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Florida March 2017 - Day 4: Fun Spot America

Coaster Hipster

Giga Poster
I actually prefer this place over USF because I’d rather spend hours whoring the B&Ms than messing around at Studios. But I like IoA over SeaWorld because that place still has more interesting rides in addition to some great B&Ms.

That's also my mindset! I see you also like coaster whoring ^^

Nice TR again :) SeaWorld feels like a cool park to visit, though a bit uneven in places. There doesn't seem to be a lot to do apart from the main coasters but those coasters are quite a good bunch, especially for an European! Manta looks very enojyable with a bigger scale than S:UF models and obviously better scenery. The near misses are indeed closer than I thought and very impressive. The aquarium queue is actually fitting and unique!

Mako sounds exactly like a very good option for whoring. Bliss airtime fun for hours :D
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
Day 4 – Part 2 – Fun Spot America

I always wanted to try out Fun Spot ever since they got White Lightning, and of course they had a couple of other creds as well. It was an easy +3, as it was right outside of Universal and on the way back from SeaWorld. The cab dropped me off while my parents went back to the resort.

I know there’s also Fun Spot in Kissimmee, but Mine Blower wasn’t opening anytime soon and I didn’t want to haul my ass over there for whatever that other cred was.

Originally, I though I would just do the three creds and nothing else. But White Lightning and Freedom Flyer were $9 for each individual ride. I knew I wanted a few rides on White Lightning, so I just got a wristband, which I think is around $45. So in addition to re riding the coasters, I tried out a couple of the flat rides as well. Even though I was at the park for less than 2 hours, it would’ve been more expensive to pay for the rides I did individually.

I actually liked the place. Sure it’s kind of tacky and all the rides are slapped onto some concrete, but the whole place was clean and colorful. It was quiet too, but the park is so small that you don’t need that many people to give it decent atmosphere.



Started out with White Lightning. It was nice to have a rare woodie in a state that’s dominated by steel coasters.





It’s pretty good! I probably should’ve toned my expectations down a little bit (I’ve heard people say fantastic things about this), but it’s still a fun ride and throws you around like any classic woodie should. The pops of airtime are very brief, but the ride mainly focuses on quick directional changes. It wasn’t as stupidly fun as I hoped it would be, but a great little family-friendly coaster nonetheless. 8/10

And I didn’t realize it’s actually a hybrid as well. It has steel supports, but the color makes it seem like it’s a pure woodie.



And yes, you can see the Universal rides from here.





I actually have yet to be really impressed by GCI. I’ve done a few others, and I think my favorite is still Lightning Racer. Hopefully I'll fall in love with one eventually, but for now I prefer Gravity Group over GCI.

I did a quick re ride before moving onto some other stuff.



I forgot that Freedom Flyer was doing a little VR, so I was interested in trying that out (but no, I’m not a fan of VR on coasters). I tried the coaster normally at first, of course, before coming back for the VR.

The ride itself is more enjoyable than I expected. It’s a decent length and there was a bit of force in the last couple of turns and helix. Good family coaster, and it looks nice too.









There was a separate VR line, which was for the last 2 or 3 rows. And since there was only one train with slow dispatches, the line for VR looked a bit slow, so I came back later for that. In the meantime I tried their screamin’ swing, Space Invader. I hadn’t done one of these models with the “skinnier” cars/seats (whatever you’d call them), but the bigger versions are much better. On this on you only get a couple of swings at its maximum height, and it doesn’t even swing as far up as the bigger models. But there wasn’t a queue, so I had no problem getting on and off in a few minutes.



I forgot that they had a nice little pond too. Although it's a bit sad compared to the ones at Universal.



Nobody was operating the +1, so I went past that checked out the other end of the park, which is littered by Go Karts. I don’t think I’ve ever done go karts at a theme park before (I’ve done them at other places), so did one of the tracks here. It was pretty fun and the layout I did is much more substantial than any other go karts I’ve done in the past. Besides the two “major” coasters, this is definitely the park’s main selling point, especially since they have like 3 or 4 different tracks.







Staff must’ve been changing shifts when I first past it the Sea Serpent cred, because they were indeed running it when I past it again. Meh, but getting on/off was much quicker than the other kiddie creds I had to deal with that week.



Next, I tried out Freedom Flyer VR. This was my second experience trying out virtual reality, with my first being on Superman at SFNE. That experience was terrible. It always took at least 5 minutes to get a train out, the headset was uncomfortable, and my screen stopped working after the first drop, so I was staring at darkness for the rest of the coaster. Staff didn’t give a **** either.

My Freedom Flyer VR experience was much better than on Superman, mainly for the fact that it actually worked (well, the VR itself, not the whole idea). As I mentioned earlier, the VR line is separate from the regular queue and only for a few select seats. That’s much better than having everyone clumped together in one slow line. It’s much less annoying for the people who want to ride it normally, because they can just get on in less time. They only had six headsets—just enough for the select seats—but it meant that they had to spend time cleaning the headsets…while the train is in the station. There were only two ride ops as well, and who knows how well they are at cleaning those things. The dispatches were shorter than Superman’s were, thanks to the smaller capacity and less riders who needed help putting the headsets on, but it still took a few minutes to get the train out of the station.

