Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

[Jew]

22 hours ago, SharkTums said:

^And they lost me at Virtual Reality Snorkeling!

I don’t understand the point of it. Isn’t the whole point of snorkeling to see what’s under the water? Like how does VR improve it?

[bert425]

maybe they have you just in a shallow pool and the "virtual" adds all the exotic fish?

[Nrthwnd]

7 hours ago, DoinItForTheFame said:

We had a chance to experience VR Snorkeling this year, and found it really enjoyable! Glad to see more parks adding this.  

So, could you describe what depth of water you were in, etc? I am curious, like others are, probably. And how big the pool?

[DoinItForTheFame]

5 hours ago, Nrthwnd said:

So, could you describe what depth of water you were in, etc? I am curious, like others are, probably. And how big the pool?

Sadly only in 3ft of water. And we were tethered. Had about 10ft of free line from the anchor point. 
 

the pool was big enough that 4 people could do this at the same time, and never run into each other. 
 

it was actually a great experience. 5 of us did it, and all loved it, and wish we had the time to do it again. You get so involved with the VR aspect… that you forget you’re even in a pool, and tethered down. Not once did I ever hit the “end of my line” I was always free swimming, never felt restricted.  

 

hope this helps some.

[PKI Jizzman]

"Virtual Reality Snorkeling"

Under water, tethered, headset? Sounds like a new nightmare that only the twisted minds a Busch could come up with. They just know how to specifically torture us, don't they

[teacherkim]

And speaking of torture. There is video from a vlogger of people (he thought probably employees) riding IG from last week, just to remind us it will be awesome, it's ready to go, but no coaster for you until March 

Maybe they were filming riders for promotional purposes but it's just gonna start new rumors. People commenting on the vlog were convinced this means a soft opening is coming for Christmas season, which is not going to happen no matter how much I wish it would 

[tndank]

Did my first Howl O Scream yesterday. Had a good time. Weather kept people away. Park was dead til 7 or 8. 

Houses were good. Bayou and Cell Block were our favorites. Did those a few times. By 11:30 all the house lines but Witch in the Woods were 5 min or less. Cell Block at 11:45 had no line and we got to walk through basically by ourselves. 

While Falcon was down during the day, it miraculously was running all night.

Had a great day.  Rained for 10 min once and some very slight drizzle now and again. Otherwise, mid 70s and very comfy. 

Forgot to mention...the show 'Fiends' was great. Wife and I really liked it. Not for kids. 

 

[coasterbill]

We went to Howl O Scream yesterday for the first time in a few years. I’ve got to say, we had a great time but it’s a shell of what it was even a few years ago. I feel like hopefully it’s a staffing thing but knowing that chain it’s probably a budget thing. There are less houses, the houses that they have are Six Flags quality and there are way less scare actors out on the midways also.

They also just got rid of a lot of things they used to have like entertainment in the Sheikra plaza and they no longer bring out Halloween themed midway games / food carts everywhere. The big takeaway though is that the houses just aren’t very good (minus maybe one).

We did a house at Six Flags New England last weekend and it was better than a few of these. That should never happen.

That said, it was a great time anyway because no matter how much they scale back the event they still have Montu and Kumba. We got a back row Montu rain ride right at 1am after it had been running for 15 hours straight and holy-absolute-shit that ride is incredible.

Death Water Bayou is still the best house. It’s like a relic of the past and it makes all of their new houses look like an absolute joke.

[jarmor]

Wait, i'm watching a video on youtube and the guys says BGT currently has an S&S screamin swing sitting in the back parking lot.  This is news to me. . .

[YoshiFan]

It's really needed. Until BGT became my home park (last visit was 2012 before this year), I didn't realize how few flats and non coaster rides are in the park. On my trip a week and a half ago, the log flume was closed for annual maintenance and Falcon's Fury was closed all day. That left the carousel, train, bumper cars and rapids as the only non coaster rides running in the entire park.

[jarmor]

Come to think of it, there are absolutely no flats in the front of the park.until you get to pantopia.

[thrillseeker4552]

I would love to have a Screamin' Swing. That would be a perfect addition to the park. Or honestly literally any major flat ride such as a star flyer, Zamperla Discovery, etc. They really are lacking in that department.

[swfan1988]

Wait, they haven't finished fixing Phoenix yet...?

[coasterbill]

Sky Ride's seemingly endless budget-cut is ending...

 

... in like 7-9 months before they probably close it for budget again in like October (I mean "refurb")

[SharkTums]

^Hey, someone made a sign so just take what you can get!!!

[swfan1988]

"Anticipated opening summer of 2022" seems more accurate at this rate...

[YoshiFan]

I'm looking forward to it reopening (and hoping they allow single riders). It takes so much time to walk from Cheetah Hunt/Montu to Sheikra.

 

[teacherkim]

So we're gonna be there on the 22nd, I know the hordes will have descended by that time so planning on QQ. Am I safe to wait until we get there that day or is there a sell out risk. The ONLY reason I am even hesitating to buy ahead of time is if just in case we end up switching to the 23rd due to unforeseen long ass family vacation plans getting moved around.

[YoshiFan]

I was there earlier this year when it did sell out (a Sunday during the summer) and seen reports on other busy days like Spring Break when it sells out as well.

[teacherkim]

Yeah I decided it was stupid to chance it with Christmas crowds. Bought them on line today so we are locked in for the 22nd, it should be fine. (She says as she knocks on wood)

[Nrthwnd]

^ Have a great time, when you're there! (Also knocking wood, for ya)

[xVicesAndVirtues]

^^We went yesterday and if you want to ride Cheetah Hunt, then yes, you'll want Quick Queue. But how long you'll be waiting for it with QQ is a mystery.

