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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay adding Phoenix Rising coaster next year

Phoenix Rising, a suspended coaster, will open at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay next year, the theme park announced Monday. (Busch Gardens Tampa Bay)
Phoenix Rising, a suspended coaster, will open at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay next year, the theme park announced Monday. (Busch Gardens Tampa Bay)
Dewayne Bevil, Orlando Sentinel staff portrait in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will open a new roller coaster named Phoenix Rising next spring, the theme park announced Monday.

The suspended coaster will travel over the park’s Serengeti Plain and the Pantopia section. There will be onboard audio featuring a choreographed soundtrack.

Phoenix Rising will go up to 44 mph along a rail that’s 1,831 feet long, Busch Gardens said. The height requirement for passengers will be 42 inches.

“Phoenix Rising will be an extraordinary journey for our seasoned coaster enthusiasts and younger thrill-seekers alike,” Stewart Clark, president of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, said in a news release.

Bolliger & Mabillard is the ride manufacturer. The Tampa announcement comes on the heels of last week’s SeaWorld Orlando reveal of a coaster named Penguin Trek, also a B&M product set to open next spring. Busch Gardens is owned by Orlando-based SeaWorld Entertainment.

SeaWorld Orlando’s next coaster: Penguin Trek, set to open next spring

Busch Gardens permanently shut down 19-year-old coaster SandSerpent this summer. The addition of Phoenix Rising will bring the park’s coaster total back to 10. The park opened Serengeti Flyer, a swinging ride, earlier this year, and its Iron Gwazi coaster debuted in 2022.

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