June 9th was the last day for the Sand Serpent, but this week 3 other rides disappeared from the website and are behind construction walls as well. They were the 3 kid rides located in Pantopia including the Busch Flyers, Desert Runners and the Kiddie Train. Also, the signs have been removed from the Sky Ride (per Busch Gardens Junkies) and it’s gone from the website Add this to the demolition of the SBNO Phoenix, the fire/demolition of Wild Surge and the official closing of SBNO (Standing But Not Operating) Tree Top Trails in Jungala and that’s 8 attractions in the past year by my count with the only addition being the Serengeti Flyer. That brings the park down to 24 rides with 9 of those being children’s rides.

Hopefully they’re up to something BIG in Pantopia to make it all worth it, but that’s a lot of stuff to close in a short period. I hear one of the closed attractions may be moved (probably the Busch Flyers) and we should know more about that in the coming days. These kids rides were some of my son’s favorite in his younger days and the Desert Runners and Kiddie Train were sort of hidden gems for parents outside the hustle and bustle of Sesame Street.

I do realize the rumored fire and loss of Wild Surge was probably not planned and the demo of 2 attractions SBNO for years could be expected, but the new uncertainty around Sky Ride is huge. We’ve written before about reasons why Sky Ride be slow to reopen, but has the park now given up? Maybe or hopefully it’s like when Disney shut their train down for a couple years while the train track was rerouted for Tron? One can only hope that something HUGE is coming to Pantopia that would require the rerouting of the Sky Ride cables as I’d hate to lose the peaceful ride and beautiful views.

Theme park attendance in Florida has been reported down in many places, so hopefully the loss of the attractions won’t make the wait of the others too ridiculous. I’ve got to believe the park has plans for the Pantopia, the Jungala area and hopefully Sky Ride. Fingers crossed we get some announcements next couple months about the plans. I’d love an announcement like we got in September of 2018 when Tigris was announced for 2019 AND Iron Gwazi was announced for 2020 (subsequently delayed), but we got a glimpse of the long term plan that I’m hoping for again.