Should we do Bush Gardens???

[marionmcclung]

This is our first holiday to florida and I have bought my 14 day ultimate pass for disney but I would also like to do the universal parks.
I'm unsure whether to buy the 4 park or the 5 park ticket and I don't know if we'll have time to fit everything in.

If we get the 4 park flexi ticket thingie it means that we won't be able to do Bush Gardens. Is this a MUST DO park or should we leave it and go again another time.

[missl]

its our first time also and i was also wondering this its just when its your first time you wanna do all the parks:)

[Scotsmomma]

It's a must do for me....depends though on whether you like coasters....Montu is the best ride in Florida..IMO...I've always liked Busch though...for me it's a nice day out...and a chance to really scream

[joblot]

Yes - Busch Gardens is a must. Always enjoyed visiting there.

[missl]

yeah think we will do busch gardens i'll only regret it else lol

[kateuk]

WE thought it was a 'must do' on our first trip, so drove down there, did the Serregetti Safari, which was good (but not that different to AK safari) then the rain set in. They closed every ride at Busch including the train that goes round the park and even the little kiddie carousel type rides. We wandered round for hours and then gave up and came back to Orlando. I was all for trying to fit in another visit, but we really didn't have time. I would not bother and spend your time in the other parks, there is plenty to do in Orlando.
Kate

[kirstielou]

We didn't do Busch for years as I didn't fancy the drive.

We do it every year now. We love it and its well worth the drive

[lesleyanne]

I don't think we did Busch until our third or fourth visit to Orlando.
DH love's it and it is always a must for him.
Me i could take it or leave it. If i say to DH we will give Busch a miss he say's to me ok i'll take the kid's you stay at the villa.:omg:
So i have to go.!!!!:pgig::pgig:

[loadsapixiedust]

We didn't do it on our first trip, there was more than enough already in Orlando. I didn't feel we were missing out.
We've done it every other trip, I can take or leave it, but DD loves the coasters. Last time we had an awful day with the rudest most unhelpful staff on the planet and only did a few rides. We're not bothering to go back this time.

[*source*]

We did it last time and the kids loved it :)

[jeffseye]

It`s a must for us we all love it

[gail33]

We love Busch too!

[marionmcclung]

thanks for all the replys guys:thumbs-up, i think i'll leave the decision up to DH, after all he'll be the one doing the driving:pgig:

I'm not wanting to do ANY big rides (i'm a big coward), so it might just be a thumbs down this time unless DH decides otherwise

[Bozza]

I've always been a big Busch advocate, but not ventured down on my last 2 trips.

I'm not sure if I will on my upcoming trip either, mainly due to thinking of it more of an 'adult park' with the big coasters than for wee ones (ie my little Mads).

I'll check out some online park guides and see what there is to keep Mads happy and occupied and decide then.

[lexie]

This park is great with loads of things to do

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u221/ALBEANO_01/lexie.gif

[Happy Feet]

Didn't have time to go last year with 14 day passes for WDW and 3 day passes for US/IOA. We were completed exhausted just with these parks!
We're going though this year, but as we done WDW last year we're giving it a miss to make room for BG,SW and other smaller adventures.....
Whatever you decide you'll have a great time and can hopefully plan to do the things you missed on another trip.

[NAGS]

We did not go to Busch Gardens on our first couple of trips but did it last year for the first time. We all really enjoyed it and plan to return next year.

We travelled down the day before, found a decent hotel and watched the baseball. Up nice and fresh for the next day in Busch Gardens.

The drives not too bad from Kissimmee, although I did manage to take a wee wrong turn :confused2

[slowmo]

I would always recomend BG as we think it is great. However as this is your first time and you already have a 14 day ticket for Disney I would probably suggest you wait until next time. Likewise I would think twice about the flexi ticket for the other parks. You may be better choosing just one on SW, US and IoA and buying a single day pass or you may start to suffer from `Park Burnout`:pgig: Yoe would miss Wet and Wild but you have access to the 2 Disney Water Parks instead.

Whatever you decide have a great time.
I also notice your countdown is the same as ours and suspect you could be on the same flight:wavey: TCD from Manchester.

[marionmcclung]

I would always recomend BG as we think it is great. However as this is your first time and you already have a 14 day ticket for Disney I would probably suggest you wait until next time. Likewise I would think twice about the flexi ticket for the other parks. You may be better choosing just one on SW, US and IoA and buying a single day pass or you may start to suffer from `Park Burnout`:pgig: Yoe would miss Wet and Wild but you have access to the 2 Disney Water Parks instead.

