A Surprise birthday trip! - Day 1 Busch Gardens

[pho3nix]

Day 1 - Busch Gardens
29th December 2022

First day in Florida and it felt so surreal to be waking up on holiday!

Our room at PCI - pretty basic but comfy and had everything we needed!

Despite falling asleep so quickly last night I didn't have a great nights asleep and woke up quite a few times. We gave in and got up at 6am to start getting ready and to make coffee. The showers here at Postcard Inn may look old fashioned but they are really powerful! I struggled to pack for this holiday and really wasn't sure what the Florida weather would throw at us - I ended up this day in jeans and t-shirt, no jumper needed!

In our tired state last night we miscalculated the time we needed to be up and ready to leave this morning - we ended up leaving at 8am when we should have been leaving between 7 and 7:30. This meant that we arrived at Busch Gardens around 9am to quite the queue to enter the car park but we were soon in and parked up. It was such a nice drive - beautiful blue skies and sea!

We hopped onto the tram to the entrance and straight into the park just scanning our paper tickets. I had bought our tickets in the Black Friday sale - I was looking to buy the quick queue but it was about $129 for our date on top of the park ticket which was also over $100. In the sale I managed to get the ticket + quick queue unlimited + all day dining for $170. We didn't need the all day dining but it was part of the deal so I was sure we would make use of it!

The Busch Gardens Christmas tree was so pretty - I honestly felt so happy to be standing looking at a Florida Christmas tree in the sunshine knowing our holiday was just starting!

First queue of the day for us was at Guest Services for our quick queue unlimited cards and all day dining bands. The queue moved quite quickly and although there was some issue with printing the cards, it was sorted quickly and we were on our way into the park!

Time for some coasters!

Sheikra first - I have to admit I was a little nervous as we waited in the queue as it was the first time in a long time that we had been in a theme park and on a coaster - I was worrying that I would have developed motion sickness or suddenly hate them but as soon as we were on that car and into the first drop I was back in my happy place - cue ear splitting grin and overwhelming happiness. Cannot beat that feeling!

The day was really warming up and there was not a cloud in the sky - it was a good day to be alive!

Onto Tigris next - loved it! So surprising even though I had just wanted it and knew exactly what would happen!

Then Scorpion - I can only say OUCH! That one hurt!


It was now just after 11am and we were starving so decided on an early lunch at the Dragonfire Pub. This is a big quick service location with a number of counters all serving different types of food. Please excuse the bad photos, it was pretty dark in there!

Sophie went for the cheeseburger and waffle fries and I had the 2 entrees meal which was noodles with beef & broccoli and teriyaki chicken and a side of egg rolls. With the all day dining you get one entree, 1 side, and 1 drink per person each time you pass through a queue. There were only two cashiers serving on the tills and the queues moved so slowly, it took ages to get through the queue and I was sure our food would be cold! Once we were at the front we were served really quickly - our wrist bands just needed to be scanned and then we were off.
We grabbed a seat at one of the big tables but tucked away in a corner!

The food was really good! Sorry only have a picture of my own as I was in pain, hungry and not quite in the swing of photographing all our food!

I really struggled to eat as my wrist and hand were shaking from standing holding the tray for so long. I had been having some issues with this before we left and had been using a wrist brace so the time stood holiday the tray had really taken it's toll. Lunch done it was time to get back to the coasters...

Next up - Cheetah Hunt!

Another awesome coaster in the bag!
We hadn't needed the quick queue passes until this point but they were now a godsend. We didn't wait any more than 10 minutes for any ride despite the posted queue times never being less than 70 minutes.

From here we headed to Cobras Curse but it was down - they were just sending round empty cars. With this down, we headed over to Montu instead. We both love this type of coaster where you hang below the track and this one did not disappoint. The big loops were so exhilarating!

Cobras Curse was back up and running now so we jumped in the queue and were soon on the ride. This one was fun - different to the usual coasters and not at the top of my list to do again but we enjoyed it.

We enjoyed Montu so much we headed back here again.

Trying and almost succeeding in taking a selfie with Montu in the background!
We were put into the back of a queue behind a family of four, who in turn were behind a dad and his son - they asked if we wanted to ride first, rather than just have the car go with two empty seats- so nice of them! The dad and son were hilarious - honestly their conversations on the way round were brilliant and kept me entertained!

