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Seaworld Trip Report

knokout1

Premium Member
Jun 25, 2009
782
29
Tampa
So this may not be the best trip report, and probably won't be very detailed or long, but I figured I would try my hand at these things. This trip was planned literally the night before I went, because I get in free now due to my new job at Busch Gardens (btw if anyone is planning on going to Christmas Town let me know maybe you can give a quick hello :thumbs:). I decided not to try and recruit and friends for this one, because I wanted to enjoy everything at my own pace. But aannyways on with the trip report.

Ok so knowing the park was going to be dead I wasn't in any real rush to get in. I got there at about 10, about an hour after opening, and as I predicted, it was dead. I walked up to Manta to see a 5 minute wait. I walked right on to the ride, the only wait would be for front row, and only because they were only running two cars on one side. I forgot how much of a thrill this ride was. Truly an amazing experience. So amazing that I had to get on a second time. And a third. The only complaint I had was waiting outside the station for the car to leave so we could come in and unload. It got a bit uncomfortable hanging for 5 or so minutes. Well I followed around to JTA, which wasn't as great as I had remembered. The only really memorable part was the surprise ending. The only down effect was the random dude with the seahorse. He gets out "Amis!" and fades away. Oh and the evil laughing mermaid was down. This ride could definitely use some refreshing, maybe after Antarctica opens up. Well this ride was of course followed up by Kraken. And I followed my style with Manta and rode about three times, only waiting for the one car they were running to get back to the station. Well I was satisfied with all of the major things I had gotten out of the way, and looked at my watch to discover it had only been an hour since I had been at the park. Time really does fly.

Well I was hungry, but had no idea where to eat. So I thought I would just walk until I found something. And I found quite a few things. First of which being the Skytower. Now I had never been on this since it wasn't free the last time I came, so I decided to give it a try, despite my huge fear of heights. Well as we went higher and higher I only wanted to go lower and lower. I was having a mini panic attack on the inside. This thing goes waaayyyy up. I've never really been scared of a ride until that point. Well overall it was a great experience, providing views of both Universal and Disney. After jumping out of this ride I jumped into a just starting "Pets Ahoy!" show, since I'm obsessed with the shows about dogs, cats, and birds, rather than whales, dolphins, and seals. And it was awesome! Had me laughing at many points, and these every day pets do some truly amazing things. Well right after leaving this I saw some little road side show, and I laughed more than the kids. It was awesome, and I wish all parks had more of it. Well after a long walk, through literally empty paths, I came across the Terrace Garden buffet. It's basically the same thing as the one at BG, all you can eat pizza and pasta. I have to be honest, I really pigged out here. And I don't even like pizza, so I really dug into that pasta.

After that I took a hike over to Turtle Trek. And all I can say is wow. For those that haven't had the chance to do it yet, it was truly incredible. The ending literally drew a tear to my eye. There is so much going on around you, you don't know where to look. You can no longer tell where the walls are. I couldn't get over how amazing it was. And how detailed everything was. No matter how much I say it will not do true justice to the experience. All I can say for those that haven't done it yet is definitely go, get those passes now and then go again when Antarctica opens up. Absolutely worth it. Well after leaving this I spend a little time looking at Dolphins, turtles, and other cool critters, and took a hike across the park, for the Polar Express experience (usually the Wild Arctic). It left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, and not as fun as WA. Well anyways walking through the exit I saw something truly heart warming. I got to see "Santa" helping an elderly women out of her wheelchair to get a photo with him. I think everyone in the room was a little touched. Well at this point I was satisfied with what I did. I saw all the Christmas stuff, did all the rides (not too into the shows), and got a look at some cool animals. It was about 3 at this time. But I had a realization. Universal was 4 miles away. And due to a partnership between Uni and BG, I get free entry (but not free parking). So I made a quick call to learn that free parking started at 6, and IOA closed at 7. So I burned some time with animals and Blue Horizons, and headed over to Universal Orlando Resort.

