My trip to Busch Gardens

[sbkline]

We went with our 10 year old neighbor and his family. When you tell him Busch Gardens he automatically thinks theme park so how can you not compare the two:shrug: . I understand that its two different parks...

That's your mistake right there. WDW is not "a theme park". It is a vacation destination which includes 4 theme parks, two water parks, two mini-golf courses, a night-time entertainment district and many resort hotels with activities of their own. Bush Gardens is *a* theme park...or at the very most, two parks if you count Adventure Island.

So no, there is no comparing the two. As I said, Busch Gardens is a one day destination. Two days if you want to experience the water park, or if you just liked either one so much that you want to do it again the next day. WDW is a a vacation destination geared towards those who plan to stay a week or so.

So comparing Bush Gardens to WDW is like comparing apples to oranges. A more accurate comparison would be Busch Gardens and Six Flags. Or Busch Gardens and Holiday World. Or Busch Gardens and Cedar Point. Or Busch Gardens and Sea World. These are all basically one day parks.

 

[dandaman]

I don't feel the need to compare every place I ever visit to WDW, I just enjoy what it has to offer.

What he said.

Sheikra > Oblivion.

What he said, too, though I haven't taken a voyage across the pond yet. :lookaroun

(FYI Marni, Shiekra's floorless now. )

Or Busch Gardens and Cedar Point.

Busch definitely has better theming, CP definitely has better rides (or, at least, each has a more vast selection on both counts). That one's still not really a fair comparison, IMO.

I really was pleasantly surprised with Busch Gardens. Not once did I encounter a rude ride op or general employee. Parks have off-days, simple as that. :shrug:

 

[BarryH]

Put it this way... you can get a FL resident annual pass to Busch Gardens for the price of a one-day ticket. Sometimes you do get what you pay for.

Sea World also has that same offer and I find lots of neat stuff at that park to do.

It's very ghetto compared to WDW. You quickly realize you're not in Kansas anymore comparatively!
-m

You've never been to Williams Grove in PA. Once you've visited there, you'll redefine your definition of ghetto!

 

[dandaman]

^Was that where the whole "Malaria Lake" thing started, or was that Cypress Gardens?

 

[BarryH]

Actually, Williams Grove's lake looked pretty decent. You could ride in a boat held together by spit and duct tape around the lake. Several parks have a "Malaria Lake."

 

[haveyoumetmark]

You should've seen it before the addition of Shei Kra. Along with Shei Kra came renovations, a new entrance, semi-new parking, and an overall new look for BG.

 

[EpcotServo]

I agree. Besides Rhino Rally (With the ending working mind you.) I thought it was a ghetto Animal Kingdom.

 

[Rabflmom]

I agree. Besides Rhino Rally (With the ending working mind you.) I thought it was a ghetto Animal Kingdom.>>>>>>

Wow, all these negative posts about my favorite park in Florida. Guess I mustbe pretty ghetto type person since we prefer it to all the Disney parks, even though we love Disney, too. We've had the gold pass for so long I can't even remember. What a great deal- 2 parks, 2 years, at about a third of the price for a Disney pass. BTW I get into Disney parks for free so I have spent lots of time there, too.

The thing about BG is there is something for everyone. There are the coasters for the ones who need rides to make a park worth while. There are animals all over the park with paths that get you close to them, a train, a sky car, Rhino Ralley ride, and a safari by truck where you get to feed giraffes. You will see more animals than at Animal Kingdom( which btw is my all time favorite Disney Park). If you take the time to stand and watch them, they are so cool.
If you have young kids, there is a whole area of the park with rides, playground, and shows geared just for them( noit referring to the carnival area). And then there are the 20-30 minute shows that they have. Kotonga is a wonderful show and for a laugh the rock show is hard to describe. LOL
For me it is a relaxing day since I no longer can ride the coasters. It definitely is a full day or a 2 day park.
We have never gone to the water park, but some teens in one of my classes and one of my son's friends who lived in Tampa for years said it has good slides. Just as good as the slides in Orlando but maybe with theming on the Wet and Wild category-meaning the slides are better than the theming.

You really can't compare a Disney Park to a Busch park. Disney is there to entertain and the rides are the same for the most part as they were in 1972 when I first went to the MK. When I think Sea World or Busch Gardens they entertain; but they also do a lot of educating about the animals etc. I think enjoying a Disney or a Busch park depends on what a person is looking for when they go. If you solely want to be entertained than go Disney all the way. If you want to be entertained and come away with a little more knowledge than you went in with than hit a Busch Park. Spend a few minutes or much longer in each exhibit and come away with as much info as you want to get on a vacation.