Whatever you decide have a great time.
I also notice your countdown is the same as ours and suspect you could be on the same flight:wavey: TCD from Manchester.

We are going from Glasgow with Virgin, but once there i'll listen out for the scottish accent and give you a wee wave:wavey:

[filharmonic]

i think i would leave for this year, there will be so much to do in orlando without travelling to busch and like you said you can leave it for another trip because you will go back. we have been 7 or 8 times now and only been to busch once but saying that we are going to go this year.

[RhiBi]

We love Busch and go every year, but that is because we are based in Sarasota :) DH loves the rides, I like some of them, and DD loves them too - I love the congo river rapis - lol but there is a very similar one at AK!

On a first visit with loads to see and do, I'm not sure its a must TBH, and you can always use it as an excuse to come back - not that you'll need an excuse :D

[Sue]

The drive really isn't bad - I did it at Christmas and it's fairly straight forward, even a boring drive!
We have only done it 50% of our visits and purely for the coasters - if you are not a coaster fan or rider I would not bother. The animal exhibits are only just OK and it is much more of a zoo than a wildlife park, I'm not a fan of zoos.

[Villainlover]

It is definitly a 'MUST DO' for me :spin: BGs is my favourite park in Florida (even befor I did coasters)

there is loads to do there and lets face it .. on the scale of things in Florida an hours drive is nothing!!! really don't understand why people think it is so far away :confused:... I guess if you are north end of I drive it could take longer but from highlands reserve we were there in 50 minutes last year (with traffic took us 1hr to get to Universal one day)

there is everything there for all ages and montu is just THE best coaster in Florida..

If I had to choose one park to go to in Florida it would be BGs

[lizzie145]

BG is my favourite park - huge coaster fan :d::spin:

i loved the animals too, very different to AK but then Universal is very different to Disney

It doesn't take long to drive there and is very easy

[russy]

a definate must we love it.

[stitch99]

We only just did bush [our 3rd visit] If you have splashed out on a 14 day ticket I would leave until next time unless you are a huge coaster fan?

[nmurray]

Out of my 5 visits we've been twice, on our 2nd and 4th visits. I really like it but I don't think you need to go every visit with it being a bit out of the way. You need to think whats the most important to you on this visit and if you'll go again, think I might be tempted to do disney with your 14 day pass and fit in universal etc but give BG a miss until next time?? Only you can decide though! Whatever you decide enjoy yourselves.

[cintabelle]

Hi :wavey:

If you have a spare day do fit it in, I would definately recommend it! the drive is not too bad, about an hour. If you have gone all the way to florida, it would be a shame to miss out.

The first year we did it, we drove on to Clear water to see the sunset on the pier. It was lovely, dolphins jumping in and out of the water as the sun went down! It was a highlight of my hols! ( well ONE!!)

:wavey:

[jackiebt]

could you please tell me how much for each person it is to get into busch gardens and how do we get the tickets also we have the ultimate 14 days tickets so wich theme parks do we get in with them and how much for universal also thankyou Jackie

[lizzie145]

could you please tell me how much for each person it is to get into busch gardens and how do we get the tickets also we have the ultimate 14 days tickets so wich theme parks do we get in with them and how much for universal also thankyou Jackie

The ultimate ticket covers AK, MK, MGM, Epcot, DTD, TL and BB plus others.

Universal - you can get a separate one for IOA and US or include Wet 'n' Wild.

A 4/5 park flexi will get you Seaworld / BG

there are so many prices available it can get confusing

you can also get SW andBG separately

[comercouple]

Should go to Busch just for sheikra, the best adrenalin ride there is, also if you buy 5 park flexi ticket you can get free transport

[Elsie]

Yes ... simply because there is such a thing as too much Disney!

BG is a great park, the rides are superb.

[Happy Hammer]

i think it has the best coasters in florida

[TinkTatoo]

If it's your first trip then I wouldn't bother as you'll have so much to see and do in Orlando. Despite what you think you will be back and you can do it then.

[marionmcclung]

If it's your first trip then I wouldn't bother as you'll have so much to see and do in Orlando. Despite what you think you will be back and you can do it then.

We've never been to florida before and we don't go till october but already i'm planning on going again next year;)

[Munter]

I can take or leave Busch gardens! I wouldnt tell anyone not to experience it but to go and gather your own opinions of it. My opinion is that the staff are much more laid back here making them less attentive and a little ruder than your used to at a disney park. I also found that the park was a little dirtier than the standards at disney

[F00_PHANTOM]

For me I think its all swings and roundabouts (so to speak:) )

I would do it first BEFORE all the Disney parks.

