ADRENALIN!!!

Today has been a long day but utterly fantastic. We got a bus down to Busch Gardens which got us there some time after 10am. As I said, I was really concerned that we'd spend the entire day in long queues, but it wasn't that bad. There were 2 rides that we had to wait for an hour or so, but I think we got lucky for the rest. We were on the go non-stop from 10 to 7 and then flopped into the bus. The rides were fabulous – like Ratanga on steroids.  I’m sure that this is many of your worst nightmares, but we enjoyed it. Sorry - not many photographs because my camera spent most of the day in a locker, but there are a few.

We stared off with Montu in Egypt. A great smooth, long ride with our feet dangling Cobra-style.  The queue was only 5 minutes or so and the ride set the tone for the rest of the day.  It was awesome!  We went upside down about 4 times on the ride and it was really fast.

Then we went to ShieKra in Sanleyville.  The vote is unanimous – in terms of thrill, this ride is at the top of the top for all of us.  We went up a very steep up and then a plateau at the top.  The ride nudged us to the edge of the plateau and then… stopped… and hung there with our feed dangling… down a VERTICAL cliff!!  Then, after about 4 seconds, it just dropped us down the cliff.  It was terrifying and exhilarating.  There was another cliff further down the track but no precarious hanging before that one.  The funniest thing was the pictures at the end of the ride.  I didn’t want to spend $20 on the print, so I sneakily tried to take a picture of the picture.  It’s not a great pic, but… check Luke’s face!!! He was terrified!  
 

Afterwards, Luke said, “ShieKra has changed me for life.”  He actually lost his nerve a little after the ride.

I tried to take some pictures of the ride to give you an idea, but when I was standing there waiting for the big drop to happen, it didn’t because they were experiencing technical difficulties – so we were lucky to get on the ride twice.

 

After ShieKra, we went to Kumba in Congo.  Kumba was also having technical difficulties.  We decided that we’d just join the queue anyway in the hope that the ride would start up again soon.  And… just our luck.  As we joined the queue, the ride opened again.  So we only had a 5 minute wait.  Kumba was also great.  Similar to Montu, but our feet weren’t dangling.  It was also smooth and went upside down.

Then we went to Gwazi in Morocco.  Gwazi is “The Southeast’s largest and fastest double wooden roller coaster”.  We waited in the queue for over an hour.  It’s a very old roller coaster so there are only 2 cars taking 24 people each, so the turnaround time is quite long.  I didn’t hold out much hope for this ride because it seemed so old fashioned.  But I was wrong… it was awesome.  The thing that made is scary was that it was so bumpy and rickety, but really fast and long.  I was terrified that it would fall of the tracks! 

The bumps got to Ali who had a bit of a headache to start the day.  At the end of the ride, she went really quiet – her head was throbbing.  I took her to the first aid room and she took a Panado and was back to her normal smiley self about 15 mins later.  Gotta love those little white pills! 

On the topic of headaches - giving up coffee has cured mine for sure!

These theme parks really rip you off when it comes to food, so I had decided that we going to eat outside of the park… at McDonald’s.  We had not yet had a McD since being in the US and it’s such a part of their culture.  I thought we had to have at least one.  The walk was long and hot because we had to walk right out the parking area (bordered by a wall) and then back along the main road.  We sat at quite a funky table:

 
The food was actually quite satisfying.  As usual, this is out tray of rubbish to throw away after the meal:

There is nothing light about my ecological footprint after this holiday. 

We went back to the park and queued for another hour to do the Cheetah Run.  One part of the queue was along a wall that was rough and bumpy and covered with squished pieces of chewed chewing gum…  yuck!  Then, further along the queue, somebody had puked… ewwwgh.   When we (finally) got on the ride, the attendants kept on giving the thumbs down because their equipment told them that things were not A OK.  Eventually, they had to ask Mr Fat Guy to please get off the ride!  This also happened at SheiKra!  It that was me, I would have been so embarrassed, but they didn’t seem to mind.  The ride was superfast and long and a real thrill.

Then we saw a ballroom dancing show which was glitzy and fantastic – not your traditional ballroom.
 

Then we went to the Phoenix which is like the Congo Queen but it goes all the way over.  The kids didn’t like the Congo Queen at Ratanga and they didn’t want to do the ride.  I have had a bet with the kids and they are not allowed to chicken out of any of the rides.  This one beat them, so I headed out on my own.  It was scary and dangling upside down for a couple of seconds really turned my tummy.  I gloated when I got back and then we went on the ShieKra again.  But the Phoenix ate Ali up and we had to go back to give her another chance.  Luke chickened out – can you believe it!!! So Ali went all on her own. 

Here she is returning triumphant!

 

She persuaded Luke it wasn’t that bad and then we all went on it together.  So nobody has completely chickened out of anything… yet.

And that was that… 7pm and time for the bus back to Orlando.  Take away pizza and now time for a good sleep.

Our fairy is still very much with us. Turns out that the Florida schools went back today (no Easter Monday public holiday in the US).  So the queues were much worse over the weekend.  Also, I was beginning to think that we should have done Disney at the end of our trip, but it's turned out really well with the way that we've done it. The Busch Gardens roller coasters were a much bigger thrill than the Disney rides so the kids would have been disappointed if we'd done Disney last. Disney was awesome with its creativity and the build-up to the rides in the queue. Busch Gardens queues were just boring queues, but the thrill factor was bigger than Disney for sure.

I’ve deliberately missed out the fact that Busch Gardens is centred in a big zoo.  My worst thing.  I just closed my eyes to all of those sad animals.

Another funny thing that happened.  On TV last night, in preparation for April Fools Day, there was a demo on how to apple pie a bed.  When we were on the bus on the way home, Ali whispered to me, “When Luke is in the shower, can we do that thing to the sheets in the bed?”  I just laughed and said, “You do realise that you have to sleep in that bed with him?!”