We started our morning with the ever famous Holiday Inn Express breakfast. If you can believe it, I only had one cinnamon roll… That’s not to say I didn’t eat a million other things I shouldn’t have… but only one cinnamon roll… for real! We also didn’t have any repeats of the last trip… water being dumped all over the cinnamon rolls… and table… and the now infamous, “Uh…Oh”… Well… anyways… We also didn’t go outside to take any pics... or find any salamanders (although Uncle Brad did find a salamander inside… long story…) Did I mention it is cold? So cold that the Florida wildlife is taking refuge in local hotels!!! Brrrrr… Thankfully we packed jackets, but the boys were all in shorts…
We left for Busch Gardens just a little later than we’d planned and arrived to find a nearly empty parking lot, which seemed like a good sign to us! As the day went on, there were actually quite a few people in the park, but it wasn’t overly crowded, and the lines weren’t too bad.
Upon walking through the gates, I immediately lost my sense of direction, and from there the best laid plans were… well… just nonexistent to tell you the truth! Seth, Grace, Brad, Phil, and I waited in line for Gwazi first off, and I wouldn’t do it again! As much as I love coasters, this one just caught me by surprise! It took off quickly and never slowed, and it was very bumpy. I will be paying for it tomorrow. It was Seth’s favorite ride of the day…
I think my main goal in life for today was to get to Jungala at the back of the park! We got a bit sidetracked, though, when we walked right past “Land of the Dragons”… It seems that no one could resist the chance to hatch from an egg:
We also took a detour to ride the flume, and Ian got his first shot at a “big boat” and a big hill! Not quite sure what he thought about it, but I loved it! By the way, the sign said that no one under two could ride, but nobody asked how old he was, so I just kind of threw him in the boat… I thought I was going to have video of this, but apparently I pressed the wrong button! I am still getting used to my water camera, but I think it is going to solve my lack of video problem. Hopefully I will get it right tomorrow… keep your fingers crossed…
We did, indeed, finally make it back to Jungala, where we climbed through the various nets… and tubes… and stairways and enjoyed ourselves a lot… although it was kind of painful for a full sized adult in flip flops…
We also rode “Wild Surge”, which was very fun. The line for the glider ride was awfully long, and since Caleb, Abby, and Ian were too young (and short I might add), we skipped this one. The Tiger habitat in Jungala was very nice. Unfortunately, Seth was eaten:
I was rather impressed by the overall atmosphere of Busch Gardens. There was music in the streets, and we met a wide array of colorful characters:
The “Walking Stick” actually jumped over Seth, and I wish I had a picture or video of that, because it was very cute to watch!
Since I am a sucker… and Grace really wanted to ride Congo River Rapids (which is basically what it sounds like)… I got soaked on this very cold (remember) day… and I think I am still drying out… At any rate, there was no line… huh… wonder why…
We didn’t have a whole lot of time to work with today, as the park closed at 6:00, but we tried to cram in as many things as we could! We rode Rhino Rally, which was definitely worth the ½ hour wait! It was the best “Safari Ride” I have ever been on, hands down! Phil had to wait with Ian, because you had to be three to ride this one, and I didn’t figure we’d get away with that much of an age stretch. However, we were able to take advantage of the “Kid Swap” program, so after we all got off, Phil was able to go to the front of the line to ride, and they let Seth, Grace, and Caleb ride again with him! This was definitely a plus!
And... just because these pics. are worth posting, here we are filling some time while waiting for everyone to get done with a potty break:
We decided we’d better eat at this point, because it was getting later in the afternoon. Thankfully, we made the decision when we did, because the restaurant was about to close when we got there! We ate at the Crown Colony Restaurant, overlooking to Serengeti Plain. What that basically means is that we had a nice family style meal, while watching the giraffes… and Seth and I got “drunk” on the fish… Uh… I don’t know if I can really explain that, but in case anybody is really worried, we didn’t actually get drunk (I don’t even drink), and the fish was very good!
We took a quick trip through King Tut’s Tomb, which was pretty unimpressive and scared Grace half to death… For some reason, I was enamored with King Tut when I studied him in school, bu I could skip on this attraction if I was ever at Busch Gardens again…
Then we sort of ran to the train station… where we caught the last train of the day, which took us through the Serengeti Plain. Here are pics. Of Seth and Caleb waiting for the train and Ian once we had boarded:
We got off at the station nearest Sheikra, a very cool looking coaster that Phil and Brad went to wait in line for, even though we hadn’t seen it actually run in awhile, while Sheri and I took the kids back to Land of the Dragons, and I got to sit in an egg this time… It was a Ferris Wheel of sorts, and the amazingly kind ride operator, Amos, gave us a complimentary second ride, so I got to spin around... and around… and around… and he was going to let us have a third ride, but we finally convinced him to let us off instead!
The kids rode one more water kiddie ride, and then everything was closing, so we let them play in this little playground area until they kicked us out… and then we went and sat on some rocks until Phil and Brad finally emerged, having ridden Sheikra which they thoroughly enjoyed!
It was really a wonderful day, but there were still so many things we didn’t get to do! Ah… well… such is life when you’re trying to cram this much into 2 ½ weeks!
We arrived at our hotel some time later. Phil and Brad saw some trains first… I guess… but I mostly slept, because I am wiped out… and I am sneezing, which is probably because of the whole Congo River Rapids ordeal…
Our hotel is wonderful, but we haven’t really had a chance to explore or enjoy it just yet. We were too busy loading half asleep kids into beds and then unpacking the house… uh… I mean van! Finally got to munch some of my leftover Cheddar’s and more chocolate than anyone should ever eat in one sitting!
We don’t even know what we’re doing tomorrow, for sure! It was supposed to be our Typhoon Lagoon day, but since TL is closed for refurbishment we will have to make another choice. Sleeping in sounds good right about now…
Lisa
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