Busch Gardens Tampa Review, Hybrid Amusement & Animal Park | Florida's Best Coaster Park
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- Опубликовано: 10 мар 2022
- Busch Gardens Tampa is the premier thrill park in Florida. Owned by SeaWorld, this park features 10 different roller coasters including the newly opened Iron Gwazi and three B&Ms. But the park is about more than just the rides. It also features incredible landscaping and many animal encounters, making it one of the most well-rounded theme parks in the US!
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Colossal Curl (Adventure Island)- • Park President Rides C...
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It’s awesome to see a review of my home park! For a brief period I preferred Islands of Adventure overall, but Iron Gwazi changed that.
I prefer Islands, but Busch Gardens has the better ride.
I also slightly prefer Islands, but it's hard to have a bad day at either park.
@@mr.c6421 agreed. Except when you go on a Saturday (especially at USF/IOA) when it's slammed. It took us an hour wait in line just to order a pizza and then had nowhere to sit and eat it.
Islands has better theming and food. But when it comes to pure thrill rides, BG is where it's at in FL.
Ive been going to Busch gardens since 1997 and I’ll never get over that loud whoosh Kumba makes. You can hear it throughout the park especially before it gets busy and there’s nothing else like it
True!
Scorpion was the first looping coaster I ever rode when I was a kid… I was terrified while riding up the lift hill but as soon as I hit the loop I was hooked! Rode it 4-5 times in a row and then jumped in line for Kumba.
Nice!
Scorpion was mine as well. Back then they still had Python and i wasnt tall enough for Kumba.
For a while I didn't care much about this park because back then I was more into the family friendly roller coasters and dark rides at Walt Disney World. Then I started to appreciate bigger thrill rides more and more as I got older and I never checked out their animal exhibits very much until my most recent visit in 2011 (which I almost enjoyed more than the actual rides). Put all that together and I think that's why this is my favorite theme park anywhere.
It's an amazing park with something for everyone.
This is an excellent review. I love your style. You've quickly become my favorite theme park youtuber. I love both Busch Gardens parks. You def did Tampa justice here.
Thank you!
Was just there today. Feel like they really need some investment into the old animal enclosures. Some are nice but most are really showing their age. Tons of broken AC in exhibits, rusty pipes, useless wires, cracked glass, old caulk and paint etc etc. Fantastic rides though. Nice to see them taking care of Kumba, Scorpion (love that triple helix) and Montu though. They're getting up there in age. Iron Gwazi was just absurd. Super intense. Was interesting to see all the extra steel supporting they did to the wood structure on that. I've always thought they needed something like that. You can watch SV sway a solid 12-16" in each direction on some of it's high up inversion. It's got to be more than intended. Jungala does look near straight abandoned. They need to fix that up. Love the new Chik-fil-A too.
Gwazi is a masterpiece.
It's a fantastic park but it needs one main thing. Now that they have a world class airtime machine, I'd like to see them get a serious dark ride. Yes I know BGT is different than other Florida parks and no one is expecting it to turn into Magic Kingdom. But come on. This place has the theming and deserves at least one full on dark ride to match that theming.
A dark ride would be welcome!
Some argue that the park should not add a dark ride as coasters are the specialty, but I’d love something similar to Jungle Cruise with a more modern storyline and ride system.
Honestly every Busch Gardens/Sea World park needs a dark ride.
@@shadycharacter94 I'd love for every park to have a dark ride. But SeaWorld and Herschend parks in particular ought to all have a dark ride.
@@shadycharacter94 *every park.
When I went to Busch Gardens in 2009, Jungala was packed. It was an amazing area especially for me as I wasn’t tall enough for the major coasters at the time but could still have a blast. Jungle Flyers provided an amazing view of Jungala, plus the net play area was awesome with the animal exhibits. It’s so sad to see it’s state today mostly abandoned. It was something totally unique to this park.
