Busch Gardens Tampa PTR, July 13, 2011

[Beast1979]

Hey All! Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa, Florida. It was a wonderful experience and I really enjoyed the park and all it had to offer! I don't write too many PTR's, but since this is a park not many of us have visited, I thought I should share.

For our vacation this summer we stayed, as usual, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, due east of Orlando. On the 13th, we woke up bright and early to the sight of sunrise over Cocoa Beach.

Florida is usually perceived as a relatively small state. So really, how far could a drive from the Atlantic to the Gulf be? Farther than you'd think, actually. It was quite a relief to finally see signs for Busch Gardens after hours of swamp land!

We navigated our way to the entrance to the parking lot, showed them our online parking ticket, and drove to find a spot. From the parking lot, the only ride you can really see is Montu.

Needless to say, Montu did a good job of teasing me as we found our spot and walked closer to the entrance!

We found our tram stop and waited in line for about two trams before we boarded ours. The tram took us from our section of the parking lot to the main gate.

Behold, our first glimpse of Busch Gardens' excellent landscaping and garden work. The entrance wasn't much to behold, but this was very cool.

Like I said, not much to behold. But, I do give them points for actually theming the buildings, something a lot of parks I've been to have trouble with. We navigated security easily and got through the gates with our tickets easily as well.

Wild Surge, which I believe is one of the rides in Jungala, was the only ride closed for the day. Good to see!

We went and got our Quick Queue Unlimited wristbands and tickets when we walked in the gate. To our great fortune, Cheetah Hunt had just been added to the list of rides on the Quick Queue system! The park only just announced this on their Facebook page earlier this week.

After a bit of searching, we finally found our first attraction of the day.

Gwazi.

Gwazi Lion was temporarily closed, so we boarded Gwazi Tiger as a walk on with our wristbands. Now, after hearing about the roughness of the ride, I was a bit hesitant to ride, but as the sign on the entrance reminded me, new this year are the Millennium Flyer trains. After riding it, I can tell how much of a difference they would make. The Millennium Flyer trains make the ride violent, fast paced, but not rough. I found it very enjoyable and loved it from beginning to end. Overall, Gwazi - 8/10

Every park has to have one.

Loving the landscaping that comes standard with Busch/Sea World parks!

From Gwazi we wondered ourselves to Walkabout Way, Busch's intimate exhibit with several Down-Under animals

Contrary to popular belief, kangaroos seem to do more sitting than hopping

If you have food, smell like you have food, or look like you have food, there's a good chance the 'roos will come and beg.

Here's my brother Joe getting up close with a kangaroo.

Kangaroo: See my hole? I like my hole. It's a good hole.

Albino: Whatever dude, I think there's a squirrel back here.

Exiting Walkabout Way, we came to find Busch's collection of Caribbean Flamingos. I haven't seen so much pink in one setting since my mom made me watch Legally Blonde!

We were already really enjoying the animal aspect of Busch Gardens!

Wait a minute, when did we get to Dollywood?

On our way to SheiKra, we passed several animals, including this lizard (Can't remember if this is a Komodo Dragon or a smaller one)

And a bird exhibit just north of Sesame Street.

Finally, we found our next ride.

SheiKra.

We passed under one of these tunnels on our way, and we all had brief moments of nostalgia as we remembered Kings Island's.

SheiKra is one of the more dominating rides at the park (At 200 feet, who would have guessed?), so we found SheiKra well before we could find its entrance!

Woa, man.

Going through the dive loop.

Prepare to drop!

Turning right

Sploosh! Clearly, Diamondback has a better splashdown effect, but this one can get you wet if you're close enough on the midway!

SheiKra is a tangled mess of track that intertwines itself directly over the midway, so we had a lot of time to stare as we walked to the entrance.

How's that for a weird angle?

A mess of supports and track, with some riders in there somewhere.

Dropping...

...and flying past.

That is one helluva loop.

We finally found the entrance! Joe and I entered and waited about five minutes for the front row. Joe got a seat towards the outside, I did not.

SheiKra was a very fun ride. Extremely smooth (No, seriously, like, ridiculously smooth) and fast. While it's very gimmiky, relying on the two vertical drops and splashdown, it has it's moments, like the pop of air before each drop, the hang time on the dive loop, and the misty tunnel under the splashdown lake that make it a better ride then I was expecting. Overall, 8.5/10.

Next up was Jungala.

