Gwazi



Gwazi was a wooden dueling roller coaster located at Busch Gardens Tampa. The name Gwazi originates from a fabled creature with the head of a tiger and the body of a lion. Accordingly, the two sides of the roller coaster's track were named "Lion" and "Tiger". Often, the two tracks were called "yellow" and "blue", with yellow being the primary color of the Lion trains and blue being the primary color of the Tiger trains. The ride, which reached a maximum speed of 51 miles per hour (82 kilometres per hour), utilized over 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of track when taking both sides into account. Though both sides were similar, they were not completely identical.

History
Construction on Gwazi began sometime after the closure of the Busch Brewery which closed in 1995. Gwazi opened soon after on June 18, 1999 as Florida's first dueling wooden roller coaster constructed by Great Coasters International (GCI) and operated with Philadelphia Toboggan Company's (PTC) trains starting with six of them. At the time, the Dueling Dragons inverted coasters (later known as Dragon Challenge), at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure (closed in November 2017), and Gwazi, at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, were the only dueling coasters in Florida just opening a month apart.

Due to the Philadelphia Toboggan Company designed trains and other aspects, which have been known to deliver considerably rough rides on Great Coasters International designed wooden coasters, Gwazi was well known for giving rough ride experiences to park visitors which was a constant problem plaguing the ride since the park first opened Gwazi.

At the beginning of the 2010 season, Gwazi was spotted with what appeared to be Millennium Flyer trains on the track, with water dummies on board. In 2011, the ride's original "old" Philadelphia Toboggan Company's trains were subsequently removed and replaced with Great Coasters International's Millennium Flyer trains in efforts to try and improve what little smoothness Gwazi had, and to try and fix the ride from its notorious roughness.

At the end of the summer season during 2012, the Tiger side of Gwazi closed due to budget constraints. Soon after the closing of the Tiger side, a bridge was built across the Tiger side's loading platform, and one of the Tiger's trains was relocated onto the Lion side's track. Later, Busch Gardens confirmed that Gwazi's Lion track would officially close on February 1, 2015 due to low ride attendance, operating costs, and guest feedback. After 15 years of operation, the attraction's last train was dispatched on February 1, 2015, and Gwazi closed indefinitely.

Although the future of the attraction has yet to be clarified, Gwazi's trains have been reused for InvadR (another wooden roller coaster) at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. In addition, wood planks from the ride have also been reused in other Sea World Parks including SeaWorld Orlando and in Busch Gardens Tampa itself.