Busch Gardens

[delilah18]

Hello

I am having a hard time finding any trip reports or info about Busch Gardens?
Is it worth the trip?
We love AK, love seeing the animals but we aren't big coaster fans how does this park compare to AK

Thanks

 

[nighttowll]

Hello I am having a hard time finding any trip reports or info about Busch Gardens? Is it worth the trip? We love AK, love seeing the animals but we aren't big coaster fans how does this park compare to AK Thanks

We went to Busch Gardens for the first time this spring and fell in love with it. We did a tour, so I'm not sure about how typical of a day we had. (I'm just going to clarify here that going forward when I say we, I mean most everyone else in the party who doesn't get violently ill on coasters and thrill rides. I pretty much watched from the sidelines.)

The tour started out feeding the kangaroos. That was a lot of fun. I'm 99% sure though that you have to pay for that, but it was included in the tour price for us, so not sure how much it costs normally. I'd say if its a couple bucks for a cup of the food then it's worth doing. Then we rode Montu, one of the huge coasters, which was great because I was actually able to ride this without getting sick. We then rode a few more coasters, and I think snuck in a few of the thrill rides which aren't technically included in the tour. We checked out the animals as we moved throughout the park. We had lunch at a cafeteria style place, nothing great but not bad either. Reminded me of the food at the Expedition place at SW. Next we took a safari ride in an open bed truck and fed giraffes lettuce. You can book this separately from a full day tour, and it costs about $30-40 a person to do that. We then had time to ride a couple more coasters before the 5:00 ice skating show started. Again to my delight, I found I could ride Cheeta without getting sick, yeah! After the ice skating show which was amazing, we were on our own for the last two hours the park was open. We rode the gondola across the park and checked out some of the water rides and some of the rides in the kiddy section. And because I'm a big geek, I had an absolutely fabulous time riding the little kiddy drop ride over and over again until park closing. I think riding the Wild Surge was my favorite ride of the day.

As far as a comparison to AK

Theming
The look and feel of the park is very similar to AK if you added in Epcot's Flower and Garden Topiaries. It's really a very beautiful park in my opinion, lots of trees and plants. If you've been to SW it's a similiar design just with an animal and African / Asian influence instead of an aquatic one.

Rides
AK and BG each have a crazy mouse ride.
AK and BG each have a train.
AK and BG each have a safari ride. (This is a free one different from the giraffe feeding one we did, so I'm not sure how it compares.)
AK and BG each have a raft ride.
AK and BG each have a kiddy area, but I think BG play area is a big improvement over the Boneyard, much more to do, better shading, and some fun water aspects as well. It's really nice that the kiddy rides are mostly located inside the play area also.
AK has only 1 coaster. BG has 6 coasters.
BG also has a few kiddy rides, like a kiddy coaster and the Wild Surge I mentioned, plus a few others
BG has a Gondola ride
BG will soon have a huge drop tower, opening sometime this summer
BG has 2 other water rides as well, a flume ride and a large boat/raft ride in addition to the one mentioned above
BG also has a few thrill rides that aren't coasters, for instance stuff similar to that boat ride you see at carnivals that goes back and forth until it goes upside down.

Shows
BG has 2 kiddy shows
BG has 2 more adult stage shows
BG has a nighttime fireworks rock concert show
BG has one ice skating show which is on the same level as Lion King, very elaborate. It's a combination of skating, elaborate costumes, giant puppets, and a mix of 3d and 4d effects.

Animals
Both places have a number of different enclosures spread pretty evenly throughout the park.
Both have animal care centers where you can learn more about the animals.
Both have veterinary services where you can watch procedures. We got to see surgery on a bird, a hawk I think.
Both have large safaris.

I think you could easily spend a day at BG looking at the animals, doing the safari, feeding the animals, checking out the care center and veterinary center, watching the shows, and hitting the non thrill rides like the water rides and the train and gondola which both offer views of the animals. If you have little kids, you can spend even more time doing all the kiddy rides and letting them play in the giant play area. Add in time for meals and you've got one busy day. But doing just that, might not be worth it to you.

We actually had such a great time this spring that we bought length of stay tickets and are going back this summer. We will do the tour again since that was such a big hit, but the rest of the days, I just plan on enjoying the animals and the shows. That was my one regret last time, I didn't get to spend as much animal viewing time as I'd have liked because of the tour. For instance, I never made it to the animal care center, only had time to snap a few pics of the otters as we hurried by, and missed the elephants doing an obstacle courses that I really wanted to see. I did get to stick my head up inside a clear box that the cheetas lay on and that was cool. For me, the animals, a few shows, and maybe a ride here or there is enough.

