• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Busch Gardens Tampa: General Discussion

Danscott22 said:
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned but Falcon’s Fury is operational after being closed for an eternity. I’m not sure when it reopened but I’m glad to see it, as it is by far by favourite ride at BGT.
Click to expand...
Better than Iron Gwazi? Or have you not ridden IG yet?
 
there are currently rumours of a family coaster being added next (possibly for 2024) in the pantopia area. Replacing the old looping starship ride and surrounding area and possible area where the sand serpent is (wild mouse). Sand serpent may get moved elsewhere in the park rather than scrapped. This opens up a decent sized area for a family coaster. There are markings around the area. The last three additions have been thrill rides so a family attraction next is probably a good plan.

No mention of what the ride type could be, while they are adding a lot of Intamin straddle coasters currently I am not sure that’s what we would see as likely that’s what Seaworld will end up with. Maybe Something like a Vekoma Family inverted would fit in well. There were previous rumours of a family woodie but not sure it would fit well in this location.
 
Danscott22 said:
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned but Falcon’s Fury is operational after being closed for an eternity. I’m not sure when it reopened but I’m glad to see it, as it is by far by favourite ride at BGT.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it's down again for a while by the looks of things.

Did Iron Gwazi several times over the past couple of days. Was walk on in the early afternoon yesterday and today. First RMC for me and back row on this thing is fantastic. Makes Sheikra feel like a kiddie coaster.

Montu has a nice new blue and yellow paint job and looks great. The seringeti flyer was very good and a great addition to the park. Tigris still has me laughing every time.
 
Last edited:
Maelstrom said:
there are currently rumours of a family coaster being added next (possibly for 2024) in the pantopia area. Replacing the old looping starship ride and surrounding area and possible area where the sand serpent is (wild mouse). Sand serpent may get moved elsewhere in the park rather than scrapped. This opens up a decent sized area for a family coaster. There are markings around the area. The last three additions have been thrill rides so a family attraction next is probably a good plan.

No mention of what the ride type could be, while they are adding a lot of Intamin straddle coasters currently I am not sure that’s what we would see as likely that’s what Seaworld will end up with. Maybe Something like a Vekoma Family inverted would fit in well. There were previous rumours of a family woodie but not sure it would fit well in this location.
Click to expand...
Take this with as much salt as you like, but extending upon this rumour posted by @Maelstrom, permits have been filed for the demolition of an “existing attraction”, which is heavily rumoured to be Sand Serpent:


In terms of ride type, I have heard it mentioned that the 2024 family coaster will be a Vekoma Family Boomerang “not unlike Accelerator at Drayton Manor”.

I have also heard it said that 2024’s investment “will be the Tigris to an Iron Gwazi in 2025”, with a giga coaster from B&M or Intamin rumoured to be in the works for 2025.
Source: https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/busch-gardens-tampa-future-2023-2024.45202/#post-1154104
 
zeock said:
Kumba is 30 years old today!
Click to expand...
That was the 1st coaster I went on in 2007 that I thought was better than Nemesis. The only coaster at the time I went on twice it was that good.
Really want to go back but after driving for 90 mins only got on rides from 10am to 1pm then a hour at the end of the day as a Thunder storm hit around half 1 while we were having lunch and watching the indoor entertainment. It only rained for just over a hour but they had to wait to the lighting was 5 miles away from the park so only the 4D cinema and shows were open.
 
Matt N said:
Take this with as much salt as you like, but extending upon this rumour posted by @Maelstrom, permits have been filed for the demolition of an “existing attraction”, which is heavily rumoured to be Sand Serpent:


In terms of ride type, I have heard it mentioned that the 2024 family coaster will be a Vekoma Family Boomerang “not unlike Accelerator at Drayton Manor”.

I have also heard it said that 2024’s investment “will be the Tigris to an Iron Gwazi in 2025”, with a giga coaster from B&M or Intamin rumoured to be in the works for 2025.
Source: https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/busch-gardens-tampa-future-2023-2024.45202/#post-1154104
Click to expand...


I had heard rumours previously an option being looked at was an Intamin launched coaster in style of pantheon with 300ft reverse spike. While I would be happy with one of these coasters i think would rather see a B&M giga at Busch. 2025 makes sense for their next big ride with Epic Universe opening in 2025.
 
Sand Serpent is now permanently closed, along with the Bush Flyers, Kiddie Train, and Bikes rides next door. Construction walls have already been placed around the entire right side of Pantopia.
 
What's going on at Busch? Seems to have gone downhill somewhat. BGT was always my favourite Florida park but have noticed operations poor on our last 2 visits. Rides running one train when in the past there would have been two with similar crowds on park. Less variety when it comes to food. Doesn't seem to be the same amount of staff around and less animals too. A lot of Trip Advisor reviews seem to echo our experience. SeaWorld Orlando doesn't have the same feel to it either and normally we would have visited several times during a two week holiday we can't even manage a full day there now and leave quite disappointed.

If it wasn't for the continued investment in new rides at both parks I'd be inclined to think that Merlin have taken over.
 
