OPINION: Here are the best roller coasters at Busch Gardens Tampa

I went on each of Busch Gardens’ nine rides, and settled on three that soared above the rest. ORACLE GRAPHIC/CAROLINA MOLERO ROCA

In many ways, Busch Gardens has represented my time at USF almost as much as the campus itself.

My first trip to the park was for my high school’s graduation night, and my second visit was the day before orientation. Then, my third was a goodbye trip with my friends to celebrate the end of our first semester before winter break broke us apart for a month.

These recurring trips — made possible by the park’s proximity to USF’s Tampa campus — have invariably connected it in my mind to each distinct phase of my college experience.

Busch Gardens, which is part amusement park, part zoo, is just south of USF’s Tampa campus.

Single-Day tickets start at $148, though the park frequently offers discounts for college students, including one in 2024 and another this year that ended in May, according to its website.

Earlier this summer, I visited the park with family — my first time visiting it in a non-college context.

But on that trip, I also realized I’ve now been on each of its nine roller coasters several times over, or at least enough to have settled on specific personal favorites.

For anyone who may be planning a Busch Gardens trip for the remainder of the summer or the coming semester, here are the park’s best rides for thrill seekers.

Cheetah Hunt is the first ride you see upon entrance to Busch Gardens — and the first one I ever rode at the park — and is perhaps the best introduction to ease yourself into the park if you’re new to roller coasters.

The ride is tamer than many of Busch Gardens’ other offerings, with more subdued turns and smaller drops than you might expect from a stereotypical roller coaster.

But the ride makes up for its lack of thrills through its atmosphere. Several sections of straight track survey the park’s diverse environments, and a short series of successive twists launches you through a small canyon at the midway point.

And it’s not like the ride is entirely lethargic — the cart occasionally speeds up to 60 miles per hour for several rather intense, albeit restrained, bursts of energy. My personal favorite is the full barrel roll that occurs around a minute in, easily the coaster’s boldest choice.

But if you’re at a theme park, you probably want something more aggressive, in which case SheiKra is better up to speed.

SheiKra’s best moment comes right at the ride’s start — at the precipice of the track’s 200-foot peak, the cart turns down in preparation for its forthcoming 90-degree drop.

In “dive coaster” tradition, the cart remains suspended in animation for five seconds, forcing you to stare agonizingly into the ground you know you’re mere seconds from plummeting into.

Your mind braces for what’s to come. Then, everything pauses.

This opening builds just the right amount of tension for the remainder of SheiKra to elatedly release through a very well-executed thrill ride in the form of large loops and disorienting inversions.

I remember riding SheiKra with my friends during our freshman year goodbye visit, and despite the ride having the longest line of the entire park at more than an hour, we got off the ride wholly invigorated, confident the wait was worthwhile.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say SheiKra was the most intense ride at Busch Gardens.

Somehow, though, it pales in the shadow of Iron Gwazi.

I first rode Iron Gwazi during my high school graduation trip as my last ride before the park closed for the night.

The girl sitting next to me said she’d been on it five times in a row, and added, very casually, that it was “fun.” I believed her.

For the next two minutes, I thought I was going to die.

After a rickety, 30-second climb that stalls just long enough at the top to let you take in the staggering 206-foot view of the Temple Terrace area, Gwazi falls face-first into a 91-degree drop — and then the ride actually begins.

At its peak, the coaster reaches 76 miles per hour while jostling between inversions and swerves that intertwine themselves in the impression that the track is a labyrinth you are hopelessly stuck inside.

And just before the ride nears its end, the track transitions into a “Zero-G Roll” — also called a death roll — where the cart, while rising and falling, twists a full 540 degrees.

All the while, you’re strapped in by a beam — no buckle — as if you’re one bump away from flying freely out of your seat.

As I looked for information about Gwazi, I stumbled upon the idea of a “euthanasia coaster” — a hypothetical roller coaster sketched by engineer Julijonas Urbonas with the sole purpose of killing every passenger.

This ride doesn’t — and thankfully can’t — exist, but Iron Gwazi is probably the closest anyone has come to its creation.

Anyway, all that’s to say that Iron Gwazi is easily the best ride at Busch Gardens — at least if you’re looking for pure fear.

I’d be remiss not to mention some of my other favorite rides at the park that sadly didn’t make the cut.

I love Tigris’s backward launch that leads into a fun back-and-forth, but the entire ride passes so fast — no more than 50 seconds — that it all just feels like empty calories in the end.

And though not exactly considered a roller coaster, Serengeti Flyer — a massive swing ride that reaches 135 feet high at 68 mph — is forever burned into my brain for its gravity-defying peak.

As I finish writing this article, I’ve come away holding a deeper appreciation of Busch Gardens’ coaster designs than before.

There are some really cool offerings at the park, and the fact that it’s so close in proximity to the Tampa campus is even cooler.

But more than anything, I’ve enjoyed the chance to reflect on each of my visits to the park, and the distinct phases of my college life they’ve come to represent.

Busch Gardens has been around for nearly every semester of my college journey thus far. I just wonder when it will show up next.

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