Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

[jjune4991]

So, double post I know, but I wanted my 1000th post (give or take the deleted ones) to be on this thread. So here are a few pics from my visit to BG today. Lots going up for Howl-o-Scream (which I'll be going to next Friday night!) and animals. Cause they are too cute!

Hello Howl-o-Scream

Please marry me.

Just like TPR!!!

Yep, got it.

Still see you...

They're so big now!

Pretty cat.

The Firefox...I mean Fennec Fox is too cute!

Hehe.

Infected...with love.

So this was the situation. The Phoenix broke down mid-ride. It was about 5 feet off. They had to get maintenance to manually move it to position, then get our OTSRs off individually. And mine was locked to where it would not move when I breathed. Not my favorite first breakdown. Oh well. Maybe next time. ;D

[XYZ]

^Was that dog in the same exhibit as the cheetah. I could see animal control coming in.

[Jay20016]

^Was that dog in the same exhibit as the cheetah. I could see animal control coming in.

 

All of the lead up to the new cheetah ride & enclosure had the baby cheetah and puppy... I can't think of their names now, but they've grown up together and they are in the enclosure by themselves at special times...

[jjune4991]

^Was that dog in the same exhibit as the cheetah. I could see animal control coming in.

 

Their names are Kasi (cheetah) and Mtani (dog). Like he said, only those two are in the area at one time, twice a day. They have been best friends since they were pups.

[dragonskeep]

I was out there yesterday and had a real good time. The main plan was to get some more rides on Cheetah Hunt. With 20 minute waits I was able to get 7 rides in. Kumba was again one of the stars of the day. I went over to give it a spin and ended up not being able to leave. Stayed for an hour and rode 6 times. Kumba has it's lovers but I'm always surprised it doesn't get more love. Yesterday it was running great again, hitting the brakes hard enough that it could have probably made it through the whole course again. Sheikra needs paint but is just sooooo cool, I love BGT's coasters. Montu is from God and the baby Jesus.

 

Folks!!!! See the lure run at Cheetah Run. Tyree, who is my special little kitty, was quite frisky yesterday and decided to make the run twice. The keeper said that is pretty rare but even the one run is worth seeing. I think it's better to stand left of the middle, there is an umbrella there so be early and be shaded. They usually run at 11:30 and they may only do it once a day.

 

Screamscape has a rumor stating a Mach Tower could replace Sandstorm.

[BGTFan]

Inside Howl-O-Scream 2011 Houses Footage From Busch Gardens! Looks pretty sweet:

 

[Maximo37]

Went to BGTs-HoS Freaky Preview last night... and while it was really good, I felt something was missing... can't put my finger on it... it could be the lack of scare zones, but I'm not sure about that (more on that below)... I enjoyed the 3 new houses. I personally liked the Vegas one (Ultimate Gamble) the best, but some of my friends disagreed (there was also Nevermore and Zombie Mortuary)... They felt it was short (it wasn't) and boring. My favorite house of the night was a 3rd year returning one, Nightshade Toy Factory... great house!... and for the first time, we actually saw the shows... Fiends was dumb fun, with stress on FUN... and Midnight Hour, while terrible, it was bad in a "good" way... so bad it was good... Crowds for the preview were pretty tolerable... we seemed to hit the houses just right... we never waited more than 20 minutes for any of the 5 (out of 6; 7 if you include Alone which we did last year... and it ROCKED!) houses we saw (some of my friends that we got separated from were seeing 1hr long waits for the same houses)... We arrived at the event shortly after opening (about 8:10p), went to the left and banged out the new houses right away... There are no proper scare zones... instead there were random roaming hoards of zombies... which while fun/funny and entertaining, not terribly scary... but it worked out well... and there were A LOT of roaming hoards... with A LOT of zombies in each pack... Universal Orlando HHN tried the "roaming scare zones" a few years back and it wasn't very good to me... much too much chainsaws for the roaming hoards at HHN... I thought HoS did it better than they did this year... as a bonus, we also were able to ride Sand Serpent... then Cheetah Hunt prior to leaving (which had a 40 min posted time, but was really only about 20 min!)... We left the park about 12:30a, in attempt to avoid the leaving rush in the parking lot (which can sometimes proove brutal)... and while it was a VERY good event, just not a stand out year for me... Maybe its just too early in the season for me... Freaky Preview is usually NEXT weekend... not two weeks before October... happy haunting everyone...