However, I think a person could easily rush through all the animals in a couple of hours and be ready to go. It really just depends on your touring style and preferences. Like how people will tell you AK is a half day park to them, but it's always a day or more for me. It's all down to your interests. Will you stop and watch the animals, take lots of pics, or just kind of pause as you walk on by?

If you have any other specific questions, I'd be happy to help.

Good luck deciding.

 

[delilah18]

Wow thanks this is great

No I agree I don't feel AK is a half day park.

One other question I wanted to ask is Busch Gardens in a bad area of Tampa?
If we stayed till close and where driving back to Orlando would it still be safe?
Great to know I though you had to pay extra for the Safari ride.

Thanks

 

[nighttowll]

Wow thanks this is great No I agree I don't feel AK is a half day park. One other question I wanted to ask is Busch Gardens in a bad area of Tampa? If we stayed till close and where driving back to Orlando would it still be safe? Great to know I though you had to pay extra for the Safari ride. Thanks

Honestly, I don't remember exactly how bad the area was. I don't remember thinking it was bad or anything, but I'm probably not the best to ask about that type of thing. 1) I live in one of the top 10 most dangerous cities in the US, so going almost anywhere else feels safer than driving around at home. 2) I've done a lot of non profit work in some really bad parts of the country, so I'm more comfortable than most in bad areas. I know how to handle myself. What to do and not do, and driving my car through a semi sketchy area wouldn't really bother me.

Having said that, we did stay until park closing and didn't feel scared driving back in the dark. It's basically interstate the whole way. They have their own gated parking lot, so I felt safe getting to the car. We also had preferred close parking, though, due to the tour, so that might make a difference. However, I don't think it was very far to the interstate at all from BG, less than 15 minutes in traffic I think. Honestly, I think the area was fine. I really don't remember seeing bars on windows, or graffiti, or anything else that might make me feel uncomfortable. It felt about the same as driving around Orlando. Lots of restaurants, shops, and tourist stuff. I'm not a local, though, so you never know.

If you are huge fan of animals and can fit it in the budget, I thought the Serengeti Safari Experience was worth the money. It runs $20-40 per person depending on season, and last approx 30 minutes. It was part tour of the safari area and part feeding the giraffes. We were able to get really great up close action with the giraffes, sometimes a little too close, and lots of great pictures.

If that is out, you can still experience the 65 acre Serengeti plain in other ways. You can do the Rhino Rally ride through it which is basically taking an off-road jeep out. You can also ride the train through it, and you can ride the Skyride over it which is the gondola for a different view from above.

Also, I forgot to mention because we didn't have time to do it, but you can buy food to feed the birds at Lory Landing, and there is also another interactive animal exhibit called Jambo Junction where you can sometimes feed and interact with different types of animals. I don't that costs anything. I think it's more a luck thing that you are picked to help out.

 

[DOOM1001]

A lot of people have the assumption that BGT is all about coasters when in fact there's so much more to do,trains,skyway ride,shows,animal attractions,kids areas,etc...As far as the area around the park being bad,its definitely not great but its by area,immediately around the park is fine,if you enter or exit by McKinley Dr and go north towards Fowler the area is fine,once you get to Fowler go east and reach 75,Fowler is a major street by the University of South Florida and tons of businesses,if you come and go this way you're fine.I came in once from the south and this was the worst area I've seen around the park.

 

[momof2n2]

We just spent two days at BG in May and had a fantastic time. I kept meaning to write a bit of a trip report and you moved me to action!
I have a lot of photos that I am currently uploading to photobucket so I can post them. I hope to do that tomorrow.

In the nutshell it was a great place to visit.

As far as the neighborhood goes that is funny you mention it. I had read either here or on TripAdvisor that the neighborhood was sketchy. The first day we went I mentioned it to my husband and we both were a little surprised. It looked just fine to us. Well, the second day when we left right after the park closed - so 6:30ish our handy-dandy phone GPS girl warned us about bad traffic and rerouted us. Oh - my - golly - I don't know WHERE we were but DH and I were both mighty glad it was 6:30 and not 9:30 PM. Stick to the highway. Traffic or no traffic.

