Last week I attended Busch Gardens Tampa with my family – the last theme park of our incredibly busy trip to Florida. The park really is a roller-coaster enthusiast’s dream and as someone who is probably one of those I thought it might be nice to do a little slightly Buzzfeed-y ranking of the rides in the park.  

A bit about me and theme parks: I like roller-coasters and thrills but I’m also a sucker for theming and story telling. My favourite ride at Universal Studios Orlando was The Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor roller-coaster come dark ride that’s fast, thrilling, and has a whole lot of pyrotechnics. I don’t pretend I wouldn’t have appreciated a few more drops and twists on it however. On coasters I like to experience new elements, or else the best possible versions of ones I’m familiar with. Seaworld’s Mako was a great coaster but after a similar experience on Portaventura’s Shambahla which had more theming and a fantastic water effect thrown in it was slightly disappointing.  That said, let’s begin.  

My sister and myself had fast passes on this trip and rode everything (bar two exceptions) once.  

We could not ride the swinging ship, Phoenix as it was closed. We also abstained from the drop tower, Falcon’s Fury for the simple reason that I’m scared of drop towers and my sister doesn’t mind missing them. Sorry folks.  

10. Stanley Falls Flume Ride

I hate to put a classic log-flume so low as I genuinely love them, but Busch Gardens has such high quality rides this little fella was always going to struggle. The ride building has a very classic amusement park feel and the slightly faded blue-green pasticy tubing the logs flow through reminded me of kitschy holidays to Blackpool pleasure Beach and the old flume at Alton Towers – all good things! However, having been soaked on the much longer and even more kitschy Dudley Do Right Ripsaw Falls at Islands of Adventure this flume was slightly too lacking in any real character of its own. I also managed to bump my head on the last drop so maybe I’m just a bit biased though. Definitely worth a ride if the queu is short though, what’s a theme park trip without one?

9. SheiKra

 Their tallest coaster with two vertical drops, how can this be so low? The answer – I’ve had the same stalling before plummeting trick pulled on me before on Alton Tower’s Oblivion. Oblivion also boasts a weirdness factor in its pre-ride videos and strange psychology experiment theme that Sheikra lacks. This ride is named after the African shikra hawk but its bright blue and red paint job and rather barren ride building did little to convey the power of its namesake. The ride itself was thrilling, and the stall had me screaming and clutching my harness, but it didn’t stay with me the way other rides did on the day. A must for thrill-seekers but if you’ve ridden similar drop coasters, don’t expect anything too groundbreaking.  

8. Congo River Rapids

 These are possibly the best river rapids I’ve been on at any park. The ride only ranks so low because, again, it’s competing with such high quality coasters. The experience goes on for ages – around a quarter of a mile of dips, turns, caves, and streaming water. The latter I have a slight problem with. I fully knew I would be soaked on this ride, but I did not realise that our entire boat would be sprayed by a thick stream of water right at the end – I went from slightly damp to drenched in water in seconds. It felt a bit of a fun killer to target the whole boat rather than leave it up to the chance of how it spins. We were stuck on the lift hill back into the station for about 10 minutes as loading times and logistics seem to really suffer on this one. These two elements at the end prevent these fabulous rapids from ranking above the next coaster.  

7. Sand Serpent

 Well, its a Wild Mouse. I’m a sucker for these older designs, particularly when you’re otherwise only riding more modern steel coasters with loops and drops. It’s the same shape as the now retired Wild Mouse at Blackpool Pleasure Beach but thankfully doesn’t throw you side to side quite as violently as the older versions. The ride experience is fairly smooth and the little hills , due to the lack of banking twists give a true dropping sensation in the stomach. Great fun and family friendly too, ride it!  

6. Kumba

 A favourite in the Gardens that I’m very grateful to have ridden once. In roller-coaster construction, steel supports are normally filled with sand – Kumba’s supports were intentionally left hollow to give its distinctive roar as it thunders past. Kumba was the only coaster we went on where the fast pass scanner was right at the line entrance meaning I could leave my phone with my dad rather than risk unsecured cubby holes, big points to Kumba for this! Another positive was that the track makes fantastic use of its surroundings, dipping into crevices and zooming round hills, its very well done. My only issue with this ride was its lack of memorability – the roaring feature didn’t add much to the actual ride experience and I didn’t have the same ‘wow’ I did on other coasters.

5. Cobra’s Curse

This more family oriented coaster gets points for its fun factor. The carts are transported upwards via an elevator rather than a lift hill and I’m a big sucker anything that makes the most boring part of a coaster a bit more novel. What follows is a fairly standard but very enjoyable mid-level coaster before the cars are suddenly stopped, spun on their axis and fired off backwards. This goes on for a while and then there is a waltzes like free-spinning segment to finish which, if a little gimmicky definitely means the ride experience is a bit different for everyone – go have yourself a fun unique ride experience!  

4. The Scorpion

 On the train ride our lovely driver-guide described this ride as tame in the same way that the flume is tame. 

She lied.

The small mine cart style carriages and simple lap bar restraint conceal the fact that this little coaster is fast. My sister intended to ride with her hands in the air but promptly held on as soon as we rushed down the first hill. There’s a fantastic moment where the train gains speed by hurling round a horizontal spiral. There’s also a single high speed loop which I hadn’t considered would be truly thrilling in a little cart compared to the comforting overhead restraints of other rides. Would highly recommend this even to big coaster fans – its a fantastic little surprise.  

3. Montu

 I’ve ridden many inverted and floorless coasters over the years, few are as good as Montu. This striking coaster is the first thing you see when you park your car at Busch Gardens and coincidentally was also the last thing we did before going back to it. The initial drop from the rather high lift hill twists slightly meaning you effectively start the experience upside down. Loops and inversions are used masterfully for a fantastic amount of airtime. This coaster, perhaps even better than Kumba makes great use of its ride area – having loops that spiral into holes and an exhilarating number of ‘near-miss’ moments.  

2. Tigris

 This is Busch Gardens’ newest coaster and it required an extra $10 each to add it to our fast pass. I can safely say that it was worth it. Tigris is unlike anything I’ve ever ridden before. Even the ambient music and roar effect as the train set off was an excellent addition otherwise lacking from the park. The cars are small and the restraint is minimal and flexible, it adds to feeling light and vulnerable, upping the thrills. You are launched forward up a steep twisting hill, then you stop and use the force you’ve just gained to be rushed backwards, back through the ride station and up another hill… before gaining some potential energy and rolling forward again This continues and you get further round the coaster with each pendulum like motion. It’s a feat of design and a truly unique take on the coaster format. Points for drama, ride experience, and even car design. Tigris is worth the hype on billboards all over the state.

1. Cheetah Hunt

My number one ride is this fantastic triple launch, cheetah themed, incredibly long coaster. You are launched straight out of the ride station and then launched a further two times throughout the ride with the same acceleration powers as a cheetah. I think I like this one because it combines a lot of the things I really appreciate in a roller-coaster: commitment to a theme, a launch start, and length of track, and use of surroundings. While there is a moment where Cheetah Hunt takes you on swirling journey high above the park, most of the fun comes when it descends low to the ground, even into gorges and you feel like you’re a big cat running down an unfortunate antelope. Its fast, and because you know its a triple launch you spend the majority of the ride anticipating the next acceleration which is truly thrilling and does not disappoint. 

Busch Gardens Tampa is an amazing theme park with amazing rides, this list just my opinion and I found it very difficult to say anything bad about any of them. Hopefully I’ve illustrated what kind of experience each of these is like and you can judge for yourself if its the kind of thing you’d like if you’re every in Tampa.