Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

[aimster]

Was at Busch Gardens today. Weather was overcast and it rained lightly on and off part of the afternoon, but it was still a good day. While I was there, I saw them put up a support beam and another piece of track on Cheetah Hunt. Was talking to a park employee in the area and asked if a opening date has been set yet for the new coaster. He told me Memorial Day Weekend will be the grand opening if all goes according to plan. The Skyride reopens April 22nd, and he told me they hope to have Cheetah Hunt in testing then. The cheetahs for the new Cheetah Run habitat are in the park, but they're in the back. You can see them as part of the Endangered Species tour though.

 

Didn't take too many pics today because of the weather, but here are a few...

Zebra!

Big Kitty

Mr. Kangaroo tried to eat Wonderpup!

Just because Kumba is made of awesome.

Yup. Awesome. Rode this 3 times in a row with NO WAIT today!

[Montuman99]

will it be done by the second week in March??

[jjune4991]

Yay, the parabola is up! Great to see Wonderpup is enjoying himself. And great pics all around!

[Snowboard246]

Cannot wait for this ride to be open!

[jarmor]

will it be done by the second week in March??

I really dont think so. Well the track work should be finish but I dont think it will be open then...

[CoasterLuv]

when i saw the animated teaser videos and the layout renderings months ago, i just thought this would be another speed coaster with a low to ground layout like Rita Queen of speed but now that i see these pics I see it is much more dynamic elevation changes. I usually do florida parks every other year, and another region the years in between but i might have to do florida two years in a row and get down to BGA just to ride this then leave. maybe i can stop there on my way during my first trip to texas parks this year.

[derek_lentz]

Was talking to a park employee in the area and asked if a opening date has been set yet for the new coaster. He told me Memorial Day Weekend will be the grand opening if all goes according to plan. The Skyride reopens April 22nd, and he told me they hope to have Cheetah Hunt in testing then.

 

What flavor dippin dots was he selling?

[alpengeist04]

will it be done by the second week in March??

 

 

It depends on your definition of done. Track yes, but I wouldn't expect anything else till at least after April 22 when the skyride is supposed to reopen. Even then, I wouldn't count on riding till sometime in May at the earliest.

[aimster]

Was talking to a park employee in the area and asked if a opening date has been set yet for the new coaster. He told me Memorial Day Weekend will be the grand opening if all goes according to plan. The Skyride reopens April 22nd, and he told me they hope to have Cheetah Hunt in testing then.

 

What flavor dippin dots was he selling?

 

LOL! No Dippin Dots. He was by the construction area on the bridge that goes to Edge of Africa near the Nairobi train station. He was watching them put up a support beam. Was an older guy but he was excited about the ride too. Gotta love it when employees are as excited as guests about new stuff.

[Erik Johnson]

I was simply amazed how close the coaster tracks gets to the top of the skyride cables and yes, Gwazi is much better now.

Edited February 7, 2011 by Erik Johnson

[Hilltopper39]

Some new construction pics on RCPro show the track will actually jump over the sky-ride cables at one point, which looks very very cool to me! All the more reason I'm glad Busch Gardens never released a layout picture or clear on ride POV, I love being surprised by an attraction on my first ride which doesn't happen very often anymore.

[dragonskeep]

^What is the deal with TPR and that website. The guy has had nearly daily updates of the construction and I have enjoyed them quite a bit. So where did it go wrong? I know you guys have good relationships with other sites.

Edited February 7, 2011 by dragonskeep

[Maximo37]

^^^

I'm very curious about that too...

[jarmor]

I would just leave it as it is...apparently things are that great with them. While I enjoy their site I can respect the choices of this site to sensor their name.

 

Anyway back to cheetaka! Im not there to see personally but could it be the angle of the pictures that make it seem like it will go over?

[ernierocker]

I would just leave it as it is...apparently things are that great with them. While I enjoy their site I can respect the choices of this site to sensor their name.