Operations at this park continue to be the worst in the industry, sadly. Cheetah Hunt just came back up from it's rehab and re-painting that the park put all over social media...to run one station and consistently stack two trains. Wait time was posted 155 minutes, we waited about 65 minutes the first time with QQ, about 20 minutes the second time with QQ due to operations and the inconsistent way they managed the QQ line. Despite having a station grouper, they randomly fill the station either completely or halfway so even with QQ you have to deal with that clusterf*ck. Sometimes they pulled about 20 from the QQ line, sometimes it was like 4 people.

I'd definitely say it could be worse, as being platinum passholders we only paid $130 total for two of us for QQ for the day, which the website told us was 60% off. But if that's true and the non-passholder QQ price is really that much, you're better off just taking your money and buying a one-day ticket to Disney or something. There'd be more value in QQ if the lines were managed properly when the park is busy. Kumba had the best operations (and doesn't have a grouper) and you might save 10-20 minutes if the line is completely full, Montu has a grouper but they just let people run past them from the regular line while lazily checking your QQ and you basically wait the same as everybody else 90% of the time. SheiKra is a little bit better post-grouper but also people were just skipping under to the QQ side and nobody was even checking/scanning QQ there.

Sometimes your station wait is like 10 minutes, sometimes more like 30 depending on how dispatches are going and it changes throughout the day.

Also I have literally no idea how it is possible for 3 B&Ms to simultaneously go down, but we were waiting in line at SheiKra and they went down, and after about 15 minutes we went to Kumba. We were next in line and Kumba went down, but the only techs working that day were busy at SheiKra still so they didn't know how long it'd take them to finish there and come over and fix Kumba. So we were planning on just leaving anyway and decided to hit Montu on the way out. And we were in the station and it went down, too.

I don't know, man. I used to love this park and I still really want to like it, but to quote my boyfriend as we were walking out of there yesterday, "I feel like there's always something, every time we come out here".

[thrillseeker4552]

There must be a big disconnect in park operations from weekdays to weekends. I've been going very often, every few weekends, for the last 6 months and have never had a bad experience. Cobra's Curse was down for a bit over the summer and obviously Cheetah Hunt the last couple months for paint/maintenance but otherwise everything has always been open and running consistently and pretty efficiently with multiple trains. I will admit Cheetah Hunt is a hot mess sometimes. I've seen it on 4 trains, 2 stations and working like a well-oiled machine, and also like you described with one station and heavy stacking. But I've had no issues on any of the other rides.

Not trying to blindly defend the park nor discount your experience at all, but I always hear horror stories of the operations from people (who almost exclusively visit on weekdays) - and my weekend visits, which is all I do because of my work schedule, have been awesome and very minimally negative aside from just general crowdedness. And that's from an out-of-towner who never visited the park until 6 months ago. Interesting I guess.

[pianojohn]

My two cents:

The week before and after Christmas are insanely crowded. Orlando had a day of rainy weather so now there are people who planned to go to the park one day and had to push it to the next. 
I've been to BGT dozens of times over the last 20 years. Yes, there have been crappy days, but it is FAR from the worst run park in the world.
Again, insane crowds this week are to be expected. That's why I avoid the parks this time of year.

[PKI Jizzman]

On 12/22/2021 at 12:38 AM, xVicesAndVirtues said:

^^We went yesterday and if you want to ride Cheetah Hunt, then yes, you'll want Quick Queue. But how long you'll be waiting for it with QQ is a mystery.

Operations at this park continue to be the worst in the industry, sadly. Cheetah Hunt just came back up from it's rehab and re-painting that the park put all over social media...to run one station and consistently stack two trains. Wait time was posted 155 minutes, we waited about 65 minutes the first time with QQ, about 20 minutes the second time with QQ due to operations and the inconsistent way they managed the QQ line. Despite having a station grouper, they randomly fill the station either completely or halfway so even with QQ you have to deal with that clusterf*ck. Sometimes they pulled about 20 from the QQ line, sometimes it was like 4 people.

I'd definitely say it could be worse, as being platinum passholders we only paid $130 total for two of us for QQ for the day, which the website told us was 60% off. But if that's true and the non-passholder QQ price is really that much, you're better off just taking your money and buying a one-day ticket to Disney or something. There'd be more value in QQ if the lines were managed properly when the park is busy. Kumba had the best operations (and doesn't have a grouper) and you might save 10-20 minutes if the line is completely full, Montu has a grouper but they just let people run past them from the regular line while lazily checking your QQ and you basically wait the same as everybody else 90% of the time. SheiKra is a little bit better post-grouper but also people were just skipping under to the QQ side and nobody was even checking/scanning QQ there.

Sometimes your station wait is like 10 minutes, sometimes more like 30 depending on how dispatches are going and it changes throughout the day.

Also I have literally no idea how it is possible for 3 B&Ms to simultaneously go down, but we were waiting in line at SheiKra and they went down, and after about 15 minutes we went to Kumba. We were next in line and Kumba went down, but the only techs working that day were busy at SheiKra still so they didn't know how long it'd take them to finish there and come over and fix Kumba. So we were planning on just leaving anyway and decided to hit Montu on the way out. And we were in the station and it went down, too.

I don't know, man. I used to love this park and I still really want to like it, but to quote my boyfriend as we were walking out of there yesterday, "I feel like there's always something, every time we come out here".

That was my experience over 2 weekend days in June, too. It's such a bummer to have a park so beautiful and filled with elite attractions ... but also comes with the worst operations/management in the industry. Cheetah Hunt was down 75% of day 1, Montu was down 75% of day 2, Sheikra went down off and on as well.

Really hoping the park rebounds in 2022 with Gwazi opening.