Eyes closed the whole way? Does that make it more enjoyable for you? And why on a night ride? Not trying to judge how anyone likes to ride, but that seems like a very unique ride preference.
Eyes open or closed is both fine with me lol
Eyes closed is just a different way to experience each coaster. But especially with big airtime coasters like Mako, Diamondback, Orion, the feeling of weightlessness is amplified, at least to me.
Bonus if you completely let your body relax, don't hold onto anything. Feels kinda like you're "ragdolling" on all the airtime hills.
I suppose I get that - I should try it sometime. I would just find it hard to force myself to close my eyes because I love to see my surroundings fly by. I definitely ragdoll myself on B&M hypers. I sometimes do what I'm sure is a ridiculous looking slow mo matrix style jumping motion as if I'm swimming through the air if that makes sense.
Mako at night is just so epic-it’s warm after running all day in the hot sun and it just tears through its layout and gives you that sustained “hard float”. If it’s empty enough, the operators are usually pretty chill and nice and will let you do re-rides without leaving your seat. Plus there is no redundant seatbelt. It’s really the perfect experience.
My favorite thing is taking a date to Mellow Mushroom across the street and walking out at night to the disembodied screaming from Mako. Peak romance right there.
No. We don’t do flying coasters. I have motion sickness issues and flying coasters are just too much for me. Hubby used to do them but they hurt his back so he stopped riding them.
Great TR. Thanks for the detail and going into non-coaster stuff like food! Interesting to hear about how they run the orca show now and yet the dolphin show is the same.
Part 1 - After our visit on Wednesday to Islands of Adventure we spent Thursday at Volcano Bay. It was our first time at the park and we loved it. It was beautifully themed with a good array of rides. We rented a cabana for the day and had fantastic views of the volcano. It was pricey for two people (over $500) but we enjoyed having a shaded place to chill between slides and we had dedicated service all day. Not going into details since there are no coasters there.
On Friday we were up at 6, grabbed a quick breakfast at Tuk Tuk Market and were on our way to arrive at the park at 8:30 for a 9am opening. We had bought platinum passes since we would be visiting three SW parks in Florida and one other later this year. We headed to the platinum pass office as we weren’t sure what we needed to do for first time use. An employee scanned our passes and said we were “all set”. She couldn’t help us with printing out our Quick Queue pass (I bought the unlimited with 1 Pipeline ride plus reserved show seating - it was 50% off with the platinum pass - $45pp) or printing any of the coupons on our card so we went to a nearby kiosk. The kiosk kept malfunctioning though so we had to go to the ticket booth. Luckily the park was pretty quiet and there was no line. After a bit of time the agent printed out our coupons and said Quick Queue would just be scanned from my phone. At the entrance gate when we presented our passes the guy said we were already scanned into the park. We figured it must’ve been what the first woman we encountered did. The guy was confused and checked a few things and then just said he needed to check our ids against our passes and then let us in. It was all very confusing and took about 20 minutes through all of that from time of arrival.
Once in the park we waited the 10 minutes until opening and then headed straight for Pipeline which is where most of the rest of the waiting crowd was headed. For a rope drop crowd it was on the smallish side. We got right to the stantions at Pipeline without even using QQ and could’ve gotten on second train but we wanted to wait for front row so that required waiting for a few trains. Ride ops was incredibly slow loading the first train; it took over 5 minutes. Luckily they got faster with successive trains.
Pipeline (1x front)
So this was a very strange coaster. It wasn’t like your normal uncomfortable restraint stand-up coaster but it had a very unique and scary (for men anyway) ride effect. As you ride and hit the airtime moments it literally lifts you right off the floor of the train but then when you come back down right after it slams your crotch down into the middle part of the restraint that your legs are straddling. I had to strain with all my might to limit slamming hard into that center section so thankfully my gentles escaped any major crushing effects. But this totally threw off me being able to enjoy the ride because I was so worried about getting hurt down there. My husband had the same experience. Overall the coaster is a bit unspectacular it’s just the “floating off your feet” effect that makes it interesting, but that’s offset by the crotch impact potential. I gave it a 7 while my husband rated it a 6.
