orangeblue

That drop looks quite different compared to the older B&M first drops on inverted coasters. I would have to guess that's due to the lack of a pre-drop which allows the coaster to enter the drop at a greater angle. Looking forward to seeing a POV of it in action!

After hearing that Cheetah Hunt was added to the Quick Queue, I decided to venture out again and give it a try. Ride Counts for the Day (9:00AM - 7:30PM) Kumba: 0x - closed for maitenance Montu: 7x Sheikra: 7x Gwazi: 4x Scorpion: 2x Sand Serpent: 1x Air Grover: 0x - I came really close to credit whoring... but just couldn't do it. My respect goes out to all you real credit whores out there! Cheetah Hunt: 10x - My love of this ride keeps growing; it's just all around air-time-filled fun. Try to get either the front or back rows if you can as they deliver the best air-time moments, plus the view from the front is incredible (especially in the canyon section). Now that Cheetah Hunt is on Quick Queue, I have to revise my original opinion and say that it is absolutely worth it. Nine of my Cheetah Hunt rides came when the line was averaging 50-60 minutes, saving me about 7.5 hours for the day from that ride alone. You still have to wait about 5-15 minutes in the station depending on which row you choose, but that's not too bad and I prefer that to having to sit in a pre-determined row. Sheikra and Gwazi were the only other coasters where Quick Queue was pretty helpful, saving me about 20-30 minutes per ride, though be warned that you have to sit in the middle of the train on Gwazi (my advice would be to just go to Gwazi when the line is short and wait it out in the regular line). Montu seemed to have only a station wait most of the day (same with Kumba when it's open) so Quick Queue isn't really necessary there unless the park is packed. Anyway, I finally got a good view of the cheetahs today, so here are some pictures: Sorry cheetah, kids aren't on the menu. (Also, damn reflections!) Look into my eyes and tell me you won't donate to the cheetah conservation fund... Om nom nom, tasty bones. "Okay, now look at the camera." "Close enough." Cheetahs versus their natural enemy - annoying park guests... (Kids, please don't pound on the glass!) Ready to pounce on anyone who dares to tap on the glass. Cheetah bro is just chillaxing. "Cheetah Run?" More like "Cheetah Lay!" (Ok, I'll cut them some slack; Florida summers are brutal.) Montu in the sunset. B&M twisty! Cheetah Hunt looking sexy. "Just want to say hi"... "won't eat you, I promise!" I know how they feel... I thought this element looked silly at first, but I have to say, it's grown on me. Mr. Crocodile would like to remind you that there are other animals in the park besides the cheetahs!

I would say somewhere in the northwest (United States) could really use a good theme park. Perhaps somewhere halfway between the Portland and Seattle/Tacoma areas.

Sweet! Might have to come down from UF if that's the case (assuming it's not on a weekday when I have class); I've never done a TPR event before, but everyone seems to have great things to say about them.

Glad to here that! How does it work with the loading? Do they merge you at the station or do you go up the exit? Perhaps I'll have to go again sometime and marathon Cheetah Hunt with the Quick Queue Unlimited!

My opinion on what would make Cedar Point the top US amusement park again: - Texas Giant style makeover for Mean Streak - Large custom B&M flyer (I don't think a B&M Dive Machine would look particularly impressive at Cedar Point since giant and or steep drops have already been done there) - Lo-Q system to avoid long lines A couple years later, being down one wooden coaster, a nice GCI near the front of the park would be the perfect way to round out their collection.

What actually controls the spinning on this ride? Just the weight distribution of the cars?

You would have lost your money if you invested a few years ago. I invested $100 when they were trying to reorganize, but lost it when they went bankrupt. I'm now trying to decide if I want to invest in it again, as they are doing really well, but their current stock price is a little high with how much I'm willing to spend in total. I understand that Six Flags is a business, but I just hope they find a way to increase guest happiness, improve the parks, but still manage to keep in strong financial shape. It might take a few years, but I can dream. Didn't think of that. I believe I was looking before they declared bankruptcy.

