Photo TR: BG Tampa

[Rastuso]

TR: Busch Gardens Tampa

 

We got BGT tickets as a special deal for a third park with our Discovery Cove packages, so me and the boy were planning on going on Sunday. My headache stopped those plans, so we hit Downtown Disney and the main Disney outlet store. Scored a nice SW weekend throw for about $10, God knows how much it was to begin with. The shirts are never great there, unless you wear a small.

 

My son looked at every lanyard on every CM at DTD, I think. We didn’t buy much, that’s the upside of visiting only 9 months after the last trip.

 

We decided to go for a big meal, and I had heard good things about the T-Rex café. So, as soon as we go to DTD, I went there and asked them about the wait. They said there was none, but they couldn’t take a ressie for later. So we did our shopping. We found one small outlet area there selling a lot of the same stuff they had at the outlet, including the Haunted Mansion figures that apparently really flopped. We bought a grab bag that contained a That's So Raven button that said “Oh snap” when pushed. My son threw it away quickly, but we did regret that, as that became our saying of the week.

 

Once we were ready to eat, we head back to find a big line, make that three lines. T-Rex does a bit of a bait and switch. They say the line is only 20 minutes. But, you have to wait in the first list 5-10 minutes to get a reservation number. Then you wait the quoted minutes to be seated. But, really when your time is up you simply get into another line. At the front of that, you go to the final line at the receptionist. Our number never did come up, and I kept checking. The guy eventually just approved us and sent us to the front of the lines. But be warned, they definitely underestimate the time it will take for you to be seated.

 

The restaurant looks cool on the outside, with a big dino skeleton, but no animation. It is shaped like a big rock and the entrance is a wide entryway with no doors. The air curtain worked well, though, so even though it was damned hot outside, the inside was fine. There were 4 or 5 sections, including a cool ice room. We were in the jungle room I believe. The place was full of animatronics, and every 15 minutes, a meteor shower hit, and the whole restaurant got dark, the animals freaked out, and there were loud rumbling sounds. Very good effects. The ice even switched from blue to red.

 

The food was very good, equal to a normal Landry’s restaurant, but quite expensive. We joined their Jungle club that gave us a free appetizer, which we got the nachos. It supposedly gives us coupons and such for Saltgras, which is our favorite place back home. The entrees were quite good. My shrimp was great. We splurged and go the chocolate extinction dessert. It comes out with a dry ice volcano coming from a container, and has 4 big scoops of ice cream and 4 big pieces of chocolate cake. We ate the ice cream there and had cake for the rest of the vacation in the fridge.

 

We ended up going to Busch the next day. First, we had to change hotels from the Hampton to the Royal Pacific Resort. Upgrade!!! The RPR was much cheaper than the HRH on this trip, at about $160 a night (although after parking and insane taxes, it was $200). A bit more than we usually do, but we knew we’d get FOTL for our two Universal days, and early HP access, although we didn’t plan on using that.

 

The hotel is very nice, with a tropical theme similar to the Polynesian. Our room was already available at 1 pm (yay!), and we scored a room very easily accessible from the lobby, so no need to get hit with their damn double bag handling like we did at HRH. I even asked the guy if they would take the bags straight to my room and he admitted they would just take it to bell services. Quite the scam. Bell services should be at the cars, not 100 feet away, waiting for someone else to load the carts first.

 

The room was a bit smaller than HRH, but did have e Keurig coffee maker, so I scored LOTS of k-cups over 5 days. Very comfy bed, but the pillows sucked.

 

My son and I headed out to Tampa.

 

We got there around 3, and damn was it hot. We had brought out refillable cup from Seaworld, and some water, but it was going to be a scorcher. We park pretty close to the tram spot, and I see large empty parking lots, so I’m pretty sure the crowds are going to be decent.

 

I choose not to buy the quick queue, and we head in. I haven’t been here since Montu opened, and my son is a first timer. I decide we should use the Gwazi line to assess if we need to rethink the QQ. Only Tiger was open, probably due to lack of crowds. I prepared for the worst for the operations, and was not let down. One train, but only a few minutes in the station. We pick the front row to wait, since its line was pretty short, and get to jump ahead of people wanting to ride together, and are suddenly on the next train. We get on, only to be told to get off because some restraint was wonky. Luckily, maintenance arrives fast, and the delay is only about 15 minutes. But, it seemed like essentially nothing was wrong, just EXTREMELY overcautious operations.

 

We get our front seat ride, which was not smooth, but not horrible either. A mediocre coaster, especially without the dueling aspect.

 

Since the wait was pretty minimal, I decide against QQ, and we head on around the park. This park is the epitome (or really anti-epitome) of a Duell loop park. There ain’t no backtracking. The park has changed dramatically since my last visit . Many animal attractions seem to be gone, with really just the right side of the park, the large open space, has any unusual animals. I’m upset that I missed out on the Rhino Rally with cool ending, but it seems BGT is giving up on animals for the most part, especially with the new coaster going in next year. They do have lots of upcharge animal encounters, though.

 

Next in the loop, after LOTS of walking, is the Sesame Street area, and Grover’s coaster, a very uneventful kiddie coaster. After LOTS more walking, and over a large bridge, we finally get to Shiekra. It is well themed, and has a scary long queue that is thankfully mostly empty. I can’t imagine waiting through that queue in the Summer heat. The wait was only a few cycles for my(and my son’s) first Dive Coaster. It was neat, but really a gimmick coaster. Going vertically down (or close enough like MilF) isn’t all that unique anymore.

 

My son wanted to hit the new kids area, Jungula, which looked good, but was pretty sparse on thrills. And what they did have had horrible throughput. I was too hot to walk up to the glider ride. He did. There’s not much to it. You ride in a swing, similar to Pteranadon Flyers. The cable is lifted up, and you roll forwards. It lowers down, and you roll back. You are about 30 feet up, and the cable is maybe 200 hundred feet long. Unique, but certainly not worth a long wait.

