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 (revenge)* enough in the world?

*edited. Well that all fell flat.

Enough what? Kumbas? B&Ms? Busch Gardenses? Coasters being removed? Enthusiasts? Hamburgers? Taxes? Murder? Children?

Enough pancakes. Duh.

But never enough gravy.

I remember my amazement the first time I saw Kumba in the mid-90s. Their B&M track chassis and 4-abreast trains were such a thing of beauty compared to the Arrow Dynamics machines I was used to, which were mostly function over form.

I remember seeing a photo from the top of Kumba's first drop in a magazine in my school library in the mid-90s. I remember thinking the drop was impossibly steep and couldn't imagine ever riding such a giant, intimidating ride. Years later on a family vacation we went to BGT and the ride lived up to the hype.

It's weird seeing rides I saw get built on the internet start to come down.

BrettV:

It's weird seeing rides I saw get built on the internet start to come down.

There will be one soon that will be soul crushing, to each of us individually. For me, it was The Big Bad Wolf. I won't be heartbroken about Kumba, simply because I never enjoyed it as much as others did. It was beautiful to look at, amazing engineering for its time, game changing even. However, BGT was the one park that I could guarantee that I would be on the bench with a headache before lunch. Something about Kumba hit me the wrong way, ever time I would visit. I've not ridden it in over 15 years. I haven't missed it when I was at the park and it was down for its recent long closures. That doesn't mean others don't love it, as many did. I keep hoping that park will put in something without inversions, but that dream will never come to fruition.

I'm sad to see it go from a historical sense, but if I don't WANT to ride it when it's still running, then I won't miss it when it's gone. Not crapping on it, it's just one that wasn't for me personally.

While Big Bad Wolf doesn't have the same sentimentality to me, I do have some fun keepsakes. (A friend's now-former wife worked there at the time.)

I can't think of a ride removal that I've been devastated by. It would have to be something like The Beast to really get to me. The closest thing I could think of would be KI's Vortex, and even that was more about nostalgia and sentimentality, because the ride had fallen off my "must-do" list a long time before it was razed.

I still like the analogy I drew at the time, so I'll repeat it here:

Today, I drove by an empty building that used to be a Family Video, which had been open and renting movies just a few short months ago. As I looked at it, I realized that I have the same feelings about it that I do about Vortex: I used to love going there when I was a kid, and even though I hadn't been there in long time and basically no longer had any use for it, I still liked having it around and I'm sad that it's now gone.

For me it was the Geauga Lake closure. The park was in sad shape, I was in college and barely visited those last few years, and the closure almost felt like a relief at the time.

Then in 2008 I moved to Florida and likely wouldn't have even gone that year. But when May came and there was no more park, I was (and still am) sad it was gone.

I named my first cat Kumba.

Behind only Mr Freeze, Kumba was huge in turning me into the coastertool that I am today. In 1997 I worked for an all night cargo airline that flew piston twins and old Learjets. One of the craziest "because I could" things I ever did was depart Saint Louis at 2am, and ride 5 legs to get to BGT. Then 3 legs back that night to arrive back at 2am. All because I had seen pictures of the most amazingly beautiful rollercoasters Kumba and Montu on this new thing called the Internet.

Kumba has always been special and I've ridden it many more times over the years. It's seen better days but that would never stop me from taking a few laps.

So yeah, I'm quite sad about this, but can't say I'm surprised. I'm more intrigued by "Kumba's Revenge." Will it be a worthy replacement? Or just "Bigger, Faster, Gimmickier and Stupider?" We'll find out soon enough I guess.

Makes me wonder if Montus days are numbered too, that ride is only two years younger then Kumba.

I think for many of us in our later years of life, the end of a ride/coaster/park is a reminder that our time here on this Earth is finite. It’s difficult to think about, especially if your connection with childhood is the introduction of a new rollercoaster and then 50 years later it’s vanished. The Arrow megaloopers, while not the best engineering by today’s standards, were phenomenal rides as a kid; now they are dragged, avoided and almost extinct. The same is happening with B&M’s that we all thought would last forever because they were so incredible; Iron Wolf is basically gone and now those early 90’s rides are facing tough choices too.

I’m thinking about Raptor lately, can anyone imagine Cedar Point without it flying over the midway?

Montu isn't entirely comfortable, but last time I was on it, it felt generally rideable. That particular ride pushes boundaries in terms of its intensity, for sure.

Touchdown:

Makes me wonder if Montus days are numbered too, that ride is only two years younger then Kumba.

Not that this is necessarily an indicator, but the last few visits I had to BGT, Kumba was rough and Montu was still running surprisingly well.

Gunkey Monkey:

The Arrow megaloopers, while not the best engineering by today’s standards, were phenomenal rides as a kid

The Arrow megaloopers were examples of reach exceeding grasp. The engineering of the day (or the company) simply was not good enough to support 170 foot rides. In that respect they were design fails.

I’m disappointed because the Kumba I remember (of 20 years ago) was fast, forceful, visually appealing and breathtaking. Not many rides check all the boxes like that.