As for CMs at the parks, I have seen great at all the parks and I have seen not so great at all the parks. A company tries to hire the best people they can, but with the work pool available it becomes harder every year. I know that people I hire don't always live up to my expectations and I appreciate it when a customer feels confident enough to tell me about what happened when I wasn't there if they have a bad experience. As far as teens go, teens will be teens even when they are being paid to do a job. No matter what our rules are they tend to push the rules as far as they can.

One last thought. .......the most relaxing meal at any of the parks.... Colonial House. Good food, good service, good view, relaxing piano music, air conditioning on hot Tampa Days( seems like it is always hotter in Tampa parks than in Orlando parks to me)

Also.......if it rains and ruins the day, you get a return ticket if you want one.......

 

[drdoom1001]

As others have said you can compare Busch to a Six Flags park,Cedar Point,Knotts,but leave Disney out of the conversation.You can compare Disney World to other Disney locations around the world and perhaps the only other place that is worthy of a comparison to Disney is Europa Park in Germany!!!

 

[Figment1986]

Put it this way... you can get a FL resident annual pass to Busch Gardens for the price of a one-day ticket. Sometimes you do get what you pay for.

It's very ghetto compared to WDW. You quickly realize you're not in Kansas anymore comparatively!
-m

you mean africa

I`ve gone to BGT each vsisit since 1987, and have our tickets already for this October. The reason? The rides. Not the atmosphere, just the attractions. Pretty much what Lee said above; plus we missed Rhino Rally last time and Sheikra is new to us (having ridden the Alton Towers original we can`t wait)

Plus coming 4000 miles it`d be rude not to spend a day there. We`ll be back in Orlando for Fantsamic! or Wishes mind

Try a day in Blackpool on a wet Saturday. THAT is horrible.

When are you coming to tampa, maybe we could have a party on Montu or Kumba.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is indeed 75% better... almost like night and day between the parks. Busch Gardens Tampa is in the city while Busch Gardens Williamsburg is off interstate away from noise not to mention they also themes the park well keeping nature in mind... while Busch Gardens Tampa is learning.. (congo project looks great I hear :lookaroun)

 

[kcnole]

Just so you know Solismo, you may want to fix your signature. You didn't have orderbs, You had "hors d'oeuvres".

 

[pilka214]

personally i do enjoy a trip to busch gardens, it's definately gotten better in past years..... however due to it's location it's atmosphere is ehh... so-so. but they're roller coasters are great. that's about what they have... don't compare busch gardens to somewhere like wdw... compare it more to six flags... definately prefer it over a complete concrete jungle w/ 2 hours lines

 

[devoy1701]

I am alittle taken back by the downright nasty comments everyone is making about BG Tampa.

First off...BG Tampa isn't "learning" from bg Williamsburg. The Tampa park was here LONG before it's Williamburg Counterpart...almost 20 years. The reason is it located in the city is because of the brewery that used to be onsite that required the use of the railroad lines that ran into Tampa. Consider the Tampa BG to be the Disneyland of Amheisuer Busch Theme Parks. What BG Tampa lacks in space and locaction, Williamsburg has.

And ghetto AK? not quite...BG set the par for AK since it was around first...AK just has the benefit of being backed by 3 other parks to make people come to it... The first decade of AK haven't been all too successful and even with Everest you can still only spend a halfday in the park.

The theming is great in the Tampa park as well. It's not like Africa is all done up in fancy architecture and bright colors. You also got to remember that Busch Gardens is HALF animal reserve and the company widely invests in Animal Conservation and Protection. This is the reason for early closing times most of the year and why the most every attraction revolves around animals.

And I was very offended by the comments about the type of people who go to busch gardens not being up to Disney Par. I would say about half of the people I know have Busch Gardens annual passes/fun cards because of the great value associated with them. And I live in Brandon/Valrico which is a rather upperend suburb of Tampa. I ALSO spend thousands a year on Disney vacations but still go to Busch Gardens regularly...

Why don't you just bring back the branding of all Value Resort lodgers are lowerclass too?!

Disney Bubbles are great...but as mentioned before...you can't compare everything to Disney. Some of you are as bad as those people who say "oh, I can't believe you're vacationing at WDW again!?" when you say "why would you want to go to any other theme park besides one of the Disney Resorts.

 

[Figment1986]

First off...BG Tampa isn't "learning" from bg Williamsburg. The Tampa park was here LONG before it's Williamsburg Counterpart...almost 20 years.

