ACE Day at BGT

Johnny Upsidedown · #1 12-10-2005, 07:07 PM

Hi everybody.
Today the American Coaster Enthusiast held an event at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida.
The day began with an 745 am arrivel and check in. Around 60 ACE members arrived for a day of fun. This is the first official ACE event at the park with ERT on Sheikra. Our ride time on Sheikra began at 830 am and oops the ride unfortunately was experienceing some technical difficulties. We then had some free time until our 1pm lunch buffet which I spent riding Montu, Kumba and doing some photos. Lunch was all you could eat chicken and ribs and it was good. Our lunch hour was followed by about an hour discussion with Mark Rose the VP of ride engineering in which he discussed alot of stuff pertaining to the roller coasters. Also a gift bag with a Sheikra Tshirt, button pin and cool note pad. So now to the fun part to make up for morning ride time BGT offered the club an 1 and 1/2 hour ride time on SheiKra during the day. They let us use the single rider line and only our group was allowed on the second train. It was awesome as we could ride 2 times in a row and then right back around again with no waiting. Boy the people in the regular line were not happy. Oh Well!!! The event really turned out to be great and it seems everybody had a great time at BGT. Many thanks to BGT and ACE for a great day at the park.

For the same trip report but to see lots of photos from today go here http://www.johnnyupsidedown.com/eventBGT11.html
Enjoy

**Alan J** · #2 12-10-2005, 07:44 PM

Cool, it looks like you had a good time. I wish i could travel to thoes events but we can only go if one is close to us. Hey are you planning on attending coaster crazy at valleyfair theis year and / or the ACE preservation confrence?

Johnny Upsidedown · #3 12-10-2005, 08:56 PM

Traveling and going to events is fun. Yes I have looked into the Presevation not sure if its on the travel plans yet. May go and hit the Dells also to catch a ride on Hades. Just have to see how the summer plays out.

Montu Man · #4 12-10-2005, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Upsidedown

Hi everybody.
Today the American Coaster Enthusiast held an event at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida.
The day began with an 745 am arrivel and check in. Around 60 ACE members arrived for a day of fun. This is the first official ACE event at the park with ERT on Sheikra. Our ride time on Sheikra began at 830 am and oops the ride unfortunately was experienceing some technical difficulties. We then had some free time until our 1pm lunch buffet which I spent riding Montu, Kumba and doing some photos. Lunch was all you could eat chicken and ribs and it was good. Our lunch hour was followed by about an hour discussion with Mark Rose the VP of ride engineering in which he discussed alot of stuff pertaining to the roller coasters. Also a gift bag with a Sheikra Tshirt, button pin and cool note pad. So now to the fun part to make up for morning ride time BGT offered the club an 1 and 1/2 hour ride time on SheiKra during the day. They let us use the single rider line and only our group was allowed on the second train. It was awesome as we could ride 2 times in a row and then right back around again with no waiting. Boy the people in the regular line were not happy. Oh Well!!! The event really turned out to be great and it seems everybody had a great time at BGT. Many thanks to BGT and ACE for a great day at the park.

For the same trip report but to see lots of photos from today go here http://www.johnnyupsidedown.com/eventBGT11.html
Enjoy

That just makes me laugh.

Sounds like you had a great day. ERT on Sheikra is always good.

Katie · #5 12-11-2005, 06:09 AM

Great TR! I am so waiting for my rides on SheiKra. I am sure the GP was none too thrilled about you guys getting some sweet rides on SheiKra.

Most of them don't understand you guys pay more money to get that ERT and some other perks. And then they don't understand why they can't stay late or go in early. Pay 15-20 more bucks and you can, right?

Thanks again for the TR, and great pics by the way.

Johnny Upsidedown · #6 12-11-2005, 06:51 AM

Thanks Katie
For those wanting some insite into the talks we had with Mr. Rose. I have pasted some of my replys from Rec.Roller-Coaster below. There are two different posts below one I posted stuff Mark said about SheiKra then somebody asked about Gwazi. Sorry for some of the spelling errors.

Some other info. The idea for SheiKra came from the Niagra falls. Mark stated the original design of BGTs drop ride was the same height as Niagra and with a splash. He said that Sheikra has been in design since Montu opened. Mark stated facts about Sheikra. Drop is 90 degrees. Second drop he said was close to 83 which was a design change because the forces of a 90 degree would have been to much. Currently Sheikra has square tubes for the water jets. Mark stated they are the winter setup so the water stays in the pond. He said in the summer they have ones that really shoot the water all over. Mark also said that the immelman is 163 feet tall so if that was correct Sheikra has the tallest inversion in the world. Mark also said that instead of going for say a launch ride or a LIM ride he and BGT like the tried and true rides that are completly reliable. He did say that he was impressed with the Hulks launch system. He really is an enthusiast at heart and you can really tell the excitment that he has for what he has designed. Some other things he had said were how Montu and Kumba both were risks of uncertainty for the park when built and how they have been over whelmed with the amount of ridership and popularity of the rides. They as in Mark and BGT are still impressed with the designs of both rides. Mark also said about Montu and Kmuba how they design the rides with elements with an emphasis on stretching the rides out and going along the ground.

