Busch Gardens Tampa

Visited: September 10, 2023

Attending: Brian, Gary, Carl

In a lot of ways Busch Gardens Tampa was my primary motivator for this trip. I'd known about Iron Gwazi since before the pandemic, although it hadn't opened at that time. I was really excited to ride it because it was the only coaster that supposedly could rival Steel Vengeance. Over time more and more coasters were added to the Orlando area that needed to go on my list, but Tampa Bay was really the origin point for this story. Although it was a one-hour drive from Orlando, and it was really hot, those were also things that I knew going in. What I didn't know was just how beautiful the park is, and how good the theming, the environment, and the non-ride elements are. This is just a really fantastic park and it left me with a very good impression and a good feeling for my first full day of the trip. That might have something to do with the company. For the first couple of hours I was joined by Gary and Carl from the Buzzed Bars. Carl is a local and Gary had been here once or twice before, so they knew what to do right at the opening. Which was pretty much in line with what I've been told and what I planned, but it's nice to have a local guide. They could only stay a couple of hours because they had a baseball game to get to, but I really enjoyed the time that they were there and that set the tone for the rest of the day.

Iron Gwazi

Iron Gwazi was my main attraction for this trip and the ride that I was most interested in getting on. The same was true for Carl and Gary, so we met up there almost immediately after opening and before the ride was even running. Carl was looking forward to seeing other riders experience it for the first time. Unfortunately Gary had gotten some evening rides with friends the night before, but it was brand-new to me, so Carl still managed to get his wish. Personally, I didn't know if it was going to live up to the hype. I knew it was supposed to be as good if not better than Steel Vengeance, but I really like Steel Vengeance. I'd heard about some of the elements, including the famous Death Roll, but I didn't really know what those entailed. The line was nice and short right at opening, which is always a good start. Like a lot of the queues at SeaWorld Parks, this one was great: not a lot of switchbacks and fantastic decorations. We were early enough that we were able to get a back-row seat with no problem. Carl and I sat in the back, with Gary just in front of us. Carl was really psyched to be in the back row. And then it started.

The first drop is beyond 90°, which I didn't think would make a ton of difference, but with the length of this train there was a noticeable yank over the top. Unlike a lot of other RMC coasters, which are built on old coasters with an oval layout, Gwazi's is more square, so there's more diving under beams and interacting with other elements of the ride in a way that's not possible with an oval like Steel vengeance. As a result I really didn't know which element was going to come where, which is an interesting way to ride. The infamous Death Roll happens about a third of the way through the ride, which isn't something I really anticipated. It's a zero-g roll, and I've done zero g-rolls before and like them, but this was unbelievable. It points almost straight down, and with the amount of speed that you have going into it, especially when you're in the back, you just get yanked all the way through it. There is a wave turn or a wall stall, which I’ve also seen before. What I didn't anticipate was the speed with which you will take all these elements. The thing was going so fast, even early in the morning, that it just seemed like every maneuver was yanking you one way or the other. Gary had said that it reminded him of Intimidator 305 in the way that the transitions were so sharp, and I agree with him. The overall feel is that the number of elements are squeezed into a space that's slightly too small for them, so instead of having a little breathing space between, you just go right from one element to the next, kind of like the Batman: the Ride. It did leave me with the “what just happened?” feeling when we hit the brakes hard, which is always a great sensation on a roller coaster. I came off of it stunned and impressed, but I don't know if I'm ready to call it my new number one.

