First we had to get out 'Cheetah Hunt' wristbands, there let the staff know we were allowed into the ride/animal area. Didn't have one of these, didn't get past the fence....
I wonder if they're gonna sell these now...
Look at me, look at me! Yeah.....
Bahaha, the first photo I happened to get of the coaster running... Had ROBB ALVEY on it. I guess he gets to complain about it before I can. :(
Yup, there he is...
During the media shoot the coaster only one train was running, although later in the night for the VIP party they ran three.
Uh,. sexy Intamin train with big-ass-camera mount...and big-ass-OTSRs
So here comes the part where there was massive downtime and lots of ACE'ers bitching and crying about not getting their ride... ZzZzz.. I enjoyed the time and looked at all the Cheetahs :D
Big pretty kitty's? I wish we could have had some EPT with them... But no petting was allowed.
Aww....
So yeah... Then we left the area and rode other things in the park. Who knew Montu and Phoenix were still here? From the bitching of the roller-losers you would have thought Cheetah Hunt was the ONLY thing the park had.... Anyways, rant over...I'll skip right back to the Hunt.
After flashing our stylish wristbands again... And walking past the public begging to get in... And being told off by guests who didn't think we were 'VIP', we had time to watch the 3o'clock parade.
And there it goes....
So after a whole bunch of snacking on candy and hanging around watching Cheetahs being freaking-adorable for hours... Somehow we got some of these....
Yeah, Hi.
Wouldn't have been a coaster event without free food // a Buffet! But way to go Busch Gardens and make it ultra-classy
Eww, fruit.
Oh hey, yeah.. The Coasters open and it was ridden many times.
But back at the VIP party... They had many animals walking around to pet and touch and just get up close to without any cage,windows,screaming kids.....I had to make nice with the Rock Hyrax for a bit because it was so GD-Cute... But then the 6o'Clock parade happened.....
Apparently, I'm terrified of Flamingos.
Busch also had this kinda neat art group on hand... Splash! Animals. They'd kinda dance around and toss paint around and smudge it with their hands until it became a painting of a Cheetah.... or the promo-artwork for the ride itself. I wonder what they did with it all once they were done.. Cause they could have so given me one for free... you know, if they wanted...
Yeah, pretty ballin' if I do say so myself... (I'll take the top half, thanks)
And now back to the coaster itself... Cheetah Hunt is pretty fantastic. Not a top 10 ride.. But its damn fun, amazingly smooth, has speed, turns, airtime, the roll... Just an all around good coaster and great addition to the amazing coaster line-up at Busch Gardens (well, not Gwazi... but that's a different rant all together) The canyon run is the highlight of the ride for me, although I wish the mid-course wasn't as hard (or on at all...). The only things I found myself not liking about the ride was the first launch being so short... You kinda lag in the banked turn and while that may be what they wanted the ride to do, it felt kinda awkward to me... And there's also this turn/dip at the very end of the ride that bugged me each lap.. But it may just be a tall person issue as Jeff didn't seem to have a problem with it.
Woo, the sun goes down... Almost time for night rides!
Ah, here we go.. Front row, in the dark, with lightning flashing all around... Amazing.
Such a perfect event... And to top it off, Jeff and I got the front row (second front row ride of the night) of the last train of the night....around 10.30pm. A good 4 hours after the park closed and Media Event ended. :D
And now I can say nah-nah-nahhh I rode it BEFORE YOU DID!!!! ALL OF YOU!.. Well, all of you but Robb Alvey.....
Yeaahhhh....
Oh hey! AND we got gift bags on the way out!
So yeah, big thanks to Busch Gardens Tampa for putting on an AMAZING event with great food, animals, rides on Cheetah Hunt, and everything else the park did all day long. Fantastic
