Cheetah Hunt Timeline

March 19, 2007 - Rumors are spreading that Busch Gardens Africa is planning on getting a clone of Apollo's Chariot (a B&M Hypercoaster at sister park Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

July 17, 2007 - The hyper may be placed in the backside of the park with the station in the Congo section, and the layout going to Kumba's lift hill, then turning back. It will open 2009, as part of the park's 50th anniversary.

August 21, 2007(?)- The old Akbar's Adventure Tours simulator is demolished.

October 18, 2007 - Construction on a hyper may begin in Florida sometime in 2008. With it not really SeaWorld's thing, and Universal having the Harry Potter expansion, Busch Gardens seems most likely the option.

October 19, 2007 - The station is rumored to be built in the Stanleyville area, and is expected to have a spiral helix by the Congo River Rapids and Kumba to turn the ride around.

October 24, 2007 - Rumors are spreading that the coaster will not open 2009.

November 18, 2007 – The bus in front of the old Akbar’s Adventure Tours simulator no longer says the name of the ride, but instead says “Montu Express.”

November 25, 2007 - The name may be "Silverback."

January 23, 2008 - The coaster is delayed until 2011.

June 3, 2008 - InBev may buy Anheuser-Busch.

June 25, 2008 - The InBev buyout was rejected. AB is said to be coming up with their restructuring plan, which includes seriously selling the parks.

June 26, 2008 - InBev sues Anheuser-Busch for rejecting the buyout.

June 27, 2008 - The parks may not be sold.

July 7, 2008 - InBev announced it will attempt to remove Anheuser-Busch entire board of directors and the St. Louis-based company responded by calling the move an attempt to use a "hand-picked board" to buy the nation's biggest brewery at a discount.

July 11, 2008 - The offer can be accepted as early as this weekend.

July 14, 2008 - The Clydesdales were sold to Sizzler.

July 15, 2008 - Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and Blackstone are possible buyers.

July 20, 2008 - There will be no more free beer, which may cause the Hospitality House to close.

August 14, 2008 - PETA asked InBev to retire the Clydesdale Hamlet, and buy one of the SeaWorld parks. In that SW park, the animals are to be released.

September 30, 2008 - InBev announced that its shareholders voted to approve the acquisition of all the shares of Anheuser-Busch.

November 10, 2008 - Shareholders of Anheuser-Busch approved the sale to InBev.

November 18, 2008 - InBev buys Busch Entertainment Company.

November 25, 2008 - AB has a new logo.

January 4, 2009 - The Edge of Africa is said to have a bridge to Nairobi. Rhino Rally is said to be shut down forever in 2010 to house a 2011 coaster, which will be a launched B&M Hypercoaster, and will have its station in the monorail building.

January 5, 2009 - Rhino Rally is being reviewed. There are four choices on what to do with Rhino Rally: 1) Remodel land and wet portion. 2)Remodel land, remove wet portion. 3) Expand ride and drive through wet portion. 4) Remove the ride, use loading for Adventure Tours, expand Edge of Africa, and use rockwork on wet portion for the new coaster. The monorail building will be taken down for the station, and the Skyride entrance may relocate to the area by Caravan Crossing. The coaster will not use any land from the Serengeti, but will travel in front of Edge of Africa to Rhino Rally.

January 6, 2009 - The wet portion is planned to be removed.

October 7, 2009 - InBev has announced that they will sell BEC to Blackstone.

October 8, 2009 - The Clydesdale horses will leave Busch Gardens, due to the new ownership of Blackstone.

November 9, 2009 - Busch Gardens Africa has floated up some balloons over the park for a height check of a proposed new attraction. It is speculated that this is the long-rumored B&M Hypercoaster.

December 1, 2009 - BEC becomes SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.

December 17, 2009 - The Clydesdale Hamlet closes.

December 22, 2009 - Busch Gaardens may be planning something big for the 2011 season.

January 7, 2010 - A meeting has occurred with B&M and a plethora of Busch Entertainment Executives in IAAPA.

January 11, 2010 - Rumors are that in June, the Skyride will close for 7 months to reuse the old Monorail side of the building as the station for the hyper.

January 12, 2010 - There is land surveying by Rhino Rally on the Skyride side. Rumors are now spreading that the coaster will go from the Skyride/Monorail building to the wet portion of Rhino Rally. In fact, rumors are spreading that the park will give up the wet portion of Rhino Rally all together, opening the wet portion for future development. There will be a walkway from the Edge of Africa to Nairobi sometime this year.

