Corporate parks are notorious for running their flats poorly, especially himalayas. Let’s be honest, how many corporate parks run their himalayas well? Not many, huh? Busch Gardens is already known for having horrifyingly short cycles on their flats. When you combine these two things you’d expect a poor experience, right? Well, unfortunately you are since not even Busch Gardens can reverse this trend amongst the corporate parks of America, as Tradewind stands as one of the poorest himalayas I’ve been on to date at any park. Yikes!
Located in Italy, this himalaya looks quite nice and fits in well with the park like most of the attractions prominently featured throughout the park. While the ride itself is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of looks for a himalaya with its fresh paint job, flashy lights, and booming music, what really makes Tradewind stand out is the great landscaping around the attraction, which consists of some simple trees, bushes, and a rock garden. This may seem simple, but it really enhances the ride’s appearance and makes it fit in much better with the park.
Along with looking nice, this never had a wait at all thanks to its high capacity, though it did suffer from extremely slow loading, but while most himalayas suffer from this, Tradewind seemed to take this flaw to the extreme with a unique locking mechanism that gave almost every single car fits to lock in, leading to the op having to spend extra time at each vehicle.
Now in terms of the ride itself, it is a thrill for sure. Busch runs their himalaya nice and fast as a himalaya should be run, providing for some very strong laterals during the ride that rival some of the best himalayas I’ve been on. Not only is it fast and intense, but it’s incredibly smooth and not bumpy at all. That should be a recipe for success, right? Well, it would if the park actually ran a good cycle on this. Not surprisingly it only runs forwards, but it’s pathetic that the park only runs this for about a minute tops! Just as the attraction reaches its impressive top-speed, Tradewind immediately begins slowing down, which is incredibly disappointing and frustrating because of the raw power this himalaya is capable of dishing out.
Tradewind has the right speed and great laterals to be an elite himalaya, but the aforementioned abysmal cycle just ruins any hope of that since the fun simply doesn’t last long. Honestly, the attraction takes almost four to five times longer to load than the length of the attraction, which never is a good sign. So do I recommend you give it a shot? Really this attraction can be skipped for far better attractions, but if you’re in the mood for a fairly intense, though albeit short, himalaya, give it a whirl.
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