Busch Gardens is about 90 minutes drive from Disneyworld in Florida and for the coaster fans amongst you, well worth the visit. It’s a dual-type park with one half being a nature reserve/animal park and the other half dedicated to your more typical entertainment-type theme park, with coasters!

It’s quite a few years since I was there, but I can still remember the coasters like it was last year. I went on them with my fellow coaster-obsessive daughter and for Montu, we were very fortunate to hit it at a time when the ride was uncharacteristically quiet, so we went on this at least five times consecutively.

Montu  Coaster Vital Statistics

Type of ride: Steel ‘inverted’ coaster

• Height: 150 feet
• First drop: 128 feet
• Top speed: 60 mph
• Track length: 3983 feet
• Ride time: 1:10 minutes
• Inversions: 7
• Max G:Force: 3.84
• Height requirement: 54 inches
• Opened: 16/05/1996
• Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mallibard

Montu is an ‘Inverted’ coaster, meaning the cars hang from the track, you’re fully harnessed in and your legs dangle freely below you. I’m a big fan of this coaster genre as it gives the impression of less constricted than the traditional car-type coaster. It’s an Egyptian themed coaster, so there’s lots of mummies-tomb like scenarios around and during the ride.

We kick off with the traditional chain lift taking us up to its max height of 150 feet an a wonderful view of the park and surrounding area. Then, we’re over the apex and with a small initial dip and twist to the left we’re off!

First up, we have a full height vertical loop, taking full advantage of the earlier 150 foot climb with loads of G’s, then we go semi-underground into a simulated tomb; watch out for the walls! Then immediately into a half loop with a twist, known in coaster circles as an Immelman, which is fantastic on an inverted coaster as you really feel the G’s through your feet. Next up is a zero-G roll, where the rider has the weightless feeling of zero-gravity flight.

From there we head into a ‘batwing’, comprising two inversions before hitting the brakes briefly to take some speed out of the ride. Then, veering off to the right and a big vertiacal loop. Finally a trditional corkscrew loop before finding all too soon, we’re at the end. Time to go on again!

The overall ride time is about 1:50, although the actual ride time (after the top of chain lift) is more like 1:10.

Verdict?

Oh yes, top notch coaster heaven!

So much so, their logo even incorporates this magnificent creature, as you can see.

SeaWorld has a general sea-related theme running through the park and the majority of the various shows and attractions, including sea-lions, dolphins and sea-otters, culminating in the main attraction; the Shamu Show. So called because of Shamu, the Killer Whale.

Shamu is of course a generic name, a brand if you like, as it can be any one of a number of Orca from the SeaWorld ‘cast’ that take the role in the show itself. Over the years, various Shamu have perished and been replaced with yet more. The show must go on.

I know a lot of the justification for SeaWorld’s activities centres around the rescue, research and conservation they do, and all that, but when it comes down to it, here we have a large corporation making a significant buck from keeping and breeding wild aquatic animals in captivity. Not only are they keeping them in an unnatural habitat, they are training them to perform for the pleasure of the general public.

Now, I have no doubt SeaWorld look after their Orca and other sea creatures. The trainers clearly know and love their animals. But let us not lose sight of the point here; SeaWorld are not a sea-life rescue charity. Yes, they may put something back, which is admirable but they are in it for the profit. Lots and lots of profit.

I’ve seen these wonderful creatures in the wild. I was fortunate enough to be able to go whale watching off the coast of Iceland a few years ago and was delighted and somewhat mesmerised to see a pod of healthy, wild Orca, including a mother and calf swimming alongside the boat.

The sheer size of these beasts, compared to us mere humans, in their natural habitat of millions of square miles of deep, deep ocean really was quite stunning.

With the advent of high-definition TV and the internet, documentaries and simulations, people now have ready access to what it’s like to see these animals. They can see them as often as they like, in their original habitat, doing what comes naturally. They no longer need to go to a SeaWorld or a zoo to see these creatures cooped up in a man-made prison made from reinforced glass and concrete that’s been moulded and coloured to look like ‘natural’ habitat.

