I have only been to Florida twice in my life to ride roller coasters. Once when I was 10 back in 1989 when we went to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, what was formerly MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios), and finally SeaWorld Orland0 (SWO). I’d return for a single day in 2014 to visit Busch Gardens Tampa (BGT) with James. So needless to say, my coaster credits are slim for a state with such an amazing collection of rides. I’ve been wanting to change this for a while, especially since Epcot and SWO had no coasters in 1989 and a bunch of rides were closed at BGT in 2014. And the Universal parks weren’t even open yet.
In addition to my desire to return to Florida, Sam has been itching to get her first credits in the state as well. So we decided to plan one last trip for 2025. The parks we wanted to visit included: All three Universal parks, SWO, and BGT.
After plotting out what day we’d go where, I saw that we’d have a whole evening with nothing to do the day we landed. That’s when I told Sam I was going to buy us season passes to the Fun Spot America (FSA) parks for an early Christmas gift. We could visit both parks that same day since they’re so close to one another.
I really wanted to ride White Lightning at the FSA Orlando location and was curious to see if Mine Blower at FSA Kissimmee was as bad as people claim it to be. You’ll find out about White Lightning down below. For Mine Blower though, you’ll have to check out the next trip report from our time in Kissimmee.
No Crowds on this Wednesday
While I hate to see a park with low attendance, I wasn’t upset that the rides were all walk-ons when we pulled up. I was hoping to score a few rides on each coaster if we had the time before departing for FSA Kissimmee. Also, there was some rain in the forecast and I didn’t want to miss anything. We didn’t have a ton of time during the rest of this trip to come back if we did, but we could have forced ourselves to find time if we really needed to. Our passes would allow us come back on another night, or on the day we flew back home.
Freedom Flyer
Our first coaster of this trip came on the Vekoma invert, Freedom Flyer. It seemed only fitting for the We Were Inverted crew to start things off with an invert.
This felt sort similar to riding Merlin’s Mayhem at Dutch Wonderland and it even looks similar with the paint scheme. I know Merlin’s is an S&S invert, but it felt more similar to me than say Dragonflier at Dollywood or any of the B&M family inverts. But I enjoy Merlin’s and I also enjoyed this. Little did I know just how much I’d enjoy the coaster behind it though.
White Lightning
I knew White Lightning would be the park’s main attraction, but I had no idea how fun this ride was going to be. I feel like no one really talks about it. The most I heard before going to Florida was that it got a small spot of GCI Titan Track not too long ago. Well, people should have been talking about more than that. This thing is awesome! Even the non-Titan Track portion.
While it isn’t the longest GCI coming in at 2,032 feet of track, according to the Roller Coaster Database (RCDB), what it does in its short length is worth the visit to this park alone. The airtime on this coaster is amazing. Both Sam and I came off wanting to ride again and again. And we did just that, finishing up with seven rides. I told her we should go for 10 and we did go back for the eighth, but the ride did go down with some rain incoming. That’s when we decided to head down to the Kissimmee location and use time during the rain for travel. We figured that park might also have its rides paused until the rain passed. We ended up being right.
Gator Spot
Although we did ride the kids coaster, Sea Serpent and the S&S Screamin Swing, Hot Seat, I thought I’d use this last highlight to talk about the Gator Spot portion of the FSA Orlando instead. It was a nice little distraction from the rides and something I’m sure kids would love if you’re doing a family vacation. So be sure to give this area a walk through as well. You’ll see more than gators too.
Final Ride Counts
Freedom Flyer (2)
Hot Seat (2)
Sea Serpent (1)
White Lightning (7)
Home to a Steller GCI & Fun Vekoma
Although we were only here for a couple of hours, Sam and I really enjoyed this park. We even said that if we did indeed find ourselves with some extra time, we’d come back for some more rides on White Lightning. It’s that much fun. Our hotel wasn’t far away so why not make use of those passes?
And lastly, I leave you with this pro tip: If you’re going to be in the area and want to visit both FSA parks, it makes sense to just buy their season pass. At least it did with the price point we found compared to buying a single ticket for each. And like we thought about doing (but didn’t) you could return any day you want for some more rides.
Now, onto the Kissimmee location…
FunSpot America: Orlando Photo Gallery - September 17, 2025
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): Freedom Flyer, White Lightning, Sea Serpent
Sam
Admiral
New Credit(s): Freedom Flyer, White Lightning, Sea Serpent