Aside from fixing Jungala they could add another water ride, something like an Intamin giga splash that could be a spiritual successor to Tanganyika, and I agree with your statement that they could add a couple of dark rides. Other than that it is an amazing park. Possibly the most well rounded lineup in the southeast tying with SFGA.
I wish that area got more staffing and love.
Amazing video on my home park!
You're welcome.
Im so glad this is my home park!!
Nice!
Me too!! It's great for the whole family coasters for mommy and animals for my animal loving kids
This is my home park and he's dead on with his review. The Smokehouse has some of the best barbecue I've ever had and since I live not too far from here and have an annual pass, I sometimes come here just for lunch or dinner and maybe a quick ride on Montu: my all time favorite invert!
Nice that you have it close!
Can’t wait to visit again to ride iron gwazi!
Enjoy!
One of my home parks!
Nice!
going for the first time in march form cali this review has me hyped
Enjoy!
By far Floridas best coaster and ride collection. I cannot wait to come here. They absolutely have a little bit of everything here. I think this could be he best oark in Florida.
I prefer Islands, but it's number two now.
This has always been among my favorite parks, but now with Iron Gwazi open, that elevates it even further. On my 2017 visit, they had a great pet show, plus an outstanding ice skating show that I had to see as many times as possible, both shows being indoors. It was my # 1 park at the time. However, they have eliminated the pet show, and they changed the ice skating show to have practically no story or theme anymore. The skaters are still incredible, but it would be so much better with an actual story or theme. I still had to go see it a couple times on my recent visit. I think they now need to step up their game on the shows to make this one of the most complete parks in the country. Even if they don't, it will still be a park I will want to visit frequently.
I loved the pet shows at the Busch/Seas parks.
I really enjoyed my 2 days that I spent at Busch Gardens Tampa. The coaster lineup is the best in Florida in my opinion. The themeing was very immersive. Falcon's Fury was busted when I went though. My 3 favorites were Montu, Kumba, and Iron Gwazi.
Glad you liked it!
My parents suprised me and my brother with tickets to BGT today and as I am typing this, we are driving there right now. I’m way too excited about going here tomorrow! :D
Have fun!
I’m really excited to go here in June!
Enjoy!
Awesome review. Check out Serengeti Overlook restaurant next time you are there. The food itself isn't as good as Zambia Smokehouse, but the atmosphere makes up for it. It's quiet, beautiful view of the Serengeti, friendly waiters, and the guests are well-mannered. It's only open to pass holders, and we were the only people under age 65 last couple times. If you don't like the food menu on the top floor, you can also grab a variety of stuff from the food places downstairs, and then bring your food upstairs to enjoy the view.
Also, the Chick-Fil-A at the back of the park has some unique birds walking around the food area. They provide some unintended free entertainment and are fun to feed and watch them prowl for food.
This park was really well run last times I visited in Jan/Feb 2023. Sea World Orlando was a sh*tshow, so we did an extra day at this park and had a wonderful time. Only knocks were that Falcon's Fury was closed and Montu had 1 train ops so it was a 10 minute wait instead of a walk-on.
I've seen the views from that place and they look great.
so lucky this is my home park
Yes
This is my home park and I just love everything about it. How when you get tired of coasters you can go look at animals for awhile and then get right back to coasters.
True!
I'm a big Sea World Entertainment fan and all its parks. Busch Gardens is one of my favorite theme parks period. My homepark is Sea World Orlando, but let's not sleep on that. The new for 2023 coaster construction had already begun and supposedly will be the parks 4th B&M coaster and 7th overall. The animal exhibits/coasters and natural beauty has me a big fan of that park too. SWO is the roller coaster capital of Orlando and BGT is the roller coaster capital of Florida.
SeaWorld Orlando is definitely a great park as well.
I haven't been to as many parks as you have, currently I've been to 40 but this one is still my all time favorite for all the reasons you mentioned. You can enjoy yourself here even if you didn't ride a single coaster. And you didn't even mention the numerous seasonal festivals, concert series and the incredible Howl O Scream.
