Negative-G - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay 2024 Page Eleven

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Tampa, Florida
August 5, 2024
Page Eleven

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The Scorpion Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

This right here is the first inversion I ever loved. Before my ride on Scorpion in 1981 I had only been on the inversions on the Old Chicago Loop and Python here at Busch Gardens, which were Arrow Dynamics corkscrew models. Slowly rolling through Arrow's corkscrew inversions felt really iffy as if you were going to fall out of the train. Scorpion with an inversion filled with positive G forces my young rear end firmly planted in the seat letting me let go of any fears so I could enjoy the ride.

Post inversion, Scorpion is all about twisting you all around at speed.

Scorpion is such a fun and perfect coaster I could easily spend most of my day at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay riding it over and over from now until the end of time.

Scorpion was the first looping coaster that I ever loved. It was my son's 100th coaster. Unfortunately this one ride with my son Bond was our last one ever.. A few days after our visit Busch Gardens announced that Scorpion's time in the park has come to an end.

Yes, rides don't last forever but loosing Scorpion felt like a punch to the gut. It's not like the coaster couldn't be refurbished or even have track replaced like Busch Gardens did with the Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Also it is not like Scorpion took up tons of real estate in the park. The decision was a perplexing one. Maybe we will get lucky and Gene Staples from Indiana Beach will save Scorpion from the wrecking ball and move it to one of his parks.

No matter what Busch Gardens does with this site there will be a missing piece to the park with Scorpion gone. Thanks for the memories. Godspeed Scorpion.