^ Dammit, I was toying around with buying some of their stock a few years ago. If I remember right, it was below $5/share at the time and it's almost $40 now

Absolutely incredible pictures! I love the Krake HDR ones; they look like paintings!

To be fair, Jesus is really high *insert hippie Jesus pic*

...for now. But the lift is kinda like tenn tornado being it goes up an inclined hill and the supports aren't that tall... Okay, I think I see it now on the left side of the video.

Is it a launched coaster? I don't see a lift hill or anything.

Nice pictures! I need to try to get by there when the trainers are out so I can actually see the cheetahs in person. I always seem to miss them when I walk by.

Went to the park again today and the crowds were pretty light. Park operations were great and they had Cheetah Hunt running right on time. I was able to grab the first train of the day in the front row and a second ride with only a 5-10 minute wait! As a heads up, Montu is also open during the passholder ERT and since no one seems to notice you can get a lot of quick rides in with no wait. ERT: 8-9AM Cheetah Hunt 2x (1 front row, 1 second-to-last row) - I think the back of the train gives a slightly more intense ride. Overall still pretty fun for a kid's ride (don't lynch me, I'm only joking) Montu 4x, walk-on (3 front row, 1 back row) Rest of the day (in order): 9AM-12PM Gwazi 3x, walk-on (2 front row, 1 back row) - I actually think I prefer the back row for Gwazi now... you actually get airtime on the first drop ! Sheikra 10x, walk-on (2 front row, 8 back row) - There was pretty much no line and I only had to walk around once every other ride. Kumba 3x, walk-on (though it did break down at one point for 10-15 minutes) (1 front row, 2 back row) - Wow, I can't believe I never tried this ride in the back row before! It was actually smoother than the front and you get an insane jolt of air (first time I ever actually felt like I was standing on a roller coaster) coming off the barrel roll. Cheetah Hunt 1x, 30 minutes - Used the single rider line which was being run today. The posted wait was 90 minutes, but I think it was actually only about half that according to other guests. Unfortunately, while I like the idea of filling every seat, I think the single rider line is actually bad for operations. They only had on average 1 empty seat per dispatch, and it added around another 30 seconds to bring the person over and strap them in after everyone else has already been seated. I think that overall they would get a better throughput without it. I only had one minor complaint for the day. While waiting for Kumba it broke down due to someone's seat belt (not harness) coming loose during the ride. It was clearly a minor problem and all they had to do was send the trains around a couple times to make sure it was just a fluke. Strangely though they still gave the (I guess) standard spiel: "Kumba is down and we don't have any idea how long it will be closed for." I understand that they don't want to misinform guests as you can never predict ride closure length, but surely if the problem was minor they could have said something like: "While we can make no guarantees, we are only expecting a short delay." If it turns out to take longer than expected, just let the people know when it is clear that it will be down awhile. The only reason I even bring this up is since a lot of people left the station as soon as they made the announcement since they thought it would probably take a while to fix. Anyway, minor issues aside I had a great day and the park looked really nice.

There's a single rider line? I don't remember seeing that when I went.

^ Thanks for adding that! I've always wondered how those were handled - didn't even think of the added complications with Sheikra now being floorless. I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous as I would have loved to experience an evac first hand (well, given that you weren't stuck there for several hours ). Even with not being afraid of heights, I can imagine that being an unnerving experience. Nice pictures too. You can definitely still tell the difference between cell phone pictures and photos taken with a decent camera. While the resolution seems to be there on cell phones (mine is 8MP), there appears to be significantly less color depth in my pictures.

Wow, thanks for catching that. No idea why I thought it was Sea Serpent!

