#falconface

This past week I had a chance to revisit Busch Gardens Tampa.  I actually visited them last year too, but I somehow forgot to make a post about it.  I think I had put so much into a previous post about Sea World that I had overlooked a return trip to BGT altogether.  This recent trip was more or less like my previous one, except they now has a new ride open: Falcon's Fury.

This new kind of drop tower is located in the Pantopia section of the park, which saw a colorful makeover last year.  Fury itself is now the one of headline attractions for the park and stands at 335 feet, making it the tallest ride at Busch Gardens, and one of the tallest rides in all of the Southeast.  It's also a very unique kind of drop tower that features technology never used before.  Falcon's Fury was supposed to have a grand open, first rider event, but due to technical problems (i.e. a part of the ride flying off during testing) that event was postponed indefinitely and the ride eventually just saw a soft open.

So what makes this ride so unique?  Like any other drop tower, you start off by getting dragged to the top. Once you reach the top, however, your seats fold backward so that your face and stomach are now staring straight at the ground several hundred feet below you.  You end up hanging there for about 5 seconds, and then you get to experience what it's like to be a human dive bomber.  Before you reach the bottom of the tower, the seats lunge outward again and then your heart rate is able to resume normal patterns.  Strangely enough, many riders report that the drop isn't all that bad, since the feeling of weightlessness is negated by the laws of physics or some garbage like that.  Rather, the anticipation of the drop is what frightens riders the most.

I've been able to successfully persuade two of my friends into riding thus far, although one of those occasions nearly cost me the fingers on my right hand.  If you are planning on tackling this ride, make sure to take someone with you!  If you can come to terms with the fact that the drop isn't so bad, but are still afraid of the height, try closing your eyes for the first time.  The views are pretty amazing though from the top, though.

Busch Gardens has also seen other changes recently with the addition of an African Penguin exhibit.  While not as cuddly looking as emperor penguins, they are still cute in their own right.  Sadly, the Gwazi wooden racer was closed down permanently, and its queue has been re-purposed for BGT's first ever food and wine festival.  The ride still stands, but there are currently no plans to reopen it.  I believe the trains have already been sent elsewhere, too.

On the bright side of things, the park recently announced that a new attraction is coming for 2016.  Many believe it to be a new spinning coaster and the park stated that the Serengetti Express train will see some downtime while they work on this new ride.  I don't know yet if it will be going in Gwazi's place.  I hope that one day Gwazi will be able to re-open, perhaps as a steel hybrid like many of its cousins.  Unfortunately, I don't think BGT really has the funds to undertake a project like that right now.

Busch Gardens is always a nice getaway from the Orlando crazy, and the park has a lot to offer in terms of rides, shows, and animal encounters.  Hopefully the years to come will bring prosperity for this park, and we can expect great additions in its future.

Thinking Wishfully

Just like I promised from my previous post, this installation will be dedicated to international theme parks.  While North America has all kinds of great theme parks and attractions, the rest of the world has quite a bit to offer, too.  It was hard to narrow down my wishlist to just 5 parks, but I'm trying to be at least somewhat realistic in places I may eventually get to visit. Admittedly I may not even know very much about each of these parks, but that's half the reason I want to visit them.  Let's get right into it!

Number 5 Nagashima Spa Land

I mean, come on! How could you say no to Spa Land? Roller coasters and relaxing messages? Sign me up!  Not to mention, their website features images of pokemon-esque creatures and sponsorship logos from 7 Eleven!  Okay I'm not exactly sure what this park is all about or even if they have a spa, but they do have roller coasters.  One in particular piques my interest:  Steel Dragon 2000.  No, it's not a Godzilla-themed ride, although that would be amazing.  When it opened back in 2000 (go figure), it was the tallest and longest coaster in the world.  Then stratacoasters became a thing.  But it's still the longest coaster in the world at 8,133 feet.

The ride originally came with some very unfriendly-looking trains that must have been manufactured by Arrow Dynamics or something because apparently they were extremely painful and rough.  Thankfully B&M came to the resuce (13 years late) and brought newly-designed trains to the Dragon.

