Negative-G - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay 2020 Page Thirteen

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Tampa, Florida
December 21, 2020
Page Thirteen

Click on any photo to see a larger version of it.

Deep in the Pantopia section of Busch Gardens Tampa sits a wonderfully rare and insanely fun ride. The Phoenix is a "Looping Starship" type ride from Intamin that were popular in the 1980's. If you are not familiar with these rides they are like swinging ships with the exception that they circle completely around leaving you hanging from the restraints half the way through the ride. Unfortunately the restraints kind of stink (lap bar that crushes your groin and a over the shoulder restraint that crushes your chest while locking down) and while these were popular at parks in the 1980's there may be one still operating in North America. As you can see by the wall and sanitizing station in front of The Phoenix's queue this ride is not running and may not be long for this world.

The Falcon's Fury drop ride at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Sitting in the middle of Pantopia where there once stood a ride that nearly ruined my first visit to Busch Gardens stands the best drop ride on the planet according to me....Falcon's Fury.

Oh if you are curious what happened to me and the ride that occupied this site for 34 years. The ride in question was called the Sandstorm. It was a Orbiter ride by Tivoli Manufacturing. It was a spinning ride that had six arms that came out from the center of the ride. Hanging down from each arm were three pods where guests sat. As the ride spun up the pods would rotate and swing out. The mixture of spinning in a circle while spinning in another circle killed me with motion sickness so much I have not been on a similar ride in the coming decades. That was one of my first clues that I should skip the spinners.

The Falcon's Fury drop ride at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

Back to Falcon's Fury. The ride is built by Intamin and was added to the park in 2014. Like most sky rides there is a nice slow ride to the top where you forget that the clutches of gravity will soon grab you by the wonderful view of the park that is presented before you.

The view is great and it seems that Falcon's Fury really takes its time as it heads to the top of a three hundred and thirty-five foot tall tower.

Drop rides primary currency is taking all of our natural fears of heights and cashing in when they send us speeding to the ground. What Falcon's Fury does differently than anyone else is it ups the ante by not just dropping us, but by letting us speed to the ground face first.