I've heard good things about Howl-O-Scream but never been.
I miss being 10 minutes away, but the current 30 minute drive isn't too bad. I've been coming here ever since I was a toddler and still go at least once a week. I love it.
Nice!
I have been to Busch Gardens Tampa and it was a very pleasant park. It was clean, the lines were short, the rides were amazing, and the theming was one of a kind.
I love this park.
The best amusement park I’ve ever visited.
It's awesome.
About the lack of adult-oriented flat rides, Busch Gardens is currently building a Screamin' Swing where Rhino Rally used to be.
Nice!
I live about a 20 minute walk from the park, so we get the Fun Card for Busch Gardens and Adventure Island. We go to Adventure Island more because it’s so hot here, but there’s nothing like BG for roller coasters. Sometimes if I get off work early during the week I’ll stop by and ride a few without long lines before I go home 🤣
Nice!
Good to know about the shuttle service, I may use that when I visit Florida in December. Just have to know where the pickup/dropoff locations are at.
Mears Shuttle gives a list. The two I've used are SeaWorld Orlando's parking lot and Old Town.
My favorite pretzels in the world are Ben’s pretzels at holiday world and Kentucky kingdom. I haven’t tried the ones at Busch gardens but now they’re on my list!
Those ones are awesome too.
so glad i live near tampa and orlando😭
Nice!
i really do love BGT, i find it to be an affordable park, as i never found the prices to be too high. I will agree that it does need some sort of dark ride, i think the busch gardens in williamsburg still has one, will have to check. But the animals are one of the things i always like to do when visiting especially the feedings like feeding the lorikeets or the wallabys. still have to get over there to ride iron gwazi, been waiting so long to ride my first rmc.
the park is also nice around halloween and christmas, they have really nice decorations for those holidays
Williamsburg closed their dark rides, but they're rumored to get a new indoor coaster.
Great video, I didn't realize you could grab an Annual pass from one of the other SeaWorld. Shame San Antionion's pass has guest tickets restricted to just its parks. Hmm but it could still be great for BGT.
That's the one catch with the SeaWorld passes. The best perks are for your home park.
I want to visit this park so bad!!! The only parks I’ve visited in Florida are Universal Studios, Sea World and the two Fun Spot parks. Nice review!
Thanks!
You haven't been to the Walt Disney World parks yet? How come?
@@mitchellries256 tbh, I’m not sure lol. One of these days I hope to visit that place as well.
I love this park. I just moved to the tampa area 8 months ago. I'm lucky to live here and have a season pass. Amazing rides. Iron Gwazi is definitely the best and Kumba is my 2nd favorite. This place would really benefit from a giga coaster. My only complaint about this place is the layout is confusing and requires tons of walking. There's a gigantic maintenance building and parking lot in the center of the park, it's weird.
It definitely needs a ton of walking. I wish there was a path cutting through the center.
very late to this but im happy to report the bacon pretzel is alive and well! was there for two days a couple weeks ago and got one each day. greatest park food ever maybe
I recently had one and was glad to see them back.
Just got back from BGT and I didn't have the best time there every ride had a 30+ minute wait the entire time I didn't get to ride montu or Tigris since they both had 60 minute waits almost the entire day kumba was forceless but smooth and sheikra had a bad rattle (in the back) my front row rides were pretty good amd cobra's curse was closed the entire day but cheetah hunt scorpion and iron gwazi were better than ever (but operations are definitely improving at this park which is nice Iron heading actually dispatched a train before it even hit the brake run which is very surprising)
I know it's Spring Break right now so I'm not surprised the park was busy.
was at BGT thursday 3-10 and friday 3-11 for iron gwazi opening day. Gwazi barely had a line longer than 60 minutes, which I was surprised to see. think the highest it hit was 75 minutes today
That's not bad for opening day.
