Busch Gardens Tampa- April 2nd, 4th, 2012

[Joncars05]

Busch Gardens Tampa Monday April 2nd, 2012:

(Sorry if this is long but it includes both of our trips to BGT and I like to write stories for myself (So I can remember what we did) and others who (like me) would like a more detailed trip report so they can have more info on what to expect from parks they have never been to. So if you don't like the length don't read it or complain...)

My GF and I decided to buy the Season Fun Pass for each of us which includes unlimited admission throughout the year for $81.99 (Does not include parking). We entered the BG parking lot and paid the $14 to park our car. We entered the park at 9:10am after printing our BG Season Fun Pass. We were greeted by an open air market type entrance. We passed the stores up front and headed towards the newest attraction at the park Cheetah Hunt. We got to the entrance of the ride and were greeted with a sign saying they were experiencing technical difficulties and would open the ride soon. We decided to stay in line and waited the repair session out. 15 minutes later they were sending trains around so we hopped in line. The queue is interesting with plenty of cheetah facts along the walls as well as a cheetah statue in and a video showing how cheetahs hunt. We entered the ride in the first car, second row. The over head restraints were comfortable with plenty of room for your legs to fit inside. The ride's first launch is 30 mph and sends you to the banked curve to the left. When you complete the turn it sends you to the fastest section of the ride with a 60 mph launch up into the signature first airtime hill and “pretzel turns”. The ride then drops off and continues throughout a hilly out and back layout including a heartline roll before a drop into the lower banked S turns through cliffs and over water before being launched one more time over a good airtime hill and returning to the station. The ride overall is more of a family type ride being easy for children and adults to ride. The launches were less intense than I what they appeared to be on POVs. I would give the ride a 9/10 being that it is a one size fits all type ride. Nothing too exhilarating but still good enough to please coaster fans AND new riders.

When we left the ride we tried to return for another ride but the line was at an estimated 80 minutes, 10 minutes (~9:45 am) into the day's operation. We then proceeded to Montu. Montu was an intense inverted B&M that can catch you off guard. The seven inversions are pretty fun to ride through I think the batwing and the last corkscrew inversions are the toughest ones on the stomach. The ride was intense and pretty fun the inversions kept you on your toes and maybe that’s why the ride was so disorientating, but enjoyable. My GF and I usually don't get sick or nauseous after riding most rides but after two consecutive rides on Montu (The ride was a walk on at 10am) we had to stand up and take a walk. We headed towards the middle of the park take a stroll through the Edge of Africa animal attraction that includes Hippos, Hyenas, Lions, and other animals. The area is themed well with animal sounds coming through speakers placed in bushes and the set up makes it easy to walk through. It was a pretty nice area to take a break from the rides in the park and just have a little time to rest. Our next stop was the famed Scorpion ride. We rode this twice as it was a walk on at 10:30am the ride is pretty fun as the head chopper right after the loop had me ducking each time we passed through. The helix at the end was pretty fun too. It is a nice “tweener” coaster with a single inversion to help people bridge the gap from smaller rides to bigger ones.

Our next stop was the Cheetah Chase wild mouse ride. The ride seemed like a standard wild mouse and was a good attraction for younger kids and families. We took a pit stop at the car after being in the park until noon. We had sandwiches and drinks that we put in the cooler to save money. Food prices were steep ($10 for chicken strips baskets, $9 for cheeseburgers) Drinks were actually a deal being $3 for a souvenir cup around 32 oz. and $3 for each refill, I think this is partly because of the Florida heat making soda a major money maker. Upon re-entering the park we took a trip on the skyride towards the back of the park to ride Kumba next. The Sky ride was a gondola ride that took you over the ride of Cheetah Hunt and animal attractions in the safari. The ride also gives you great views of the entire park including a distant shot of Montu, good views of Scorpion, Phoenix, Cheetah Chase, Kumba, Sheikra, and plenty more. Kumba is a B&M sitter placed in the back of the park. It was a walk on/2 train wait while we waited around 2 pm The ride also has seven inversions including an awesome first loop that wraps around the lift hill and a zeroG spiral that was pretty intense (ZeroG was my favorite element on this ride). The ride twists and turns through the seven inversions including interlocked corkscrews rather quickly. The ride is intense and does bump your head around a bit between the over the shoulder restraints (But it’s nothing too crazy, IMO). But the ride was pleasant and did not upset my GF and my stomach’s as Montu did. After Kumba we headed back to the car. My GF was a bit tired and I was as well so we stayed in the car for a bit while she napped for 30 minutes. After napping we had 3 hours to blow in the park.

