Mako/BGT trip report

NotSo said:

Just had a ridiculously fun time in central Florida. Into PIE on Sun and out on Thurs.

OK, so BGT Umm, this park is awesome.... I spent a ton of time watching animals. I could do that because every ride was a walk on.
Shiekra - the surprise of the trip. Better that Valravn in my opinion, but I think its because of the restraints. Both drops are like a weightless out of your seat free fall, freakin sweet! Valravn holds you in so tight you don't get any air. Plus, Shiekra only one loop. I like that.
Montu and Kumba - 20 years ago I rode Kumba 42 times and Montu 22 times all in the same day. Man I can't do that any more! I enjoyed about 2 laps on each. I cant do all loops anymore, just not enjoyable.

Sky Ride - I did 5 laps. Is this the longest sky bucket ride in the world or what? This was my favorite ride in the park.
Scorpion, log flume, I did some other stuff I forget... I'll say this, Busch Gardens Tampa is an incredible park. I had a great time.

I think we are in a great time period for new coasters. Some nice wooden ones popping up again finally, and if more like Mako keep coming that's icing on the cake. I can't see coasters like Kraken or Kumba ever being built again. I loved KI's Banshee, but I can't ride maybe once a day. Who wants to go upsidedown 7 times? Gimme speed and air man, all day. The new Hulk at Universal?, heck yeah but only once. That's enough.

Wow, thanks for sharing your report... great TR! So much to cover, where to begin? PIE (St Pete airport) I assume Allegiant - awesome fares. Laurie and I fly back & forth to Cinci often. $44 each way. Can't beat it. Sometimes we book but can't make it, so just kiss the $ goodbye, but heck, it's about the cost of a tank of gas.

Anyway, BGT will always have a special place in our hearts. That was the first park we took our boys to when they were 4-5 years old. Like a zoo with rides. At the time just had Scorpion and Python. That trip triggered memories of my childhood trips to Coney Island, Indian Lake and such. Fell in love with amusement parks all over again, and started doing family trips to Disney and KI.

In later years I remember marathoning on Kumba and Montu. Montu was and always will be our family's #1 coaster. And Sheikra was great when it was new, when the second drop was clouded in fog (later that quit working... like Adventure Express!)

Also later years, yeah, hard to do loops. Don't know how I tolerated Vortex for so many years. Good thing we got away from Cinci before it scrambled our brains. Banshee was somewhat of a letdown, compared to Montu... it even made me start to think that maybe Raptor isn't so bad after all.

So now BGT is our home park, but we haven't been since just after Cheetah Hunt. We've only lived here in Fla for a few months, so will likely visit someday soon, after all the medical issues are over (hopefully). World's best skyride! Hope you feel better soon.
Thanks again for taking the time to write.

* This post was modified at 1/28/17 10:26:58 AM *

Thanks Rob. I like to read trip reports, so I always try to post one if I go somewhere new because maybe someone will enjoy it. I like reading TRs about my home parks as well, just to get a dif perspective.
Yeah man, allegiant air. I like the small airports. PIE has what, 8 gates I think? We fly out of Youngstown OH, I think they have 4 gates maybe. We like Sanford too.
I know what you mean about a special place. My parents took us to parks like KI and CLP when we where young, and it was so cool to take my son there on family trips. His 1st coaster was TopCatTaxiJam at KI. I even tried to sneak him on Beast when he was only like 44". He did ride MF at only 5 years old, pretty cool.
Now, he's in 9th grade, and he didn't want to get behind (trying to keep 4.0). After me sending him pics of empty Qs he was wishing he went though, he's spoiled with FastLane though, only wants to go if I get FL, lol.
Montu is a great coaster, it's my favorite invert. Kumba is great to. There are some days I can go hard and ride a ton, but about half the time now I do have to take it easy.
If you are ever able to try Falcon's Fury give it a try. Smooth ride. Very unique experience.
I love Florida in January, to hot for me to live there I think! Good luck getting better.

oh yeah, I waited to book this trip for the BGT refurb schedule to come out. I probably wouldn't have gone if Sky Ride was down. I love that ride.

* This post was modified at 1/28/17 8:31:29 PM *

Not much to add other than a great TR. Manta is a great ride, but I can understand skipping it for a great hyper.

I'll always have a special place in my heart for BGT, and not just from working there. When we were working inner city Tampa it was our sanity so many days after school. Whether we needed quiet with the animals or to scream it out on a coaster. I miss that park.

