Sand Serpent



Sand Serpent (formerly Cheetah Chase) is a Wild Mouse roller coaster located at Busch Gardens Tampa in Tampa, Florida. The ride originally operated at sister park Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia as Wild Izzy in 1996 and as Wilde Maus from 1997 to 2003.

The ride, when it was first installed at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, was meant to be a temporary attraction. It was named Izzy, after the mascot of the 1996 Summer Olympics, since Busch was a sponsor of the games. The ride was only supposed to be there for the 1996 season. But, the ride had a consistent line and became popular. Busch decided to keep the ride and gave it a European theme in 1997 with the new name Wilde Maus. The ride operated until 2003, when it was replaced with Curse of DarKastle and moved to Busch Gardens Tampa.

Sand Serpent replaced the defunct Crazy Camel flat ride, a Chance Trabant flat ride that opened up with the Timbuktu section of the park back in 1980. In 2011, the ride was rethemed from Cheetah Chase to become Sand Serpent. This was done to reduce confusion with their new attraction, Cheetah Hunt.