I've wanted to visit (I have friends in Tampa), but with a base admission price of $120 plus $30 for parking (and senior discount of $5), it's an expensive day for one person if you're not going to ride a lot, which for me would probably be limited to 2 or 3 coasters. Your review suggests that it might be worth it, given the beautiful landscaping and animals everywhere.
I'd check for discounts since you can find them online.
Theres a really good hot dog place right next to the park, and I highly recommend it. Its called Mels Hot Dogs and its literally built into a corner of the BGT parking lot for some reason. The food is good and its a really cute restaurant.
I usually go to Portillo's.
@@CanobieCoaster Oh thats good too!
You know, I think this is the year for me to give BGT a try. I got a platinum pass from SeaWorld, so all I'd need to worry about is getting there, and if I stuck around an extra day I could even head an hour or two down the road to swing by SeaWorld Orlando. And I mean, Iron Gwazi...
Iron Gwazi alone is worth it.
It's also my home theme park
Nice!
BGT is a great park. For me, the coaster lineup looks to be just about complete (replacing Sand Serpent with a Gravity Group family woodie and adding a floater airtime-focused coaster would put it over the top, IMO). The animal exhibits and natural beauty are outstanding, and you're right that it's so easy to forget that you're in the middle of a major city. A dark ride and some flat rides would be good additions, but I'm curious if they would want to compete with Disney and Universal in the dark ride department.
The shows are also very strong. A shame they've been scaled back recently, presumably due to staffing.
I want something indoor for the frequent afternoon thunderstorms.
@@CanobieCoaster Good point.
Unfortunately I never had the chance to go to BGT, because Disney and Universal get my attention when I am in Fl...however a recent trip tp BG Williamsburg lit my fire, and I'll be making a special trip to Tampa in October.😊
Enjoy!
What roller coaster has the fastest moving line?
At this park, it's probably Kumba if both trains are going.
Where was that panoramic view of the park filmed from? At the beginning of the video.
I walked up the parking garage at the Moffitt center.
@@CanobieCoaster That's a great view!
My visit yesterday was absolutely brutal my dad and I had to park so far from the front entrance and the tram didn’t even take us close enough to the front entrance so we had to walk super far. It took three hours to get on one coaster which was Cheetah Hunt. My dad and I kept getting ride times which wasn’t a huge deal the day before at SeaWorld. I only rode Cheetah Hunt, Montu and Iron Gwazi. I was getting very tense almost to the point of getting upset. When we left the tram was at the front entrance but the line was super long so we walked even more but the nearest tram wasn’t so far and the line wasn’t too bad. I did see the Cheetah Run thing and we got to go behind the scenes to see the Cheetahs because my dad has a friend who’s daughter works at the park with the cheetahs
The Florida parks get slammed this week. Sorry crowds were a major issue.
@@CanobieCoaster yeah
What roller coasters are at the front of the park??
Cheetah Hunt and Iron Gwazi.
Do you half to buy a locker for any of the roller coasters?
I never have a bag, but I think it's needed for some of them.
I contacted the Mears shuttle service a few days ago to get more information, and they said that they leave the park around 6:45 or 7pm, even when the park closes at 10pm. Did they actually leave closer to close when you went?
The park closed at 6 pm the day I visited since it was the offseason.
@@CanobieCoaster gotcha, thanks for the info!
Do you prefer this one to Busch Gardens Williamsburg now after Iron Gwazi? I definitely want to visit BGT someday.
I will wait to say until riding Pantheon.
As tampa is my home city I’ve been to Busch 50+ times the only issue is turn around time for the rides it SUPER SLOW
You're lucky to be close.
What roller coasters should you ride first when the park opens?
Cheetah Hunt. Even with the new Iron Gwazi, that's still the ride that gets the worst wait.
I definitely agree with the title of "Florida's Best Coaster Park" but Island's of Adventure is the best overall and people sleep on Disney too
I agree Islands is still the best park.
I got a one time quick queue at BGT, even though I signed up at SWSA.
