Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

[ernierocker]

.Thanks! I'd love to ride Cheetah Hunt, especially in the rain! We got launched into a sprinkle on Maverick in 2011 and it rocked, and with me expecting Cheetah Hunt to top Maverick in the top 10 that would be epic!

 

Yeah, you should probably tamper that expectation quite a bit or expect a massive disappointment.

 

They may both be Intamin multi-launch rides, but Cheetah Hunt isn't in the same stratosphere as Maverick....

 

Yeah, don't know what led you to believe that Cheetah Hunt was on the same level as Maverick. Cheetah Hunt is a family-launched coaster and a very good one at that. You will still have a lot of fun riding it, but you need to lower your expectations for it.

[TPDave]

Nice! The size of the trucks really gives a sense of the scale of this thing.

[2012jarrett]

.Thanks! I'd love to ride Cheetah Hunt, especially in the rain! We got launched into a sprinkle on Maverick in 2011 and it rocked, and with me expecting Cheetah Hunt to top Maverick in the top 10 that would be epic!

 

Yeah, you should probably tamper that expectation quite a bit or expect a massive disappointment.

 

They may both be Intamin multi-launch rides, but Cheetah Hunt isn't in the same stratosphere as Maverick....

 

Yeah, don't know what led you to believe that Cheetah Hunt was on the same level as Maverick. Cheetah Hunt is a family-launched coaster and a very good one at that. You will still have a lot of fun riding it, but you need to lower your expectations for it.

The thing is it doesn't look intense, it looks fun. I like fun rides more than intense rides, usually. Looki g at some of the rides in my top 10 (Intimidator, Millie, GateKeeper) you can see good examples of this. Cheetah Hin looks like Intamin's hardware on B&M floatiness that I love in instances like that. The creeping through the wind catcher looks sick, the drop off the wind catcher looks sick, the s-curves in the canyon look fun, and the entry into the final brakes is just...wrong! I like a good, long ride that sustains its speed nicely, and that's why I think Cheetah Hunt looks great. I admit my taste in rides looks different from that of other enthusiasts (I think I might be one of very few people to have GateKeeper, Wild Eagle, or Intimidator in my top 10. I might be disappointed, but it honestly looks like my type of ride.

 

Falcon's Fury is going to be beautiful! The colors remind me of Knotts Windseeker a bit.

[markysharky17]

This is very exciting! Two intamin thrill rides in a row! What's next? Maybe an intamin giga coaster?

[gerstlaueringvar]

It looks beautiful! Thanks for the update!

[jedimaster1227]

Yay not Moser pieces!

[GrapesLie]

I've always loved a large piece of Intamin Tubing!

[yay101]

Oooooh

 

I like the multiple colors of the tower

[CoasterEv]

Can't wait to head down and check this out... Those rotating seats look terrifying! I'd bet if this is successful, we will definitely see some of these new seat types implemented onto existing Intamin installations.

[hydra]

Went by this morning and a few more pieces have arrived. I'm assuming the yellow will be the base of the tower, with the brown\gold piece joining into the base. Just a guess. Anyone seen these towers constructed before?

Anyway, enjoy!

What I am guessing will be the base of the tower.

Closer view of one of the new pieces.

I am assuming these are for the top of the tower.

[TPDave]

Wow, the metalwork is arriving in force. I'm so excited to see this thing come together! This looks to be the first theme park ride in many years that will scare the living crap out of me so I can't wait to get to Florida to ride!!

[Mrlittle]

I'm really liking the colors. I can't wait to ride this.

[cfc]

^Those colors even go reasonably well with the apartment building in the photo.

[jordanTNE]

this ride is going to be game-changinly terrifying. hopefully they don't have aton of bugs like mach tower! especially since its a first of its kind ride

[coasterbear30]

^hahaha, you do realize that it's an Intamin right? It will be down half of its life span.

[Garet]

^hahaha, you do realize that it's an Intamin right? It will be down half of its life span.

 

Because Busch Gardens non-intamin drop tower has been doing so well.....

[cfc]

Yeah, I doubt an Intamin drop tower can ever top a Moser when it comes to downtime. I know this from local experience.

