Busch Gardens Tampa - September 4, 2009

137 photos HERE at Flickr.





My final day in Florida, and there is just one thing left to do.



Yes, it is Busch Gardens Tampa.



Busch Gardens Williamsburg is one of my favorite parks, so I was excited to finally make it to its sister park.



Half of Gwazi was down, but other than that this board is looking good.



The other Gwazi, Lion, was the first ride of the day.



This was the typical wait for the day, as just like every other park during the week, crowds were virtually non-existent.



I thought Gwazi had potential, but it was just too rough. It's rare for me to be disappointed in GCI woodies, but this one is not in great shape.



Williamsburg definitely got the better end of the deal with Apollo's Chariot. In fact, that is what separates the two parks for me.



The big advantage Tampa has over Williamsburg, in addition to its enormous size, is the wide variety of animals. It seemed like there were just as many if not more animal exhibits here than at Animal Kingdom.



The newest coaster at Busch Gardens.



I am not sure which I would take between SheiKra and Griffon in Williamsburg. SheiKra has the advantage of a better location integrated more with the midway, but Griffon has the advantage of a second inversion and an airtime hop into the water splash. Ultimately, I think I would just say no preference between the two. They are both fun rides that provide very similar experiences.



I am very happy that Busch Gardens still has their Schwarzkopf looper, as well as the original trains with lapbars.



Such a fun ride, as most Schwarzkopfs are. It's amazing how far ahead of Arrow Dynamics they were at the time.



I like how the animals are spread out across the park, and not confined to one single area or attraction.



This was the big addition in 2001, and is the only Vekoma Raging River Safari ride ever made.



A lot of people give this ride flak because the water ride part of it is terrible. It's not remotely exciting or surprising. But, I'm not sure that's really fair, because the rest of the ride is really good for what it is supposed to be, and that is a safari ride not too dissimilar from Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom.



There are plenty of animals to see during the ride.



The water ride section is a really interesting idea, but executed poorly. It is too smooth and uneventful with few special effects.



I really enjoyed the ride, though, particularly because the driver of our car was absolutely hilarious. That probably makes a big difference in the individual ride experience.



I noticed there were more indoor and full service restaurants here than in Williamsburg, which is probably again due to the size of the park and the climate.



Now, on to the ride I was most looking forward to.



Montu.



Only one train was running (Kumba as well), but the line was still very short.



I loved the ride. I am a big fan of Afterburn/Top Gun at Carowinds, and this is basically the older brother of that. Taller and longer with an extra inversion. The use of trenches is also awesome.



Montu is my new favorite inverted coaster, and my favorite steel coaster in Florida.



This is the largest animal exhibit area in the park.



Meerkats are the best.



*nom*



Not something you see every day. I guess it actually is for the giraffe, though.



You could really spend a lot of time here just seeing animals. Like Sea World, the focus of the park originally was pretty much just the animals, but over time more and more thrill rides were added.



This is what a lot of the animals can be found doing most of the day.



The key to seeing them active is to go early or at feeding time.



This was the coolest thing I saw all day.



It's Florida, so of course there have to be alligators.



I had been on Cheetah Chase when it was Wild Maus in Williamsburg. DarKastle is an acceptable replacement.



Tampa's Busch Gardens is not as wooded as Williamsburg, but equally deserving of being a "most beautiful amusement park in the world" candidate.



Additionally, there are creepy entertainers.



One coaster left to ride.



Kumba was another one of those coasters I had been seeing for years on television shows and the web, and it was good to finally ride it.



The most unique feature is the lift hill threading through the first huge vertical loop.



I really love how close the ride gets to the ground at times, too.



I enjoyed Kumba, but Montu and SheiKra are my favorites here.



Their shoot-the-chutes is kind of crazy with a double down drop. I did not ride any of the water rides, though.



The smokehouse near SheiKra had a pretty good lunch for a decent price with my season pass discount.



Speaking of SheiKra, I nearly forgot another element that separates it from Griffon. This dive into ruins is a bit better than Griffon's dive over the Rhine River.



Chillin'.



I know most of these animals have evolved for heat, but I still bet they were hot, as it got pretty sweltering on this day. It was definitely the hottest day of the trip.



Like Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Tampa continues to operate their skyride while many parks remove them.



This one is neat because it goes over the fields where many of the animals roam.



Before I left, I wanted to ride the train.



The Busch Gardens Tampa train is huge. A full ride around is 45 minutes, which seems like it would be the longest at any park. A large stretch of it goes out into the plains where the animals are, so it is by far the best way to see a lot of the animals.



I really loved Busch Gardens. I still prefer Williamsburg a bit, but Tampa is right up there with it. It may be my favorite park in Florida. I would love to see a hyper coaster there one day. As it is, the park has one of the best collections of looping coasters out there. Like Williamsburg, it would be very difficult to get bored in the park even on an empty day.

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