My thinking for this is so...

I found it a great place for thrill rides and theres the added option of all the animals and zoo feel to it as well....BUT...

It doesn`t have that user friendly happy go lucky feel of any of the disney parks...
Also (as mentioned by someone else) the staff are no-where near as gracious or helpfull or jolly as Disney CM`s and thats a fact.

We were greeted at the gate by some annonymous character that was trying soooo hard to be mickey mouse that I remember squirming.

And then theres the shows that are not up to the par of Disney and that goes without saying.We saw some christmas thing about Germans dancing and slapping each others lederhosen :confused::baaa: ???
Go figure??

But thats is just my personal opinion and I wouldn`t knock it for what it does best , i.e. THRILL RIDES and much of the animal/zoo exhibits are great also.

I guess it depends what you want out of it and if your prepared to take the journey and if you can fit it in , which it the biggest problem with BUSCH in general...luring people away from the hub of ORLANDO.

You just get the feeling that they could do it a lot better if they put a smile on.

hope I`ve added a dimension to this topic.

all the very best

F00

[TinkTatoo]

We've never been to florida before and we don't go till october but already i'm planning on going again next year;)

That's the spirit :pgig:

[Stuart_D]

We've never done Busch Gardens either. On our first visit to Florida we had pre-purchased tickets through the Universal 5 park flex ticket and we had planned to go. However it transpired I hadn't done enough planning and when it got to the day when we were supposed ot be going there, I read the parks opening times and it turned out it was only open a few days a week.

The second time round we decided just to skip both Sea World and Busch Gardens.

All the feedback and reports I read say that Busch Gardens should be a must be I've found my kids are more than happy just to divide our time between going to Universal and Disney. We will eventually get down to Tampa for a trip to Busch, but we won't be doing it this trip either.

[ladyholiday]

we went 2 years ago and only had the 4 park flexticket and the 14 day ultimate for a 3 week holiday and didnt regret the fact we hadnt gone to busch gardens as we could only just fit it all in anyway. however we are going again in november for 3 weeks and got the 5 park flextickets this time and im glad we never got to do busch gardens last time as its something new to look forward to on this holiday

[CBR600]

It is definitly a 'MUST DO' for me :spin: BGs is my favourite park in Florida (even befor I did coasters)

there is loads to do there and lets face it .. on the scale of things in Florida an hours drive is nothing!!! really don't understand why people think it is so far away :confused:... I guess if you are north end of I drive it could take longer but from highlands reserve we were there in 50 minutes last year (with traffic took us 1hr to get to Universal one day)

there is everything there for all ages and montu is just THE best coaster in Florida..

If I had to choose one park to go to in Florida it would be BGs

Hi Shelly :wavey:

We are staying at Highlands reserve on our next trip - is the drive to BG easy from there? do you just head down the 27 and get onto the I4 heading towards Tampa? we didnt do BG last trip but DH and the kids really want to go next time :D

[Susiedo]

I haven't been back to Busch Gardens for a few years and although we did enjoy it, had a similar experience of others with rides closed for maintenance/weather which was disappointing. The safari was good and other rides ok but it was the biggies that they closed which was disappointing. Can't comment on shuttle service as my DH preferred to drive. Between Universal/Disney my 2 weeks gets eaten up very quickly however if I ever do 3 weeks, I'll pencil it in.

[Villainlover]

Hi Shelly :wavey:

We are staying at Highlands reserve on our next trip - is the drive to BG easy from there? do you just head down the 27 and get onto the I4 heading towards Tampa? we didnt do BG last trip but DH and the kids really want to go next time :D


yes it is great for going Busch Gardens and Disney isn't that far either (we used Sherbeth) we were parking up within 50 minutes :spin: the I4 down that way is so much better since adding more lanes ...

I love highlands reserve :spin:

[das c]

Just think of going all that way and not doing it would be a crying shame, its one of the best parks IMO.

Watch the new Seaworld advert on telly and press red to order a copy of their dvd it also advertises Busch .

[blackie]

Yes - Busch Gardens is a must, but beware `Sheikra` is closed till the 16 06 2007 when it goes floorless AWESOME so the queues may be longer for the other rides

Happy holidays

[susieb]

How is it for age 5? And can you get a limo return there?