Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 11 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

This year we broke our 5-year old tradition of going to Orlando and stayed at home for Labor Day Weekend.

The decision was primarily driven by the fact that we had the Busch Gardens Fun Cards we bought at the beginning of the summer (Memorial Day). So rather than going to Disney or Universal like years’ past, we spent Saturday at the amusement park, Sunday (and part of Monday) furniture shopping (an American tradition, right?), and then finished up with a cookout at home on Monday afternoon.

The park opened at 9am on Saturday and we arrived shortly after that. Just like Memorial Day, the morning crowds were very light … by 10am we had already ridden Cheetah Hunt, in the front car, twice (and it’s awesome in the front row)! Once again, no need for Quick Queue.

Next on the agenda was the water rides so we would have the rest of the day to dry off. In quick succession we rode the Congo River Rapids, the Tanganyika Tidal Wave, and the Stanley Falls log flume (in descending order of potential waterlogging) and ended up (as expected) completely soaked.

Now that we needed to dry off, it was time for the coasters! We rode Montu, Kumba (front row) and Gwazi (last row) before grabbing a light lunch. We ended up skipping Shiekra since it had been closed due to technical difficulties and had the longest line (about 45 minutes) after it started running again.

We closed out the day by going to the shows: Iceplorations (a combination of the Lion King and Voyage of the Little Mermaid shows at Disney … on ice!), Critter Castaways (cute live animals!), and Get Loud! (a Miami dance party).

Next year, I think we’ll be back at Disney … already looking forward to it!