Date:7/15/2022-7/17/2022
Destination: Orlando and Tampa, Florida
Goal: Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando
Distance: 831 Miles
Means of Travel: Flying
Potential Credits: 6
When it leaked that SeaWorld was building a swing launch coaster then same year Busch Gardens Williamsburg was getting Pantheon, I was stoked thinking two of my favorite parks were getting Intamin blitzes. But when I was told SeaWorld is Premier btw, I lost a lot of interest in this project. Nothing against Premier at all, I love what they do, but it’s not world class like Intamin’s products. Cool arctic theme but I’m not sure it’s something alone that would get me to travel back there. But here we are in Florida and I like SeaWorld and Ben said it was good so we worked it in.
Day 2
We woke up at the asscrack of dawn to load the car up and head to SeaWorld, when I was in for a rude awakening. Continuing the trend of everything on this trip being sloshing wet, I went to go get the clothes I laid out to discover that my left sneaker and Iron Gwazi shirt were absolutely soaked to my confusion. Turns out that the ice in the cooler that was chilling out Angry Orchards the night before melted, leaked all over the desk in the hotel, and soaked everything. Not wanting to get trenchfoot with wet shoes, I switched to flip-flops for the first time ever at a park and decided to leave my shoe in Ben’s hot car to dry off for my flight.
Good morning SeaWorld!
Ice Breaker didn’t open for another hour so I just went around and rode Mako and took pictures.
I love SeaWorld’s aquarium stuff! Fish and aquariums in general are an aesthetic I love so that’s a reason this park ranks so highly for me.
Mako Madness let’s goooo!!! I really like this coaster, I think it’s overrated in that most of the ride is just controlled B&M hyper airtime on a repetitive layout, but the finale is cool and I love the rusty shipwreck theming. I think? this was also my first time riding a coaster barefoot since I didn’t want to lose my flip-flops.
And just like that, I’ve Breaker is open for business! We crossed that jetty thing and locked our stuff up, it was time to put the deep freeze on the region trip!
First ride was the front row of the rear carriage, and it blew me away! For a Premier coaster this thing packs a lot of airtime in that tiny little space. That double hop into the twisty thing was probably my favorite part of the ride, closely followed by the fall off the top hat. It might not be quite an Intamin, but I’m pretty sure this is what Premier was going for. Love Ice Breaker!
“tHe BeSt ThEmInG iVe EvEr WiTnEsSeD oN a CoAsTeR”
In all seriousness, Ben told me that Ice Breaker had no theming. And it’s minimal, but I think that’s a stretch. There’s frost painted on some of the steel Arctic-like structures and there’s a few snow exploration props next to the cattlepen, plus the station music and rocks near the entrance. Plus the white gravel sorta looks like snow. Now I maintain they should’ve enclosed it and blasted the AC in that queue, but this is a bit more than the Dominator-style parking lot coaster Ben made it out to be.
Ice Breaker was deader than my chances of respect in the coaster community so we got several rides and I got to actually get to know the coaster, unlike Iron Gwazi. And it’s my new favorite Premier! While it’s also the first time I’ve had any sort of issue with the comfort collars, it also has the best airtime and coolest elements of any Premier coaster. Maybe not top twenty or even top thirty material when you’re sitting pretty at 430+ credits, but definitely top ten in Florida.
It also beat out Manta as my favorite coaster here.
I took some photos while we waited for Shamu and buddies to get going.
Orca Encounter was next, and it was awesome, but it was different. Halfway through the show, Mom decided they didn’t want to do what they were asked, and wanted to just chill in the corner, so they let them. And it was cool seeing the social dynamic in their pod how the matriarch sort of calls the shots and nobody does anything without her permission.
We then went to ride my #1 water ride: Infinity Falls! We got the chimichurri steak I liked so much last time and it was delicious as always.
I went to change into my water ride clothes next when I found a free cocktail on the toilet so I took it! Stay classy SeaWorld!
(Ew, no, of course I didn’t actually drink the random toilet cocktail that appeared but we live in a day and age where people can’t recognize an obvious joke.)
Cheetaka held the bags!
Come watch Ben and I get absolutely drowned on Infinity Falls!
Everything about this ride is fantastic. The cool archaeological solar punk theme, the beautiful surroundings, the violently churning roller coaster rapids, and of course that big awesome elevator lift/drop sequence at the end that’s so dramatic and gets you dripping wet. Fantastic ride and possibly my #1 non-coaster.
Possibly the wettest I’ve ever been at a park.
Ben and I did the observation tower next and the view from up there is gorgeous. Got some construction pics of the surf coaster and the park looks just as nice from up there as it does on the ground.
After the tower we made our way to the sea lions and fed them and holy crap they’re adorable! They bark and make noise and wave at you for food and I want to hug them all.
From there we looped around and looked at riding Manta, but there was a 70 minute wait and I had a flight to catch. Can’t do that, right?
Right?
Nope! This is when the trip took a turn for the worse when my flight got hella delayed, it was supposed to land in CMH at 9 but wouldn’t get there til midnight. Frustrated, I called my mom who was acting as my ride and apologized out my ass and told her what was up.
So Ben and I left, got burgers and saw his dad and Stitch. We hung out at his dad’s place for a bit, then my flight un-delayed so we had to pack up and go!
The Spirit counter was already a a shitshow, the line to drop off checked bags was taking up the full counter and spilling across the aisle, and they were pulling people to the front so they didn’t miss their flights. So I’m already aggravated when I get a message that some random piece of coaster trash that I’ve never met in my life has screenshotted a stupid harmless post about the toilet clogging and put it in a cyberbullying group saying it’s a reason I deserve to be bullied. Don’t know this idiot or how he can be so hateful towards a stranger but it was the last thing I needed and I hope he gets hit with a phone. Got no respect for him or the nine bastards that haha reacted it.
But I got through, we ended up delaying anyway until our initial delayed time. I popped a melatonin and attempted to sleep on those medieval torture benches you sit on in Spirit’s planes.
We landed, I got my bags, and met my mother, who now had to drive me back to Dayton at an ungodly hour of the night. And on top of my flight delaying, feeling bad that she had to get me home at midnight, and learning that I was once again being laughed at by the community for doing nothing harmful at all, my mother informed me that my childhood cat needed put to sleep while I was away, so that was just lovely. It was fucking lovely.
A few hours of unfortunate chaos doesn’t ruin a trip. Despite rain at Busch Gardens and shitty coaster drama and losing my cat, we had a hilariously chaotic time. I got a new #1 out of this trip so that’s good for something, plus Cheetah Hunt, Ice Breaker, Montu and Infinity were enough to bring up the rear. I had a great time on that trip, much better than the toilet at our hotel did, and I’m glad I went. SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment is a wonderful chain and I can’t wait to see what they cook up next.
In memory of Princess Bigglesworth
2006-2022