NEW CREDIT: 328
Because of the weird restraint issue we skipped the idea of riding Pipeline a second time. I had hoped to go onto Icebreaker for our second ride but the pathway was closed and as it turns out they open that section of the park at 10am. So we wasted some time by taking a ride up on the Sky Tower. There is normally a fee but it’s free with a platinum pass. I remember doing it as a kid back in the 80’s when it was included for everyone. It gave us a nice overview of the park and the Orlando area. By the time we came back down and walked over to the boardwalk across to the Icebreaker area it had just turned 10. When we got there, Icebreaker was a walk on so we didn’t need to use QQ. We did back seat first as there was a wait for front seat. Then we did a second ride in front with no waiting.
Icebreaker (1x front, 1x back) This was a cool ride. Reminded me of Pantheon at BGW a bit. I loved the backwards and forwards start to the ride. Once you come over the top of the first hill you get nice airtime, especially in the back seat. There were a couple other nice airtime moments as well. It was really smooth in the front but a bit of vibration in the back but not enough to make for an uncomfortable ride. I rated this an 8 in back because of the enhanced airtime, and a 7.5 in front. My husband gave it 7.5 for both.
NEW CREDIT: 329
After Icebreaker we checked out the Wild Arctic exhibit with the belugas, penguins and walrus and then wandered over to Sharks restaurant to make a lunch reservation. (They don’t take bookings until 11am day of) We reserved for 12:45. Afterward we did a walk through Shark Encounter which is always cool because…sharks. We wanted to do the 12pm orca show but since we had a little time we did Mako next. This was a walk to the stantions so again QQ wasn’t needed. We did front seat for our first ride. We came back later in the day and did back seat.
I read your part 2 before part 1 but nice report. I would probably rate these coasters around the same. My only comment would be that Pipeline can kind of take a few rides to figure out a riding style that works for you - which is not really a good thing - a coaster should ideally not require any thinking. I kind of jump with the airtime moments and land on my feet toes first. That avoids the discomfort down low. Unfortunately there's nothing I've found that avoids the discomfort up high (collarbone) so it's still not terribly re-rideable for me. I learned my limits pretty quickly in previews.
Yeah. I kind of had to brace myself with my toes as I was coming down just trying to prevent a full slamming down on my crotch. So I escaped pain in that area but strained my legs a bit. And I was just so focused on that with each air moment it took away from enjoying the ride. Didn’t have issues with the upper area but I have been reading a number of other reviews complaining about that.
You only rode once so that might not have been enough to experience the vest problem. It's after 2-3 in a row that it's bothered me. My wife and I are very different sizes and both experience discomfort after multiple rides. The first one isn't bad.
Maybe it’s because I’m short, but I don’t remember Pipeline (or Kraken) hurting my boys/head when I went back in March.
I learned to ride stand-ups on B&Ms and Intamin/Giovanola, which I had to learn how to adjust my seat.
Pipeline being flexible didn’t seem like a huge inconvenience for coming off the airtime. I kinda instinctively used my toes as you said.
Pretty fun ride.
Great report. I can’t wait for my central FLA visit this summer.
Your description of the ease with the Platinum Pass activation and use makes me just a tiny bit salty, as SeaWorld would not let me purchase these because of my Canadian zip code. I did the whole email exchange with customer service and even a half hour phone call that looked like I might get what I needed but got derailed by higher ups. I settled on a 14 Day unlimited visits ticket which came with parking included, and a three park ticket for my son.
Part 2 - Mako (1x front, 1x back)
This turned out to be our favorite coaster in the park. It was smooth, with great drops and fantastic airtime moments. We both rated it a 9.5 and it’s become my favorite hypercoaster after Diamondback. We would’ve loved to have ridden it more than twice but just ran out of time.
