Busch Gardens Tampa Bay today announced plans to improve its Jungala area with refreshed children's attractions.
Wild Oasis will open next spring at the Florida theme park, replacing several former attractions in the area. The new "interactive adventure realm," as the park is calling it, will include:
"It's been five years since guests last stepped foot in the tucked away realm of Treetop Trails in the Jungala area of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, and we are thrilled to breathe new life into this corner of the park with the development of this realm," Park President Stewart Clark said. "The all-new Wild Oasis truly offers something for everyone – whether you love the thrill of the ride or learning about animals, getting wet or climbing high, or just cooling off under the shade of the rainforest canopy."
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this year opened Phoenix Rising, a Bolliger & Mabillard family inverted coaster. You can read our review and see our on-ride video of that new roller coaster here: Phoenix Rising soars at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
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Isn't the signature attraction, the actual trails, new? At the very least it's bringing back an element of the park that hasn't been in action for more than five years? Seems like a pretty obvious win to me.
FWIW, I've been reading about a lot of very visible cost-cutting occurring at BGT. First, Scorpion has been closed with no replacement or future development of the site announced. Second, operational hours for Kumba have been drastically cut (typically from 11 AM to 4 PM daily). Third, this announcement of a "new" attraction, which is just a refresh of an area of the park that BGT had given up on years ago, meaning the "new for 2025" attraction is about s cheap of an "addition" as you can get. Finally, the park has suspended parking lot trams on off-season weekdays, so if you don't have free or disabled parking, you have to walk the half mile or so each way from your car to the front gate.
I have always liked BGT as an excellent theme park, but there are cracks starting to show that the new ownership regime are more interested in the bottom line than creating a great guest experience.
Even if its mostly just renovating and reopening things that have been SBNO for 5 years I consider that a win, I mean its better than not doing anything and continuing to let it rot (although if they do a big promotional campaign that will obviously be a tacky move).
Everything you said above seems to be status quo for the way Sea World (err...United Parks) has been going for the past decade or so. I will say I don't ride Kumba anymore, but every time I have gone back there its been DEAD. Last time I was there it was running 1 train all day and they were still waiting with the train in the station to fill the seats. I know its an iconic ride but its long past its expiration date. Heck the last time I rode the train the guy on the microphone said "that is the shakiest ride here at Busch Gardens, only go on it if you like really shaky rides" lol.
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This is head-scratching to me. There's nothing detailed here that is substantially different from what was already in Jungala. Sure, it sounds like they're adding some effects to the frog-hopper, but everything else mentioned here is just a rebranding/reskinning of what was already here. The reason Jungala failed is because of its location and the fact that the zip line, frog hopper, and other attractions were criminally understaffed.
I don't understand why BGT feels the need to rebrand this area and bill it as "new", because there was nothing wrong with Jungala other than the park abandoning it from a staffing perspective. It seems silly to pay for new trademarks and marketing for something that was fine for what it was, assuming the park actually wants to promote and staff it.