Busch Gardens has launched a couple of podcast/web series recently starting with “The First Drop” which is mostly about event happenings at the park and pass member perks. They’ve now followed up on that with “Wild Encounters” which gives an inside look at animal care from the professionals who work with the animals every day.
Continue readingThis week Busch Gardens Closed 4 Rides! Goodbye Sand Serpent, Busch Flyers, Desert Runners and Kiddie Train.
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.
Continue readingWhat’s Replacing Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens? Hopefully it has at Least as Much Theming as the Men’s Bathroom near Montu
There have been so many rumors as to what will replace Sand Serpent. These include everything from a Giga coaster to an indoor ride using the Pantopia Theater to a wing coaster to family coaster. Busch Gardens isn’t exactly known for its theming, however the Egpyt area of the park is highly themed including the men’s bathroom! Whatever replaces Sand Serpent, however, I’m just hoping a little time, money and effort are spent theming the new ride, at least as much as this restroom.
Continue readingThe Story Behind SheiKra at Busch Gardens. How SheiKra was Florida’s First “Raptor” Themed Coaster!
Busch Gardens is often a little light on ride theming (excluding the amazing work they did with Cobra’s Curse), but I do appreciate how they often tie the ride motion to animal motion. An excellent example of this is Cheetah Hunt which mimics the acceleration and ground movement of a cheetah. However, many people probably miss the animal connection with SheiKra, the awesome B&M dive coaster, and its movements matching the “shikra” bird of Africa and southern Asia.
Continue readingThe Beer of Busch Gardens: Great Selection at Beautiful Locations and Sometimes it’s Free!
Beer and Busch Gardens just seem to go together. We’ve written in the past about the history of the parks, their onsite breweries and ties to Busch Beer. The one sentence summary is there used to be a big Busch brewery near where Iron Gwazi is today and the park was originally started to help market the beer. Today, however, we will focus more on the modern connections with the locations and types of beer you can find around the park.
Continue readingSerengeti Flyer “Milder” Versus “Wilder”
Had a chance to ride the “milder” version of the Serengeti Flyer at Busch Gardens a couple of weeks ago. It was a Tuesday morning and the ride was a walk-on around 10:30am and running in “milder” mode until 1pm. I’ve ridden a lot of these S&S Screamin’ Swings now from Barnstormer at Dollywood to Finnegan’s Flyer at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Continue readingOur Trip to Ride Sand Serpent Before it Closes. The Story of a Nail, a Phoenix, YouTube and a 46″ 6-Year Old
I was hearing the rumors that Sand Serpent may be closing soon at Busch Gardens (we even wrote a post about it last month). Today the rumors were confirmed with the Sand Serpent scheduled to close permanently on July 9th. However, this closure was somewhat personal for me in that I’ve got a 6 year old son named Thomas who is slowly growing and graduating to new rides, essentially measuring his growth by newly available roller coasters. Just a month or so ago he passed 46″ and his first response was, “I get to ride Sand Serpent!”
Continue readingSummer Nights is back at Busch Gardens bringing fireworks, Cirque Electric and great music!
Busch Gardens starts its Summer Nights this week with events running May 26th through August 6th. Events include extended hours, fireworks and lots of great entertainment. The two gems of Summer Nights are the fireworks and the Cirque Electric show, however the addition of several party zones and other entertainment really amp up the energy in the park making for lots of fun.
Continue readingThings Filmed at Busch Gardens Tampa Including Insane Coaster Wars
It’s May the 4th (Star Wars Day) and there really aren’t connections between that movie franchise and the park, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t Hollywood connections. Probably the closest thing to “Star Wars” were several episodes of a Travel Channel show called “Insane Coaster Wars”. The episode above features Sheikra at Busch Gardens Tampa, but another episode featured Montu.
Continue readingIs Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Closing Soon?
There have been rumors of Sand Serpent closing on social media and YouTube after a demolition permit was filed for a structure at Busch Gardens. Sure, it could be for the play area in Jungala (which has now disappeared from maps), but with the demo of the looping starship Phoenix, all the chatter has been that this is the area for the next new attraction with survey markers all around Pantopia.
Continue reading
BGT Safari 