What's next for Busch Gardens Tampa??
- Thread starter Andy
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- Feb 17, 2014
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Looks nice and definitely suggests Kumba isn't going anywhere for now.
More excited for the pass holder lounge, but keeping expectations low because there was no mention of free soda. Great location with the Serengeti outlook, but it'd be lame without the free refreshments.
More excited for the pass holder lounge, but keeping expectations low because there was no mention of free soda. Great location with the Serengeti outlook, but it'd be lame without the free refreshments.
Please be for a new nighttime spectacular. I’ve wanted an awesome night show for the summer at BGT for years!
I like it! Very nice to see this park getting more theming rather than less. And we're finally getting a pass holder lounge! Someone at BGT is making some good calls.
If I had to guess it's probably for the new Summer Celebration fireworks show; I know last year they already had fountains for their summer fireworks show, so idk if this is just them bringing that back or if they intend to expand it? Either way it's great that they're stepping up their game on these fireworks shows and entertainment in general. Now what would really be awesome is a permanent water fixture of some sort as part of a year-round nighttime show, one that ties into the safari/exploration theme of the park. With that enclosed gwazi field space you could really do some cool stuff with immersive sound and light effects coming from different directions, maybe even some Rivers of Light style abstract projection mapping onto Gwazi, Falcon's Fury, and other stuff surrounding the area.
Personally no idea, but I thought I saw a job posting for some sort of stage crew/manager position the other day (unless it was SWO?). So maybe it's another live action show? I just hope it's something theatrical, like with a plot. That's something the park has completely lost unless you count the Sesame Street shows.
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*EDIT*--ignore this accidental double post, somehow my edit to the last one got posted separately and now I can't delete it lol
Passholders got an email saying “The additions are so big that we are introducing a new event called Summer Celebration! Get ready for a new show in Gwazi Plaza, the return of a fan favorite, Cirque Electric, a new acapella group called Finish the Phrase in Dragon Fire Grill, and the Pantopia theater will reopen this summer!” Looks like Summer Nights has been replaced
Honestly KaTonga was so high caliber. I miss the Busch Gardens that used to produce stuff like that
It will probably be a show where some guy just dips dry ice in different liquids for 30 minutes
"ICE Xtreme with Danger Dan the Ice Man"
- Jul 8, 2019
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Summer "Nights" tied them into being open until 10pm every night. I wouldn't be surprised if weeknights get cut.
It was crazy how dead some of the weeknights were last year, particularly on nights when the evening sea breeze storms got a little feisty
I believe they were trying to mimick what the parks up north do during the summer...but they also aren't open year around
And also Summer Nights lasted for a very long time in terms of events
This allows them to extend the event way past what we view as "summer" whilst closing "early" on weekdays
It's not really a make or break for me and totally an understandable move *looks at Universal's constant early closings*
- Feb 17, 2014
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Wow oh wow. I just watched it on yt. I will admit I just saw BG as the thrill park and only somewhat recently started to explore more of what it has to offer because my ex didn't do rides and boredom when I'd stop by. I got older and I'm still there for the rides but priorities have changed when I can just walk in when I can surmount the drive from South fl. That was some of the best entertainment I've seen in a park. I'm a fan of musicals and I would have loved to see this show so much. The ice skating show is fine but is nothing like this and is also a mismatch for the theme. It just feels like a show just to have a show. The animal show was enjoyable, but just doesn't compare. I would really love to see this come back or something equivalent. I'm blown away tbh. I just went to Disney and the experience just wasn't the same, but that show reminds me of what I remember in terms of quality. My entire family walked out of the lion king show with memories of how great it used to be complaining of various issues outside of just the cuts to the show itself. I was so excited to see it and see my little nephew's reaction only to feel let down.
I felt genuine emotion watching Katonga. I too fear we'll never see something like that again at the SEAS parks. I really hope they will find the right balance in the future.
Edit: Have had The Storm/Celebrate the Light on repeat for a minute now .
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KaTonga was easily the best theme park show I've ever seen and I really don't think it can be topped. It's a shame sitting in that theater now thinking about what could be showing instead
Yeah I remember seeing Katonga as a little kid with my family, those were definitely good days for BGT. Way more entertainment, more attention to detail and focus on theming/immersion, and much more diverse rides and attractions, ie not just coasters, coasters and more coasters. Rhino Rally is still the coolest ride BGT has ever built imo. Iceploration was a fantastic show as well, and that period in the early-mid 2010's when the park was trying to up their game on theming with Cheetah Hunt, Pantopia, and Cobra's Curse was very good as well. It's sad to see how things devolved from 2017 onward, but here's hoping we're entering a new chapter for the park post-iron gwazi. A new fireworks show that captures the essence of what made Katonga and Iceploration awesome would be a great start.
