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Thoughts on Florida - Tim's Trips

I like your face down while dropping theory, it's one I would believe as I too love Oblivion, but hate any other drop Tower.

I've never fancied riding Tower of Terror, knowing that there's just a seatbelt holding you down, that puts me off. Get a proper locking lapbar that I can tighten beyond hell then maybe I would consider it.
 
Does anyone else notice the irony that we mock the general public for finding lap restraints unsafe, yet most of them happily board ToT without anything to hold onto at all. Maybe we should take our own advice and trust the manufacturers ;)

It just goes to prove my point from a few years ago:
If The Smiler had been built without OTSR people wouldn't have even cared.
 
And it would also have probably caused a few more problems, but that topic is for another time. I would love it without OTSR'S myself though.
 
Blackfish: the downfall of Busch Gardens

As much as It pains me to say this; if there was one park I would happily skip on a future trip to Florida it would be Busch Gardens in Tampa.

From the perspective of a British enthusiast I've been aware of the Busch Gardens parks for as long as I can remember. They are in many ways America's answer to Alton Towers; Big name thrill rides (directly inspired by are own) set in beautiful surroundings.

Unfortunately Busch Gardens Tampa has suffered the same fate as our parks. The place reeked of budget cuts left, right and very noticeably the massive hole in the centre, formally home to Gwazi.
Staffing and ride operation was at a bare-minimum (Montu for example only ran a single train), not helped by Kumba being closed for late summer refurbishment?! Other areas hadn't fared much better with noticeable absences such as Rhino Rally and Tanganyika Tidal Wave. Overall the park felt empty and unloved, not at all what I hoped when I pictured visiting this formally magnificent park.

Blackfish and the resulting decisions by management are to blame. I'll get around to discussing Blackfish at a later date. What is important for this discussion is that Sea World has seen a massive hit to their attendance but it is Busch Gardens who is being "punished" for it.
The reason for this comes down to location. Tampa is isolated from the other attractions in central Orlando. Most visitors with a limited vacation time will not travel the extra distance. SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment are all to aware of this and have no doubt made the decision that despite the current situation at Sea World that park is still the more valuable of the two.
As a result despite both parks being fairly quiet Sea World felt like business as normal. All the rides were running at maximum capacity, the shows were running as normal and overall the park felt more alive. But for every attraction Sea World kept running Busch Gardens has had to make up for the cost.

I can understand the logic by SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, (I'd probably make the same decision myself) but it highlights the massive downside of having a multi-chain company that values one park over another.

The silver-lining is that some of Busch Gardens latest additions I found to be great rides. I've already mentioned Falcon's Fury and the new Mack spinner (Cobra's Curse) was an absolute delight. However until the current situation is resolved Busch Gardens feels like the lesser of the major Florida parks and as such my time would be better spent not travelling out to Tampa.
 
It's a shame about Busch. I visited in 2015 and it was clear then that the park was being held back. The location probably doesn't help them but their coaster line up is by some margin the best in the region and the park is so enormous that its potential is seemingly endless.

Largely due to the coaster line-up, Busch was the park I was most looking forward to on our trip, and whilst it didn't disappoint per se, I did feel it's one of those parks that could quickly become frustrating if revisiting due to how much better it could and should be. Very much like Alton Towers in that regard.
 
Sumed up my thoughts in far fewer words, thanks for the response John.
 
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