When we were planning on coming to Tampa both Joe and myself knew that we wanted to spend a day at Busch Gardens. We are both roller coaster lovers, so this was an an opportunity that we were not willing to pass up. Our plan was to pick one of the coolest days, but they were all pretty hot. So, we decided to pick a day that had the least chance of rain happening. We had been so luckily so far this whole trip that we never really experienced rain except for a couple times while in the car driving back to our condo at the end of the day.
The drive to Busch Gardens from the condo was under 30 minutes and we were able to make it for when the park was just starting to open up. Parking was $25 dollar so beware of that if you go, tickets are around $125, but Joe was able to get a discount on our from his work perks. We parked and then walked to a tram that took us to the entrance of the park, it was not a long tram ride at all! The park was really not bust so we were ale to get right in without having to wait in any lines.
There is a variety of rides located all through out the park. The theme park is home to 8 steel roller coasters currently and they have a new coaster coming next year. I am going to be posting some pictures of the coasters throughout this whole blog post. They were all so exciting and there was not a ride that I didn’t love. Also, they did have so many animals all throughout the park. When you come here you get to enjoy the thrill of all the rides and the cuteness of the animals. I will also be posting some of the random pictures that I was able to take along the way as well.
One of the main things that I really loved about the layout of the park was that they represented different areas around the world. If you have little kids, they will really love the section of the park that is all Sesame themed. We did not really spend any time there since it was just Joe and I, but we did have to walk through it and there was a lot there to offer.
The animals were so cute today, we really lucked out with having a lot of them being up close and just relaxing by the glass observation windows. I feel like my favorite ride of the day way the Tigris, this roller coaster was so intense packed into a fast time. From the moment that got into the car to the moment the ride returned was under 2 minutes. The coaster goes forward and then backwards as well a couple times. The layout of the ride is not huge but when your on the ride it feels like you are going all over.
I would highly suggest coming here when it is off season time and during the week. We did not wait more than 5 minutes for every ride that we rode that day. We were able to get the rides all done and enjoy seeing all the animals in 5 hours. If it would have been in season, I doubt that we would have been able to get all the rides in even.
I can offer you a couple of hacks for making the most out of your time there. First would be just find a section of the park and just go with the flow to make your way around. If you start bouncing all around just for the rides then you will discover that you spent most of your time walking to get everywhere. When we saw an animal along our walk we took a moment to walk through and see what they were up to. Also, even if you are there for one day only buy the souvenir cup because even though it is more, you get free refills that whole day.
With it being off season and I am sure their staff was lacking, they did not have any shows. There were plenty of places to eat. We were so focused on riding and seeing everything that we did not eat anything. They also had a bunch of cute gifts shops if you are looking for some fun gifts to bring home!
When we were tired from the park we started our way back to the parking lot. We did not really have to wait for the tram to come. Once we got back in the car we cranked the A/C up and headed back to the condo. We ate in that night and had some really great fresh pizza from Walmart. After that we watched some t.v. and went to bed early.