Five Fords Fifth Family Floriday Aug 18 - Day 3 - Busch Gardens

[juliab]

Friday 10th August

Another 6.30am start again for me, I sat out on the balcony and watched the sunrise whilst catching up with my notes. Starting to be a regular little routine!

I felt a lot better but I still had a bit of a headache. I took some painkillers along with some travel sickness tablets as we had a bit of a drive today.

Not long until everyone else was awake so we got on with our morning routine, had some breakfast then set off to Busch Gardens just before 9am.

View out to Disney Springs

Love seeing this!

The traffic was fine going down and much to our surprise we managed to find Busch Gardens quite easily!

As we approached the parking booths the sky got considerably darker. Parked up and it proceeded to absolutely pour it down! Couldn’t believe it! Of course we didn’t have our poncho’s with us so we sat in the car and waited a little while until it settled down to a light rain.

We caught the tram to the entrance – this bit reminded me a little of Disney even though it looked nothing like it.

Thankfully the rain had turned to a light drizzle by the time we go to the entrance of the park. I was a little concerned about the rain affecting the rides so was happy to see it was gradually stopping.

Through security and then the ticket booth and we were in the park for 10.15, not long after it had opened for the day.

I’d brought the Seaworld drinking bottle along with us and went into the shop to purchase the refill barcode for the day.

This being our first time in Busch Gardens we didn’t know anything about the park about form some obvious rides that we’d seen on some vlogs.

We passed an area where a Ranger was talking about the Alligator’s we spotted a few and couldn’t believe how big they were.

Walked further round and saw a Cheetah, the Ranger there was giving another talk so we stopped and listened for a while.

Hayden and Jamie wanted to get on the actual ride - Cheetah Hunt – Scott went with them to ride it whilst Poppy and I had a little wander about.

Looked at the Meerkats, so cute then watched the Giraffes over on the Serengeti Plain. The park was nice and quiet here with only a few people wandering by, we wondered how Scott and the boy’s were doing on their first ride.

After a restroom break we walked back to the Morocco area near the entrance of the park as I’d noticed it was Starbucks. I grabbed a coffee and just as we sat down loads of people came running into the café? We wondered what had happened then noticed the heavens had opened up again!

This time though we could hear lots of thunder and we wondered how that would affect things.
We sat and waited until it turned back to a light drizzle before venturing back out.

Walked past the Gorilla and Chimpanzee area first and had a quick look there before continuing on to Cheetah Hunt.

We spotted Scott and the boys sheltering under a parasol! They had been extremely lucky and had managed to get on the coaster before it closed down - apparently theirs had been the last one to go. They said the ride was brilliant and was very keen to go on another, not sure when that would be though.

Walked through to the Pantopia area of the park next, looking at some of the animals along the way.

Falcon’s Fury was closed as were all the rides here. The rain had stopped so we guessed it was a case of just waiting.

We noticed some movement at one of the kid’s rides and Poppy managed to get on these small rides before it got busy.

I went on the carousel with Poppy – my first ride of the day!

Hayden had noticed that the Sand Serpent Roller Coaster had opened up so they had a ride on it.

The time was now 2pm we couldn’t believe how quickly the day was going. Looked on the park map for somewhere for us to eat and we saw that the Dragon Fire Grill was very near to us. The menu looked ok so we sat and had some lunch there.

Whilst we were eating a show came on, it was a group who were singing and dancing. It made for a very interesting and entertaining lunch!

Belly's full the boys were keen to try another roller coaster. The line for Scorpion didn’t look too long but it turned out to be a very slow moving one. Too late the boy's were already in the line before we realised so. Still Hayden and Jamie loved the ride and they were super lucky yet again. The ride closed after they got off as it had started raining again!

We knew it would be pointless going to any outdoor ride so we had a wander over to see the Tiger’s. Firstly to have a look at the beautiful big cat’s - secondly to get some shelter from the pouring rain.

The rain eventually stopped so we headed over to the bumper cars. There was a bit of a queue but Poppy was super happy as she was tall enough to drive them on her own.
They were quite slow moving cars but still good fun for us all.

Even though we’d kept trying to escape the rain for the most of the day we can never resist a water ride – Congo River Rapids. Also the queue wasn’t too bad and as we waited the sun made a welcome appearance for us.

We were soon in a boat and as you’d expect we got absolutely soaked but we had a good laugh about it. Thankfully with the sun now being out it didn’t take long for us to dry off.

Watched the Opening Night Critter show next which was just so sweet. The animals were very talented and it was a lovely family show to watch, so sweet.

The boys were keen to ride another roller coaster so we made our way over to Shreikra. Wow this looked super scary but Hayden and Jamie couldn’t wait to get on! Scott took them whilst Poppy and I had a look in some of the shops there. She bought a couple of little souvenirs then we shared some dippin dots whilst we waited.