[BGTFan]

Here is a full review of the event with pictures and video:

 

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Edited October 25, 2011 by jedimaster1227

[jjune4991]

Now my turn for a photo TR. I was at HoS last night, and I loved it. I was not upset about the lack of scarezone because there were so many zombie hordes that it didn't seem like there was a safe place. The total types I saw were wedding, construction, hospital, werewolves, gang, and BG park employees (who were the only ones to scare me because I didn't realize they were zombies at first!) The only area that was "missing" something was next to Sesame Street Safari of Fun because it was just a walkway of nothing. Luckily, there were two hordes there when we walked passed, a chainsaw gang and werewolves. I got two rides on Cheetah Hunt, one on Kumba, one turn on each house and saw Fiends. They also still have the jello shot girls. So a great night.

 

So, on to the ratings!

 

Houses!

 

Deconstruction: 8/10

Returning house with the same storyline. Good scary parts with the some of the mutated. At one point, a guy pointed to me and said, "Yours are defective, I have some new ones for you" and pointed to some eyeballs nailed to a door. Nice little joke. I like that.

 

Death Row: 9/10

There is just something about being in a prison with dangerous criminals and add zombies. Yea, good stuff. Didn't seem like there were too many scares, but the electric chair room always gets me.

 

Zombie Mortuary: 10/10

My favorite of the night. Great theme and many scares. The underground section was a nice walkway that I enjoyed.

 

Nevermore: 9/10

Great theme for a house. Great suspense throughout. The only thing that didn't give this a 10 was that the beating heart wasn't beating! Just put a little motor in there to make it move would've been great. But besides that it was great!

 

Casino: 7/10

I don't know what it was, but I didn't like this one as much. Yes, it was scary, but I didn't feel like there were vampires were there. Yes, the bartender with the big boobs was, but I thought I would notice the other vampires more. I liked this house when it was in the subway. But still a good scare.

 

Nightshade: 10/10

Scary. Demented toys. Spinning hallway. Needed the chainsaws from last year (makes it more fun!) but still amazing.

 

Show!

 

Fiends: 10/10

Singing. Big breasted nurses. Dancing. Big boob nurses. Raunchy jokes. BIG. BOOBS. yea. Perfect for the whole family! Who are drunk!

Howl-o-Scream

Zombie!

House 1

House 2

House 3

Jello shots!

House 4

Igor joke before Fiends.

Dancing and NURSES!!!!

House 5

House 6

[aimster]

I was at the park last night for Howl-O-Scream as well (so bummed I didn't know you were there too Joe... we probably walked right by each other and never noticed). My friend and I were too chicken to do any of the houses, but the "whole park is a scare zone" was pretty cool. The crazy thing was I wasn't as scared as I thought I'd be. A few of the scare-actors got me (they were in places you normally wouldn't expect, like on the ground hiding behind the big planters), but others my friend and I had a blast messing with. We ran into a hoard of clowns and we started singing "Send In The Clowns" which was hilarious (and clowns normally freak us out).

 

Saw the new "The Midnight Hour" show, which was kind of lame, but had a few really funny bits. Caught the end of "Fiends", which looked like a lot of fun. Will check out the whole show for sure in a few weeks at Busch Gardens Bash!

 

My friend and I hit every coaster in the park, including 2 rides on Kumba. We were going to do a 2nd time on Cheetah Hunt, but the humidity was really bad last night as there was NO wind blowing. It was really awful and I ended up getting sick as a result, so we ended up leaving a little before midnight.

 

Pictures!

Zombie

Zombie bride

The "Lady of the Gardens" zombie from the ads

There were a LOT of fog machines.

Glowing boogers!

