Gwazi to close for good Feb. 1st...

Actually, water is only an issue for wood when it goes through wet / dry cycles. Wood that is continually submerged can last for hundreds of years. Look at Venice Italy. The city is built on wood pilings that pre date pressure treated lumber.

I find it hard to believe that a park that maintains things as well as Busch Gardens didn't know what it would cost in maintenance for a wooden coaster. The financial planning involved had to have spanned for years. Would they really put up a coaster they knew nothing about? And if they had questions regarding maintenance, couldn't they have contacted GCI? I'm wondering if they just didn't have the proper team working on it from day 1.

I am really sorry to see Gwazi go. When I visited the park last December, I was delighted that they actually had a woodie. Only the Lion side was operating but I really enjoyed the ride, enough to ride it again. As far as woodies go, I thought that this one was pretty decent. The plunge into total darkness was great, especially during a night ride. This coaster was certainly much better than Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Wild Beast, Mean Streak or Cyclone at Six Flags New England (but what isn't better than the lamentable Cyclone - bring on Twisted Cyclone!). And I feel strongly that every theme park should have at least one woodie. Otherwise the park seems incomplete.

I'm not sure the weather can be entirely to blame. There was the Dania Beach Hurricane that operated from 2001 to 2011. I rode it circa 2004, and it was a good ride at the time. Did anyone ride it near the end of its life?

White Lightning is every bit as good as it was when it opened, closing in on two years old. I think I did Gwazi at 2 and it was already terrible.

And yes, I know it's a steel structure, but the train rides on wood track.

RCMAC said:

I thought that place went out of business.

I assume you're talking about Boomers? No, Boomers is still open. When I stay in Ft Lauderdale for work, I can see the Hurricane from my hotel room. It makes me sad, especially considering the awesome day we spent taking at least 30 rides on it back in Jan 2002.

Yes, I was referring to the roller coaster at Boomers. I don't know about Boomers, but according to Wikipedia, the roller coaster was owned and operated by an independent third party. One day, the third party just said, we're done, and left. (My interpretation of the Wikipedia article)

0g said:

Actually, water is only an issue for wood when it goes through wet / dry cycles. Wood that is continually submerged can last for hundreds of years.

Yes, because *submerged* means wood-destroying organisms can't breathe...but that's never been an issue for wooden coasters.

Gwazi threw you around, but I've had some great rides- all pre-Millennium Flyers. One thing I won't miss are the 30 minute walk-ons that I always ran into in the station.

I found Gwazi less pleasant than Mean Streak. That is all you need to know.

I'm going to Busch Gardens in a couple of weeks. I'll need to get one last ride on it. I survived Son of Beast, how much worse can it be? That being said, what part of the train gives the smoothest ride? I've got Quick Que for the day so I may go for row 1 if I can.

Johde said:

I'm going to Busch Gardens in a couple of weeks. I'll need to get one last ride on it. I survived Son of Beast, how much worse can it be? That being said, what part of the train gives the smoothest ride? I've got Quick Que for the day so I may go for row 1 if I can.

For that ride they choose your seat if you use quick que, just that ride and scorpion

rollergator,

Yeah, that's kinda what I said. I guess I didn't realize you were originally only talking about the wood that remains exposed to the air in the humid rainy weather Florida has.

mrchester said:

For that ride they choose your seat if you use quick que, just that ride and scorpion

Thanks for the information. I've got the Quick Que not the Quick Que Unlimited as part of my package. So, I'll be waiting in the regular queue for Scorpion and Sand Serpent (for some reason those aren't listed on the website for the single ride option). When I get to Gwazi I need to check the wait to see if picking my seat is worth waiting in the queue. I'm planning on hitting Cheetah Hunt and Montu first and work mainly counter clockwise around the park so Gwazi will probably be late in the day.

Something tells me that if you're going in a couple of weeks its not going to be all that busy anyway. January and February usually see shorter hours and less crowded conditions. I've been during that time, weekdays, and I've had the park pretty much to myself. If its a weekend it might be different.

I haven't decided for sure what day I'm going to go. I ended up getting an extremely good deal on a Sea World Thrills & Chills Package that includes a 14 day Seaworld/Busch Gardens ticket, 1 day of Quick Que at each of the parks, Signature Seating at Seaworld, and 1 night at Coco Key Orlando for $166. The tickets and the hotel are more valuable than that. Everything else is Insurance. I'm going to Seaworld January 3rd. That's close enough to the New Years that it could be busy.

Busch Gardens will probably be the 7th, 8th or 9th. As I've gotten older, I need to temper my coaster riding with shows and other attractions so I'm waiting until the final schedule and weather forcasts comes out to decide on a exactly what day I'm going.

0g said:

I'm not sure the weather can be entirely to blame. There was the Dania Beach Hurricane that operated from 2001 to 2011. I rode it circa 2004, and it was a good ride at the time. Did anyone ride it near the end of its life?

Yeah, I rode it a bunch one day in 2009 and I thought it was in decent shape. I had a ride all day pass so I rode the ride in several different seats and actually enjoyed the coaster. I was disappointed when I heard it closed as I occasionally have a business trip down that way.

Interestingly, I rode Dania Beach Hurricane in 2004 as well.

I also returned in 2009.

In 2009 it was fine but it certainly wasn't the same ride it was in 2004.

My comment upon the news it would be closing back in May of 2011:

"I always felt DBH was a better-than-average ride too. A little worse for the wear the last time I rode it, but still pretty fun."

I visited the Dania Beach ride only once. It was at night, it had been raining, and we were the only riders for many, many cycles. I liked the ride a lot, it seemed unique somehow, and the only bad thing it was guilty of was being over too soon. It seemed like just when it got going....

I feel the same way about Swamp Fox.

RCMAC said:

and the only bad thing it was guilty of was being over too soon.

well, who among us...