Busch Gardens Tampa
Tampa, FL
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(6/20/2026) Howl-O-Scream Tampa Says The Doctor Is Returning... + A New Park President
(5/23/2026) Busch Gardens Tampa Bringing Drone Show and Free Beer This Summer
(5/12/2026) New Water Ride Permits Filed
(3/22/2026) Kumba Status Update
(3/15/2026) Busch Gardens Tampa Closes Kumba Yet Again
 General Park News - (6/20/2026) United Parks has announced the arrival of Jon Vigue to Busch Gardens Tampa who will serve as the new Park President. Jon comes to BGT from his previous position in the industry where he served as the VP and General Manager of Herschend’s Wild Adventures theme park in Georgia since 2020. Prior to that he was also the Director of Operations and Assistant GM at Wild Adventures, and prior to that was Assistant GM at Lake Compounce.
(5/23/2026) Busch Gardens Tampa and Williamsburg are adding new drone shows this summer, along with the return of “free beer” once again. According to Blooloop, the Tampa park introduced their new Wild Skies drone show this week as the anchor for their summer Nights promotion that runs from May 22 to August 9th. The experience includes 400 drones to light up the night sky alongside fireworks.
(12/20/2025) A big improvement has finally come to Tigris at Busch Gardens Tampa. According to posts on social media it has been confirmed that the coaster has removed the “Comfort Collars”, allowing guests to now ride with a simple lap bar. This seems to be a copy of the change that was made to Ice Breaker at SeaWorld Orlando which features the same style Premier Rides trains that opened with the Comfort Collars in 2022 but removed them by early 2023 by adding a seatbelt as a secondary restraint, and Tirgis has now followed suit.
I’m not sure why it has taken nearly 3 years to make the move since they did it to Ice Breaker, but with Tigris now converted, it would seem that it should only be a matter of time before the company makes the same move with the trains on sister rides, Tempesto at Busch Gardens Tampa and Electric Eel at SeaWorld San Diego.
Unfortunately, there is a small storm-cloud of news to come with this item, as the rumor mill is also whispering that Tigris will be the next coaster at the park to add metal detectors, banning all loose objects in order to force guests to pay to use lockers before riding, just as they did earlier this year with Iron Gwazi. Instead of offering a free mini locker for personal items as they do at the Disney and Universal parks down the road, Busch Gardens is now charging guests $4 for a 2-hour locker rental when they ride Iron Gwazi. There is also an option to pay $12 for a reusable locker pass that can be used elsewhere in the park, but…. The rumor mill also suggests that the park may be considering dropping this feature before too long.
(10/12/2025) I’ve mentioned this was coming on social media, but a recent change to operations at Busch Gardens Tampa on Iron Gwazi has seriously irked their guests. Much like what we’ve seen put in place for several years on Universal Orlando’s major roller coasters, a revised policy banning “all loose objects” while riding is now in effect at Busch Gardens Tampa. I say revised, only because technically a ban on loose objects has always been in place, but now the park is seriously enforcing it along with metal detectors, and forcing everyone to use lockets for the items.
This is where they’re really pissed off their guests however… unlike how Universal and Disney handle their loose items policy with free temporary locker systems at the ready, Busch Gardens is forcing their guests to pay for lockers. I believe the charge right now is $4 for the first 2 hours and if the line is longer or you want to ride more than once, it’s an extra $2 for every extra hour.
To be honest, the requirement to use lockers for your stuff is not a bad one. It is safer for both your stuff as well as anyone standing below, as no one wants to be hit by a flying cell phone falling out of a pocket. Earlier this year I addressed this very issue with a popular article published by Blooloop called “Shouldn’t Ride Lockers Be Free By Now?”, as more than anyone, the concept only serves to benefit the park by streamlining operations and throughput on the ride, as well as removing the risk of possible injury lawsuits from taking place. Universal has been offering free lockers for their major thrill rides longer than I can remember and even Disney joined in on the concept when they opened Tron: Lightcycle/Run in 2023, and now a few other parks (thank you Hersheypark) have seen the light as well.
So really, being in the heart of the Central Florida theme park market, Busch Gardens Tampa has no excuse to not offer free lockers on Iron Gwazi and any other major thrill ride they expand this to, if for nothing else than to just keep up with the industry standards of their peers.
So say it with me now… “Ride Lockers at Theme Parks Should Be Free!”
Howl-O-Scream 2026 - (6/20/2026) Howl-O-Scream Tampa has released their first teaser for the 2026 haunt season… confirming that “The Doctor” will be returning this season. Combined with the pinkish nurse hat, this can only mean one thing… the FIENDS musical show featuring sexy nurses and monsters dancing about with Dr. Frankenstein, will be making a much appreciated return to the park.
FIENDS was last performed way back at Howl-O-Scream 2022 before being quietly retired at the Tampa, while a similar FIENDS show has continued to thrive at Busch Gardens Williamsburg all these years.
2026 - Lion & Hyena Ridge - (11/6/2025) Busch Gardens Tampa will open a new animal habitat area in 2026 called Lion & Hyena Ridge. This will be a reimagining of an existing animal space in in the park that will now become more than twice its previous size for a pride of 5 young male lions and two hyenas.
2027/2028 - New Water Ride - (5/12/2026) Rumor has it that initial permit requests have been filed by Busch Gardens Tampa to build an estimated $16.5 million water ride attraction that is expected to replace the former Stanley Falls log flume ride. It isn’t known yet what company is behind this, though United Parks has traditionally used either Mack Rides or Intamin for all of their water ride projects to date. The last two built were from Intamin however: the Catapult Falls launched flume ride that opened at SeaWorld San Antonio in 2024 and Infinity Falls at SeaWorld Orlando in 2018.
However, if we flash back to the new attraction concept survey the park sent to guests in July 2025, one of the proposed concepts was for a unique sounding new water ride experience. It was described as “an outdoor, multi-environment, dynamic adventure where they will traverse uncharted jungle trails, explore hidden caves, and plunge into the whitewater of a raging river.” If I didn’t know better, they may have uncovered an unused description for the park’s former Rhino Rally attraction, but after seeing the new technology put to use by Mack Rides for Mission Bermudes at Futuroscope in France this year, using their new Rocking Boat ride concept, this does indeed sound like it could be another version of this new ride concept.
|