We entered the park and went to ride Sheikra. This vertical Drop Tower is a floorless roller coaster with a 200’, 90 degree drop. The ride’s wait was around 20 minutes. For our first ride we made sure to sit in the front row of our train. Rolling out of the station the lift hill brings you up to a turnaround where you get a wonderful view of the area including downtown buildings in Tampa. The pause before the 200’ plummet felt like more than 4 seconds but as soon as it was released the airtime of the first drop was intense. Flying through the immelmann loop into a banked turn, then a brake run into the second near vertical drop was intense. The splash down ending was pretty cool especially visually from off ride. I believe the ride’s combination of speed and airtime on the drops made this the best ride in the park. Now I guess maybe I have been spoiled by the way Holiday World’s wooden roller coaster are, along with The Beast at KI. But I knew from the reputation Gwazi had the ride was going to be rough. My GF and I decided to take on Gwazi: Tiger first, and as we expected the ride was extremely rough. The ride beat you up pretty good almost to the point you did not notice the fly bys from the other dueling train, because you were cringing and hoping the ride would end. When the ride ended My GF had enough and decided to wait for me while I rode Gwazi Lion for a credit. I will say Gwazi Lion seemed a bit less rough than Tiger but still was pretty rough. Upon leaving the ride, we stopped at the gift shop outside Gwazi to purchase the conveniently placed Aleve… While waiting for our Aleve to kick in we decided to venture through Lory’s Landing. We pet kangaroos and saw wallabies. After leaving Lory’s Landing, we entered the Bird Gardens and took some pics with the flamingos that were stationed in the area. We ended our day with two rides on Sheikra

Day Two: Wednesday, April 4^th, 2012

The second day of our trip was purely to hit some of the rides and attractions that we missed on the first day. Upon entering the park we were greeted with the “These attractions are closed today sign”: Gwazi Lion, Cheetah Hunt... (disappointing) We decided to visit King Tut’s Tomb which was, like it sounds, a recreation of King Tut’s tomb. We went to the Cheetah Run display which houses the cheetahs right next to the Cheetah Hunt ride. They show started at ten and they gave interesting facts about cheetahs and then had the put on a running display. The show was informative and entertaining. When they finished up the show. Cheetah Hunt opened up so we decided to take a ride on it before the line gets insane. Again when we exited the ride the line was immediately full and the posted wait time was 90 minutes. We left and entered Myombe Reserve which housed gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. The exhibit was pretty interesting and the animals were active since it was the morning. After this exhibit we went through the Edge of Africa again to get to Rhino Rally.

This ride was a safari ride experience in a jeep with a driver that gives out interesting facts about the animals as we pass by. Our driver made the trip awesome! He was funny and delivered little jokes about how the car can only go a “blazing, face melting 7 mph” and that its speed was just fast enough to “go through the flaming triple loop of death.” He gave out funny facts about how long elephants live which was “until they die.” He continued cracking jokes about the pile of feces we drove by, going on bridges “they just constructed this morning,” a lady in another jeep that was taking pictures with her “fancy new Ipad,” and talking about the “pink chickens on stilts (flamingos).” We went over a couple of bridges and had two “rivers” to cross where we actually drove through water. Overall the ride was very entertaining and I hope that all the drivers were as interesting as our driver. He made the ride exciting and fun. After our Rhino Rally trip we decided to take a trip on the Serengeti Railway. The wait was pretty long as we had to let one train pass before we could get on. There were 2 trains on the track and a round-trip would take anywhere from 35-45 minutes. The ride was nice as we went through the plains and got different views of the animals around the safari. The conductor had many facts about the animals we saw. Also the people who waited at the tracks crossing made the ride enjoyable as they waved whenever we passed people.

