A well known amusement park near were we were staying is called Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens is unique in that it also has animals throughout the park, like a zoo. Busch Gardens also used to have a Busch brewery located on the grounds. My uncle said he had gone there when he was around my age and there had been an alligator roaming the grounds. Alligators no longer roam the grounds. :P
I had originally been interested in visiting Universal Studios. Universal Studios would have been 1.5 hours away in Orlando. Since Orlando is inland the temperature would have been close to 100. It also turns out that the price of admission would have been $150 per person. Apparently that's also how much Busch Gardens admission is, but they were having a half off sale for Memorial Day. We also got 1 admission ticket free from the AirBNB we were staying at for Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens seemed like the more intimidating pick at first because it looked like it had mostly big rides. It turned out that Busch Gardens was the better choice anyways since Universal Studios probably would have had bigger crowds, been hotter, and was more expensive. It was a Monday so I was hoping an amusement park would be less busy, but by 1:00 it seemed like more and more people crowded in, but we were done riding rides by then.
Busch Gardens was about a 40 minute drive from our AirBNB. After eating breakfast and coffee, and deciding we were definitely not going to Universal Studios we headed over, and made it to Busch Gardens around 11am. At Busch Gardens there's a shuttle that takes you from the parking lot to the front gates of the park. We started off by going into the kangaroo exhibit before trying to find one of the water rollercoasters. I thought I had found a water rollercoaster but was deeply mistaken. The rollercoaster did in fact splash down into the water but it was not a water rollercoaster. The tracks of the roller coaster also seemed tame enough so I decided I wanted to give it a try. (It was not a tame roller coaster, at all.) When looking up the park it is actually ranked as the 2nd most intense rollercoaster at the park. I have been on scarier rides before including Raging Bull and Batman at Six Flags, but this was not the type of ride I was expecting or prepared for.
The Sheikra goes straight down from 200ft up in the air while going 70mph. You also go upside down before plunging into the water towards the end. None of the riders get wet, but it splashes water out at the people around the coaster. I tightly closed my eyes during most of the roller coaster, especially during the drops. I am glad I did it, but maybe something a little less intense would have been better. :P The Sheikra is floorless, and the bars didn't fit tightly around my shoulders, so you definitely felt the sense of falling more. We were also in the back row which might have made it feel more intense as well, although not as intense as the front row. Thankfully my across the shoulder bag didn't come off somehow. You could buy a picture that was taken of you after the ride was over using a QR code, but the digital download would have been $20 for a collection of your photos. I just screenshotted the photos with the lock symbol still on them instead.
We next found the line for the Stanley Falls Flume which we were going to ride first, before I saw the Sheikra. The Stanley Falls Flume was a very tame and kid-friendly water rollercoaster. You ride it in a log shaped raft, which at the end splashes into the water. I thought that by being in the front that I would get the most wet, but that wasn't the case. My uncle got soaked while just my shorts got a little wet. The Congo River Rapids which were the last ride we went on was also a kid-friendly water ride. For this ride you're on a tube shaped raft with 9 other people, and go down some rapids throughout the ride. If you go backwards down a rapid then you will get the most wet, we discovered, but you never know which way you'll face when going down a rapid. There is also a waterfall at the end that a section of the raft goes under. Since it was in the upper 80s this day, you're clothes dried pretty quickly and the water actually felt good. There were water misters throughout the park too. There were at least two groups of kids at the park that were visiting Busch Gardens as a field trip. One of the groups were all wearing shirts about graduating 5th grade. We were put on the raft with college students from Anderson University in South Carolina who were all wearing Christian themed shirts.
The lines had a longer wait time as the day went on, but we were satisfied with the rides we had gone on. We had lunch after going on the rapids ride at a Chick Fil A within the park. The Chick Fil A ended up being more expensive than a typical Chick Fil A but not as expensive as other food options in the park. After eating lunch we went on a train ride through part of the park. The train was called the Serengeti Express. While on the Serengeti express you could see gazelles, giraffes, zebra, etc. Seeing giraffes with rollercoasters behind them was an interesting sight. Throughout Busch Gardens you could pay an extra fee in order to interact with some of the animals in the park. We did not do any of those though.
After the train ride we decided that we were done, and took the shuttle back to the parking lot. Back at the AirBNB we showered before going down to the pool/hot tub. The same group of college aged people were down by the pool again. It seemed like they would mostly spend their day by the pool. After spending time at the pool we went to a restaurant on the beach before sunset. The restaurant was called "Sloppy Joes" and my uncle and I both ordered the fish and chips which was really good. I also ordered a raspberry lemonade. Every night they have someone playing live music. This particular guy played mostly music from the 70's. My uncle got him to play "Cheeseburger in Paradise" by Jimmy Buffet which was an item on the menu. I had never heard that particular song before, but in my defense I have heard the song "Margaritaville" plenty of times. During dinner a crow flew down and attempted to steal one of my uncle's fries. It was very startling. The sun started going down as we finished our dinner. We walked across the beach where we could see the sunset better. My uncle found a sand dollar as we were walking. The sunset was gorgeous, and we stayed looking out at it until it touched the water. (I don't think I had ever watched a full sunset before that point.) All along the shoreline people stood looking at the sunset. It truly is so intriguing that something can be so beautiful that happens everyday yet you can't help but stand in awe of it's beauty.
We walked back to the AirBNB which was a close walk from the restaurant before ending the night by watching 80's music videos.
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