I went to Busch gardens with my family today and we were talking loudly about hoping kumba would be open and a worker overhead and notified us that, while it wasn't open, it's only temporary maintenance. Like 2-3 months of it. River rapids will open in a few weeks. On one hand, I'm glad Busch gardens is taking extreme measures to keep kumba open more permanently, but I don't know how long this maintenance will last. Good news overall.
In a theme park will 11 major water and thrill rides running regularly a year ago, 7 were closed as of today (permanently: sand serpent and scorpion, temporarily: cobra's curse, kumba, sheikra, river rapids, and the flume) with only one ride opening since then (phoenix rising). That left us with montu, phoenix rising, falcons fury, Serengeti flyer, and iron gwazi- a measly 5 thrill rides. On a busy Sunday. Yeah, there are kiddie rides, slow moving rides, shows, and animals, but even those were few and far between - at least the tigers were active. Busch gardens needs to step up their maintenance if they want to be a thrill ride destination.
I think this is an unfair criticism of the park. There's very little reason for BGT to staff and operate the water rides (Rapids and Flume) during the winter months, especially on days when the forecast temperature is not going to top 60 degrees. Perhaps they should do a slightly better job of rotating annual maintenance cycles so at least 1 of the 2 water rides can run if the warmer temperatures do occur, but even Universal and Disney typically take their water attractions down in January and February. The only reason TBA's not down right now is because it just went through a major refurb, so it can go a full year without major maintenance (Splash Mountain AND Kali almost always go down for 2-4 weeks during this time of year for annual maintenance, as do Dudley Do Right, Popeye, and Jurassic Park River Adventure).
As for Kumba, I get the suspicion that the park is trying to manage the coaster's runtime so it can last long enough until they're ready to make a decision to either do a full retrack (a la Hulk and Nemesis) or replace it. My guess is that whatever is going to replace Scorpion and when that addition is complete will play a major role in what happens with Kumba.
As for the overall number of thrill rides, I think whenever you visit a park during off-peak season, there should be an expectation that 20-30% of a park's attractions will not be available. Expecting every major ride to be running is unreasonable, and just unfair for a park that sees a fraction of the daily attendance at WDW and UO.
Thanks for the Update...