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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

p. 375: Phoenix Rising family inverted coaster announced for 2024!

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That drop looks a lot like a drop to me. Maybe not so much of a drop, but quite possibly a drop. Also, the Beastie Boys are known to let the beat drop, Demi Moore's character in One Crazy Summer played a gig at the Dew Drop Inn, and Doug Flutie executed the last successful drop kick in the NFL for an extra point after a touchdown on January 1, 2006.

 

So, in conclusion, it would appear to be a drop.....or possibly a drop. Still tough to tell though. I think we need more pictures for confirmation, or at least another page or so of the word "drop."

 

 

And I was totally wrong on the definiton of the word "Drop"!

 

I thought it... had to do with something about going down.

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I'm shattered it has OTSRs, I'm going to fly over for CH opening day just to refuse to ride it, and how the hell can you hunt Cheetahs with OTSRs restricting your movement - very disappointing...

 

On a serious note, the more I see of this, the better it looks. I wonder if Euroburg will equal or better this wonderful Intamin creation with their 2012 coaster, positively salivating at the prospect.

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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has sent us a press release and photos about the completion of Cheetah Hunt's trackwork!

 

Construction crews worked into the evening on Monday to install the final piece of track that completes Cheetah Hunt’s epic 4,429-foot run – a record length among Busch Gardens Tampa’s coasters. The final section, which completes the “jump” over the Skyride’s cables, was bolted into place just before 9:30 p.m.

 

Even with the completion of the track, however, the work is far from over in preparing the new mega-attraction for its May 27th grand opening. Crews will spend the next two months finishing the intricate sculpting – or “theming” – of the coasters’ surrounding architecture.

 

Construction also continues on innovative Cheetah Run habitat, which will house more than a dozen of the highly endangered cats and offer guests unique opportunities to get up-close and witness a cheetah’s speed first-hand during daily sprints.

FinalTrack1.jpg.b7e9549132f7297967f40d733f8db6bd.jpg

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FinalTrack3.jpg.b1ca7a5291f0c42764636a3c2324430a.jpg

FinalTrack4.jpg.bc7c5c3e908e590c71fb4e50189827c6.jpg

FinalTrack5.jpg.05a1bec1623e0efaf0998f9a92f55c45.jpg

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^Exactly......the cables will be weighed DOWN once cars are installed thus pulling the cable away from CH's track. Clearance looks OK to me.

Anyone know if any of the other trains have been delivered?

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I believe they said that all 5 were delivered at the same time when they released the photo/ video of the one being unloaded.

 

Only 5 trains? I thought this would be like Maverick with 6 trains and a station allowing 2 trains to be loaded at a time.

 

Nice to see the trackwork has been completed. Now it's time to see what Busch does best: theme and landscape their coasters so that they blend in the area.

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^^ Yea, but have you been to BGT? Slowest ride ops that I've ever seen.

 

Heh. Yeah no kidding. It takes them FOREVER to get Gwazi loaded and on its way. They're a little better at the other coasters (they were quite good on Kumba when I was there last weekend), but Gwazi is definitely the worst.

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^Gwazi is so slow because the still check the seat belts and lap bars separately. Sheikra is a nightmare because the ops seem to just not care. I really wish operations in Tampa were even remotely similar to the operations I experienced last summer in Williamsburg.

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^From what was said before, I believe they will be able to load 2 trains at a time. I'll bet they will be running with 4 trains and have the other train always in maintenance, like with all their other coasters having the extra train for that purpose.

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And I missed this track completion by one week? I must say, the theming they were working on the day I was there looked great and it should be great when the ride is done.

 

I too hope the ride ops are moving quickly by the time the ride opens, there is no excuse for the slowness I encountered when I rode Gwazi. Lion was the only side running, and because one ride op was moving slower than any ride op I've ever seen move before, the guy checking seatbelts on the other side had to go just as slow. I thought about complaining - once the ride was over you had to wait about 2 minutes or more for the next train to be dispatched and then to get back in the station. 5-6 minutes per train even with the double seatbelts was awful, and I think these ride ops didn't care much about the guest. I waited about 20 minutes for what should have been a 5 minute wait. Sheikra was a little slow when I went, and the rest of the rides were fine...seriously though, come on BGT.

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^Five trains with four cars has a higher capacity than six trains with three cars. If the operating crew stays on track and loads and unloads the trains quickly, the PPH should be very high.

That depends on block configuration. In this case, CH's theoretical is higher than Maverick's anyway, but it still all depends on blocks. In Maverick's case, 6 trains is too many. Dragster is the same way, that's why 5 train operation is actually more efficient.

 

From my experience, actual capacity is always much lower than theoretical, simply because of stupid guests, single riders, small/odd numbered parties, and unforeseen circumstances. If CH has a theoretical of 1350, I'd guess around 950-1000 pph actual capacity. Magnum has a theoretical of 2000 riders! Actual capacity hovers around 1200 or 1300. I would not assume CH to have a high capacity, just not a terrible capacity either.

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^ 6 train op on Maverick is the most efficient with the way the computer is set up, with 5 trains the train that loads in the back of the station doesn't park till after the first train is almost unloaded and reloaded. after working it for a summer we saw what was best for the ride and anything less then 6 there was a lot of standing around.

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Intamin has gotten better with figuring out how many trains to use. TTD runs better with 6 trains on paper, but in reality, it runs best with an odd number of trains. 3 trains runs better than 4 trains. It's all because the trains were designed to move in pairs, Multi Move and in dry mode. It has never fully done the paired moving and just recently they started using Dry Mode, which requires a special key which is locked up in a case, serious stuff. It wasn't until 2007 that they even started using Dry Mode.

 

Maverick has a weird proxy switch thing in 5 trains where trains need to fully park in waiting rear before advancing to waiting front, which makes the wait even longer. Sometimes you wouldn't get advance lights until this train was also parked. On occasion in 5 train operation, every 4th?? cycle, the train parking in Station Rear would park too far back and the contacts wouldn't touch on the harness release and we would need to manually release them. Another reason why 5 train is worse on Maverick.

 

Sure, on Maverick, the extra trains do sit in the brake run for a bit of time but due to programming, this is necessary.

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The program is made by Intamin so it's their call on that one. The programmers come to the park and do some adjustments here and there but its costly for them to do so, so nothing to major.

 

Dragster did get a "Super Power Button" for quicker testing in the morning. What used to take a few launches to get an empty train over, can now be done in one launch. Also needs a different key locked in a different cabinet.

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From my experience, actual capacity is always much lower than theoretical, simply because of stupid guests, single riders, small/odd numbered parties, and unforeseen circumstances. If CH has a theoretical of 1350, I'd guess around 950-1000 pph actual capacity. Magnum has a theoretical of 2000 riders! Actual capacity hovers around 1200 or 1300. I would not assume CH to have a high capacity, just not a terrible capacity either.

 

In 2008 the Magnum crew hit ~1800 pph on a fairly decent basis, particularly when the park was crowded. That ride runs wicked efficiently with a competent crew.

 

On a basic level, you're most likely correct - theoretical will generally be higher than actual. In practice though, some good crews and well designed rides CAN hit that mark with consistency. Its all just a wait and see game until the ride is released, and discussing what pph seems sort of silly (in my opinion). The park knows well what they had designed, and hopefully Intamin can deliver.

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