Busch Gardens Mini Trip Report

[ChrisFL]

Well, my family and I just received our Florida fun card passes for this year and decided to go to the park today to see what was happening. The Fun card offer was supposed to expire on April 30th, but apparently they extended it, which meant the park was packed with people. Busch Gardens is also having a special thing on each weekend in May with special food, new kinds of beer, events, and other things around the park.

I noticed a TON of smaller kids today, it was almost Disney-like. I hadn't been on Rhino Rally yet, but it was 1 1/2 hour wait, and the temp felt like 100º today, so we passed, and decided to come back later. There was an interesting Chef competition in the Festhaus, where 2 chefs duel for 15 minutes to come up with a better tasting dish. Before this, I decided to check out the bumper cars, always a favorite of mine and my dad. The line was only a little bit longer than normal, so we got in line. While waiting our turn, we noticed that the cars seemed slower. The attendant on the next loading put way too many people out, and had to tell a lot of people to come back behind the gate, but there wasn't enough room with the turnstyle right there, so some had to go under the fence from the next row. It was a mess. Finally we got on, and it was slower, MUCH slower. I don't know why they did this, but it wasn't even worth doing IMO, you couldn't even hit the other cars with more than a tap.

I did the coasters, nothing new to report there. Near Gwazi, they had some dancing characters and tried to get the kids to dance with them. A warning though, the music they were playing wasn't always "G" rated. Although this obviously isn't a Disney type park, and though I also listen to music that isn't "G" rated, for this, and with as many kids as they had there, I thought it would be better if they found some better music.

The heat eventually caught up to us, and I didn't get back to Rhino Rally, but I have the rest of the year to catch it.

 

[vernon]

I'd agree with Chris that weekends are looking busy at the moment. I visited twice last week. On the Wednesday the park was reasonably quiet and queue times were 5-15 minutes on Gwazi,Montu,CongoRR, and the Rhino rally. The restaurants were reasonablly busy but it wasn't hard to find a place to sit. On the following Saturday there was an hour+ wait for people to activate their funpasses just to get into the park !!!. The queue times on the rides were 30-60 minutes and the restaurants were a lot busier. If you're coming from out of town and have the option, I would strongly advise going on a weekday.

I think this will die down as the year goes on and the "locals" won't want to go EVERY weekend, but I think weekends will still be significantly busier.

 

[Buschfan]

Nice review Chris. Even though I like this park because it is so unlike Disney, there is no excuse if the music that was played had questionable lyrics. I would send them an e-mail about that. Hopefully it was an oversight. This is still a family park even though it isn't Disney.
I have noticed the crowd build since last year. We bought 2 year season passes before the fun card deal and the park was much more enjoyable. They should of placed a limit on the amount of fun cards sold. Extending the deadline to buy these passes is insane! It is getting to the point that weekends are not worth the hassle. Sea World seems to handle the crowds better. It has many more walkways and they are wider. Busch was never built for these large crowds and the experience is suffering.

 

[robvia]

Great TR Chris.

Don't worry, you didn't miss much on RR. It's that gotta try it thing. They do have a single rider line.

Yeah, I couldn't believe the crowds at BGT when I was there last. The fun pass line was 1 hour at noon, and the line of people trying to get into the park went past the fountain. I agree, go on a weekday, and get there early.

SWF seems to be much better, went Saturday April 28th at 4pm and the wait for Kraken was only 15 minutes. Used the single rider line for JTA, had a great time.

 

[rocketman23]

Originally posted by robvia
They do have a single rider line.

Have you ever seen it used? The last, about, 5 times(Usually on Saturdays) I've went I checked to see if it was open, but it wasn't open. That whole ride's a mess though, I'll just stick with the coasters.

 

[Buschfan]

I have to ditto the remares on Rhino Rally. It is not worth a long wait. I waited for almost 3 hrs when it first opened due to numerous breakdowns. The ride is certainly not worth the 10 million that was reportedly spent on it. You can't help asking yourself after the ride 'That is it'? The ride is way too tame and not worth riding more than once if you have to wait more than 15 minutes.