With 30 minutes left to our self-imposed exit by 1 pm. We decided to ride the Sheikra. We got into the queue line and the ride ended up having technical issues with a train on the ride. So they closed the ride and swapped out the train. The ride ended up getting going in 20 minutes. We made it all the way to where we were next in line to ride and the ride suffered the same malfunction. We had to wait for another 20 minutes while they swapped out that train for a backup. Overall due to the malfunctions the 15 minute wait extended to an hour break pushing us past our deadline. We left the park in good spirits (even though Sheikra had some trouble), having made sure we got in what we wanted to do before we left.

Overall:

Crowds: Light and more on the tween/tourist range. It was light even though most people in area were on high school spring break.

Queue lines: the longest wait was when Sheikra malfunctioned at 1 hour. But the longest wait we experienced was about 20-25 minutes for Sheikra during the early afternoon. Cheetah Hunt had the longest waits being the lines were at least 1 hour long after about 45 minutes of operation.

Tips

-Bring a lunch in a cooler and leave it in the car. It gives you a break from the park and heat by sitting in your car for a little bit. This saves you extra money by not paying for food or drinks.

-Take a two day trip if you want to do everything without rushing through stuff.

-Get the rides in first. Cheetah Hunt is the first ride you need to do as soon as the park opens. (the estimated time posted out front is an ABSOLUTE LIE! The line was crazy full towards the middle of the day and they said the line was 50 minutes long. The ride had two turn-arounds full and the line leading out the door. The wait had to be atleast 90 minutes.) Scorpion and Cheetah Chase, Rhino Rally, Serengeti Railway, most of the water rides have low capacity so the lines tended to be longer there.

-Don’t bring a backpack or purse inside the park, otherwise you will be FORCED to use a locker. They don’t even let you in the queue line with a purse, backpack, or even camera in hand. Lockers are $7 for an all day locker or $0.50 for a single use locker outside each main attraction.

-Take the self guided tours through the animal exhibits during the middle of the day. At this time lines for the ride are long and most people are eating lunch. So the animal exhibits are perfect for walking through. I will say the animals are more active when the park opens so you kind of have to pick and choose your spot to visit animals.

-The park thins out really quickly towards the end of the day. This means most attractions (minus Cheetah Hunt) will have short waits for the last ~2 hours of the day.

Pros:

–Rides- Wide variety that will appease most enthusiast and newcomers.

-Animal Exhibits- There was a wide range of animals to see and plenty of chances for up-close experiences with animals.

-Landscaping- the Landscaping was nice and had plenty of shade provided by the trees throughout the park. The shade was much needed as the park was pretty warm throughout the day.

–Theming- It goes along with landscaping but the themes throughout the park the Egyptian and African Safari areas were very nice and had plenty of photo-ops with the family and kids.

Cons:

-Very Expensive- The park itself has very good rides/landscaping/theming all because the park is very expensive. $81.99 GA ticket + $14 parking= Almost $100 just to enter the park. Then to feed the kangaroos it is $5, up-close adventures with the safari animals $35, roller coaster insider $20. Granted all you really NEED to enjoy the park is a GA ticket and the Parking (if you do not get dropped off). Add in the fact that they CHARGE for “ONE TIME USE LOCKERS” (Which they force you to use if you carry a backpack or purse into the queue line) at every major ride attraction for $0.50. They have souvenir shops outside of almost every major attraction. It just seems that the park is merely out to nickel and dime the patrons at the park instead of making sure they have a good time.

