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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

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In a bit of sad news that I saw on my feed today, a guy reached into Pinky the Flamingo's exhibit in Jambo Junction, picked her up and slammed her to the ground. Due to her injuries, she had to be euthanized. Pinky was always one of my favorite animals at the park and she was extremely friendly. She was one of their animal ambassadors and known throughout the country because of her appearances on several talk shows. I'll miss seeing her there. Dude better have it coming for him!

 

Here's the news article: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-flamingo-euthanized-after-attack-busch-gardens-n622296

 

*sigh* What the hell is wrong with people??

 

I'm also disturbed that he did it in front of his kids, even though I'm not a big animal person per say, I just don't see how someone can hurt them.

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Out of all of the thug life, homicide related, and drug related crap I deal with at work, nothing still satisfies me like locking some dirt bag up for felony aggravated cruelty to an animal. I hate people who mess with animals. F*** that guy.

 

 

That poor, poor animal . This truly breaks my heart. I agree with you Prozach. Animal cruelty is a special level of evil. I hope this piece of shit gets what is coming to him and HARD!

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On a happier note. If anyone is visiting BGT during august and looking for something fun to do outside the park, check out The Beach at Amalie Arena downtown Tampa. ( The Ice Hockey arena). Today was opening day, we went and had a blast ! If you go, be prepared for one heck of a cardio workout. It's a free timed ticketed event. It runs til Aug 26. You need a ticket but just get one online. The whole ice rink is filled with over 1.5 million white balls. In fact, everything is white, including the food and beer stands and cornhole games inside. Here's a few pics of us having fun. It is an expanded version of the same exhibit that was in DC from Snarkitecture last year that cost 18 bucks pp. Did I mention it was free?

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Out of all of the thug life, homicide related, and drug related crap I deal with at work, nothing still satisfies me like locking some dirt bag up for felony aggravated cruelty to an animal. I hate people who mess with animals. F*** that guy.

 

 

That poor, poor animal . This truly breaks my heart. I agree with you Prozach. Animal cruelty is a special level of evil. I hope this piece of poo-poo gets what is coming to him and HARD!

I agree. We need to bring back tougher punishment and make prisoners work, chain gangs maybe, while locked up to help pay back to their victims and society. No more just sitting around, playing, and watching TV. They did serious crimes and a movie night once a week is suffice and only for those with good behavior and did their work! I'm sick of the roving door justice system which allows these crooks to victimise again and again. What ever happened to 3 strikes? We should enforce 3 strikes and no more release, that's it. Make special prisons for these criminals to rot in until they die. They choose the actions, their victims sure did not. Poor Pinky the flamingo was the cutest one. Have you seen the videos of her dancing? She was their only dancing flamingo.

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I was at the park on Saturday and I got to do a little bit of everything, including riding the Cobra Curse despite having that ride breaking down numerous times a day. I did love Cheetah Hunt and I rode it twice. I would have love to ride Scorpion twice as well, but they were running only one train and a lot of disable riders and those with Quick Queues caused a long waiting time for the rest of us.

 

I wanted to go back today using my platinum pass, but it's raining hard.

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There weren't a lot of restrictions that I could tell, other than use common sense. It seems as if everyone did. They have "lifeguards" stationed around and on the "pier". Ball tossing and splashing was going on all over. It really was a blast and very surreal. It is almost impossible to stand upright, but it's fun trying. You can jump off the pier, which is an odd feeling. Some were diving, though they don't recommend diving, but it is allowed. There's free fluffy fluffy's for valuables and is strongly recommended. If you lose something it will just float away and you will not find it, no way no how. They post signs up that if you lose something you won't be able to get it back until after the 26th when they "drain" the beach. Oh and another bonus is that you get a free scoop of ice cream too along with free parking. You can't believe the workout you will get from it either.

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The balls are not like your typical ball pit. they are very soft yet firm. Like I said, it is very very surreal. I don't know quite how describe it. It is not considered as a kids' ball pit but as more of an art installation. It is more geared to a more mature crowd, not little kiddies. I mean, c'mon, they serve beer. You just have to experience the wonderful weirdness of the whole thing. It is so very weird , beautiful and odd. you have to experience it to know how things just float away. It just does, Here is a link to the group that puts it on .

And if this doesn't confuse y'all more.....
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Like I said, I was confused as to what the whole thing was, even after watching the video. But I did it and I was blown away and finally understood. Like I said , it is sureal. Here is the local review. It describes, but doesn't clear things up, http://web.tampabay.com/things-to-do/events/what-its-like-to-swim-through-12-million-balls-at-the-beach-tampa/2288335

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Damn. Looks pretty cool. I don't think we'll have time this weekend, but like you said if it rains maybe we'll check it out.

 

Back to the park, how packed can I expect it this Saturday and Monday? I know I've asked before, but I figured I'd ask one more time since we're a lot closer to leaving... thanks.

