Toarin' - August 2015. Day 4 - Busch Gardens

[Scruffette]

Day 4 – Busch Gardens

Dinner at Bahama Breeze

This was probably one of the days that Ollie was most excited for. (Clearly I didn’t explain the Disney Cruise well enough to him in advance!)

Ollie loves scary coasters, where as I won’t do anything that goes upside down. To make sure he could do everything he wanted (and so I didn’t have to wait for him for so long!) I bought him the Quick Queue Unlimited. I’m really glad we did this, as some of the queues were up to an hour.

Breakfast was leftover cheesecake and chocolate milk. We didn’t manage to finish the cheesecake - the pieces really are huge!



We were getting the free Busch Gardens shuttle to the park, which opened at 10am.

There are two pick up options on Idrive – the CSI experience at 8.45am or Seaworld at 9.15am. We chose the CSI experience. Apparently in quieter months, it’s one bus which does both stops. In busier months, a whole bus normally fills up at CSI and will head straight to the park, while any non-full bus heads to SeaWorld.

We left the room at 7.50am, and got on an Itrolley north at 8.15 to stop 9. It arrived at the CSI experience by 8.25am and we were near the front of the queue for the bus.





I did what I do best and had a nap on the bus! We arrived around 10am, around the time the park opened.

Overall, the Busch gardens shuttle was a really efficient way to travel to the park. I had made a reservation on line beforehand, but no-one asked for this information. The bus departed at 7pm, with park closing at 9pm. (I had tried to research timings beforehand, but had some difficulty. )

Ollie joined the line to pick up his Quick Queue wristband from the Adventure Outpost.





Now, no one had told me where I could get a ‘Quickqueue’ for the Quickqueue line. It felt like he was gone for ages! I was left waiting in the sun. It was about 20 minutes from getting in the park to getting his quickqueue wristband.

I will admit, I struggle with the names of the rides at Bush Gardens. Most of them seem to start with a lesser-used consonant and end in a vowel. Ollie and I would make up our own names often. I fully intend to try and get the names correct for the rides, but make no promises!

Ollie wanted to try Cheetah Hunt first (I can get the name of that one correct!), but it was down.

He went onto Montu, and got on straight away. I managed to snap him on the ride.









I did notice they had some test seats out, and a guy who I didn’t think was that big wouldn’t fit in the seat.

Ollie wanted to go round a few more times, so we decided we would meet later on.

I had a wander and spent some time watching the cheetahs.





I then had a look round the Myombe Reserve.











I tried to be sneaky and have some icecream, but I couldn’t find anywhere that sold scoops of icecream rather than soft serve. Tragic.







I bumped into Ollie unintentionally ( who had ridden Cheetah Hunt twice) and decided we would ride the Stanley Falls log flume together. Bless him, even though he had Quick Queue, he waited in the 30 minute line just to do a ride with me.

The ride isn’t particularly themed, and I didn’t even get too soggy.
I’d seen lots of people walking round with the refillable drinks and decided to buy one. It was $11.99 plus tax. You could refill with soft drinks or slush drinks. There was a great choice of flavours, and as it was self serve you could mix flavours. I hate to think the amount of sugar I consumed that day!



I think it was Kumba which Ollie rode next, and probably went round twice as there was no wait for him.





Ollie went to ride Falcon’s Fury while I took some snaps. Wow this ride looks scary! Who on earth would want to be dropped whilst facing the ground?



Just look how high up it is! Madness.

Our minds turned to lunch next, and we were very indecisive! I think when we’re at Disney, I’ve researched the counter service options so we have a plan in mind. I knew pretty much nothing about counter service at Busch Gardens, so it made it hard to pick.

We ended up walking round a lot of the park and I was particularly feeling the heat today! I also noticed the smoking areas seemed to be a lot closer to the pathways than in other parks.

We settled on Crown Colony House for chicken tenders and pizza! Not the most exciting but I enjoyed my first American chicken tenders of the trip.



Chicken tender platter ($9.69 plus tax)



Pizza and chicken combo ($9.79 plus tax).



We could refill our cup in here as well.

[Scruffette]

We queued for the Skyride to get back to other side of the park to avoid the walk in the heat. There ended up being quite a wait but it was a good way to see the park.







Ollie was still waiting for Sheikra to reopen, so went on the Congo River Rapids. I normally would have gone on this, but the queue was over an hour. Ollie was out within 15 minutes with the quickqueue.



Sheikra was now open again so Ollie went to ride that while I went off on the train.



I had a bit of wait for the next train, so Ollie managed to ride Sheikra about 6 times!

The train takes you past a lot of the coaster structures, and very close to some of the animals. As in, I reckon you could almost touch the rhinos.



At one point, a rhino looked like it was about to charge for the back of the train. I was genuinely scared at this point.



I met up with Ollie, after I’d done a full lap, who was very happy now he’d been on Sheikra!

