Disasterous Day at Busch Gardens

[Joelin]

Originally Posted by ratmanscoop

That's disappointing to hear - the comments about Busch Gardens being a little unloved and understaffed are absolutely right, but it's still been a great day for us. I think some perspective is needed - it's quite common for multiple rides to be down in a park and if you're doing a big holiday with lots of park visits, statistically it's bound to happen to you at least once. There are still plenty of things to see at Busch without going on rides, so worst-case it's still not going to be a total waste of a day.

Being there for rope-drop is also very high risk in terms of rides being down - almost every time you see people try it on youtube for any park, at least one ride is down, causing their plans to be altered.

Sometimes ride queues are longer than expected too - I've done a 'posted 65, expected 45' for R&RC that was 82 mins in practice. Not ideal, but it's something you put up with for the benefit of going on a decent ride. 50 minutes for Cheetah Hunt is barely any longer than we waited last year (I think something like 38 mins) and would still have been easily worth it. What I would give to see queue lengths anything like as small as 50 mins at WDW - most big stuff is 90+ for the majority of the day in summer!

It's fair enough to not want to make a 2.5-3 hr round trip back there on the back of a lousy day, but if the concept of the park otherwise appeals to you, i'd still say try it again next time. The lack of people at BG is just so refreshing compared to Disney and Universal, the coasters are superb and it's just a slightly less tense day out. Or at least, it's supposed to be

See more...

I totally understand where you’re coming from. I think going in a larger party with pensioners also adds to the stress of being the main organiser. They just don’t have the stamina that it takes and we’ve agreed that this will be our last trip here together. If it was just me and OH,we could do it no bother. We’re toying with going back one night maybe and leaving the oldies at the villa 🙊

[ratmanscoop]

That's fair - Florida in late June is going to be hard work for anyone that age, and being a predominantly outdoor affair, BG will be more difficult than many places. Our 2017 day at BGT was more short-lived than I would have liked for that reason as well so I'm looking forward to returning next year with our entire group still being in our 30s.

[Taffy1959]

Sorry to hear your day at BG was a let down, we go every holiday and have never had a bad day there although we do go in October.

[Bayshore]

We always love BG, lines are small, dining plan is great value, crowds are manageable, or at least that's been our experience every year.

Their Customer Service is usually great, not a bit surprised that they gave you your money back for dining plan.

Can't wait to get back there in August

[MissFortune]

We have had 2 visits completely ruined due to all day inclement weather (I know this was not necessarily your issue OP).

Rides/skylift shut down for 75% of the day and the giraffe feeding experience we'd booked delayed, delayed & then cancelled.

Being as though we'd used the coach transfer to get there we were stuck there until the coach returned at 5pm, wandering around aimlessly & playing in the crummy kids arcade.

I know how frustrating it is to go all the way there & the day not turn out to be what you expected. Thankfully they refunded your dining plan though.

[Bobbins]

Originally Posted by Lell

Sorry you had a bad day. We love BG. Only ever been in October and the longest queue was about 10-15 mins. Literally walked off some rides and straight back on.

See more...

We went last October (early in the month) and the place was deserted - it was almost eerie. You could walk on any ride - but not many were open. Very few eating places open either.

Majority of staff looked thoroughly miserable.

[toonarmani]

We did BG last year and were disappointed apart from the small number of rides we did get on.

Wasn't helped with bad weather in the early afternoon which was set in for the day so we left to recover what we could of the rest of the day back in Orlando, so the ~4hrs total drive felt a waste.

The park itself looked very tired/dated compared to Disney/Universal, so doubt we would venture out again.

[nasty]

We went last August and lots of the rides were down. There was then large queues for everything else that was running, mostly in excess of 60 mins.

We’d pre booked the Serengeti safari which saved the day for us as it was an amazing experience but overall the general appearance of the park, lack of open and available drink/food outlets and the surly staff means we most definitely wont be rushing back anytime soon.

[klr15]

Aw no! You need to go back and try it again one day because honestly it’s a great park when everything is working as it should. We went last year in May and got on every ride in 6 hours, some rides twice. We did buy the one time quick queue passes though because it was quite busy and we didn’t want to miss anything on our one trip, they weren’t too bad priced really either and definitely worth it if you haven’t got long to fit everything in.

[nicki2014]

I think the issue with BG is they have to shut the rides down as soon as there is a hint that the weather is turning (which has always happened to me). It can leave you stood around with nothing to do for ages and if you use the free bus you can't even leave until 6pm. I'm not bothering with the park next trip