I have to agree, I visited Busch for the first time on Tuesday and found the operations pretty terrible. I also found the app to be utterly useless when it came to queue times, they were never accurate, Wi-Fi across the park was crap too.

Fortunately they have some higher capacity rides so poor ops don’t show as much on those, but waiting for Iron Gwazi and watching on the screen how long each train remained in the station for before being dispatched was painful.
 
Sheikra operations were abysmal when I was there too. Running 3 cars but consistently had 1 in the station and the other 2 stacking on the brake run. 3 - 4 minutes between dispatches creating an unnecessary 60 minute queue.

3 visits I've had to BGT over the last decade and I'm yet to have a good day there, I'm either unlucky or it's a really overhyped park. Operations, food and atmosphere all really poor.
 
My biggest issue last September was the animals, many enclosures were empty without signage so you'd be trying to spot something that didn't exist. The food has never been amazing at the Seaworld group but it was OK but stupidly priced. But its a quiet time of year so never had an issue with waits.
 
I wouldn’t have said Busch had particularly phenomenal operations when I was there recently either, but for the most part, this wasn’t really a major issue because the park was very quiet.

In some cases, waits were longer, though. I waited 35 minutes for Iron Gwazi one time from towards the end of the station queue (albeit it was advertised at 100, so I took this as a bonus!). Cheetah Hunt was also advertised at 95 minutes at one point, and with a queue that looked pretty long (nearly filling the whole queue line) and what seemed to be dispatch intervals of multiple minutes per dispatch on 16-rider trains (I didn’t stick around to time it), I bailed and went elsewhere.

I also waited about 20-25 minutes for Cobra’s Curse from in the final pre-show room. I waited in the odd 20 minute or so queue, but for the most part, queues were relatively short due to how quiet the park was (albeit not quite as short as at SeaWorld).

SeaWorld didn’t have particularly phenomenal operations either, for the most part, but in fairness, Mako was operated pretty well there, with 2 trains in action and minimal stacking resulting in a throughput of 960pph being attained.

It does seem as though throughputs may be taking a back seat in the SeaWorld group, though. I don’t think either of the parks necessarily need huge throughputs or outstanding operations by virtue of how short the queues are, but some of the newer rides installed by the group have fairly low throughputs; Iron Gwazi and Pipeline were both attaining under 500pph on my visit, and Ice Breaker wasn’t exceeding 500pph by much.

I will also concur with Busch’s app being somewhat inaccurate. It advertised Cobra’s Curse at 75 when the entrance said 15, it advertised Iron Gwazi as closed when the entrance said 15, and it also advertised Air Grover at 5 when it was actually closed, to name just a few.
 
My biggest issue is the timeshare folk who want to be your best friend. Even after you’ve passed them for the 6th time that day and told them to **** off.
 
IDB said:
My biggest issue is the timeshare folk who want to be your best friend. Even after you’ve passed them for the 6th time that day and told them to **** off.
Click to expand...
“Timeshare folk”? If you don’t mind me asking, where in Busch Gardens are these, and what do they do?
 
I felt when I went last august it was not as good as previous visits, while I thought on the whole the park looked good and well maintained, operations where poor, it prob also didn't help I was visiting in August for the first time, rather than October in previous trips, so while the park was not actually any busier as local schools had gone back it was baking hot and high humidity all day (luckily no storms that day to close the rides). Unlike Disney and Universal there is alot less indoor air conditioned queues and lack of indoor rides made it a bit of gruelling day!. The queue for Montu for example took ages was running one train, with very slow operations between dispatches. Much like Seaworld it was clear staffing was a big issue.

While I enjoy the coasters I am debating weather next Summer when I go back to Orlando that we will not bother with Busch this time. Would rather spend the extra time in the Universal and Disney Parks. Although I said would probably give seasworld a miss next time as well, they keep adding new coasters that make we visit again! So will probably still do Seaworld to ride pipeline and next years coaster plus I do really like Mako and Manta.
 
The odd thing I find about Busch and SeaWorld is that even though the operations are often nothing particularly spectacular, the queues are mostly not overly long despite both parks having similar, if not higher, average daily attendance to Alton Towers, which often has considerably longer queues despite arguably having notably higher throughputs and faster operations on average.

The major ride throughputs at Busch and SeaWorld are often notably lower than the ride throughputs at Alton Towers or Thorpe Park, and they have no more major rides than either park, but the queues are mostly nowhere near as long. Why is that, as it has me very confused?
 
Matt N said:
The odd thing I find about Busch and SeaWorld is that even though the operations are often nothing particularly spectacular, the queues are mostly not overly long despite both parks having similar, if not higher, average daily attendance to Alton Towers, which often has considerably longer queues despite arguably having notably higher throughputs and faster operations on average.

The major ride throughputs at Busch and SeaWorld are often notably lower than the ride throughputs at Alton Towers or Thorpe Park, and they have no more major rides than either park, but the queues are mostly nowhere near as long. Why is that, as it has me very confused?
Click to expand...
I don't know, but could it be something to do with people viewing the animals at those parks instead of going on the rides?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top