So I got to the parking about 4 minutes before 6, and was told I had to get there at exactly 6. So I had to leave and come back around, which burned about 10 minutes away. I walked through the garages, went into Guest Services, and grabbed my ticket. It was about 6:30. At this point every single minute mattered. The women at the booth even mentioned "you know the park closes in 20 minutes right". I responded with "plenty of time". I ran straight to Potter, and went into the Single Rider line to skip most of the walking. I walked straight onto the ride. After leaving and hustling back to Marvel, I had 10 minutes before closing. I had to decide, Hulk or Spiderman. Well since it was dark I had to go with the Hulk. An amazing ride, and even better in the dark. Well I got off with about 3 minutes. So I crossed my fingers and went to Spiderman. Still open! I walked straight into the boarding room to find every Team Member at the scoop clapping and yelling "Heeeeeey". I asked what was going on and one of them responded with "Oh, you know, Monday night, closing time, still working." Honestly I found it a bit annoying. It was only 7. The park literally just closed. And it wasn't like it was extremely difficult work. I'm not complaining, but I clock out about 45 minutes after closing time. Well I was grateful I got to ride anyways. At this point I was satisfied to call it a night.

And so ends my trip report. A full day in Orlando. And all I had paid was about 30 dollars for gas and food. For those of you debating getting a SW pass, I would definitely say it's worth it. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this.
 
Great report! I'm looking forward to visiting SeaWorld and Busch Gardens pretty soon! My friend and I got the dual AP, and we were planning to go last weekend, but she got sick and we've postponed it to this weekend, so hopefully this Saturday I'll be having a similar day to yours! We plan to hit up SeaWorld, focus on Manta, Kraken and Turtle Trek and later go to Universal! :thumbs: It'll be my first time on Manta and Turtle Trek, so I'm really excited! And even more now after hearing your praise for TT! Can't wait! Thanks for the report trip again! :rep:
 
I know for many TM's and CM's you have a scheduled out time that is about an hour after the attraction closes. With that said, if you're finished early you get a nice ER and get to go home. So yes, the park might have just closes, and yes he might have been scheduled till 8, but on the other side, he might have gotten to clock out at 7:15 a couple other days that week.
 
Great report! I'm looking forward to visiting SeaWorld and Busch Gardens pretty soon! My friend and I got the dual AP, and we were planning to go last weekend, but she got sick and we've postponed it to this weekend, so hopefully this Saturday I'll be having a similar day to yours! We plan to hit up SeaWorld, focus on Manta, Kraken and Turtle Trek and later go to Universal! :thumbs: It'll be my first time on Manta and Turtle Trek, so I'm really excited! And even more now after hearing your praise for TT! Can't wait! Thanks for the report trip again! :rep:

I highly recommend the back row of Manta for a really awesome ride :thumbs:
 
Great report.

I've never tried the back row of Manta. Only the front. I've heard of people blacking out. I've never had coaster problems but the back of coasters scare the crap out of me haha
 
It definitely takes your breath away. Back row is my favorite and usually take that over front row. Only coaster I love front over and feel gives a better ride over the back is Cheetah Hunt. Front row has a nice pop. Only coaster I've been on that I can remember being close to that intensity was the helix section of Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain. My brother started started tunnel vision during that section and almost blacked out
 
I finally went back to SeaWorld this past Saturday after many, many years! Manta was AWESOME! My first ride was front row, with no wait, and it was crazy good! I felt like a coaster virgin all over again :lol: So many unique elements! It was intense!! I rode it three or four times, but never on the last row. I think I was always in one of the first four rows. I'll definitely give last row a try next time :thumbs: Good thing I got my AP! And now I can't wait to go to Busch Gardens!!


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PS: Turtle Trek was indeed very nice! Though the 3D looked messed up (double) in parts of the film, maybe i got bad glasses, I still enjoyed it overall. The turtle/fish and manatee/gar exhibits were awesome!


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PPS: I might post a full report with more pics later on, but I'm not sure it'd be that interesting, since I pretty much spent all my time there riding Manta and Kraken multiple times :p ... and then went over to Uni to ride more coasters multiple times :lol:


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