- Poor Customer Service/Employee Moral- The people who worked at the park seemed to not really care about helping the customer have a good time. The employees that we talked to in the front office seemed more annoyed/bothered by us asking questions instead of just answering our questions. The ride-ops for each and every ride seemed like they hated their job. They moved slowly, didn’t smile, and looked like they were there merely because they HAD to be there. It made me miss (appreciate) the way KI ride-ops would talk before you are sent off on a ride and then ask “how was your ride?” on your return to the station. There was no talking or music during the loading stages of all the rides we were on. It made me appreciate KI and Holiday World SO MUCH more just because of their employees and how they carry themselves.

-Ride downtime- I do understand that these rides don’t get much time off. But here was the list of rides that were down during our ~14 hours in the park. Gwazi Lion, Gwazi Tiger, Cheetah Hunt (3 times), Sheikra (twice), Kumba, Montu.

Nearly all of the roller coasters at one time or another, were closed for part of the day. Gwazi Lion was closed for half a day. Cheetah Hunt was closed for ~30 minutes on Monday, as well as the last hour on Monday. We were told by the ride ops the ride was closed for 3/4th of the day Tuesday. And it was closed down for the first hour on our second visit on Wednesday. Sheikra had a malfunction with two trains and their harnesses so it was closed for about an hour. Montu opened up 30 minutes late on Monday. Kumba was closed for 30 minutes while they looked for something on the track. I couldn’t tell if it was an inspection or if they were looking for something that dropped from someone’s pocket. The downtimes were frustrating (especially Sheikra’s malfunction) but I do understand safety first. I would rather not ride a coaster if it isn’t safe.

Must rides IMO include: Sheikra, Skyride, Serengeti Railway, Montu, Cheetah Hunt, Scorpion, Rhino Rally, Kumba, Gwazi, All animal exhibits.

Ride Ratings:

Cheetah Hunt: 8.5/10

Montu: 9/10

Scorpion: 7/10

Cheetah Chase: 5/10

Kumba: 9/10

Sheikra: 10/10

Gwazi Tiger: 6/10

Gwazi Lion: 6.5/10

Rhino Rally: 10/10

Skyride: 10/10

Serengeti Railway: 10/10

[The Interpreter]

Thanks for the report on what is by far my favorite Busch park. I really need to get down that way while I'm still relatively close.

[jcgoble3]

I would love to read your report, but I can't right now because the giant walls of text are hurting my eyes. Please go back and insert some paragraph breaks; there's rarely a need for paragraphs to be more than 8 to 10 lines long (6 to 8 if you're on a widescreen display). Your report will be much easier to read once you do that.

[Joncars05]

I would love to read your report, but I can't right now because the giant walls of text are hurting my eyes. Please go back and insert some paragraph breaks; there's rarely a need for paragraphs to be more than 8 to 10 lines long (6 to 8 if you're on a widescreen display). Your report will be much easier to read once you do that.

Sorry about that. I just now noticed that there weren't any paragraphs on my post. Thanks for letting me know. I'm not sure why the post came out like that . I had paragraphs on my word document, but none on my post... None the less, it should be edited now. You probably needed a break anyways since I wrote so much. I like to write if you couldn't tell... haha.

[sheikra_rocks]

Joncars05

Great report.

First and foremost, I am enthralled that you liked Rhino Rally and gave it a high rating. I am a former Rally driver. I drove RR version 2. I drove from September 2002 to August 2003. This was after the accident which goverened the Land Rovers at 7mph, and toned down the bumps on the course.

I wish you would have been able to experience the river portion of Rhino Rally on Rhino Rally instead of on Cheetah Hunt. It really set the attraction apart from other safari attractions.

A suggestion for the future, purchace the All Day Dining Deal for $30 per person. It is very worth the money. Get your wrist band and go for a meal, a snack, or just a drink. Each time you go through the food line at select restaurants you get the entree, a dessert or side, and a drink(22oz) The sampler platter at the Smokehouse is amazing! Make sure you eat at the Dessert Grill and catch Burn the Floor. Puts Kings Island's dancing shows to shame. All of BG shows put KI shows to shame.