There are actually some promising signs this year, with various closed things (rides, shows, train stations, the top floor of Serengeti overlook) reopening and areas of the park getting visual updates. I read the email Screamscape posted and to me the fate of Kumba seems like a question mark still despite the park's semi-denial, though the fact that it's now in the concept art for the new gate makes me skeptical it's going away. Regardless, the possibly dubious source did say the replacement would be something unexpected, which I would think to mean "not a roller coaster," so hypothetically it'd be intriguing to see what that would be.
Screamscape also said that a repaint had been cancelled (even though it was just repainted a few years ago) and that the ride was running with only one train (which I can debunk personally, it was running two trains everytime I visited recently), so it's clear that the rumor is BS.
- Feb 17, 2014
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I was onboard with BG and SeaWorld going a more Six Flags route lately, but I have to admit that the idea that we're losing entertainment and experiences like that has me thinking otherwise. I think that show could completely change a visitor's perception of the park. It is the type of show that could have been run in perpetuity.
I loved Rhino Rally as well. The last time my dad was there Rhino Rally was still running in its shortened form and he lamented the cuts to the experience the entire day to the point that he suggested there was no reason he needed to return.
I just don't see that version of the park returning. We'll see what happens, but the changes at the Williamsburg park are pretty indicative of what's happening at the entire chain. A Sesame Street dark ride seems like a no brainer at SWO, but I'm not sure it'll happen with their trajectory. I really think they should reconsider their direction. They can do both. A Soarin over Africa seems like such an easy decision, but we saw what happened with Europe in the Air and the direction of the company seems to just close it and add a thrill ride. I can't even blame them for the FL parks at least because they're carving out their own niche separate from Disney and UO, but it's a shame.
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The show was an artful thesis statement on the main ethos the park was based around. Using the tradition of storytelling as a platform to share universal values that young and old could appreciate all told through the eyes of animals and nature. It was a true gem in the theme park industry, and actually had some legit designers and directors working on it.
I do feel like post-blackfish the show would feel a bit out of place in the new era
My problem with the "thrill park" identity that BGT is now attempting is that they can easily be beat in that endeavor by other parks.
The harmonius nature of the "from wildlife to wild rides" around the park were truly formative in many people's fondness of the parks now.
Some other examples of this working well was the Manta queue/ride, Cheetah Hunt/Run and Rhino Rally...Even Cobra's Curse has some DNA of the intermixing of animals/rides/education/and fun
Ugh, whatever, I could go on and on...but I'm glad you watched the show, it was truly spectacular and emotional
Yeah, that's what I just don't get. They've got every opportunity to be an incredible world-class destination theme park, even with the budget they have, but lately they've just been consistently turning that opportunity down every single time for... reasons. I get that they can't be Disney or Universal, but they can be Knott's Berry Farm, King's Dominion, Toverland, or for that matter Busch Gardens Williamsburg. They can have dark rides (practically every park nowadays does, including Six Flags), they can have immersive theming, and they can pay attention to detail. They could create totally unique experiences with relatively minor changes to the park, but for whatever reason (and I suspect this can be pretty much exclusively traced to one or two bean counting shareholders with outsize influence and undersize understanding of or care for this park or theme parks in general) they haven't been doing any of that for the past several years. As a theme park enthusiast who grew up going to Busch Gardens, it's been frustrating to watch the exact things that made it so special to me now being tossed by the wayside in favor of short-term profits and off-the-shelf thrill rides like Tigris or the Screamin Swing.
All that being said, I'm still holding out hope we could be witnessing the beginning of a renewed investment in the quality of the park experience, with all the little improvements happening recently.
Also, I second the idea that Soarin over Africa would be a no-brainer. It wouldn't be like Europe in the Air since there's no operational simulator they can frankenstein into a new ride, but flying theaters seem to be cheap these days anyway with Legoland and Kennedy Space Center (among many other smaller attractions) already having one. I'd say either replace the bumper cars and RC boats with a flying theater in the Congo area (imo the ideal spot) or retrofit the Questor ride building (possibly the cheaper option).