They are indeed learning, BGW has been theming for ages now and theming extensively. BGT has been loosely themeing and untill management changed many years ago, new attractions had issues keeping the themeing. Now they are extensively themeing areas, look at Jungala... then look at Land of the dragons. Junguala is a huge upgrade.

That was what I meant with my comment, that and many elements from BGT come from BGW, like the smoke house upgrade... and the new bestro coming to Jungala, while BGW takes attractions and pluses them...

 

[joelleharbert]

I know I'm going to get absolutely flamed for this, but here goes anyway. We just got back from our fourth trip to Florida in the last four years and this time we did Busch Gardens in addition to Disney. I have to say, my family absolutely LOVED Busch Gardens! My husband and I totally enjoyed Sheikra and the kids enjoyed the kiddie area and animals. We thought the animal areas were better than alot of zoos we've been to and in our opinion, Sheikra is the best coaster we've ever been on. That is saying alot, as we live close to Cedar Point in Ohio and they have two of the best coasters ever there. BG was clean and we thought the staff was very friendly. We also did the Magic Kingdom again this trip, but my kids have either "outgrown" Disney or they are just bored with it all the way around. We got there at opening and they were ready to leave by 10:30. It about broke my heart, as I am a Disney lover. We didn't do the other parks this time (money is tight right now, unfortunately), but in the past, they never seemed to enjoy the other ones much anyway (except MGM, er, I mean Hollywood Studios, with TOT and RNRC). Anyway, I just had to state that although I still personally love Disney, my family as a whole enjoyed BG more. Just our opinion, though.

 

[kc1296426]

I know I'm going to get absolutely flamed for this, but here goes anyway. We just got back from our fourth trip to Florida in the last four years and this time we did Busch Gardens in addition to Disney. I have to say, my family absolutely LOVED Busch Gardens! My husband and I totally enjoyed Sheikra and the kids enjoyed the kiddie area and animals. We thought the animal areas were better than alot of zoos we've been to and in our opinion, Sheikra is the best coaster we've ever been on. That is saying alot, as we live close to Cedar Point in Ohio and they have two of the best coasters ever there. BG was clean and we thought the staff was very friendly. We also did the Magic Kingdom again this trip, but my kids have either "outgrown" Disney or they are just bored with it all the way around. We got there at opening and they were ready to leave by 10:30. It about broke my heart, as I am a Disney lover. We didn't do the other parks this time (money is tight right now, unfortunately), but in the past, they never seemed to enjoy the other ones much anyway (except MGM, er, I mean Hollywood Studios, with TOT and RNRC). Anyway, I just had to state that although I still personally love Disney, my family as a whole enjoyed BG more. Just our opinion, though.

Great to hear you had a great time there! I personally LOVE Busch myself.

 

[jsdratm]

When I went to Busch Gardens in October 2007 after going to Disney, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Reasons why:

1) Not nearly as crowded (seemed like mostly UK tourists)
2) Food that is actually good quality and reasonably priced. I had chicken fingers and fries and got way more food than I ever got at disney for the same price. Much better than Disney's smashed cheeseburger with bacon disc or Universal's horrible pizzas.
3) Animal encounters are a lot of fun there, like the bird cage where parrots land on you and you can feed them nectar.
4) I was 10 feet from a white rhino on the train ride with no barrier between us.
5) The roller coasters were a lot of fun
6) It still has a sky way

The only complaint I would have is that the pirates 4D attraction does indeed suck. I sat behind a sprinkler that would not stop spraying and it soaked me and nearby people. Plus the movie kind of sucked anyways.

While Disney theme rides are probably better quality, Busch Gardens Tampa is a lot more laid back and relaxing, has awesome coasters, and you get more for your money. If you like animals, you get to have a lot of close encounters. I don't know why people said that it was "ghetto", there was nothing there that was any worse than Disney or Universal and the food was definitely less "ghetto". :veryconfu

 

[surfsupdon]

I enjoyed Busch Gardens Tampa. Fun rides!


My family LOVES Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Neat rides, beautiful atmosphere, and just a lot of fun with generally very little waiting in line. The park is beautifully landscaped too. Go there and try it out.

 

[BlackPearl]

I like Busch Gardens but I think it has too many rollercoasters and not enough thrill rides. I like the animal exhibts and the show they have, katunoanga or somethin. But, I dont like where it is located at. Its too close to homes and doesnt really feel like a amusment park.

 

[kcnole]

I like Busch Gardens but I think it has too many rollercoasters and not enough thrill rides.

This sentence doesn't make any sense to me.