IOA Jan 1st+ other notes

My best friend Mike and I arrived to the parking booth at 7:20am

Mike says, "We are the 5th f**in car here."

I said, "Good we will get to do everything we want to do!"

This was my second trip to Islands of Adventure, my first being on Spring Break last March. I am still absolutely amazed at what they have done with the city walk and the parking decks and everything.

We were right on time for the 8am opening and ran to the Hulk. We rode the front seat, and then ran around and rode again. Fun blast, I like the ride.

Next, we proceeded to the coolest ride of all time, the Spiderman. I am so amazed by that ride. Best of all, we walked right on. Mike started to become more glad at how early we arrived.

We also did the Dr. Dooms Fear Launch, again with no wait. Fun themeing, but kind of weak launch. Still, no complaints here.

Next was Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls. What an amazing ride. We took the 4th and 5th seat so the people in front of us got all the water!

I begged and begged for the Popeye Ride. (I was equipped with my Penn State lifeguarding swim suit and sandles) but Mike said "on our way out." I held him to it.

We did Jurassic Park. Again no wait (see a theme this early in the morning?) Then, we proceeded to the Dueling Dragons.

Hooray, for a dueling coaster where they always time it right. It also seemed as though they were checking the trains faster then they did last March. It's a pretty short ride I think but I love the near misses. We did them both in the front and kept trying different rows over and over.

After we were bored of that, we headed for the Poseidon Show. Same show as before but still way cool.

Finally, by now it was 11am and we had done everything I wanted to do, with the exception of Popeye. (My most favorite circular boat ride that I have rode.)

The funniest thing about this, was we met a nice couple in their 40's or so who were also from Penn State. Note, they were in jeans and jackets.

I ask them. "Do you know you are going to get wet on this ride?" She says, " Yah, but we just rode the falls it wasn't too bad." As we get going, you can imagine the expletives they shouted as we headed for the water falls and such. The lady threw her coat over her head, (you know how females are with their hair), but they were giggling and laughing and having a good time. That's what I love about that thing. The water is sooo cold, but it is such a great time. Even the people on that boat shooting water at you.

We were back to our hotel by noon for a nap, then we headed for the Penn State Pep Rally and Dinner. After a great sizzler buffet, we headed back to the park.

We arrived back by 7pm with the main goal of seeing the huge firework show. However, 4.5 inches of rain later I am not sure if it ever happened.

Interestingly enough, all of the rides remained open (not sure about Hulk though). We rode Hulk with a 7pm fast pass before the rain hit.

I attempted the Dragons in the front seat, entire trains to ourselves and it was quite painful. However, it was fun anyway. I was almost crying back to the station, but they were good near tears I think :o)

We did the Sinbad show and had enough of the rain by 10pm so we went back to the hotel and partied there.

I am amazed by that park. The themeing and thought that went into it all is astounding. They could use some more capacity things but I'm sure it will come in time.

Also in our stay in Orlando we did a haunted House on International Drive. They have coupons in all the books for by one get one free. It totally didn't compare to the haunted house they had in Sandusky for awhile, so I was kind of let down, but it would be good for younger ones like 10 and up I think.

Also, I got Mike to ride this sort of this giant propeller ride on International Drive at a mini-golf course. It was like the Skyscraper at Dorney Park wish I had an offical name for ya. I thought it was a blast. We watched the people on the ride before us and Mike uttered oh s**t. We were strapped in real tight and we go. It was the most hilarious thing ever to hear the noises my friend made on this. The view was so nice and he wouldn't uncover his eyes. He finally did a few times, but I absolutely love how people react sometimes on rides. He didn't exactly love it as much as I did, but it was fun times.

**
You would never believe some of the weird things you can get people to do on a 20+ hour car ride and when they are bored.

People will play the "license plate game" like it is their life passion.

Also, you can invent fun games. One such game I invented was taking a huge road atlas, and using the Walmart feature. We would take a state and guess how many walmart supercenters each state had. Some of the results were shocking! New Jersey apparently doesn't have any. Texas had the most.

Next, straight from the Price is Right we played the clock game. Instead of vying for prizes, we did populations of towns. My town Mountainhome, PA was simple because it only had 1500 or so people. We moved up to cities like Los Angeles. Needless to say, it was hilarious people trying to get cities with huge numbers. This may all sound dumb on the surface, but it was hilarious at the time. Give it a try on your next 20 hour plus car ride, and let me know how it goes :o)

Take care,
Jason

*** This post was edited by JasonPSU20 on 1/8/2003. ***

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22 diffrent coasters ridden this year