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Busch Gardens Tampa: General Discussion

Matt N said:
Iron Gwazi and a giga coaster in one park would be absolutely legendary!
EDIT: Where did you see this @Maelstrom? I can’t see anything about it online.
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In The Loop are reporting it across their social media accounts.

Wonder if they'll replace it something like the launched log flume thing they built at SeaWorld San Antonio. We've seen in recent years parks across the United Parks chain get similar attractions in quick succession.

Confirmation via the parks Instagram account;


From: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN84zYEEep4/?igsh=anljOHZqdmEzcDk=
 
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On the coach now waiting to leave to go back to Orlando. Had an incredible day. This is definitely my favourite park in Florida. Only missing a world class Dark ride and it would be perfect.

If they build a giga it would be absolutely unreal. However I dont think that long standing rumour will be what this next project is. It will be most likely one of those new Boat rides being speculated above and that wont be a bad thing at all if they go all out with it and theme it up nice.

When / if the Giga does eventually come though I will definitely be back over for a visit. Love this park.

Also.....as somebody who isnt really a flat ride fanatic......Serengeti Flyer blew me away. The largest screaming swing in the world and boy that ride is fun. Had 3 goes on it today and it's a real adrenaline rush.

Also two goes on Falcons Fury. Most incredible drop tower I have experienced. Not too sure on the noises it makes but the ride experience takes your breath away.

Final park today and definitely saved best till last. Go home Sunday but we are having a chilled one tomorrow in the pool relaxing as we are absolutely cooked now.
 
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I enjoyed it here in 2007 had an excellent day but not the following year. We got on many rides between 10 and 1 then went to have lunch and during it a mega thunderstorm started for roughly 90 mins. It stopped and dried very quickly but none of the rides could reopen as the storm was still within 5 miles of the park so watched the shows instead and think they did manage to get a few select rides open for the final hour.
After driving 3 and a half hours there and back we felt like we had a wasted day and not been back since.
 
Similarly to you @Benjsh, I’m not a huge flat ride lover in general, but remember Serengeti Flyer being brilliant! The amount of sustained airtime is enormous, and the speed is immense; the additional size of it compared to Rush definitely makes a difference!

I haven’t done Falcon’s Fury in the better part of a decade, so my opinions on it are a bit hazy, but I seem to remember liking it in 2016. It notoriously made my mum cry, however!

What did you make of Iron Gwazi, out of curiosity? And did you make it to SeaWorld during your trip to do the likes of Mako, Ice Breaker and Pipeline?
 
Matt N said:
Similarly to you @Benjsh, I’m not a huge flat ride lover in general, but remember Serengeti Flyer being brilliant! The amount of sustained airtime is enormous, and the speed is immense; the additional size of it compared to Rush definitely makes a difference!

I haven’t done Falcon’s Fury in the better part of a decade, so my opinions on it are a bit hazy, but I seem to remember liking it in 2016. It notoriously made my mum cry, however!

What did you make of Iron Gwazi, out of curiosity? And did you make it to SeaWorld during your trip to do the likes of Mako, Ice Breaker and Pipeline?
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I will do a brief review of Sea World / Busch Gardens today so you will find out. 👀
 
Benjsh said:
Only missing a world class Dark ride and it would be perfect
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This is my issue with Busch really, it’s got plenty of coasters and the animals, but not a lot else. They don’t consistently offer shows and there aren’t any dark rides. Bit like Alton Towers in a way that it’s too coaster heavy but at least AT has dark rides.
 
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I have previously enjoyed my visits there but in Aug 2022 while I enjoyed going back and the coasters, being August the park was just so hot and found little shade/aircon compared to when at Disney/universal where most queues etc are inside or more shade. Plus I normally take a hotel break now going in August which obviously couldn’t do at which staying in Orlando. I just found the day to just be hard going. All my previous trips had been in October.

Operations were also poor in 2022, one train on Montu for example and very slow per dispatch. Plus the risk you take of a storm coming in during the summer months and shutting all the rides for hours at a time. So I didn’t go back this year.

However next time I go to Orlando in a few years I will likely go back especially if another major ride is added (highly likely) in as I do like their coaster selection.

In the parent group recent financial statement the group inc Seaworld is doing well even after epic opened in the Orlando Seaworld park (they did state it’s the only time they will comment on a new competitor and impact on one park). That they are ready to invest big and expand and grow their parks- Seaworld Orlando’s was specifically mentioned but good investment is expected group wide over the next 5 years or so.
 
Sad news to report im afraid.

The free shuttle bus from the Orlando area to Busch Gardens Tampa, operated by Mears, is to be permanently discontinued this November. 😞

Feels like a massive own goal if you ask me though. I can see lots of people now skipping the park as part of their 14 day holiday. Glad we visited this summer and could still take advantage of it.

Presumably they are going to run a paid service of some kind in its place but not seen any details of that yet. Would be business suicide otherwise and expect people in Orlando to pay for Ubers out there.
 
Benjsh said:
Sad news to report im afraid.

