Tampa, FL

It was another day to get up early. The drive to Tampa is a little over 2 hours. We left our house shortly after 7:00 am in order to be at Busch Gardens at 9:30, with a short stop at at McD to pick up Carmel Coffee Frappés to wake up, we arrived punctually at the parking lot. After paying 17:00$!!!!!!!! for parking we were directed to a place to park. As it was early we had a parking space way up front. Also school has started again in most counties, so the park opening hours were only from 10:00 – 6:00. We later learned that this was a big minus. Before the park officially opened the national anthem was played. Then everybody stormed in. We had for the back of the park planning to work our way to the front. Unfortunately some rides opened at 11:00, which was a huge disappointment. Karsten and Eric started off with Kumba, we then wanted to go to Congo River Rapids, they were supposed open at 11:00, but because some issues with the water they still weren’t open at 11:15. As if they couldn’t have found this out earlier. Duh! We then walked over to the tower drop Falcons Fury. Eric chickened out, so it was just Karsten and me. We did something similar a few years ago before Eric was born, but now they added an extra thrill, before the drop you are tilted forwards facing the ground. We headed back to Congo Rapids which was finally running. We pulled on our Disney rain capes and stayed dry. But two of our fellow passengers got soaking wet. As we were partially wet, we decided to go on the next water ride: Stanley Falls Flume, we got off soaked. It was already shortly before two when we stopped for lunch and had baby ribs and pulled pork at Zambias Smokehouse. Our next stops were Lory Landing where the lorikeets were more active and adorable than the Vogelpark Walsrode, from there we went to the Walkabout to see kangaroos and wallabies. Eric and Karsten then wanted to go on the Cheetah Run, well Eric actually didn’t want to go as he was scared. We pointed out that even smaller kids were on the ride. As luck would have it,as they stood in line, the ride was stopped because of an incident. We then took a rid on the Skyride, got on at the train station,didn’t take the complete ride and when we got off, surprise surprise we were one again in front of the Cheetah Hunt. This time the guys got on and Eric was thrilled that he did it. The ride home was accompanied by heavy rains and thunderstorms. We were thankful that the day at the park was dry. Too bad it was so short.