Wednesday 7 November
Julie (38) - demented planner
Brian (40) - planning, whats that?
Michael (11) - quiet, clone of his Dad, hormones just starting to kick in, auditioning for Snow Whites 8th dwarf, Grouchy
Andrew (5½) - not quiet, mummys boy, very fussy eater, favourite saying of the holiday Excuse me, is this ride scary?
The Plan - Sea World
We almost decided not to bother fitting in a trip to Busch Gardens (missed from the plan on Monday) as it was so far away and go back to Sea World and/or MGM instead. How glad I am that we didnt because we had a fantastic day.
The weather was absolutely beautiful today, high 70s with lovely blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel again and set off around 9.30 with Simon Vs book to hand as the instructions in here seemed much clearer than the ones on the leaflet we had for Busch Gardens and we didnt have a road map that extended so far West. All I can say is make sure you do have some clear and simple directions. There is no way you would find Busch Gardens otherwise as we didnt see any signs from the I4 at all, nor any signs once we got off the I4 but thanks to Simon it was plain sailing for us and we arrived about an hour later to a very quiet car park.
Hopped on the tram and crossed the road to the entrance to the park - what a great view of Montu as you enter the park, absolutely awesome but sadly we all chickened out of riding it.
Wandered through the Myombe Reserve saying hello to the enormous alligators on the way and decided to catch the train at the Nairobi Train Station round to the Congo Train Station in Timbuktu to catch the first Dolphin show. This was just starting as we got there but we managed to find good seats as the stadium was half empty. This was a really good show and we were glad we had seen it, having missed the dolphin show at Sea World last week.
On the way into the Dolphin show Andrew had spied lots of kiddie type rides outside and was very disgruntled when we dragged him past without stopping so I offered to stay here with him while Brian and Michael want to ride on Kumba. It was at this point that it dawned on us just how empty Busch Gardens was. There were only a handful of children on the kiddies rides so Andrew was in heaven just going from one to the other - definitely more his style than Big Thunder Mountain at MK. Michael and Brian were back within 10 minutes, both pronouncing Kumba a big hit, and then came the bit I had been dreading - Michael pipes up Come on Mum, youll love it, honest, and theres no queue, pleeeeeeease, I want to ride it again. Once again the sun was very hot that day and must have been playing strange tricks with my brain because I actually followed him, through the queueing area and straight on the ride - good job because if I had had time to think about what I was doing I would have walked at 100 miles an hour in the opposite direction. How can they guarantee that those shoulder harnesses wont open half way round????? Well, what can I say but WOW, what a ride, although I will admit to having my eyes shut all the way round. Again I was so pleased that I had plucked up the courage to do this and walked back to Brian and Andrew (still having a great time on the kiddies rides) with very wobbly legs but a big grin on my face.
Michael and Brian dashed over for a quick ride on Scorpion which they both pronounced as OK, but you wont miss anything if you dont go on it Mum. Oh, well, Ill give it a miss then shall I (heaves a big sigh of relief). Spent at least another 30 minutes on the kiddie rides as Michael decided he wanted to have a go too and then as we were feeling quite peckish grabbed a bite to eat at the Oasis café - it was a combination family meal of chicken strips, fries and corn dog and one between us was plenty to satisfy the hunger pangs.
We were a bit disappointed that Congo River Rapids was closed for rehab as we had been looking forward to this, but decided to head through Congo and see what the wait was like for Stanley Falls. Absolutely no wait at all and Andrew was really keen to go on as he now liked wet rides and even the drop didnt seem to bother him so off we went. Once again Brian and Michael got soaked and me and Andrew stayed quite dry, dont know how we keep managing that, but we do always try to sit at the back !!! Andrew loved this ride and he, Michael and Brian stayed on for another go - once was enough for me.
Paid a quick visit to the orangutans who were really funny and had a look at Tidal Wave but decided not to bother and carried on past the white tigers (absolutely stunning by the way) to Python as Michael was keen to try this one. He and Brian went on while I got an ice cream for Andrew and myself from a little kiosk outside the ride. Andrew had vanilla in a tub - much less messy for him to eat !!, and I had a strawberry waffle cone sundae which was enormous. It was a huge waffle cone, filled with ice cream and topped with real pieces of strawberry and strawberry sauce, and when I say huge, I mean huge. I needed two hands just to hold it but it was absolutely delicious. Brian was very jealous when he came off the ride so he had to go and get a chocolate nut one which was equally impressive. We sat in the sun for a while munching on these and then, of course, Michael wanted to go back on Python, and wanted me to go with him (It only lasts a minute Mum so it cant be that bad). OK son, Ive just eaten the biggest ice cream I have ever seen so of course I want to be thrown around and turned upside down but my protestations fell on deaf ears and he was already leading the way through the empty queueing area. Well, what can I say, two thrill rides in one day (three if you count Stanley Falls which is thrilling enough for me !!!!) and I survived, just. I even opened my eyes for about 10 seconds on this ride so am I now classed as a thrill ride veteran?
