Busch Garden's Africa TR: December 30, 2009

[Coaster Cow]

I was finishing a vacation in Florida when my family decided to spend the half day before our flight home at Busch Gardens Africa. I have always been very pleased with the Busch parks, and this was no exception. Despite the huge Christmas break crowds, the park was clean and the staff were attentive.

 

Busch Gardens Africa is wonderfully themed, portraying a kind of surreal Africa with brightly colored representations of Timbuktu, Egypt, and other places. Located in Tampa, the park has seven roller coasters, including three B & M rides: Montu, an invert, Kumba, a sitdown, Shiekra, a dive machine, Gwazi, a GCII dueling coaster, Scorpion, a small Schwarzkopf looper, and Cheetah Chase, a wild mouse. The park is famous for its integrations of wildlife with thrill rides, providing a kind of zoo-on-steroids feel.

 

The lines were absolutely massive, which most major rides queueing around 2 hours, which led us to buy the park's Quick Queue program. This allowed us to ride Montu, Kumba, Rhino Rally, Sheikra, Gwazi (both sides) and all three water rides. It also had a "bonus" feature, which allowed us to ride another of the major rides a second time. It is a very effective system, with little technology being used, as the attendants would sharpie out the ride's name on the card when you rode. Because the system was applied to many rides previously built before the system was created, people were allowed to enter through the exit, dramatically shortening wait times.

 

Now for the rides:

 

Montu:This was the second time I had made it to BGA to ride Montu, and I was a bit let down by the ride experience this time. I had remembered the ride being more forceful, especially on the boomerang. This might have to do with the trim right before the boomerang, or the heavy MCBR. Needless to say, the ride was preforming great, and it is still my favorite B & M invert, possibly tied with Nemesis at Alton Towers. 8.5/10

 

Kumba: Age seems to be beginning to take its toll on this classic sitdown. The paint was accumulating rust in some places and the cars had a distinctive rattle. But thank god for Swiss engineering; there was no headbanging involved and the ride was otherwise smooth as silk. The integration into the environment is a huge plus for this ride, and being a spectacular B & M helps too. 7.5/10

 

Shiekra: I first rode this the year it came out, when it still had the trains with floors, and I wasn't hugely impressed. However, this ride blew my socks off this time. The first drop was loaded with airtime in every row, and even the immelman provided an interesting floater moment when I sat in the back. The theming is phenomenal, as well as the way how it was built in a tiny footprint in a populated space, creating great audience interaction. The station especially caught my fancy with the queue lines for the rows bridging two different buildings. 8.5/10

 

Gwazi-Lion: Oh boy. I don't understand Gwazi at all; GCII is usually spectacular with their rides' quality, but they sure blew this one (maybe the wood used? Anyone know?). The lion side was rough, reasonably slow, and without the trains racing on an everyday basis, boring. The ride shuddered through maneuvers that GCII usually shines on with utmost unenthusiastic fervor. I thought the design itself was subpar, too, compared to the Tiger side. It's time for Busch to take a good look at this one. 5/10

Gwazi-Tiger:Okay, I'll lighten up now. We lucked out on the tiger side, as the trains were unintentionally released at about the same time, leaving us to duel with the lion side. I was surprised to find this side only mildly rough, and the layout was much more forceful than lion's. It was actually quite fun with the near-misses with the other track. In conclusion, Gwazi is quite a fun ride when the tracks are dueling. If not, you are left thinking, what was GCII thinking? 7/10

 

Rhino Rally:Say what you want, but I have always liked this better than the Disney Kilamanjaro Safari ride. Although there wasn't quite the same amount of wildlife to be seen, this ride shines on its hilariously cheesy drivers and river finale (you know what I mean if you've ridden it before). A major problem is its low capacity, but thanks to our Quick Queue (ding!) we had no wait at all. A great unique attraction. 8/10

 

Jungala:This new area of the park is an impressive playground that combines rides, play gyms, and animals. It is quite difficult to describe. Imagine a net-playground, much like the ones found at other amusement parks, but only free-form and creatively designed to appear organic. Throw in a frog-hopper surrounded by a plaster "volcano" and a totally bizarre zipline where you go out, then slow to a stop and go back. Finally, add some tigers and orangutans playing around just feet away, and you have a good idea of what the place is like. The area also has some stores and restaurants and some form of secret backstory that I didn't even try to understand. Very impressive. 8/10

 

Conclusion: A spectacular park. GO. NOW.

[jjune4991]

Took you 5 hours? I did Howl-O-Scream, with all the major roller coasters minus Gwazi Tiger, in 4! That was fun. But thanks for the update! I can't wait when I go back to school over there and I get to go in 2010!

[ebl]

Even though I've heard mostly bad stuff about Gwazi, I'd still like to ride it at some point. Also Kumba (closed during my only visit ever in 2002).

 

But BGA is a very nice park and definitely worth visiting.

 

Eric

[Coaster Cow]

^Yeah, Gwazi is definitely a unique ride, you just have to hope that the trains are racing, or else the novelty is kind of lost.

[delirium_guy]

Gwazi-Lion: Oh boy. I don't understand Gwazi at all; GCII is usually spectacular with their rides' quality, but they sure blew this one (maybe the wood used? Anyone know?). The lion side was rough, reasonably slow, and without the trains racing on an everyday basis, boring. The ride shuddered through maneuvers that GCII usually shines on with utmost unenthusiastic fervor. I thought the design itself was subpar, too, compared to the Tiger side. It's time for Busch to take a good look at this one. 5/10

Gwazi-Tiger:Okay, I'll lighten up now. We lucked out on the tiger side, as the trains were unintentionally released at about the same time, leaving us to duel with the lion side. I was surprised to find this side only mildly rough, and the layout was much more forceful than lion's. It was actually quite fun with the near-misses with the other track. In conclusion, Gwazi is quite a fun ride when the tracks are dueling. If not, you are left thinking, what was GCII thinking? 7/10.

 

Glad to hear that Tiger is back up. It was down for quite a while for them to retrack a significant amount of the ride....which is why you found it much smoother than Lion! I've never had a problem with either layout. I was down there about two weeks ago, I had a decent ride on Lion actually.

 

Thanks for the report, glad you enjoyed!

 

- Todd

[Sue]

Glad to hear that Gwazi Tiger is running much better after all of the track work they just did on it. From what we were told, it just reopened on 12/26. Hopefully once the holiday crowds subside, they'll do some major track work on the Lion side. We rode Gwazi Lion on 12/13 and it was the worst rides we've ever had on it to the point that I won't even ride it again until it gets some work.