{"id":319462,"date":"2026-06-25T15:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319462\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T15:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:28:12","slug":"opinion-here-are-the-best-roller-coasters-at-busch-gardens-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319462\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Here are the best roller coasters at Busch Gardens Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>I went on each of Busch Gardens\u2019 nine rides, and settled on three that soared above the rest. ORACLE GRAPHIC\/CAROLINA MOLERO ROCA<\/p>\n

In many ways, Busch Gardens has represented my time at USF almost as much as the campus itself.<\/p>\n

My first trip to the park was for my high school\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

These recurring trips \u2014 made possible by the park\u2019s proximity to USF\u2019s Tampa campus \u2014 have invariably connected it in my mind to each distinct phase of my college experience.<\/p>\n

Busch Gardens, which is part amusement park, part zoo, is just south of USF\u2019s Tampa campus.<\/p>\n

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

Earlier this summer, I visited the park with family \u2014 my first time visiting it in a non-college context.<\/p>\n

But on that trip, I also realized I\u2019ve now been on each of its nine roller coasters<\/a> several times over, or at least enough to have settled on specific personal favorites.<\/p>\n

For anyone who may be planning a Busch Gardens trip for the remainder of the summer or the coming semester, here are the park\u2019s best rides for thrill seekers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: OPINION: Theme parks help college students reconnect with their inner child<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cheetah Hunt<\/a> is the first ride you see upon entrance to Busch Gardens \u2014 and the first one I ever rode at the park \u2014 and is perhaps the best introduction to ease yourself into the park if you\u2019re new to roller coasters.<\/p>\n

The ride is tamer than many of Busch Gardens\u2019 other offerings, with more subdued turns and smaller drops than you might expect from a stereotypical roller coaster.<\/p>\n

But the ride makes up for its lack of thrills through its atmosphere. Several sections of straight track survey the park\u2019s diverse environments, and a short series of successive twists launches you through a small canyon at the midway point.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not like the ride is entirely lethargic \u2014 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\u2019s boldest choice.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re at a theme park, you probably want something more aggressive, in which case SheiKra<\/a> is better up to speed.<\/p>\n

SheiKra\u2019s best moment comes right at the ride\u2019s start \u2014 at the precipice of the track\u2019s 200-foot peak, the cart turns down in preparation for its forthcoming 90-degree drop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In \u201cdive coaster<\/a>\u201d tradition, the cart remains suspended in animation for five seconds, forcing you to stare agonizingly into the ground you know you\u2019re mere seconds from plummeting into.<\/p>\n

Your mind braces for what\u2019s to come. Then, everything pauses.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If I didn\u2019t know any better, I\u2019d say SheiKra was the most intense ride at Busch Gardens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Somehow, though, it pales in the shadow of Iron Gwazi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: OPINION: Tampa summers are more fun than people give them credit for<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I first rode Iron Gwazi during my high school graduation trip as my last ride before the park closed for the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The girl sitting next to me said she\u2019d been on it five times in a row, and added, very casually, that it was \u201cfun.\u201d I believed her.<\/p>\n

For the next two minutes, I thought I was going to die.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 and then the ride actually begins.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And just before the ride nears its end, the track transitions into a \u201cZero-G Roll<\/a>\u201d \u2014 also called a death roll<\/a> \u2014 where the cart, while rising and falling, twists a full 540 degrees.<\/p>\n

All the while, you\u2019re strapped in by a beam \u2014 no buckle \u2014 as if you\u2019re one bump away from flying freely out of your seat.<\/p>\n

As I looked for information about Gwazi, I stumbled upon the idea of a \u201ceuthanasia coaster<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a hypothetical roller coaster sketched by engineer Julijonas Urbonas with the sole purpose of killing every passenger.<\/p>\n

This ride doesn\u2019t \u2014 and thankfully can\u2019t \u2014 exist, but Iron Gwazi is probably the closest anyone has come to its creation.<\/p>\n

Anyway, all that\u2019s to say that Iron Gwazi is easily the best ride at Busch Gardens \u2014 at least if you\u2019re looking for pure fear.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be remiss not to mention some of my other favorite rides at the park that sadly didn\u2019t make the cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I love Tigris<\/a>\u2019s backward launch that leads into a fun back-and-forth, but the entire ride passes so fast \u2014 no more than 50 seconds \u2014 that it all just feels like empty calories in the end.<\/p>\n

And though not exactly considered<\/a> a roller coaster, Serengeti Flyer<\/a> \u2014 a massive swing ride that reaches 135 feet high at 68 mph \u2014 is forever burned into my brain for its gravity-defying peak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: OPINION: Art and culture take center stage in study abroad<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I finish writing this article, I\u2019ve come away holding a deeper appreciation of Busch Gardens\u2019 coaster designs than before.<\/p>\n

There are some really cool offerings at the park, and the fact that it\u2019s so close in proximity to the Tampa campus is even cooler.<\/p>\n

But more than anything, I\u2019ve enjoyed the chance to reflect on each of my visits to the park, and the distinct phases of my college life they\u2019ve come to represent.<\/p>\n

Busch Gardens has been around for nearly every semester of my college journey thus far. I just wonder when it will show up next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I went on each of Busch Gardens\u2019 nine rides, and settled on three that soared above the rest.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-319462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}