Interviewing Jim Dean Park President of Busch Gardens about Cobra's Curse

This interview is from Media day for Cobra's Curse.

JD: Hello, I am Jim Dean and I am the President of Busch Gardens and Adventure Island Tampa.

Me: Hello Mr.Dean! It's a pleasure to finally be able to meet you!

Me: Why do you think that it is important to have thrill rides that the entire family can ride?

JD: Well, we want to appeal to the whole family and we got have got some of the best roller coaster in the world with Sheikra, Montu, and Kumba. Falcon's Fury is one of the greatest drop towers ever. We want to make sure that we offered an attractions for the entire family, even four and five year old kids can ride Cobra's Curse.

Me: That is fantastic! My entire family including my Niece who is four is waiting with anticipation for the ride to open! It's all she has talked about for the past couple of weeks!

Me: So, I saw on Facebook that you have actually ridden the coaster a few times! What is your favorite part?

JD: Everybody is going to say that the spinning is their favorite part. Coming off of the vertical lift to the snakes mouth, that is pretty fun. Then you dive out into the Serengeti where you are going forward. When the spinning starts though, the real fun happens! You never know how your cart will spin. It's different each time. 

Me: This is unrelated to Cobra's Curse, but on Monday I was in park and I heard a woman complaining. She was complaining that every time a new ride comes out, it has been a roller coaster or Falcon's Fury. Do you have any plans to replace Gwazi or Tidal Wave with something that is for those people out there, who are not coaster enthusiasts? 

JD: We are always looking at our attractions across the park to make sure we are maximizing our geography. We have got so much real estate! With Gwazi, it was simply just time for a change, as was the same for Tidal Wave. We are looking at some things, but they take years to bring to fruition. We are indeed looking at attractions that are not major roller coasters. We want to make sure we offer things to families.

Me: Are there any plans to build any rides that are disabled friendly?

JD: Sure! Do you have any ideas?

Me: I was talking to a woman on Twitter and she suggested maybe carnival type rides. Or something that is easy to get those who are confined to wheelchairs on and off, without much effort. 

JD: Sand Serpent is a family ride. We would love to add more of those. I've even seen children in wheelchairs riding Falcon's Fury! That must be such a thrill for them to be able to ride it! 

Me: Oh indeed! I couldn't even imagine riding Falcon's Fury myself! My Grandmother wants to ride it and she is 80 years old!

JD: Bring her on over!

A huge Thank you to Mr.Dean for allowing me to interview him on Media Day! I wasn't on his list of interviewers and he took the time to talk to me! It was so kind of him and it was such a pleasure to finally be able to meet him! I have only ever heard such great things about him and I am so glad that we have him as the Park President!

Cobra's Curse - The Beginning!

I'm calling this post Cobra's Curse The Beginning because, that is exactly what it is. The beginning! Not the beginning for me, but for the ride. It just opened, so it's still a baby and... I just find it appropriate =^_^=

I will say that this is blog post 1 of 4. I've got three interviews coming up in the next few weeks, each having to do with Cobra's Curse. Enough about that though, let's just get into the post!

Cobra's Curse has to be one of the most anticipated rides in the Tampa Bay area this year. Orlando had Manta and we have Cobra's Curse. If you've been following me on Snapchat or Twitter, you've no doubt seen me tweeting or snapping about the ride. I may have gone a little crazy with it, but you know what it is such a fun ride! Or well, what I imagine to be a fun ride, I unfortunately can't do rides anymore because of many factors. However, most of my family including my 4 year old Niece has ridden it and they all loved it! Before we all get into that though, we need to go over the basics!

The ride is the first of it's kind. You start off with a 70-foot lift into the air where you come back to face with the Snake King,

This is the Point of View of the coaster when they were testing it, just so you can see. I couldn't ride it so I don't have a POV of myself riding it.  

The 2,100 feet of track is split into three sections. For the first 1/3 of the track you are going forwards, the 2/3 you're going backwards and the last 1/3 you're free spinning. Yes, you read that right, FREE SPINNING! That in itself is unique. Also what is unique is that each time you ride the ride, it will be different. No one ride is the same, even if you ride it with the same people. 

When you first walk into the Egypt area, you are greeted by the amazing entrance to the ride. 

As you're walking through the queue line, you actually feel like you're in a dig site. There are buckets, shovels, ladders, basically everything and anything you would find at a dig site (besides heavy equipment) scattered around, and the scaffolding. Don't worry though! Everything is safe and nothing will fall on you! A little trick I was told is that once you're inside the queue, take your flashlight out and look over the walls and see all of the stuff they have added. They have gone to great lengths and have done some really excellent theming for the ride! 

Inside the queue line you will first come across the snakes. 

Picture courtesy of Busch Gardens

Here you will get to see the snakes in their exhibit. It's so nicely done that it has to be my second favorite part of the queue. 

I'm not going to spoil it, because you need to see it for yourself, but in the queue line you will encounter the snake exhibit and the projection mapping, which is my favorite part of the queue. There are three different scenes that play out every couple of minutes. Each is only about 30 seconds long but they are so well done and actually pretty silly! This is something you definitely need to see for yourself! 

Cobra's Curse has a 70-foot drop and that is its highest drop. I've seen people complain on twitter that it is nothing like Sheikra, Montu or the other big coasters in the park, but what they all fail to realize is that this is a FAMILY coaster. It's not meant to be as extreme as the others. You have to remember, some of the kids are 4 at the youngest. Cloe is 4 and is tall enough to ride it, yes she can ride Scorpion, but that's nothing compared to this. This is more intense that Scorpion, but it's not as intense as the bigger ones. I wish people would think about that before they go complaining. It's meant for families.
Plus, depending on the weight distribution, you can spin pretty dang fast! It is crazy how fast I saw some of the cars spinning! 

This is the gem/fossil mining area. It's really fun! The bags are either $7.95 for a small bag or $12.95 for the large ones! 

Will you come Face to Fang with the 80 Foot Snake King?!