First glimpse of one of the park's roller coasters ( some of which are world famous and highly ranked in the roller coaster arena)
Do you see a lion?
Signboard at the entrance when we first walked in.
Do you see alligators? At first I thought they were fake :P
Initially we had already planned to take the tram ride around the safari first, but when I spotted this roller coaster, the newest addition to their coaster family known as the Cheetah Hunt, I couldn't resist and rushed to take it with my mom :)
Oh boy it was as scary as its namesake as pictured ^. At the beginning the coaster suddenly sped up from 0km/h to 60km/h in a split second. In case you don't know how fast that is, IT IS FAST. Even though I expected the sudden increase in speed, it still came as a surprise to me and for the split second I could actually think, I was like ' Why did I get on this ride???!!' But it was good fun and I really enjoyed it, and it gave me lots of confidence to ride the other coasters later on this trip :P And luckily I insisted on riding this coaster as it was the only coaster out of the 5-6 coasters in this park that I managed to ride ): (due to time constraints)
'Oh I'm just a cute fatty hippo, happily munching on my grass...'..ZOOOOOMMM!!!!AHHHHHHH!!!!! * human screams*
That was one of the issues we were discussing about this idea of merging a safari with a theme park.. it doesn't work out too well. The animals hardly have any silent time due to the constant shrieks of thrill-seeking homo sapiens and the loud screeches of the roller coaster rides.. plus the opening times are so short, one simply does not have time to ride all the rides AND see all the animals.
we did get to see some gorillas though
and their asses
and I even got to ride one! :)
Passed by a kangaroo feeding station where entrance was free but a cup of feed costs US$5.
Being the cheapskates we are, we went in and fed the kangaroos with the scraps picked off the floor :P ^ it actually ate from me!!! :))
So cute <3
Passed by some flamingos as well
And passed by a 'Sesame Street' section of the park where we were lucky enough to take a pic with the sesame street characters!! ( we were one of the last to :P)
All these pics were taken before my brother and I took a water ride and got absolutely DRENCHED at the end. I also didn't take a picture of our late lunch at Zambia Smokehouse, where we had the most AMAZING smoked meats ( namely brisket, ribs, chicken)
Oh wait, I momentarily forgot the existence of google images. Picture above is not mine :P
The soft fluffy bun pairs so well with the various meats, which are all done to tender juicy perfection, and doused with an addictive sweet sauce. And the fries.....ohmigawd. We officially declared there and then that these were the best fries we had eaten so far. Still piping hot, and crispy on the outside but soft inside <3 It was so good my dad went to buy another platter. ( On hindside however, maybe it just tasted so good because we were standing there sopping wet from the above mentioned water ride haha :P )
All too soon however the park was closing so we made our way back without having tried many of the rides. No regrets though, it was still a great day :)
And the early closing time was a blessing in disguise, as we got to eat at Olive Garden, one of the restaurants I wanted to go to in America! I decided to order a soup as my aunt ( who also ordered the same) highly recommended the particular soup, and it was free flow so the greedy and kiasu Singaporean in me couldn't resist :P Besides, I love the classic combination of hot soup with bread <3
My parents ordered a set ( which was 2 for US$25) and came with an appetizer and entree of choice. Thank god they only ordered 2 portions instead of the originally intended 4 as the portions were HUGE.
Deep-fried lagsana as one of the appetizers. Well what do you expect, lagsana is a classic italian dish and put an italian restaurant in America and you just get it deep-fried ;) This were good though. Just don't think of the calories.
When I think of breadsticks, I think of puny little cheesesticks small enough to finish in a bite. THESE ^ however, are not breadsticks contrary to their name in the menu, but breadBRANCHES! They were enormous and long and even though they were supposed to be free flow we couldn't even finish the first basket among the 5 of us O:
This is Zuppa Touscana, an italian sausage soup recommended by my aunt, who always eats this when she dines at Olive Garden. It comes with bits of italian sausage, small cubes of potatoes and some veggies, and sprinkled with grated cheese upon request. While I liked it for its mild peppery taste and wholesomeness, I felt that it was a tad too salty for my liking. And even though I had previously envisioned myself chugging down bowl after bowl of soup ( greedy singaporean speaking), I pretty much gave up after two :P
House Salad! Came in a huge glass bowl and had a tangy dressing.. free flow as well but we only refilled it once as the bowl was so bigggg.
* I didn't manage to take pics of my parent's meals but they were HUGE as well.*
Overall a great dining experience ( apart from the fact that I was so STUFFED at the end :P)
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