SkyVenture

Amy hadn't been to SkyVenture so I thought it would be great fun for us to go. I called up and made an 8:00 reservation, which we barely made due to heavy traffic on International Drive (I-Drive as it is called locally).

We were placed in a group with 8 or 9 others, most of them were a family vacationing from Mexico. I'd never seen such a large group, and it took a long time for us to get through the introductory class and suited up. Once in the flight chamber, we barely fit.

I wound up going first, which might have been bad. I've done this three times now and I'm OK at keeping my balance and gently floating around... thus giving the impression to the rest of the group that it is easy. My big error now is not looking up (keeping my chin up) - I find there is a huge tendency to keep a relaxed neck and look down towards the floor.

Amy was second up and she entered with a huge grin. After getting positioned by the instructor, she floated around briefly before zooming towards the wall. All the while she kept smiling, and I could tell she was having a great time floating on the column of air!

A few others did OK, but the rest had trouble, from folding in half at the waist, to twisting on their side, to continually kicking like they were riding an invisible bike. It was actually funny, I think this class had almost all the regular failure modes people exhibit, thus keeping the instructor on his toes.

On my second time in I tried a slow horizontal spin, but kept on drifting to the edge. Amy did well and held her balance longer while flying.

Afterwards we drove around the I-Drive area, past a bunch of smaller rides, and looked at the Sling Shot, where a couch is launched into the air via giant elastic bands. It looks fun but neither of us is that interested in trying it - maybe another time we'll hit a theme park for some roller coaster thrills. ;)