After riding the ride, I was able to speak to some of the people involved, including Busch Gardens two leading creative minds, vice-president of zoo operations Glenn Young and vice-president of design and engineering Mark Rose.
But first, I had to speak with our driver, Rockin John: It took well over a month to learn all the necessary patter that accompanies the driving. The driving skills themselves were honed in hours and hours of driving around this course. So many it was unbelievable. But it is first nature to me now. It is on the right-hand side of the vehicle, which is really cool here in America, and that makes me feel at home!
The British Land Rover is robust enough to handle any terrain, even if it rains. I was in security for 18 months here at the park and it was a wonderful opportunity to do this. I was trained for East Africa!
In one word it is awesome. The realism, the driving, the terrain, the challenge be it the animals, the off-ride driving, or whatever. It doesn't matter what it is - the raging Zambezi River - it is all exciting, it's all thrilling. It is everything you ever wanted and more besides.
Thank you, Rocking John!
Going around with the press groups here was Gladiator Rhino, alias Mark Smith from the UK version of the hit TV show. Mark is a class act, a stockily-built, powerful guy who was just great with several groups of children brought along as First Ride competition winners. He was also tailor-made to be among the first to try out his namesake ride. And his verdict? It is so realistic you actually feel you are driving in the wilds of Kenya and it is pretty scary in parts. It is an excellent, exciting ride that is just so real. It takes eight minutes to go round and is better than any roller-coaster in the world. You must come and check this out - and say Hello to the rhinos for me!
Next, I got to speak to zoo operations supremo Glenn Young, who tried to evaluate the whole ride experience. He said: It is actually hard to sum up, but its a combination of many different elements - safari, off-road Land Rover experience and different types of terrain, so you feel the land rover tipping to the left and to the right, fast and slow. It highlights the capability of the vehicle itself, combined with up-close animal experiences and a river adventure at the end. It sparks all the senses; the river ride is really designed so people don't know what is going to happen. There is one rhino in right now and we think the habitat will take a capacity of three. We are still in the process of fine-tuning this thing and acclimating the animals. It has to be a slow, methodical process, acclimating the animals to their new environment and the vehicles, the other species that will be in here as well; it is one big environment with other environments inside of it. The elephant environment is designed specifically for elephants, the crocodile one for crocodiles, the Cape buffalo for buffaloes and rhino for rhinos. The hoof stock - the oryx, Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, zebras - can range in all of those environments, except the crocodile one for obvious reasons!
He went on to explain how the savannah appearance had been created while still ensuring the safety of all concerned, not least the animals. He said: What we have done is design what we call permeable barriers and they are size-dependent; they are barriers made out of a rock, a tree or a log which give space for the gazelle to go through but not enough for an elephant to go through. But what we wanted people to get the feel of is that this is a free-ranging, open environment where the animals can go everywhere and where you can get different perspectives on the different animals. We want to get people as close to an elephant as we can - safely. We have about 30% of what will be in there right now.
Asked about the difficulties of creating such an original ride, Glenn went on: The technical portion of it has been the biggest challenge; I see the technical side as creating the habitats for the animals and making sure the barriers are what we actually designed them to do. That they allow the animals to go through, get in the right places, and so the animals utilise them properly, that the water flows through the middle and creates a drinking area and a swimming area for the animals. There is an area the flamingos can call home it is still in view but it is still their home base. And then there are the managed views; where what you see you cant really tell there are barriers out there, it still looks like a river or a rock outcrop. The other technical aspect is the river ride, which is not something you can just go out and buy.
When it came to the technical ride aspect of Rhino Rally, he explained: It had to be engineered specifically for what we wanted it to do, in conjunction with Land Rover. You have got to give the impression that you are out of control but in reality you are totally safe. From concept to delivery, it took a little over 2 years. We started with the concept part of it, asking ourselves What did we really want to do? We wanted to take what we do with animals and turn it up a notch; and do it in a way that no one had ever done before; we wanted to make sure that we could have habitats where we could mix animals, because this is what you would expect to see in Africa, free-ranging and co-habitating with other animals; and then how do you top that off, how do you make it fit within what you are trying to do? And the obvious thing was some kind of water ride. Then we said lets make it so the impression of your vehicle is that it is being driven by a person which it is but it gets out of control, and that was what gave us the excitement theme. We still wanted it to be family-oriented too, we wanted to make sure that anyone at any age would enjoy the ride; the water-ride element, the animal element, the emotion element, the excitement element.
