Busch Gardens Tampa 2007

Hello everyone!
On April 4 we got to Busch Gardens bright and early to get to the gates without being in a huge line like at Disney. Quickly we realized Busch Gardens isn't Disney. The place was a ghost town when we got there at 8:30, and the park opened at nine. There may have been a few people here- including a family wearing all DisneyWorld clothing. I wanted to yell, I know how you feel! But that would've been a little weird.:mickey: Anyway when the park opened we sprinted to SheiKra. Bad idea for 2 reasons: 1-again, not Disney. No one else decided to run. Or even walk briskly. 2- SheiKra was "temporarily closed". Uhh! None of the Disney reliability either!
Ok, since SheiKra let us down, we decided to go check out the 2nd biggest coaster, Kumba. And guess what????
Spoiler:
IT WAS CLOSED!
Ok, I know that's not really a spoiler, but I just decided to take out my frustration that way. Just like SheiKra, Kumba was also temporarily closed. Great. We decided we didn't want to walk all the way over to Montu, so we went in Timbuktu. And rode Scorpion 6 times in a row with out getting off the train. 6. No one decided to go, well, anywhere! They were all still probably at the gates figuring out what to do. So our day started quite nicely. After Scropion, we heard SheiKra was running. YES!!!!! We got on with no wait. OMG!!!:cloud9: That was awesome!!!!! Really, really short, but so incredibly awesome!!!! After SheiKra we went and rode the log flume, which ended up having the longest line of the entire day for any ride. Then we had some ice cream before lunch- we're stress eaters!!! We then headed to the back of the park and rode Kumba. Kumba was even better than SheiKra. REALLY intense, some great upside down thingys (loved the zero-g roll!!!!) and the coolest sounding coaster ever!!! After that we went on Congo River Rapids, which was maybe the biggest dissapointment of the day. Expected Kali River Rapids, got a raft floating around a river with the only source of wetness coming from other angry Disney fans looking to take their frustration on us!!! That's it for part 1. I hope you enjoyed my "Disney rocks" style ranting.


A Foolish Mortal

Ok. Ready for part 2? After Congo River Rapids, we headed into Timbuktu, and let the kids do some kiddie rides. I went on the sandstorm, which was suprisingly fun. For lunch we ate at the Desert Grill! Ble! The food was disgusting. I would not recommend going there. After lunch we headed over to Rhino Rally, where there was an hour wait. We thought, what they hay, and did it anyway. Big mistake! The line moved like 2 feet a minute. It was awful! We didn't even see many animals on the ride. I did like the part in the river though. That was cool. After that, it was about 4, so we went over to Gwazi. That was the most intense wooden rollercoaster I've ever been on. It was awesome. And now for the highlight of the day- Montu. This is the best ride in the park. If you can only ride 1 ride, ride this one. It was awesome- fast line, smooth coaster, awesome inversions. It was non-stop action from start to finish. After that, we decided we could ride 1 more thing before leaving, so we headed over to SheiKra, and did that one more time. Then we left! What a day. Lets recap-
Suprises of the day- Montu, Sandstorm, Kumba
Not a suprise but not a dissapointment- SheiKra, Cheetah Chase! (hour line all day) Rhino Rally, Gwazi
Dissapointment- Congo River Rapids, Pirates 4-D (that movie msut've been made like 10 years ago), The Desert Grill

So, an overall okay day. I just have one piece of advice- do not go into it thinking of Busch Gardens as a park on par of Disney. It is not. Don't get your hopes to high!


AFM

Thanks for the trip report! I enjoyed reading about BG Tampa since we were just at BG Europe in VA. My DS wanted to ride the "Griffon", but is not open until 5/25. I heard there is a ride at BG Tampa that the "Griffon" is modeled after (90 degree drop!) It looked wild!!!!

We were thinking about driving to BG Tampa during our trip to WDW this July. Thanks for all the info:thumbsup:

Your welcome. Sorry it was mostly negative. Again, I went into it thinking it was a Disney.

We went to BG Europe with the same idea...I agree with you, it's not Disney. We heard that BG does a nicer job with the countries than Epcot, but after being there I totally disagree. We too were disappointed.

I asked my kids if they liked BG, "yes"..."Do you like it as much as WDW?"...without a pause, "no".:mickey:

I would like to see how BG Tampa compares to BG Europe.

I haven't been to BG in quite a few years. I liked it OK, but it just doesn't pull me back like WDW does.

BG Tampa had some GREAT theming, but I imagine the European theming was better well done in Virginia.

thanks for sharing !

We go to BG in Va every couple of years and really enjoy it. It is a beautiful clean park with alot of great rides and great theming. I know that I am the minority but I don't want every place I go to be like Disney. I want a different experience with different vacations. If I wanted Nothing but Disney I wouldn't go anywhere but Disney.

This is just a bit of friendly advice to everyone from someone who has been to alot of different places in the world. Disney is the only Disney there are no other theme parks exactly like them so if you go to another park expecting a duplicate of Disney you will be dissappointed.

The pirates 4-D has actually only been there a couple of years. There was a haunted Lighthouse attraction there before and a dolphin theater before that.

If you ever decide to come back SheiKra is now floorless. Kumba and Montu are my personal favorites at BG.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by A Foolish Mortal

Your welcome. Sorry it was mostly negative. Again, I went into it thinking it was a Disney.

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Well you're bound to be dissapointed. I think you've took quite a biased view on Bush Gardens in my opinion.

Yes it's not better than Disney, like a poor man's Animal Kingdom (not many parks are) but it's still a good park (and a lot better than the ones here in the U.K.)

I agree that it is not fair to compare BG Tampa with WDW. They are completely different.

BG Tampa also offers summer camps for kids of all ages that WDW does not. My DD went there for five summers staying two weeks getting to learn and work with the animals. It is a wonderful program. How many camps offer great rides, a water park across the street, and all kinds of animals?

To me they are two totally different parks. Honestly I've not been to BG Africa but my DS and I DID do BG Europe (actually we just returned). OH MY... WE LOVED IT. In fact I think I liked that one best out of the parks we tried while on our great "Northern" journey.

(Did ya'll know "woodchucks" are REAL critters and not just part of an old tounge twister????)

It was really a lovely park. Busch Gardens and SeaWorld are just "single" parks and quite a bit smaller. They're not an entire WORLD. If you have a pass you're getting in a LOT cheaper than Disney and a lot of the profits to those parks end up helping a lot of animals, sea life and encouraging recycling programs. Still I just look at them as two different parks. We're always at Disney in the summer and although I love it dearly the masses of people wear on me after a while.

The Griffon was MAGNIFICIENT! I also loved Escape from Pompeii (I can't resist anything with lots of fire :camp:). Dark Kastle was also very similar to Universal Islands of Adventure SPIDERMAN but loaded with ghosts and werewolves.

I'm rather looking forward to checking out Busch Gardens Africa one day but I can DEFINATELY see myself going back to BG Europe. Crowds too...sooo much lighter than Disney. Food IN the park was "OK". But outside the park Williamsburg was loaded with all sorts of resturants.

I love BG, but am from Florida, and it was very easy to get to and at one point I was in school in Tampa and lived right next to it and our friends who worked there would get us in free. It was really neat to be able to see the coasters from the road. I think they have great coasters and love the animals there, and I especially loved going on the skyride. Sometimes I actually enjoyed BG more than Disney when I was younger. I think we are planning a Sea World BG adventure next year.