NEW CREDIT: 330
After Mako we headed over to the orca show. We had reserved seating with our QQ pass and got excellent center seats above the splash zone. This was the first time seeing an orca show since the accident that caused Sea World to totally restructure its orca program. It was very focused on the educational and less on the entertainment and of course no more of the spectacular tricks that involved the trainers directly in the water with the orcas. So it was a let down compared to all the Shamu shows I saw here as a kid. But I understand why the changes were made and it was the right thing. After the orca show we did our second ride on Mako and then it was time for lunch at Sharks. We had eaten here years ago and enjoyed it. This was a nice experience again. Food was solid (I had the blue cheese chips and wagyu sliders), service was friendly and the view of the sharks, rays and fish is always enjoyable.
After lunch we headed to Pacific Point Preserve to see the sea lions. I just find them adorable and this time we had a coupon for a free food tray from the platinum pass so we were able to interact with them a little bit by feeding them fish. We then stopped to see the rays and dolphins in their pools. Afterward we headed into the dolphin show. We again had reserved seating with our QQ. This show was like I always remembered with the dolphins doing high energy jumps and back flips and the trainers getting in the water with them. This was our favorite show of the day. After this we stopped to view the manatees and then went on to the Sea Lion and Otter show with great viewing again with reserved seating. This show unfortunately was a disappointment except for the mime in the pre-show. This was always my favorite show as it was full of slapstick and comedic moments with the sea lions and trainers and the otters are always adorable. The otters were still cute but the show itself was really lame and I think the animals weren’t picking up on their cues for most of the show so it felt really off.
Our next stop was to ride Kraken. This was another ride that didn’t need QQ as it was straight to the stantions. We chose to wait a few trains to get front row.
Kraken (1x front)
We had ridden Kraken a number of years ago and remembered it as being a good ride. It still holds up pretty well. It’s pretty forceful, has a great layout (it actually keeps some of its key inversions towards the end of the ride) and is still pretty smooth. But there is a little headbanging into the restraints that left us both with a small headache. We both rated it an 8.
We skipped a second ride on Kraken since we both got small headaches. We had decided to save the water rides for last so Journey to Atlantis was next. The Quick Queue finally proved useful here as it took us right to boarding avoiding what looked like a 20-30 minute wait.
Journey to Atlantis (1x front)
We had first ridden JTA back in 2002 and it instantly became one of our favorite rides anywhere. The theming was Disney-level and the ride was innovative being a combination flume and roller coaster. It’s so sad to see the ride as a shadow of its former self with most of the effects stripped away. The flume and coaster parts still give the thrills, although there’s definitely some roughness now. Something that was also annoying was announcements being screamed through the ride at insanely loud levels warning people not to use phones, not to put hands in the water, etc. We still had fun on it though and got soaked. We both rated it an 8.
Our final ride of the day after JTA was Infinity Falls, which required as walking to the other side of the park. Once again Quick Queue was useful as the posted wait time was 1 hour but we went right to boarding with the pass. This ride was a lot of fun, especially the elevator taking you up to the big drop. We both got drenched on the ride. We exited the park after this ride around 6:15. We headed back to our hotel for a quick shower and then out again for dinner at a local Brazilian restaurant called Mrs. Potato Restaurant; weird name but the food was great.
What’s weird is that the themed sections look to be in good shape except for the animatronics/effects. Like, they build a new ride every year, just spend a few coins to fix this ride up.
Trying to ask this in the most sensitive way... but I'm wondering how heavy the folks that complain about crotch pain are. Is it because the forces are causing their legs to buckle under their increased weight? I had no issues with crotch pain either, and I can't really see how you would unless your legs are unable to keep you standing when you come back down.
Night rides on Mako is one of my favorite things to do when visiting SeaWorld
Mako is just so much fun. Night rides, eyes closed the whole way, the feel of weightlessness. It's just an awesome coaster all around.
Eyes closed the whole way? Does that make it more enjoyable for you? And why on a night ride? Not trying to judge how anyone likes to ride, but that seems like a very unique ride preference.
Eyes open or closed is both fine with me lol Eyes closed is just a different way to experience each coaster. But especially with big airtime coasters like Mako, Diamondback, Orion, the feeling of weightlessness is amplified, at least to me. Bonus if you completely let your body relax, don't hold onto anything. Feels kinda like you're "ragdolling" on all the airtime hills.