Another cheeky ride on Cheetah Hunt and a few more pics!

We decided to head over to Kumba next, looking for a drink along the way. This was not easy! Lots of the food kiosks were closed and anywhere that was open had HUGE lines. In the end we gave in and just joined the big queue - I think we ended up queueing for water longer than for a coaster. We bought a bottle of sprite and two cups of iced water - the water was free so we paid $5 for the Sprite - eek!

We did also take some time to look at the Christmas decorations along the way - I always find it so odd seeing traditional Christmas decs in the sunshine!

We walked passed Falcons Fury and I decided to pass - I had been debating if I was brave enough or not - clearly not!

Finally we made it to Kumba - my least favourite coaster of the day - I found it very rattly.

It was 3pm by this point and the park was getting busy. The lockers which had seemed to work so well all day ($8 for the day) were now overcrowded with people who all needed to be in the locker area for an awful long time! I was also getting a headache, probably lack of sleep and lack of hydration today. We decided to call it a day and head out. Really enjoyed our day at Busch and it really does have some fantastic coasters! I didn't enjoy the animals so much - I think having seen rescued elephants, living as freely as they can, I found the animal exhibits, especially the elephants and the gorillas quite sad so don't have any photos of these.

We also didn't really make the most of the all day dining, only eating once as the queues were just so big and we were too excited for the rides to think about eating! Perhaps in different circumstances (summer, out of covid, later in the holiday) we would make better use of it although I'm not sure we would buy it again unless it was part of an offer.

We had intended to go to the supermarket to grab some breakfast and room snacks the previous evening but due to our late arrival, we didn't do this so thought we would do some shopping today. We headed to Tyrone Square via a quick stop at Best Buy - the aim here was to see if they had an ipad for Sophie - no luck!

On to Tyrone Square, had a quick look in Macys where I did feel like there were some good bargains but I didn't buy anything (should have known with this that I wasn't feeling so good!). Next we headed to Hot Topic - last time we were in Florida I loved this store but this one was so empty and we again left empty handed. Bath & Body Works next and this was also full of empty shelves so I just bought a couple of hand sanitisers. I really wasn't so impressed with this mall!

Next up, Publix - $70 dollars and a trolley full of breakfast and snacks later we headed back to the hotel. Quick dinner in the room of apple slices with toffee, grapes and cheese and a little bit of time reading before heading to bed to sleep. My last photo of the day is the tray we had for dinner - I have been thinking about these since our last (2016!) trip!

[Excitedx4]

Brilliant day, you got lots of rides done. Shame about the dining with places not being open!

[pho3nix]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

Brilliant day, you got lots of rides done. Shame about the dining with places not being open!

See more...

Thank you! Our aim was coasters so we def managed plenty of those! Think I was kidding myself that we might need to eat more than once or completely forgetting the size of American portions!

[mick]

Lots of rides done shame you didn’t feel too good later in the day hope you felt better after a good nights sleep

Joan

[darbs]

Great day, you got a lot of rides done! Beautiful blue skies 😀

[pho3nix]

Originally Posted by mick

Lots of rides done shame you didn’t feel too good later in the day hope you felt better after a good nights sleep

Joan

See more...

Thanks Joan - I'm not doing so well with seeing the replies to my posts. Or to posting the rest of my trip report... hopefully will get back to it soon!

[pho3nix]

Originally Posted by darbs

Great day, you got a lot of rides done! Beautiful blue skies 😀

See more...

Thank you! I would love to be looking at those blue skies again right now!

[JoJo88]

You got so many coasters done, Cheetah Hunt is one of my faves

Tyrone Square brings back memories - DH & I spent a fortnight in St Pete’s back in ‘99, and went there quite a lot! We returned a few years ago and it really wasn’t up to much at all, I think we’d since been spoilt by the Orlando malls

[pho3nix]

Originally Posted by JoJo88

You got so many coasters done, Cheetah Hunt is one of my faves

Tyrone Square brings back memories - DH & I spent a fortnight in St Pete’s back in ‘99, and went there quite a lot! We returned a few years ago and it really wasn’t up to much at all, I think we’d since been spoilt by the Orlando malls

See more...

Yes we love the coasters, to be honest that was the reason for heading to Busch Gardens! Cheetah Hunt was pretty amazing!

Yes def spoiled by Orlando malls- it so wasn't what I wanted it to be!