Touring Plan for Busch Gardens

[mattr555]

Does anyone know where I can find touring plan advice for Busch Gardens?

Thanks

 

[KayakDaddy]

I have not found the amount or quality of touring advice for Busch Gardens as you will find for WDW. It may be available, but I'm not sure from where.

We did have Fun Cards (Like an Annual Pass) for Busch Gardens Tampa last year. We spent about 8 days there so I might be able to help you with some advice.

The same basic principles that you use at WDW apply at all theme parks. Get there before they open, have a plan, and do all the biggies first. I recommend doing Rhino Rally first. It is similar to the Safari ride at AK, except it is shorter and humor is a big part of it. (It’s more fun - IMHO). I recommend doing it first because it is a slow loading ride and you don’t want to be in that line at mid-day. We would usually ride it about 3 times in a row with no waiting right at opening time. You do want to get a different driver every time if you can, because they are interactive and all have their own jokes a la Jungle Cruise at MK. They did introduce a Fastpass like system about half-way through 2004, but it is only for Rhino Rally. I don’t know if they plan to keep it or not.

Another can’t miss is the Katonga show at the Moroccan Theater. It’s on par with any of the big shows at Disney. It is on the scale of Festival of the Lion King, I really enjoy it.

If you have any specific questions I would be happy to answer them.

 

[mattr555]

Thanks for the advice. It is really hard to find anything on BG..

I am going in the first week of May. What would you expect crowd levels to be like at BG and how does it compare to Disney for crouds?

What sort of waits can i expect for all the big coasters?

 

[erinch]

over in the orlando hotels and attractions I posted this question, and have gotten some wonderful responses. check there:
here's the link:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=780854

 

[KayakDaddy]

You should be in good shape crowd wise if you are going the first week of May. Most of the country is still in school then so the crowds should be limited. I would avoid weekends if I could. It seems like half of Tampa has an annual pass so it is pretty crowded with semi-locals on the weekend.

As for comparing BG to Disney as far as crowd management: BG will have less people but also less sophisticated crowd management techniques. BG was never designed to handle as many people as the WDW parks and the traffic patterns aren’t as flexible. There is no way to cut right through the middle of the park for example, often leaving long walks to get from here to there. These factors combine to result in gridlock on really crowded days, but you will hardly notice it on low attendance days.

Busch Gardens also has a lot more of the slow loading type rides than the Disney Parks. Examples are the older style amusement park rides like Sky buckets and log flumes. I still enjoy these rides, but I don’t want to wait forever to get on them.

The one area I would say the BG-Tampa has it over the Disney parks is their children’s play area. It is called Land of Dragons. It is a small “land” with enormous play structures linked together by bungee bridges, etc. They have a splash around in the water area, and some small tykes rides. If you have a kid between 1 and 6, they could probably stay here all day.

 

[riu girl]

I read (not on DIS) that the fun cards ($61.95 adults, $51.95 children) are ONLY available for Florida residents . The Busch gardens official web site does not say this.

Can anyone tell me if they are only available for Florida residents or not??? I hope not since we were hoping to go there 3 or 4 times over a two week period 12/2005. This was going to be our main family activity while in Florida this year.
I don't plan on buying them (if I even can) until we go to Busch Gardens.

Any info. woudl be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Suzy V.