{"id":340202,"date":"2026-07-14T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340202\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:46:11","slug":"busch-gardens-tampa-bay-replacing-kumba-roller-coaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340202\/","title":{"rendered":"Busch Gardens Tampa Bay replacing Kumba roller coaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The end is coming for Kumba<\/a>, a roller coaster that has run at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay<\/a> for more than three decades.\u00a0 The final day for the ride is Aug. 2, the park announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

It will be replaced by a \u201cnext generation\u201d version of coaster called Kumba\u2019s Revenge. Details and a timeline were not announced about the new ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cKumba has inspired generations of thrill seekers and earned its place as one of the world\u2019s most iconic roller coasters,\u201d Jon Vigue<\/a>, president of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, said in a news release. \u201cAs we celebrate its incredible legacy, we\u2019re also looking ahead. Kumba\u2019s Revenge will honor everything guests loved about the original while delivering an entirely new level of thrills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kumba, located in the Congo section of the theme park, debuted in 1993. The ride, a Bolliger & Mabillard<\/a> product, was touted as the state\u2019s fastest (60 mph), tallest (135 feet) and longest (3,978 feet) roller coaster. It features seven inversions.<\/p>\n

Universal: New pass for 2 theme parks good through mid-December<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Busch Gardens has swapped and enhanced coaster names. Gwazi, a wooden coaster that ran at the park from 1999 to 2015, eventually was replaced by a new and completely different ride named Iron Gwazi in 2022<\/a>.\u00a0 Its latest addition was family-friendly Phoenix Rising, which opened in 2024. Once Kumba closes, its oldest coaster will be Montu, which was rolled out in 1996.<\/p>\n

The Kumba change, Vigue said, is part of a $100 million investment in enhancements, which will cover new attractions and park-wide improvements. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is owned by Orlando-based United Parks & Resorts<\/a>, which also operates SeaWorld Orlando<\/a>, Discovery Cove and Aquatica water park.<\/p>\n

SeaWorld: Haunted house (for sale) set for Howl-O-Scream<\/a><\/p>\n

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. BlueSky: @themeparksdb. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The end is coming for Kumba, a roller coaster that has run at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[558,104,28,29,114,115,1335,139,2043,109,76687,76688,76689,135,137,136,2411,106,1316,107],"class_list":["post-340202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-business","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-seaworld","tag-social","tag-social-entertainment","tag-social-theme-parks","tag-social-travel","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-theme-parks","tag-things-to-do","tag-tourism","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340202","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=340202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}