The headset is uses a Velcro strap which is much more comfortable than the plastic that Six Flags uses. But I guess it’s not as tight as the plastic strap, because I was prompted to hold onto the headset with both hands the entire ride. That’s a red flag there. With any kind of VR experience, I should not have to worry about the headset falling off. Bleh. This one also didn’t have the neck strap that Six Flags was using.

As for the VR itself, your flying around in the city battling with robots and ****. The graphics weren’t good but it followed the layout decently. I think there’s too much going on for me to fully take it all in. I came off unimpressed, but not disgusted. So meh. Still against the whole idea of VR on roller coasters. I’m also getting tired of the sci-fi war setting that a lot of VR coasters have.

I finished my time at the park with a couple more re rides on White Lightning. I had plenty of time to ride that **** out of that thing, but I was pretty content after my 4th ride, so I called a cab and went back to the hotel. It’s a great little coaster, but it can’t compare to my sessions on Mako earlier that day.



I enjoyed Fun Spot, even though you don’t need more than 2 hours there. It tries to go for that fun retro park style, but it works well. I bet it’s great for local families and teens who would want to kill a few hours at a theme park but not cough up hundreds of dollars for Universal/Disney/etc. That being said, even though White Lightning is great, I don’t feel the need to return here in the future, unless they get a new cred (unlikely) or if I'd be with others.



I think I’m gonna end the whole trip report there. I was thinking about writing one last post describing my final few hours at Islands of Adventure the next morning as well as some final thoughts about Universal, but I think you already know my general opinion on those parks, and I didn't ride anything new/different from the previous days.. This PTR has taken me a lot longer to write/post than it should have. Maybe for future PTRs I’ll try to tone down the written detail a bit (unless some of you like it).

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. I know Florida reports aren’t uncommon, and I apologize for the time it took me for each post to get out, but I really appreciate those who have read, and of course made responses.
 

Coaster Hipster

Giga Poster
Florida reports aren't uncommon indeed, but yours was truly enjoyable and insightful to read ;)

Fun Spot America seems like a good place to start riding coasters if you're a young kid or not into thrill rides yet. No insane extreme coasters but fun, smooth and reridable attractions! I hope the park will continue developing and that they'll add another good coaster to extend their already fine lineup.

Your impressions on White Lightning match mine on Heidi. Nothing too forceful, but great speed and direction changes :) I've yet to be truly overwhelmed by GCI too (rode Heidi, both Joris's sides and Roar! SFA), they're decent and a worth investment for a park but not on the levels of RMC or Intamin when it comes to woodies.

I don't mind that posting TRs are taking a little more time than expected. My experience writing Phanta/Liseberg impressions showed me it actually takes some effort and time to write a thoughtful and cool report. Looking forward to your future TRs ;)
 

CookieCoasters

Giga Poster
I had similar feelings towards White Lightning; I thought some people had praised it a little too much. Maybe it was because I had already ridden quite a few little wooden 'gems' that year, it just failed to stand-out. There's plenty of airtime though (short pops like you said) and it's just generally very fun and re-rideable. Keeps the pace up quite well too.

As far as GCIs go, the US has quite a mixed bag from my experience. Gold Striker and Apocalypse over on the west coast are really fab, but Hershey's and Gwazi were pretty meh. Overall I do really like GCI though, hopefully one day you'll find one that doesn't underwhelm.
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
Florida reports aren't uncommon indeed, but yours was truly enjoyable and insightful to read ;)

Fun Spot America seems like a good place to start riding coasters if you're a young kid or not into thrill rides yet. No insane extreme coasters but fun, smooth and reridable attractions! I hope the park will continue developing and that they'll add another good coaster to extend their already fine lineup.

Your impressions on White Lightning match mine on Heidi. Nothing too forceful, but great speed and direction changes :) I've yet to be truly overwhelmed by GCI too (rode Heidi, both Joris's sides and Roar! SFA), they're decent and a worth investment for a park but not on the levels of RMC or Intamin when it comes to woodies.

I don't mind that posting TRs are taking a little more time than expected. My experience writing Phanta/Liseberg impressions showed me it actually takes some effort and time to write a thoughtful and cool report. Looking forward to your future TRs ;)
Thanks for the feedback! I've actually been better in the past with getting each report out earlier, but it's nice to hear that you don't mind the wait. I enjoy making them, particularly because I only do one or two big trips a year. I'm thinking about doing something stuff in September, so that'll probably be my next report.

As far as GCIs go, the US has quite a mixed bag from my experience. Gold Striker and Apocalypse over on the west coast are really fab, but Hershey's and Gwazi were pretty meh. Overall I do really like GCI though, hopefully one day you'll find one that doesn't underwhelm.
Yeah I wanna try more of the larger ones like Gold Striker or Prowler/Mystic Timbers. I wouldn't say I was exactly disappointed by White Lightning or Lighting Racer, both are great for what they are, but I've heard peeps hype those rides up, so those might have gotten to me a little bit.
 
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