BY SETH KUBERSKY
From wild to mild: Busch Gardens’ hybrid roller coaster Iron Gwazi may now be the area’s top scream machine; pint-sized new Peppa Pig park is unexpectedly entertaining Central Florida’s theme parks have
always appealed to a broad demographic, and two brand-new additions to the region’s attraction roster are expanding that range even wider. I recently hit the highway for a pair of experiences occupying polar-opposite ends of the scariness spectrum, which combine to redefine “wild” and “mild” for our tourism market. I’ve always been a thrill-seeker, but ever since last summer’s debut of the Jurassic World VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando, my thirst for extreme attractions has been reinvigorated. In fact, I blame the residual adrenaline from an early-morning VelociCoaster run for my volunteering last month to ride Icon Park’s Orlando Freefall, the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower. Not only did I survive the heart-stopping face-down 400-foot descent; I did it twice, and conquered the adjacent world’s-tallest Slingshot ride for an encore, with no residual effects aside from some shaking knees and a big smile. (Just don’t ask me to try that neighboring 450-foot Starflyer swing ride.) However, none of those record-breaking escapades were quite enough to prepare me for my recent media preview of Iron Gwazi, the long-anticipated hybrid roller coaster that officially opens at Busch Gardens Tampa on March 11. Gwazi, the new ride’s predecessor, was a painfully bumpy wooden coaster that
GREETINGS FROM THE ‘PERFECTLY PINT-SIZED’ PEPPA PIG THEME PARK | PHOTO BY SETH KUBERSKY
was retired in 2015 due to persistent guest complaints, despite receiving a much-praised refurbishment only a few years prior. After sitting dormant for half a decade, Busch Gardens answered enthusiasts’ wishes by handing the defunct ride’s wooden bones — which were originally built by Great Coasters International — over to competitor Rocky Mountain Construction for conversion into one of their signature silky-smooth “hybrid” coasters, with I-Box steel track added atop the original structure. The pandemic delayed Iron Gwazi’s opening by nearly two years, which has left fans plenty of time to salivate over its intimidating statistics: At 206 feet tall, with a 91-degree drop and a top speed of 76 miles per hour, Iron Gwazi is not only the tallest coaster in the state of Florida, it’s the fastest and steepest ride of its kind in the world. Now that the 24 passenger trains — which feature lap bars but no shoulder restraints — have finally roared to life, I’m happy to confirm Iron Gwazi
It’s time to learn something new.
more than lives up to the hype, with a minute and a half of nonstop mind-melting intensity (minus the old neck-wrecking rattling) from its steeper-than-vertical initial descent until the before-you-know-it brake run. After taking two laps — first in the visually spectacular front row, and a second in the insanely snappy back seat — I still can’t maintain my orientation through Iron Gwazi’s convoluted course, which contains overbanked curves and zero-G inversions that ejected my ass out of its seat at least a dozen times. Between Busch’s new ride and VelociCoaster, Universal’s is still the more complete themed attraction; but based purely on thrills, Iron Gwazi may just edge it out as the area’s top scream machine. For screams of an entirely different sort, I drove to Lakeland’s Legoland Florida Resort for a tour of the world’s first Peppa Pig Theme Park, which opens to the public Thursday, Feb. 24. Located just outside the entrance of the existing Legoland Florida park and only
a short walk away from the on-site hotels, the new gate’s debut is what managing director Rex Jackson called “the culmination of [the] journey since we opened in 2011 to becoming a true multi-day destination resort.” At only 4.5 acres — smaller than most Orlando theme park lands — and with a modest $35 ticket price to match, the park is perfectly pint-sized for the preschoolers who have turned the precocious British piglet into a global phenomenon over the past 20 years. I had to set aside my usual expectations regarding immersive theming in order to appreciate Peppa Pig Theme Park’s simplistic aesthetic, which is faithful to the flat style of the original cartoon shorts. But after spending a few hours in Peppa’s world, I can’t wait to return with my young nieces before they age out of the porcine superstar’s target audience. Even as an unaccompanied adult, I was unexpectedly entertained by the half-dozen rides at Peppa Pig Theme Park, especially the centerpiece Daddy Pig’s Roller Coaster. This 14-foot-tall Zamperla-built coaster boasts boosters built to give toddlers their first taste of high-speed thrills, spiraling around Mr. Bull’s construction site at a squeal-inducing 16 miles per hour. Another standout is Grampy Rabbit’s Dinosaur Adventure, an outdoor “dark ride” with adorable undulating dinoshaped vehicles that riders straddle. As a bonus, although Peppa’s attractions are aimed squarely at ages 5 and under, they’re much more accomodating for adult-sized bodies than many of Legoland’s attractions. More importantly, all of Peppa Pig Theme Park’s attractions — from the balloon-shaped aerial carousel to the iconic Muddy Puddles Splash Pad and character-inspired playgrounds — are designed to be fully accessible to kids of all abilities, with specialized employee training and downloadable sensory guides earning the site (and the rest of the Legoland Florida Resort) accreditation as a Certified Autism Center by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards. And you needn’t be a neuro-atypical child to appreciate amenities like the soothing Cinema, full of beanbag beds and quiet cartoons, which ought to be mandatory in every theme park. As long as they add additional shade to the park’s mostly tree-less middle before any infants succumb to heatstroke, I predict Peppa Pig will lure many families away from Mickey’s dominion and down to Winter Haven this coming spring, and — with the TV series having been renewed through 2027 — for years to come. skubersky@orlandoweekly.com
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