Montu - Busch Gardens Africa (Florida)

Date Ridden: January of 2007 and 2008. Times Ridden: 12(including 10 this past January....8 of those consecutively at park opening).

Other than Goliath at SFOG, Montu is the closest of the top 10 Golden Ticket coasters (ranked # 7) to my place of residence....only a mere 7 hours away!! When riding it twice in 2007, I remembered a fun ride that I thought on par with Raptor and the Batman rides I've been on. After my 10 rides in 2008 however, I think Montu beats those out as well as Alpengeist, Silver Bullet, and most other inverted coasters (coasters in which the track is above the seats) due to its variety of unique elements.

Montu offers a number of unique experiences including the near miss with the temple ruins at the beginning coming out of the first trench, the batwing dive below ground and the super fun zero g roll early in the ride. The problem with Montu is that it suffers from "Florida-itis" which is a disease caused by overuse of trim breaks leading to a boring 2nd half. However, if you catch Montu on a day (or maybe simply just one ride) in which the mid-course trims do not kick in, then you are in for a wonderful ride. Fortunately, this happened to us.

About mid-way through our 8 early rides, we jumped on somewhere around the middle of the train and the ops stopped everything to let 4 dignitaries (they were older people dressed in BG gear) on the 2nd row. They were all laughing with their guide, who looked to be a Busch executive in suit and tie, not one of those guides waving a flag for tour groups to see them by. This particular ride was our best of the day because as we crossed the mid-course breaks, they did not kick in and the train zoomed into the 2nd half.

At this point I could see Montu prove its status as a Top 10 coaster. The 2nd half was much more forceful and the corkscrew out of the final trench was really intense but not the slightest bit uncomfortable. If they ran this thing all the time in that manner, it would get even better scores. That was virtually a perfect ride. I also highly recommend any front seat ride as they offer undisturbed views of the Egyptian-styled theme the coaster is built around.

I think this is the best coaster at BG (not my favorite but the best paced) and the # 2 coaster in Florida behind only Kraken at Sea World. As far as design is concerned, Montu is right up there with Apollo's Chariot as one of the best I have ever ridden. It has great theme, a super fast station crew, and a well paced layout. I loved every minute of it and look forward to subsequent rides in January each year.

Overall Score - 9 (Would be a 10 without the mid-course breaks).