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I remember my first ride on a playground carousel, it was awesome, and most of them had been removed before I ever got to ride one as a kid. I got flown off a couple times, but I loved that feeling.
 
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They still have one of those near my grandparents house. I've never gotten thrown off but boy does that make your head spin! Back on topic but where was the queue?
 
My bad. More specifically they were banned from 'school playgrounds'. Neighborhoods and parks had them for a bit longer before the great 'sissy' crisis of Merica hit.
 
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Nicole said:
If I recall, we also survived backseats without seat-belts, monkey bars, and swings.  We were ruggedized, I guess.

Dont forget booster seats, we survived without booster seats.
 
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I never had a booster seat actually. Right after I got out of my car seat the state re-did the car seat and booster seat laws, requiring them for several more years, but my parents never put me back in one.
 
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There are still plenty of merry-go-rounds out there in public playgrounds. My kids love the one near us, and its friend the old-school metal lattice climbing dome too.

I miss the gigantic polished "steel-sail" slides that got absurdly hot in the summer sun, making them impossible to play on between mid-morning and late afternoon without either getting badly burned or painfully blinded. Those and the Mayor McCheese towers at McDonald's playgrounds, featuring a bizarre jail-cell-style confined space at the top which regularly trapped panicked kids just beyond the easy reach of their parents.

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I don't remember much about Sea Dragon, though.
 
I once heard a rumor that BG still has this ride in storage. Can anyone confirm? If not, I wonder if it is now operating somewhere else.

Let's start a petition for Busch Gardens to bring this ride back, maybe for their 45th or 50th anniversary. It would be an inexpensive and popular flat ride. If the original isn't viable, they could order a new one from Mack. They need some new flat rides and this would certainly generate some buzz.
 
If Busch decided to either pull the ride from storage or buy a new one from Mack, where are some logical places for it to go? I was thinking that it could go somewhere in the newly emptied lot near the aviary. As of now I feel like they should add something there. The Coke area looks tacky in the park and they could finally make the walk from Ireland to France less bland.
 
Zachary & Nicole, the next time you have an opportunity to speak with BG officials, could you ask what happened to this ride when it was removed? I know it's not high on the priority list, but there seems to be interest. It doesn't seem like that would need to be kept a secret. Plus it might be something they would be willing to give an answer on, whereas we know other things they won't.
 
This ride has quiet the following I have noticed. It seems everyone I talk to expresses quiet a bit of nostalgia for it when it comes up in conversation. I think it is because the boats reversed at the whim of the ride op...
 
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I have obtained an official answer from the park on what happened to this ride. I mentioned it in a comment on a Facebook post where people were discussing their favorite Busch Gardens ride as a kid. I said I loved the Sea Dragon and always wondered what happened to it when it was removed with no notice. The park replied with a comment saying they would look into it and let me know.

After a week or two, I reached out to them via Facebook message to see if anyone had looked into it. The first reply was that Busch Gardens never had a ride called the Sea Dragon. I replied with a photo of the ride and a link to a YouTube video. A little while later they replied saying they did some investigating and it looks like it was simply decommissioned and not moved to another park.
 
... The first reply was that Busch Gardens never had a ride called the Sea Dragon...
See what happened is you saw a cell tower and confused it with a ride. Don't feel bad it happens all the time in that area of BGW.
 
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According to the Mack website, the only other US installation of this ride model is the Peanuts Pirates at Carowinds. Forget Copperhead Strike. I may just have to plan a trip there someday for this!

 
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This was my favorite ride as a kid. Luckily MACK still manufactures this ride so the park could buy another one.

That would be awesome! I ran into Kevin Lembke once in the park and he wasn't even familiar with it. If Busch Gardens management isn't aware of or has forgotten about this, it doesn't seem likely to happen.
 
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