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p. 375: Phoenix Rising family inverted coaster announced for 2024!

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Colossal Curl™ Makes A Splash At Adventure Island in 2015

Tampa, Fla. (Oct. 15, 2014) – Adventure Island® guests are in for an epic journey on the park’s newest thrill ride Colossal Curl™, set to debut at Tampa Bay’s premier waterpark in 2015.

 

True to its name and holding up to four passengers, this mega slide delivers a high-adrenaline, action-packed adventure, making it the ultimate family thrill slide and adding to the waterpark’s unrivaled combination of corkscrews, waterfalls, high-speed thrills and tropical, tranquil surroundings for guests of all ages.

 

“We’re excited to continue in our tradition of offering thrilling rides, and slides, at Adventure Island and Busch Gardens® Tampa,” said Park President Jim Dean.

 

Colossal Curl™ will be located in the center of the park, next to Mango Joe’s Café®, and will take the place of Gulf Scream. The slide will be the tallest ride at Adventure Island at nearly 70 feet high and 560 feet in length. Construction on Colossal Curl™ will begin in the coming weeks and by early 2015 many of the ride’s features will be visible to guests.

 

Riders will hurtle high above Adventure Island’s 30 acres of water-drenched fun in the sun and experience a feeling of weightlessness aboard Colossal Curl™. This colorful slide combines funnel and wave elements for an exciting ride that’s sure to get hearts racing.

 

This is the first new attraction at the waterpark since 2006, and the ride is expected to open during the 2015 Adventure Island season, which begins March 2015. Visit ColossalCurl.com for more information.

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If I am buying the Quick Queue normal, do the people actually check off the rides?

 

I have used it once before, and all but two items were crossed off and I had unlimited rides on everything. For cheetah hunt, they crossed of the flume ride and then they stop marking off. I got 12 rides on cheetah hunt that day.

 

Was i lucky, or do they never checK???

 

I can see them not checking it off, even if they suppose to. It happens most often because a lot of our quick queue entrances are not dedicated and the tasks of checking passes are given to rideops on platform or at greet dealing with ride restrictions/show breaks (for rides near shows). (For example, Universal/Disney seems to have employee positions dedicated to checking their express passes at merge points).

 

I find that if things are super busy, and the quick queue entrance is the exit where platform ops are working, it might go unchecked. If it's not busy, and the op checking passes are at greet, they will be checked off. I wouldn't count on them not checking again. If you managed 12 rides on cheetah hunt and you didn't have a unlimited wrist band, I guarantee the ride operator at the greet position just didn't care.

 

Source: was/is employed at a park with the quick queue program.

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^^A SUF clone would however fit in that area without expanding back to the Edge Of Africa.

The world is an infinitely better place when there isn't a SUF clone at Busch Tampa.

 

Very true. I suppose I should have added that I would rather it not be there just because it would fit...lol

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I guess it was popular enough at Water Country to come south! Even if the park hasn't received an addition since 2006, I always found it to be quite enjoyable. I do wish they would've varied the layout a little to make this stand out from the one in Virginia (and in hopes of avoiding the "copy/paste" method), but still, it's a great addition to the park's 8-year-unaltered lineup.

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Just went to Howl O Scream for the first time last night...what an event! I can easily see how this would be more fun for the first time guest than HHN. There are shorter lines, better coasters, better food options, more scares, and did I say SHORTER LINES.

 

We did the Fright Feast and it was such a surefire winner that I probably would never consider going to Howl-O-Scream again without it. The buffet was just ok and the Fiends show (which happens while you are finishing your food and nothing is open yet, so nothing to lose) was about a 13% on the tomato-meter but the biggest benefit was 1.5 hours of immediate house access (no waiting whatsoever). We did one clockwise lap around the park during that time and did all 7 houses, including the Zombie-Shooting house twice. For 26 bucks to be stuffed with food, see a show, and every house with no line (and then have 4.5 hours of park-time left)? That's a theme park bargain.

 

My favorite house was either Zombie Mortuary or Deathwater Bayou, either of these would fit right into the TOP tier of an HHN lineup. Blood Asylum and The Basement were super-gory and just ok. The Zombie shooting house was very unique and fun, light on theming but you ARE shooting zombies the whole time. Circus of Superstition was bizzare, like a Dr. Suess walkthrough with Clowns, 3D, and a creep factor. DeadFall looked promising but fell a bit short on the overall package.

 

The houses were certainly more inventive with the scares and this event has a lot more permanent animatronics which is really cool, but HHN would be my favorite for changing it up every single year and having more movie-quality sheen.

 

The outside streets and roaming areas at HOS were much different, there were some roaming hoards and some spottiness as far as being staffed out there at times, but the INVENTIVENESS is much much much much higher at HOS. Lots of people hiding unexpectedly.