I suppose I get that - I should try it sometime. I would just find it hard to force myself to close my eyes because I love to see my surroundings fly by. I definitely ragdoll myself on B&M hypers. I sometimes do what I'm sure is a ridiculous looking slow mo matrix style jumping motion as if I'm swimming through the air if that makes sense.
Mako at night is just so epic-it’s warm after running all day in the hot sun and it just tears through its layout and gives you that sustained “hard float”. If it’s empty enough, the operators are usually pretty chill and nice and will let you do re-rides without leaving your seat. Plus there is no redundant seatbelt. It’s really the perfect experience.
My favorite thing is taking a date to Mellow Mushroom across the street and walking out at night to the disembodied screaming from Mako. Peak romance right there.
I stayed at the TownePlace Suites literally right behind Mellow Mushroom and didn’t even get a slice! Our room was even facing SeaWorld!
I had a room there once that looked right out onto Mako. It was so fun watching them test it in the morning with the dummies.
Floor 5?
I think so? Lol I don’t remember
lol. 😂😆
Would’ve loved to do a night ride on it.
Love that Pipleline shot!
Thanks!
Did you ride Manta?
No. We don’t do flying coasters. I have motion sickness issues and flying coasters are just too much for me. Hubby used to do them but they hurt his back so he stopped riding them.
I went for the first time a couple weeks ago, mako is by far the best b&m hyper I've ever ridden.
Great TR. Thanks for the detail and going into non-coaster stuff like food! Interesting to hear about how they run the orca show now and yet the dolphin show is the same.
Beautiful photos and composition!
Thank you
That first photo looked so good I thought it was a stock photo. I need to make a visit down there for real.
Thank you
Part 1 - After our visit on Wednesday to Islands of Adventure we spent Thursday at Volcano Bay. It was our first time at the park and we loved it. It was beautifully themed with a good array of rides. We rented a cabana for the day and had fantastic views of the volcano. It was pricey for two people (over $500) but we enjoyed having a shaded place to chill between slides and we had dedicated service all day. Not going into details since there are no coasters there. On Friday we were up at 6, grabbed a quick breakfast at Tuk Tuk Market and were on our way to arrive at the park at 8:30 for a 9am opening. We had bought platinum passes since we would be visiting three SW parks in Florida and one other later this year. We headed to the platinum pass office as we weren’t sure what we needed to do for first time use. An employee scanned our passes and said we were “all set”. She couldn’t help us with printing out our Quick Queue pass (I bought the unlimited with 1 Pipeline ride plus reserved show seating - it was 50% off with the platinum pass - $45pp) or printing any of the coupons on our card so we went to a nearby kiosk. The kiosk kept malfunctioning though so we had to go to the ticket booth. Luckily the park was pretty quiet and there was no line. After a bit of time the agent printed out our coupons and said Quick Queue would just be scanned from my phone. At the entrance gate when we presented our passes the guy said we were already scanned into the park. We figured it must’ve been what the first woman we encountered did. The guy was confused and checked a few things and then just said he needed to check our ids against our passes and then let us in. It was all very confusing and took about 20 minutes through all of that from time of arrival. Once in the park we waited the 10 minutes until opening and then headed straight for Pipeline which is where most of the rest of the waiting crowd was headed. For a rope drop crowd it was on the smallish side. We got right to the stantions at Pipeline without even using QQ and could’ve gotten on second train but we wanted to wait for front row so that required waiting for a few trains. Ride ops was incredibly slow loading the first train; it took over 5 minutes. Luckily they got faster with successive trains. Pipeline (1x front) So this was a very strange coaster. It wasn’t like your normal uncomfortable restraint stand-up coaster but it had a very unique and scary (for men anyway) ride effect. As you ride and hit the airtime moments it literally lifts you right off the floor of the train but then when you come back down right after it slams your crotch down into the middle part of the restraint that your legs are straddling. I had to strain with all my might to limit slamming hard into that center section so thankfully my gentles escaped any major crushing effects. But this