Busch Gardens Tampa Bay: 10.19.09

Alright, my first - photoless - trip report!

Well, our family headed over to BGT today after months of dealing with sweltering hot heat, last time we came was in March. We finally got a cold front, and seized the day! We got there at about 2PM (I had schoolwork to do first) and it was pretty much a lot of coaster-hopping, but my parents still enjoyed it, because you could not beat this day, 60-70 degrees, cool breeze, and for me - coasters = heaven.

The first thing I did was head over to the empty-stationed Gwazi (there were about 10 people waiting for it). Tiger was closed, so I had to ride Lion...it is the first ride you hit when going into the park. I had two back-seat rides on the beast (my dad rode the second time...he did not ride anything else the rest of the day.) with the restraint a notch above tight, got some air, it was awesome. And because the cool air helped contract the wood, it was faster than ever! After checking out the Komodo Dragon (who is getting scarily bigger every visit), I had a bathroom break after getting juggled around by Gwazi. We then headed over to the always-packed, SheiKra.

I of course was the only one who rode it, despite constant pleas with my parents telling them it was the calmest, and smoothest ride there; if you could handle Gwazi you could handle SheiKra...either way. I had a front-left edge seat ride with some other yokels, we had a blast, oh, they changed the timing on the ride. It is now dropping at a random time, it used to be 3 seconds...it waited for 4 this time, I was not expecting it! After contemplating on heading onto the flume...we decided against it, it was already cold enough. So we headed over to Kumba.

I got two rides on it (second best ride of the day), first time on the front-right (no one was on line, not that anyone really is anymore). Second time was second seat-right after a long 15min. delay, and THEN everyone decided to come and ride it. They had to stop running a train, making Kumba run 1 train for the rest of the evening. We then relaxed on the SkyRide which took us back to Egypt...guess where we went next? Montu, the best ride of the day. It was nearing the end, and I decided to make my final ride, the best.

Montu was packed, even more than SheiKra! I waited for at least 20min for the front seat, and got front-right (we were the last people to go on the front, they close it 30min. before park closing). After the ride, and chatting with another teen from Wales, we headed to the exit, slurping on a fresh strawberry smoothie. It was an awesome day!

Ride Totals:

Gwazi: twice
Montu: once
Kumba: twice
SheiKra: once

Arrival: around 2PM
Departing time: Around 6:40PM

personally i think kumba is the best ride at that park, but they are all epic rides. Scorpion is surprisingly fun. I'm surprised you didn't ride that one. but ya kumba rules all.

Yes. Over the past years I have been to BGA Kumba has had very little of a line. It is very odd in my opinion but I usually get like 3-5 rides in within a 30 minute period. Unfortunately, the same could be said about Gwazi. I don't know what's up with that ride. I just don't think Florida + wooden coaster = best idea. Something much more crowd pleasing could easily be built in the LARGE space. SheiKra of course has the longest line in the park, but honestly it's always worth it just for the back seat and/or front outer seats. Montu is simply just the best ride there in my opinion. Never a dull moment for me on that amazing ride. You should have rode Cheetah Chase and Scorpion though. Cheetah Chase is actually a great ride! Scorpion though should always be a hit-miss though. If there is a line that extends near the entrance of the queue, forget it. That's usually a 15-30 minute wait even thought there is only like 50 people in line. They load that ride pretty slowly too. If you have the time and there is little line, you MUST ride the Scorpion.

Lol, i've been on both! I just DON'T LIKE Scorpion. I despise the ride, it hurts, it's violent, and you never fail to get elbowed by the guy sitting to your right on those damn helixes. I figured I would also mention that...lol, they had all of the H-O-S stuff up as well, it's kind of funny, because you can get a preview of where they'll jump out at you if you come at night. I went to it 3 years ago, the theme was "No one to trust"...at least it was original [:P]. But this year...vampires? F-in vampies?! Could you get any more lame than that, lol? So I will not be attending it...this is also what convinced me not to go, check out this pathetic thing of a trailer:

P.S. Gotta hand it to the actors though...they tried[:D]

[gouldy]

Originally posted by Tidus

you never fail to get elbowed by the guy sitting to your right on those damn helixes

Even if you're sitting on the right hand side of the train?! Wow, impressive

LOL, I mean if you are on the left-side...you get the picture. You get elbowed either way...there is no escaping it [:O]