Fun Spot America: Kissimmee & Orlando

[Gazza]

2 for 1 deal in this trip report.

For photos of both parks, see:

Fun Spot Orlando

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/fun-spot-orlando

Fun Spot Kissimmee

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/fun-spot-kissimmee

 

Both of these parks are quite "amusement parky", with travelling flat rides, multi level go kar tracks buildings that are mostly sheds, and a couple of worthwhile coasters that make it worth a stop. The Orlando branch is right near Universal, and the Kissimmee branch is not far from the entrance to Walt Disney World, they both are open till midnight, so I guess they tend capture a bit of business from their proximity to the majors. They are both also a fair bit cheaper, in a way catering to a secondary locals market who might be outpriced by the majors.

They also offer a deal where you can visit both parks in one day, but my schedule didn't really permit that.

Interestingly, both parks had some of the same rides, for example both had a screamin swing, both had a kiddy coaster named Sea Serpent. Interesting that they didn't try to give each park more of its own identity.

You can buy wristbands or pay by the ride. I was dog tired when I went to each (On separate nights), so just did individual rides, even though it would have only been a few dollars more to upgrade to a wristband.

Orlando:

The Vekoma SFC Freedom Flyer was HNFT, so clearly no rides to be had on this one:

They've also got a Sea Serpent kiddy coaster from Miler. Basic turns and dips.

But the star of the show (And actually one of the best coasters in Orlando!) is White Lightning

The perfect compact wooden coaster. Runs very smooth, a decent first drop leads into much smaller hills and turns, keeping the pacing strong.

There's also a nice high banked turn at one end, reminiscent of what you see on Thunderhead at Dollywood.

Also a cool double up and double down for the airtime fanatics.

Interesting how they proudly promote it's a GCI

Kissimmee

They have the worlds tallest skycoaster, and some interesting looking go kart tracks with multiple levels, but with jetlag biting i elected to just stay for an hour or so and do the coasters.

Galaxy Spin is a standard Zamperla spinning coaster (Near identical to the Reverchon ones)

Another Sea Serpent kiddy coaster, though with a different layout to the others.

(If you are wondering about the photos, I happened to grab brekky next door before heading to Disney one of the days, so went for a wander around. The whole place is open air.

Hurricane is a type of coaster I've never encountered before, like a really bizzare travelling layout that feels like a mix between a Galaxi and a wild mouse, but a lot more interesting. Up this end of the park at that hour it was dead, there was just one operator floating around between 4 or so rides, so he just powered it up for my cycle.

Looked janky as hell.

But pretty good actually.

Interesting to think that the likes of Space Mountain are actually pretty similar to this in terms of elements. What a difference some theming makes.

This brings us to Mine Blower, probably the best worst wooden coaster in the world.

The ride has had a reputation for being rough, even from the day it first opened.

In some sections they have replaced the wooden track with a type of steel track from RMC.

All I can say is thank heavens for that, I can only imagine how bad it would have been without this retracking.

The ride shakes like hell on the wooden bits, and clatters around the track and when you see a particularly tight set of turns or hills coming up you feel like you're about to get brutalised, but like magic, it's those parts where it transitions onto steel tracks. These parts run very loudly. but at the same time makes those bits bearable.

It's probably one of the craziest wooden coaster layouts out there, with a steep first drop, an actual zero g roll over the station, then heaps of dives, s bends, and little hills, and even an overbank turn at some point, so its a bit of a blur and when you hit the final brakes you wonder what the hell happened.

I gave it a couple of rides. Totally worth a stop to experience because its so unhinged, but be prepared!

 

In conclusion, yeah if you've got the time and energy, its worth dropping in for a lap on the wooden coasters, I'd even say White Lightning is somewhat of a must do when in Orlando.

 

 

 

[biasesumo]

When I was trying to find a job in Orlando in 2022, I applied and interviewed at the Orlando FunSpot location.

Was warned off working there by many of the employees because they got paid $12.50 an hour and weren’t given any breaks. Also didn’t have a car at the time so I think I must’ve walked 10km across the highway from where I was living to the park. 

The only thing that really made it worth it was the interviewer giving me 3 consecutive free rides on Freedom Flyer as the park wasn’t open yet. 
 

Neat park for sure but it kind of pales in comparison to the surrounding theme parks. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

13 hours ago, Gazza said:

The Vekoma SFC Freedom Flyer was HNFT, so clearly no rides to be had on this one

hard non fungible token?

had no free tickets?

sorry Gaz, i'm stumped.

[CR4ZE]

@DaptoFunlandGuy same honestly. I Googled this and found no usage.

Some great insights and pics otherwise.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Looking a bit more closely at the pictures, i'm wondering if it's meant to be "Had No Fucking Train" ?

[downunder]

White Lightning at Orlando Fun Spot I thought was a fun little coaster. 

When Kissimmee Fun Spot was just Old Town they had this ride called G-Force which was just a race car on a track that launched on a straight track and it really packed a punch. I think it might have been an S & S death machine. Shame it disappeared.

[Gazza]

Yeah I had heard about G-force, but apparently it only lasted 2 years in the park.

[New display name]

Do you think Mine Blower is for the men who sit up the back of coasters or the ladies, who like to sit up the front?  /s

[downunder]

4 hours ago, Gazza said:

Yeah I had heard about G-force, but apparently it only lasted 2 years in the park.

It sure had a kick to it, even caught me by surprise. Maybe it used a similar compressed air launch like Dodonpa and Hypersonic XLC.

Lol I'm actually having PTSD about Old Town from that trip. Went to buy cheap tickets there for Universal and got hooked into a time share seminar to get discounted tickets. Now that was an interesting experience.