Busch Gardens Tampa ?????'s

[eeyore0062]

We will be taking a side trip to BG-T when we are down the end of March. We are planning on going on a Tuesday, and are staying in the Lake Buena Vista Area.

1) How long does it take to get from Lake Buena Vista (WDW) to BG-T?
2) How long does it take to tour the park (we are only interested in the rides, not the safari)
3) How is the food at BG-T, or should we plan our main meal that evening once we get back?
4) How are the crowds mid week, the end of March?

Thanks so much, and I look forward to reading your responses!

 

[vernon]

Journey time should be about 60-75 minutes.

It's going to take you almost all day I would think there are 6 coasters, 3 flume rides and a host of other attractions, shows and rides. The Rhino rally is also a "thrill ride" so even if you're not that fussed about the animals I think it's worth trying, as long as the queues not too long. If you've got younger kids they will love the "land of the dragon" play area, loads of treehouses and rope bridges as well as a large number of rides for younger guests. This is thoughtfully placed near the "hospitality area" so you can try some of Anhauser Busch's fine produce whilethe kids have a dash around

I've found the food pretty good at BG, the counter service is pretty good but the nicest place to eat is at the "Crown colony Plaza". You get a great view out over the park/serengetti area from here and the food was pretty good table service when I visited. I believe this may have changed to a buffet style recently so I don't know what they will be doing when you get there.

Unless the schools are on a break I'd think the park is unlikely to be packed. Midweek is goingto be the best option, IMHO.

The animal areas are all over the park and many of the walkways take you alonside and in between the animal exibits. Even if you're not that interested in the animals it does make for some nice scenery, JMHO The cable car ride over the Veld is worth a try as well

 

[robvia]

Tampa is on spring break March 24-28, so it may be crowded.
The distance from IOA to BGT is 75 miles. It takes 1.5 hours to drive it.
If you only do the rides, I'd say it will take 4 hours depending on the waits.
The food at BGT is great. There is a BBQ place near Stanley Falls that is really good.
I'd recommend you leave the Orlando area around 7am, arrive the BGT parking lot at 08:30am. Then stand as close to the gate as possible so you get fast.
Hit Gwazi first (load times are long), it's to the left after you enter. Then go back the other direction to Montu. Go on RR if the line is short, it won't get any better in the afternoon, then continue to Kumba.

 

[eeyore0062]

Thanks! I was so hoping that we would be missing spring breaks. Where we are from, they are the week before Easter. It will just be me and my husband, so no need for going slow or stopping to smell the roses (so to speak), I am on a rollercoaster mission! Thanks Robin, for the best way to schedule the rollercoasters. The one I am most interested in is Gwaza (BG-W has no woodies).

We have BG 2 year all park passes. Does anyone know if they would be blacked out at this time? I hope not, otherwise we probably won't be doing BG-T as this is supposed to be a "value" trip, and we have AP's for Disney!

The food sounds good. The BG in Williamsburg doesn't have full service restaurants... everything is counterservice or buffet style, and we only have one with indoor seating (strange, since we don't have the warmer temperatures in the spring or fall.. and we get rainly weather, as well.

Even though I am not really going for the animals, the Rhino Rally sounds fun, and seeing the animals along the way sounds nice as well. We are moving to Florida this summer, so we will definitely be bringing our DD to BG-T as she will LOVE all of the animals (although I am not sure she will be too into the coasters -- hence this trip).

Thanks again, and any other info you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NCRedding]

I'll second the Crown Colony--very nice view, good food and good service. I loved looking over the safari area. Better food than at BGW. Do not expect BGT to be as nice as BGW--it is in a much smaller space, and seems less well-cared for. The traffic in and out is not handled well--do not wait until closing time to leave--it took us 1 1/2 hours to get to our hotel from the parking lot of BGT (hotel was less than 1/2 mile from the entrance gate). Rhino Rally is poorly run--my DH and DD rode it last October. They were among the first 100 in line and still waited over 50 minutes--they let one car full of people go through followed by 2 empty cars--DH was furiously. I would definitely call to make sure your pass is good--it is not worth the trip otherwise. We found it to be unorganized and hard to get around easily. I much prefer BGW. The coasters are nice--though the days we went, the wooden one was never open.

