After a long couple of years with very few roller coaster trips, this spring/summer I've ventured back to parks as COVID cases remained relatively low. I signed up for two events with the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) - one at Busch Gardens Tampa in Florida, and the other at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. These events are fantastic because they offer exclusive ride time and a lot of other perks.
The first trip was the annual spring conference, a three-day weekend in Tampa and Orlando. I drove down on a Thursday, and the next day began bright and early at Busch Gardens Tampa. Their newest coaster, Iron Gwazi, had just opened recently. What a ride! This is an intense and breathtaking coaster, and quickly moved in to the upper echelon of my coaster rankings. I enjoyed two days at the park, mostly with good weather - the rain held off, although it was hot and humid.
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| Iron Gwazi is the new kid on the block. |
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| Some nice theming in the Egypt section. |
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| Cobra's Curse spinning through Egypt. |
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| Montu has been going strong since 1996. |
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| Cheetah Hunt is a cool looking coaster. |
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| We had several behind the scenes tours. |
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| We got to tour Sheikra's maintenance bay. |
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| Getting up close and personal with the Sheikra train. |
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| I also did a tour of the animal nutrition center. |
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| Backstage view of Iron Gwazi from the animal nutrition center. |
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| Scorpion is a classic. We had ERT on this ride too. |
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| It really is a photogenic park. |
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| I thought this was interesting - they label walking routes for exercise. |
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| Having a local beer - kind of. It's actually a Georgia brewery. :) |
The last day of the Florida ACE event was at Sea World Orlando, focused around their new coaster, Ice Breaker. We started off the day with some great ERT, and then rode some more and had a behind the scenes tour before enjoying the Seven Seas Food Festival. It was a very hot and sunny day, and the park got relatively crowded because it was the last day for the food festival. Unfortunately I had to leave in the early afternoon to drive back to Atlanta.
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| No lines during morning ERT. |
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| Coaster-themed drinks in the food festival! |
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| The new Ice Breaker coaster on a sunny Sunday. |
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| Just hanging out with Manta! |
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| Our behind the scenes tour of Manta took us on to the break run. |
About a month later, I visited the other Busch park - Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. This was another great ACE event, complete with more ERT. Once again the weather was beautiful. The new coaster, Pantheon, is excellent, and we had some pitch black night rides. Between Busch Gardens Tampa and Williamsburg I'm not sure I could pick a favorite. Both are beautiful parks with great roller coasters.
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| Coasters for days! |
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| The newest coaster, Pantheon, seen from the river cruise. |
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| Of course we rode the log flume! |
On Sunday I spent a few hours at nearby King's Dominion (yay, more roller coasters!), before briefly heading in to Richmond to eat lunch and see downtown. It was a nice wrap up to a fun weekend. Hoping to make it to another ACE event soon!
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| Welcome to King's Dominion! |
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| Lunch at ZZQ in Richmond. Would recommend! |
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| Downtown Richmond. |
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| A civil rights statue. |
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| Buildings around the capitol grounds. |
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| The capitol grounds were under renovation, so this was the closest I could get. |