Okay - I will try try try to post pics ASAP. It was a great place. We were there two full days when park hours were 10-6.

 

[momof2n2]

OP - do your kids like Sesame Street? FANTASTIC ride area for kids. Are your kids still 3 & 5? Is that a current signature? VERY good stuff for those ages!

 

[nighttowll]

OP - do your kids like Sesame Street? FANTASTIC ride area for kids. Are your kids still 3 & 5? Is that a current signature? VERY good stuff for those ages!

Somehow, I guess because of the tour, we missed this whole section of the park. It looks awesome. It makes me wish I had toddlers, so I'd have an excuse to go check it out.

A carousel, kids Ferris wheel, mini safari ride, flume ride, dry and wet play areas, and other assorted rides. Looks like there's lots to do.

http://seaworldparks.com/en/buschga...ther-attractions/sesame-street-safari-of-fun/

I also noticed they have a Sesame Street character buffet lunch that is very reasonably priced compared to Disney standards at about $15/child and $20/adult. They even have special party lunches throughout year you can book. Like a lunch celebrating Big Birds Birthday. I would have loved that as a child, to get to attend Big Birds Bday party.

 

[momof2n2]

Tours looked cool. Maybe next time.

 

[Woodview]

I am intrigued as to why Delilah18 asked the Question

Is Bush Gardens in a Bad area in Tampa & would they be safe Driving home.?


As a European I find this a terrible reflection of how Tampa & USA in general

has been portrayed & put The FEAR into people who wish to travel .

You leave the Exit of Busch Gardens and you Should have your route planned

to get you home.Is this a hard thing to do ?

 

[momof2n2]

As someone who recently visited BG & read on Trip Advisor (I believe) about the neighborhood being poor, I paid close attn to this. Our second day there we needed to go off the main route to avoid major traffic (per GPS and seen as we went under overpass). The alternate route WAS a bit dicey...

 

[ncfamily]

Just take the Interstate to Fowler drive. Then take McKinley to get to the park. You'll be fine.

 

[hydrotony]

You park in Busch Garden's parking lot, you take a tram to the front gate. You don't park in the neighborhood and walk to the park.

As for animal encounters, Busch Gardens is superior to Animal Kingdom.

Have fun.

 

[Jammmy77]

Bush garden is an amusement park in the united state, owned by the sea world entertainment. It has a three former park that are as follows
Busch Gardens in California
Busch Gardens Houston
Barcelona
Here you can enjoy the free beer samples in their Hospitality center. Do visit this and share your experience here.

 

[hydrotony]

There hasn't been free beer samples for many years since Anheuser-Busch sold the theme parks. It has had 2 or 3 different owners since then.

 

[DOOM1001]

Bush garden is an amusement park in the united state, owned by the sea world entertainment. It has a three former park that are as follows
Busch Gardens in California
Busch Gardens Houston
Barcelona
Here you can enjoy the free beer samples in their Hospitality center. Do visit this and share your experience here.

I would mention their current parks,Tampa and Williamsburg Virginia,two amazing parks.The California and Houston parks closed about 40 years ago and were very minor parks,Barcelona never opened as a Busch Gardens park,even though they were part owners of a park there.There hasn't been free beer at the Busch Garden parks for like 5 years.

 

[kathy884]

I'm not as big a fan of Busch Gardens as the other previous posters. It's a lovely park, but feels very much to me like an excellent zoo with some coasters thrown in (not a bad thing) and they do have some excellent animal exhibits. The feel though was quite similar to my local zoo at home (the Saint Louis zoo). I was disappointed by the shows, though. The singing / dancing ones were fun, but more like amusement park shows than something outstanding such as Disney's "Festival of the Lion King" at Animal Kingdom. I'm not starved for coasters either. While Busch is known to have the best selection of coasters in Central Florida, we get to Cedar Point often enough, and most amusement park critics would say that Cedar Point has the best selection of coasters in the world.

I like to go if I'm in Tampa, but with all the great parks right in Orlando don't go when I'm staying there.

Animal Kingdom felt way more exotic and unique to me, and my mom and dad who have traveled to South Africa commented too about how great the theming is.

 

[nighttowll]

So, I went back to BG in July, and I wanted to share my experience because it was very different from my visit last spring.