 

[eeyore0062]

I much prefer BGW. The coasters are nice--though the days we went, the wooden one was never open

You didn't miss anything... BG-W doesn't have a wooden rollercoaster, much to our disappointment. The neighbors (a chi-chi golf community) thinks that the noise will disrupt them. In fact, BG-W had a hard time getting Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot built because of it. Otherwise, BG-W would probably have a few more coasters than it does.

I went to the website and there were no blackout dates for our pass, so we are planning on going. I am more interested in the coasters than the rhino rally, so we are going to do it as we do it at BG. Make the rounds of the coasters, starting with Gwaza first, then backtrack to the one to the right of the entrance and go from there. Once we are done with that, we will go around again and catch anything that doesn't have a prohibitive line.... eat and leave before close.

Thanks for letting us know about the situation at close, as I have an interview the next morning, and don't want to get stuck sitting in my car trying to get our of BG-T's parking lot.

 

[NCRedding]

Sorry my post wasn't clear--I was refering to BGT when I said the wooden coaster (Gwanza) was not open any of the days we visited-which was on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday) It may have been that they were running the coaster at night for Howl-O-Scream, and needed to work on it during the day. I was disappointed--I love "woodies"

 

[eeyore0062]

Oh, sorry... my bad!

I, too love woodies, so I hope that Gwanza will be open while we are there! There is a lack of good woodies in nice parks around here! We can drive 3 hours and get to good woodies, but the park is not of the standard of an Anheiser Busch, Disney, or even Universal Park!

 

[YenSid1222]

A third for Crown Colony....one of the best kept secrets of BGT!

Your Platinum 2 year passes have no black out dates, and there are a host of "perks" at BGT with them. If they gave you the lanyard for the passes at BGW, then make sure you wear them, because you get reserved seating at World Rhythms on Ice, and ride again access on Gwazi, Montu, and Kumba! This is especially great on Gwazi, because you can wait in line for either Lion or Tiger, and then get right back on the other one. You should also be able to get free priority parking with your platinum pass as well.

If you are doing Sea World while you are here as well, they also have the "perks"...ride again access on JTA and Kraken, reserved seating at pretty much all shows, and free priority parking.

 

[eeyore0062]

Unfortunately they never sent us the lanyards as they were supposed to, and they had run out of them by the time we went to the park on the Passport holders special sneak peak last St Patrick's Day. Guess no riding back to back for us! Oh well!!! Life goes on. We will definitely check out Crown Colony, though! Thanks for the tips, everyone!

 

[YenSid1222]

You can still just show your platinum passes for the ride again access...the lanyards just make it easier.

 

[eeyore0062]

I thought that you had to have BG-T or Seaworld as your home park to take advantage of the ride again program? Our home park is BG-Williamsburg... at least until we renew after this year.

 

[YenSid1222]

They never look at the pass up close...when I walk into a theater for example, I just flash it and they let you go right to the reserved section. On the rides, its basically the same thing...just flash it, and you are back on.

 

[eeyore0062]

THANKS!!! I can't wait to ride both sides of Gwaza!!!!

 

[lampy]

How do you make reservations for Crown Colony? Is it hard to get into during peak lunch times?

 

[KickTheSky]

I will kind of give you the big overview here of the park. I go very year when I am down in Florida with this year's visit being the fourth visit. We stayed in Kissimmee this year (about three weeks ago actually) and it took us an hour tops to get there. Please note that they are doing construction on I-4 and they have been doing lane closures in the evening so this could affect you on the way back and make your trip an extra hour.

As for the park itself, if you are going for just the rides you may be disappointed. There are very few non-roller coaster rides there and the coaster's while good, are spread out all over the park which means long hikes in between. That said, there are numerous non ride activities you might want to check out that you might kick yourself if you didnt see them and found out about them later.