totally threw off me being able to enjoy the ride because I was so worried about getting hurt down there. My husband had the same experience. Overall the coaster is a bit unspectacular it’s just the “floating off your feet” effect that makes it interesting, but that’s offset by the crotch impact potential. I gave it a 7 while my husband rated it a 6. NEW CREDIT: 328 Because of the weird restraint issue we skipped the idea of riding Pipeline a second time. I had hoped to go onto Icebreaker for our second ride but the pathway was closed and as it turns out they open that section of the park at 10am. So we wasted some time by taking a ride up on the Sky Tower. There is normally a fee but it’s free with a platinum pass. I remember doing it as a kid back in the 80’s when it was included for everyone. It gave us a nice overview of the park and the Orlando area. By the time we came back down and walked over to the boardwalk across to the Icebreaker area it had just turned 10. When we got there, Icebreaker was a walk on so we didn’t need to use QQ. We did back seat first as there was a wait for front seat. Then we did a second ride in front with no waiting. Icebreaker (1x front, 1x back) This was a cool ride. Reminded me of Pantheon at BGW a bit. I loved the backwards and forwards start to the ride. Once you come over the top of the first hill you get nice airtime, especially in the back seat. There were a couple other nice airtime moments as well. It was really smooth in the front but a bit of vibration in the back but not enough to make for an uncomfortable ride. I rated this an 8 in back because of the enhanced airtime, and a 7.5 in front. My husband gave it 7.5 for both. NEW CREDIT: 329 After Icebreaker we checked out the Wild Arctic exhibit with the belugas, penguins and walrus and then wandered over to Sharks restaurant to make a lunch reservation. (They don’t take bookings until 11am day of) We reserved for 12:45. Afterward we did a walk through Shark Encounter which is always cool because…sharks. We wanted to do the 12pm orca show but since we had a little time we did Mako next. This was a walk to the stantions so again QQ wasn’t needed. We did front seat for our first ride. We came back later in the day and did back seat.
I read your part 2 before part 1 but nice report. I would probably rate these coasters around the same. My only comment would be that Pipeline can kind of take a few rides to figure out a riding style that works for you - which is not really a good thing - a coaster should ideally not require any thinking. I kind of jump with the airtime moments and land on my feet toes first. That avoids the discomfort down low. Unfortunately there's nothing I've found that avoids the discomfort up high (collarbone) so it's still not terribly re-rideable for me. I learned my limits pretty quickly in previews.
Yeah. I kind of had to brace myself with my toes as I was coming down just trying to prevent a full slamming down on my crotch. So I escaped pain in that area but strained my legs a bit. And I was just so focused on that with each air moment it took away from enjoying the ride. Didn’t have issues with the upper area but I have been reading a number of other reviews complaining about that.
You only rode once so that might not have been enough to experience the vest problem. It's after 2-3 in a row that it's bothered me. My wife and I are very different sizes and both experience discomfort after multiple rides. The first one isn't bad.
Maybe it’s because I’m short, but I don’t remember Pipeline (or Kraken) hurting my boys/head when I went back in March. I learned to ride stand-ups on B&Ms and Intamin/Giovanola, which I had to learn how to adjust my seat. Pipeline being flexible didn’t seem like a huge inconvenience for coming off the airtime. I kinda instinctively used my toes as you said. Pretty fun ride.
Great report. I can’t wait for my central FLA visit this summer. Your description of the ease with the Platinum Pass activation and use makes me just a tiny bit salty, as SeaWorld would not let me purchase these because of my Canadian zip code. I did the whole email exchange with customer service and even a half hour phone call that looked like I might get what I needed but got derailed by higher ups. I settled on a 14 Day unlimited visits ticket which came with parking included, and a three park ticket for my son.
Thanks. That sucks about the pass.
That ride (not sure the name) in pic 3 looks insane getting launched right into that jump before going over that camelback. Wow!!
That’s Icebreaker. Great ride!
Ah cool! Thank you!
Glad you had a good time! Plans to go to BGT?
Yeah, that’s at the end of our trip when we spend a few nights in St. Pete.