Thanks! I would definitely recommend BGT and the Orlando parks if you get a chance to visit. Tampa and Orando only about an hour and thirty minute drive apart, so it's not too difficult to get them all in a single trip. Edit to main post: Figured out how to get the pictures working (oh, apparently the forum has a size limit... darn, I wanted people to see my grainy 3000 x 2000 pictures in all their glory ) and made some general edits/additions to the TR.

Nice TR! SFMM sounded pretty good. That park seems like a crap shoot with some people loving it and others loathing it. I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard that before. To each their own I guess...

Thanks for the advice everyone! I definitely didn't wear the right clothing and will probably try to wear sandals next time with some shorts that breath better. If I'm traveling to a park, it sounds like a mid-day break would be good (I drove from home this time). I will also admit that I was a bit rushed as I was by myself and just trying to get as many rides as possible in. You guys are right that eating/resting helps as I felt a lot better when I sat down and got lunch in one of the air conditioned restaurants. Thinking back on it, I think my biggest issue was probably a lack of proper sleep which didn't help with the exhaustion feeling.

Since I only have a cell phone camera and there have already been a large amount of quality Cheetah Hunt pictures in other threads/TRs, I'm just going to give you the basics. Overall stats for the day: - Sheikra x6 9/10 I'm an airtime whore so I love this ride's first drop. It's short, smooth, thrilling, and very re-ridable... that's what she... sorry, I'll restrain myself. - Gwazi x4 (2x Lion, 2x Tiger) 7/10 The new trains definitely improved the ride (I think Tiger is a little better than Lion), but this is still far from the smoothest GCI out there. Overall it's a fun ride albeit a little rough and with painfully slow dispatches (Quick Queue has slowed this down even further as they now first load the QQ people and then open the gates for everyone else). - Montu x3 9/10 Still the king of the park in my opinion. Incredibly smooth and intense with a great layout. Given the way it interacts with the surrounding theming and trenches, I would have to say this is the Busch Parks' masterpiece. - Kumba x2 8/10 Like Montu minus the floorless element, and with a little more headbanging. This ride easily still holds the crown for the most intense coaster in the park for good reason! If you love positive G's this will undoubtedly be your favorite. - Cheetah Hunt x1 (Front row ) 8/10 What can I say that hasn't already been said? The theming is impeccable, the way it interacts with the Edge of Africa section and the old Rhino Rally water section is amazing, the launches are fun, and you get some nice hangtime in the barrel roll. In addition, the figure-eight tower provides an excellent focal point for that part of the park that a traditional coaster lift hill wouldn't. As for how this stacks up, Cheetah Hunt is certainly NOT BGT's 'Maverick', so if you go in expecting that, you might be disappointed. It is a great family ride somewhere between Gwazi's and the park's big three B&Ms' level of intensity. My only complaint is that, yes, a few sections are a little slow, mainly the turn out of the station (I was actually leaning to the left from the lack of lateral G's). On a final note, I actually liked the speed of the figure-eight since it offered a great view of the park. - Scorpion x1 7/10 Still a great ride and I hope it never goes the way of Python. The loop is surprisingly forceful in the front seat, and the whole ride packs a punch that's not immediately apparent given it's size. - Sand Serpent x1 5/10 Just your standard wild mouse - thigh-bashing turns and quick drops. Fun, but not worth a wait. Trip Report: Well, Sunday was the second day of the June passholder preview and it was much more crowded than I expected. I got to the park a little before 8AM to have my year pass processed and looked at a line of at least 300 and growing in front of the Narobi gate. They started letting people into the park around 8AM and Cheetah Hunt started running around 8:30AM (1 hour before park opening as advertised). I waited about 50 minutes for the front row and have to say that it was worth it (see ride review above)! Since the line was long and growing (that's wh... okay, seriously, I'll stop now) and it was about 9:30AM anyway, I just headed back towards the front gate to get my Quick Queue Unlimited wristband/ticket and grabbed a quick ride on Gwazi Lion. While in general I would say