April 2013 - Our last hurrah! - Day 13

[Hannikins]

April 2013 – Our last hurrah! – Day 13

Today was always supposed to be our Busch Gardens day and after checking the weather in the morning I was pretty glad it was, the forecast in Orlando was HORRENDOUS and judging by the sheets of rain outside the window they weren’t wrong! The forecast for Tampa wasn’t marvellous but who were we to complain!

We were catching the shuttle from universal so we were up and at the ballroom for breakfast by 7am. Again only us this morning, not sure where team “havegotaclue” were, I hope they made it back! Adam grabbed some breakfast while I headed over to pickup some shuttle tickets from reception. I was 5 minutes early but there was a guy sat there so I waited… and I waited… seriously the guy pretty much did everything he could not to acknowledge me before 7.30, sharpened his pencils, cleans his screen, without even a good morning. After 3 minutes I was getting impatient but as I was somewhat invested in this stand off I continued to wait, at 7.30 exactly he looked at his watch and said “yes, can I help you?” as if we hadn’t been sharing the same personal space for the last 5 minutes! Grrrr!

Tickets in hand I headed back to the ballroom where I found that Adam had made me a lovely waffle which we scoffed down with some coffee and juice. I haven’t mentioned the hot offerings here, mainly because we didn’t eat any, each morning there were 3 containers and each morning they contained; powered scrambled egg, a weird looking hash, and sausage gravy, YUM!

At 7.50 our bus was due so we headed out and huddled under the canopy by reception as it was still chucking it down, in fact I don’t think it had stopped raining since last night as the road was like a river. Eventually the bus arrived and we met “Terry”. Those of you who have stayed on I drive may have met Terry, he is famed in shuttle driver circles. He was hilarious; I dare you not to join in when he’s rousing everyone into a heartfelt rendition of the wheels on the bus! The only disconcerting thing being that he gives his all during the renditions, and many times he seemed to be concentrating more on the microphone than the road, which in these conditions was a little hairy. No worries we made it in one piece with 10 minutes to spare and we headed over to the busch gardens shuttle stop (I must have been on auto pilot because I got to the top of the escalators and bag check in before I realised I was going where no bus would ever find me!).

The bus arrived and we got on along with 2 other people, the bus was empty!

We didn’t wait long and we were soon on our way, HURRAH!

Until…

The driver came over the tannoy to announce that because of the bad weather and lack of bookings we would be calling at ALL the other stops as they were only taking the one bus to Busch Gardens today, GREAT

So we stopped at the dinner show, one person got on, we stopped at seaworld, and a BUS LOAD got on! It was a bit of a shock to the system, the bus was soon full of excited teenagers on a school trip! This wouldn’t have been so bad but we then proceeded to wait AGES and nobody else showed.

1 hour after we left universal we finally set off.

The drive was ok, the film of choice was national treasure which I love and Adam hates, 30 minutes in though and I was having my customary public transport snooze, happens everytime :P

Just before we reached Tampa something magical happened… IT STOPPED RAINING! And when we arrived at Busch Gardens at just before 11 it was to a cloudy yet warm day.

First things first we decided to do Sheikra (or shelia as my iphone notes autocorrect tells me!), on our last trip I had managed it once following a thunderstorm when I had to rush over to get a ride in before the bus left without me. At the time Adam would have been far too chicken to go on it so this was his big test, if he could do this, he would have conquered his fears. Luckily there was no queue and we got on the next ride.

And guess what? HE DID IT! TWICE!



We took a picture straight after just to prove it to those back home who didn’t believe he’d do it :P



With that under our belts we thought it best to jump on the only other coaster I hadn’t managed on our last visit, Gwazi, just in case the rain came back and our coaster riding plans went out the window.

It didn’t look likely though, the sun was now out, it was going to be a hot one!



We arrived at Gwazi and realised that although the park was quiet this was where everyone else was, we waited ages, there didn’t seem to be any organisation of the queue so it became a bit chaotic, especially when those with queue jumping passes or disabled guests tried to get on from the opposite platform. I see now why this ride was and always should be a staged launch, with only one coaster running it made the load and launch time seem sooo sloooow.