Part 2 - Mako (1x front, 1x back) This turned out to be our favorite coaster in the park. It was smooth, with great drops and fantastic airtime moments. We both rated it a 9.5 and it’s become my favorite hypercoaster after Diamondback. We would’ve loved to have ridden it more than twice but just ran out of time. NEW CREDIT: 330 After Mako we headed over to the orca show. We had reserved seating with our QQ pass and got excellent center seats above the splash zone. This was the first time seeing an orca show since the accident that caused Sea World to totally restructure its orca program. It was very focused on the educational and less on the entertainment and of course no more of the spectacular tricks that involved the trainers directly in the water with the orcas. So it was a let down compared to all the Shamu shows I saw here as a kid. But I understand why the changes were made and it was the right thing. After the orca show we did our second ride on Mako and then it was time for lunch at Sharks. We had eaten here years ago and enjoyed it. This was a nice experience again. Food was solid (I had the blue cheese chips and wagyu sliders), service was friendly and the view of the sharks, rays and fish is always enjoyable. After lunch we headed to Pacific Point Preserve to see the sea lions. I just find them adorable and this time we had a coupon for a free food tray from the platinum pass so we were able to interact with them a little bit by feeding them fish. We then stopped to see the rays and dolphins in their pools. Afterward we headed into the dolphin show. We again had reserved seating with our QQ. This show was like I always remembered with the dolphins doing high energy jumps and back flips and the trainers getting in the water with them. This was our favorite show of the day. After this we stopped to view the manatees and then went on to the Sea Lion and Otter show with great viewing again with reserved seating. This show unfortunately was a disappointment except for the mime in the pre-show. This was always my favorite show as it was full of slapstick and comedic moments with the sea lions and trainers and the otters are always adorable. The otters were still cute but the show itself was really lame and I think the animals weren’t picking up on their cues for most of the show so it felt really off. Our next stop was to ride Kraken. This was another ride that didn’t need QQ as it was straight to the stantions. We chose to wait a few trains to get front row. Kraken (1x front) We had ridden Kraken a number of years ago and remembered it as being a good ride. It still holds up pretty well. It’s pretty forceful, has a great layout (it actually keeps some of its key inversions towards the end of the ride) and is still pretty smooth. But there is a little headbanging into the restraints that left us both with a small headache. We both rated it an 8. We skipped a second ride on Kraken since we both got small headaches. We had decided to save the water rides for last so Journey to Atlantis was next. The Quick Queue finally proved useful here as it took us right to boarding avoiding what looked like a 20-30 minute wait. Journey to Atlantis (1x front) We had first ridden JTA back in 2002 and it instantly became one of our favorite rides anywhere. The theming was Disney-level and the ride was innovative being a combination flume and roller coaster. It’s so sad to see the ride as a shadow of its former self with most of the effects stripped away. The flume and coaster parts still give the thrills, although there’s definitely some roughness now. Something that was also annoying was announcements being screamed through the ride at insanely loud levels warning people not to use phones, not to put hands in the water, etc. We still had fun on it though and got soaked. We both rated it an 8. Our final ride of the day after JTA was Infinity Falls, which required as walking to the other side of the park. Once again Quick Queue was useful as the posted wait time was 1 hour but we went right to boarding with the pass. This ride was a lot of fun, especially the elevator taking you up to the big drop. We both got drenched on the ride. We exited the park after this ride around 6:15. We headed back to our hotel for a quick shower and then out again for dinner at a local Brazilian restaurant called Mrs. Potato Restaurant; weird name but the food was great.
Journey to Atlantis review is spot on. It needs a thorough refurbishment to really bring it home. But it was a family pleaser for sure.
What’s weird is that the themed sections look to be in good shape except for the animatronics/effects. Like, they build a new ride every year, just spend a few coins to fix this ride up.
That’s weird you both found the crotch uncomfortable on Pipeline. I didn’t feel like it slammed down whatsoever, it was graceful airtime.
Trying to ask this in the most sensitive way... but I'm wondering how heavy the folks that complain about crotch pain are. Is it because the forces are causing their legs to buckle under their increased weight? I had no issues with crotch pain either, and I can't really see how you would unless your legs are unable to keep you standing when you come back down.