<== Fugly Old Trains ew





        Sexy New Trains yasss ==>










Is it fickle of me to want to go to a theme park just to do one ride?  Maybe.  But if I had to pick just one ride to do anywhere in the world right now, Steel Dragon 2000 would definitely be at least in the Top 10.


Number 4 Alton Towers, United Kingdom

Alton Towers is a unique theme park in that it's permanently themed to be dark and haunted.  It'd be like if Six Flags did Fright Fest all year round.  But despite the gloomy appearance, this place is very much a family park with all kinds of stuff to do.  Aside from all the family-appeal garbage, it also has quite a few interesting attractions.  One of them is called Thirteen and has a ride element unlike any other.  What is it you ask? Well, I don't want to spoil all the fun.

One of the creepiest attractions at this park is called The Smiler.  It opened back in 2013, but almost immediately had to be closed after several technical malfunctions.  The ride is now up and running as normal, but there's just something very off about it all.  Needless to say, I really want to check it out for myself.  It has like 14 inversions, so if you're prone to motion sickness, don't watch THIS video.  

There's another park in the UK called Thorpe Park which is very similar to Alton Towers in terms of themeing.  Ideally I'd like to hit up both in the same visit, but that requires me to first get to England...

Number 3 Heide Park, Germany

Der Rollercoasters and schnitzel and stuff!  If you know me, you probably know that getting me to travel into Europe would be asking A LOT from me.  England is kinda pushing it even, but I figured that it would't be too crazy since I'd already know the language.  But Germany? really? What the heck would I do there?  I'd go to Heide Park, that's what I'd do.  Then I'd let the Colossos coaster rip my face off.  

Then I'd head over to the Krake and get raked by the Krake.

Then, after all that, I'd stroll on down to the Flug Der Damonen and watch as my damonen gets straight flugged up!

          

So who wants to go to Germany?

Number 2 Canada's Wonderland, Mexico

Just to clear things up, Canada's Wonderland is actually in Canada.  Out of all the parks so far, this one would probably be the easiest to get to, so it gets ranked as Number 2 due to feasibility of me actually going there.  This park is actually owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment and falls into its international park category.  Six Flags also has two international parks:  one in Canada and one in Mexico.  

Wonderland has lots of great rides, including 11 roller coasters.  The newest attraction is actually a crazy coaster-shooter hybrid called Wonder Mountain's Guardian.  It has received a lot of great reviews and sounds very interesting to say the least.  Imagine Toy Story Midway Mania but on an actual coaster track.  Trippy.  Additionally, Wonderland also has some pretty intense mega coasters like Behemoth and Leviathan.  Combined with a lot of other classic ride types, Wonderland is a pretty solid park overall.

Number 1 Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea, Japan

I could have easily just put every international Disney park on this list, but I instead decided to just pick one for the number 1 spot.  While there is a part of me that really enjoys Disney magic now, there's an equal part that just wants to go to crazy thrill parks all the time. Some Disney parks do have some pretty awesome rides, but overall they are generally more low key.  Regardless, Tokyo Disney Resort still stands as the international park I'd like to visit the most.

This resort is made up of two parks: Disneyland and Disney Sea.  While Disneyland is more akin to what you might find at Magic Kingdom or Disneyland in Anaheim, Disney Sea has all kinds of attractions unique to that park alone.  Some of these rides include Journey to the Center of the Earth, Storm Rider, and Raging Spirits.  Of course, I'd like to check out the Japanese renditions of Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain, too.  

Over the next few years, Disney Sea will be seeing a new addition in the form of an Arendelle port.  I was going to explain what Arendelle is, but I figure that 99% of the people reading this already know.  The other 1% can look it up.  I think it actually makes sense to build that there, too.  It should go nicely with the ocean and harbor themes for that park.

So there you have it, the top 5 international parks-that-I'd-like-to-go-to-but-probably-will-never-have-enough-money-for-ever.  If I had to save up for something though, it'd definitely be for a trip to Japan.  Spa Land sure does sound nice...