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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

P. 377: Wild Oasis realm in Jungala announced for 2025!

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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...

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Zebra!

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Big Kitty

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Mr. Kangaroo tried to eat Wonderpup!

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Just because Kumba is made of awesome.

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

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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!

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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.

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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.

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^^ 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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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The third launch track...through the trees!

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Plenty of twisty Intamin track

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

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

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Taken from the new pathway from Nairobi to EoA

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Yes. There is going to be penetration by the skyride

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Coaster enthusiasts aren't the only ones getting horny

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Over to Jungala to see the tigers

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"I can't see him"

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"Meow"

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The giraffes didn't seem so excited about the ride

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Intamin trains will once again pass through the old Monorail station

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More progress on the station

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Lots of changes being made

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