coasterbear30 Posted May 25, 2007 Posted May 25, 2007 Saturday, May 19th, we awoke to a beautiful Tampa day. We started our day with a PB&J smoothie from Smoothie King, a tradition for each coastering trip. We arrived at Busch Gardens around 11 am and headed straight to the back of the park for Kumba. The lines were surprisingly short all day and Kumba was an immediate walk-on. Rob's first ride on this classic late-90's scream machine made a great first impression for B&M sit-down coasters and ranked in his top 5. We headed next to Cheetah Chase, a first-time credit for both of us. Surprisingly smooth, it was the best Wild Mouse we had been on to date. We hit the nearby Phoenix swinging inverter ship and again later that evening. It was Rob's first experience on an inverted ship and he loved it. Again, close by, was the Scorpion...a pretty boring coaster but a credit nonetheless. We made our way back to the front of the park and hung a left towards Egypt to ride Scott's favorite inverted coaster ever, Montu. After a ride in the front row, it quickly became Rob's favorite as well. The lines were so short, we decided to hit it a couple more times that day. After a quick lunch at Zagora Cafe, we headed to the nearby Gwazi twin coaster. As usual, the ride ops refused to run the trains together, spoiling the whole racing/fly-by effect. We hit Tiger first, knowing from past experience, it was the roughest of the two. After a brief wait, we did the Lion side. The ride was fun but rough. We passed through the Hospitality House to take advantage of the free beer (since Scott loathes beer, Rob double-fisted a light and dark sample) and headed to Sheikra. The park was offering several displays of the impending floorless train conversion, including an actual train on display and a count-down reader board above the entrance. After waiting through the longest line of the park that day, Scott got two rides in a row on Sheikra, thanks to a wonderful Platinum Pass offering Ride Again privileges. We ended the day with a walk through of the Edge of Africa exhibit. With the intense thrill rides and animal exhibit combinations, Busch Gardens Tampa turned out to be Rob's favorite theme park ever. It has always been Scott's "home park". (See pictures below.)
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