Rhino Rally was a safari-themed attraction located at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, an African-themed park located in Tampa, Florida. The ride was opened on May 23, 2001 in the Nairobi section of the park and lasts between 5 and 6 minutes. The ride was closed on September 1st, 2014 due to consistent maintenance issues. The pretense of the attraction was that guests are going on a normal safari ride which turns into a search for a lost driver named Scooter Roberts.
History
The attraction had a soft opening held for park guests beginning in March, 2001 and going until late May 2001. The ride first opened at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay on May 23, 2001, in a grand opening style ceremony hosted by Busch park executives. The attractions enormous wait times following the opening prompted the park to begin a temporary "express" style system which would allow the buyer to re-visit the attraction at a later time and receive front-of-the-line access. This was later discontinued in 2002. However, it was brought back in 2010 as part of the park's new Quick Queue system for major rides and attractions. In June 2001, one of the cars flipped over during the ride while the driver was crossing over a narrow path in the track while reportedly "acting goofy". The incident resulted in minor injuries to some guests, two of whom were taken to a local hospital. Busch Gardens later shut down the ride for a lengthy refurbishment in order to make the ride's pathways wider, and to re-design the ride vehicles. The ride originally featured a larger water portion which was part of the ride from May 23, 2001 until May 1, 2010. As of May 1, 2010 the water portion of Rhino Rally was closed permanently for construction of Cheetah Hunt, and the theme of the ride changed to rescuing a lost driver named Scooter Roberts. The water section of the ride was plagued with problems, often causing it to break down. When this happened, the land portion of the route operated as normal, but with a detour towards the end of the ride. If the navigator said to go left, the driver would go right instead. This was the only time that the vehicles went to the right at the split in the paths until the water portion's closure in 2010, resulting in the vehicles only going in the direction of the right side path. In January 2015, Busch Gardens confirmed speculation Rhino Rally would close permanently. The current area of the park the ride is located in will be used for future development. In 2020, speculation suggests that a S&S Screamin Swing attraction could be replacing Rhino Rally for the 2021 season. This is yet to be confirmed, but it could be opened in 2022 due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, depending if the opening of their 2020 ride, Iron Gwazi, will open in 2021 instead.