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If you all don't mind, I'm going to change the subject and talk about a boat ride called "Journey to Atlantis. . .

 

"Dude, that ride's in SeaWorld. I thought this thread was supposed to be on Busch Gardens Tampa?"

 

Well, it is. I just wanted to say that they ought to put a ride like that to replace their old and closed-off Tanganyika Shoot the Chutes ride. I think that would be awesome!

 

"Hey, no fair! We want them to do something with the old Gwazi that involves RMC structure work!"

 

Hey, I would love to see both, but I'm sure one attraction would be worked on first. So here is my question to all you Busch Gardens Tampa lovers and anyone else that's a rider and amusement park flyer: What attraction would you like to see them work on?

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We didn't have that great of a time in the park on Monday, but I think most of that was attributed to my unrealistic expectations and being in a piss poor mood. On the other hand, we had a phenomenal time at Sea World. I'll make a trip report when we get back from the beach next week. I just wanted to stop in and say how frustrated I am with Valraven after now having ridden Shiekra to cap off all three of the American dive machines. I've never been one to dog B&M, but come on....

 

More to come.

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Visiting the park either next Tuesday or Wednesday.

-So when should I start looking at the weather for the day? I know over on the CP thread, they say avoid looking at the weather until just before visiting. BGT is close enough to the Gulf where I feel like this could be similar.

-By that measure, what is the rain policy?

-What rides do I need a medicated rabbit for vs which ones have bins in the stations?

-With a one day ticket, what is the latest point where I could upgrade it to a season pass?

-Since I'm moving down to Tampa for school, how is HOS hiring done. I've seen no advertising for it on social media.

-I'm going to get either the all day dining plan or a Twisted Tails Pretzel. What is recommended.

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^ as far as the weather, this is Florida - it changes from minute to minute. At this time of year, expect at least one afternoon thundershower every day. It pretty much rains every day through the summer. If there aren't any hurricanes or Tropical Depressions in the Gulf, you will be fine.

 

The ride and rain policy is like other parks - it is not consistent. I've ridden Cheetah Hunt in rain so cold it was almost sleet, and I've seen it close when there was a light mist in the air.

 

As far as I can recall, all of the major coasters have bins in the stations so medicated rabbits aren't much of an issue unless you have valuables that you don't want to leave out.

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It's the lightning that's more a cause for ride closure than rain. I never really saw it rain without some lightning in the area and everything would close with lightning within 10 miles or so. I also don't think there's any way to predict it except on a minute by minute basis as jynx242 said.

 

Kumba, Montu, Sheikra, and Falcons Fury definitely had cubby holes for water bottles and small items. The others might have them too but I definitely remember the above 4 having them.

 

For hiring look on the Seaworld parks job posting website and narrow your search to BGT.

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we were just there last month, and although there ARE cubbies on most of the stations for small objects, several times we were not even allowed in the queue with a small bag, and had to go get a "bunnie"

 

the cost is reasonable, but it was a bit annoying, as they filled up quickly, and several times we had to wait for the staff to open a locker and remove someone's stuff.

 

for SURE that happened (bunny needed) on Cobra's Curse, Montu, and Cheetah Hunt.

 

can't recall on SheiKra, and for sure did NOT happen on Scorpion (they have cubbies), Kumba (cubbies) and Sand Serpent.

 

and every day we were in the park (Trip report floating around somewhere on the 1st couple of pages), *all* rides (including train) shut down for weather, and 2 of the 3 days things didn't reopen. So i'd recommend going in the morning if you want rides, but anytime, if you are fine doing shows or animals when things shut down.

 

ETA: skip the all day dining, you won't need it. The Pretzels are great, but I'd highly recommend the Serengetti Overlook buffet (directly across from Cheetah Hunt, on the 3rd floor above the pub). It was $18 but the food was excellent and so filling, we didn't really need to eat again that day.

 

a cheaper option is the Garden Grill Pizza buffet, but that wasn't really that good.

 

hope this helps!

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^ I will second that on the buffet . I do that every time now when I do a full day at the park. It is a great value. (especially on holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.) In fact that has become our Christmas tradition now with my mom and dad, Dad is in his 80's, mom is near 80. The food, the wine, great. Then right after we all get in line for Cheetah. The perfect way to spend a holiday imho.

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If you all don't mind, I'm going to change the subject and talk about a boat ride called "Journey to Atlantis. . .

 

"Dude, that ride's in SeaWorld. I thought this thread was supposed to be on Busch Gardens Tampa?"

 

Well, it is. I just wanted to say that they ought to put a ride like that to replace their old and closed-off Tanganyika Shoot the Chutes ride. I think that would be awesome!

Tanganyika Tidal Wave is closed? I must've missed something, what happened?

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