Busch Gardens Tampa: General Discussion

[Danny]

I think the rumours of an Intamin coaster replacing Gwazi are stronger than a B&M, especially as Busch seem to be hitting it off with them again after Cheetah Hunt and now Falcon's Fury.

If Gwazi isn't gone by the end of this year, I'll be surprised. I'm fairly confident and disappointed that it'll certainly be gone by the end of 2015 though.

 

[Lottie.]

I'm surprised Gwazi is still around tbh. I last went on it in 2002 and even then it was rough.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

So you doon't think there should be a wooden coaster in the whole of Florida? :

Gwazi is very rough (it made me feeling really sick, something coasters never normally do to me) and probably costs a fortune to maintain (SeaWorld P&E don't have fortunes to spend) so they really would be better off replacing it. Whether that be with a new woodie or a steel coaster I do not know, but you have to feel that Gwazi's time has come.

As for wooden coasters in Florida, White Lightning at Fun Spot looks like good fun. There is no reason why Florida has to have a major wooden coaster.

Well White Lightning is a very small hybrid coaster which, when I rode it back in September, was not up to the standards of major thrill coasters. I found it less intense than even Big Dipper or Nickelodeon Streak. It's a good ride for kids and families, but Florida does need a major thrill coaster made of wood if you ask me.

In response to everyone who is saying that Gwazi is a poor and rough ride, whilst this was initially a surprise to me, I can now see why some people feel this way. I love it but I guess i do like some rough coasters, as long as they don't have chunky shoulder bars. There have been various topics on here where I've stuck up for and sung the praises of Stampida and Furius Baco. I enjoy Gwazi but I guess I'm in a minority. The public do seem to like it but if it is BGT's plan to close the ride, I would like to see a new woodie built before Gwazi shuts.

 

[BigAl]

I didn't mind Gwazi.

 

[Danny]

The test seat for Falcon's Fury has arrived:

 

[Alastair]

Anyone see this tweet from BGT yesterday?

"With this ride, we're going to do something we've never done before." Jeff Hornick, Dir. of Design & Engineering

Hmm, yeah. They've definitely never done a vertical drop with the rider facing straight down before...

 

[MiserableMonkey]

That restraint looks incredibly tight on the legs... :/

 

[Danny]

With the structure complete, work is progressing on the ground quite nicely. Posted by Busch Gardens on Facebook:

 

[BigAl]

'16 people stuck on Busch Gardens roller coaster'

(source)


Ha! Cheeteh Hunt's boring anyway, so this is actually doing the riders a favour and livening the experience up a little.

 

[Rob]

Ooops! You can always rely on Intamin for things like this!

 

[Danny]

Busch have revealed that Falcon's Fury will be opening on May 1st:

 

[Danny]

The gondola is now attached to the tower:

 

[Vicky]

Busch Gardens Tampa Fans have posted this video of a number of test drops being conducted, including from the full height. The seats don't seem to have been tilting yet but it's all looking good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0DjD7IS8gU#ws

 

[JAMMY_Jaunts]

They've just yesterday started testing the tilting seats while dropping and luckily there are some videos of it in action. Definitely looks like a very sharp tilt correction at the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRZhQViCJhA

 

[Rollercoasters4Life]

They've just yesterday started testing the tilting seats while dropping and luckily there are some videos of it in action. Definitely looks like a very sharp tilt correction at the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRZhQViCJhA

They are definitely having problems with the new ride system. If you watch the video you can clearly see they are tilting back to the seated position way too fast. Just around the 1:38 mark in the video you can see one of the pneumatic cylinders come loose from the seating arrangement. Also heard this isn't opening on the planned opening date which was 1st May - this looks to be the reason why.

 

[Andrew]

A POV has appeared from Busch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvr1L-w-sM#ws

Looks quite good and the tilting at the top certainly looks like it will add tension to the already terrifying drop. The tilting at the end doesn't appear as sharp too when compared with the other videos.

The ascent appears to have been sped up and the drop itself is a separate video from the ascent. Any idea of why this may be?

 

[Danny]

I imagine the gondola would have been kept at the top of the tower for an extended period of time, and a cut was used to remove the actual length of time to the gondola was up there. I also presume the ascent was horrifically slow which is why they decided to speed it up in the edit.

I'm glad they seem to have overcome the sharp transition in the tilt considering it was causing damage to the gondola, but it still looks a little too sharp.

 

[Sam]

This is such a stupid idea for a ride - who actually signed this off? It's pig-ugly too.

 

[Maelstrom]

Why do you think its a stupid idea for a ride? I personally think its a great idea and beats them adding a standard tower ride that are common across most parks. Plus seems to be getting a positive reaction across the web, time will tell when the ride opens if it was a great idea or not,

While Intamin often get criticised for issues with new prototype rides, you need someone in every Industry that innovates and creates new ideas (something Intamin does more than most other ride companies) , this then pushes the market along and other companies to create competing products etc, often improving on than the original.

 

[BigAl]

Beats another ABC Frog Hopper clone. :L