There was no queue for the Skyride so we hopped on and had a lovely ride over all the animals with great views of Rhino Rally which was to be our next stop. Wandered back through Nairobi again, past the elephants and on to Rhino Rally which had a queue of about 10 people. This is a great ride, even better than Kilimanjaro Safari in my opinion, but beware, if you sit in the back seats of the land rover you could got wet and guess what, we sat in the back, and guess what, Brian got soaked - again !!! I really dont know how he does it, the rest of us just got dripped on but he got drenched so the John Wayne walk was in evidence again for the second time in two days !!!
Unfortunately it was now getting quite late and Brian and Michael wanted to have a ride on Gwazi (I wimped out Im afraid) so we didnt have time to walk through the Edge of Africa which is a shame because it looks like you can really get up close to the giraffes, lions, zebras and hippos, but at least we had seen them from the safari.
Brian and Andrew went straight onto Gwazi and rode both sides (is it lion and tiger?) while Andrew and I had a look round the shops and bought some sweets and then as it was about 5.00 pm and Brian we keen to set off before it got dark we decided to call it a day (BG was shutting at 6.00 pm).
We had had a fantastic day here. It is a lovely park with something for everyone - thrill rides, animals, kiddie rides, plenty of eating places - and was made even better because it was so quiet and we walked onto everything. In fact we heard one American lady on the tram back to the car say that she had been going to BG gardens for years and had never seen so few people there.
Very quick and painless journey back to Mouseland and decided to give the Golden Corral some more of our dollars as we were very hungry and tired by now and couldnt be bothered being any more adventurous.
Back to the hotel by about 9.00 pm and after raiding the hotel shop once again for chocolate it was straight to bed and off to sleep before we could even say Rhino Rally.
Tomorrow - Blizzard Beach and Cirque du Soleil
Julie (38) - demented planner
Brian (40) - planning, whats that?
Michael (11) - quiet, clone of his Dad, hormones just starting to kick in, auditioning for Snow Whites 8th dwarf, Grouchy
Andrew (5½) - not quiet, mummys boy, very fussy eater, favourite saying of the holiday Excuse me, is this ride scary?
The Plan - Sea World
We almost decided not to bother fitting in a trip to Busch Gardens (missed from the plan on Monday) as it was so far away and go back to Sea World and/or MGM instead. How glad I am that we didnt because we had a fantastic day.
The weather was absolutely beautiful today, high 70s with lovely blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel again and set off around 9.30 with Simon Vs book to hand as the instructions in here seemed much clearer than the ones on the leaflet we had for Busch Gardens and we didnt have a road map that extended so far West. All I can say is make sure you do have some clear and simple directions. There is no way you would find Busch Gardens otherwise as we didnt see any signs from the I4 at all, nor any signs once we got off the I4 but thanks to Simon it was plain sailing for us and we arrived about an hour later to a very quiet car park.
Hopped on the tram and crossed the road to the entrance to the park - what a great view of Montu as you enter the park, absolutely awesome but sadly we all chickened out of riding it.
Wandered through the Myombe Reserve saying hello to the enormous alligators on the way and decided to catch the train at the Nairobi Train Station round to the Congo Train Station in Timbuktu to catch the first Dolphin show. This was just starting as we got there but we managed to find good seats as the stadium was half empty. This was a really good show and we were glad we had seen it, having missed the dolphin show at Sea World last week.
On the way into the Dolphin show Andrew had spied lots of kiddie type rides outside and was very disgruntled when we dragged him past without stopping so I offered to stay here with him while Brian and Michael want to ride on Kumba. It was at this point that it dawned on us just how empty Busch Gardens was. There were only a handful of children on the kiddies rides so Andrew was in heaven just going from one to the other - definitely more his style than Big Thunder Mountain at MK. Michael and Brian were back within 10 minutes, both pronouncing Kumba a big hit, and then came the bit I had been dreading - Michael pipes up Come on Mum, youll love it, honest, and theres no queue, pleeeeeeease, I want to ride it again. Once again the sun was very hot that day and must have been playing strange tricks with my brain because I actually followed him, through the queueing area and straight on the ride - good job because if I had had time to think about what I was doing I would have walked at 100 miles an hour in the opposite direction. How can they guarantee that those shoulder harnesses wont open half way round????? Well, what can I say but WOW, what a ride, although I will admit to having my eyes shut all the way round. Again I was so pleased that I had plucked up the courage to do this and walked back to Brian and Andrew (still having a great time on the kiddies rides) with very wobbly legs but a big grin on my face.