that the ride is better with the new trains, the particular row I had (around 5) felt like it had square wheels . On an interesting note, the lap bars now come down for you, meaning no more stapling*! (or so I thought...) Edit: Come to think of it, I'm not sure if the Gwazi crew ever actually pulled down your restraints, or if you did that yourself. In either case, these automatic lap bars would be great on a lot of woodies and really speed up dispatch time if they don't have seat belts. By around 10AM, the rest of the park opened, so I went over to the Timbuktu section to ride Scorpion and Sand Serpent since those rides are not offered as part of the Quick Queue system. I hopped into the front row on the first train of the day for Scorpion and was caught off guard by the power of that old Schwarzkopf loop. Still a great ride after all these years! Afterwards, I took a spin on Kumba which didn't disappoint as usual. As a side tip, I would say that if you want the smoothest experience (i.e., minimal head-banging) on Kumba, or any other B&M, ride in the middle seats of a row since they are closest to the coaster's theoretical heart-line and thus give the lowest lateral G's. Not sure where to go next, I wondered through Jungala on my way to Sheikra, which looked quite nice. Unfortunately, the tigers seemed to be sleeping . Sheikra was a blast in the back row, though it appears to be showing its age with some faded paint in a few places. It's far from the rusted mess that was Kumba a few years ago, but it could still use some touch ups, especially around the splash-down. And now for my horrifying (not really) story of being stuck on the Sky Ride! I decided to save some walking by taking the Sky Ride back over to Montu, and just as I was about 50 feet from the exit by Cheetah Hunt, the power in the park went out. The Sky Ride suddenly stopped (not too unusual yet), but then as I looked around, I realized that nothing was running around the park save for Gwazi. One train appeared to be stuck on Sheikra (which would later be evacuated), and everything just seemed eerily still. Thankfully it only took about 20 minutes to get it back up and running, though Cheetah Hunt would be down for the rest of day. On the bright side, I had an excellent view of Cheetah Hunt and the animals in the Edge of Africa exhibit. As I exited, I could see what looked like a two hour line for Cheetah Hunt. Unfortunately, none of those people would get to ride . I made my way over to Montu next, which was still down. Since they started evacuating people from the final break run, I decided to come back later and made another loop around the park. I grabbed two more rides on Gwazi (1 Lion, 1 Tiger) and walked over to Sheikra, which too was still down. Opting to make the most of the situation, I got lunch at the BBQ place nearby which was pretty enjoyable (and air conditioned ). Once Sheikra was back up, I took three more rides before heading over to get one more ride on Kumba. Despite my better judgment, I rode the Sky Ride back over to Montu to get two rides in and check on Cheetah Hunt (tip: be sure to take the Sky Ride from the Jungala area back to the Cheetah Hunt station and not the reverse; the line on the Cheetah Hunt side is always around 30-45 minutes since it's close to the park's entrance whereas the other side is generally less than 15 minutes). As I was over there I looked around at the new cheetah exhibit, but to my surprise they only brought the cheetahs out at pre-determined times to do their routines. I had assumed it would be more like their other animal exhibits, but I guess they have it set up as more of a show right now with the trainers engaging the cheetahs. Since it was hot as hell out, I bought a nice cool serving of Dip'n Dots for the low, low price of $6.00 (also the price for their beer). I think the rule of thumb with theme parks is that any food/beverage will cost you twice as much inside the park. Oh yeah, I heard that Aquatrax IS coming to Cedar Point next year... just wait. I finished the day with two more rides on Sheikra followed by another Montu ride and possibly my most painful ride ever on Gwazi. You see, as I said earlier, the lap bars are automated now, and while on my first three rides this worked perfectly, on my final ride Gwazi decided to exact revenge by stapling me in (it doesn't help that the bar goes in between your legs ). I'm not sure what I did to bring about this revenge, but I'll be sure to come prepared next time! At least they dueled them for my final ride of the day ! Overall, I had a pretty good time though my feet hurt by the end of the day and I felt