Busch Gardens Tampa- Gwazi Closing, Official Announcement

 Gwazi Closing for Good, Says Busch Gardens Tampa.

 Honestly, I'm not even the smallest bit surprised when I woke up to read this news. Gwazi has been a long-standing issue for Busch Gardens Tampa in recent years.

 Now, I could go into detail but I'm sure you've all read my opinions on the matter before, so I won't bore you with a litany of complaints in regards to theme parks not up-keeping their attractions. If you do want to know- Please see "This Link About Gwazi".

 Sunday, February 1st will be the final day and Gwazi will close for good. A sad ending for what was once the pride of Busch Gardens Tampa and an amazing roller coaster. The parks are citing 'budget cuts' which is likely true but at the same time this leads back to the checkered history of maintenance on the wooden coaster as well as an endless series of constant upkeep to maintain a wooden roller coaster in the environment of Central Florida.

 The proof for this lays in the fact Busch Gardens Tampa will not be demolishing the ride anytime soon. While no reason has been given for this, it's likely due to not having anything to fill the space in addition to the cited budget cuts. While the parks may be going through rough times right now, I doubt they have any hope of somehow saving this ride (not with how little they've done to keep it running in recent years). It's simply the final death blow for a coaster which has been unwanted since the Busch Family sold the parks.

 It's a sad day, what was once the show piece of a theme park is falling into a silent wooden shadow.

Photo Report- Busch Gardens Tampa

Photo Report- Busch Gardens Tampa

Please enjoy our photo trip through Busch Gardens Tampa.  If you haven't already read our review of the park, please visit:
Park Review- Busch Gardens Tampa

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Rumor Alert- Busch Gardens Tampa considering a Hyper Coaster?!

 Today Screamscape has reported an interesting new rumor coming from Busch Gardens Tampa. It seems that members of the parks engineering department made a little visit over the weekend to Canada's Wonderland amusement park.

While normally this wouldn't be interesting, it's worth noting because Canada's Wonderland has something very famous sitting in their park.  It's something very tall, very fast and deliciously fun that's also built by B&M coasters. A company that Busch Gardens has an excellent working relationship with.

 Canada's Wonderland is home to Leviathan, a B&M answer to Cedar Point's Millennium Force. It stands just 4 feet shorter and 1 MPH slower then it's Ohio cousin.  Could Busch Gardens be considering a B&M Hyper Coaster for their Tampa park? 

 There is also another possibly which Screamscape didn't address in their rumor.  Canada's Wonderland is also getting "Wonder Mountain's Guardian" which is an interactive dark-ride shooter style attraction. While Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a dark ride in "Curse of DarKastle" a shooter would be an interesting addition to the Tampa property which doesn't currently have a dark ride style attraction.

 Personally I don't think we'll see this rumor come to light before the 2016 season simply because at the moment Busch Gardens Tampa is currently building "Falcon's Fury" a new style drop ride which will open in Spring 2014.  Could this be the supposed replacement for when Gwazi finally goes offline in the future?




 While these are just rumors and some speculation on my behalf, we'll have to watch Busch Gardens Tampa closely to see what they have planned for the park's future.

Busch Gardens Tampa- The Gwazi Situation

So, What IS the deal with Gwazi?!

The hell if I know, let's find out!

  Basiclly, the Tiger side of the dueling coaster, Gwazi, has been closed since 2012. Some of us really want to know "WHY"?! Which is a perpetual question that bugs me to no end, especially when it comes to why theme parks do strange things. Gwazi is an amazing ride and always was. Now, some folks will tell you that this closure happened because the ride was just 'too rough',  even with the new Millennium Flyer trains.  Say it with me kids, BULLSHIT. It's a wooden coaster, that's kind of what they do. The new trains reportedly didn't help smooth the ride and butchered the main points of Gwazi, air time and speed. I rode Gwazi for years, from the week it opened till my last visit in 2006 on the Philadelphia Toboggan Company trains. It wasn't any rougher then many other wooden coasters I've rode in my years and a good deal smoother then some (Hercules, Mean Streak, Ect). So simply, I'm not buying the 'it's too rough' excuse.

