An interesting article was posted on ThemeParkInsider today. The article asks readers does it matter where you sit on a roller coaster? My first and natural instinct led me to hell no, I just waited an hour or more for this thing I want on. However, after some deeper thought my answer began to take on a different tone. With all this in mind, this posting will highlight two of the coasters located in Tampa's own Busch Gardens Africa.
Kumba
143 feet tall
Top Speed of 60MPH
Why Kumba first you ask? Why not? As you walk through the seemingly short, yet looped, and at times incredibly crowded queue house you hear the roar of what sounds like an ill tempered, over sized, zebra killing lion. No worries though, this is just the side effect noise of the coaster trains traveling along the steel track. An interesting side note, the word Kumba actually means roar in the African Kongo Language combine this with the fact that the Kumba coaster is located in the Congo area of the park and you have yourself a nice little theme park brainteaser. All that aside back to the original intention of the post. Does the seat really matter? Yes.In my opinion on Kumba there are three specific "seating zones". The first seating zone is, of course, located in the very front row of the train. This zone offers riders a full, undisturbed, clear view of all the insanely looped, inverted, and brightly colored steel ahead of you. I recommend this view to hardcore coaster enthusiasts at any time. However, this zone is also well suited to your average patron providing the wait time is not extravagant. The next zone is any seat located along the far right edge of the train. This zone is very unique due to the very close, very personal, and, for anyone who is long armed, very dangerous encounter you receive with the ground coming out of a tunnel at the very end of the coaster. The final seating zone is the final row. While this row does not offer a very good view of anything other than everyone's heads, it does exert the most forces on a rider. It's also important to consider that just because there is very little visibility of the track in front of you it is not necessarily a bad thing. I feel that the biggest selling point of these seats is the surprise of not knowing what is coming next.
SheiKra
200 ft tall
Top speed of 70 MPH
The other coaster I chose is SheiKra, while I do not feel it is the best ride BGT has to offer, it does include some very unique features and currently maintains the highest attraction levels. SheiKra is a drop coaster, this means that the first drop of the ride is a true 90 degree angle free fall. Naturally, the first response from most riders is a desire to ride in the very front row to get the full experience of diving nose first towards the ground. However, SheiKra offers it's riders a one of kind ride no matter where they sit because this coaster features staggered rows of seating. This method of staggering the rows in a way that makes the last row higher up than the first row allows SheiKra to give every rider the same heart pounding, pulse racing, vocal chord scratching experience regardless of where they sit. Despite of all these features I still do not consider SheiKra to be the best ride at BGT. No, I'm afraid my vote goes to another coaster but that's a whole different post.
So after all this, my question to you is: Does it matter where you sit?
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From personal experience I found that sitting in the front gives you a visual advantage to whats going to happen next. If your view is blocked by a row of seats in front of you, you dont really know what turn or loop is coming next. Sitting in the back feels like the coaster is whipping around the turns more. It feels like your body gets thrown around a lot more violently when you sit in the back. I prefer sitting in the back, it makes the ride that much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what the first commenter said; you do get a visual advantage riding in the front, and that's part of its appeal to me. There is nothing better than sitting in the front seat of Sheikra, staring down at the earth 200 feet below you, with only a small metal latch keeping you from hurtling straight toward the earth at 70mph. Whoa. Unfortunately, the rest of the ride is boring and too short, but the first drop is amazing.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite coaster at BGT, however, is Montu, especially the zero-G portions of the track. Its the smoothest rollercoaster at the park (I can't even ride Gwazi or I'll get a headache), but to me it slightly out-inches Kumba for the park's best ride.
Amenhotep