Here Now! first WDW family holiday - Day 10. Busch Gardens and Davenport Ale House

[scottishnellie]

Got up today and the skies were blue, the sun was shining and there was a heat in the air already. Woo-Hoo! Busch Gardens was on! I woke the others up at 8 saying I wanted to be on the road at 9. Everyone got ready and the Eastons came round. We had to do a quick U-Turn back after a few minutes though as the Eastons had forgot their passports and the tickets say you need photo ID so better safe than sorry. We had already done the passport bit when we checked in at Discovery Cove and got our parking pass so so shouldn't need them, but if we did I permanently carry my little copies anyway.

That's a tip I picked up from someone else's trip report which has been great. I went to a local printer and asked them to scan and laminate copies of all 4 of our passports. It cost about £3 to do this and it means I carry them as photo ID, so no need for our real passports of driving licences and they take up no space at all in my kipling multiple. We have handed them over a couple of times outwith using them as ID at Discovery Cove, (believe it or not, Kevin got ID'd buying beer n Walmart!) and they have been accepted no problem.

So left at 9:18 I the end and followed the iphone maps we are using as a Sat Nav, propped on the dashboard on the stand we got in TK Maxx back home for £7. This has served us really well. We just plug the charger into the car to keep the phone juiced up, and away we go. No need for a separate Sat Nav. So far. Les hope that comment does not come back to haunt me!

Arrived at Busch, showed our parking pass so no $17 fee, parked up, got on the tram and were through the gates by 10:30. No coolbag today as Busch don't allow food in. We did have a couple of frozen bottles of water in each rucksack and I had 6 wee cereal bars at the bottom of mine. We also had the refillable bottle we had bought in seaworld, which here in Busch costs 99c each time to refill, and we gave the Eastons the other one that had been left in our villa so they would be able to do the same. What we also did was, since the kids ate breakfast at 8am, we took a few sandwiches and crisps in the car. When the Sat Nav showed we were 10m away we got them to have their picnic, knowing this would keep them going another few hours til lunch.

Busch do an all day dining package but at $16 for Kieran and $30 for each of us we would have been $106 and we felt we wouldn't spend that on food today.

We headed straight round to Cheetah Hunt. We all loved how fast and smooth this Roller Coaster was.

Then onto Montu. Everyone liked this too. Andrew is not keen on doing too many rollercoasters in a row as it makes him feel queasy so he did not ride and Evan sat out too. Emma and Matthew were both not tall enough so sat this one out too. We really liked this one with lots of loops and swoops and Hannah, Kieran and I went on for a second go.

We then walked right back round through Morocco, via all the lovely Flower arrangements, is it is the flower festival at the moment. The kids liked looking at all the birds and the peacock gave them a full tail show.

On to Stanleyville where the dreaded Sheikra was waiting. This was one of the few I kept telling the kids I did not know if I would be able to do. As we already know from ToT I am not keen on sheer drops, and Sheikra takes you to the edge of a sheer drop, holds you there for 5 seconds then lets you go. Oh My God. Well I was in the queue before I knew it and I swear I nearly chickened out at the top of the queue but I did it. I hated it. I will never do it again. But I did it. I have to admit to closing my eyes at the dangly bit too. Not fun. Hannah was patting me on the arm and telling me she was proud of me lol!

Evan stood in the splash zone for Sheikra thinking it was not too bad as the ride passed by, (photo 1) only to find the big soak was a few seconds behind! (photo 2)

Came off and I sat with Andrew and the Easton kids while Kevin, Dianne, Hannah and Kieran had another go. While sitting there I got talking to an English woman next to me who, noticing Matthew had Downs, was telling me about the rider assistance program where you can be given a time to come back through the Fastpass queue rather than wait in a long queue. To be honest it had never even crossed my mind to look into anything like this for Matthew. He really is no different to any other little boy and queues with as much patience as the other kids. He does get a little more tired I suppose so it might be good to know for really busy days at MK perhaps. This ladies daughter had Aspergers and queueing in tight rows upsets her, so sounds ideal if you have someone in your party like that. We tend not to think of Matthew being any different to the other 4 kids.

By now it was 12:50 and poor Evan (who is not so keen on the big rides) had not been on anything. So we went to Stanley Falls Flume and got a bit wet – some more than others! Since we had already started getting wet we thought we may as well carry on and headed for Congo River Rapids, stopping to visit the big white Bengal Tiger on the way. What a beautiful beast. On to the rapids where, similar to the water ride in Animal Kingdom, we all sat together in a big circle. Well. Every single one of us got soaked to the skin. I mean soaked. I was wringing the water out the bottom of my dress. All the way round you get a wee bit wet but nothing terrible, but then right at the end the whole thing goes under a huge jet of water and it does not matter where you are sitting, everyone gets it! By now everyone was hungry and ready for lunch so the mums and kids waited in the sun trying to dry while the dads went back and got the bags from the lockers (which take 2x 25c each time you use them).

