Aaaaaaaaw-lando! Twists and shouts in the rollercoaster capital of America
AFALCON is a majestic bird of prey with the keenest of eyes, eight times sharper than man, a rich plumage, and a swift turn of wing, the Peregrine can swoop at speeds of 200mph, making him the fastest moving creature on Earth.
Your correspondent is a middle-aged, short- sighted land lover with moulting plumage and on motion sickness tablets. He is enclosed in a metal hold, perched 335ft up into the Florida sky. If he didn’t have his eyes closed he would be able to take stock and scan the breathtaking Busch Gardens around him and its feathered and furry inhabitants at play. But he is about to be flipped 90 degrees so he is facing straight down at the ground and his new-found friends below and propelled at 60mph back to earth. Five seconds later he has turned in the air, landed, face up, eyes blinking at the sun and ready to go again. Five seconds before he was a nervous wreck, now he has mastered Falcon’s Fury, the tallest freestanding drop tower in North America, and has been transformed into superhero The Falcon, ready to swoop once more and this time with his eyes fixed on the target.
In Florida, America’s rollercoaster state, you can be what you want to be, and become what you never thought you could.
Little did I know when watching Birdman on the plane over to Orlando that like Michael Keaton’s alter ego Riggan I would become my own superhero, acknowledged as such by the group I have arrived with, ten like-minded thrill-seekers from our shores, Irelando in Orlando, if you will.
I am on the Orlando FlexTicket, a multipark pass which includes 14-day unlimited access to six parks - Universal Studios, Uni-
versal Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa and Wet ’n Wild Orlando.
Today it is Busch Gardens which, taken i n tandem with SeaWorld, Aquatica, Wet ’n Wild and the added attraction of Discovery Cove (not on the FlexTicket but one you will want to sign up for) provides the wildlife and rollercoaster section of the package. Floridans love their animals and their rides, the guide on Falcon’s Fury claims to have done that drop 51 times – only time restrictions stopped your correspondent, The Falcon, from taking a tilt at that record. Other superheroes and wizards will be dealt with separately on these pages when we take a whizz round Universal Orlando which is out of this world.
But back to the animals and rollercoasters and having got inside the skin of the fastest bird in the skies it is time to wonder at the quickest animal, the cheetah. So quick, that attempt to catch him on camera as he was put through his paces by his handler for our entertainment in the Cheetah Run proved fruitless and I was left with his hind legs at the edge of the picture. Our group photographer, thankfully, was steadier with his hand as he captured our attempts at the companion ride, Cheetah Hunt, the park’s newest attraction.
A triple launch coaster, it carries riders high above the park, then races down along the ground through a rocky gorge. At a length of 4,400ft, it is the park’s longest ride and is great fun as it melds with the animals’ terrain.
Busch Gardens and their parent SeaWorld are thorough in their efforts to put their inhabitants in as natural a setting as possible, away from their normal habitat, the wild. They stress too the threat to our wildlife from their greatest predators, us, and through a combination of good husbandry, cutting-edge medical treatment, their dedicated rescue service and fund raising they are addressing the challenge of protecting those with whom we share our lands and seas.
NOWHERE is this more evident than in their Serengeti Safari experience where visitors will be driven out to meet nature’s tallest animals, the giraffe, passing, among others, zebras, antelopes and ostriches on the way. The gentle Bititi (Swahili for strong lady) was good enough to bend down and take food from our palms – I swear she smiled at me as well.
I am reminded at this point that I had sampled the animal produce just a day before at Discovery Cove. In my defence I was asked by the guide if I was allergic to peanuts, which I’m not, and took that as a cue to get tucked in. Little surprise then that the birds did not come calling. Our feathered friends might have chosen today, of all days, to get coy, but the fish and dolphins are a different kettle of (well, you know). Discovery Cove gives the visitor the opportunity to swim with bottlenose dolphins and even walk on the ocean floor. It is an experience not to be missed.
Over at SeaWorld Orlando, it’s the dolphins’ big brothers, the six-tonne killer whales, who are playing with us. We are in the middle of the grandstand watching these Leviathans of the ocean turn tricks and splash the excitable youngsters in front of us while behind them on a stage there’s a troupe putting on a song and dance performance which would not look out of place on Eurovision.
It’s handler Joe’s turn then to be put through hoops as he fields questions about the care of the orcas in the wake of accusations of exploitation and calls for them to be released back into the wild. It is a challenging question and one which is not easily answered, least of all in one afternoon. Suffice to say that this correspondent was left in no doubt that Joe is devoted to the killer whales and I suspect that if he could, he would take his home with him and feed him if the need occurred, like the handler in the penguins sanctuary, whom we meet with his flippered friends, has done.
Of course, it’s not only the big and beautiful and the small and cute who are catered for at SeaWorld – Mr JP handles the manatees, mammal com- monly known as sea cows, that don’t do tricks but just go round in circles, eat Romaine lettuce and have faces only a mother could love. We should all have handlers like Mr JP.
We were lucky to have two such with our trip, SeaWorld’s Natalie and our Universal rep Fiona who soothed frayed nerves and filled us with brio to take on challenges such as the Ihu’s Breakaway Falls at Aquatica.
Standing on a trap door 80ft up on Orlando’s tallest and steepest multislide drop, my American all-you-caneat breakfast buffet was doing rumbles in my belly, before any decision was taken out of my hands.
Stood on one of three clear breakaway boxes at the top of the ride facing the other condemned men – not knowing who will drop first – I suddenly feared that I might befall the fate of Neil in The Inbetweeners 2. Just as I was holding my stomach in, the floor disappeared below me and I plunged down at a rate of 20-24ft per second until the wash broke my fall and I gave thanks to all that is holy that I had kept everything intact.
The park’s signature ride is the Dolphin Plunge. And if you haven’t taken up the option of swimming with them at Discovery Cove then this is the next best thing. Dolphin Plunge will allow you to descend side by side in an enclosed tube slide through an underwater world that is home to a playful pod of beautiful black-and-white Commersons. Of course, the laid-back dolphins just shrug their fins and get on with their day as we zip by – they know by now to humour humans.
Natalie and Fiona know how they feel. And nobody could begrudge them their down day in the cabana at Wet ’n Wild. W’nW has a laid-back vibe which will appeal to those who need to come back down to base camp before they attempt their next Everest. A day spent here can involve sipping cocktails, munching burger and fries and relaxing in the hammocks.
But those slides won’t ride themselves, so it’s on we go to Der Stuka, Mach 5 and Disco H20. W’nW has done well to mix it all up with single and multi-rider attractions to keep even the most discerning thrillseeker interested. Of the former, the Storm washed away the cobwebs the most. A veritable water tornado, you drop through an elevated chute that sends you spinning into the giant bowl below. And of the multi-rides, it’s The Black Hole, 1000 gallons per minute sending a twoperson tube rocketing through 500ft of twisting, turning darkness.
Now, I’ve found my feet, I’m ready to t ake on whatever Universal Orlando can throw at me. The Falcon is ready to join forces with some other superheroes.