Anyway sorry for the ramblings. Alot of things were said by Mark Rose and it was a nice speech and QandA. Really wish the group had more time to listen to him talk it was very interesting to say the least.

Now for answers to some Gwazi stuff
Somebody asked Mark about Gwazi pertaining to the roughness and also was asked if BGT considered using the Millinium flyers when Gwazi was built. Mark answerd. The flyer trains were not used on Gwazi because they were not a proven product when BGT did its design work on Gwazi. Again Mark as stated before that BGT likes to use proven products. Originaly Gwazi was going to go out past Python. After the brewery left they then decided to build on the 17 acres left over from the brewery. Mark did not coment on Gwazi needing to be retracked or weather it is rough. He did coment on the nuts used to bolt the track together. 2 million bolts. They designed a special nut that locks onto
the bolts. They cost 3 cents a peice. It was stated that the nuts alone have saved them a ton of money as they dont need to go looking for missing bolts. He said one of the reasons that the area under Gwazi was left flat was so they could find nuts that fall off. It was funny to hear that there maintainance team looks for nuts that fall off as part of there checks of the ride instead of looking around the ride but as he said we cant go looking at all 2 million nuts to find one. He also stated that all the rides have an extra train as in Montu has 3 operating trains and they have another so one can be worked on all the time. Its that way with all the coasters at the park Gwazi actually has 6 trains. Same with Kumba they have the regular operating trains and one to be worked on. Capacity is a big issue with the park its the main issue when building a new ride and one of the reasons that Gwazi was made into 2 coasters so they could keep the capacity up on the
ride. Cant think of much else I know Mark Rose said a bunch more stuff about Gwazi. As I said before I wish we could have spent another hour or two with Mr Rose it was awesome to hear what he had to say. Luckly nobody asked what was comeing in the future like he would tell us anyway.,

Also Mark was asked if Python or Scorpion would be removed in the future. Not sure if Mark dodged the answer with answering that both rides fill a nitch for the younger riders. They are very consciences of all age groups ad riders ablility to handle the bigger rides. BGT strives to be an all around experience for all ages.

No word on any future develpments but I am sure there will be more great things in the future.

Hope some of the above is helpfull

Montu Man · #7 12-11-2005, 04:00 PM

I also heard (I think it was from Mr. Rose) that before, Sheikra had circlular tubes for water jets. But, when the train hit the water, you would suffer from whiplash (I think). So, they changed out the tubes. Also, the splash was supposed to extend only to the darker colored area (on the concrete) by the track.

Sir Willow · #8 12-12-2005, 10:20 AM

^ umm, no. They use the circular tubes for the water during warmer weather since they make a bigger splash down. That little bit of resistance isn't anywhere near enough to cause whiplash. It was a nice rumor at one point, but that's all it was. No truth to it at all.

Sorry I missed out on you guys. I was working over at Rhino during the day and saw several come through, but didn't even realize til it was to late that ACE was having an event that day or I would have worn my Sir Willow nametag. As it was, I ended up having to leave halfway through the day anyways.

Happy to hear that you guys had a good time. I know the park was looking forward to having you there.

ShannonS · #9 12-12-2005, 04:02 PM

Sounds like you had a great time. Hopefully,I'll get a chance to go down there next year(work schedule permitting,of course). SES

Johnny Upsidedown · #10 12-12-2005, 05:12 PM

Thanks everybody. We all had a great day well worth a few extra dollars for a great day. Of course 3 of the better B&Ms and some wood just for the heck of it you cant go wrong.

SIRWILLOW I would have to say the park went above and beyond what they should have done. I was impressed with there treatment of us.

SHANNONS. You should come down on Super Bowl Sunday and join the Florida Coaster Club for some ride time at BGT. We generally get some Exclusive Ride Time of some sort on one of the coasters and its a fun club and makes for a great day. Anyway just a thought.

One other note on Sheikra that I rememberd.
The water splash is more then just to throw up the water. The design of the water splash allows for 20 percent of the braking that is necessary to slow the trains as stated by Mark.

slipknot8527 · #11 12-12-2005, 06:05 PM

I didn't notice any slowdown after you hit the water. If no one had told me that it sprayed water up, you would never know from riding it.

That's interesting that all the rides have an extra train....I was wondering why I saw 4 trains on Kumba.

Bencerisback · #12 12-12-2005, 09:46 PM

I am so excited, 3 months until I get my chance on Sheikra.