Years in the hot Florida sun are not kind to paint and especially when it carries high speed objects with all the vibrations and movement involved. From time to time a coaster needs a fresh coat of paint to keep corrosion at bay and the ride looking sharp.
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Past Due Construction Bills on Busch Gardens New Iron Gwazi Coaster?
Sea World (parent company of Busch Gardens) may be feeling the financial impact of coronavirus more than initially thought as it appears to have fallen behind on some bills. Specifically several of its partners such as Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) have filed liens over unpaid bills over many of the company’s new 2020 rides.
Continue readingBuild Your Own Busch Gardens Coaster with Nanocoaster
Have you ever wanted to have your own copy of your favorite Busch Gardens coaster at home? I mean not actual size (although that would be cool), but more of a desktop model. Thanks to Coasterdynamix you now can! Continue reading
Scorpion at Busch Gardens Gets a Paint Job
This paint job on Scorpion (the park’s oldest coaster opened in 1980) looks amazing! When it opened almost 40 years ago its original paint scheme featured orange track and black supports, but this changed to red track with blue supports in a 2004 repaint. Continue reading
3D Printing a Mini Tigris Coaster at Busch Gardens with Coaster Labs
I saw the still in this video and was in awe. My first thought was, “that’s Tigris at Busch Gardens Tampa!” So after watching the video the answer was, well sort of. It is indeed a Sky Rocket II by Premier Rides (which Tigris is as discussed previously), Continue reading
21,638 feet @BuschGardens
Flipping through a travel magazine and saw this cool spread with fun facts about Busch Gardens. 21,638 is the combined length of all the coasters in the park (to be made longer by Iron Gwazi later this year). That’s about 4 miles of track you can ride! The park having 300 animal species as well as the animals eating about 2 tons of food a day was also pretty cool. No word on how many tons of food a day the humans eat…
How Kumba Roars at Busch Gardens
Kumba has a distinctive roar, but it appears that the sound is caused by something that is missing rather than something that is added. B&M has a characteristic track design seen below of a box “spine” with fins that hold the rails. This box can echo the natural vibrations of the ride and is often filled with sand to dampen it to the customer’s desired level. My guess is what makes Kumba unique is that these boxes are probably empty to maximize the “roar”, and not minimize it in any way.
Continue readingThank You John T. Reilly!
Sunday March 31, 2019 is the last day for COO and former interim CEO John T. Reilly. Mr. Reilly’s departure was announced in a March 19, 2019 SeaWorld press release:
We thank John for his contributions during his 34-year tenure at SeaWorld and wish him the best going forward…
Mr. Reilly is a Busch Gardens lifer, stating with the company as a teenager selling concessions at the park in Williamsburg to pay for college. Continue reading
You Can Own a Piece of Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens Tampa is part of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. which is publicly traded under the ticker SEAS. The company operates 12 parks including 5 water parks and is the 9th largest theme park operator in the world. By buying stock in SEAS you can literally own a piece of the park! Continue reading
Go on a Roller Coaster Tour at Busch Gardens this Saturday!
Did you know you can get a “behind the scenes” look at several of Busch Gardens roller coasters? The park offers a 2 hour tour prior to park opening where you can see these amazing machines up close and even climb to the top of one! Continue reading
BGT Safari 