Guided Adventure Tour at Busch Gardens

[nighttowll]

Has anyone done this? I'm a little confused about what is included. The website is somewhat vague.

You get reserved seating to a show. Which show or do you get to choose?

You get true front of the line onto the rides, but how many rides, which rides? Are certain ones excluded? Also, I've read reviews where people were offered front row seats, but the website specifically states front row not included. Were they just lucky, or is this something that has changed over the years?

You get lunch. Where? Most of the reviews I read said they ate at Crown Colony, but one said Desert Grill. Do you get to choose?


I'm trying to decide if it would be better for us to just purchase the quick queue pass or to do the tour. The kids really only want to go on the rides. I'd like to see the animals and shows. I thought this might be a good compromise, and a way to fit more in, but I'm not sure. I know the kids would get a kick out of the front of the line part, especially if they could do first row. I've also read people said they were allowed to stay on and ride twice in a row, so if that's still going on, a huge plus there as well. But, could we get more rides in just using the quick queue and not wasting time on a sit down lunch and the Safari ride? I just don't see how you can fit in very many rides in the short time of the tour, only 5 hours including lunch, show, and the safari.

 

[2girlsmom]

I've not done the tour, so can't speak to what that entails, sorry. But I don't think QQ is worthwhile at BG for the most part. We're locals so have been on very busy and slow days, including Christmas Day two years in a row, and even then the single ride that had longer than 30 minutes was Cheetah Hunt, and even it dropped around 4pm down to 30 minute wait. At 10am, when Cheetah was 80 minutes, Montu (less than 100 steps away) was 10 minutes wait. Kumba was walk on all day, Sheikra was 30 minutes most of the day. We saw most of the shows AND rode all the rides, etc in the coarse of the day (we had my brother and sister in law with us as well as their kids, all first timers). I would say if the TOUR sounds interesting to you and yours, it may be worth doing for that reason, though.

 

[nighttowll]

Well, I'm going with a friend who has decided she wants to do it, so we will just see. I may regret it if we get there, and there aren't any lines.

We are going during spring break, and I have no idea how crowded to expect it to be since I've never been to Busch before. On the other hand, we usually only tour in the off season, and the kids all think waiting 10-15 minutes is the end of the world. They've been spoiled getting to walk onto pretty much everything since I've always over planned. We were those people using 7+ FP a day after hitting rope drop to begin with. I always think it is funny when people talk wait times, and they say 20-30 min waits are short. Anything longer than 30mins, I'm not even getting in line. That's my max and 1 or 2 of those waits a day is about my limit, and then it had better be for some great headliner. I see anything posted more than 15 minutes, and I pull a FP or come back later.

My other consideration is that this will be our 4th park in 4 days, so I think it might be kind of nice to just step back and let someone else take over. No worry, no getting lost, no arguments about what to do next, where to eat, what to see. I'm not sure I'll know what to do with myself, though, if someone else gets to be the tour guide for once.



I did call and find out:

The restaurant you eat lunch is the Desert Grill.
Although she did say that if the whole group wanted to eat somewhere else, they could probably arrange it.

The show is Iceploration.

You are only guaranteed to feed the giraffes, but I have read a few reviews where they fed other animals as well, and the website states in small print that animals may vary. I think it just comes down to luck and timing with that.

The rides are the same ones as the quick queue covers, the thrill rides.
Specifically the kids area, Sesame St. and the water rides are excluded. Again though, I have read a couple of reviews where they did a few water rides, so I think that just depends on how quickly your group happens to move around the park, if they have extra time to fit those in. However, they aren't guaranteed.

I also read where people stated they were allowed to stay on a ride for two trips around in a row, but I forgot to ask about that when I called. So I'm not sure if that was just a fluke or what.

For anyone interested, I will try to post how it all turns out afterwards, since there is a definite shortage of Busch Gardens info out there.

 

[sanveaz]

We did this tour in December of 2011 and lived it. It was just my hubby and I on the tour so we got through things pretty quick. We got to feed the kangaroos, flamingos, the parrots and had the safari tour and fed the giraffes. I can't remember where we ate but it was really good.
We got to ride every roller coaster. Some of the lines were 50 minutes and we walked right on and got to choose any seat we wanted. We were loaded before anyone else so got to do the front row on all, which made some people that had waited in line mad.
The ice skating show is the one we had reserved seating for, don't remember the name. Because the hours were shorter than in summer we didn't get in any other shows but were able to do some other rides after the tour was over.
All in all we don't regret spending the extra money for the tour. We only had one day for BG and we had so much fun. I would definitely do it again.

 

[nighttowll]

We did this tour in December of 2011 and lived it. It was just my hubby and I on the tour so we got through things pretty quick. We got to feed the kangaroos, flamingos, the parrots and had the safari tour and fed the giraffes. I can't remember where we ate but it was really good. We got to ride every roller coaster. Some of the lines were 50 minutes and we walked right on and got to choose any seat we wanted. We were loaded before anyone else so got to do the front row on all, which made some people that had waited in line mad. The ice skating show is the one we had reserved seating for, don't remember the name. Because the hours were shorter than in summer we didn't get in any other shows but were able to do some other rides after the tour was over. All in all we don't regret spending the extra money for the tour. We only had one day for BG and we had so much fun. I would definitely do it again.

I'm really glad to hear that you had such a great time. I'm hoping the tour goes really well, and everyone has fun. We have one person joining our group who really made a fuss about not wanting to do the tour, so I'm hoping its a success because we will never hear the end of it if it isn't. (It's great when one friend is set on doing it, and the other is set on not, and you're undecided stuck in the middle) At this point, I'm just excited about having one less day to plan out of a really long week. At least we aren't attempting Disney this trip. I think that would really do me in.

 

[melizaarora]

Quite interesting.

 

[nighttowll]

I just realized that there is a show at Desert Grill. Does anyone know what the current show is?