How the Mighty Have Fallen: CFF

That... Central Florida Fair... thing
Remember when this fair used to be really, really good?
Yeah, me neither.

Continuing a birthday tradition of mine.. I made a half hearted visit to the fair. What was once a dominating midway is now a third of its size and seems to be shrinking, yearly now :(
That being said, we made the best of it.. and since it was still a fair, had fun.

The 2016 Central Florida Fair!!!
Oh wait, half the ride models shown here don't even come to the fair anymore...

Uh, the actual midway
Well, mostly just kiddie land.. but still.

Super Cyclone!

Yaayyy! After missing it at the State Fair.. because it wasn't ready for some reason.. despite the fact it was cycling with staff on it our whole visit... We got on it at Central Florida.

Although it still took two takes to get it right.. Since on our first attempt... while already seated in the train locked and ready to go... Everyone was removed from the ride and it went out of service for a few hours...
(but in the end, we did mange to get our ride...)

Zombie Apocalypse... I think the apocalypse ended before we got on the ride.. since there wasn't much going on inside it.

Observation Tower was at the far end of the kiddie midway this year (where the Mulligan used to always be) while odd to be in the kid area... Its was nice being along side of the lake.

Jungle Twist!
Is it sad that the best coaster at the fair ended up being this unsuspecting kiddie spinner?
Its actually pretty fantastic. I first came across one at the State Fair of Texas and now Wade is traveling with one.
(For sure one of those "don't judge a book" coasters)

Pirate!
(rrrrrr)

Fireball, uh, skipped.
After my lame ride on the one at the Osceola County Fair earlier this year, I've just kinda been.. uh.. over them.

Music Express was back again this year...

:3 We saw the bear show! :3
(although it was hard to get a good photo of the bears... so here's one of the empty stage area)

Oh.. And they had the giant portable slide this year.
So I rode it.
And stuff.

Opa! Uh, Mighty Mouse.
Given the courtesy ride.

Enterprise, woo

<3 Mega Drop <3
With some pretty sunset action going on

Basic Ferris Wheel, sunset, palm tree photo... because, Florida.

O-Town

Some of the adult rides on the midway from Mega Drop.

PIRATES!
(RRRRRRRRRR!)

HIT IN 2000!
Wait no, Wade doesn't even bring Hit to Central Florida anymore...

Luckily their banged up Super Himalaya still runs better than most any other!

Music Express was run better than the last time it was here
Although without directional changes or switching the cycle up.

haha, Fighter.
Remember when this was super flashy... and uh, worked right?
(lololol)

Gravinception

Fireball.. Looking pretty cool covered in LED's

Same for the Orbiter... And since we had ridden everything else we wanted to.. we took it for a ride.
I do enjoy the Orbiter but I tend to overlook them in favor of more exciting rides. 

And since there was no Swing Tower ride here to end our night... We jumped on Mega Drop once more.. because, well, I love me some drop towers <3
Woo? maybe?? 2016 may not have been as awesome as say... 2010 or 2011... But here's hoping 2017 is at least on par with this? :/

ZzZzz... The 2015 Central Florida Fair

Remember when this fair was amazing? And it was worth going to? Remember when the midway was massive? Yeah, all things of the past I guess. Year after year it seems the midway gets smaller and less and less rides show up. Its odd that Wade can make an amazing midway at the State Fair but when they show up in Orlando its almost garbage now.

It was $1 ride day, so we opted for 10 tickets each, rather than a $20 wristband, based off what we saw on the midway we felt it was the better option. 

Anyways... photos and stuff.

Bring a can of food, get in for $1
CORN!
Uh, animal photos?

Like.. this Sheep

And this duck!

Nibbles!!

Another duck :D

Guinea Pig

:D Kangaroo 

Moo?!

Unamused Camel

Ankole!

And... a Sea Lion about to have snackums

Little model of the fair...
If only half the rides were actually here..

<3 DUCK cookies!!!