We got lunch at Bengal Bistro. Kevin had a burger topped with Chicken tenders and fries, Hannah had a kids Hot Dog and Kieran and I had the Turkey Sandwich. I can not eat bread so I ate all the filling which was enough for me, and Hannah and Kevin split my roll for their fries. That's the only thing about most of the fast food places. Its very carb heavy. So if you do not eat bread or breaded/fried things, choice can be limited. I've shown the receipt for costs below. We did not buy drinks as we still had the refillable cup and I was drinking the water we brought in. You move out of the serving kiosk to sit at outdoor tables.

After food we had loo breaks and the kids ran off to play in Wild Surge and Treetop trails which is a big play area with nets, tunnels and rope bridges, while the adults sat in full sun still trying to dry off! As we were just about dry we were not up for getting wet again by doing the final water ride, so skipped Tanganyika Tidal Wave. The McNicols headed for Kumba, while the Eastons went to Pantopia. We queued 20m for Kumba which was the longest we had queued all day. Most rides were walk on or 5-10m wait. We all liked Kumba and I liked that it was all little tummy lifts instead of huge drops!

Walked round and caught up with the Eastons at Pantopia where there were 2 rides I had earmarked as not being for me. Pheonix (big boat thing that swings side to side and almost upside down) and Falcons Fury (that goes straight up, tips you face forward and drops you). Yeah. No thanks! Of course, my daredevil kids went on both of these with their dad and Andrew and Dianne.

The all the kids had countless goes on a little rollercoaster ride called Scorpion. I had one go on it and it made me laugh. Because I immediately recognised it as being the exact, and I mean exact, track that the rollercoaster in Butlins in Ayr had when I was a kid so I have ridden it a thousand times!

By now it was 5:15 and the park closes at 6 so the McNicols wanted to go on the skyride, this being the only way to see the big safari animals, as the train that usually goes right round the park is closed down while they produce a new ride for 2016. We took this from where the Cheetah Hunt is all the way to Jungala then got off, went round and queued and just got back on again, back to Cheetah Hunt. By now Evan had plucked up the courage to go on and had loved it, so Evan, Hannah, Kieran, Emma, Matthew and Andrew went on one last go of Cheetah hunt. Not long after they had all gone in, they closed the queue for the ride at 6pm sharp. Our lot came off at 6.05 and we headed out of the park after a last round of loo breaks. The trams to the car park stop at 6:30 so you do need to be out of this park sharp or you face a long walk back to your car!

We headed back up the I4 to Davenport again, intending to eat at an Italian I have Groupon for (D'oro Palazzo, anyone know it?) but when we got there we discovered it closes at 5pm on a Tuesday. So tired and Hungry we headed for the nearest place with food and went to Davenports Ale House. We sat outside on the patio and had steaks / burgers / pasta dishes. No food photos as by the time the food arrived was relaxing with a glass of wine and just forgot all about it to be honest. Had a nice night sitting out there and a good laugh with the kids.

Headed home and got ready for bed. I started snoozing on the couch where we had started watching Jurassic Park so had to head for bed. Thus the trip report had to wait until morning again (sorry!)

Today we are on a free day. Which means we will start with a lazy morning, go and do some shopping (hopefully the kids will be up for this) then wing it from there depending on how we are all feeling. So tomorrows TR may be short n sweet.

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New Photo Added by scottishnellie - 22 Apr 15 2:36 PM.

[JoJo88]

Fab day at BG! I'm with you, absolutely no way you'd get me on Falcon's Fury. They were still testing it during our trip last year so the option wasn't even there, but it made me feel ill just watching it!

Hope you're enjoying a nice relaxing day, looking forward to reading all about it

[Megandllsmum]

Sounds like a great day was had by all, great tip with laminating copies of passports, we only visited Disney parks last year so having magicbands we never got asked for ID. . . . Will look into doing this, enjoy your relaxed day today x

[Helen0705]

Another great day and a super tip about laminating passports
Looking forward to reading more

[Bertiebear]

You look like you are having an amazing holiday. We are going next year in a villa so is nice to see how you've planned your days etc.

[POOLIEJOOLIE]

Brilliant idea regarding the passports.. Will def look to do this.
Never been to Busch gardens but it looks brilliant 😎

[marshall-stephens]

Ah yes, Walmart have a policy to ask for ID if they think you look under 40 when buying alcohol!

[Guest]

Another good day, only been to Busch once and must go back

[jemima2]

Loved the look of the skyride! And thats about it! Lol i am not a coaster person...well done you and everyone seemed to have a great day!