Did they study Disneys Kilimanjaro Safari or any other animal-related rides around the world? Glenn insisted: We wanted to do something that was unique to us, so we didnt really take any other rides into consideration. We already had open Veldt areas, and we have safari trucks that go out there. We wanted to do something that was going to a step above. Basically, we wanted to combine the ride portion of it with something that had not been done before. And I think it is something which not only takes us to the next step but it provides that extra punch of what you need from a ride. I think people will come off the ride seriously impressed I certainly hope so! The habitat will also literally be changing for years as all the vegetation grows, the trees will get bigger, the bamboo will grow up, the shaded areas will change, so the views will be different in time, too. The animal portion is a living, breathing thing that evolves, and we will change the animals from time to time, we will import more vegetation, it will get lusher.
Mark Rose, Busch Gardens vice-president of design and engineering told me: It is always a thrill to see the ride up and running after such a long period of planning and construction. Even today, I can go to Kumba and watch it and be excited. Yet everything I have built so far has had its challenges, it is different every time. I believe the biggest challenge this time was to ensure the safety of the animals, to make sure their habitats are something they are going to enjoy for the rest of their lives. And then we have to have the Land Rover going through it all, as it is supposed to do in the models. But we have done that, we have solved all the problems.
Asked to sum up the ride, Mark joked: This is the most fun you will ever have at seven miles an hour, I guarantee that! It will be an experience unlike anything you can get in your family car.
You will swear that you are going to tip over. You will hang on and swear that one more bump and over we go! But, in reality, we are not even close to that point with these vehicles. Yet to do that and also be as close to all these magnificent animals is an extra treat, and of course the water ride at the end is a complete surprise. It is almost like having three rides in one.
But how did they go about creating this unique attraction? The Busch Gardens creative mastermind revealed: We do a great deal of challenging ourselves as we are building a ride. We
actually built a scale model of this with water so we could decide where every rock would go, where every side canyon would go. We tweaked it until we did that right. We used a company in Leeds, England, called Hydraulic Models Limited and they were a great partner for us, enabling us to predict, two years ahead of time, exactly how it was going to look and feel. And it is
exactly what they modelled. Perhaps thats the most amazing thing of all!
And that, folks, is the story in all its detail, not just of the new ride but, hopefully, a bit of insight into a park that often gets overlooked in central Florida (although it does have many, many devotees). Busch is already a big hit with many British visitors as we enjoy the change of pace from the Orlando parks, the more naturalistic aspect and the relative lack of crowds (albeit not at peak times). It has a lot more to it than meets the eye and, with the addition of Rhino Rally, it looks like being something of a success story for some time to come.
But first, I had to speak with our driver, Rockin John: It took well over a month to learn all the necessary patter that accompanies the driving. The driving skills themselves were honed in hours and hours of driving around this course. So many it was unbelievable. But it is first nature to me now. It is on the right-hand side of the vehicle, which is really cool here in America, and that makes me feel at home!
The British Land Rover is robust enough to handle any terrain, even if it rains. I was in security for 18 months here at the park and it was a wonderful opportunity to do this. I was trained for East Africa!
In one word it is awesome. The realism, the driving, the terrain, the challenge be it the animals, the off-ride driving, or whatever. It doesn't matter what it is - the raging Zambezi River - it is all exciting, it's all thrilling. It is everything you ever wanted and more besides.
Thank you, Rocking John!
Going around with the press groups here was Gladiator Rhino, alias Mark Smith from the UK version of the hit TV show. Mark is a class act, a stockily-built, powerful guy who was just great with several groups of children brought along as First Ride competition winners. He was also tailor-made to be among the first to try out his namesake ride. And his verdict? It is so realistic you actually feel you are driving in the wilds of Kenya and it is pretty scary in parts. It is an excellent, exciting ride that is just so real. It takes eight minutes to go round and is better than any roller-coaster in the world. You must come and check this out - and say Hello to the rhinos for me!
Next, I got to speak to zoo operations supremo Glenn Young, who tried to evaluate the whole ride experience. He said: It is actually hard to sum up, but its a combination of many different elements - safari, off-road Land Rover experience and different types of terrain, so you feel the land rover tipping to the left and to the right, fast and slow. It highlights the capability of the vehicle itself, combined with up-close animal experiences and a river adventure at the end. It sparks all the senses; the river ride is really designed so people don't know what is going to happen. There is one rhino in right now and we think the habitat will take a capacity of three. We are still in the process of fine-tuning this thing and acclimating the animals. It has to be a slow, methodical process, acclimating the animals to their new environment and the vehicles, the other species that will be in here as well; it is one big environment with other environments inside of it. The elephant environment is designed specifically for elephants, the crocodile one for crocodiles, the Cape buffalo for buffaloes and rhino for rhinos. The hoof stock - the oryx, Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, zebras - can range in all of those environments, except the crocodile one for obvious reasons!
