Hi Thrill Seekers,
Anyone who follows our facebook page would probably know that last week I was lucky enough to be part of a familiarisation trip hosted by the awesome guys and girls at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. I was quite the envy of the office because I would have the first opportunity to see and ride Busch Gardens latest thrill ride, Falcons Fury.
Now our office is full of adrenaline junkies the crazier the better and we have a reputation as a company of doing every ride! We’ve never ever had someone visit Florida and bottle out of a ride. So I was told several times before I left not to let the team down on the 335 ft monster… I promised them I wouldn’t let them down!
I’ll let you know more about my trip via other blog posts but today’s post is ME V’s Falcons Fury!
So the day had come to take on Busch Gardens, Tampa. Busch Gardens Tampa is a Safari themed park which is home to some of the most mind blowing rides in Florida and of course some beautiful animals.
I awoke feeling extremely nervous, as this was the day I was going to be dropping face first at a 90 degree angle from 335 feet high, yep face down so you can see the ground hurtling towards you! I had told everyone at work that this was no big deal and I would be fine, deep down I was petrified. I remember the words spoken to me before I left Orlando Attraction Tickets office “Don’t let us down Kelly”…
The time came to get on the road, your Busch Gardens ticket purchased from www.orlandoattractiontickets.co.uk comes with free transportation to Busch Gardens and the journey takes approx. 45 mins. When we’re about 5 minutes away from the park we all spot it! Yep I’m not even in the park and I can already see Falcon’s Fury peaking over the horizon.I imagined it to be high as I had seen pictures but actually seeing it for real I can honestly say I took a big gulp.
We were very lucky to be shown around the park by a Busch Gardens tour guide, the great thing about being shown around by the tour guide was the large amount of information they are able to share with us, the downside for me was I didn’t know when I’d come face to face with my nemesis…
I didn’t need to wait long though as our guide decided there was only one way to welcome us and that was to head straight to Falcon’s Fury. Although it can be seen throughout the whole park when I realised we were heading straight towards it, it suddenly seemed a lot taller than I’d imagined, standing under it brought a whole new level of fear.
I kept telling myself I’d be fine, its only 335 feet high, it only hangs you at a 90 degree angle and it only drops you at a randomly determined! Eeekkkk! Very quickly my hands became very sweaty and my legs which had been fine up until then turned straight to jelly…I took a deep breath and walked on to the entry platform and faced my seat.
GULP! “Don’t let us down Kelly” echoed in my head and suddenly the fear took over, whilst everyone else got into their seats all I kept doing was looking up in sheer horror at how high Falcon’s Fury actually is. Everyone was now in their seats and were waiting for me to take mine… but by now I was in sheer terror mode. I’m not ashamed to tell you all I shed a tear.
I couldn’t do it… Yep.. I totally bottled it and had to turn on my heels and exit the ride! Everyone on the trip understood my predicament and in my defence I wasn’t the only one to run away however I’m soooo disappointed with myself that I couldn’t get on it. You would have thought bottling Falcon’s Fury was the end of it but it wasn’t I then had to tell everyone at work that I’d decided not to ride it, our run of never dodging a coaster or attraction was over!
The guys at the office were really understanding… and by that I mean they haven’t let me forget it and my new nickname around the office is “Bottler”! I think actually getting on Falcon’s Fury would have been less traumatic.
You win this round Falcon’s Fury… but in the words of Arnie “I’ll be back…”
Smiles included…
Kelly