  The officially stated reason is 'Budget Issues' which, if you have half a brain, just screams "BULLSHIT".  Busch Gardens Tampa doesn't have a budget problem, they have a broken coaster and space problem. 

  Let me explain..

  Busch Gardens is located in Temple Terrance, FL (Suburb of Tampa Bay) which is about 9 miles North of the Bay and about 23 miles East of the Gulf of Mexico. Plenty of cool ocean breezes and the lovely salt they carry with them. Salt water is the problem, wood warps easily when went and salt corrodes the hell out of everything. With a wooden coaster like Gwazi so close to so many of these elements, it's probably costing a small fortune in lumber to keep the ride running at any level (maybe this is the 'budget problem'?).  The second problem is termites, they have a field day with any exposed wood in Florida no matter if it's the treated stuff or not. The third problem is sand, the entire state of Florida is nothing but a sand bar on limestone. Sand likes to shift and move around randomly, think of sink holes.  

  All three of these are probably key factors as to the situation with Gwazi. I'm not engineer nor am I a geologist, but I spend enough of my life in Florida to know the problems with any structure. A giant dueling wooden coaster is a rather large structure, after all. 

  Now, before you go off saying it's some kind of a massive flaw with the fact this is a dueling wooden coaster, it's not. Gwazi has a sister coaster,  built in the same style (dueling) with the same elements (Height, Near-Passes, Etc) called Lightning Racer in Hershey Park. Lightning Racer has no massive problems, no "rough ride" and certainly half of it isn't closed.

From CoasterImage.com

  So what does it all really mean? I'm not sure, I have some suspicions of my own but you've got to know the history first. Gwazi was a pet project for Anheuser-Busch Entertainment when it was built, they REALLY wanted a wooden coaster at their Florida park because no one else had one operating outside of the Florida Panhandle at the time. It was a huge deal then, a wooden coaster in Central Florida, MADNESS! When Gwazi was built it had the most fly-by's of any dueling coaster, it is still the largest and fastest double wooden coaster in the Southeast US.. and Busch Gardens had it.

  Now when Blackstone bought out the theme park from InBev (who bought Anheuser-Busch) things began to change. I believe Gwazi is one of those things which will be changing quickly, they no longer want to spend the money to up-keep a pride and pet project. This is my own opinion of what's happening to Gwazi today. 

  Then comes the space issues. Busch Gardens Tampa doesn't really have much space left, their in a rather crowded area surrounded on all side by other businesses, highways, homes and such. This doesn't leave much room, if any at all, to expand with new attractions without getting rid of one key element of this park, the animals.

Example of what I mean. Bad Paintbrush by yours truly. Image from Google Earth

 As you can easily see, they really don't have any space. Sure, you could easily shift around parking lots and such but that's not the point here (trust me, I've seen them parking in the ball field and grass when it gets stupid busy, it's not fun). Gwazi takes up a lot of space. Space that Blackstone could put something new and in need of less TLC into.

  That's exactly what the rumors are saying is going to happen. They've been reported from half a dozen places, including ScreamScape, which say that a new 'speed coaster' will be coming sometime in 2014-2015. I can't tell you if this is true or not, but I can say this: I don't like it. Gwazi is unique and fun and wooden coasters are getting more rare by the day as steel is cheaper and easier to build. Having a wooden coaster is almost a badge of honor for most parks and for someplace like Busch Gardens Tampa, it's a huge achievement and a labor of love. To get rid of it because you want to save some extra cash and labor costs? Not cool, Blackstone. Not cool at all.

  In the end, I can't tell you what's really wrong with Gwazi, just my own speculations. Nor can I tell you it's ultimate fate, just the rumors. However, I can tell you this: to loose it wouldn't be an advantage to the park, it'd be a disability and a damn shame.