Busch Gardens Tampa will permanently close SandSerpent, the park's most painful rollercoaster

Busch Gardens Tampa will finally retire its most pain-inducing ride.

In a Thursday morning announcement, the theme park said that SandSerpant will permanently close on July 9.

"SandSerpent, one of the 10 roller coasters at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, will be retired to make way for an exciting new addition to the park’s Pantopia area." said Busch Gardens in a statement. "After 19 years of family-friendly fun, guests will have the chance to ride the popular 5-story-tall roller coaster one last time before being permanently retired."

The park says that Annual Pass Members will be able to have exclusive early morning access to SandSerpent from June 30-July 4.

Manufactured by Mack Rides, SandSerpent is a stock "Wild Mouse" rollercoaster, which was first appeared in Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1996.

At the time it was called "Wild Izzy," named after the mascot of the 1996 Olympics, since the park was a sponsor of the games. However, shortly after the  Olympics, the ride was rebranded as "Wilde Maus," and kept that name until it was moved to Busch Gardens Tampa seven years later.

The coaster debuted in Tampa in February of 2004 as "Cheetah Chase," in the area that once housed the "Crazy Camel" ride. In 2011, the park opened a new coaster called "Cheetah Hunt." So, in an effort to not confuse guests, Busch Gardens changed the ride's name from "Cheetah Chase" to the current "SandSerpent."

For the past 27 years, the single-cart coaster has garnered mostly mixed reviews, with guests often describing it as fun, but also jerky, painful, jostling, and "one of the worst rides at BGT." 

The five-story coaster is correctly billed as a kiddie-ride, because anyone over five-feet tall typically exits the thing feeling like they just got their ass kicked.

The theme park did not specify what exactly will replace SandSerpent in the small footprint it leaves behind, but in the meantime, guests still have a couple weeks to relive the the mild back pain, and bruised knees.

Just be sure to get your free beer while you're there.