The Central Florida family-coaster market is heating up with its newest entrant: Phoenix Rising at Busch Gardens Tampa, which officially opens July 21. Featuring a minimum height requirement of 42 inches, more than 1,800 feet of track, and a maximum height of 80 feet, Phoenix Rising joins the ranks of Epcot's Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and SeaWorld's Penguin Trek in providing an option for "rising" rollercoaster fans.
But it would be a mistake to discount Phoenix Rising as a toned-down version of its sibling rides at Busch Gardens. This is a Bolliger & Mabillard coaster constructed for the whole family to enjoy. Adults and kids alike will be thrilled to experience a ride that pushes the limits of what a family coaster can be.
Prior to the ride’s main entrance, guests will encounter banners displaying four types of phoenixes, representing different biomes.
Numerous phoenix artefacts and tchotchkes are then showcased after entering the marquee.
The train for this inverted coaster seats two passengers per row with a total of 10 rows. The seats are equipped with lap bar restraints (similar to Universal Orlando’s Jurassic World VelociCoaster and SeaWorld's Penguin Trek) and handle bars on the side. The seats were deceptively breathable for their design, and I found the restraints to be one of the most comfortable coaster lap bars.
While guests are secured, a screen to the right displays an animated phoenix which flies around before the coaster springs into movement. The animated phoenix is different each time and matches with the different colors from the banners in the queue.
Once in motion the coaster ascends the lift hill before plummeting down a twisty drop. After a series of additional twists and turns, the ride sharply swings right for several beats then swings left for another few beats before coming back to dispatch. Additionally, there are on-ride speakers where you can hear the phoenix flap its wings during the lift hill and a soaring orchestration that makes an already pleasant ride experience even more enjoyable.
Despite not having inversions, Phoenix Rising dishes out the thrills as if it does. I was constantly surprised at what the ride was able to accomplish while still maintaining its family coaster branding. The end twists are the big crescendo, sure to put a smile (or a scream) on every member of the family. I personally didn’t get any airtime, but was still left ecstatic on the gliding sensations provided by the coaster.
The biggest unknown at this point is how the ride will perform operationally. Phoenix Rising only has one train that seats 20 total riders. While that’s similar to Tigris (which has one train while seating 18 total riders), Tigris has a height requirement of 54 inches, meaning more guests will be able to experience Phoenix Rising, potentially resulting in longer lines. The ride’s footprint is also small, and longer queues may need to spill out into the rest of the park. Hopefully Busch Gardens' operations team can rise to the occasion when the ride officially opens.
Phoenix Rising is a fantastic addition to Busch Gardens Tampa that is sure to unite current and next-generation coaster enthusiasts by delivering fun and thrills in a pleasant ride experience. By bridging the gap from kiddie coasters to rides with stricter height requirements like Tigris and Sheikra, Busch Gardens Tampa is firmly planting its flag as a family destination for thrillseekers of all ages.
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It's great to see they invested so much money on such a small ride. The fact that its a B&M, the entrance plaza and station being so well themed, and onboard audio?? Definitely a huge upgrade from the generic mouse coaster that was there before.
This looks a lot better than Penguin Trek, which was weirdly rattly and had no forces (even for a family coaster) after the initial launch. Looking forward to checking it out soon.
This looks like a fun ride for kids and families, and a nice fit for that area of the park and the park in general. But the single train operation is going to be painful on busy days.
And unfortunately, United Parks has a poor record of maintaining their queue and station effects. So those cool screens and on-board audio effects are destined to rot one day. I can see those LED displays covered up with a printed graphic like it has already happened.
This is such a great park to visit.
A bit out of the way if you have a Hotel in Orlando area. You are in the sun riding attractions all day, then have to drive back to Orlando tired.
I do wish it was closer to the other main parks in Florida.. But the rides are fun.
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I see a lot of similarities here with Dragonflier at Dollywood, which is from Vekoma. I was also surprised with how good that coaster was even for thrill seekers, and as I expect with Phoenix Rising will carry long waits (to the point where Dollywood established different TimeSaver rules). My guess is that the project site just didn't have the space to accomodate a longer brake run and maintenance track, which is a shame, because I could definitely see 1+ hour lines for this on a regular basis as is routine for Cobra's Curse.
I do like that they've paid attention to theming here with elements in the queue, the screens in the station, and the on-ride soundtrack (not even Penguin Trek has on-ride audio).
I'm bummed we missed this when we were at the park a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see how the new B&M train rode, because it looks very much like the gen-2 Vehoma invert trains that still have a lot of shaking.