Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

So yesterday we got a sneak preview of Busch Gardens Adventure Island's newest slide - Colossal Curl! For those of you who have been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg's water park you might recognize this ride, and it's GREAT! Was so happy to see Busch partner once again with ProSlide for another one of their multi-feature slides that is full of fun and thrills!

Colossal Curl, along with the drops and twists that traditional slides have includes two fantastic features. A mini-funnel and a half-pipe style element, and both are totally fun and scream inducing! The photos and video can speak to them better than any text can so check them out!

As far as the park itself goes, I have always liked Adventure Island...a LOT and it's nice to see them introducing new attractions as it's been since 2006's Riptide was the last time the park added a new slide. It was worth the wait! Colossal Curl is a blast!

Photos & Video:

Photos & Video by Robb Alvey, Jack Crouse, and Adventure Island.

Here are the 2015 prices for Adventure Island!

We are in the right place!

An overview of Colossal Curl.

Hanging out with these Colossal Curly dudes!

The signage and everything looks bright and fun!

The funnel is the first of it's two feature elements...

...and it does this to you!

The half-pipe thingy is the other one...

...and it does this.

I happen to *LOVE* ProSlide and their Cloverleaf raft is one of my favorite water slide ride vehicles that they produce.

"I AM READY TO RIDE!!!"

So how is Colossal Curl to ride?

It makes you look like this! lol

And this!

Somewhere under all that water is the people!!!

Flattering photo for sure! (TPR is not responsible for any therapy needed after viewing this update)

Busch Gardens General Manager Jim Dean is proud of his park's newest attraction.

"Hey Jim...wanna go for a ride?" "But I don't have my swim suit!"

"Doesn't matter!!!" lol

Jim and the park management team take a ride, first bump, balalalalala, and love it!

"Hey Jim...you're a little wet!"

Serious amounts of fun to be had on Colossal Curl!

Here's another overview of the ride.

Adventure island just does so many things right that you don't see a lot of other water park do. These streams run through certain parts of the park and you can walk in them to help keep your feet from burning up when it's super Florida hot outside!

They have a nice mix of old-school and more modern slides.

The park opened in 1980 and it's nice to see some of the older slides remain, but they don't last forever and it's great to see the park also updating it's attractions!

And don't forget that with Busch Gardens right next door, you can go from the family thrills of Colossal Curl....

To Cheetah Hunt! Hope you guys enjoy your day at both parks!

Colossal Curl looks Amazing - great report/photos Robb! Looks like it's in the spot of the old Tampa Typhoon and Gulf Scream speed slides if I'm not mistaken?

^ That is correct!

^ That is correct!

Wow - it's been too long since I've been there! The last time I went, Tampa Typhoon was still there (my Mom used to call it "that slide that'll give you an enema") and Key West Rapids was the most popular slide. Glad to to see them making good use of this space.

Fantastic pictures Colossal Curl looks like a great addition!

I still have yet to ride Colossal Curl in Williamsburg. Maybe this summer, as the both Water Country's and Adventure Island's look like fun.

Looks like the rest of the slides in your photos got a new coat of paint too. Good thing, don't want the older slides looking too bad compared to the new one

Very cool ride, looks like a fun addition.

(Great video editing, love the style)

I'm glad Adventure Island finally got a fantastic new water slide. I hope the future sees a lot more new slides that don't take almost a decade for a new one to be built!

Ahhh I just wanted to post and say that I'm going to be working at BGT for the summer! They have a resident summer camp there and I'm going to be a camp counselor! So I'll actually be able to experience BGT (and Seaworld and the water park and some sightseeing in Florida) while getting paid!

I'm actually getting paid to ride roller coasters with children! I can't imagine a better summer job

So I'll see some of you over the summer on my days off! I'm ready for Disney World, Universal, Seaworld, and of course, Busch Gardens!

^At least you won't have to take the little darlings on Gwazi.

That new slide looks like a lot of fun.

dt

I love how the ride fits in with its surroundings so well - it looks like a solid (and needed) addition for Adventure Island. Plus, I'm always in favor of more raft slides and less body slides...

Thanks for the update as always, Robb.

Ahhh I just wanted to post and say that I'm going to be working at BGT for the summer! They have a resident summer camp there and I'm going to be a camp counselor! So I'll actually be able to experience BGT (and Seaworld and the water park and some sightseeing in Florida) while getting paid!

 

I'm actually getting paid to ride roller coasters with children! I can't imagine a better summer job

 

So I'll see some of you over the summer on my days off! I'm ready for Disney World, Universal, Seaworld, and of course, Busch Gardens!

You're lucky! I'm sure that'll be a blast!

Looks like a fun ride! I wish all water parks had them streams running through for hot feet.

Looks like a great ride and great addition!

From BGT Facebook:

Ride Update: The Serengeti Railway will be closed temporarily starting today as we make way for a brand new attraction in 2016! But don’t worry, take a trip on the Skyride for the best views of our Serengeti Plain.

Hmm......

It seems that there is a lot in store for the future of Busch Gardens even though it seems that SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment has taken a hit recently. I'm hoping that this will be a nice family coaster that has a really good indoor section! But the future looks bright! Falcon's Fury last year, Colossal Curl at Adventure Island this year, possible new coaster with indoor section next year, the really large Gwazi site, and the area that used to hold the Critter Castaway show!

First Disney decides to close Pirates of the Caribbean this summer, now Busch Gardens has to close their safari train. Oh well, at least with Busch Gardens it isn't a huge loss as I'll be going to Animal Kingdom anyway and it's to make way for construction of a new attraction. I kind of expect the serengheti to be phased out in a few years anyway. They'll probably try to make Tampa more like Williamsburg with just a few animal attractions here and there. (Basically all of them except the Serengheti plains.)

Busch Gardens Tampa is first and foremost an animal park, then a ride park. They will always maintain their animal collection, if anything they've added more animals in recent years. Cheetahs, Kangaroos and other Australian animals plus a recent addition to the elephant population just to name a few. They just built that large medical care facility too, so I think the animals will continue to be their main focus of the park if not the top two reasons for being.

Rumor is survey areas have been marked for the parks supposed new coaster next year. Speculation leans towards a Mack Spinner which I am not opposed too.

After seeing so many responses complaining about it being closed all summer, asking when it would come back or comments about how they shouldn't close it forever even with it stating "early summer re-opening" in the description of the photo, this comment made me laugh, too bad Busch Gardens missed the sarcasm or the social media team deliberately ignored it.

Edit: I also see someone quoting wikipedia and it's 2017 listing of Iron Gwazi.

How are the two car trains on Space Fantasy? For Busch Gardens I'd expect something more on that side instead of something like Sierra Sidewinder.

My wild guess on What Busch Gardens is going to replace Gwazi with is a wood/steel hybrid "remake" of it called "Revenge of Gwazi"!

^ That is a horrible name, but nevertheless a good idea.