 

HHN is the Best Picture contender, Mickey's Not-So-Scary is the Pixar film, and HOS is the campy cult-classic.

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I will be at this park somewhere during the third week of November (the week before Thanksgiving), and I have a couple of questions:

 

1: how are the crowds on a typical weekday?

2: just how bad is Gwazi? For me, what I consider to be a bad coaster (but still are/were rideable at least for the credit, even if not fun at all) are ones like these - Wildcat at HP, Hoosier Hurricane at IB, Psychlone at SFMM, Hurler at KD, Meanstreak at CP (on its worst days), etc. None of these I found enjoyable, but I was game to ride to get the credit. The only woodie I have found to be intolerable was SOB.

#3 what sorts of things (other than all of the animal attractions) are there to do for a non-coaster rider? My mom will be with me and she can't handle riding anything rougher than the Small World at WDW.

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I will be at this park somewhere during the third week of November (the week before Thanksgiving), and I have a couple of questions:

 

1: how are the crowds on a typical weekday?

2: just how bad is Gwazi? For me, what I consider to be a bad coaster (but still are/were rideable at least for the credit, even if not fun at all) are ones like these - Wildcat at HP, Hoosier Hurricane at IB, Psychlone at SFMM, Hurler at KD, Meanstreak at CP (on its worst days), etc. None of these I found enjoyable, but I was game to ride to get the credit. The only woodie I have found to be intolerable was SOB.

#3 what sorts of things (other than all of the animal attractions) are there to do for a non-coaster rider? My mom will be with me and she can't handle riding anything rougher than the Small World at WDW.

 

1: I've had very good experiences with crowds at Busch Gardens during the weekdays, and November should be dead as long as youre not running into school Thanksgiving breaks (which you wont be).

 

2: I love Gwazi but based on your preferences you will hate it. It is rougher than the coasters you listed (as far as I know, haven't been on all of them)...it is often considered one of the roughest coasters out there. For me personally I think that adds to the fun but it is definitely not everyones cup of tea.

 

3: BG has a few flat rides...an inverting swinging ship, a Frog Hop, bumper cars and obviously Falcons Fury. There are also three water rides (a shoot-the-chute, log flume and river rapids) but given the off-season and cooler weather, they may not all be open. For your mom, theres the Carousel, the train ride and sky ride (which have great views of the Serengeti), and a solid amount of shows. I havent seen a show there in years so some of the more experienced vets can tell you which ones are worth seeing. Ride-wise, theres not a whole lot aside from the coasters but the animal exhibits can take a good amount of time strolling through.

 

Hope that helps. You will have a great time!

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1. At that time of year crowds will be utterly nonexistent. I would expect nothing with longer than a 20 minute wait. Seriously.

 

2. Gwazi is running fairly well, no worse than any of the woodies you listed. Really not that rough this past month.

 

3. Skyride, Carousel and Train around the savannah are musts for your mother. Iceploration is the big show (unless they've moved on to Christmas when they'll be doing an ice-skating holiday show in that theater), as well as a musical revue in the Pantopia Grill, Opening night critters is nearby in Pantopia. There are some animal veterinary behind the scenes things that always happen over in Kenya at the Animal Care center, which vary by day. Painted Camel Bazaar and Xcursions are both shops with interesting things in them. Maybe the Jungle Flyers would be the next least rough thing (probably too daring), an easy zipline. But there are no dark rides at Busch Gardens so the main thing will be visiting animals. The tiger exhibit is the best, many up close opportunities.

 

Scorpion will be down for maintenance during your visit, also there is a Run for Wildlife 5K on Saturday the 22nd of November which includes park admission for 30 dollars a person.

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I recommend doing the Serengeti Safari tour. You can feed , touch and take pictures with the Giraffes. I've done it and I think it is worth it. Starting Price is $29.00 per person. Call them to book it 1-888-800-5447.

 

That's not a bad price. I'll have to check that out next time I visit.

Edited by jray21
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  • 3 weeks later...

I was at the park today and it wasn't real heavy today and the weather was nice. I have two things to update on.CAM00160.thumb.jpg.aabbbc69859fee7baa5823397480adb1.jpg

It really opens up the entrance area with out the second roof.

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The shops have been replaced by the new adventure outpost.

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This only states one big fact and that is...

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That they have completely demolished the critter castaways theater.

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I do have one last big fact is that their balls are bigger than mine. (I wonder how big a tree would to be holds those?)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Since it was thanksgiving a yummy buffet of thanksgiving food was to be had at the crown colony restaurant. Seriously you have to do this at least once there was so much good food!

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