That's interesting. I should try next time.
@@CanobieCoaster yes, just be logged into the Busch gardens tampa park on the app. Everything worked for me except for the free picture pass
park seriously needs a classic hyper either a mach or a b and m
That would be nice!
Are their any roller coasters in the back of the park?
Kumba is farthest one away from the main entrance, you can pretty much call that the back, it’s by the Congo Rapids
Yes, Kumba.
i live in Florida and went to busch gardens not to long ago
Nice!
I went there on my birthday
Does Busch gardens get busy on a Monday?
If school is in session, no.
I went there for the first time last week. I'm upset that I had to wait 90 minutes in line for cheetah hunt (it broke down + suuuper slow operations) I'm also upset I rode iron gwazi just once :( I need to come back! Lol
Unfortunately Cheetah Hunt often has bad waits.
Im unsure if I like this park more then ioa. Ioa has such amazing themeing and dark rides but its coaster collection doesnt stack up.
I prefer Islands.
Also I meant the original colossus not twisted colossus have you rode it
I rode it once when it went backwards. It was fine.
@@CanobieCoaster that sucks it had good airtime and was really smooth normal
I hear next year they're gonna TEAR EVERYTHING DOWN FOR THE WORLDS LARGEST EVER BRAND NEW GIGA
That would be quite the move.
I know Busch is the best thrill park in Florida, but what is 2nd best: Universal or Sea World?
Probably Islands of Adventure.
@@CanobieCoasterThanks! Universal it is. It's what I figured, what with Velocicoaster and Hagrid's ;) Next question: What's the best Disney park in Florida?
May you please lend me your footage of all the RMCs? I have plans to make a video based off of every coaster made by that manufacturer? Also, just asking you for this is probably the only way I can use your videos on RUclips. If you say "Yes", please make sure to lend me your footage of all the RMCs.
Any of my footage is free to use as long as you give credit. You're welcome to use it.
You didn't discuss sesame seed land.
I only touched on it since I'm not the target audience and haven't spent much time in there.
5:28 Tig Ris 😂
Is it said "Tie-Gris"?
Yes
Get a giga coaster alredy. Anyway this park is great.
I'd love to see one.
BGT has fantastic park but it lacks any in flat ride department. All this park needs now is giga or hyper
True.
Man, I'd happily give Tampa our upcoming giga for a terrain RMC woodie at BGW. Haha.
@@mr.c6421 Oh I absolutely agree with you 100% I am actually really surprised how the IG can out because before they release the plans I definitely thought they were going to make this a Mobius loop conversion just like twisted colossus.
@@CanobieCoaster I can see a Zamperla Nebula will do well here or a Mondail shake, Top Scan Zamperla endeavor, Huss giant frisbee, all highly themed. It’s seems like every park I go to it’s a lack of flats rides but they are so quick to add these high-priced coasters.
I thought the park itself was great. I loved the zoo area, the rides and coasters, and the theming. I truly had a strong negative opinion on how it was run. One train on many of the roller coasters, 5 minute dispatches (up to 20 on Falcon's Fury) and some really slow food service. Security here was also mediocre, as a member of my group was beaten (he was alright afterward), and nothing was done. Line jumping was a huge problem. The employees were awesome, but there weren't enough to suit the moderate crowds. This was the worst theme park day I have ever had, and I feel really disappointed to say that.
I would also like to add that I visited after their Christmas event, which is apparently super popular. Maybe this affected my experience?
I'm sorry to hear that happened to your friend and am glad he's ok!
My Amusement park would be also one of the largest Zoos 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Busch Gardens BG 27
Love this park.
I dissagree with this being the best theme park in Florida I think that goes to Islands Of Adventure but Bush Gardens is the 2nd best.
Islands is the best theme park. This is the best park for coasters.
the best coaster park in florida sure is a tossup between BGT and peppa pig theme park
How could I forget Daddy Pig!
Talk not like a robot
Sorry!