|
Busch Gardens Tampa Tampa Bay, Florida Event: Howl-o-Scream Weather: Sunny and Warm Crowds: Heavy for Howl-o-Scream, Light during the days We drove down from Atlanta at 8am and made it to Clearwater in just under 8 hours. We had a couple hours to kill before the park opened at 7:30, so there was a quick pool visit before heading to the park. It was about 6:30 when we were on our way. The line to get on the park was huge, and Busch Blvd. was slammed, almost back to I-275. It was some of the worse amusement park traffic I’ve ever seen. But the brilliance of Busch showed itself even before we got out of our car. To help control the overwhelming crowd and massive traffic jam, they were just waving people through the parking toll booths, into the lots. Can you imagine Six Flags doing that? I’ve only been to Fright Fest, so while I had an idea what to expect, I knew Busch would do it better. You can feel the buzz of the park as soon as you walk through the turnstiles: darkness, fog, scary music, costumed creatures running amok, and that’s just the entry plaza. Having not been to the park in 5 years, and it being dark, we let our disorientation guide us. We made our way through the crowds and “scare zones” to Sheikra. Now I know it’s kind of a waste to go on the rides during an event like this, but this ride is why we were here. It was our only chance to ride it in the dark (park closed at 6pm the next two days). The queue was way out of the entrance, but BG did a great job at having extra temporary queuing set up for all rides and haunted houses. Fortunately, they were loading/unloading two trains at a time, and running all 5 trains, so it moved pretty quickly. I know the ride ops aren’t the best at this park, but they made their best effort tonight. This ride is everything I hoped it would be. There was great anticipation with the U-turn off the lift hill and the holding brake above the drop. As usual, best visuals in the front, best airtime in the back. It’s a solid free-fall down the first drop, and some impressive G’s at the bottom of the first drop. The floater airtime in the immelman is just unreal, some of the best you’ll find in an inversion. That leads into a high-G curve up into the mid-course. The trims cut down the speed, but usually not to a complete stop. The second vertical drop is a bit more surprising, especially in the back, and they had the mist going like crazy into the tunnel. There’s a nice curve into the splash down, which is fun, and a little dampening for those in the back corner seats. Finally there’s a last curve into the break run. Overall, a very fun ride, with a few exciting elements. Definitely not the most intense or overwhelming experience, but a really unique and enjoyable ride. I can’t rank it as high as Montu or Kumba, but it seems to have found a good spot in my top 20, at #14, ahead of S:ROS at SFDL and behind Dominator at GL. Moving on, we grabbed some suds and watched Fiends, one of their haunted shows. It was pretty entertaining, very racy and suggestive, with scantily clad dancers to boot. Good stuff, this is definitely not a kid’s event. On our way towards Kumba, we decided we should hit a haunted house. I’m not especially the biggest fan of these but I paid my admission, so I figured I had no excuse. It was about a 45 minute wait, and it was pretty cool, though not a freaky as I suspected. I prefer coasters to these things. I enjoyed the scare zones a little more, partly because there’s no line, but also because they involved more than just people jumping out at you. The line for Kumba was about 45, thanks to some drunken moron who actually walked out of the station onto the transfer track, shutting the ride down. Funny thing was, he was still talking smack as he was being escorted out of the line. I think he was too drunk to realize how incredibly outnumbered he was. Ah, god bless the inflated ego that comes with 15 beers. Kumba was running three trains, to our amazement. Apparently, BG bought a 4th train for both this and Montu, and used an older one for parts. I hadn’t heard anything about this rehab, but it was definitely noticeable. It kicked total ass, running better than both of my previous visits. It still wasn’t quite smooth, retaining Raptor’s level of edge. It’s amazing a coaster this old can still do this; it showed exactly why it’s at #9 on my steel list. Scorpion had a short wait, so we took a quick ride on it, as we watched the show entitled “Haunt Me Baby, One More Time”. Clever, no? The rest of the visit kinda blurs from this point on, partly because of the beer, partly because we were dead tired, but mostly because I’m writing this 4 days later. There were a couple more haunted houses, a bunch more cool scare zones, and Montu. It was running as great as ever, the pre-batwing trim was on only enough to make the double inversion bearable. It still sucked the blood down to my feet. The same went for the mid-course, the second loop was as intense as Batman, and the final dive-corkscrew-turn had as much punch as any coaster I’ve been on. Still smooth as glass, and still disorienting as hell. It won’t be moving from my #1 spot anytime soon. The park closed at 2am, as we were finally back at our hotel, including the McD’s stop, at around 4am. We didn’t quite make it for opening on day #2. Sunday, October 16th – Day #2 We were still recovering from the night before, and on about 5 hours sleep, we made it back to the park just before noon. We took the same loop we had done the night before, and it was amazing how different it was in the daylight. Most of the props were gone, and no need for the spooky lighting or music during the day. It was an amazing transition. Since the morning crowd was filing in still, Gwazi had a bit of a wait, so we pushed on, and