The bottom line is that a Killer Whale is a wild mammal, they do not belong in captivity. Evidence the extremely distressing sight of the various captive Orca with their sad-looking drooping dorsal fins swimming around in a big fish tank filled with startlingly blue water.

There are theories why the fins droop, one being that it’s from swimming on top of the water more than is natural, which a whale will do if the water is not deep enough. As a result, water pressure on each side of the fin, keeping it upright, is replaced by gravity and air meaning over time, it droops.

There are also attempts made to statistically justify the occurrence of the phenomenon by quoting percentages found in the wild. The simple fact is that almost all the ones I’ve seen in the wild are straight, and pretty much all the adult ones I’ve seen in captivity droop.

Now, before you say anything… Yes, I paid my bucks, I went in and it’s not the first time I’ve been. So yes, in a way I’m supporting what I’m railing against here, but this time I viewed it all though a different shade of glasses, and it wasn’t nice.

We should indeed be looking to do what we can to conserve our endangered species. However, I for one do not think keeping them captive for entertainment and profit is the way. Someone should step in and force the timetable of re-partiation of the wild animals to the wild – at cost to the current captors.

And don’t get me started on the Polar Bear…

As a result, I thought I would perhaps do a series of mini-reviews of coasters/rides I’ve been on over the years.

I’ll start with the newest coaster at Orlando at time of writing; Manta, at SeaWorld Orlando, which opened on 21 May 2009.

I rode this coaster on 6 July 2009, less than 2 months after opening. Unfortunately the height requirement ruled out my new buddy, so as a single rider, I braved the 40 minute queue in the baking sun.

The queuing was reasonably pleasant with a large part of it indoors in a sea-themed cavern with a very impressive built-in aquarium to keep you occupied while you wait. As seems to be common these days, the queue separated into ‘front row’ and ‘other’. At the risk of starting a heated debate I, in common with lots of other coaster-freaks, will opt for the back seat most of the time. You guys waiting an extra twenty minutes for a front seat? I laugh at you. In this instance, being a single-rider it was fairly simple to get to the back seat row and eagerly wait my turn.

Manta Vital Statistics

• Type of ride: Steel ‘flying’ coaster
• Height: 140 feet
• First drop: 113 feet
• Top speed: 56 mph
• Track length: 3359 feet
• Riders: 96 (3x trains, each with 8 rows of 4 seats)
• Ride time: 2:35 minutes**
• Inversions: 4
• Height requirement: 54 inches
• Opened: 21/05/2009
• Manufacturer: Bolliger and Mabillard, Monthey, Switzerland

For the uninitiated, a ‘flying’ coaster requires you to sit in a moulded seat, pull a fixed harness down over your front and clip it to the seat using a small belt/buckle. Your legs are then clamped in place using ankle cuffs, a bit like those seats where James Bond gets caught by the baddie. Before the coaster starts, the whole seat-row ensembles are rotated though 90 degrees and locked parallel to the track so you are facing the ground. The ‘Air’ coaster at Alton Towers, UK was my first ‘flying’ coaster some years ago.

The ride starts off with the usual ratchety climb to the impressive 140 feet peak and, as you climb you of course wave to the watching gallery below, since you’re facing downwards. The view of the park is as impressive as it is brief when the clacking sound stops and the weight of the coaster takes you over the apex of the climb. With a twist and a glide, the coaster hurtles down towards top speed and into the the first and main inversion, a full vertical loop with the trains on the inside, exerting substantial g-forces, pushing you back into your seat. At this point, you realise this ride is a bit special.

There are then a variety of twists and turns, including the next two inversions, both in an anti-clockwise corkscrew style before a mini-respite and a touch of brakes to slow us down for the more ‘scenic’ phase of the ride.

So, into a couple of twists, followed by a swoop over the pond where a wing-dip is simulated with a spray from the surface of the water and we head into our final clockwise corkscrew inversion to finish.

** The ‘official’ ride time includes the initial climb and final trail round to the start again, neither of which I think really count. Actual ride time, from the end of the climb to the ‘brakes on’ at the end is approx 1 minute.

Highly recommended.