YoshiFan

Small update from today. Everything was open except Kumba, Iron Gwazi and the rapids. The rapids reopened a few days ago but had a breakdown yesterday or Sunday and was closed all day today. Iron Gwazi has a sign at the entrance that the ride is closed for annual maintenance. Whether that is really true or it was just closed for the day is unkown as they sometimes leave those signs out for a temporary closure and there is no way to find out with the closed rides page removed. Sheikra was running 2 trains, rare for a day besides Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They also are being more strict about re-rides. You can re-ride once and then have to walk around even with rows going out completely empty. I noticed the same at SeaWorld earlier this year. I found out that the log flume and bumper cars close early when the park is open past 6. I knew they opened late but didn't know they closed early too. Platinum Passholders were supposed to get $20 in Busch Bucks this month. It was lowered to $10 after showing $20 as an April reward for months. That's not the first time they changed or removed a reward at the last minute, last summer there was a free guest ticket for Adventure Island in July that they also removed as a listed reward at the end of June.

Good to see a new coaster being added to the park. I hope that it can run 2 trains. I visited the park for the first time in January and was surprised how many low capacity attractions there are. It was a weekday and crowds were very light so it wasn't really an issue except for Pirate River Quest and Coast Guard Academy but on a crowded day it probably be frustrating.

I think they are trying to save money with cutbacks anywhere possible. They removed trams on weekdays a few months ago until they got so many complaints they brought them back. Most rides did not have anyone at the entrance since around September except during more crowded times. Scorpion closed 6 months ago and the train is still on the tracks. Park hours have been cut back with little to no notice. It's not much better at Adventure Island. Today 4 out of 9 slide towers were closed and some of the open slide towers had half the slides closed. They are selling Quick Queue but some of the Quick Queue lines are closed. They advertised they would be open year round and how the water is heated. I don't blame them for giving up on the idea of being open year round as the times I have been there in October and November, it was empty. Today the water was very cold and I'm guessing they are not heating the water to save money. They also ran out of the pass holder towel clips and it's the 3rd day of the season that they are open. On a more positive note, from the water park I could see Sheikra was testing. Serengeti Flyer was also using both swings, I haven't seen that in months. ^ I agree it can still be fun on a low crowd day. It is nice to be able to stop in for a 2 hours and get a bunch of coaster rides when everything is running.

When was it open? As the train passed the coaster today, the person at the microphone didn't say anything about Kumba (it was closed) compared to rides like Sheikra and the rapids where they stated they should be reopening again in the next few days. I hope it is open again but thought it hasn't reopened since being closed in November. In addition to removing the closed rides web page, the park also removed the closed rides board at the entrance. They say to check the app but it's not accurate at all. Iron Gwazi has been running 1 train and Cheetah Hunt has been closed on and off since Thursday or Friday. The Sky Ride also re-opened last week but was closed today due to wind. The parking lot wasn't that full but Cobra's Curse, Cheetah Hunt (when open) and Iron Gwazi all had long lines with the closures and other breakdowns. They at least were running 2 trains on Montu so that was a 5 minute wait most of the day.

Wow, that basically erases the annual pass discount for the lower tiers. Now with them being strict about combining SeaWorld Bucks as well, it makes it a lot more frustrating.

The park got rid of the updates for closed rides, with what is closed and scheduled to be closed: https://buschgardens.com/tampa/park-info/ride-attraction-schedule/ I guess they didn't want people to see that 40% of the non kids ride in the park are closed.

It's not open, the app is wrong as it often is unfortunately. It also shows the flume is open and that is closed. Right now the following are closed: Sheikra, Kumba, Cobra's Curse, Falcon's Fury, Skyride, Flume, Rapids. Falcon's Fury has been closed for around a week.

I agree, it gets frustrating to visit both parks because of the operations and lack of rides. I was recently looking at BGW's ride collection and saw they had almost twice as many rides (not counting kids rides) as BGT. BGT could use some flats and a dark ride to help spread out crowds. Kumba and Congo River Rapids are still closed and not supposed to be reopening anytime soon (rumor is Kumba has a broken lift motor and the rapids needs a new pump) and now Sheikra and the log flume are having their annual maintenance with both supposedly closed until March. Even with those 2 rides open until today, these past few weeks had some of the highest wait times ever for some coasters with Cheetah Hunt and Iron Gwazi both having up to 4 hour posted waits.

Kumba has been closed for a few weeks now, Montu and Cheetah Hunt are now on the closed rides list: https://buschgardens.com/tampa/park-info/ride-attraction-schedule/ To have 3 major coasters down right as it's about to be the most crowded time of the year is going to be interesting. That leaves a total of 10 rides open in the entire park that aren't kiddie rides. Unfortunately, they aren't adjusting operations to run the open rides at a higher capacity. There could have been more than a few hundred cars in the lot this afternoon yet Sheikra still was close to a 40 minute wait because they were only running 1 train.

Serengeti Flyer has re-opened. There was a sign at the train stations on Friday night that they are planning to re-open it soon as they are still dealing with damage from the hurricane. It was also a nice surprise to see the Skyride operating until park closing at 8:00. Usually it closes a few hours before the rest of the park. Montu and Sheikra were also running 2 trains, I can't remember the last time I saw Montu running 2 trains on a weekday.

If it is true, I'll miss Kingda Ka. I became an enthusiast towards the end of 2004 and was following the construction of the coaster. I thought it was amazing that the world's tallest and fastest coaster was going to be less than an hour away from me. It wasn't my favorite ride in the park but the launch was unlike anything else I had experienced. I may even be more disappointed about Zumanjaro likely being removed too. Of all the drop towers I have ridden, it's easily my favorite.

I still remember visiting in 2000 with my school. For some reason as part of a 3 day trip, they planned 8 hours at Animal Kingdom and only 4 hours at Epcot. With just the safari, Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids and the Discovery River boats, we ran out of rides to try very quickly. That visit always is in the back of my mind as it was my first impression of the park and even now, I rarely visit more than 4 times a year for half a day compared to visiting the 3 other parks around once a month each.

I went back today to get some more Scorpion rides in. I was surprised to see the park hours listed at the parking booths as 10 - 5. This is a recent change as it was showing closings at 6 recently. Now every Monday - Thursday in September and Monday - Wednesday in October have those hours. It's understandable as the park is empty on those days. Even with the heat index at around 100 degrees, the log flume was a complete walk on. I do feel bad for any people visiting for the day. Serengeti Flyer and Congo Rapids are closed with no reopening date listing. Iron Gwazi was closed all day with Sheikra also having some downtime. With the carousel and Skyride closing in the next few days for refurbishment, that leaves the train, log flume, bumper cars and Falcon's Fury as the only non coaster rides operating in the entire park.

BGT sent out an email today pushing back the closing date to September 8th. ”Good news, thrill seekers! There's even more time to enjoy the twists and turns of the iconic Scorpion roller coaster, because we've extended the closing date to Sept. 8, 2024. This unique coaster has been a fan favorite since 1980, and it’s your last chance to experience a piece of history. While we say goodbye to Scorpion, exciting new attractions are on the horizon.”

sooperdooperLooper is one of my favorite coasters at Hershey and I also really liked Laser at Dorney so when I moved from PA to FL, I was glad that Scorpion was here so I still could ride a Schwarzkopf looper frequently. It's sad to see it being removed. I agree less than 2 weeks notice is not good. For anyone non local, it doesn't give them much of a chance to get their final rides in.