May/June 2001 Trip -- Part 2: Detective Barry at Busch Gardens

[BarryHom]

May 25, 2001

The cast:
Me (the 29-year old)

I wanted to make sure that Rhino Rally was working. I don’t see why Busch Gardens would want to disappoint people.

I went on the skyride. I entered at Nairobi and waited about 10 minutes. As I passed over Rhino Rally, I did see the rovers float down the river. From what I could see, the rover gets stuck on a bridge. A flash flood hits the rover, the bridge breaks, and the rover floats down the river. I thought it would be like a river raft ride, like the Congo. The water part wasn’t like that at all. Remember boats you made out of newspapers and floated in a pond? The water part was like that. It didn’t look very thrilling. The queue line was spilling out the entrance. The queue area seems too small for the crowds the ride will get.

The skyride ended at Stanleyville. I took the ride back to Nairobi and I didn’t have to wait. I still felt disappointed when I viewed Rhino Rally from the air again.

When I departed Rhino Rally, the ride op said that we could tell the employee at the front gate that we didn’t get to ride the water part and we could be sent to the front of the line. I didn’t have time to do this. Besides, I couldn’t trust the driver to veer left. What if he or she went right again? I would have to come back. That sounds like a big inconvenience to the guest. I don’t think it is good guest service to tell a guest to keep on coming back because he or she did not experience a part of the ride. You could see part of the water ride from the exit. If a guest can see that, he or she would expect to be able to ride the part. I can see a lot of guests complaining about this.

And count me in as one of the complaining guests. After I got off the ride, I was tempted to cut up my Busch Gardens/Sea World two-year pass. I didn’t because I didn’t have any beef against Sea World.

I walked out of the park. I overheard a guest say, “It’s hotter than a (insert word that rhymes with witch).” The heat was not unbearable to me and it would get hotter later in the day. Five people with strollers decided to make a human barricade across one of the paths and I had to find an open space to sneak through.

I headed out to the tram to go back to the parking lot. As I did, I kept on thinking that Busch Gardens is not my favorite park. The park seems dirty. Although trash was not strewn all over the place, I felt a dirty feeling from the park. Some buildings don’t look any different than when they opened in the 70’s. They stick out like bad fashion. I’ve also never felt that I’ve been taken to another place when I am at the park. You can hear the traffic from Busch Blvd. Rides and lands seem to intersect each other with no real distinct changes. The park isn’t as a fine-tuned operation like Universal, Disney, or even Busch Gardens’ sister park, Sea World. Busch Gardens does have great roller coasters and that will be the main reason why I would consider visiting Busch Gardens again. However, I would gladly drive an extra hour to Orlando because of the better products.

I had lunch at Burger King and headed to Orlando. As I drove to Orlando, I was composing my complaint letter to Busch Gardens, which made me go the wrong way on I-4.

Next stop: Disney-MGM Studios.

 

[XAVIER]

Sorry Rhino Rally didn't work for you Barry, I would have loved to have read your report of it. The full ride does sound great.
Personnally I've always liked Busch, certainly more than Disney's AK - but maybe thats just because of the free beer!

 

[Kas]

We visited BG for the fist time in May, and were really disappointed. We actually stood in line for Rhino Rally’s soft opening – after an hour, we decided to leave. Sounds like we made the right decision.

I can’t explain why I didn’t enjoy the park – it was more a feeling. It seems old, and all the lines can get very LONG. Alton Towers in the UK managed to implement a virtual queuing system a couple of years ago. That combined with the fact that we’d been stuck in the pre-show of the Arabian tour thing for forty minutes. Didn’t help.

I think we were expecting so much – and they didn’t deliver.

I have to say however, the Bush Gardens band were wonderful. We spent a while chatting with them outside the entrance to Gwazi. They really brightened up the day for us.

 

[dan-tot]

I was stationed at McDill A.F.B. in Tampa and went to the park on a regular basis. I always felt that this was an amusement park and not really anything like Disney is. I don't think they are trying to portray anything like Disney. When I was there last all they had was a couple of rollar coasters the water log ride the animal shows and the carnival games in I think Morroco. They of course had the brewery tour and the hospitality House where you got free beer. The Indiana Ride at Disneyland has two different ways to go through. The blue palace and golden palace so you have to re ride it to go throughboth sides. I think BG should have two ques where one side is the water ride and the other for the land.

Dan-tot

 

[cotye]

Great report Barry. Still disappointed to hear you didn't get to go on the water portion of RR.