Day 52 - February 19, 2016 Busch Gardens Day 2

It was back to Busch Gardens  to finish exploring the park. Ron had several rides he wanted to try out and we had a couple of shows that we didn't get see the first time around. 

We arrived at the park around 10:30 am and the lot was jammed and  we had to wait in line for a parking pass. We weren't expecting to encounter so many people and loads of school buses - more then on our last visit. 

Surprisingly the line into the park itself was fairly short. We had our tickets so were able to get in quickly.

Our first stop was to check out the alligators. We haven't seen any in the wild yet so we decided to view them in the park. There was a turtle sunning itself on the back of an alligator - pretty cool!

Then it was on to the gorilla habitat. Of course Ron wanted his signature picture with a gorilla statue. LOL

As luck would have it there was a mother gorilla with her baby walking around. So neat, because we saw a gorilla and her baby at the San Diego Zoo as well! It was difficult getting a picture of mom & baby looking at us. So we got a picture with mom taking baby away from the crowds and back to their private space. 

We then went to see the Iceploration - an ice show that included special effects and animal acts. The story line was about a young boy caught up in the cyber world and never going outside to play. His grandfather took him out to explore the world and introduced the boy to the great outdoors away from the cyber world. The message was very clear and the show was excellent. Great performers and a timely message - get your noses out of  your phones and computers and enjoy the world and people around you. It was a fast paced production and difficult to get  pictures. 



Ron then took a ride on Falcon's Fury. It climbs 300 feet up, pivots in midair then drops straight down. Interesting!

Locking   In!!

Going Up!

300 ft UP!

Coming Down! Check out the Face!

Next it was on to another show- Opening Night Critters. It was the show we had expected to see on our last visit but was just the trainers at that time. The performance was an animal variety act. Really cute and funny.

Loved This Guy!

We stopped at the lion habitat and Ron got a great picture of the male lion.

The last show venue was the  Treasures of the Mirage - a dance celebration at the  Dragon Fire Grille. It was also quite nice.

We then took the Sky Ride over the park and got a different view. The park is enormous and we walked the park from end to end and across at least 5 times. No wonder our legs were getting tired. There is a huge wooden roller coaster that was shut down at the end of January. It is certainly is an icon. We got a really nice view of it from the Sky Ride. 

Wooden Roller Coaster

Ron felt the need to ride the Scorpion so off we went. 

Once off the ride Ron had to admit it was a hairy!

We had been at the park since 10:00 am and by 5:30 pm we made our  last stop to see the Hippo swimming in a huge tank.

It was pretty cool watching the hippo swimming back and forth. Did not realize they could stay under water for such long periods of time.

The traffic back to the CG was unbelievable. Since we moved to Little Manatee State Park it put us about 30 miles away from Busch Gardens so the Friday night traffic was brutal. It was another great day and we are glad that we took the time to revisit Busch Gardens after a 40 year hiatus.