The Florida Adventures of RedPiggy

[RedPiggy]

LOL, Hi, y'all...

As you may have heard, I'm in Orlando for a week. It took three hours or so to get from DFW, Texas to here and my butt was sore from sitting that long.

Still, we made it safe (I still think the pilot needs to work on something we like to call "landings") yesterday and shall begin our adventures today, renting a car and heading over to Tampa for Busch Gardens, which is an epic zoo of mind-blowing proportions (from what I remember, as the last I went to Florida at all was 2004). I'll be taking my camera, so there'll hopefully be pics and vids assuming this hotel network holds up. Still, I'm staying at the Royal Pacific at Universal and it's sweeeet. I already have some new design ideas for my bedroom, LOL.

 

[The Count]

Let us know everything. *Remembers that Busch Gardens being equal parts zoo and theme park, the Scorpion roller coaster and Tanganyika Tidal Wave log flume most vividly. Have fun Kelly!

 

[RedPiggy]

Ok, Day 1 of our vacation (we arrived yesterday but crashed in bed after landing, so it doesn't count, LOL) was at Busch Gardens of Tampa. I'm not baked but now my skin's starting to itch. I think my brother and I went on every coaster but one. We saw lots of neat animals. Timbuktu was closed, as was a gorilla exhibit, but otherwise it was awesome. We rode on a couple of water rides and got supremely drenched. We rode the Skyride as we started to get tired of walking. Here are some pics:

Some zebras and gazelles

A white tiger grooming

A spotted hyena lying around

Our room at the Pacific Royal Hotel at Universal Studios

A lounging kangaroo

Me at Busch Gardens

The view over a bridge outside the hotel entrance, with a lilypad-covered pond

Anyway, there wasn't a coaster named the Scorpion. We did go on the Tidal Wave, however (and got the most drenched I ever have).

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Have fun! Are you heading over to MuppetVision?

 

[RedPiggy]

We went to Busch Gardens, Tampa today and will be spending the rest of the week perusing Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure, actually.

 

[charlietheowl]

Cool pictures! That kangaroo sure looked awkward lying down, lol.

 

[The Count]

Maybe they took it down, I think the Scorpion was the yellowish track coaster. Yes, you get royally drenched at the Tidal Wave, that's why it's the best. And we loved to stand behind the glass to watch the resulting splashdown or stand outside the bridge walkway exit to get drenched in the resulting splashdown.

Lilypad huh? Any certain frogs hanging around there?

*Ish jealous, would so loooooooove to go to Universal Studios, most importantly to go to Potterworld.

 

[RedPiggy]

Well, in the Egyptian section there is the Montu, which is a yellowish coaster with some blue triangles on the sides of the cars. Maybe they just renamed it? Day 2 was at Hogwarts, which was great. Short, but great. They went to a lot of trouble to make some interesting details. We ate breakfast at the Three Broomsticks, which plays music from the movies and occasionally weird shadows pop up, like goblins messing with flying cups. I didn't have to go pee but my mom did and she heard Moaning Myrtle talking to her, LOL. The Forbidden Journey or whatever inside Hogwarts castle was kinda short, but still worth seeing all the cool stuff they put inside. I really admire the technology they used to make it look like the cast was really there, a kind of 3-D movie/hologram set up that doesn't require glasses. We also got to see a Triwizard show of sorts, with the Russian and French teams introducing themselves. No magic, just some color guard-ish stuff, but still cool. We also watched the 8th Voyage of Sinbad, which is painfully silly, but a funny stage show for all its camp. We saw Poseidon's Fury. Camp, but still a good way to kill time, LOL. Today we will be going to the place I would work for free for all its awesomeness: Jurassic Park.

Everyone keeps yelling at me to get dressed already, so I'm just going to link my photobucket account. Maybe if I have some time tonight or whatever I can add captions. My Photo Album

Again, I'm not uploading everything due to many pics are my Mom's pics of interesting flowers she likes, LOL.

 

[The Count]

Hogwarts at Universal Studios... Muuuust gooooo!
*Dies a fannish death of happiness at Kelly's report.

Hope the Jurassic Park's better than the actual movie franchise.

And as for the stage shows. As a MSTie, you know I have to say it in the high-pitched Gypsy voice. "Hee's not Sinbad!"

 

[RedPiggy]

Whew, Day 3 is done!

Today we went to Jurassic Park. You can see my photo album here.

We decided that the River Adventure would make us soaked so we would do that last. We found a neat Spinosaurus head hovering over a Jeep. Most of the eateries involved lots and lots of meat. My mom had a turkey leg that I swear must've been related to velociraptors given how big it was, LOL. I had BBQ ribs. Well, we were going to eat after the ride, but as soon as we were about to step onto the raft, there were "technical difficulties". Eventually they had to close the ride, though what they did with the 6 boats still full of people I dunno. They do have a funny line after that, though. We heard them say on the intercom "Somebody secure the raptor enclosure!" Now, my brother and I have a dark sense of humor, so when they finally started the test runs after fixing it, we thought it'd be great to have bloody mannequins ride on the boats instead of just being empty and say something like "So THAT'S where they went!" I'm sick, I know, LOL.

I would kill to have the cool raptor statues in the gift shops.

The Visitor Center is really neat. The left side of the back entrance is a gift shop (boy, did I shop, though not at that one). The right side is a small eatery. The middle recreates basically the look of the Visitor Center's interior with the fossil skeletons of the TRex and a sauropod of some sort. As we went downstairs we were treated to the hatching of a baby raptor, which thrilled my brother and I as we never got to see a hatching the first time we went all those 7 years ago. Some kid thought it was a TRex baby. Pffbt. Leave the JP geekiness to the grownups, kids, LOL. The cute thing was that it was a Lost World Raptor, not any from 1 or 3 (you know, the kind with the yellow underbelly, orange dorsal side with brown stripes). I realize it's sad that I could've named not only the species but what movie it came from, LOL. I live, breathe and eat Jurassic Park. If I die, I want that to be Heaven.

Well, because we're gluttons for punishment, we decided we weren't wet enough so we hopped onto Popeye's raft ride and then Dudley DoRight's log ride. By then we were completely and unutterably drenched. Fortunately, for 5 bucks you can enter a people dryer, though it never really dried our feet or shoes very well, so we squish-squish-squished all the way back to the hotel.

We decided to skip Marvel and do that on Saturday, because we still have all of Universal Studios proper to do, and that could take all day and we don't want to get on the plane Sunday exhausted from the day before. See ya tomorrow!