Busch Gardens Tampa Bay filed plans for a major new water attraction and will serve as a flume-style replacement for the demolished Stanley Falls Flume. According to the permit description this is the “removal of an existing water ride and construction of a new water attraction”. It appears some things (perhaps the station) may be salvaged as the project is a redevelopment with improvements including themed structures, building modifications, utility upgrades and hardscape/landscape enhancements. The project will span a 91,400-square-foot footprint, has a price tag of $16.5 million and has the codename: “Project Driftwood” . So now let the speculation begin!

It appears this is an outdoor flume style ride, so that leaves a couple of choices. The first and most likely is something like Catapult Falls at SeaWorld San Antonio. This is a great launched flume ride with great theming and a vertical lift. SeaWorld and Busch Gardens are both owned by Unitied Parks & Resorts, so they would already have familiarity with the Intamin flume platform. This choice would be a modern successor to Stanley Falls and may even carry on the name like Top Thrill Dragster becoming Top Thrill 2. The second less likely choice would be a “rocking boat” by Mack. This is a successor to the technology used on the Atlantis ride at SeaWorld Orlando where it is part coaster and part water flume. However, the new “rocking boat” platform allows for greater movement creating a whitewater style ride. The video from Mission Bermudes at  Parc du Futuroscope in France is mind boggling. This is also the same technology being used in Dollywood’s NightFlight, but there it will be indoors and with more simulation elements.

So it will probably be fall before details are known about Project Driftwood, but it’s good to see that we didn’t loose a historic ride like Stanley Falls for nothing and that work is underway for a replacement. It will be interesting to see if the adjacent land from Scorpion will be utilized for this project or if this will be reserved for something else in the future. It might not be a “Giga”, but it should be cool (quite literally) which will be great for hot Florida summers in 2027 and also hit the valuable family demographic similar to how other recent investments have been targeted. My money is on a clone of Catapult Falls, which would be a great thing, but I can’t wait to see what Stanley Falls 2.0 may be!