The question is not what is Jungala, but what isn't it. It's a giant play place, an animal exhibit, a place to eat, a place with rides, a place with live shows, it's got everything packed into a four-acre area. What a place.

I see tigers!

The tiger exhibit, with the observation areas to the left.

My little brother, being the sugar crazed kid he is, spent a lot of time in the play area, and dragged me up there too for a while.

A pretty crazy area, it is.

You get a nice view of some rides from there, though!

Rope bridge POV!

Joe, being a kid.

More in the next post...

[Beast1979]

I see Kumba!

I really like Jungala's play area. It's much bigger and better and much more well constructed than any other I've seen, and did a good job of satisfying the 12 and under crowd that I saw.

Wild Surge, one of the rides at Jungala, was closed for maintenance.

Not only is the area very well put together, but it's also themed enough so that it maintains the feel of the park. Way to go Busch!

Roar!

After Jungala, we found ourselves walking towards the Crown Colony House for lunch, and we got our first visuals of Cheetah Hunt.

You know how Maverick is densely compacted into a small area? Cheetah Hunt is the opposite. It stretches from one end of the park to the other, like if Maverick were put in a taffy puller.

Cheetah Hunt's and the Skyride's station share a building, and Cheetah Hunt kinda hugs the Skyride for most of it's trip out and back.

Hopping over the Skyride - very cool!

Needless to say, I was very anxious to ride it.

On our way to lunch, we were distracted by some hippos

We finally made it to the Crown Colony House! We decided on eating in the cafe part of the house, and ate our lunch overlooking the Serengeti area. The food was nice, the view was good, and the theming was well done. I loved it.

Our next ride after lunch was directly across from us, Cheetah Hunt!

Cheetah Hunt dominates this area of the park.

The elevated figure-8.

We boarded in practically no time at all with our Quick Queues and got on the second row.

So how was it? Absolutely spectacular. Despite being the same style coaster as Maverick with the same restraints, the ride was glass smooth, smoothest ride in the park probably. It had fast sections, though most of it was pretty tame - NOT the same type of coaster as Maverick at all. However, the launches were really good and going into and out of the figure 8 we got some good pops of airtime, as well as the bunny hill right after the third launch. The figure 8 was very cool, it had good laterals and a great view. The most important thing to remember about Cheetah Hunt though is it's less of a ride and more of an experience. The coaster is very nice, but the surroundings complete it. Twisting in the air above the midways, launching through tunnels, diving under bridges, jumping over the skyride, and my favorite part, the s-bend element where you ride through a ravine, narrowly missing waterfalls. Cheetah Hunt has a ton of different elements falling together to make a fantastic ride, my favorite in Florida and probably a top 10, maybe even five. 10/10!

Following the wonderful performance by Cheetah Hunt, we made our way over to Montu.

Another thing I love about Busch Gardens - theming where it's not even necessary.

Well, hello, Montu!

Montu is tucked back in a corner of the park, but you still get a good look at it.

Coming out of the station

Joe and I got on quickly as usual with our Quick Queues and rode in row two.

I was very impressed by Montu.

The ride was very smooth, forceful, fast, and fun. It didn't lose speed from beginning to end, and the theming was excellent. 9/10

The zero-g roll. I find these to be better on sit downs then on inverts.

Montu is quite a twisted coaster with seven inversions. It actually has a vertical loop after the midcourse.

Woosh!

After Montu we headed through Edge of Africa.

Flamingos, Zebras, and Giraffes, oh my!

Meerkats!

These guys are adorable.

Hyenas!

These guys were pretty lazy, as were most of the animals. I can't blame them, it's pretty hot!

Lion!

Passing by Cheetah Hunt

Woosh!

Airtime!

:D

In case you haven't realized, I love this ride.

This barrel roll is awesome. Great hangtime.

Heading through Timbuktu!

Next up, Scorpion.

This ride wasn't a Quick Queue one, so we waited about half an hour to ride. It was a good ride, the loop was forceful and the rest of it was fun, a real classic. I especially love that it hasn't been neutered by trims, OTSRs, or seatbelts. 8/10!

Next one was Sand Serpent.

We waited a good 20 minutes for the ride, then right as we were about to get on, the ride shut down for weather. No, it wasn't raining, but there was lightning in the area.

So we went off to other parts of the park.

We passed by Phoenix, one of the few flat rides in the park, a pirate ship type ride that goes upside down.