And was it worth it? Ermm no. You will NEVER get me on that thing again, I cracked bones in places I didn’t even know I had bones, the big dipper this aint!

Thoroughly shaken we decided to steer clear of the coasters for now and have a breather and see some wildlife while heading in the general direction of Cheetah Hunt for when we fancied it again.





We passed the entrance and walked past this guy



Adam tried to convince me in was a bronze statue like the ones they have around the park, but I knew better, this was definitely not a statue or a stick!

The area around Cheetah Hunt was lovely, I’m not used to seeing them so ‘exposed’ and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing, they looked axitated a few times when we passed, ears back, teeth bared, you know :/







The ride looked very quiet which was promising!



Promising indeed! straight to the front of the queue again and we were on!

A nice little ride, not what I was expecting, I thought the ‘boosts’ would be a lot faster than they were, some I didn’t even feel!

We decided to do it a second time, this time in the front, just to check, but nope a little bit tame for us, which is a shame, it could have been a great thrill ride.

[Hannikins]

Next we jumped on the skyride over to Jungala. We’d missed this last time but it’s a great way of getting from A to B quickly, you see a lot of stuff to!













See, lots of great views! It was now almost 1pm and we were getting peckish so we headed first to Bengal Bistro to grab some lunch.

Adam had a fish & chicken tenders platter and a soda



and because I was still feeling delicate I thought I would try something none greasy and went for the veggie wrap meal and a soda





BIG mistake, although not greasy it’s full of beans and pulses, boy was I going to be regretting this for the next few hours!

Full we headed over to look at the tigers.



Here we encountered the longest queue of the day, waiting to get into the tiger viewing area, and boy what a view it was



It did make for a good photo from across the enclosure though, no idea what I'm looking at



and you could get pretty close



On the way out I stood for a picture next to the tiger display, it was one of the only bits there on our last trip and I wanted a comparison sooo

May 2009…



May 2013…



not much in it really, all it really tell us is that in 4 years I'm a much bigger poser than I used to be

Next we stopped off to see the Orang-utans.





Great to watch, especially in the hammocks.

[Hannikins]

Next we headed over to the gibbons, they are one of my favs and we’d spent ages watching them at AK, unfortunately these guys were having a bit of a siesta in the shade so not so great to watch.





Next we decided to head towards the congo rapids and get a little damp while it was still warm. Well we didn’t get ‘a little damp’ we got SOAKED!

So we carried on round towards Timbuktu to watch the elephants and dry off. We arrived just as a feeding session was taking place. They had put out lots of interesting items for the elephants who were systematically stripping and demolishing everything bare of fruit and other edible items.







Still a little soggy we headed next towards rhino rally, which isn’t really any different from the one at AK now they have removed the water section, not really rally-esque to be honest!

We saw the usual :P





and a Rhino obviously!



On the way out I spotted a sign and gasped…

FUNNEL CAKE!

It was one of my must do items at Disney that I had unfortunately missed, this would still count though right?

Adam didn’t really understand my excitement but when I came back with this he was a little more interested



He tried a bit but if I’m being honest I pretty much scoffed the lot before he got much chance :P

These guys were behind me but they weren’t quick enough either :P





Next we went to view the birds and the smaller animals inside.

This lovely lady was waiting to greet us at the entrance



I love all the little monkeys



Next we headed to the edge of Africa area to watch the lions, meerkats, giraffes and the hippos.









The hippos were very interested in Adam



One even gave him a big kiss ;P



Then it was onto Egypt, mainly so Adam could go on Montu. I sat it out, the funnel cake was sitting a little uncomfortably by this point.

[Hannikins]

We walked passed the cheetah area again and they seemed very active, running all over the place



We decided to end the day with the gorillas and headed over, passing the ‘bronze statue’ on the way, funny how he had moved…



Finally I did find some bronze statues I was happy to interact with :P





I could watch these guys for hours



The one in the back kept nodding off and as his head fell forward, waking himself up, pretty much as I did on the ride home!







By then we were exhausted, it was almost 5.30 so we decided to grab a bottle of water each and head back to the bus, we’d had a good day and so far we’d avoided the rain.

