Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (BGT Discussion Thread)

[thepoint4life23]

This is sad really i thought they had good things going for them but over the last year or 2 have had issues from what i told. I think alot of it is staffing and just a lack of trying or caring.

[PKI Jizzman]

Yeah as much as I trust the locals here commenting I don’t believe Kumba ever reopened. We got more source there?

All other accounts it has not reopened. Reddit says Sheikra is testing. 

To be fair I got so lucky on my Feb Friday visit - Montu 2 trains. Cheetah Hunt running all day. Falcons Fury had just come back alive. Gwazi painful ops but it was running. 

Cobras Curse was running too even with the pre show!

Phoenix Rising was a pleasant surprise. The double down drop in the back was fun. Does it have a shimmy? Yeah. Is it rough or uncomfortable? No. One trains on it suck. 

Flyer was running too. The pretzels from tiger tail were great.

For what was open and available , it was a good day! When this park is fully functional it’s one of the best in the world. Still such a shame to see how it’s being run but it’s hard not to have fun on a weekday when crowds aren’t bad. 

[YoshiFan]

On 3/12/2025 at 9:13 PM, prozach626 said:

Wtf is happening to this place?

I think they are trying to save money with cutbacks anywhere possible. They removed trams on weekdays a few months ago until they got so many complaints they brought them back. Most rides did not have anyone at the entrance since around September except during more crowded times. Scorpion closed 6 months ago and the train is still on the tracks. Park hours have been cut back with little to no notice.

It's not much better at Adventure Island. Today 4 out of 9 slide towers were closed and some of the open slide towers had half the slides closed. They are selling Quick Queue but some of the Quick Queue lines are closed. They advertised they would be open year round and how the water is heated. I don't blame them for giving up on the idea of being open year round as the times I have been there in October and November, it was empty. Today the water was very cold and I'm guessing they are not heating the water to save money. They also ran out of the pass holder towel clips and it's the 3rd day of the season that they are open.

On a more positive note, from the water park I could see Sheikra was testing. Serengeti Flyer was also using both swings, I haven't seen that in months.

^ I agree it can still be fun on a low crowd day. It is nice to be able to stop in for a 2 hours and get a bunch of coaster rides when everything is running.

 

 

[YoshiFan]

Small update from today.
Everything was open except Kumba, Iron Gwazi and the rapids. The rapids reopened a few days ago but had a breakdown yesterday or Sunday and was closed all day today. Iron Gwazi has a sign at the entrance that the ride is closed for annual maintenance. Whether that is really true or it was just closed for the day is unkown as they sometimes leave those signs out for a temporary closure and there is no way to find out with the closed rides page removed.

Sheikra was running 2 trains, rare for a day besides Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They also are being more strict about re-rides. You can re-ride once and then have to walk around even with rows going out completely empty. I noticed the same at SeaWorld earlier this year.

I found out that the log flume and bumper cars close early when the park is open past 6. I knew they opened late but didn't know they closed early too.

Platinum Passholders were supposed to get $20 in Busch Bucks this month. It was lowered to $10 after showing $20 as an April reward for months. That's not the first time they changed or removed a reward at the last minute, last summer there was a free guest ticket for Adventure Island in July that they also removed as a listed reward at the end of June.

 

 

[tndank]

 

[YoshiFan]

If you have a trip planned this month, check the park hours before going. They cut hours for the 2nd time in the last 10 days or so. Every day in June was originally posted as the park closing at 10 pm.  Then Monday - Thursday were changed to 8 pm closings. Today hours for Tuesday - Thursday for this week were cut back to 7 pm closings. 

I also think there is a good chance the hours for July will change soon as well with weekdays having a 9 pm closing instead of the 10 pm currently listed as for the past 2 or 3 years, they cut hours without much notice and last year they closed at 9 on weekdays in July.

Wild Oasis also had it's opening day moved to June 11th with pass previews from the 6th to the 10th. Originally pass previews were supposed to start on May 30th. 

https://buschgardens.com/tampa/kid-friendly/wild-oasis/

On a more positive note, they are really generous with the rewards this month. There is a free stuffed animal worth $24.99 in the pass holder lounge until Thursday, a free cell phone fan, then Busch Bucks and 2 extra guest tickets later in the month. Over in Adventure Island, there is $10 Island Bucks/$20 Platinum Island Bucks. 

[prozach626]

So are the Sea World parks really in a tailspin? 

[YoshiFan]

It feels like it. other parks are having problems too. The new Expedition Odyssey at SeaWorld supposedly already had the air conditioning break a few weeks after opening. Wild Oasis had another delay with no new opening date announced. Iron Gwazi is running 1 train for now with the other 2 trains having maintenance done.

Hours were cut again this week for both Busch Gardens and Adventure Island.

Over in Adventure Island they didn't have enough tubes for the lazy river so they took the single tubes from Aruba Tuba and Calypso Coaster and moved them to the river (lazy river tubes are green, slide tubes are blue). That left about 10 double tubes in use for both slides.

It's frustrating to see knowing how their parks used to be run. Now the parks feel like they are run like a bad Six Flags park but not at Six Flags prices.