Day 1: 12/12/08 Boomers
Upon our arrival in Miami late Friday evening, we headed to Boomers for some Dania Beach Hurricane rides since they were open until 2 am and we never had a night ride on the coaster. In both of our previous visits, we were just about the only people there so we wanted to see if a Friday night might be busier. It was busier in that we never got a solo ride, but it was still very empty. The Hurricane was awesome as always with great ejector air in the front seat. We took 10 rides before heading for our hotel for a whole 2 hours of sleep.
Day 2: 12/13/08 Disney and Old Town
After our 2 hours of sleep, we hit the road in hopes of making it to Disney for opening. We hit a major roadblock as I-95 north was stopped dead with no movement. Luckily, we were able to cross the median and head south to catch the FL Turnpike and still make it to Disney for opening.
Our first stop was Hollywood Studios since I wanted to get on Toy Story Mania at opening. That plan was foiled since the resort guests got into that park in hour early which I hadn't known about. Toy Story Mania already had an hour wait and Fast Pass was already to an early afternoon time slot. So much for that! Rock N' Roller coaster was down so we took 2 rides on Tower of Terror with little to no wait. RNRC was open after our second TOT ride so we used the single rider line. It turns out they had an empty row and put us next to each other anyway. We then went back to Toy Story Mania and got a Fast Pass for 5-6 pm since we planned to return later for the Osborne Family Lights.
Epcot was our next stop. We didn't have too much on our agenda for Epcot so it was a fairly quick visit. We hit the Norway boat ride, Test Track (single rider line), The Land boat ride, and rode Spaceship Earth for the first time since the redesign. We both enjoyed the "new" Spaceship Earth.
Animal Kingdom was next. The Nemo show was starting shortly after we arrived so we decided to head there first. It's a very popular show and we just barely made it in. Rich wasn't crazy about the show, but I enjoyed it. Our main goal at Animal Kingdom was to try to see the Galapagos tortoises and we failed once again. Every single time we go there, the pen is always empty! Since we were there, we took a quick ride on Expedition Everest using the single rider line.
Since we still had time before heading back to Hollywood Studios, we decided to take a quick drive to Old Town to ride their new Wacky Worm coaster. We also had a quick bite to eat at Flipper's Pizzeria on Old Town property which a friend had recommended. It was very good!
We then headed back to Hollywood Studios to use our Fast Pass on Toy Story Mania. Even with the FP, we still had a bit of a wait. It was a very good ride and I'm glad we were able to get on it. It is a bit tiring on the arm though as you have to keep pulling a string to fire at the targets. Since we still had a bit of time before the lights came on, we rode Star Tours. By that time, the Osborne Family Lights had started and it was mobbed beyond belief to the point that you couldn't even move. It was definitely an awesome sight to see, but it was uncomfortable being in a crowd of wall-to-wall people.
Our final stop of the night was the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, we missed out on both Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Space Mountain was down the entire 4 hours we were there and BTM had an hour + wait. We did ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Carousel of Progress, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion.
We got this lights-on view of Space Mountain from the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Unfortunately, that was the closest we got to Space Mountain.
Day 3: Busch Gardens Africa and Lowry Park Zoo
Sunday was spent at one of our favorite parks, Busch Gardens Africa. As usual, the majority of our day consisted of riding Montu and watching the tortoises. Our rides consisted of 28 rides on Montu, 3 on Kumba, and 1 on each side of Gwazi. We usually enjoy riding Gwazi, but this time it was horribly rough, especially the Tiger side. One ride was more than enough!
After Busch closed, we headed to the Lowry Park Zoo for their Wild Wonderland Christmas event. Our main goal was to ride the Tasmanian Tiger coaster which had just opened after being relocated from Wild Adventures in GA. In addition to having a large zoo area, they also offer amusement rides such as the coaster, merry-go-round, log flume, and sky ride.
Gator Falls looked like fun, but we didn’t feel like getting soaked.
Day 4: 12/15/08 Busch Gardens Africa
We spent a second day at Busch Gardens with 30 more rides on Montu, 8 on Kumba, 2 on Sheikra, and 1 on Scorpion. We were especially impressed that they were running 2 trains on Montu since it’s always been 1 train operation on weekdays in years prior. In addition to the rides and tortoise watching, we saw their Christmas on Ice show which was pretty good.
Day 5: 12/16/08 Boomers
Since our flight home wasn’t until night, we stopped at Boomers again on our way to the Miami airport for some more Dania Beach Hurricane rides. At $12 for unlimited rides, you can’t go wrong! Just as we were expecting, it was quite deserted. We rode 20 times and 19 of those rides we were the only 2 people on the train. At least we gave the operator something to do other than reading his book and smoking cigarettes (yes, he was smoking as he operated a wooden coaster!).
And so ends our 2008 coaster season. Bring on the 2009 coaster season
Topic: PTR Florida 12/12-12/16/08 (Read 1599 times)