You did great by hitting Cheetah Hunt first, then Montu. I personally like Cheetah Hunt better than Maverick as there is less to brace yourself for. Don't get me wrong, I love Maverick, but Cheetah Hunt is a better riding coaster.

On to my passion, my B&M's!

Montu, last row, left side. You peel to the left off the lift, air time. Go through the batwing, and all your blood is in your feet. I noticed you rode Montu early in the day. Next time, ride once or twice in the morning, then come back and ride it again. As with most B&M's, Montu really comes to life toward the end of the day. Also, this is one of the few B&M's that does not have rough, or an "ooops" moment.

Kumba is hands down my number one coaster. I rode it brand new in 1993, and just rode it again, and again, and again this past March. It still rides just as great as it did 19 years ago. The only two bad places (at least in my opinion) are after the MCBR and when you drop into the tunnel under the station.

Here is an awesome tip for multiple rerides on Kumba: When you get to the park, if you deside on skipping CH, Head up the center of the park through Niarobi, and wait at the rope at Rhino Rally. 30 minutes after the park opens, the back of the park opens. Head north through Timbuktu into Congo, and to Kumba. It will take a minute for other guests to get back there, as there are so many choices along the way. Used to do this all the time when I lived in Florida. Have a whole train to myself for at least 15 minutes. (They only let you reride once, then make you go around now. Bummer.)

SheiKra is also one of the smoothest B&M's I have ever ridden. I am also glad to see you rate it 10/10. SheiKra usually has a fast moving line due to dual loading stations. If you ever have a chance to get back down there when they are open late, make sure you ride SheiKra at night.

Another thing, if you want to get wet, ride Tidal Wave. Everytime I have been there, there is hardly a 10 minute wait.

Once again, I am glad you enjoyed BGT, and I hope what I typed help you out on a future visit.

BTW, have you ever been before? I don't think I caught if you did or not.

I also have the Fun Card, and will be returning in July! Summer Nights = SheiKra at night! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.....LOL

[gad198]

Make sure you eat at the Dessert Grill and catch Burn the Floor. Puts Kings Island's dancing shows to shame. All of BG shows put KI shows to shame.

Nice report by the way! Yeah, I was a little surprised not to see anything here about the two big shows in the park. Iceploration was really quite cool (no pun intended) and features a lot of very good skating. It reminds me of Sha-Kon-O-Hey that played the last few years at Dollywood, only with more colorful costumes and on ice. It's very much worth seeing IMO. The Burn the Floor show, as mentioned, was fantastic. I'm pretty critical of most dance shows that utilize some form of partner dancing in their routines (as it's usually done by people who don't have any real ballroom training) but this show was put together and executed fabulously. Plus, both shows are indoors so it's a nice way to cool off.

I was down there that same Monday and ran into the same Cheetah Hunt issues in the morning. We got there right around 9:30 in the morning, got back to Cheetah Hunt and the posted wait time sign changed from 25 minutes to 60 minutes right as we were about to get in line. The catch with that ride is that you almost have to wait in the line if the ride is running because you don't know when it might go down and how long it might go down for. We saw trains stuck on the final brake run with the restraints up around 12:30, they had it up again at 1:45 when the Iceploration show let out, but was down again by the time we left around 2:30. Gotta love those Intamin launchers!

Busch Gardens Tampa is one of my favorite parks, but the one thing I saw in the report that is absolutely a major strike against it are the ride operations. Sea World Orlando also has the same problem. I'd absolutely love to see that addressed at some point, as I would imagine the waits during the summer would only magnify the issue.

[jcgoble3]

Thanks for editing in the paragraph breaks. Great report! I especially laughed at this:

Upon leaving the ride, we stopped at the gift shop outside Gwazi to purchase the conveniently placed Aleve…

Aleve in a gift shop? LOL!

[The Interpreter]

At one time, when Outer Limits still had over the shoulder restraints, Kings Island sold pain relievers at the photo booth at the ride's exit. They sold very well indeed.