January 14, 2010 - Rumors are that the coaster will go to the front parking lot. However, there are rumors that it may not be a B&M. Someone has been informed that the Akbar and Clydesdales area will be used for the coaster.

January 21, 2010 - There are survey markers in front of the Nairobi Train Station, outside the Skyride building, and the old Clydesdale Hamlet area. The wet portion of Rhino Rally was closed for that day, because it had surveyors in that area.

January 26, 2010 - The manufacturer of the BGA 2011 coaster may be Intamin, who made no coasters in Florida, but made Congo River Rapids and Tidal Wave. They are making Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion in Virginia. This may be a launched coaster experience.

January 27, 2010 - The coaster may be like Storm Runner (an Intamin accelerator at Hersheypark, PA).

January 31, 2010 - Animal Connections opens in the old Clydesdale Hamlet.

February 3, 2010 - A survey marker has appeared by the opening of the Skyride, labeled C/L Line, hinting a railroad change.

February 9, 2010 - BGT is expected to announce something big on February 25th.

February 10, 2010 - The Skyride will close June 1st, 2010 to the end of the year. A project permit has been filed for an animal interaction exhibit, thus spicing up rumors of a Manta-style queue.

February 12, 2010 – An Australia themed land may take over Bird Gardens.

February 16, 2010 - The Serengeti Express will close 4/17/2010 to 5/27/2010 followed by the Skyride from June 1, 2010 to the end of 2010 or beyond. A backhoe has been reported by the hippo exhibit in the Edge of Africa. The Animal Connections attraction may be temporary.

February 17, 2010 - The announcement will be about Sesame Street under construction, followed by a bigger announcement within the next month or so.

February 27, 2010 - Vekoma may be the manufacturer of the coaster, which may include a launch (Maverick-style), dark ride portion, and animal exhibit for a queue.

March 3, 2010 - More markers have appeared by the wet portion of Rhino Rally.

March 4, 2010 - A cheetah topiary has appeared by the Clydesdales, hinting a very fast coaster, a cheetah theme, and an Intamin Blitz coaster.

March 5, 2010 - The coaster is inspired by Maverick at Cedar Point, being built low to the ground. The wet portion of Rhino Rally is going, but it may be reused for a themed launch zone. RR will expand to the Serengeti and get new cars. The Edge of Africa may be reformatted for the queue. To allow for this and, possibly, to send traffic around the construction area, a walkway may be built to take guests from the pathway near Rhino Rally and the Nairobi Train Station over to the Edge of Africa.

March 9, 2010 - New survey markers have appeared in the area of the rumored new walkway from Edge of Africa to Nairobi. They are by the Nairobi Train Station.

March 14, 2010 - The wet portion will be shut down in a month or two.

March 20, 2010 - The cheetah topiary is complete.

April 2, 2010 - The coaster is said to have not one... not two... but THREE launches. New markers have appeared by the lion exhibit and the crocodile exhibit at the Edge of Africa, which are the same pathway markers as the ones by the Nairobi Train Station.

April 7, 2010 - A permit has been filed for a "Veldt Bridge" from Nairobi to the Edge of Africa. It is said that this is the walkway from Nairobi to Edge of Africa as rumored. BGT has updated their Skyride page, with the downtime starting this June to the end of the year, and their Serengeti Express page, with the downtime from April 17th to May 27th, due to "nearby construction," which hints that construction should begin the day after the train goes down.

April 12, 2010 - A PDF file has been reported, showing the new walkway and an "Approx. Elevation Point of Intersection Rollercoaster and Proposed Pathway."

April 13, 2010 - There will be a temporary pathway behind the Clydesdales, entering into Egypt.

April 14, 2010 - A layout of the coaster was revealed. First, there may be a mini-launch out of the station (which will be in the old Monorail building) into the Clydesdales through a first turn, and turning west into more turns. Then comes the second launch, which will be in a trench, going under the railroad, followed by twists and turns, and a trench under the pathway from Nairobi to the Edge of Africa. Then it enters the wet portion of Rhino Rally (which will be reused for the coaster, but be eliminated from the ride), leading to possibly an inversion or two. The third launch will be on the island surrounded by Rhino Rally's wet portion. It will then go through more twists and turns (over the pathway), then come to the final brake run (under the Skyride). The transfer track will be by the Skyride building. Some people are speculating Wing Rider trains on the coaster (similar to Furius Baco at PortAdventura in Spain). A blog states that the park may possibly open the rumored coaster on Memorial Day 2011.

