Negative-G - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay 2024 Page Thirteen

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Tampa, Florida
August 5, 2024
Page Thirteen

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The Iron Gwazi Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

That final new coaster of the day was Iron Gwazi.

The Iron Gwazi Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Iron Gwazi began its life as the twin tracked dueling Gwazi wooden coaster that was designed and built by Great Coaasters International in 1999. Wood coasters and the constant heat and humidity of Florida don't mix well and that ride had quite the reputation for being rough. By the time we got to ride it in 2013 Busch Gardens was only operating one of the sides due to a lack of ridership. On that ride it certainly lived up to its reputation for roughness so we spent the rest of the day riding every other coaster in the park over and over.

Gwazi finally closed in 2015 and for the next few years speculation went rampant with what was going to happen to the ride. Would Busch Gardens completely scrap the ride or let up and coming Rocky Mountain Construction work their magic on it and turn the ride into a hybrid coaster with a wood structure and steel track? As you can see the rumors about Rocky Mountain were correct. Construction began in 2019 and the ride was set to open in 2020. Unfortunately we had a little pandemic caused by a bug called covid and more than a few things got messed up including opening Iron Gwazi.

Iron Gwazi with its wickedly fun ninety-one degree two hundred and six foot tall first drop opened up to rave reviews in 2022.

The twin tracks of the old Gwazi are long gone while Iron Gwazi uses the same station, site, and some of the structure from the original for an entirely new experience.

One thing that I like about the coasters from Rocky Mountain Construction is that they are NOT for the faint of heart. They like to create intense rides that are going to blow your minds or blow you away.