Additional Parks & Attractions

Iron Gwazi Construction Update (Photos, Video) During Hard Hat Tour at Busch Gardens Tampa – January 30th, 2020

Denise

Hi everyone!

We were part of a hard hat tour yesterday of the upcoming Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa. The roller coaster has been extremely anticipated and is scheduled to open this spring! No specific date has been announced yet. And after the tour, we used our annual passes for a few hours in the park – including takin some extra photos and video of the Iron Gwazi construction.

Iron Gwazi was officially announced in 2019 and now it is getting closer to completion. The specs on the ride have been known for a while – 206 feet tall, 91 degree drop and it will travel up to 76 miles per hour. There will be a dozen airtime moments, three inversions and some restored elements of the original Gwazi roller coaster. Iron Gwazi will be a wood and steel hybrid and is manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction. It will be North America’s tallest, and the fastest and steepest hybrid coaster in the world. The height requirement will be 48 inches.

Here is our video first and then photos! The video includes two interviews, the queue and then a look at Iron Gwazi from the ground and from the Skyride.

The signs still say “Opening in 2020” without mentioning spring yet.

The lift hill can be seen from this location.

We entered through the queue.

We spoke with Busch Gardens President Stewart Clark about the attraction. That is part of the video above. He said that Iron Gwazi “is the most anticipated new coaster of the 2020 season” (the ranking is from USA Today).

And we started back up to the load area.

The Iron Gwazi theme is a crocodile.

This is part of the boarding area.

One of the ride vehicles was set in place for the event.

The ride vehicle is a crocodile.

We also spoke with Andrew Schaffer, Director of Design and Engineering. He talked about the differences in the original Gwazi ride (which I loved) and the new one. Of course, Gwazi was a classic wooden coaster vs. Iron Gwazi, which will have both wood and steel. It allows for faster speeds, height and a smoother ride. He also talked about choosing the crocodile as the theme. Our interview with him is in the video!

And here are some construction photos from the Skyride.

We are looking forward to Iron Gwazi opening soon!