Busch Gardens Recent Reviews?

[Emily90]

Hi,

We have never been to Busch Gardens before but the rides look amazing. We have a 5 year old who is 42inches and there are real thrill rides for her too. I was getting so excited.

However, on tripadvisor the reviews are absolutely awful, saying that the best rides are constantly down, no staff anywhere so lots of queue jumping, that it's really run down etc! Has anyone been in the last year that could share their experience please?

Thank you

[Mikey19869]

Went last July & rides are amazing, it’s a lot quieter than any other parks because it’s in Tampa which to be honest is not a bad thing! I wouldn’t worry to much about the Tripadvisor reviews because 9 times out of 10 people will only write reviews because they feel they had a bad service.. everybody has different standards so personally I’d ignore the reviews and see for yourself..

[TartanRose]

I have been 6 or 7 times, including in 2023 and 2024. The rides are brilliant with short queues on weekdays i.e. 10 minutes to get onto the new ride Iron Gwazi. However, the rest of the park feels really run down and I was disappointed in shows, animals, theming and food quality/ availability. It's still a must do for a thrill seeker, especially if you can buy tickets on Black Friday, however assume it is a half day going ride to ride then leave the park for food and the rest of your day.

[Emily90]

Thank you so much for these reviews! It's quite expensive for a half day park and I don't want to be disappointed. We will have a 5 year old so while the rides are very important so is the general vibe of the theme park. Maybe I will get the SeaWorld tickets. The new Penguin ride looks great at SeaWorld if it's open by late August.

Are there any other reviews of Busch Gardens?

[Tigsteroonie]

There's meant to be a new ride opening at Busch Gardens later this year - Phoenix Rising - but I don't know the date (test runs have started).

Then again, SeaWorld also has its new ride - Penguin Trek - which is a little further along.

We're planning on doing both in September if they are open. We're combining a trip to Busch Gardens with an overnight in a motel and a day at Clearwater Beach.

[lizzie145]

i went last November for the day. Loved it, no queues (no Q jumpers) all rides running. Spent the whole day there.

it is a beautiful park and sesame street area looked lovely.

We ate at chick fil a which was busy but i have eaten elsewhere and it was fine.

i love the cheetahs, you can feed the birds in the aviary. They were working on some of the animal areas last November.

I am not a show person so we probably didn't do any.

[Emily90]

Originally Posted by lizzie145

i went last November for the day. Loved it, no queues (no Q jumpers) all rides running. Spent the whole day there.

it is a beautiful park and sesame street area looked lovely.

We ate at chick fil a which was busy but i have eaten elsewhere and it was fine.

i love the cheetahs, you can feed the birds in the aviary. They were working on some of the animal areas last November.

I am not a show person so we probably didn't do any.

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Glad to hear you found it to be a beautiful park. We're not the biggest fans of shows either. Cheetahs sounds cool and great that Seseme Street was good as our little would probably like that.

[Emily90]

Originally Posted by Tigsteroonie

There's meant to be a new ride opening at Busch Gardens later this year - Phoenix Rising - but I don't know the date (test runs have started).

Then again, SeaWorld also has its new ride - Penguin Trek - which is a little further along.

We're planning on doing both in September if they are open. We're combining a trip to Busch Gardens with an overnight in a motel and a day at Clearwater Beach.

See more...

We want to go to Clearwater too so that sounds like a great plan. Both of those rides sound great! I can't believe the Pheonix one is 42 inches it looks pretty scary! I hope our 5 year old would like it.

[pinkspideruk]

I went in Feb this year and September last year - BG used to be my favourite park to do - always great rides and great shows and service, however, the last 2 recent visits were really awful in terms of service.

Big issue for us was that when rises went down staff were rude to us - we actually witnessed staff member swear at a black family who compalined that they announced the train was about to start and then nothing happened for 20mins!

The park itself was dirtier, most of the food and bev kiosks were closed both visits and yes Feb is off season but we went for the day before HoS in Sept which was extremely busy.

Drinks machines that were broken in Sept were still broken the following Feb.

Toilets were filthy both visits

No sugar free drinks available in 99% of the places we went to. Food was the worst theme park food ever! Seriously we had a half cooked pepperoni pizza when we went to complain they just closed the shutter! we also had the chicken tendrs and fries and they were over cooked to the point the chicken was hard and grey.

However - the shows were still fantastic both trips, the rides when they were running were good - sheikrah remains my favourite ride ever and iron gwazi is amazing and also painful (bruises everywhere from it lol) and the free transport they put on - drivers and coaches nice.

We also really enjoyed the animal trails and skyride and we paid extra for the seregeti safari as i got it as a v day gift for my gf and that was wonderful.

We will be going back in Sept but will avoid going on a HoS day and we will also leave the park and walk to the maccyDs for lunch if we are hungry

So I would say go but dont expect the level of service or food you can get at US or Disney - the animals are great, the rides when running are fab - however be aware its a very outside park - any poor weather and most everything will close down until it passes - so have a plan of what to do if that happens - most eople go hide out in the shops or food places or hang around by the ride they want to ride once it stops and everything restarts.

[MMCMK]

Hi
We used to mark Busch amongst the better of all the parks.
We have up on them about 2 years back as not worthwhile.
Car parking very expensive
Food areas understaffed.drinks areas mainly closed
.
We are front seats thrill seekers but...
Sheikrs our go to.under managed ,
Only running one car minimal staff..kids queue jumping like they owned the place, with responsible adult going whatever.
The absolute worst day when they opened free to honour students from all over.eithoit any earning the park was over run. Kids ordering plates of food then leaving most of it
Only managed to get 2 rides on a day. Left early ..Complained bitterly at Customer Services desk. Offered free return day

Never been back