iFly Orlando indoor skydiving gives you the thrill of the feeling of skydiving without the fear of falling to your death after jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
My husband and son are the thrill seekers in the family.
Me? Give me a good book and a cup of tea and that’s all the excitement I need. Nevertheless, I figured what the heck and dove into this family excursion to see how well I would handle my fear of heights while in a controlled indoor skydiving environment.
Pricing for Indoor Skydiving
Pricing starts at $69.95 for two flights that last about a minute each. After that, it goes up based on the number of flights you want to experience. I recommend everyone experiencing at least two flights each, but three is even better. You can split the number of flights you purchase up depending on how many people are in your group (for example, two people can share a four flight package and save a little money).
After you’ve visited once, the pricing goes down for return fliers and on your next visit you are given a few more options inside the wind tunnel, which is an added bonus!
The Basics of Indoor Skydiving
After checking in and signing your life away, you strip down of everything but the clothes on your back and shove it all in a locker. Wedding bands, watches, necklaces, anything that could come off has to be removed and stored so you don’t lose it in the wind tunnel.
Tip. Tighten your shoelaces so you don’t lose your shoes in the tunnel (you get them back but it interrupts your flight).
Once you are clear of small items it’s time to grab your suit, helmet, and goggles. If you are young enough (and lucky enough) Orlando iFly has a “super” suit you can wear. After your short pre-flight briefing you head to the tunnel with your group and get started.
The iFly Indoor Skydiving Experience
Each flight lasts one-minute and, depending on your package, each flyer can have anywhere from two flights or more.
First timers are limited to just getting the posture down (and it’s not as easy as it looks). After you fly a few times then they let you learn how to do tricks.
My instructor told me you need at least four minutes of flight time to learn anything well.
Be sure you tell your instructor or group anything you need to tell them before you enter the tunnel chamber. If you don’t, then you better be good at charades because you can’t hear anything once you get inside.
What If You Have Anxiety or Fear of Heights?
Even with my anxiety and fear of heights, I was fine…until I got to the point of flying. Once the wind hit my face and I was standing there about to trust it to hold my weight and keep me not only from hitting the floor but flying up into the ceiling, my anxiety reared its ugly head.
In my head, I kept seeing the scene from Willy Wonka where Charlie and his grandfather get blown up to the ceiling.
I think if I had rented one of the professional helmets that cover your entire face like a motorcycle helmet, I would have enjoyed myself more. It’s an added cost, but it’s worth it (and while I don’t remember the exact cost, I don’t recall the rental being that much).
At the end of your second flight and, for an extra $10, your instructor will take you and spin you up to around 15 feet inside the tunnel. It’s an intense experience and my husband and son loved it. Ohhh…you didn’t think I did that part, did you? Hell no!
After Thoughts
This is not something you do at night when you want to go home and go to sleep because the adrenaline is enough to keep you up for a while.
A boost of adrenaline is not a bad thing, though. Do it on a Friday or Saturday night and then go party on I-Drive (or if you have the kids, hit up a movie at Pointe Orlando).
My family couldn’t stop talking about how cool this was on the entire ride home.
Even though we didn’t fly together, it was a great family experience that gave us some quality time away from our electronics.
Your flight is recorded and available to purchase for a reasonable price of $8 per video. Photos are cheap too at $4 per digital download. You can do this at the location or purchase them from home up to six months after you fly. We were super happy with our photos. If you can, have someone who isn’t flying come with you to take some additional pics outside the tunnel.
If you don’t feel like purchasing your photos, iFly lets you share watermarked versions of them to Facebook for free.
Disclaimer: GeekMom was given a free experience.