First, I'm going to say I will never go back to Busch Gardens in the summer, and if I hadn't already had such a positive experience in the spring, I think it would have turned me off ever going back again at all.

We had 14 day passes, and we probably went a good 7 days at least if not more, and do you know what we did? Pretty much nothing except watch the Ice show again and walk through gift shops.

I definitely discovered all the BG flaws this summer.

1. BG does not open until late morning, 10 or 10:30 if I remember right. Even then, only a small section of the park opens, so this funnels everyone into the same spot. The rest of the park doesn't open until lunch. Starting this late, everyone arrives at the same time. There is no early morning advantage to getting there when BG first opens to avoid crowds. The lines start long and stay that way.

2. If there is even one bolt of lightning within a 10 mile radius, they close down the rides. They won't reopen them until so much time has passed lightning free. I think it was 10 minutes. It's Florida, there is always a rain storm going on somewhere. Many times we were closed for a small storm you could barely see in the distance, and when you checked the radar, you'd see the storm was actually moving away from the park. So here you are just waiting with sunny skies above you because 10 miles away there is one rain cloud.

3. Then, before they can let anyone back on a ride after it has been closed for rain / lightning, they have to run every car back through multiple times for safety. One of the workers told me 4 times, but since I don't work there, I can't be 100% sure that is correct. But it was definitely more than once.

This means if just one bolt of lightning strikes expect to be down for a good 45 minutes to an hour because it will take that long if not longer to get the all clear and run all the cars back through.

When you add all this together, all you end up doing is waiting because it never failed just as soon as they ran 1 or 2 groups of people through, the next lightning bolt 10 miles away shut it all down again, and you were back where you started.

We spent 3 hours one day waiting at one ride with this back and forth going on before giving up. They would wait the required time, start running all the cars back through, then get shut down again before they could finish the complete safety check. We only waited that long because we had already waited through the hour wait to begin with and were next to get on the ride when the first lightning shut us down. So if we got out of line to go do something else like see the animals, we would have had to re-wait in the regular line all over again, assuming they ever reopened the ride at all.

Then if there was actual rain, forget seeing the animals. The whole thing was just impossible. We kept going back day after day, thinking eventually we would get a good day, but it never happened. Even if it wasn't raining above us, there was a cloud somewhere, so it didn't matter.

This was the point I realized where Disney will always have BG beat. You can go early or late at night to help with crowds, and rain / lightning have no real effect on Disney. Most Disney attractions do not close for rain or lightning because they are indoors. Rain only helps to clear out the park at Disney. If you don't mind getting a little wet there is still plenty to do and usually fewer crowds to worry about. Whereas at BG, it is impossible to do anything in the rainy season.

I also learned this trip, don't bother feeding the kangaroos unless you do it first thing in the morning because they get full pretty quick, and then won't eat any more, so you wasted your money on the food. You can, however, walk through and look at them for free.

Despite all this, I am still looking forward to going back to BG in the future, but it will definitely be in the off season and not during the rainy season.

 

[johde]

It's been a few years since I've been to Busch Gardens, I'm planning a trip this January. But in a lot of ways, Busch Gardens Tampa is a great park in some ways for me, better than Animal Kingdom. Busch Gardens seemed to hit that ideal balance of high thrill rides and non thrilling attractions for the thrill ride lover that's getting older and needs to measure out their thrills.

The ability to alternate between world class coasters, animal exhibits, shows meant I could enjoy myself all day. As opposed to say Six Flags Magic Mountain. That park is full of great roller coasters. But at least the day I was there there was little else for adults. After a roller coaster or 2 I need a break depending on how extreme they are. At Busch Gardens there was always something entertaining to do. At Six Flag Magic Mountain, at times it was find a spot and people watch. There were no shows, exhibits, or dark type rides. The poster 2 post above mentioned Cedar Point. Living in Ohio I've visited Cedar Point. It's got a great collection of coasters and is better than SFMM in the non coaster department. Comparing individual coasters though I prefer Montu to Raptor and when they are running well I prefer Gwazi to either of Cedar Points wooden Coasters (although I've heard the Florida weather has not been kind to Gwazi).

In the show department, back when Katanga was in the Moroccan Palace, I thought it was one of the best shows in FL. It would be a shame if they haven't found a worth replacement yet.

In the food department, Busch Gardens has always had excellent counter service food. The ribs from the Smokehouse I think are better than the ones everyone raves about at Animal Kingdom.