We walked over to the splash zone, it was really cool to watching the big spray of water shooting up and sometimes drowning an unsuspecting passerby!

When the boys came off they were absolutely buzzing and said they wanted to go on it again it was that good. It was only a 10 minute line and Poppy wasn’t bothered about waiting around a little longer. Scott said that it looked scarier than it actually was so I thought right I’m going to give this a go!

Wow it was amazing, I felt a little bit scared when we got to the top but the drop wasn’t too. In fact it was a very smooth ride and I felt really proud of myself for giving it a go!

Had more of a sedate ride next we went on the Serengeti Express train which look us round the park, well over the Serengeti Plain. It was a nice relaxing journey and we managed to see some more of the wildlife here though not as abundant as earlier in the day.

Scott took the boys on Kumba whilst Poppy and I went back on the bumper cars. Jamie and Hayden loved the coaster so much so that they went straight back onto it. Jamie remarked it was his favourite ride of the day.

We got the Skyride back to the other side of the park as our legs were starting to feel a little weary. It was good to see the park from a different vantage, we didn’t see any animals as we passed over though but it was starting to get dark.

Hayden and Jamie wanted to go on Cobra’s Curse as they’d been on this particular one yet. Instead of waiting around me and Poppy went to the ice skating show. Poppy had seen the poster earlier and had asked if we could come to see it. I knew Hayden and Jamie wouldn’t be bothered about watching the show so we walked over and managed to catch the last performance.

Not sure what we were expecting from “Turn It Up” but wow it was really entertaining. The skater’s were so good and I loved the music, so glad we came to watch this.

Walked back over to meet back up with the Scott and the boy’s, they’d managed to ride Cobra’s Curse then had gone over to Montu. Unfortunately, whilst waiting in line the roller coaster went down. The park was to be closing soon so it was highly unlikely to be up and running again today. Hayden and Jamie were content to have got on so many brilliant rollercoaster in a day.

Although we’d been snacking throughout the afternoon on fruit, cookies and crisps we realised we’d not eaten a great deal. Unfortunately we’d left it a bit late and the nearest choice to us that we could see was open was the Serengeti Overlook. Not a great deal of choice left as it was so late we all had chicken tender meals!

It was now time for us to leave the park was due to close and to be quite honest we were all feeling a bit tired. Couldn’t believe we’d spent a full day here, the time had gone so quickly.

Bit of a shame about the rain especially at the beginning of the day but still we’d managed to get on a lot of the rides.
This had been our first visit here and we’d all agreed that it was a brilliant park, it was brilliant to try a new park out full of new experience’s for us all.

The drive back to Orlando was fine, took us an hour. Kind of reminded me of our journey up from Tampa airport a few nights ago!
In bed for 11.30pm totally shattered after a fantastic day at Busch Gardens.


Thanks for reading

[Disneycraft]

Wow the boys did a lot of coasters .love the tiger photos

[juliab]

Originally Posted by Disneycraft

Wow the boys did a lot of coasters .love the tiger photos

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They just loved those coasters
Thanks for your comments

[Nesbits]

That’s exactly how I felt after riding Sheikra

[Animagus]

Great you managed to fit so much in, even with rain breaks! We are desperate to visit Busch, now our dd is tall enough to ride all the coasters. We are all coaster fans, so really must give this place a go.

You got some fab animal pics too.

[helenlovesdestr]

Looks like your day there was a little more successful than ours! We managed 3 rides in total due to the rain and hanging around for our giraffe safari that ended up being cancelled twice!

[juliab]

Originally Posted by Nesbits

That’s exactly how I felt after riding Sheikra

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Originally Posted by Animagus

Great you managed to fit so much in, even with rain breaks! We are desperate to visit Busch, now our dd is tall enough to ride all the coasters. We are all coaster fans, so really must give this place a go.

You got some fab animal pics too.

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Yes if you can you need to visit here, some amazing coasters!

Originally Posted by helenlovesdestr

Looks like your day there was a little more successful than ours! We managed 3 rides in total due to the rain and hanging around for our giraffe safari that ended up being cancelled twice!

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Oh dear what a shame that's rubbish. Hope you have a better time on your next visit!

[l33na]

Glad you all enjoyed Busch Gardens. If you like coasters this is a very good park. I love Sheikra too. The coasters such as Sheikra and Cheetah Hunt are all smooth.

[sheluk]

We love Busch - glad you guys did too! The rides are fab! Brill day x

[juliab]

Originally Posted by sheluk

We love Busch - glad you guys did too! The rides are fab! Brill day x

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We didn't know quite what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised by Busch Gardens.

Those rides were fantastic! X