Cheetah Hunt

Cheetah Hunt is close by Gwazi, it's family-friendly, and has a reputation for breaking down, so we did that next, since it seemed to be running and we didn't have a ton of line first thing in the morning. As with most of the rides at this park, the queue was excellent and mostly indoors. I thought we were going to have almost no line at all, but there's a very large station platform and that's where we found the crowd. I don't think we waited more than 20 minutes in total, which was fine. We got back-row seats for this one as well, which was great, but it's a launch coaster so that doesn't matter all that much. The thing I appreciate about Cheetah Hunt is that the track itself, the shape of the coaster, fits the theme. It's trying to be a cheetah simulator, if that's a thing. The magnetic launches, of which there are three, simulate a cheetah's bursts of speed. The tree section, which a lot of people complain about, to me represents a cheetah climbing a tree and pacing around in circles having a good look around. As a coaster, you climb almost straight up that tree and there's a nice little pop of air as you do it. You get a good view while you're up there, which is intended, and then it drops almost straight back down and into a launch section which I think is great. There are some sections over water which I understand didn't always have water in them, so that was good to see. The ride runs straight out over a plains section, which is again appropriate. There are some s-curves in kind of a concrete ditch, which again is a cheetah kind of move. I don't know if cheetahs are known for zero-g rolls, but there's one in there which is gentle and not too forceful. On the whole I really liked it. It was a lot of fun. It's not the most intense ride, which made it a great choice right after Gwazi. It straddles the line between family coaster and thrill coaster so it's something that most people can ride, which I think is fantastic. It makes great use of the tunnels. And the train cars are fantastic. The front car with the cheetah’s face on it looks amazing, and the trains have those really upright seats that Intamin is known for. This one is just fun, and I really like it.

Montu

After Gwazi, Montu was the primary thing I wanted to ride, and Gary thought so too, so we went right over there. Fortunately we were still early enough that there was basically no line at all. Gary chose a middle seat and Carl and I took the back row. I normally like the front row the first time I ride an inverted coaster, but that row was occupied at that moment, and since it was a walk-on, I didn't want the other guys to have to wait through an additional cycle. I’m very glad in retrospect that I ended up in the back. I have ridden a lot of B&M inverted coasters, most of the ones in the US. In fact, Batman was my first B&M coaster way back in the 90s, so I have a pretty good history with this kind of ride. I have my favorites and those that I think are statistically the best, and those two lists aren't the same. I'd heard for several years that Montu was the best invert, hands down. Much like Gwazi, I wasn't sure if I wanted to believe that. After just that one ride, I am a believer: Montu is the best. The ride makes excellent use of tunnels and ditches carved below the surface. Inversions that go into and through tunnels are just not things that I expected, and the sensation of speed is unbelievable. But the speed isn't just an illusion, it's actually there. This is probably one of the fastest inverts that I've been on, I think because it stays so low to the ground. I have to mention the bat-wing element, which is often cited as the highlight of this ride. It's definitely a lot smoother than the cobra rolls that I've done on other inverted coasters. Afterburn also has a bat-wing but it's not quite as intense as this one. And with the way this one goes under the ground, it's just the perfect element for the show piece of this ride. But the thing that really got me was the zero-g roll that happens just before the end of the ride. It just pops up from out of the ground, flips you over violently, and then dives back underground again. It's not something that I was expecting, and it gave that feeling that I associated with my very first rides on Batman.

After that, Carl and Gary had to leave to make it to their baseball game. The only other coaster in that section of the park is Cobra's Curse, which is family-friendly and also attracts a line. Carl and Gary recommended that if the line was in fact short, I should get in that right away and not miss out. It was great to do a few rides with other club members. Even if it was only for a little while, it definitely enhanced my enjoyment, especially on Gwazi and Montu. So I parted ways with them in front of Cobra's Curse and got in line.

Cobra's Curse

The line for Cobra's curse unfortunately was not 5 minutes as advertised, more like 20 or 25. Fortunately what it is, is indoors. I don't know if it was fully air conditioned, but it was certainly cool enough in there that it was comfortable, which I appreciated. This is another ride that's more fun than it really ought to be. It has an awful lot of unusual features that add up to a really fun ride. For starters it has an elevator lift rather than a traditional lift hill. Trains are only two cars long, two rows each, so an elevator lift makes sense, but it's still very strange. And when you come out of the elevator you're faced with this gigantic Cobra statue right in front of you. Or right in front of me, because I was in the front row. It doesn't do anything; it's just right there. And strangely the track does this slight outer bank when it makes a 90° turn in front of this cobra. It's hard to remember what the first part of the ride is like, but it's not bad. After a bit the train comes to a complete stop and the cars rotate in place 180°. So the next bit takes place backwards. After a bit of that, the cars start to spin. It's not a fast spin like Gerstlauer spinners; it's more of a controlled spin, similar to Time Traveler. Now that I've ridden a few coasters with that concept, I was able to enjoy things like facing the outside of a banked turn as you're going through it. This ride also makes good use of trenches below ground level. I don't know if those are necessary but they do add something to it. Those aren't the only rides at this park that use trenches. Maybe the park owners just like digging? I'm not really sure.

