“I started riding five years ago and got obsessed with it,” said Jo DeGiovanni. 

She's not talking about her horses or a motorcycle, however. Rather, to say Jo DeGiovanni "loves" roller coasters is an understatement.

“[The] most rides I’ve gotten on Montu was 80 in one day,” she said proudly.

Jo’s love for Montu, Busch Gardens' inverted coaster, is more than just skin deep. Just check her leg, where the Montu logo is tattooed on her calf.

“Every inch of that ride I know,” she stated with authority.

While Jo can’t get enough of the Swiss-designed coaster named after Egyptian falcon god of war, any coaster makes her spirit soar.

“I just started going crazy for the coasters and it just didn’t stop.”

She’s not kidding. To date, she has climbed aboard Montu more than 3,680 times.

With many of the best coasters in America right here in Florida, you too can climb aboard for a thrill. 

As many regional amusement parks north of the Florida border enter a weekends-only schedule, Florida parks are open year-round.  

How can many can you ride in one day? We put Jo it to the test when both SeaWorld and Busch Gardens opened their gates. 

First up, we lay down.

“Manta is a flyer, so basically you lay down and you fly.  It’s so much fun, it’s great,” Jo believes.

Manta swoops us up while we dive on our stomachs.

Next, we really get wet on the flume that turns into a coaster. "Journey to Atlantis" looks like a water ride, but hides a coaster finale.

“It’s AMAZING,” Jo said of the flume ride that leaves a water-filled channel and seamlessly attaches to a traditional coaster track. The ride from Germany’s Mack Rides is a hybrid coaster and log flume in one.

Next door, "Kraken" dangles riders feet inches above the track.

 “It’s fast. It has great turns. Very smooth for a floorless coaster,” Jo says of the floorless coaster trains.

But Jo’s favorite in Orlando is also the tallest and fastest. "Mako" stole Jo’s heart, and other leg, even before it opened.

 “I got the tattoo of Mako three months before the ride was event done,” she boasted.

At 200-feet-tall and 73 mph, this thriller creates several seconds of weightlessness, the airtime Jo craves.

“That’s our new baby here in Florida and I love it,” she said of Mako.

But the challenge isn’t over. The I-4 corridor of thrills beckons us to Tampa Bay, where "Cheetah Hunt" at Busch Gardens allows Jo to stalk her prey.

“The launches I like on that coaster. There’s three of them,” Jo explained. 

Cheetah Hunt uses a series of magnetic motors to launch trains forward at three different points of the ride.

The thrills continue on "Kumba," a 60 mph scream machine that goes upside down seven times.

“Kumba is amazing. Kumba is one of my favorite coasters as well,” Jo said.  “It’s very loud.”

So, is there anything Jo will not ride?  Just "Falcon’s Fury," the 300-foot-tall drop tower.  Like "Manta" at SeaWorld, Falcon’s Fury places riders on their stomachs for the plunge back to earth. 

Riders come face-to-face with the ground below while dropping straight down like a rock tossed off a 300-foot-tall cliff.

So for Jo, it’s back to Orlando for some one-on-one time with Mako.

“We got to go to SeaWorld to Busch Gardens and back to SeaWorld again and hit all the good coasters in one day. 

It was great!” she concluded. “It was a coaster enthusiast’s dream come true!”

For more information about tickets: SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

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Scott Fais joins Travel Monthly
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