[Edwardo]

Sept. 29, 2006

Friday Morning my plans were to sleep until 10am, run to breakfast, and then spend the day at the beach before retiring to the Family Kingdom that evening. That, however, wasn’t what happened. I’m used to getting up just after 7am for work. So, about 7:30, I woke up for the first time before heading back to the pillow. Then, a little later, my phone started going off, which I thought was my alarm going off. Nope. Text Message. “Hey”. So I replied “Tim?” since I was expecting to hear from him at some point. Then I got the reply “No stupid, Tommy”. Oh! Yeah, he was coming down too.

So I exchanged a few text messages with Tommy making plans, then left him a message after I got dressed, showered, all that. It was just before 10am, so I went and paid for the Hotel for the next bit of my stay since I wasn’t sure I’d be staying there the rest of the trip the previous nite. I stopped off at a convenience store for a few things, and then I drove down town and circled around to my favorite breakfast spot in Myrtle Beach, Mammy’s Kitchen. If you haven’t eaten there, you really should. It lies a block north on the back side from the (soon to be former) site of the Pavilion.

I had breakfast buffet and water, sat and ate and looked out at the city, streets, people, cars and down towards the ocean. I finished up breakfast and headed back to the hotel.

After getting back to the hotel, I changed in to my beach cloths and walked down to the beach. I went for a fairly decent walk on the beach, with the waves crashing against my legs. I love the ocean. The day was beautiful and the beach wasn’t crowded at all. Eventually, I made my way back to the room, watched some TV, and took a nap till about 2pm.

I rode over to K-Mart to pick up cameras. Unfortunately, this is a really crummy K-Mart. Not only that, but my ATM card wouldn’t work on their system, so I got back in the car and headed back out 501 towards Wal*Mart. I picked up cameras and shoe strings. Since I had yet to really do much touristy stuff, I decided to head over to Broadway at the Beach. That was about the time my iPod died. Hey, I had it on for over 8 hours straight the day before, plus a few hours driving around Myrtle Beach, that is pretty good charge time.

I drove around Broadway at the Beach to the far side, and then parked by the new Heroes Harbor, which is anchored by the new Margaritaville. This was a very nice section, so I took some pix. Then I made a complete lap around Broadway at the Beach. This just really isn’t my thing so much. I mean, it is a very nice place with tones of stuff to do, but I’m not a big shopper and wasn’t hungry, so I walked around and then headed to the car.

I wasn’t really that hungry before Broadway, but the food smell there made me want food. I had seen Olive Garden the nite before and was craving Never Ending Pasta Bowls, so I then went there for an early dinner. I had the pasta, didn’t finish it, but it was very good, so I took what was left back to the motel where I sat and relaxed for a little more looking at the ocean and TV.
As evening approached, I decided to walk down to Family Kingdom. I stopped in the lobby to pick up a $3 off coupon for the wristband (score), and then went down to say hi to my Swamp Fox. I was glad that Family Kingdom was just across the street from the hotel. I walked over, purchased my wristband, and headed straight for Swamp Fox. There wasn’t really a line, but the park was actually filling up a bit. The first two rides (one in the back, one near the middle) were really good.

As I got off of the coaster, I noticed something weird. Although the base for it was still there, the Chance Shot/Drop tower had been taken down. Tommy said they take the Ferris wheel down at the end of every season, so perhaps they do that for the drop tower as well. I like to ride it, but oh well. I walked over to the other side of the park and hit Pistelero Round up. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden this when anyone else was riding. There were a few families over here, but the ticket booths both had lines. I walked around back to the carousel, snapped pictures along the way, and then eventually came back over to Swamp Fox

Swamp Fox- <span style='color:red'>This is the only rundown I’m doing for a ride in this trip report as I rode it multiple times and only rode everything else once. The first two rides were good, the third was really good. But then the people started coming in to the park (it was almost more than the lone coaster op could handle) and by my fifth ride, I got one of those amazing rides with an almost full train where Swamp Fox says “Okay! You! Out of your seat! NOW!” It was truly amazing; I was slung all over the seat. I love buzz bars! The coaster delivered each time I rode it, but there were definitely rides that were better than others, the fifth being the best over 2 days. I rode it quite a few times, but eventually lost count. I finally got tired of running around to get in line, though, and even when I went to ride other things and came back, at some point I just wanted a rest before going out for the evening.</span>

By this time it had gotten dark. I would take more Swamp Fox rides for sure, but I headed over to the Thunderbolt. Again, more people were showing up to the park, so there was a decent crowd (there always is at nite). Thunderbolt ran us backwards first, then stopped and ran us forward. The program was pretty long, and I hadn’t done one in years. I actually enjoyed the spinny ride!

I took a few more turns on Swamp Fox, but then headed up for the Pirate ship, which wasn’t running at that moment, so I opted for the Ferris Wheel instead. I was on the ride by myself and got a fairly long cycle both forwards and backwards. That one runs fairly fast too.

I hopped back on for more Swampy goodness. I walked around in between, toyed with the Log Flume, but decided against it. Then I decided to go back to the room and change my cloths for the evening. I went back down town and hit a couple other spots in Myrtle that nite before heading back to the room I knew that Saturday would be the day that I needed to get up earlier, so I hopped in bed slightly earlier on Friday nite as well.

[bgwfreak]

I missed out on a few of the rides at FK because I was trying to squeeze so much in a Pavilion that day.

The drop tower sucks, you didn't miss anything.

It blasts you up to the stop and then you sit there for 30 seconds before it finally lowers you down.

I did want to hit the dark ride though and didn't have time to.

But thankfully FK isn't going anywhere (for now).

[Edwardo]

Yeah, I've actually done that drop tower before 2 years ago. I kinda like it. My only problem with the dark ride at FK is the last room isn't much of anything, but oh well.

I don't think Family Kingdom is in any danger. And now with Pavilion closing, I think they're attendance will go up (I hope so). I'd like to see them add some new stuff in the next few years if they acheive higher attendance. I don't think that the HRP will affect them at all.