pretty exhausted due to the heat and limited sleep the night before. Thoughts of the Park This was my first time back at the park in three years despite the fact that I live only 45 minutes away. Overall, the park looks great with its new additions. The staff, for the most part, seemed a lot friendlier than they were the last few times I had gone. Unfortunately, some operations still seemed to be lacking. Montu was triple stacking whenever they had to load the quick queue people (perhaps not the crew's fault, but it definitely indicates a poor QQ implementation at this ride). Gwazi dispatches were as slow as usual due to the seatbelts, and having to load the QQ customers before everyone else. On the bright side, the Kumba and Sheikra crews were pretty good, and like I said, most people seemed friendly (greeting customers, asking people how their day's were going, etc.) despite being out in the unpleasant heat and humidity all day. Plus most of the shop clerks reminded me to use my year pass to get discounts! The food (at the BBQ restaurant near Sheikra) was good, if a bit overpriced and they had a ton of snack stands around the park to grab a quick drink or some popcorn/cotton candy. Where I think they can improve would be with the flat ride selection. Besides the coasters and water rides, there isn't much else to do as far as rides outside of the Timbuktu area and the kiddie rides. I would love to see a large thrilling flat ride along the lines of a drop tower or giant swing/frisbee. Overall, BGT is still a top tier park! 9/10 PROS: + great collection of coasters + excellent animal exhibits + great theming + good staff + cheap option (relatively) for skipping lines CONS: - lots of walking required to get around the park (bad news Acers ) - some slow operations Quick-Queue Review Overall, it worked just as advertised. At Kumba and Sheikra you merge at the station, whereas Gwazi and Montu have you waiting by the exit. On Montu you can pretty much pick any row you want with the exception of the front and back (though the lady coordinating it said I could wait for a spare seat to open up in the front), while Gwazi has the four middle rows of each train blocked off. However, as they say on their site, QQ does NOT at this time include Cheetah Hunt, though at some point that will likely change. Just check the park's site before going to see. I'm still torn on whether or not to say it is worth it though, as even on a busy Sunday with Cheetah Hunt broken down, none of the coasters had an outrageously long wait (maybe 30 minutes). Pretty much if you're the type of person (like me) that just can't stand waiting in line, then it might be worth it to you. However if you can wait it out or are on a tight budget, you're probably better off not spending the extra money (especially with how expensive everything else in the park is). I would have to say that the best option I can think of would be to get the QQ Limited (around $20-$30) and use it at the peak time of the day while just waiting in the normal line at other times. Thanks for reading! Cheetah Hunt from the (broken down) Sky Ride. Another Cheetah Hunt picture (this time with the camera turned 90 DEGREES). Aw, the Cheetah Hunt queue is sad from the emptiness! New park map.

So I spent over 8 hours at Busch Gardens Tampa yesterday, and although I had a great time, I had a lot of difficulty putting up with the heat and humidity that Florida offers this time of year. I drank plenty of water throughout the day (5 bottles of water + 1 gatorade) and that certainly helped, but I still almost felt like fainting constantly. My question then, to the more seasoned park goers of TPR is, what do you guys do to deal with the heat? Do you have any tips to make day long park excursions more enjoyable? Note: I've already realized that I should have worn better clothing (i.e., not jeans). Also, I have lived in Florida my whole life, but I'm still not 'used' to the heat.

Both Cheetah Hunt and Sheikra were running 4 trains yesterday. A rogue power outage struck the park a little before 11AM and took Cheetah Hunt down for the rest of the day (or at least 5pm when I left). I was lucky enough to get my ride early, but anyone that got in line after park opening was probably out of luck. Sudden power outages seem to be difficult to recover from for roller coasters as they had to evacuate people from the midcourse breaks on Sheikra, and Montu was down for a while before they could get it working again. The power itself was only out for 20 minutes for 4/5 the park (Gwazi appeared to be running the entire time).

Park has a power outage. Stuck on skyride