Why 5 stars? Because I got to ride in the freaking blimp!…read more
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This was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
My fellow I-4 dwelling co-worker, Andi P, told me that she was invited to ride in a blimp, and I was filled to the brim with jealousy. What an unbelievable experience that would be! Then my fortunes turned when I found out that I would actually be able to join them.
We headed to the regional airport in Orlando and waited in a field, while the kind folks of the MetLife blimp took another lucky soul up on a ride. We stood in a field, taking about 100 combined photos of the blimp, and uploading them to every social media platform on our phones. We were in full gloat mode, and there was no saving us. The texts from family and friends begin rolling in, "why are you going on a blimp??" This is called enabling, and it only further implored us to take more photos from different angles. Although not everyone thought it was awesome - at one point, my mother sent me a text that she was nearly certain I was going to die.
Well mom, you can rest easy, because we all survived! Sorry I forgot to call you and let you know over the last 3-4 weeks. But not only did I survive, but I can definitely say that it's an experience I'll never forget for the rest of my life.
Boarding was interesting - we could only do so one at a time, in order to allow the weight to shift properly. I don't know how to explain this process properly, because I'm not a scientist, but we were in good hands.
Once we were boarded, and seat-belted, we were off. Unlike an airplane, there's no need for a huge runway. It just kind of lifts off and goes. Of course, that's totally under-selling the amount of people needed to pull this off without a hitch. There's a group of teamsters not dissimilar from a crew at a major concert, who are each working diligently, and in a time-sensitive manner, on their one, specific task to get this thing in the air. The same goes for the landing process. And it all works like a well-oiled machine. These guys really seemed like the type that I could literally trust with my life, despite not speaking a word to any of them. Is that dumb? Maybe. But I've been in a freaking blimp - have you?
Once airborne, we floated on over to Universal Studios, made a U-turn, and headed back. The ride back took twice as long, and was infinitely louder as we were going against the wind. The wind makes a serious difference when you're in a blimp. This is something I learned on my journey.
The views were as amazing as you'd imagine. It's like flying in a plane, with 360 degree views. The windows bubble out, to allow you to look directly below your feet as well. Orlando was a great city for this fly over to take place in, as the fly-over areas ranged from the downtown skyline, to theme parks, to a prison(!), and even a wide-range of residential areas.
Our pilot (whose name is escapes me because I'm a terrible person) as really great at answering any questions we had, and we had a lot as one could imagine. That is definitely a job that you don't hear about every day - "Blimp Pilot." I've definitely never seen a career update consist of that on my LinkedIn feed, so I'm sure he gets many-a-blimp-question in his daily life, and we were no exception.
Many people will never have this opportunity, as it's not something you can just sign up for. Luckily for me it, it was one of those "I knew a guy who knew a guy" kind of situations. But if you ever do have the opportunity, don't pass it up!