Michael and Brian dashed over for a quick ride on Scorpion which they both pronounced as OK, but you wont miss anything if you dont go on it Mum. Oh, well, Ill give it a miss then shall I (heaves a big sigh of relief). Spent at least another 30 minutes on the kiddie rides as Michael decided he wanted to have a go too and then as we were feeling quite peckish grabbed a bite to eat at the Oasis café - it was a combination family meal of chicken strips, fries and corn dog and one between us was plenty to satisfy the hunger pangs.
We were a bit disappointed that Congo River Rapids was closed for rehab as we had been looking forward to this, but decided to head through Congo and see what the wait was like for Stanley Falls. Absolutely no wait at all and Andrew was really keen to go on as he now liked wet rides and even the drop didnt seem to bother him so off we went. Once again Brian and Michael got soaked and me and Andrew stayed quite dry, dont know how we keep managing that, but we do always try to sit at the back !!! Andrew loved this ride and he, Michael and Brian stayed on for another go - once was enough for me.
Paid a quick visit to the orangutans who were really funny and had a look at Tidal Wave but decided not to bother and carried on past the white tigers (absolutely stunning by the way) to Python as Michael was keen to try this one. He and Brian went on while I got an ice cream for Andrew and myself from a little kiosk outside the ride. Andrew had vanilla in a tub - much less messy for him to eat !!, and I had a strawberry waffle cone sundae which was enormous. It was a huge waffle cone, filled with ice cream and topped with real pieces of strawberry and strawberry sauce, and when I say huge, I mean huge. I needed two hands just to hold it but it was absolutely delicious. Brian was very jealous when he came off the ride so he had to go and get a chocolate nut one which was equally impressive. We sat in the sun for a while munching on these and then, of course, Michael wanted to go back on Python, and wanted me to go with him (It only lasts a minute Mum so it cant be that bad). OK son, Ive just eaten the biggest ice cream I have ever seen so of course I want to be thrown around and turned upside down but my protestations fell on deaf ears and he was already leading the way through the empty queueing area. Well, what can I say, two thrill rides in one day (three if you count Stanley Falls which is thrilling enough for me !!!!) and I survived, just. I even opened my eyes for about 10 seconds on this ride so am I now classed as a thrill ride veteran?
There was no queue for the Skyride so we hopped on and had a lovely ride over all the animals with great views of Rhino Rally which was to be our next stop. Wandered back through Nairobi again, past the elephants and on to Rhino Rally which had a queue of about 10 people. This is a great ride, even better than Kilimanjaro Safari in my opinion, but beware, if you sit in the back seats of the land rover you could got wet and guess what, we sat in the back, and guess what, Brian got soaked - again !!! I really dont know how he does it, the rest of us just got dripped on but he got drenched so the John Wayne walk was in evidence again for the second time in two days !!!
Unfortunately it was now getting quite late and Brian and Michael wanted to have a ride on Gwazi (I wimped out Im afraid) so we didnt have time to walk through the Edge of Africa which is a shame because it looks like you can really get up close to the giraffes, lions, zebras and hippos, but at least we had seen them from the safari.
Brian and Andrew went straight onto Gwazi and rode both sides (is it lion and tiger?) while Andrew and I had a look round the shops and bought some sweets and then as it was about 5.00 pm and Brian we keen to set off before it got dark we decided to call it a day (BG was shutting at 6.00 pm).
We had had a fantastic day here. It is a lovely park with something for everyone - thrill rides, animals, kiddie rides, plenty of eating places - and was made even better because it was so quiet and we walked onto everything. In fact we heard one American lady on the tram back to the car say that she had been going to BG gardens for years and had never seen so few people there.
Very quick and painless journey back to Mouseland and decided to give the Golden Corral some more of our dollars as we were very hungry and tired by now and couldnt be bothered being any more adventurous.
Back to the hotel by about 9.00 pm and after raiding the hotel shop once again for chocolate it was straight to bed and off to sleep before we could even say Rhino Rally.
Tomorrow - Blizzard Beach and Cirque du Soleil
