MMW Orlando Adventure: Thursday

We left the villa around 9.30, with a picnic breakfast of cheese and ham croissants and ritz crackers. This has over the years become our standard breakfast for Busch Gardens days. Stephen took over the driving from Keith a short way into the journey.

We arrived at the park around 11. The car park was pretty empty and we were soon on the tram to the park entrance.

We were quickly through the turnstiles and making our way to the main attraction, for Stephen at least, Iron Gwazi. This used to be quite a rough wooden coaster which has been transformed with new tracks. With a wait time of just a few minutes Stephen, Sarah and Keith were soon on while I watched and waited to see what it was like. Did a similar coaster a few years back in Magic Mountain and scared myself silly with the restraints and the amount of time my bum was out of the seat!!!

They came back smiling saying i probably wouldn't love it but would be alright. They they were all back on with me in tow! They were right, it was alright, very fast, lots of twists and turns and lots of airtime, but I survived!

We joined the queue for Cheetah Chase, unfortunately they were having some problems and we decided to leave the queue after 15 jins and try again later. Instead we headed for Cobras Curse. A fun family ride with its unique "lift" and spinning cars.

One of Keith's favourite rides next, Montu. With still virtually no queues, as it was for all of the park today, we were quickly done with two rides on this.

We had seen and heard Cheetah Hunt up and running again, so walked back that way to get a couple of rides on it.

We walked through some of the animal exhibits across the centre of the park, stopping for me to see my favourites here, the hippos, who were unusually out of the water having something to eat. No elephants in their habitat though as that was being refurbished.

We stopped for some food, not the best choice as we ordered some chicken nuggets and chips which were not exactly hot! Poor really consider how much food costs in these parks! Hey ho, didn't take long and we were back out looking for more adventure. After a look at Falcon's Fury, we decided this drop ride wasn't really our thing and moved on without riding.

A new ride for us, that I was looking forward to was Tigris, similar to a ride we did in SeaWorld San Diego last year that I loved. The kids weren't intern riding so Keith came with me. Another short but fun ride, that packs a punch with its vertical twisting loops and launched start.

Then it was time for a couple of rides on another of my favourite rides, Sheikra.

Wandering back towards the front of the park we took some time to feed the birds in Lori's Landing and to see the kangaroos and wallabies.

Back to more coasters, and Sarah and Stephen were once again riding Iron Gwazi.

We stopped for a drink/snack break as we had decided to stay on til park close. We had a peach melba funnel cake, can't believe we didn't take a picture, it was fabulous!

With the sun starting to set and the promise of some night riding we headed back to Cheetah Hunt, I think the kids had 3 more rides. Then another turn on Cobra's Curse.

Keith and the Stephen then had another 3 rides on Montu, Sarah did 2.

Deciding to head back for final rides on Iron Gwazi, we stopped first for the kids to ride Cheetah Hunt again. When they came back they said we should definitely do it again as the views of the park with all its Christmas lights from the top of the ride was stunning, so we all had another ride. They were right again, it was amazing, unfortunately no photos of that.