It’s a race to ride 300 roller coasters. We’re having an unofficial, just for fun competition to see who the first member of the Coaster101 team will be to ride 300 different roller coasters. This contest has driven some of us to extreme lengths, including going hours out of our way to ride a kiddie coaster just to add it to our coaster counts.
Let’s check the standings, as of February 14, 2023:
To get back in this race, I need all the credits I can get, so I took full advantage of a recent family vacation to Florida. We flew into Orlando and dropped the wife and daughter off at the Crayola Experience at the Florida Mall. Then, my son and I drove to Fun Spot Orlando, a small FEC across the highway from Universal. Henry is 9, and his coaster count is 45. Hopefully on this trip we can get him to 50 credits.
First up, a front row ride on Freedom Flyer, a 64 foot tall Vekoma family suspended coaster opened in 2013.
Petition for more coasters that meander above the midways like this one does. We enjoyed this one.
Next, the coaster we were most anticipating, White Lightning, a 70 foot tall wooden hybrid coaster. I honestly forgot this ride had some steel titan track on it.
Super smooth, super fun. I’ve still never ridden a bad GCI coaster. Henry described it as a “mini-mystic timbers”
Fun Spot Orlando is home to another kiddie coaster but we had to get back to the mall to pickup the ladies and continue on our journey. We spent $48 for the two of us to ride two coasters, a steep $12 per ticket. Still not the most expensive individual ride ticket as the $15 it cost to ride the Burger King coaster in Niagara Falls.
We made a quick stop to walk around Disney Springs.
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Next, it was onto Fun Spot Kissimmee, located just 13 miles south of the other Fun Spot. The main draw here was to ride Mine Blower, a Gravity Group wooden roller coaster that goes upside down. Sadly, this was the reason why Henry sat this one out – he has let to experience an inversion on a roller coaster. One day.
After spending another $12, I had a zen ride in the front seat.
Between Mine Blower and White Lightning, I think Mine Blower has the better layout, and stronger airtime, but it is not smooth. Like riding a wagon down a hill with square wheels. It hurt my neck and I would only want to ride it the one time. Therefore, I gotta give the nod to white lightning which I could ride over and over again, it’s just pure fun.
Imagine riding in a wagon down hill and the road is full of potholes.
— JT (@jtstilwell) February 6, 2023
Fun Spot Kissimmee has three other coasters but one was closed and we didn’t have time to hit the others. So in a short amount of time, I picked up three coaster credits (for $36) but also left four on the table. This brings my total up to 267. Still in last place. Let’s see if I can overtake Eric by the end of this trip. Henry is at 47.
Let me know in the comments below which Florida Fun Spot wood coaster you think is better: White Lightning or Mine Blower? Also let us know who you think will win Coaster101’s Race to 300.
Stay tuned for the next episodes where we’ll be picking up credits at LEGOLAND Florida and Peppa Pig Theme Park.
That is a cool ride.