip.











SheiKra was my favorite coaster of the trip. This was my first dive machine, and I loved it! The airtime in the back row is amazing, but the hang and the view from the front row can't be beat! I know, I know, it's short and gimmicky, but what can I say, I just had so much fun on this thing!





UGH! I didn't even want to include this one, but it's so bad I had to. Even this GCI fanboy hates it.



Ok, a few more shots of Cheetah Hunt, because I can't leave you with Gwazi. That would be mean.










Oh, really?


Up next, Part 6: Busch Gardens Tampa - the wildlife

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Great photos of awesome coasters!

 

[therick311]

Thank you.

Now for the wildlife of Busch Gardens Tampa. I do have to give photo credit to my wife on these photos (except where noted).












This was our view from Crown Colony House (I took this one)






Om nom!










We also took a safari tour, which was a lot of fun.














I'll claim the credit for this one as well









Up next, Part 7: Yuengling brewery tour, and beach time

 

[therick311]

We discovered during our trip that there is a Yuengling brewery in Tampa. So, we decided to make some time for a tour.

For those who don't know, Yuengling (pronounced ying-ling) is America's oldest brewing company. Despite only being distributed in 15 states, they sell as much beer as Boston Beer Company (makers of Sam Adams).

Unfortunately, Missouri is not one of these 15 states. However, we had been exposed to the goodness that is Yuengling on our last trip to Florida. So, we were happy to find out that the Yuengling Tampa brewery is just down the street from Busch Gardens.




Yup


Brew kettles


The inside of a brew kettle


MOAR BUTONS!!!11!!


Grain silos


Pipes and such


Bottling line


Lots and lots of beer!


We also got some beach time in at St. Pete Beach






To finish off the trip we had dinner at Hulk Hogan's restaurant Hogan's Beach. The food was meh, but the view was nice.


There was also a lot of memorabilia around for a fan of what I consider to be the golden age of professional wrestling






Hulkamania!


Well, that concludes our trip. We had a blast and I enjoyed sharing it all here. Thanks for reading.

 

[Darren B]

I've really enjoyed reading this, great report.

And although your trip report was full of B&M's, food and goofing around the best part of your trip report by far was....NO DISNEY! Yeah, I know I'm a hater but I can't stand waiting for all the photo's to load to then have to go and skip them all. So, Bravo, Rick!

 

[therick311]

Thanks!

Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm a Disney hater, but I guess I just don't get Disney. They just don't offer much that interests me. I suppose that might change once I have children. I duuno, but anyway, glad you enjoyed the report!

 

[caffeine_demon]

I've really enjoyed reading this, great report.

And although your trip report was full of B&M's, food and goofing around the best part of your trip report by far was....NO DISNEY! Yeah, I know I'm a hater but I can't stand waiting for all the photo's to load to then have to go and skip them all. So, Bravo, Rick!

Aww - Booo! Someone needs to ride Tower of terror!!

 

[Darren B]

I've really enjoyed reading this, great report.

And although your trip report was full of B&M's, food and goofing around the best part of your trip report by far was....NO DISNEY! Yeah, I know I'm a hater but I can't stand waiting for all the photo's to load to then have to go and skip them all. So, Bravo, Rick!

Aww - Booo! Someone needs to ride Tower of terror!!

What makes you think that I haven't been to Disney, TWICE and formed my opinion from that?

 

[caffeine_demon]

I've really enjoyed reading this, great report.

And although your trip report was full of B&M's, food and goofing around the best part of your trip report by far was....NO DISNEY! Yeah, I know I'm a hater but I can't stand waiting for all the photo's to load to then have to go and skip them all. So, Bravo, Rick!

Aww - Booo! Someone needs to ride Tower of terror!!

What makes you think that I haven't been to Disney, TWICE and formed my opinion from that?

Guess I just assumed that the overall theming and experience is just too good for anyone to hate!!

 

[Mysterious Sue]

How about the feeling of corporate rape putting people off

 

[therick311]

In my case I just prefer thrill over theme. I'll take an excellent parking lot coaster over an average well themed coaster/ride. This is why Cedar Point is my favorite park.

Not to say I don't enjoy a well themed area or ride. Take the Springfield pics from this trip report as an example. That whole area was about themed food. But, I think this is where Disney falls flat for me. They don't really have any areas themed to anything that I strongly identify with.