The free shuttle bus from the Orlando area to Busch Gardens Tampa, operated by Mears, is to be permanently discontinued this November. 😞

Feels like a massive own goal if you ask me though. I can see lots of people now skipping the park as part of their 14 day holiday. Glad we visited this summer and could still take advantage of it.

Presumably they are going to run a paid service of some kind in its place but not seen any details of that yet. Would be business suicide otherwise and expect people in Orlando to pay for Ubers out there.
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No chance I would Uber Orlando to Tampa for Busch Gardens. Me and my partner were already on the fence about even going back to Busch Gardens during our 2026 Orlando trip but scrapping the free shuttle bus service means a definite skip. Whilst I mostly enjoyed my visit in 2022 the park had very poor operations and just an overall redneck vibe. Obviously it's worth admission for Iron Gwazi alone but outside of that and Cheetah Hunt I don't have a huge desire to re-ride anything else there. Controversial opinion perhaps but I found Montu a bit of a let down compared to the more heavily themed B&M inverts I've ridden such as Black Mamba, Nemesis and even Oziris.
 
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velocikieran said:
No chance I would Uber Orlando to Tampa for Busch Gardens. Me and my partner were already on the fence about even going back to Busch Gardens during our 2026 Orlando trip but scrapping the free shuttle bus service means a definite skip. Whilst I mostly enjoyed my visit in 2022 the park had very poor operations and just an overall redneck vibe. Obviously it's worth admission for Iron Gwazi alone but outside of that and Cheetah Hunt I don't have a huge desire to re-ride anything else there. Controversial opinion perhaps but I found Montu a bit of a let down compared to the more heavily themed B&M inverts I've ridden such as Black Mamba, Nemesis and even Oziris.
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I had a completely different experience in August this year. Operations were fine, we got on loads of rides and had a great day.

Montu was one of the first inverts too remember. Like saying Oblivion isnt as good as some of the more modern Dive machines.

Busch is my favourite park in Florida. Got a great mix of rides. Huge coasters, huge thrill flats, animals. It's just my kind of park.
 
I last went in 2022 and wasn’t the best visit, had some decent visits prior to this. I did not bother going when I went in aug 2024 and 2025. I did think would go back again next time I go to Orlando prob 2027/28 as likely a major new coaster by then but without the free shuttle might not bother. will prob need to be a B&M giga or Intamin giga to get me back next time and pay for a paid shuttle.
 
As someone who's never visited the FL parks, Busch Gardens always seemed to have the USP that if you want the best coasters from a hardware perspective, you go there. But nowadays Universal Parks have the better coasters overall, so BGT kinda just fades into the background now
 
Having visited for the first time this summer, I could happily never visit again. It was one of the worse days I’ve had a theme park.

Poor operations, rude staff, massively oversold fastrack and every ride on reduced capacity despite it being a Saturday during their Halloween event. We only managed to ride every coaster (that was open) because we were also there in the evening for the Halloween event (which was actually quite decent).

But when you queue 70+ mins for a coaster on one train with dispatches every 4-5 minutes where more trains are filled with fastrack guests than the main queue.

It’s a shame as on paper it’s got great rides, but when you queue so long it just makes you not enjoy the rides as much as if they were ran properly.
 
djtruefitt said:
Having visited for the first time this summer, I could happily never visit again. It was one of the worse days I’ve had a theme park.

Poor operations, rude staff, massively oversold fastrack and every ride on reduced capacity despite it being a Saturday during their Halloween event. We only managed to ride every coaster (that was open) because we were also there in the evening for the Halloween event (which was actually quite decent).

But when you queue 70+ mins for a coaster on one train with dispatches every 4-5 minutes where more trains are filled with fastrack guests than the main queue.

It’s a shame as on paper it’s got great rides, but when you queue so long it just makes you not enjoy the rides as much as if they were ran properly.
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Maybe we got lucky in August then. Walk on rides all day and everything open which was scheduled to be open that day prior to us traveling.

Had no issues with staff whatsoever and had an amazing day and was our favourite day of the entire trip by far. Much better than our experience on two days at Epic Universe where everything would just break down constantly with people looking miserable mostly. We only just got everything done in 2 days there despite the fact there arent that many rides we actually cared about.
 
I've always been to Busch Gardens on a weekday and had walk-on rides. I guess because they have so many quiet days the staff don't know how to be efficient on busy days?

Also with the shuttle it was never really "free" and just included with a ticket purchase I thought, maybe they will charge extra for it now? I expect many people would happily pay $10/£10 per person for a return trip?
 
My visits to BGT have only ever relied on the shuttle. It's convenient when doing Orlando without a car, and I wouldn't object to paying a small fee (exc the driver tip).

My biggest gripe is that at the mercy of traffic, you can end up arriving close to midday and leaving well before park close. Unless there's a viable replacement, the costs of Ubers aren't practical either.
 
It seems online Busch are adding metal detectors to Iron Gwazi, where phones, bags, etc can’t be taken into the queue line.

And with Busch charging for all their lockers it basically will mean you’ll have no choice but to pay if you want to ride.

I know other rides at other parks have these, but they also offer free lockers and these are often right near the rides station and not just at the start of the queue.
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