Frankenstein's Monster getting his groove thang on in the "Fiends" show.

This was my favorite monster of the night. He was just so cool looking!

Right after this guy took the photo, the monster next to him ripped his head off and drank his blood.

[Inukaza]

My Review.

 

Just want to give my 2c on the Roaming Hordes, first. I'm a bit disinterested and unimpressed with the whole, "You won't have a minutes rest with the entire park zombiefied." thing that was suppose to happen. Sure, there were groups of people roaming, however, they were rare. It could have been my timing of walking around, but I only encountered two hordes my entire time. It was great, however, for instance, walking from Sheikra to Gwazi was a dark, boring, walk with nothing but traffic noises to scare you from the adjacent road. Personally, I'd like for Busch to return to the permanent scare zones with a fewer roaming hordes.

 

 

However, as a whole event, it was money worth spent. I can't wait for next year! All the houses were amazing, and the two hordes I did encounter were awesome as well.

[aimster]

^ Your timing must have been off, because my friend and I ran into the hoards just about everywhere. The only place we didn't see any was the dark pathway along Sesame Street and it was funny because I told my friend that's where the werewolves have been in the past, so we were totally on guard.

[jjune4991]

Yea, and I saw two in that area in a 20 minute time span!

[Inukaza]

^ Your timing must have been off, because my friend and I ran into the hoards just about everywhere. The only place we didn't see any was the dark pathway along Sesame Street and it was funny because I told my friend that's where the werewolves have been in the past, so we were totally on guard.

 

 

I guess I'll have to go back to experience it again. I thought it might have been my timing, it's just unfortunate. Oh well, I'll be able to do nevermore this time. ( I had to skip it last time I went.).

 

Yay, another excuse to go back!

[BGTFan]

Check out video of Fiends and The Midnight Hour from this year:

 

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Edited October 25, 2011 by jedimaster1227

[chargersmichael]

Does anybody have a review of Alone with the new ending????

[ajs2294]

I went to Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream last night for the third consecutive year and my 7th overall time and for the first time I honestly can say I left doing everything but still feeling unsatisfied. In years past I made the mistake of going on Fridays or Saturdays without front of the line passes which for me makes for a miserable night waiting in outrageous lines and only managing to do one or two houses. This year I spent the few extra dollars and came prepared with "Front of the Line Fear." As far as these passes go if you want to hit every house and get the full HoS experience buy them, they will save time and frustration. But as an overall event this years collection of houses just left me wishing they would of done more, it seems in recent years Busch has become content in recycling more houses than making new ones. Recycling houses on Busch's budget isn't a big deal, but at least make alterations to keep a fresh feel. Death Row Vengeance and Deconstruction are back for the 4th year in a row and seriously need to be removed, yes they make for a decent first time through fear factor but after that they become pretty short and boring. Nightshade is back for a third year but I will give this house the credit it deserves in the creepy factor but I hope its seen its last showing in the HoS line up. This years 3 new houses also left me feeling kind of empty towards the 2011 HoS lineup. Nevermore replaced the "DED" house of previous year but retained many of the scares which was a let down. Vampire Casino just felt empty and lacked any real scares similar to the MyX house of last year that it replaced. And lastly Zombie Mortuary as far as new houses go this had to be best, even though once again many scares from trapped in the walls of years past were reused. I feel I may have enjoyed Zombie Mortuary more if I don't have such high expectations of Mortuary scares thanks to the old house back in the 2002-05 seasons. Overall this years Howl-O-Scream is not a memorable one and if you are a frequent HoS attendee or plan on going to another Halloween attraction I'd urge you to skip it. Busch really needs to revamp its house line up for next year!

[DBru]

Is the Phoenix (Intamin Looping Starship) still in operation?

[aimster]

^ Phoenix is indeed still there and running. I was at the park yesterday and watched it for awhile. I went on it once years ago. I need to ride it again sometime.

[jedimaster1227]

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has sent us a press release regarding their Halloween offerings for families.