 

My head wasn’t feeling the greatest at this point, from the heat most likely. But we soldiered on. I was looking forward to the upwards section in their log ride, but it was clear the unique section was gone. I remember my family being surprised at the upwards section waaaaay back in the 70s. I guess Kennywood is the only remaining one now.

 

Next up was Kumba. I figured this ride could be rough, seeing as how it’s the original B&M. But, it’s still quite smooth, and posseses the king of the B&M Roars. No wait really.

 

We need a break, so we get some ice cream and sit down in a large restaurant that looks like a Fest Haus in Timbuktu. The place is empty, yet a group of older folks comes down, and one woman sits down right next to my son, I mean touching him, next to him. There are literally hundreds of open “seats”, and she squeezes up next to my son. WTF?!?

 

My son chooses to not ride the Scorpion due to one train ops and a long line. I have the credit, so I was passing anyway. We both choose to skip the wild mouse that was running TWO FREAKING CARS!!!! REALLY!??! TWO cars is all you could put on there? At a park that charges like $70 for a day? WOW! The line wasn’t all that long, but would have been a lot of time due to TWO FREAKING CARS!

 

Alright, we now have the long walk to Montu to finish our loop. Clouds are coming in, so I’m getting a bit nervous. It has cooled off considerably, though, thank God. We get one of the wax figues, an elephant. I’m pretty sure I have the same one somewhere in my mom’s house still. It’s very cool they brought back these vintage-type machines.

 

We get in line and I decide we should do front row, since it only had a few extra trains wait. I start worrying about the weather, and how I’d never live it down if my son missed the ride due to a front line wait he was against. I get real nervous when I start hearing thunder, and it starts sprinkling. Thankfully, the thunder was the floor dropping down. And they let a lot of QQers into the second row, even though it wasn’t a QQ row. Very odd.

 

We finally get on. This ride is still awesome. Smooth, great trenches, the first Immelman. Yeah, it’s a lot slower in the second half, but still a top notch ride.I do think it’ll drop in my list, due to the ending though. I recall just screaming through those corkscrews.

 

We decide to get a drink. One guy is in front of us. He procedes to buy almost $40 worth of drinks and food for his family, at a simple drink stand. I get a 99 cent refill. Something about a fool and his money comes to mind as we walk around the construction walls to the exit. Then, I laugh when I see a sign saying last chance for food/drinks at a stand by the tram station, and the stand is all BOGO. A pretty good idea to get some last minute sales, but also a slap in your customer's faces saying “we screwed you all day by double charging”.

 

A hot day at Busch, but their B&Ms are all very high quality. I have high hopes for their new ride too. Hopefully I’ll be back sooner than 14 years.

 

We get some Steak and Shake on the way back. We decide to go around the hotel some, and take a dip in the pool. We end up in the hot tub, talking about Harry Potter with other guests. We're quite excited to finally ride it tomorrow.

 

-RO

Even the facade is cooler than the Rainforest Cafe.

Cool fossil in the ice.

Cool octopus over the bar.

Huge dessert. You don't get to keep the lava container though.

You go over a bridge to get into the main building.

Vintage wax figure machines.

No awesome slide, like the Hard Rock, just a simple water playground.

Edited September 6, 2010 by Rastuso

[Lenaapple1974]

I always wanted to eat at that cafe... I guess I will not be doing that. I cannot picture my hubby waiting on all those lines just to be seated so much later than told. Looks ultra cool though!

 

The wax figure things...how much are they? Sounds like a cool idea! I love those animals...I might have to get one of each! BGT has some of the best rides for sure. I cannot wait to go next summer!

[SharkTums]

KT just stepped on our BGT Wax Gorilla so we'll need to make some new ones on our next visit.

 

Just the smell of those machines brings me back to my childhood, it's very cool that Busch brought those back.

 

Nice report! I totally avoid T-Rex when they're using that dreaded 'line system' that seems to do nothing but confuse the staff and anger the patrons!

[Rastuso]

^ You are so right about the smell. It was an instant time-machine back to the 70s for me.

 

^^ The figures were $3 each, and a bit fragile, so you do have to deal with that.

 

The T-Rex line was a pain, but if you get your number, then go to the LEGO store, or something, at least that will make that time go by. And of course, we were there on a Summer weekend, so during the off season, I doubt they do that.

 

They have some very cheap ($2) figures of their characters for a nice cheap memento.

[robbalvey]

Those Mold-o-Rama machines certainly have made a comeback! I read somewhere that whoever now owns the rights to them are back in business and the whole retro aspect of the machines has proven to be very successful!

 

I'll have to look them up at IAAPA if they exhibit.

 

--Robb

[Rastuso]

Added some vids inside T-Rex Cafe:

 

First, the meteor shower:

 

 

And, the arrival of the Chocolate Extinction:

 

 

-RO

[timfreeman]

T-Rex is probably our favorite restaurant down there at the moment. I didn't think it was expensive comparatively. If you have passes, you get 15% or so off dinners (not kids meals, appetizers, or desserts). We always go on a weekday before 4 and have never had to wait in line. The extinction desert is great, we have to get it every time we go.

[Erik Johnson]

KT just stepped on our BGT Wax Gorilla so we'll need to make some new ones on our next visit.

 

Just the smell of those machines brings me back to my childhood, it's very cool that Busch brought those back.

 

Nice report! I totally avoid T-Rex when they're using that dreaded 'line system' that seems to do nothing but confuse the staff and anger the patrons!

 

 

You can now get a wax kangaroo in the newish Kangaroo/Rocko Modern Life petting area.