went right to the Hospitality House. Whoever’s idea it was to give out free beer at a park, I salute you. Awesome. We made it to Sheikra and found the line to be considerably shorter than the night before. After about 10 minutes (running 4 trains, 2 stations), we were on, settling for a middle seat due to the “assigned seating”. We noticed later that it wasn’t really assigned, but you couldn’t wait for a front row if the queue for it was full. It’s definitely a unique station; the individual row queues are actually narrow bridges that span about 15 feet, about 30 feet above the queue downstairs. It was awesome the night before to be next in line, and look straight down at the crowd below you. We finally got our front seat ride when we went on it again. Impressive stuff. You can’t imagine what that drop looks like until you see it. Moving on, we grabbed some more beer, and did some people watching in the shade by the entrance to Python. What a beautiful park, the landscaping is amazing, and it’s all the more impressive since the land they build on was essentially dead flat. We gave Python a token ride, about a 10 min wait, one train, and quickly tried to remember whose idea it was to go on it at all. I’m sure people loved this ride in it’s time...but that time has passed. Kumba was next, down to 2 trains, but pretty much walk-on. We got two rides, and then headed to Timbuktu for lunch. We ate in the Desert Grill Restaurant. Pretty good, but weird having an Italian sausage. I guess this place is the equivalent of the Festhaus at BG Williamsburg. We continued to relax on R.L. Stein’s Haunted Lighthouse. It’s one of those 4-D theater shows, and it was certainly not the best one. Pretty much your standard gags. We gave Scorpion another ride (15 mins, 1 train), and moved on. Rhino Rally was up next, with about a 25 minute wait. It reminded me of a high-speed version of Animal Kingdom’s train safari ride. It was ok, but nothing special. The river section was pretty interesting, but only from a technological standpoint. The ride itself wasn’t much to speak of. We headed over to Montu, and we were on and off in about 15 minutes (2 trains). We had yet to hit Gwazi, so we did that before heading out. After a 5 minute wait (both sides, 2 trains each),we were in the second row of Tiger, the better of the two. It was pretty sweet, I was able to notice many similarities with Thunderhead, but it didn’t have the smoothness or the good trains. Sucks that they weren’t sending them out together, too! It was a little after 5, and we were dead tired, so we headed back to Clearwater for our last night at the nice hotel. The next morning found us driving right back to Busch Boulevard, checking in at the Days Inn. I have one word for you...ghetto. We actually saw a prostitute walking into one of the guest rooms later that night. Monday, October 17th – Day #3 Day 3 started much like day 2. While we thought about Gwazi, Tiger was closed, and the morning crowd had give Lion what looked like a 25 minute wait. No thanks, we hit some free beer instead. (Notice a theme?) A bird show was starting just as we came out of the brewery, so we sipped while we watched. I love this, you can bring your beer anywhere, on lines, into shows, and they just don’t care. It was pretty entertaining, worth the time. Shiekra was, surprise, surprise...next. They were only running one loading section today, but with three trains the small crowds meant about a 5 minute wait. They didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the row lines, so we got a couple of front seat rides before moving on. Next was lunch, at the Zambia Smokehouse. Simply put, it was the best meal I’ve ever had at an amusement park. I got the sampler, which was 2 beef ribs, 2 slices of brisket, a quarter chicken, and fries for around $12. Of course I tacked on the Amber Bock barbeque sauce and a Bud Light, all together it was still under $20. We sat right next to the Sheikra splashdown and watched the coaster fly by as we scarfed down about a pound and a half of meat. (So much for animal conservation!) We headed up to Kumba, and got our last two rides of the visit on it, followed by the credit on Cheetah Chase. All of the brakes up top were open so it was pretty fun. It got me to a respectable 10 new coasters for the season, and 210 total. We went back to towards Python to get the sky ride, and headed over to Egypt. We got one last ride on Montu, since there was one train running, and about a 15 minute wait. We headed back across the front of the park, and were lucky that the side that was running on Gwazi was the one we didn’t get to the day before. Lion was pretty good, also second row, and a 5 minute wait with both trains going. There was also one last stop by the Hospitality House, and we started to really feel just how exhausted we were. We dragged ourselves to Sheikra and gave it a few more rides, seeing as it was pretty much walk-on. We managed to catch the last train from Stanleyville to the front of the park, and then we called it a vacation. The next morning, we were out the door by 8:30am and back in Atlanta just after 3pm. I managed to get home before 4pm, thanks to the surprisingly light rush-hour traffic. It really was another great visit to Busch Gardens Tampa. Howl-O-Scream was unlike any event I’ve been to at an amusement park, and the two extra days were just as fun. While still not up to Cedar Point, Universal, and Disney in terms of efficiency and operations, they excel pretty much everywhere else. The employees are pretty solid, and the food, landscaping, themeing, and ride selection are up there with the best. It just reminds me all too well that’s it’s been 6 years since I’ve been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Back to Trip Reports
|