[chrisalex]

I hope they will open the drop tower before mid May 2014!

That´s the time we are there for next summer holiday!

[_koppen]

Yeah, I doubt an Intamin drop tower can ever top a Moser when it comes to downtime. I know this from local experience.

 

I still think it's funny that the small Powerpark in Finland added a Mach Tower clone and have operated it without problems for 2 seasons now!

[WildStangAlex]

I've always wondered what the insides of the Intamin towers looked like. Thanks for sharing the pictures, I'm anxious to ride this thing completely terrified.

[2012jarrett]

Has it been established what kind of restraints this has yet? The concept art looks like normal LSM coaster restraints (Maverick, Cheetah Hunt, ect.) but I wonder if those restraints would work well for that. They absorb vertical and lateral Gs well but 1 g of forward acceleration? I really think that might put too much stress on them to keep using that foam material (though it might be stronger than I think), could we be looking at I-305-esque harnesses here?

 

The thing with this is that if it tilts you down that much, you'd want restraints like a flyer IMO. Intamin has yet to make anything flyer-like if I'm correct. Maybe they'll stick with the LSM restraints like they have on zacspins if I'm correct.

 

Though those loose restraints + looking straight down 330 feet = HOLY CRAP!!!!!

[hydra]

^I am really hoping they go with something super soft and supportive like a Flyer restraint. The last thing I want to feel on this ride is that I am going to break a collar bone or fall out. lol This ride truly looks terrifying.

 

Also, take this with a grain of salt but, while at Howl-O-Scream on Thursday night I asked one of the ride ops at Gwazi what the fate of the ride was, and he told me they expected to demolish it in the spring (May2014). He also went on to speculate that the replacement would be hyper coaster. So its a stretch I know, but interesting non the less.

 

On the plus side, Gwazi was running slightly better than the past year. NOT GOOD or enjoyable but better than my last ride. All the steel coasters seemed to be running at their peak. Had maybe one of the best rides on Kumba ever. Back row in the dark, cold air, running super smooth and forceful. Still my favorite coaster.

[Cyrbuzz]

Well there seems to be a lot of talk going around about a hyper replacement for Gwazi. It sure would have been nice to see it get the topper track treatment like Texas Giant and Rattler did. The last decent wood coaster in Florida I recall was the Hurricane from defunct Boardwalk and Baseball. I never got a chance to ride Starliner when it was still at Miracle Strip or Cypress Gardens. The former Triple Hurricane at the now Legoland was decent for a small woodie. As for the speculated hyper for Busch, let's hope for a good one that's taller than Sheikra.

[Mrlittle]

As for the speculated hyper for Busch, let's hope for a good one that's taller than Sheikra.

 

So, lets hope its a Intamin

[2012jarrett]

Well there seems to be a lot of talk going around about a hyper replacement for Gwazi. It sure would have been nice to see it get the topper track treatment like Texas Giant and Rattler did. The last decent wood coaster in Florida I recall was the Hurricane from defunct Boardwalk and Baseball. I never got a chance to ride Starliner when it was still at Miracle Strip or Cypress Gardens. The former Triple Hurricane at the now Legoland was decent for a small woodie. As for the speculated hyper for Busch, let's hope for a good one that's taller than Sheikra.

Is it too late to count out the RMC rehab for Gwazi? I always thought that the only issue that would prevent that would be lack of maintenance, and I want to say they've been maintaining the Tiger side, though I could very well be wrong.

 

Restoring Gwazi to more than its former glory with RMC iron horse track and the like would be great. Paint the rails the respective color of the track (yellow rails on Lion, blue rails on Tiger) and get Rocky Mountain or Gerstlauer to make trains and it'll be good as new AND a people eater! Maybe even add a high-speed barrel roll/upside-down high five element on the two airtime hops where the trains intersect each other. I've not ridden it (I get to go through such a painful rite of passage to the online coaster community in a couple days) but it looks beautiful on Google Streetview and it'd be unfortunate to have to tear something that looks that pretty down.

 

That being said, how painful is it compared to Son of Beast, Mean Streak, The Beast, and Thunderhead? Just out of curiosity. My dad wants to know because he doesn't like rough rides and I'm honestly wondering the same thing.