[Colonel_SoB_fan]

Joncars05

Great report.

First and foremost, I am enthralled that you liked Rhino Rally and gave it a high rating. I am a former Rally driver. I drove RR version 2. I drove from September 2002 to August 2003. This was after the accident which goverened the Land Rovers at 7mph, and toned down the bumps on the course.

I wish you would have been able to experience the river portion of Rhino Rally on Rhino Rally instead of on Cheetah Hunt. It really set the attraction apart from other safari attractions.

A suggestion for the future, purchace the All Day Dining Deal for $30 per person. It is very worth the money. Get your wrist band and go for a meal, a snack, or just a drink. Each time you go through the food line at select restaurants you get the entree, a dessert or side, and a drink(22oz) The sampler platter at the Smokehouse is amazing! Make sure you eat at the Dessert Grill and catch Burn the Floor. Puts Kings Island's dancing shows to shame. All of BG shows put KI shows to shame.

You did great by hitting Cheetah Hunt first, then Montu. I personally like Cheetah Hunt better than Maverick as there is less to brace yourself for. Don't get me wrong, I love Maverick, but Cheetah Hunt is a better riding coaster.

On to my passion, my B&M's!

Montu, last row, left side. You peel to the left off the lift, air time. Go through the batwing, and all your blood is in your feet. I noticed you rode Montu early in the day. Next time, ride once or twice in the morning, then come back and ride it again. As with most B&M's, Montu really comes to life toward the end of the day. Also, this is one of the few B&M's that does not have rough, or an "ooops" moment.

Kumba is hands down my number one coaster. I rode it brand new in 1993, and just rode it again, and again, and again this past March. It still rides just as great as it did 19 years ago. The only two bad places (at least in my opinion) are after the MCBR and when you drop into the tunnel under the station.

Here is an awesome tip for multiple rerides on Kumba: When you get to the park, if you deside on skipping CH, Head up the center of the park through Niarobi, and wait at the rope at Rhino Rally. 30 minutes after the park opens, the back of the park opens. Head north through Timbuktu into Congo, and to Kumba. It will take a minute for other guests to get back there, as there are so many choices along the way. Used to do this all the time when I lived in Florida. Have a whole train to myself for at least 15 minutes. (They only let you reride once, then make you go around now. Bummer.)

SheiKra is also one of the smoothest B&M's I have ever ridden. I am also glad to see you rate it 10/10. SheiKra usually has a fast moving line due to dual loading stations. If you ever have a chance to get back down there when they are open late, make sure you ride SheiKra at night.

Another thing, if you want to get wet, ride Tidal Wave. Everytime I have been there, there is hardly a 10 minute wait.

Once again, I am glad you enjoyed BGT, and I hope what I typed help you out on a future visit.

BTW, have you ever been before? I don't think I caught if you did or not.

I also have the Fun Card, and will be returning in July! Summer Nights = SheiKra at night! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.....LOL

Couldn't agree more on those paragraphs.

BGT is my favorite Florida theme park and that is coming from a former Magic Kingdom cast member.

[Joncars05]

@Gad198 We didn't go to the shows because we wanted to ride the rides a bunch. If we end up going again this year we will definitely see the shows. We heard nothing but good things about them so I'm actually kind of upset that we didn't make any of them.

@Sheikra_Rocks Thanks for the tips. It was our first trip to BGT. We enjoyed it very much. I hope we can get back during the summer at some point and maybe get lucky enough for night rides. I can only imagine what Sheikra, Montu, and others would be like at night! Thanks for the tips as well. we almost got the all day dining deal but we ended up taking the cheap route and bringing our own lunch. We will definitely use your tips next time we go about the rides and shows.

Side note: I just saw a POV of Rhino Rally with the water section and boy it looks like we missed out on a great (if not the best) part of the ride. It looked awesome! I wish I could've experienced that portion of the ride.

- I also took some pictures too most are on my GF's camera so ill try and upload them whenever I get a chance.

[Diamondbacker]

Great report! Sounds like a blast.