I do love B&M hypers. Diamondback, Behemoth, and Intimidator are my favorites of all coasters. Mako is the ride I can go on most at SeaWorld Orlando. Kraken happens to be the best there, however I have limited myself to four trips on anything with inversions so I don't feel sick. Manta's pretzel loop is too hard on me, so I only go on that twice at most.
Because I live in Florida, SheiKra is less special to me of the dive coasters. Griffon is my favorite followed by Valravn then SheiKra. Kumba is a great sit down looper. Montu is not the best inverted coaster but it is a fine ride. Because it is new with a ton of things that surprise me both on the ride and in the line, I try to ride Cobra's Curse at least four times each day I am there. I like Schwarzkopf rides, but Scorpion is not very long and the seats are small for adults with long legs. I'll try it two times most days. Cheetah Hunt could be something much better without the super hard restraints. I ride it twice. It does look the best.

Thanks for the report. We have tentative plans to visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg in the spring and get Busch Gardens Platinum Passes. Hoping to get down to Sea World Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, and The Fun Spot Parks in August. It's been quite sometime since I visited Florida. Glad to hear Maco lived up to the hype. Looking forward to riding it.

^ Going to BGW is always a good plan. Apollo's Chariot is another good hyper. I wouldn't miss Griffon or Verbolten either. Even though I rode Superman UF out at SFDK, Tempesto would be a new credit for me. Depending on when in the "spring" you go, you may get a chance to try InvadR.
It's also good that you are going to give the Fun Spots a shot. They are some real hidden gems. The giant swings are good, Freedom Flyer should have VR by then, White Lightning has great airtime even though it's for families, and the new smaller Gravity Group wooden should be open.

I am so out of the loop lately, I totally forgot Mako existed! I definitely loved Sea World when I visited my second time, which was right after Manta was built.

I personally love Kraken, but I totally understand avoiding loops as you get older. I'm 28 and I'm finding that Batman: The Ride's are really tough because of the G forces on the loops.

I'm unsure when I'll get back to seaworld, but man, do they have a nice little lineup of coasters.

I went to BGT in...2013? and it was a FANTASTIC park. Loved every inch of it. Hopefully they can add another coaster at some point and truly become a next level park.

Nice TR, thanks so much for sharing!

I agree that BGT is very good and would be great with a next level of coaster (hyper, giga, or wing). First however, they have to work on day-by-day up keep of what they already have. Kumba and SheiKra go down a lot more than they should. (This goes for any park that is open for many more months than most.)

Glad to see you had a great time at both parks. I went to swo in june just days after mako opened. Unfortunately for some bs reason they refused to allow people to stay on for even one reride and this was when no one was in the station or in my row. Everyone had to get off even if there was no one in the station and then return back. I got dizzier on the squiggly queue line getting back to the station than the ride itself. I did get maybe 15 rides in one of my days there. It was a great ride, but i hated that they had trims right after the hammerhead and the hard stop at the mcbr

Bgt, this year i finally got to ride my favorite coaster montu 30 times in a single day with 11 on kumba. I still hate the one reride only policy. And yes i followed the rules, but kumba they used to be the most lax on the rule in the past, but this year was the first time i was asked if i had rerode it even though it was the first of my two rides and i told them that it indeed the first ride and they let me stay.

Cobra's curse is the new ride and as fun as it was, you didn't miss much. It was too short imo and i think if it was longer wkth each segment getting more time, it could have been much better.
Scorpion, good luck ever getting the row you want. Without question if you want a guaranteed front row ride, that is a first in the morning thpe ride.
Falcon is awesome. I prefer face down drops than sitting up and falling strait down on other traditional droo towers. Strange as it sounds, i like the view of the ground than seeing strait ahead as i am fallig down.
Cheetah is a fun ride, but they really need to change those hard plastic otsr to the softer ones that i305 has as well as maverick. It only has one inversion, it isn't like the otsr will be taxed from overuse. The final turn back to the final brake is just painful.

Overall bgt is solidly one of my top favorite parks. I usually stay all day from the start of the day to the end.

On the note of batman, i too cannot ride that more than 5 times in a day. I can take the nice pacing of montu, but batman is too forceful in such a compact layout for me to ever ride it multiple times in a row.

* This post was modified at 4/13/17 1:51:00 AM *

BGT was my kids' first park - now our adult sons, and was the park that reawakened the coaster enthusiast in me 25 years ago. Now that we live right across the water from there, I'm sad to say we haven't visited the park since the year Cheetah opened.

But Montu always was and probably always will be my family's #1 coaster. It was our first true invert and sadly nothing since has even come close to its thrill and majesty (save for maybe Afterburn and Fire Dragon).

Now that we are too old and frail to enjoy any but perhaps the gentlest coaster (can you say 'Iron Dragon'?) I look forward to the day when we may take our grandchildren to the "zoo with rides", which still has probably the best skyride anywhere.

Hahaha Roblec! You know you already replied to my TR with a similar response don't you?

Skyride is the best!

* This post was modified at 4/17/17 9:46:18 AM *

NotSo said:

Hahaha Roblec! You know you already replied to my TR with a similar response don't you?

Skyride is the best!

Sorry ... It must be the medications. At least I got to throw in the bit about the skyride.

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* This post was modified at 7/24/19 1:58:45 PM *