Tampa’s Busch Gardens is without any doubt one of the premiere roller coaster destinations in Florida. On my first trip there I tried to do as many of them as I could so I can post my impressions in this first review of the park. I was accompanied by my 8-year old boy who just grew to the minimum height required for the major coasters – 54″, and he was excited to try for the first time the real experience of fast drops and inverted loops.
So here’s in brief a list of the rollercoasters we rode:
- Cobra’s Curse is a good starter coaster. It’s quite gentle and appropriate for smaller kids. An interesting touch is that the initial climb is done by elevator. Then what sets is apart is the the car rotates on the track, so sometimes you’d go sideways, and a few times even backwards. They say it’s random, so every ride will feel different.
- Scorpion is another intermediate level ride. It’s fast and shaky, and it has one upside-down loop in the beginning, but the rest is no different than kiddie coasters. Still a fun steel ride!
- Kumba is an amazing, roaring coaster that starts with an 135 ft drop and continues with several inversions, zero-gravity loops, and some 360 degree spirals. My son was really amazed as this was his first ever “grown-up” rollercoaster, and he said he can ride anything as long as the over-the-shoulders restraint makes him feel safe.
- Montu was our favorite, an inverted roller coaster, meaning you hang from the rail and your feet dangle freely. It’s fast, it has no less than seven inversions, including a zero-gravity roll, and an Immelmann loop (combined loop and roll).
We couldn’t ride the Cheetah Hunt as it was closed that day, and we still have Tigris and Sheikra on the list for next time. We did the Congo River Rapids though, which was pretty cool and exciting although you get really wet as the raft spins through the whitewater rapids.
We really liked the park design. The buildings and scenery vary depends on the park area, and there are also lots of animal attractions. We didn’t spend too much time with those, as the roller coasters were our goal, but we left plenty to see for a future visit.
If you want to do the coasters quickly, I’d recommend buying the Quick Queue so you can skip the lines. It’s discounted with the annual passes, and from the Silver level up the parking is also included. Parking was pretty easy and the tram to the entrance quick and convenient.
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