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The weather improved so it was time to hit the water parks, Aquatica near Sea World and Volcano Bay, which opened in 2017, and although we could see it directly opposite the back of our hotel, it was across a major highway so not easy to get to.  The rides were great fun, including an aqua roller coaster which propelled us upwards using electro magnets, as well as plenty of raft and tube slides. 

The volcano in the centre of the park housed Ko’okiri Body Plunge a capsule drop slide.  It’s the tallest in America at 125 feet high and the first to travel through a clear tube through a pool full of swimmers.  First you walk up the 200+ steps to the top of Volcano Mountain.  Then you stand in a pod with arms across your chest and legs crossed at the ankle.  The door closes and the drums start to play getting louder and louder.  Without warning the floor of the pod disappears and you drop almost vertically.  Neil did it and it took less than 4 seconds to drop the 125ft to the bottom.  Whilst it did get the heart beating as the drums played it was over much too quickly.  The longer tube rides that twist and turn are much more exhilarating.  Cheryl chose not to try any of these!  We had loads of fun in the water parks but for obvious reasons we don’t have any photos.

For the last few days of our trip we hired a car and moved on to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens.  It is only an hour and a half drive from Orlando but was pleasantly free from the overwhelming crowds.  Cheryl remembered her favourite roller coaster had been Kumba, which had recently opened back then and it was still there.  It wasn’t very sophisticated, but boy did it move and it really rattled your bones! 

As it wasn’t busy we had plenty of time to try out all the rides, and we soon realised that it was well worth it to queue for a seat in the front row.  We loved Cheetah Hunt which was based on the movement of running that a cheetah has when pursuing prey, weaving, dodging and at great speed. The acceleration had us pinned back in our seats! At ¾ mile long it’s the longest in the park. 

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Montu takes you high into the air before a twisting drop, a 60-foot vertical loop, an Immelmann loop and a weightless roll and that’s only the beginning on this inverted roller coaster. It has seven inversions, a unique Batwing inversion and was the first coaster in the world to incorporate an Immelmann loop (a simultaneous loop and roll), named after a German fighter pilot.

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Cheryl’s favourite was Sheikra.   You climb 200 feet to the edge of a 90-degree drop that inches you mercilessly over the edge—and then stops for about 3 seconds leaving you staring at the ground below.  Then it drops almost vertically straight down into a 70mph roller coaster whirlwind with an Immelmann loop and then more loops and twists. 

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Busch is much more than just roller coasters.  It was opened fifty years ago when wildlife parks were PC.  The train that takes you through the wildlife park is still there as is the cable car.  You can see rhino, elephants, giraffe, cheetah, lions, tigers and much more.  They have acres of space to roam and graze so it’s not like your average zoo.  The park itself is looking it’s age but when you don’t have to queue for anything who cares?!

There was a special bonus which Cheryl remembered from all those years ago…..free beer!  The site originally incorporated a brewery run by the family and have always given away free beer, not much, 2 samples per adult around the size of ¼ pint.  It’s given away from 2 venues in the park and your right hand is stamped each time you take a freebie.   Cheryl discovered that the stamp could be easily washed off in the loos so we cheated……..now that’s our sort of park!!

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That was almost all the excitement over except for the journey home.  Our flight took off 2hrs late due to the plane arriving late from Gatwick because of bad weather.  Whilst the flight was good, food great, sleep comfortable and it made up 30 minutes it did leave us with a problem.  We had booked a train to get us back to Gloucester which left us with 1.5hrs to taxi to the gate, get through immigration, catch the train from Gatwick to Victoria, cross to Paddington via the tube and catch the 11.30.  Phew we made it but probably only because we chose to leave a few things in the US to allow us to travel with just cabin baggage and because we ran everywhere, barged past people and got very sweaty……yes, we know, TMI!

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We’re back home now and living in Neil’s house for the first time in almost 11 years.  We’re running around like headless chickens catching up with people and trying to empty the house before it’s sold at the end of the month……busy, busy, busy.