April 15, 2010 - A title was founded for a footer drawing: "Top Elevation El. by Intiman." It exposes the manufacturer as Intamin AG, and not B&M this time (though Intamin was misspelled).

April 16, 2010 - The track length was measured as 4653 ft. long (more than that), making it the second longest coaster in the Southeast, with only Intimidator at Carowinds beating it by 5316 ft. A kangaroo topiary has been reported next to the cheetah topiary, as well as a giraffe topiary. There are a couple of dumpsters near the backhoe reported two months ago, as well as railroad construction material out on the North Veldt near where they store trains at night.

April 17, 2010 - The Serengeti Express will be down April 19th.

April 19, 2010 - The Serengeti Express is down. Some track is removed by the Skyride opening in Egypt. Construction begins.

April 20, 2010 - More track is gone by the Skyride, nearing the Nairobi Train Station.

April 21, 2010 - A construction wall is up from the back of the Caravan Crossing store and follows the path until the next set of huts. The train may stay in its route, hinting that the trench (with the second launch) will be the first under construction.

April 22, 2010 - Flowers are on the construction walls. More track is gone by the Nairobi Train Station. Jack Hanna confirms a cheetah exhibit. The name "Cheetaka" was filed, hinting the name for the next coaster.

April 23, 2010 - Black construction liners are up in the construction site. A tree was taken down behind the construction wall, possibly for the trench with the second launch. Birds have disappeared in front of the Skyride, and a pond in front of it is drained. Markings seemed to have appeared in the old monorail station. An area by Bird Gardens has been fenced off. Land clearing is occurring behind that fence.

April 24, 2010 – New railroad parts are on site.

April 26, 2010 – Land clearing begins between the Skyride and Nairobi section.

April 27, 2010 – Most foliage is gone. Construction walls are up by the site of the Edge of Africa pathway.

April 29, 2010 – They’re clearing out the electricity and pipes from the trench area. They begin to re-lay some of the track for the Serengeti Express. A wooden fence has appeared by the right of the fork of the path in Rhino Rally (in the left, you go to the wet portion, while to the right, you return to the station) to the “finish line” (where the two paths meet before the station).

April 30, 2010 – Trench work has begun. The fence by Rhino Rally is complete.

May 1, 2010 – Workers have begun removing dirt for the trench (not the second launch, but the other), the pathway, and the truck docks. Dirt is all over the site. Track has returned up to the Nairobi Train Station. The wet portion of Rhino Rally has its last day.

May 2, 2010 – The wet portion of Rhino Rally is closed off. The Nightshade Toy Factory (old monorail building) and Reconstruction: The Doctor Is In (old Akbar queue) will move to a new location for this year’s Howl-O-Scream, due to the coaster construction.

May 5, 2010 – Work on the temporary pathway to Egypt (behind the Clydesdales) has begun. The kangaroo topiary has been moved by the fenced off area in Bird Gardens. The two houses are to be moved by Gwazi. Land clearing for it is already taking place.

May 6, 2010 – BGT claims that there will be a new kangaroo exhibit taking over Bird Gardens, and a new coaster will open in 2011, basically semi-confirming it.

May 7, 2010 – Rockwork is getting removed. Walls are starting to go up around the temporary path.

May 9, 2010 – Animal Connections has closed.

May 10, 2010 – The tour depot is taking shape. The rockwork is gone. Steel is on site for the new pathway.

May 11, 2010 – Foundations have started for the tour depot. Heavy equipment is behind the Clydesdales. Deconstruction may begin soon.

May 13, 2010 – A pile driver is on site in the trench area.

May 14, 2010 – The pile driver is starting to put in sheet piles. The western wall of the trench is halfway complete. A construction wall is up by the Nairobi Gate (part of the temporary pathway). Foundation is being poured for the bridge. The Skyride break room will close June 14th, due to the construction.

May 17, 2010 – The Edge of Africa Gifts shop may become the gift shop of the new coaster.

P.S.: Just like the Intimidator Timeline last summer, this is a temporary name. It will change once the coaster is announced (I'd say IF it comes true, but from the looks of things, it looks like it's happening).

Edited 1/15/2011 (yes outdated): Name confirmed as "Cheetah Hunt."