We made our way to Kumba, the last major coaster we were yet to do.

More in the next post...

[Beast1979]

The ride opened up right around when we got to it, and we boarded in about 5-10 minutes with our Quick Queue.

The ride was fun, but I found it to be the roughest of the steel coasters at Busch. That doesn't say much, since they're all very smooth, but it does hurt the ride experience a bit. The pacing was good though and it was really fun. 8/10.

We then went to the train station near Kumba, only to find it temporarily down as one of the three trains was being taken offline. Luckily it wasn't this one, so we were able to get on and ride the train through its course.

Hi Kumba!

Hi SheiKra!

Hi Scorpion!

Cool perspective!

Oh yeah, now it's open.

After passing through the rides, we got to the area of the park with most of the animals.

Passing by Cheetah Hunt

Back into the animals

We got off the train after doing the complete circle around the park.

We went to a place to eat in Timbuktu to have a snack and cool off.

See, this is what separates places like Kings Island from places like Busch Gardens. Can you believe this is a theatre for shows?

We went to Jungala for a little bit and saw the show they do on the midways.

Awesome puppetry here.

I'd love to bounce around all day and get payed for it

Saying hi to the kids

We left Jungala then went to SheiKra to see if we could get another ride in.

The ride had a crazy long line, even for the Quick Queue, so we passed it up.

We went by Cheetah Hunt to check out the line, it too was long.

Still, it looked awesome.

We grabbed a quick ride on Gwazi Lion as we headed out, then took the tram back to the parking lot.

Saying goodbye to Busch Gardens.

Overall, Busch Gardens is an excellent park with great rides and wonderful animal exhibits. They really put a lot of detail into everything and do a lot into guest satisfaction. I'm more than satisfied with Busch Gardens, I loved it. Thanks for reading

[Titan]

Wow, Busch Gardens looks amazing! Everything is superb, even the scenery.

[pkiboy]

Followed you on Facebook to Glad you had a Wonderful time Jackson!! I love Busch Gardens. I went to the one in VA 3 years ago with PKIVortex on our East Coast trip! Also How was the Shuttle Launch you and a few other KICers went down to see it Glad you had a blast!!

[gad198]

Really nice and thorough TR! Busch Gardens Tampa is definitely my favorite park from a "it's just nice to be here amongst all of this cool scenery" standpoint. I love their lineup of coasters, and you captured all of them really well in your report. Two quick comments:

Montu is definitely a back row ride. The difference between the front and back on Montu is pretty large, and that is especially evident on the zero-g roll and batwing. It's too bad you didn't get a ride back there.

On a lighter note, thank you for posting a picture of their 3-Point Challenge. That picture has more value to me than it does to most others on here, but I appreciate you including it in your report!

[jzarley]

Great trip report! I haven't been to BGT in a few (maybe 4?) years, so it was cool to see the changes since I've been there.

Did you ride Phoenix? I still find that one of the most terrifying rides I've ever been on (there's a similar one...or, at least used to be, at Carowinds)! There's something about hanging there upside down that really freaks me out

I have to say, though, you did make one comment in your PTR that really perplexes me:

Florida is usually perceived as a relatively small state

I can honestly say, I've never heard anyone say they perceived FL as a small state

[BigWhitey]

Very nice TR, I normally tend to avoid the park in the summer but Cheetah Hunt might lure me up to Tampa very shortly Sheikra currently holds my top spot in in the state as it is just a ridiculously fun coaster, glad you liked it too! One thing I feel about the park is that it might be too big...BG is essentially my home park now out and I still can't seem to find those pesky lions!!!!!

[CoasterGeek101]

Wow! Lots of pictures! Great TR!

[sheikra_rocks]

Little tidbit for those of you reading this trip report. When Montu opened in 1996, there were crocodiles under the coaster as you dipped out of the station. Then the crocs were removed and alligators were put in. They have been gone since about the time Gwazi opened or a little before.

[Avatar]

Jackson awesome PTR I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and admit I have read it three times. I really enjoyed my visits to BGT and your pictures brought back some great memories thanks. I now how much work it takes to do a report like you did and I appreciate your time.

[KIfan1980]

I'm back from vacation and can finally look at your TR (photo's don't work too well on the mobile skin). Love this park and love the photographs you took - thanks for sharing. I went last year but need to get back to try out Cheetah Hunt, check out the new trains on Gwazi, and get back on Montu - one of my favorite coasters!