LOOK BACK: GATORLAND (ORLANDO, FL.)

GATORLAND, the alligator capital of the world, opened in Orlando, Florida, in 1949. We both visited this unique animal park separately in the 1990s and 2000s at the height of the Florida vacation boom and in summer 2022 we decided to revisit to see if Gatorland still its snappy charm!

NATIONAL HAMBURGER DAY 2024

Over the years we’ve eaten one or two (or maybe three) hundred hamburgers on our travels across the U.S.A. so to celebrate NATIONAL HAMBURGER DAY 2024 we looked back at the 12 memorable burgers we’ve chowed on - from worst to best!

A NEW YEAR'S VISIT TO BUSCH GARDENS (TAMPA, FL.)

We visited the BUSCH GARDENS TAMPA BAY theme park on Tuesday January 2 2024 and this was our first visit to the park since the summer of 2018. We discovered that while there had been some updates and changes, it really was much the same. 

While staying in Orlando, we purchased our ‘Any Day Two Park Ticket’ for 2 adults from the official SeaWorld website a few days before our visits to the parks. This pass gave us entry to the nearby SeaWorld and Busch Gardens with free coach transport to Tampa.

Passes x 2 = $245.98

😢 Service fee = $15.99

😢 Tax = $18.26

💰 Total = $280.23

The pass was very good value and was downloaded to our phone as a barcode PDF then scanned at the park gates. Simple as that!

The coach ride from Orlando to Tampa was easy to book online and we had to be at the rear of ICON Park, International Dr., in good time ahead of the 08:45 departure. The coach arrived promptly and filled up with guests from our pick-up spot alone, which meant we didn’t need to go to any other collection points (such as the one at SeaWorld, which we remembered had added a lot of time to our journey back in 2018). 

The ride from Orlando to Tampa was comfortable. We arrived at Busch Gardens at 10:20 am and the friendly driver made it clear we needed to be back at the coach for 7:00 pm for a swift departure fifteen minutes later. There was no way we would be getting left behind, as an Uber would have been in the region of $60.00!

⭐️ TOP TIP: If you use this free coach service, try and get seats near the front of the coach so you can see out the windshield, for the side windows of the coach are covered in a decorative wrap, meaning you can’t see out. 

Busch Gardens is a cash-free park, echoing our experience at SeaWorld San Diego last summer, so we were prepared. If you don’t have a credit card, we noticed machines in the park that you could load with cash onto a pre-payment card (no idea if there was a charge for this).

Throughout our visit to Busch Gardens, we took our time to see the many animals being exhibited. All the enclosures looked well kept and professionally maintained. 

We got to see:

• American Alligators (a larger fence had been erected since our last visit, as a guy from Louisiana had apparently hopped in with the gators in May 2023!)
• Giraffes. 
• Lions
• Porcupines 
• Zebras
• Hippopotamus
• Lemurs 
• Nile crocodile
• Pelicans
• Elephants
• Tiger
• Orangutans
• Chimpanzee (he came up to the window and sat a while with his blankets).
• Big Bird (Sesame Street)
• No gorillas (just the empty enclosure)

We were hoping to find a safari ride, as we could see vehicles in the animal enclosures taking people around, but sadly didn’t spot any signage, and as we hadn’t been given a map, wondered if this was available for VIPs only. 

We didn’t ride as many rollercoasters as we would have liked and only went on 3 rides in total. The park was busier than we hoped and many of the rides had standby wait times of 60 - 90 minutes. Some rides weren’t in operation, despite the designated ‘rides down’ board at the entrance being blank on the way in. 

We managed to ride:

CHEETAH HUNT

STANDBY: 35 mins
ACTUAL WAIT: 60 mins

FALCON’S FURY DROP TOWER (twice)

STANDBY: 15 mins

ACTUAL WAIT: 25 mins

While the actual wait for the first ride was 25 minutes, the wait for a second go was only 10 minutes. Are park visitors scared of this ride? If not, why is the line so often very short? It is a monster and the tower stands at 300ft tall, with you dropping face down at 90°, reaching 60mph! What’s not to like about that?!