 

Families can celebrate Halloween at a special holiday party on Oct. 22 at Sesame Street Safari of Fun at Busch Gardens. Your child can do the Monster Mash, meet the Count, parade in costume and enjoy a spooky lunch.

 

The lunch is from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. and includes delicious food served buffet-style, with items sure to please both parents and kids alike. A full menu is available at SesameStreetSafariOfFun.com, under the Dine With Elmo link.

 

This special Halloween Monster Mash Dine is $22 for adults and $15 for children, and one 6x8 photo with The Count is included per family. Pass members receive a 10 percent discount. Admission to the park is required, but not included.

 

Note: Children are permitted to wear costumes during the dine, but costumes may need to be removed in order to safely go on rides.

 

To make your family’s reservation, visit SesameStreetSafariofFun.com and click on Dine with Elmo to book the Oct. 22 dine, or call 1-888-800-5447.

 

Sesame Street Safari of Fun is the Sesame Street-themed sunny, funny play land at Busch Gardens filled with kid-size rides, cool water fun, memorable adventures and shows that celebrate the spirit of Africa. Take a dive on Air Grover, the new junior coaster for parents and kids to ride together. Splash in Bert & Ernie’s Watering Hole, a wet adventure filled with bubblers, geysers, jets, dumping buckets and more. A photography studio offers photos with characters daily, and a musical stage show brings safari tales to life.

 

Busch Gardens has fun for the whole family to enjoy all day. With thrilling rides, award-winning shows and exotic up-close animal encounters, and the all-new triple-launch coaster, Cheetah Hunt. Busch Gardens provides unrivaled excitement for guests of every age.

 

They have also sent us a press release regarding a special new offer for Florida residents!

 

An all-new offer at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay lets Florida Residents experience the off-road adventure of a Serengeti Safari free with the purchase of a single-day admission!

 

The 30-minute Serengeti Safari is an open truck tour that offers guests a unique look at Busch Gardens’ 65-acre Serengeti Plain habitat, featuring hundreds of exotic, free-roaming African animals. During the safari, guests will encounter antelope, rhinos and ostrich up close and hand-feed reticulated giraffes with the help of an expert guide. Be prepared for amazing photo opportunities!

 

Guests who take advantage of the online offer will have the opportunity to book a complimentary Serengeti Safari with each full-price, single-day admission they purchase at $79.99 for adults or $71.99 for kids ages 5 to 9.

 

Children must be 5 or older to participate in the Serengeti Safari. Capacity is limited, and reservations must be made in advance at time of purchase.

 

This offer will be sold exclusively online, and eTickets let guests print their tickets at home and go straight to the turnstiles. Tickets will be available for purchase through – and must be redeemed by – Dec. 15, 2011.

 

For those who already have an annual passport or park tickets, the popular Serengeti Safari is available "a la carte" at $30.55 per person, plus tax – a 10% discount from the regular general admission price os $33.95.

 

eTickets are available at http://www.buschgardens.com/

[BGTFan]

You can now see a White-Necked Raven in Jambo Junction at Busch Gardens Tampa! Pictures and more info. here:

 

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Edited October 25, 2011 by jedimaster1227

[krazekiddd]

I've never done the Serengeti and I have always wanted to so I'll really want to take advantage of this soon.

[gisco]

I understand why they give locals discounts but seriously, don't you want to do something for the families that fly across country to get to Florida or do you just want them to stay with the mouse? Never have been a fan of discounts for a segment of the population.

[ernierocker]

I understand why they give locals discounts but seriously, don't you want to do something for the families that fly across country to get to Florida or do you just want them to stay with the mouse? Never have been a fan of discounts for a segment of the population.

 

They are a big enough attraction to draw enough of the Disney crowd out of Central Florida for a day or two. However, they do not have the resort aspect like Disney and Universal does to attract the multi-day stays. Therefore, they have to rely on locals and annual pass holders to help fill in that gap.

[coasterfreak101]

Do you have to show ID to use Florida resident perks like that? I assume so. I'll be staying with a Florida resident for two weeks in January, so is she allowed to buy things like this for us as presents?