I’m pretty sure he did Falcon’s Fury again and rode either Sand Serpent or Scorpion (or possibly both). Looking at the map, Scorpion looks scarier, so it was probably that one!

We caught the 5.30 show of Iceploration, which wasn’t quite what I expected.



The story was about a Grandfather and Granddaughter travelling through different places like the Arctic or the Ocean and discovering animals. In each scene ice skating animals would dance. Most of the moves looked like dance moves done in skates, rather than skating style moves.

In the first scene, the main skating deer took a tumble. Poor girl, the audience gasping probably didn’t help. She got back up again and carried on, but looked a bit shaky. It made me a bit on edge for the rest of the show, worrying if someone was going to fall.

Ollie took another ride on Montu afterwards, and then it got a bit grey outside and starting spitting. We decided to fill up on water and head back to the coach a few minutes early.

We got so lucky with the weather today. About a week before, Busch Gardens was shut for the day due to extreme rain. We didn’t have a lot of room to reschedule today, so I’m so glad the weather held for us.

We boarded the bus about 6.50pm. This was excellent timing, as it started pouring with rain. As the bus was pulling away, thunder and lightning started. I could barely see anything out the window, I don’t know how the driver managed it!

[Scruffette]

I did what I do best and had a nap on the way back to CSI experience drop off. The bus took a bit longer to get back, which was expected with the weather, and got in just before 8.30pm. Ollie woke me up just before we got there, and I felt seriously rough. I felt dizzy and a bit nauseous, and think I may have got a bit motion sick on the coach but hadn’t realised as I was asleep. We wanted to head straight for dinner, but new this wouldn’t be an option.

We got an Itrolley back to the Rosen Plaza, where we had a freshen up and a shower. I felt much better, so we walked up to Bahama Breeze. It was quite late by this point, but we didn’t want to miss out on dinner.



We were seated straight away. It was quite loud in here, but not too busy as it was a bit later.

We both decided to order a mojito ($7.79), I had a Strawberry Mojito (Bacardi Dragon Berry, fresh strawberries and lime) and Ollie had a Coconut Mojito (Cruzan Coconut Rum, Coco López, lime and pineapple juice) , which was the server’s favourite. We were ID’ed here and our driving licences were fine.



We split the Chicken Empanadas small plate to start ($4.99) - A Latin favorite. Handmade pastries filled with braised chicken, mushrooms and onion.



We weren’t hungry enough for an appetiser to share, so the empanadas were a good size.

No, I didn’t let Ollie have the extra one, I insisted we cut it in half.
For mains I had the Key West Shrimp and Grits ($16.99) - Tender shrimp sautéed with bacon and mushrooms, served with lemon butter sauce and fresh green beans over cheesy grits.



I liked the creamy garlic sauce the shrimp was cooked in, but thought the grits had an unusual taste. It wasn’t until further into my meal that I realised it tasted a bit like rice pudding…..

Ollie had the Chipotle Beef Bowl ($14.99) - Sautéed beef sirloin, roasted corn and black beans in chipotle sauce served over yellow rice and cheese; topped with sour cream, fresh salsa and ripe avocado.



It was a lot bigger than it looks in the photo. He really enjoyed this.
It was 10.45pm by the time we were done eating.

We waddled back to the hotel. I felt very safe walking this part of Idrive at night as it was full of tourists.

Back at the hotel, we sorted out our things for our move to Royal Pacific in the morning.

Day 5 - Move to Royal Pacific Resort and Universal Studios

[collybird]

I didn't realise there was a free shuttle to Busch, that's really handy.

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by collybird

I didn't realise there was a free shuttle to Busch, that's really handy.

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It was really useful - it meant I could have useful nap time!. You can pre-book in advance (not that they checked).

[abiknox]

Great read, we are planning a visit to Busch for in a couple of weeks so I'm loving reading about it

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Great read, we are planning a visit to Busch for in a couple of weeks so I'm loving reading about it

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Thanks for reading Busch is a great one for coasters - I'm just too wimpy for them!

[Juliemack]

I've never been to Busch Gardens, I don't even know why I don't fancy it you both certainly had a good day

[Lisa_Lollipop]

I'm impressed Ollie rode Sheikra 6 times in a row... it took all the courage I had to go on it just once! Looked like a fab day, despite not having the magic of Disney and Universal I really enjoyed our day at BG last year

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Juliemack

I've never been to Busch Gardens, I don't even know why I don't fancy it you both certainly had a good day

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Busch Gardens doesn't compare to Disney or Universal for me, but the coasters are great for anyone crazy enough to ride them!

Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop

I'm impressed Ollie rode Sheikra 6 times in a row... it took all the courage I had to go on it just once! Looked like a fab day, despite not having the magic of Disney and Universal I really enjoyed our day at BG last year

See more...

Ollie's a bit mad like that! Thanks for reading