Montu again

After Cobra's Curse I went back to try Montu again, this time from the front row. Oddly I don't think the experience was enhanced by sitting in the front. That's normally the case for inverted coasters, because it's fun to be able to see what you're doing. However Montu spends so much time down in trenches that it actually didn't make much difference when you could see. And of course sitting in the front means you have forces that kick in at different times during each inversion, which is always a little bit weird. Unusually, I think this is a back-row ride. It's still really good, but I don't think a second ride in the front added anything to the experience.

Lunch

At this point I'd done the coasters that are close to the front of the park. These are the ones that people gravitate towards first, and therefore get the longest lines. We'd been doing pretty well with the crowd, and nothing had a very long line. However I knew that it was getting close to lunchtime and I was starting to get hungry, so I decided that I should move towards the back of the park and find something to eat back there. It turns out that Busch Gardens Tampa has a big dining hall with live entertainment, similar to Williamsburg or Carowinds. So that proved to be a pretty nice place to eat. I got a chicken sandwich, nothing terribly fancy, and took a break inside in the air conditioning.

Scorpion

Scorpion is situated right outside the dining hall, so I figured that would be a good choice right after lunch. It's an old Schwarzkopf, which means that it's not particularly fancy or tall, but it does have track that goes through its vertical loop, so that's cool? I don't have much of the same fondness for Schwarzkopf that a lot of other enthusiasts have, especially these smaller portable models. Even though this ride has been there since the park opened, it's still just sitting on a plot of dirt, which seemed odd to me. Maybe they've moved it recently; I'm not really sure. So I got on not expecting very much; I got a seat in the back row, which was nice. My ride was a little more janky than I'm entirely comfortable with, even from a Schwarzkopf. The loop was a little bit too intense, and some of the turns were a little bit more forceful than I would have liked. I was also put off by the fact that two riders in front of me, moms with young children might I add, both had their phones out and were actively recording at arm's length during the ride. That really disappointed me and I thought they should have set a better example. Fortunately nobody lost a phone and so nobody got hurt, so I guess that's fine, but I don't like the behavior. So I think Scorpion has to be my least favorite ride here, by default.

Kumba

Kumba is a classic B&M coaster, one of the highlights of this park. It's been here a very long time, it's photogenic, and lately there's been rumors that it's going to be taken out because it's too old. So while I didn't have the highest expectations, I was looking forward to riding it, and I really wanted to get it on my credit list. I haven't really done a whole lot of B&M looping coasters, ones with floors anyway. I was mostly just expecting a floorless coaster, but with a floor, and that's pretty much what I got. The over-the-shoulder restraints are the original version, which are hard plastic and that's not great. I got the back row, and I tried riding defensively, but I did get a little bit beat up on some of the inversions. I had a very hard time keeping track of where I was in the layout; that’s not real surprising given that it was my first time riding it. But I might have liked to have a better idea of exactly what was going on. I do distinctly remember the double corkscrew, but that may have been because I stood and watched it from the bridge before I got on the ride. This was another one of those instances where I saw the spot where everybody takes the picture from, and it wasn't anything like I thought it was going to be in relation to the rest of the ride. I could have gone back for another lap, but I chose not to mostly because I felt like it did beat me up just a little bit. And I wasn't sure if riding from the front would make much difference. On another day I might have gone for a second ride.