 

 

Agreed. There is no reason to start a discussion about it, especially when we have a kick-ass new coaster to talk about!

[dragonskeep]

Hey Jarmor, I was wondering the same thing but several people who have seen it in person say it has to go over the top. They claim there is no way it can go under and still have clearance. It seems strange to me that it would go over the top but it would be awesome. This will probably be answered for sure by the end of the day, someone will have a shot of it.

[coasterfreaky]

Makes sense to go over the skyride. There is no variation of height above the skyride supports/roller batteries, only below them based on the load weight of the skyride cars at a given time....so makes sense and its going to add another cool feature to the skyride and the new coaster. Busch seems to really put a lot of thought into their coasters....top notch parks indeed.

[RoCo]

The leap over the sky ride? Yeah, that just added another 100 points of sex-win to this thing.

 

Freaking awesome photos, please keep them coming!

[live2tell75]

Gwazi was still running awesome yesterday. I understand that it was slow, but I was sad to see only one side was open. So no dueling like a few weeks ago. =(

[aimster]

^^ Yeah they were only running Tiger on Gwazi when I was there on Saturday. I saw them testing Lion a few times and hoped it would eventually open, but no luck. It's still a great ride (even when the rain is blinding you senseless), but must more thrilling when in dueling mode.

 

And I experienced a new sensation on Montu. I was hanging out with these kids and we were working on going from the back of the train to the front and on the 3rd ride, I felt the G forces in my TOES. WTH? Never felt that in the front (where I normally ride) or in the very back. Odd. In all honesty... it felt weird.

 

Oh yeah and I was attacked by a jealous wallaby.

 

I'll be back at Busch Gardens next Sunday (the 13th), so I'll have more construction pics then. I'll be more apt to take the camera out as it's supposed to be nice and sunny instead of overcast and rainy.

[WillMontu]

Here are some photos from yesterday.

 

As mentioned, Gwazi with the MF trains was a big improvement. Unfortunately only Lion was running, but crowds were very light otherwise.

 

As an added bonus, I dug out some old web pages from an old B&M fansite I ran back in 1999. Back then, Clinton was President, RRC had an unusual obsession with zebras (for reasons I do not remember), and people played a game called "Guess the Neon Coaster" at a certain website on Geocities. I had my first digital camera, and my photography skills were abysmal. Back then, they had a model of the ride on display and later on, one of the original PTC trains. I uploaded one of the pages (complete with cheesy photo captions), in almost completely unaltered form to http://www.extremerct.com/Retro/gwazi.htm.

The primary draw today was the new trains on Gwazi. As smooth as they were, the marketing people here obviously haven't ridden an Intamin pre-fab.

Finally, Florida has a GCI that rides like it's supposed to

What's with the pink hair on that gal (or it a guy) in the fourth row?

The Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy show is at BGT for the winter, but don't expect it to stick around for much longer.

Not much has been done recently on this section of Cheetah Hunt

The third launch track...through the trees!

Plenty of twisty Intamin track

This ride is going to be very photogenic when it's finished

The first (and only) inversion (as far as I know)

Taken from the new pathway from Nairobi to EoA

Yes. There is going to be penetration by the skyride

Coaster enthusiasts aren't the only ones getting horny

Over to Jungala to see the tigers

"I can't see him"

"Meow"

The giraffes didn't seem so excited about the ride

Intamin trains will once again pass through the old Monorail station

More progress on the station

Lots of changes being made

[Mr. Starr]

Very cool pictures of Gwazi, it looks so new!

[BaMiTsPaT]

One month until I get to "challenge Gwazi" again with new trains. I hope they stay amazing for at least that long . Hopefully I'll see it shoot up my list of woodies!

[PortugePunk]

Man this thing just looks more and more full of AWESOME!

[coast4airtime]

I think that it is just me that thinks that the track will go under the sky ride. From the angles that I have seen, it looks like it definately will go under it. Has anyone confirmed that it will go over the sky ride?