Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

[sonoma15]

I don't think this is right

[viking86]

^Cheetah Hunt being converted to Aquatrax confirmed!!!

[DILinator]

^Cheetah Hunt being converted to Aquatrax confirmed!!!

 

[cwgator]

Here's a photo at the Westshore Blvd exit on I-275 in Tampa. Central FL has been getting drenched this past week.

I-275 at the Westshore Blvd exit.

[rcrider4]

I don't think this is right

It's not. That picture is from May 2014 when we got 6 inches in 3 hours.

[StealthFan]

Thats a lot of rain! If anything I just hope the animals are okay and safe.

[chargersmichael]

It has been raining for about 22 days straight in the Tampa area. There are flooding and evacuations popping up everywhere...especially this week! It has been a brutal summer here. It definitely solidifies the lightning capital of the world after all the storms we have been having.

 

I'm sure the construction for Cobra's Curse has definitely been delayed for some time.

[SharkTums]

This was on one of my friends from Tampa Facebook today. Central Florida is a flooded mess. Glad I'm in Orlando where we're at least a bit above sea level.

Edited August 3, 2015 by SharkTums

[djcoastermark]

^OMG I love that. That really does sum up how it has been here. I have such cabin fever right now. It is true, forget trying to drive anywhere around here.

[rcrider4]

I'm sure the construction for Cobra's Curse has definitely been delayed for some time.

I'm sure it has some, but they have mostly just taken the time they can't work outside to work on the queue house inside, so the time isn't totally lost.

[StealthFan]

I'm sure the construction for Cobra's Curse has definitely been delayed for some time.

 

But if the queue line has a water feature of some sort I'm sure that got finished ahead of schedule

[Philosoraptor]

Me and the girlfriend are planning on travelling to Orlando to visit the park for the first time August 18th. Do any of you locals know how long Cheetuh Hunt is usually down for in these types of cases? It'll be a bit of a disappointment if it's not running our first trip to the park.

[SharkTums]

I wouldn't worry too much. Florida is used to rain. You should worry more in case there's some giant storm during your visit.

[rcrider4]

I would I hope so, but the honest answer is right now no one knows. The park is saying its routine maintenance, but the employees say that it is technical issues that they aren't able to fix and haven't been able to for almost a week now. So I wish you the best, but no one can say for sure if it will be up, as this is not a typical shut down.

[Skiebs]

Cheetah Hunt reopened this morning so you should be good to ride unless it rains of course

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Cheetah Hunt reopened this morning so you should be good to ride unless it rains of course

This afternoon I saw it testing but without people on it. I heard it ran with people on the day the weather went crazy, but I haven't seen anyone on it all week and I'm at the park every day.

[Propeller Factory]

I went to the park for the first time in half a life. It's such a beautiful park. I felt like I was a peep from Rct tho "it's too crowded here" "Kamba was great" "I've been queuing for sheikra for a long time". Also I need to say this: bg needs signage. There is such a complete lacking of signage in the entire park, and with a layout like that, you NEED signage. I couldn't find kumba at first, then I didn't know how to get back to cheetah hunt, it just confused me and I feel especially in pantopia there needs to be like a better main path. Also it started raining at around lunch and so everyone went into the dragon fire grill and let me tell you that was a hot mess there was no indicated lines and all of the separate lines are really weird it's confusing and it just needs to be redone honestly because bg knows that it rains in Florida and people go inside when it rains but they don't know what to do with the people once they're inside it was chaotic and it was a mess. I love their coaster collections though. Kumba was a huge surprise to me. It is an extremely fun coaster with great forces and lil pops of airtime here and there and it's SO SMOOTH that was wonderful. Sheikra broke down while I was in line idk y but it was running about 10 mins later. It was whatever I'm not a big fan of dive coasters and I've been on griffon so this is nothing new. Scorpion was cool. Cheetah hunt was like a chill maverick and I really liked that feel. It's in such a nice location and even though it's really new it fits in perfectly with the landscape. Montu wasn't as good as I thought it would be honestly. I like alpenguist better. I went on Falcons fury which was extremely scary. Liked it. Felt like I was going to die. Gwazi just looked like a heap of wood I was like nah. I wish they moved the employee parking to somewhere else cause it's like "jungle, jungle, two story cement parking garage" and it give it like an icky corporate feeling like it least paint it to fit in or something idk. I was also underwhelmed by the safari too honestly like I know it's an open air train but all there really is is like wildabeest and gazelles with a giraffe thrown in. Congo River Rapids was so boring I didn't get wet at all until the waterfall. It just wasn't fun. They had a dj outside the crown colony/cheetah hunt playing loud rap/pop music and I was like this doesn't seem to exactly fit the theme of Busch gardens like what happened? I was also surprised about how many people from different countries there were. I heard French speakers, Arabic, Japanese, Mexican, England, and Indian. So my entire day was really good.

[Philrad71]

^ Personally I have never had any problem navigating my way around the park...not any different than any other theme park that I have visited over the years. Did you grab a park map at the entrance, fold it up and bring it with you?

[Propeller Factory]

Yeah I mean it was really confusing getting from like the entrance to cheetah hunt tower to pantops a but from there it was easy.

[Vonni]

I personally didn't have any trouble navigating the Park, but when I was there it was pre Shiekra and pre Cheetah Hunt, and Python was still there. I don't know if that made any difference or not.

[doom1001]

It's not a small park and I could see someone who's never been there before getting lost if they're just walking the park expecting to easily find all the rides and attractions.The simple solution is to pick up a park map at the front of the park,you can't really get lost having a map.I've been to the park hundreds of times and I always get the map,fold it and put it in my back pocket.I was there last Saturday,I wanted to do Adventure Island for a couple of hours and then go to Busch until late since the park was open until midnight.You may have heard about the weather in Tampa last week and how horrible it was,as I arrived I could tell the water park was out but we tried heading into Busch where I became a primate expert as we were trapped in the Myombe Reserve from the non stop downpour.We saw the pets show,the new show inside the Dragonfire grill and the behavior of the gorillas for about 90 minutes.We left the park and headed to a somewhat drier Orlando I couldn't even see the Cobras Curse construction.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Cheetah Hunt was running with guests today for those of you who are interested.

 

I got confused about the layout of the park at first, but that was also because I was going in through employee areas and didn't start out at the front of the park. It's basically a big loop once you get the hang of it. I always have people asking me how to get to various rides, though.

 

Also, there's a lot more to the safari than what you saw, but the animals walk around and you can't always guarantee you'll see everything, especially from the train. We went on a safari today and the white rhinos were really far away, but sometimes they're right next to the road.

[djcoastermark]

the white rhinos from the train can really be neat if the timing is right. We were there a while back near sunset ,and the train had to stop because of all the animal activity. The best was seeing the rhinos charging through the serengeti . Truly an amazing event. Yes, the park can be confusing with all its little paths winding about, but that makes it interesting. Lot s of hidden spots with something neat to see. at every turn . If you think it's confusing during the day, just wait until halloween in the dark with all the fog and darkness. It is very disorienting then to say the least.

[BlahBlahson]

I can see someone getting lost there, Busch Gardens has a horrible park layout. Rides that are physical neighbors are literally a ten minute walk from each other. It's one huge loop with Montu and Kumba off on dead ends. Not to mention the parking that is across the street being awkward. Doesn't mean it's not my favorite park in Florida, but the layout is very poor compared to most parks.

[DILinator]

I love the Busch Gardens parks, and have almost nothing bad to say about either of them! However, I will confess, BGT is one of the few parks that's given me trouble getting around - even with a park map...