The lorikeet exhibit is one of my favorites in the entire park (and this is coming from a roller coaster enthusiast) It is a bird exhibit where you can buy a small cup of nectar and the birds will land on your hand and drink from this small cup.

Kids will enjoy the Land of the Dragons which is a huge playground which I feel is better than any playground Disney has to offer for no other reason than you have fairly clear sitelines of the rugrats the entire time they are playing.

Adults will enjoy the Anheiser Busch Hospitality House where one can sample some of Anheiser Busch's fine products. They also offer a 45 minute beer school where you get more samples and learn how AB products are manufactured. Well worth the time invested.

One place to eat that no one mentioned is the FestHaus. There is free entertainment here almost all the time, usually the same you would get at the German buffet in Epcot. The food is not as high quality as that found in Crowne Colony and it is cafeteria style, but it is nowhere near the prices found at Crowne Colony either.

If you want to see the animals quickly and just move on with the rides I would suggest the train and also the skyride. Both take you through the Veldt and you will get to see pretty much all the animals that are on the safari and on Rhino Rally. The safari is an upcharge of 29.99, however, it is worth every penny when you are petting a live giraffe and feeding him.

As for my favorite part, the coasters, here are a few things to know...

Gwazi is a dueling coaster which means the trains have several near misses on the track. It is very spectacular but they rarely do it anymore because of the lengthy loading procedures needed for this ride. However, if you ask one of the ride operators politely, they will hold your train in the station until the other train is ready to go and duel them. Well worth it if you can.

If you wait for the front car for only one coaster in the park, that coaster has to be Montu. Other rows do not provide good visibility as you are on the ride, and Montu is one of the most visually stunning coasters I have ridden.

One last thing, this park IS NOT Disney so do not expect the same quality of service you get at Disney, in fact not even close. The ride operators at Busch Gardens are some of the worst I have ever seen at any park anywhere (and I have been to many parks). Many of the food service employees have problems with English and arent the most friendly. Also be very careful to follow ALL safety procedures for Gwazi as that ride enforces some very strange rules. They provide lockers before boarding the ride and it is advisable to lockup anything that isnt nailed down as the ride operators will take it from you or just not let you ride when you get to the platform and you cannot guarantee that the item will be there on the platform when you get back. They took my two way radio from me after seeing me put it in my fanny pack because of their no phones or radios on the ride rule.

 

[eeyore0062]

Wow, good things to know! Can't wait... going next Wednesday, instead of Tuesday. Looking forward to riding all of the coasters!~

 

[KickTheSky]

You may not get to ride all of the coasters. I have heard that Python just began it's annual winter maintenance cycle. I believe it is the last one for this season getting its annual refurbishment. Rhino Rally may also still be closed as well. If it is a light day expect them to be only running one side of Gwazi as well.

 

[polkadotminnie]

Are there any medium size rides for kids around age 7. My DD is really to big for kiddie rides but not tall enough for some coasters. I am looking for rides like the scrambler, octopus (monster), ... carnival size rides.

 

[eeyore0062]

Well, we are back, and thank you for all of the tips!

We went on Wednesday, and were really surprised at the lack of lines for the rides (Rhino Rally not withstanding!).

Yes, Python was down, but we loved Gwazi (rode both sides), Montu, and were blown away by Kumba. Scorpion was also down when we were there.

The wait for Rhino Rally was 60 minutes, and the water part wasn't in operation, so we skipped it. We also skipped the water rides.

We loved the animals. The exhibits were wonderful. The landscaping was outstanding and we totally forgot that right on the other side was fastfood joints and gas stations. They do a lovely job within the park!

We ate lunch at Crown Colony. The food and service was wonderful, and we had a great view of the Sarengehti, as well as Montu. We only had to wait 15 minutes for a table.

We also visited the Hospitality House, which was very nice.

We can't wait to take our DD. Although she probably won't want to ride the rollercoasters, she will like the water rides, the animals and Rhino Rally.