By 5.45 everyone else had had the same idea so we set off a little earlier than planned. You can definitely fill a day at Busch Gardens but there’s a lot of walking so I’m not surprised everyone looked exhausted.

We made it halfway home before the rain started and we arrived at universal at 7.45, just in time for Terry to pick us up and drive us back to our hotel. By this point we were knackered and rather soggy so we showered and dressed in warmed clothing (JEANS! in MAY!) and considered our options. We decided to head somewhere close and eventually settled on Buffalo Wild Wings at the end of the street.

The rain had stopped mostly by now so we risked it without ponchos and ran the whole way.

It was a little busy inside, we think there was a local game on



however we were seated straight away and we were soon rewarded with beer and a cocktail



And boy was it a whopper



Although I was so frazzled I think I needed it to wake me up, a margarita usually does the job :P

We decided to share the wings combo to start and then order separate mains. We waited AGES. Which when you’re tired is not the best thing, eventually after 30 mins the food arrived, but I was confused, ALL our food had arrived. I pointed this out but our server just said ‘oh, sorry’ and walked off, no offer to take the mains back, nothing. I was too tired to argue so we put the mains to one side and started on the combo.



Pictures are a little rubbish, sorry! It was basically wings, onion rings, cheese sticks and tortillas, with sauce. Like with nandos you pick the ‘heat’ of your sauce, we went for hot BBQ which was on the hotter end of the scale, and they weren’t kidding!

We rushed through the combo so we could move onto the mains, which were going cold

Adam had the wings and boneless chicken combo, he went for more heat than we had on the combo!



I went for the Asian salad, I forgot to take a picture but it supposedly looked like this



Firstly it didn’t look even remotely like this, and secondly apart from the bits of chicken with the Asian heat sauce it tasted of NOTHING, I gave in after 3 bites.

After we were done I thought about saying something but our server whipped away the plate full of food without saying a word and walked off before I could mutter anything either.

The bill came to $50 and looking back I must have been dead on my feet as we left a 20% tip!

It was only 10pm and we had considered staying for this



But as much as I wanted to try a $2 fruit loop shot I don’t think tonight was the night, we were pooped. Instead we left and headed straight back across to the hotel, luckily the rain held off until we made it back and then the heavens opened! Things weren’t looking good for our trip to discovery cove tomorrow!

SPENDS RECAP
Lunch - chicken/fish tender meal and a veggie wrap - $26
Snack - Funnel Cake - $5.99 (ish, I think!)
Dinner - beer, marg, combo, asian salad and more wings and boneless bits - $50 + tip

NOM OF THE DAY
Easy one, only one thing was really even nice! FUNNEL CAKE!

[Nesbits]

Well done on avoiding the rain, well done Adam on sheikra, my DH is too tall for this ride, but I love it! Funnel cake is delicious isn't it?

[yellowrose78]

Another fab day

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by Nesbits

Well done on avoiding the rain, well done Adam on sheikra, my DH is too tall for this ride, but I love it! Funnel cake is delicious isn't it?

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Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Another fab day

See more...

thanks for reading

[Redrach1903]

LOL seriously, what was that dude like! Not cool and v rude! I would have been so ticked off being ignored.

Woo well done to Adam for going on Sheikra! I really want a go, but I don’t really like BG! Dilemmas! And don’t even get me started on Gwazi. I went on it in 1999 and am only just recovering, horrible beast of a thing!

Hmmm funnel cake, how GOOD are they?!

Aww those hippos are too cute! Eeek that makes me want to go to BG now just to see them! Hahaha!

Bummer about your mains being left with your starters, why do they try to do that?! Who would want that!

The weather being so pants must have been when we arrived as our first 4 days or so were pretty wet!

Great read again hun x

[LaurenYorkshir]

So glad you escape the rain ! I remember feeling the same about Cheetah Hunt , feels like you are waiting for the boost to kick in and ends up being pretty tame . You did well to go out for dinner though , I think we just crashed after Busch gardens.

[lauz]

Great pictures of the animals today! i love the one of the Hippo! Well done on avoiding the worst of the weather too!