Busch Gardens Tampa closing Kumba, will replace with Kumba's Revenge

Sad to see this one go. It was the first B&M coaster I ever saw in person. My family visited Busch Gardens Tampa in early 1993, and I happened to catch it during the testing phase before it opened. I had never seen anything like it. That experience sparked my fascination with roller coasters and how they worked. Before that, my coaster experience was mostly Geauga Lake, Cedar Point, Conneaut Lake Park, and a handful of smaller regional parks where Arrow coasters and portable rides were the norm. I had no idea coaster trains could look like that, let alone move like that.

I stood there watching it complete cycle after cycle, memorizing the layout and trying to recreate it later in Disney's Coaster software. It wouldn't be until 25 years later that I finally got to ride it myself. It absolutely lived up to the anticipation, and I'm glad I got a couple of rides before its retirement. It's always bittersweet when a coaster with that kind of personal history reaches the end of its run, hopefully the future of that plot of land will be bright and actually intrigue me to return to that park.

Isn’t the already enough in the world?