He went on to explain how the savannah appearance had been created while still ensuring the safety of all concerned, not least the animals. He said: What we have done is design what we call permeable barriers and they are size-dependent; they are barriers made out of a rock, a tree or a log which give space for the gazelle to go through but not enough for an elephant to go through. But what we wanted people to get the feel of is that this is a free-ranging, open environment where the animals can go everywhere and where you can get different perspectives on the different animals. We want to get people as close to an elephant as we can - safely. We have about 30% of what will be in there right now.
Asked about the difficulties of creating such an original ride, Glenn went on: The technical portion of it has been the biggest challenge; I see the technical side as creating the habitats for the animals and making sure the barriers are what we actually designed them to do. That they allow the animals to go through, get in the right places, and so the animals utilise them properly, that the water flows through the middle and creates a drinking area and a swimming area for the animals. There is an area the flamingos can call home it is still in view but it is still their home base. And then there are the managed views; where what you see you cant really tell there are barriers out there, it still looks like a river or a rock outcrop. The other technical aspect is the river ride, which is not something you can just go out and buy.
When it came to the technical ride aspect of Rhino Rally, he explained: It had to be engineered specifically for what we wanted it to do, in conjunction with Land Rover. You have got to give the impression that you are out of control but in reality you are totally safe. From concept to delivery, it took a little over 2 years. We started with the concept part of it, asking ourselves What did we really want to do? We wanted to take what we do with animals and turn it up a notch; and do it in a way that no one had ever done before; we wanted to make sure that we could have habitats where we could mix animals, because this is what you would expect to see in Africa, free-ranging and co-habitating with other animals; and then how do you top that off, how do you make it fit within what you are trying to do? And the obvious thing was some kind of water ride. Then we said lets make it so the impression of your vehicle is that it is being driven by a person which it is but it gets out of control, and that was what gave us the excitement theme. We still wanted it to be family-oriented too, we wanted to make sure that anyone at any age would enjoy the ride; the water-ride element, the animal element, the emotion element, the excitement element.
Did they study Disneys Kilimanjaro Safari or any other animal-related rides around the world? Glenn insisted: We wanted to do something that was unique to us, so we didnt really take any other rides into consideration. We already had open Veldt areas, and we have safari trucks that go out there. We wanted to do something that was going to a step above. Basically, we wanted to combine the ride portion of it with something that had not been done before. And I think it is something which not only takes us to the next step but it provides that extra punch of what you need from a ride. I think people will come off the ride seriously impressed I certainly hope so! The habitat will also literally be changing for years as all the vegetation grows, the trees will get bigger, the bamboo will grow up, the shaded areas will change, so the views will be different in time, too. The animal portion is a living, breathing thing that evolves, and we will change the animals from time to time, we will import more vegetation, it will get lusher.
Mark Rose, Busch Gardens vice-president of design and engineering told me: It is always a thrill to see the ride up and running after such a long period of planning and construction. Even today, I can go to Kumba and watch it and be excited. Yet everything I have built so far has had its challenges, it is different every time. I believe the biggest challenge this time was to ensure the safety of the animals, to make sure their habitats are something they are going to enjoy for the rest of their lives. And then we have to have the Land Rover going through it all, as it is supposed to do in the models. But we have done that, we have solved all the problems.
Asked to sum up the ride, Mark joked: This is the most fun you will ever have at seven miles an hour, I guarantee that! It will be an experience unlike anything you can get in your family car.
You will swear that you are going to tip over. You will hang on and swear that one more bump and over we go! But, in reality, we are not even close to that point with these vehicles. Yet to do that and also be as close to all these magnificent animals is an extra treat, and of course the water ride at the end is a complete surprise. It is almost like having three rides in one.
But how did they go about creating this unique attraction? The Busch Gardens creative mastermind revealed: We do a great deal of challenging ourselves as we are building a ride. We
actually built a scale model of this with water so we could decide where every rock would go, where every side canyon would go. We tweaked it until we did that right. We used a company in Leeds, England, called Hydraulic Models Limited and they were a great partner for us, enabling us to predict, two years ahead of time, exactly how it was going to look and feel. And it is
exactly what they modelled. Perhaps thats the most amazing thing of all!
And that, folks, is the story in all its detail, not just of the new ride but, hopefully, a bit of insight into a park that often gets overlooked in central Florida (although it does have many, many devotees). Busch is already a big hit with many British visitors as we enjoy the change of pace from the Orlando parks, the more naturalistic aspect and the relative lack of crowds (albeit not at peak times). It has a lot more to it than meets the eye and, with the addition of Rhino Rally, it looks like being something of a success story for some time to come.
