Pinball is alive and well in Florida!

It has been pretty darn cold up here in Vermont lately, so last week Jon and I both took off for quick vacations to warmer locales.  Jon will do a write up soon about his trip to Las Vegas, where he played A LOT of pinball, but for now I thought I'd do a quick wrap up of my trip to Florida and the pinball machines I played while I was there!

The day before I left, Claire and I had to run some errands, including a trip to the post office at the top of the hill in White River Junction.  While up there, we decided to swing by the bowling alley, to see if the Scared Stiff machine was fixed yet (last time I played it, I pulled the plunger back and it yanked right out of the machine!)  I'm happy to report that the repair man has fixed this machine up nicely!  Other than some GI problems in the upper playfield, it's looking great.  I got three consecutive, escalating replays, which I took as a good sign for the upcoming trip!

Claire and I were mostly going to Florida to visit Harry Potter land.  Our hotel was about a mile from Universal Studios.  On our first night there I took a walk to a drugstore a few blocks away, and on my way back to the hotel I saw through a window into a tiny arcade right off of the lobby, with a T3 machine in it!  The flippers were pretty weak, but I managed to squeak out a replay before going to bed. On our last night in town, Claire ran both ramps all the way up and then started a multiball during the "BIG POINTS" mode (or whatever it's called).  She shattered my highest score, easily snagged the replay and ended with something like 32 million?  Way to go Claire!

While walking around the "Islands of Adventure" park we came across a giant arcade!  There was one Shrek machine tucked in the very back of the room, under a platform.  It was in good working order and after a few games I got the replay.  My game lasted a while and two other pinheads had lined up to play. Claire played my replay credit and then we let them use the machine.

The next day we went to the regular "Universal Studios Florida" park, and while walking around the "New York" section we came across another arcade!  The facade of this one was so cool, with a giant marquee.  It must have been fun to go into a place like that back in the day.  Sadly, they only had another Shrek machine, and the flippers were super weak and it was having some other switch problems as well. I still managed to squeak a replay out of it.  It was actually pretty fun playing this game because we had watched the Shrek 4D movie that morning!

That night I dragged Claire to a Chuck E Cheese that had a Pirates of the Caribbean pin, but it was totally busted.  10 credits sitting on it, but it couldn't even launch a ball.  Drag... but our pinball adventures were not over yet!  No, in the Orlando airport, I saw a sign for another arcade!  Surprisingly, it was a King of Kong themed arcade, with a massive poster from the documentary and Donkey Kong wallpaper all over the interior and along the signage.  Sadly, the place did NOT have Donkey Kong or any other vintage arcade games, which would have made sense.  The only pinball machine they had was Avatar.  I've played this pin three times now, in three different states and I think I can safely say, I do not enjoy the game.  Too many toys, not enough ramps.  It did not help that this particular machine was slanted about 5 degrees to the left.  It also cost 75 cents for a credit.  After many frustrating games, I finally started a two-ball multiball that I then turned into a 4-ball multiball, which resulted in a replay.  The last credit was three balls down the left outlane, then we boarded our flight back to the cold Northeast.

 NEXT:  Jon Chad's pinball adventures in Las Vegas!!!