Negative-G - Fun Spot America Kissimmee Florida 2020

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The Mine Blower looping wooden coaster at Fun Spot America Kissimmee, Florida

Let's start it off that 2020 was just crap for getting to parks. With the pandemic, borders shutting down and half the parks in the world unable to open, to put it lightly getting to a park was a challenge. My goal for the last decade has been to visit at least one new park each year. For most of 2020 my thought was that I had a good run adding way more than a park a year and maybe this was the year I rolled the dice and came up with nothing. What changed is I have a ton of vacation time that my wife Carrie doesn't have that I had to use it all by end of the year. On top of that with no one traveling there are some insanely inexpensive airline tickets ($150 round trip from Central Illinois to Tampa) out there that made me able to pull the trigger on a quick trip down to Florida right before Christmas.

For full disclosure the purpose of the trip was not to visit new parks or even to ride rollercoasters. The last time I saw my parents was a year and a half ago before they moved down to Florida. What was great is that when I broke the news to my mother that I was coming down her first reaction was joy and her second reaction was "we've got to get you to some coasters". I love my mom.

A few days after touching down in the Sunshine State I got up nice and early, hopped in the van and sped onto the Florida Turnpike with a goal of getting two amusement parks and six new coasters in five hours before returning with some wonderful Uno's deep dish Chicago style pizza for my parents.

The drive was lovely, especially once Orlando came into view. Spaceship Earth sat on the horizon as I drove around the Magic Kingdom. Fun Spot Kissimmee's Ferris Wheel and a large wooden coaster acted like a black hole that pulled me into the parking lot.

With two new parks and a bunch of new coasters ahead of me this day I was up and ready to go way too early. As a result I had arrived about forty-five minutes before the park opened. As Fun Spot Kissimmee has no gates I decided to take a walk around to get a lay of the land.

It is great seeing a small park like Fun Spot really doing everything they can to keep guests and employees safe through this pandemic. The biohazard sign next to "Use Caution" certainly lets guests know how seriously they are taking it.

The Fun Spot chain of parks began in Orlando as roadside go kart attractions in 1979. In 2004 they purchased the worlds tallest Sky Coaster that sat next to the Old Town shopping center. After three years of planning and work Fun Spot Kissimmee opened on the site.

Fun Spot was pretty much a big family entertainment center just outside of the borders of Walt Disney World with some rides, go karts and games. That was until 2017 when the parks skyline changed and it took the leap from family entertainment center into amusement park.