Oh man, and PIG RACES!
(Twice in a week for me)

And... because its a fair, GIGANTIC FRIED CHEESE LOG!
(with ranch to dip it in)

Woo, ride photos.

Midway overview from the Ferris Wheel

Five guys trying to fix the log flume...

CHEESE WHEEL

Opa, wait no, I mean... Mighty Mouse Coaster

It was running better today than it was a few weeks ago at State Fair. And we were also able to unbalance our car this time.

Meh, photo of my Flickr project.

Oh hey, Fighter was here
We took it for a lap since we skipped it at State

Same for the Enterprise

And it seemed to be running better than at State as well.

Rock Star was new for 2015, also at State, but I skipped it there
(rode it here)

Pirate, we skipped it... but have ridden it in the past
and I'm glad its still touring.

Typhoon was new (I think) we didn't ride it... but it looked nice
I was kinda bummed HIT-IN-2000 failed to show up.

Music Express (Quasar) was here!
And while it ran a semi-long and fast program, it still failed to vary the motion
(I looked at the control panel after riding, its got 3 programs listed, it was running "1", I wonder how the others are)

Fire Ball!
It's funny how 10 years ago I'd do anything to ride it... and now I skip it most of the time in favor of 'new' things.

The "Observation Tower" showed up as well.. but was testing for a good part of the night.

Kiddie Coaster #1 - Never tried to ride

Kiddie Coaster #2 - :| ridden in the past.

Zamp kiddie drop tower was here... but uh, not ready for riders.

They also had a helicopter tour again. We didn't ride it this time but have twice before in the past.

  Observation Tower did end up opening later in the night, so we took it for a ride.

Nighttime overview of the midway

YAY, THE ZIPPER
(story time)
So I have my little pouch thing I keep my phone in when at fairs or parks or whatever... It also holds some extra batteries and my keys... I typically shove Jeff's phone in it as well... We get on the Zipper and Jeff mentions how his phone is pinned by the lap bar in his pocket (he failed to give it to me before getting on) the ride starts to cycle and all is well and good.. until suddenly I see this large black object flying at my face... Smashing my nose and lip. GD, OUCH. What the hell was that? At first, I thought it was my camera until I realized it was still in my hand. I grab whatever it was with my free hand (as the ride is still cycling and flipping us all around) and look to my amazement... its Jeff's stupid-ass-iPhone. So as were still cycling, I'm screaming at him and using some uh, bad words about my feelings toward his phone...being sure to let him know it had smashed me in the face.. and I've since banned him from riding the Zipper with me again.

Fighter, now at night?
Wade should take it off the road for a season and do a full refurbishment on the ride. Its getting pretty beat up and for what was a star attraction is pretty forgettable now.

In the end, I did end up riding FireBall <3
(because even if its not new anymore, its still a lot of fun)

Centrifuge, still looking all new and awesome at night with its LED package.

Mega Drop failed to ever open :(
(luckily I had ridden it twice at the State Fair a week earlier)

Rock Star was having issues where it would run just fine... cycle 2 or 3 times with riders... and suddenly go down again.

  I wasn't gonna ride it but because Jeff had sat out FireBall we had an extra ticket.
People were loosing their mind on it.. I was pretty amused
(Although I wish Rainbow had come instead and had really put on a show)

Spider was here too.
It was here the first few times I visited the Central Florida Fair... but over the last few its been missing. Glad to see its returned.
(and obviously, it was ridden)

And for some reason... the ARM Vertigo had none of its lights on, but its crown.
It looked just terrible. How can ride that's barely 3 years old be in such poor shape already!

But we still rode it...
Its kind of our tradition at Central Florida (and State Fair) to ride the Swing Tower ride last.
Woo?
Hopefuls the 2016 fair will restore my faith in this once mighty fair.

Random stuff from Twitter
Mighty Mouse Coaster - Photo
Pig Races - Photo
Music Express // Quasar (via Vine) - Video
Truth - Tweet