SheiKra

This one is a dive coaster, which is a type of coaster I don't generally care for all that much. With the B&M dive coasters, some are distinctly better than others. This one is one of the older models, and it's fairly similar to its cousin Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, although a lot of people think this one is better than most. I don't remember the line being particularly long, but that was true of most things on this day. I know I was on the outside edge, probably row 3. I'm not sure why I always get the outside edge on dive coasters; it just seems to happen. This coaster has the old style B&M restraints, meaning they're hard plastic rather than the soft vests. My ears aren't very fond of the plastic restraints, but I have to admit that it does make a difference to the ride experience. I definitely got a feeling of air time on the drop which is what I wanted. The drop was pretty good, not fantastic, but I always think that dive coasters should actually drop into something, which most ones in the United States don't. Oddly this coaster drops into a ruined tower on its second drop after the midcourse, not the first drop, which is strange. The elements seemed fine; nothing particularly special. The splashdown in this case didn't really do it for me the way the one in Williamsburg did. So I wasn't blown away by this one but I wasn't unimpressed either.

Tigris

And that left Tigris as the last coaster I needed to ride here at the park. Tigris is a Skyrocket II model, which has long been the source of an inside joke for me. Is it still an inside joke if I'm the only one who ever acknowledges it or finds it funny? Anyway I had never ridden a Skyrocket II, although I had ridden the Skyrocket I and Skyrocket III, of which there are only one each in the world. I had a couple of chances to ride a Skyrocket II in the past, but it never worked out. So I decided to officially end the joke today and ride a Skyrocket II. I didn't particularly care where I sat in the train because it goes back and forth, so it doesn't really matter. I'm no great fan of the comfort collars that a lot of these coasters have, but then again I don't think anybody is. They don't really cut into my neck as such and they don't seem to interfere that much with the airtime, but they aren't great. This ride starts with a triple launch forward, back, and then forward again which was a little bit more intense than I had envisioned. I'm not really sure why because I know how the thing works. I think that the second backward launch lifted the train up higher than I really expected and it started to curve around the top of the loop. But then the third launch did pretty much what I expected it to, and got us up to the top of the loop, about 150 feet. I knew that there's a heartline roll at the top of the loop and I also knew it was slow so I was expecting it. It really was as slow as I anticipated, and I could definitely feel the pull of gravity as we went through it. Not my favorite sensation, but it wasn't terrible, and it dives down almost immediately after that so no big deal. On the whole, not my favorite, but not really bad either. Interestingly, the ride shut down immediately after I got off. I don't know if I did something to break it but there it is. That's fine, because I didn't really want to ride it again.

Iron Gwazi again

After Tigris I spent some time walking around and shopping. I was actually really impressed with the quality of the merchandise, especially the tiger themed merchandise. I didn't buy anything right away because I knew I had some time left and I thought that I would spend it riding Iron Gwazi some more. So I went back down to that part of the park, which wasn’t terribly difficult, but it was the hottest part of the day at this point. The line for Gwazi hadn't really gotten any longer, in fact I think it may have been shorter than when we rode it in the morning. So I got back in line, got to the station pretty quickly, and asked for a front row-ride. I was granted my request, and joined by somebody who was filming with a GoPro for his YouTube channel. The first thing that surprised me was just how long we hung off the top of the first lift. I know, because of physics, that the beginning of the train is always going to hang over the drop a bit, but for some reason this one really seemed to hang for an extraordinary amount of time. And because it's slightly past vertical, it did feel like it was more than the usual drop. Then the drop did happen, and I pretty much stopped thinking. The ride was exactly the same as the morning ride, but about 10% faster. I know coasters warm up during the day; that's not a new phenomenon. However I didn't expect Gwazi to get that much faster, mostly because I thought it was out of control in the morning, so I didn't really see how it could get faster. Nevertheless this was definitely faster, and I got hurled through the death roll and the wall stall and everything else, and it was all breakneck speed. So that was alarming, to say the least. And because I'm stupid, I got right back on again. I figured this would probably be my last time, so I thought I'd go with whatever seat they assigned me. They gave me the back row again. If anything it was even faster, more reckless, and more out of control in the back. When we got to the brake run, I found that I was having trouble catching my breath. Some of that could have been the weather, or dehydration, but I really think part of it was that the ride took my breath away. It's just that intense. I think it's safe to say it's more intense than Steel Vengeance. What I'm not completely certain about is whether I like that better or not. It doesn't seem to have any space to breathe, like Steel Vengeance does. Which is a pretty funny thing to say about Steel Vengeance, but I believe it now. I don't know when I'll ride Gwazi again so I'll have to give it some thought and see where it lands in my rankings.