Highlander JR Birthday Trip Day 16 part1

[highlander447]

The Crew
Highlander: Age 40 :Chief Planner and Banker(I said Banker)
DW AKA Jacquie : Age ? : Chief Cleaner and Spender
DD AKA Stephanie : Age 16 : Main mission in life to spend
DS AKA Danny : Age 13/14 : Main mission in life Joker

Wednesday 4th Aprilanny's Birthday:Part 1 BG Guided adventure Tour:
Well today's the day this full trip has been designed around, Danny's birthday we are all up at 7 Danny is given cards and some gifts brought from UK, DD had got him a Celtic sweater, we had got him a DX top plus Marine DVD not over here yet(stars his favourite WWE wrestler), plus he gets $60 in cash and £60 as well in various cards so he is pretty pleased even if tired,

Danny thinks we are getting the coach to BG so he's not looking forward to the journey, we are in lobby for 7:45 and Danny goes to toilet, while Danny is in toilet Quicksilver arrive for our pick up our driver is Michael a very pleasant and polite man, now even DD is surprised as she never knew and DW only recently found out what I had arranged.Just as Danny comes out a coach pulls up just as Michael pulls up in our ride as well,Danny looks at car Michael is driving and say wow look at that and then he heads for coach but I tell him to pose for photo

As you can see Danny is pleased with his coach to BG

I ask Michael if he can play the Marine DVD in the limo, Michael has also stocked the ice box with water and sodas, so while DW sleeps we watch the Marine DVD on our 90 min trip and it was smooth not cheap but it was worth it . We arrive at BG a little before 9:30, we say our goodbyes to Michael who we will see again at 4:30 for our trip back, I had purchased the tickets online and printed them off but they wouldn't scan at gate but CM entered bar code manually only checked my ID for our party and we where in, our first stop was the adventure guide centre to check in for our tour at 10:30

While I checked in the family headed to the loo's, our guide was there and she introduced herself to me her name was Jolie and she was pretty friendly, I told her we had done the tour last year and liked , she knew our guide from last year and said she wasn't as funny but she hoped we still had a good tour, she also gave me the 20% off card for merchandise you get with tour which was better than last year as we didn't get it till end of tour, Jolie asked me to come back in 45 mins for the tour, well when DD found out we had the card she just had to buy a new top my treat of course, we had a wander I did offer breakfast but no one was hungry, I did call Quicksilver to change our pick up time tonight and to request a van for tomorrow as a car just wouldn't cut it, I got Gregory himself on the phone, he was very pleasant and asked if we where having a good time, he managed to rejig things to accommodate my request for tomorrow which was great, we took some pics

At the appointed time we met up with Jolie at the guide centre and met the rest of our group 3 other families from the states so a total of 15 in our group we did Gwazi first although Jacquie opted out as she hates this bone cruncher, now the best thing about this tour is it is FOTL no waiting in express queues etc just straight to front of line priceless, after Gwazi we headed for the 11am Safari, our group had the truck to ourselves although strangely there was no photographer with us like last year, so you'll have to make do with my efforts, this safari is excellent you really can't get any closer (when u add up the cost of Safari and lunch which is included in this tour the cost is $95 plus tax for tour, Safari itself $35 plus tax and lunch average $12=$50 meaning tour is $45 plus tax and remember the 20% discount card)
Safari photos
mum and young

young zebra

Mum Dad and baby(hiding behind tree)Rhino

Birthday Boys Kiss

[highlander447]

Hungry Tango the Giraffe

Tango makes an appearance

During the Safari we get a lesson on the birds and bees from the Zebras, as its a family board we'll leave that photo alone, we get to see all the animals on the plain plus quite close to the Rhino's as well, Once the tour finishes we head to Montu which I must admit is the finest coaster in Florida just my opinion of course, after Montu we have lunch at Crown Colony, we are given our vouchers which you had over instead of cash, you can get one entree, either a desert or side dish plus a soft drink, I get Tuna and shrimp salad plus cherry cheesecake washed down with lemonade, DW gets chicken strips and fries, carrot cake and pepsi, DS gets peperoni pizza fries, pudding cup and pepsi, DD gets cheese pizza fries, strawberry's and pepsi, lunch is very enjoyable and a welcome respite from the heat, we have about 40mins for lunch.
Cheese pizza and fries

Chicken strips and fries/carrot cake

Peperoni Pizza and fries/pudding cup

Tuna and shrimp salad

Cherry cheesecake

Group photo after lunch you can see the view we had for lunch spectacular

[highlander447]

After lunch we get the skyride to the other end of the park the queue is huge but with our guide we are straight on a car and have a very gentle ride to the other side of the park, once over we head for Sheikra first still a good ride but way too short, next up was a water ride the log one, kids go in one log me and Jacquie another, both myself and Jacquie get soaked, we seem to be the only ones in our group who did get soaked, next up was Kumba but it was down for technical reasons, so Jolie offered another water ride this one Stephanie skipped for fear of getting soaked, as you can see we did get soaked

As Kumba was still down Jolie gave the kids the run of the carnival area and they got FOTL on the big boat that swings up and down now both my kids love this in Spain but this boat has a twist, let me show you
Before

During

As you can see its 360 degrees, they where slightly off colour shall we say when they came off, made me laugh anyway.We then did cheetah chase

Next up was the pirate 4D show and I'm glad we didn't queue for it as its not that great a show but you do get wet, after that Jolie gave up on Kumba but promised to give everyone a pass so they could use the pass after tour had finished for FOTL , next up we head for Rhino Rally, Jacquie had already asked Jolie if she could arrange for Danny to be navigator and he was,

Rhino rally was very good and Danny enjoyed being the navigator, after the Rally we saw the Gorillas and baby, plus the monkeys.



It was now time for the Katonga show and the end of the tour, we declined the show as we only had about 35 mins left before we leaving we said goodbye to the group, Jolie was pretty disappointed as she wanted to take Danny behind the scenes to show him a 25lb rabbit they have as a birthday treat but we explained we had plans for tonight and wanted some free time before having to leave, you guessed it the beer plus shopping, while having the beer a stork type bird actually jumped on table next to us and stole a slice of pizza, tell u what Danny may not be afraid of sharks but he was of that bird, but I promised not to tell anyone so its a secret, on way out of park Danny spots a Quicksilver top but they don't have it in his size, Michael is waiting for us, and he takes a photo for us with limo

We watch DVD again and have a juice DW falls asleep we arrive back at hotel around 6pm, we are getting picked up again at 7pm
Part 2 to follow

[Guest]

What a lovely surprise for you DS, great first part of the report.

[grantasmic]

What a fantastic start to Danny's birthday! Hurry up, can't wait to read more of the day!

Great pics, too - love Danny's birthday kiss

[voddygirl]

Your such a kind Dad excellent day.. we love BG got really lost coming back last year but we got to see the less touristy side of Florida

[Guest]

looks like he haqd a great day - great pics

[jandlsmum]

danny sounds like he had a fantastic birthday how lucky his he to have a dad like u
jayne

[Guest]

What a brilliant way to spend a birthday. We are seriously considering Busch Gardens on our next visit, I haven't been for years and the kids have never been!

You are a kind Dad!

[princess-pink]

Will have to have a look at that tour as it sounds great. Glad you were able to keep the limo a suprise, i'd have told ages ago. Great treats on this birthday trip.