With this being my first visit ever to Busch Gardens Tampa, I'll post more of a review instead of a Trip Report. Feel free to ask any questions or make any comments afterwards and I'll be more blunt and less of a make-shift journalist
On Sunday, October 7th I visited Busch Gardens Africa with a close friend that happens to live near the park. I?ve really wanted to visit this park for years and now seemed like the perfect opportunity since I?d be in Orlando on business all week without my family in tow. You see, this is actually the main reason I haven?t visited BGA until now. While we are in the Orlando area on a frequent basis, we haven?t ventured out to Busch Gardens because we weren?t sure if it would be worth the money with the kids along. They have had similar issues as Great Adventure; too many awesome thrill rides, a few in-between and hardly anything for the little ones which we all know has been resolved for the most part now at Great Adventure. So I used this as an opportunity to ?scope? out the park. Alright, and get some rides on some of the greatest coasters on the planet.
After some issues getting there (my GPS battery died and I left the power cord in my hotel room), we arrived around 11AM. Fortunately, the minimal crowds that we encountered at opening never really grew throughout the day so this wasn?t an issue. This day also had the park closing early at 6PM which I found odd at first until seeing the lack of crowds. Howl-O-Screams was not operating unfortunately. We likely would have checked that out as well.
First thoughts upon entering??? Islands of Adventure? The canopies for shading the entrance area seemed similar to me. I?m not sure which came first though.
And the entrance scanners were annoying. It worked well enough for me but too many people had problems understanding it which resulted in a nice backup. I?d hate to see a more crowded day! I just can?t imagine they save any time or money since every station had an employee thankfully posted there anyway.
Once in we turned right and headed straight to Montu. This was partly because it was taunting me from the parking lot and also because Ray mentioned that there wasn?t much else over there which would make it easier later on getting a more centrally located locker; something we used a LOT that day. My thoughts on Montu? WOW?. Just WOW! I was blown away by this coaster.
Actually, I?d put it up there in my top 5 easily and maybe even 2 or 3 once I have time to review my list. The pacing, elements, airtime, g-forces were just perfect. It probably also helped that the excellent crew was pumping the two trains out one after another keeping the trains hot. The mid-course was also barely on. In the back, I came off the ride staggering which is something that hasn?t happened to me in ages. We rode several more times in various locations and they all rocked. I liked the back the most though.
From there we headed to Scorpion and Kumba. Scorpion was typical Schwarzkopf goodness. It wasn?t as good as maybe Shockwave at SFOT but I was impressed regardless.
Hopefully this ride survives as the park changes. And I?m so glad they have kept the lap bars because I think there would be severe head banging otherwise. One oddity was the sign placement to enter the queue.
Now onto Kumba?? Sorry, I know I?ll likely upset some but I didn?t really like it. It was better than Hulk but for me, I actually prefer Medusa (ignore the floorless aspect). There were some dead spots, very little airtime and not so great pacing. I did find the part towards the end with the tunnel fantastic though.
It reminded me a lot of Beast how it starts getting insanely fast and furious. The rest of the ride to me was typical B&M. Still good fun though. I found it hard to believe they just painted this ride though as there was rust everywhere. Even on the train frames!
Next up was Rhino Rally. Yes, you read that correctly. It?s a real shame this ride can?t operate correctly on a regular basis because I actually enjoyed it. We had a great guide/driver and the ride system itself is amazing to me.
It?s almost something Disney would try to do. I?d likely not want to wait in a long line for it but I?d definitely ride again if the entire family were along as my kids would absolutely love it. And no, it still can?t compete with Kilimanjaro Safari. Even with the runaway raft experience. The animals were very noticeably in pens unlike Disney?s attraction and it?s on a MUCH smaller scale. I?m not certain they were meant to be compared though. Hopefully this ride stays around a little longer for when we get back because I fear they?ll eventually pull a Chiller on us and take it out.
Finally, we worked our way through the strangely bizarre, never-seen-in-my-life park layout over to SheiKra. It?s essentially a one-trick pony like Kingda Ka in my opinion. It lifts you up and drops you and you swoop around; go down a little drop and suddenly, its over after 45 seconds.
With that said, it surprised even me just how fun that 45 seconds is. I was told not to raise my hands to fully enjoy the ride. It seems the change in shoulder position results in no airtime. Instead, I lifted completely out of my seat in several spots. The ride has amazing airtime in 4 locations (including the 2 drops), has a great foot chopper effect on the right side as you fly past a platform, a really cool holding brake on the first drop and the splashdown effect is outstanding. We rode a few times in different locations which does seem to change the feeling a bit but otherwise, I enjoyed each and every ride. The floorless novelty didn?t make sense to me though. The front seat it was obviously amazing. Especially on the ends but the back and middle row you could hardly tell because there were seats right in front of you. It certainly didn?t hurt the ride itself but I?m not certain it was worth it overall. Of course, I?m talking as an enthusiast so for all I know, the general public is eating it up. The general consensus seemed to indicate that riders love it as do the on-lookers and they wait to get wet.
Now if only they could do something about cooking the park guests waiting in line or even worse, waiting in the final brake before the station. This was worse than most Six Flags parks and to me is unacceptable. This day wasn?t really all that hot and it was still very hot waiting for the train to leave the station so you could pull in. The station design itself wasn?t much better when you consider how many patrons the ride can handle per train vs. the overall size of the station. Oh well. I guess that?s a minor gripe.
Somewhere in here, we also did ride Gwazi one time.
Unfortunately, I couldn?t get both credits as only the right side (Tiger?) was open. Expecting the worse, we waited for the very front seat. Between the light drizzle that happened to hit during our ride and the fact that we were in the front, we actually had an outstanding ride. I loved it but it was still a little to rough for Ray. Millennium Flyer trains would probably help this ride a great deal but a front seat ride in the rain was awesome.
After several rides on all of the coasters, we checked out some of the animals and took pictures of the beautiful landscaping and architecture throughout the park.
Which brings me to my one and only beef with the entire place?Africa?
I just don?t get it. There are so many instances of Africa not fitting it that it just doesn?t make sense to me. There is also an identity crisis of sorts because many areas I still saw Busch Gardens Tampa printed which probably confuses the general public even more. Even a Google search for Busch Gardens Africa returns Busch Gardens Tampa in the results.
But would I go back with the entire family now after seeing it? Absolutely. I was amazed by the beauty of the park, the decent operations (for the most part) and the wide variety of rides.
My kids would go bonkers in Land of the Dragons and there are some great shows as well that the entire family could enjoy. They are also adding another new area for 2008 called Jungala which will have a mixture of attractions for everyone so it seems as though they have been addressing these short comings.
The only bummer of the day really was the insanely long line at the out-of-place Brady Bunch hospitality house.
All I wanted was that free sampling of beer. Partly because it?s free and partly because I was curious what else Busch had to offer there besides Bud and Bud Light. I?ll live though. Plus, I probably couldn?t have done those multiple re-rides on Montu after having some beer anyway.
To close, I wanted to mention the outstanding apple cobbler I had at the smoke house by SheiKra. I know, why didn?t you get REAL food there like steak! It turned out that the HUGE serving of apple cobbler was a meal in itself.
Oh, one more thing.... couldn't they have come up with SOMETHING, anything at all to cover up the propane tanks??? This is bad show....
While elsewhere in the park, they went through the trouble of covering up this backstage bridge which is good show...
Topic: Busch Gardens Tampa Review (Read 1744 times)