KUMBAA (twice)

STANDBY: 20 mins

ACTUAL WAIT: 6 mins

TIGRIS

STANDBY: 50 mins

ACTUAL WAIT: Ride down

Only one car operates on this new rollercoaster and coupled with a slow loading process, led to a lengthy wait. The ride climbs to a height of 150ft (about the same as Kumbaa) and by the time we got close to the loading bay, it was dark. Then the ride went down! After a wasted 45 minutes, we had to make the ‘walk of shame’ back through the line as we couldn’t risk missing our coach back to Orlando. 

Sadly we didn’t get to enjoy the following:

• CONGO RIVER RAPIDS - closed.
• COBRA’S CURSE - staff were testing it and running empty cars around.
• IRON GWAZI - wait time was too long at 80 mins. 
• SHEIKRA - wait time was too long at 60 mins. We did watch it go around and noted the area smelled of vomit!
• MONTU - the standby line was 60 mins and on our last visit we were able to ride it three times in a row with no wait, so this time we weren’t fussed. 

A visit to a theme park wouldn't be complete without sampling the food:

🍕 OASIS PIZZA

A newly renovated eatery next to the Cheetah Hunt rollercoaster. We arrived for an early lunch but service wasn’t particularly quick, so it was after noon by the time we got our food. There was a ‘Pizza Deal’ (2 x Pepperoni and 2 x soda for $34.99) but it looked more like a snack than a meal!

Instead, we ordered:

🏈 Meatball Sub with fries ($16.99)

🍗 Chicken Parmesan Sandwich with fries ($16.99)

😢 Tampa Sales Tax = $2.55

💰 Total = $36.53

The sandwiches were good though they were practically the same - a crunchy grilled bun with a meat, marinara sauce and some cheese on top. The fries came with a tasty seasoning but weren’t as hot as they could have been.  

We enjoyed our food outdoors in the sunshine, sat on the terrace of the Giraffe Bar, where we had a restricted view of the grazing giraffes in the distance (wonder if their lunch was as pricey?).

🍹 COCKTAILS STAND

Towards the end of our visit we called at the Cocktails stand next to Iron Gwazi and sampled the Christmas cocktail, ‘Mistletoe’, which was tequila, Monin pomegranate syrup and lime juice ($14.99 + $1.12 tax). It was nice and sweet but had no kick whatsoever. In fact it tasted like fruity soda! If we’d realised that the Springs Taproom with handcrafted cocktails was as close by, we would have held off from buying one from this stand. 

🍺 SPRINGS TAPROOM

We got a 20oz draft Michelob Ultra ($15.49 + $0.62 tax). The bar was spacious and airy and a good place for us to have a rest after 6 hours of walking around the park. 

NAVIGATING NEW ENGLAND (UPDATE)

Spending the day drawing up a list of 'JAWS' filming locations on MARTHA'S VINEYARD for us to visit when we explore the island this summer as part of our 'Navigating New England' vacation.

So far we have:

CHRISSIE’S REMAINS & OPENING SCENE

CHIEF BRODY’S HOUSE (REBUILT)

MICHAEL BRODY BIRTHDAY PRESENT DOCK (RESTORED)

“HELP SHARK” BILLBOARD & BENCHES

AMITY POLICE STATION

MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICE

AMITY GAZETTE

BAD HAT HARRY’S BICYCLE RENTAL

AMITY 4TH JULY BANNER

GENERAL STORE “LET POLLY DO THE PRINTING”

AMITY FERRY

ALEX KINTNER/JAWS BRIDGE/POND

AMITY TOWN HALL

AMITY HARBOR

ORCA II PROP REMAINS

QUINT’S SHACK

THE HEROES SWIM TO SHORE (FINAL SHOT)