Daycation: Busch Gardens Offers a Completely Different Experience

TAMPA – I have to admit that I'm often guilty of overlooking nearby Tampa in favor of Orlando when it comes to family entertainment. Not having been to Busch Gardens since first moving to Florida in 2001, I decided to take my six-year-old son for his first trip to the park recently, instead of opting for another trip to the Magic Kingdom.

Every summer, he and I spend an all-out tour de force at a Florida theme park, daring each other to drop first. From the time the gates open until last call, we hit the rides hard. No maps, no schedule, just two fun fanatics pushing the adrenaline envelope.

Busch Gardens is an appropriate park for all ages, though I'd have to say that in the five and under age category, there aren't nearly as many rides as most Orlando parks. However, the amazing wildlife spectacles do compensate for that.

The biggest drawback of our day was getting through the gate. Once ticketed, the turnstiles are a chaotic mess. There are no rails or line separation, just a disorderly mass of people standing, unshaded, in blistering heat. People push forward like cattle until they get near one of the gates and order begins to form.

We saved a good 45 minutes by not having a bag to check. Unfortunately, this is only noted by a small sign close to the gates that is not visible from the deeper areas, so we waited quite a bit until this became clear. Simply go toward the gate on the far right and you'll eventually see the seperate line. No outside food or drink is allowed, so it's really no inconvenience. There are a lot of discount services through which to get a ticket, but buying one on-line for full-price ($75 for adults, $65 for kids) gets you an all-day free food band that sells for $30 per adult $17 per kid in the park, and you print your ticket which saves a bit of time as well. Parking is $12.

The food band includes most restaurants, but not concession stands. If you eat three times at any of the participating restaurants, you'll definitely save money with the band. On the day we went, it was 95 degrees and crowded. The lines in most of the restaurants were quite long, so we opted to forgo the bands and ended up spending less buying giant turkey legs, some ice-cream bars, and several drinks in $3 souveneir cups that were refillable for a buck throughout the park.  

As I said, Sullivan's only six, so much of the park's star attractions were off-limits to us, most notably the five world-class thrill coasters, including the infamous Montu and Gwazi. I used to love thrill coasters, but will acknowledge that since I've entered my 30's, I have less stomach for the insane ones than I used to. Fortunately, my son is still a bit under the height requirements and my older two were not along, so I was able to save face.

There were long lines at most of the rides, including an hour for either of the water flumes. We did one run on Stanley Falls to cool off and then stayed away from any line longer than half an hour. Cheetah Chase is a perfect tweener roller coaster and my son thought it was a blast and insisted we ride again.

The new Sesame Street section is fun for toddlers up through my son's age and includes a splash park that you should have a bathing suit for. We spent by far the longest portion of our day there, mostly climbing the intricate jungle-gym like contraptions that maze throughout the rides. There was also a great show featuring characters like Elmo, Cookie Monster, Burt & Ernie, Zoey and the Count. They also walked throughout the park, giving it the Disney dimension that it previously lacked.

I was most surprised by Tree Top Trails in the Jungala section of the park, a much more advanced version of the jungle gym concept. This is some serious fun as well as some serious exercise. Not since my Army boot camp days have I encountered such a challenging obstacle course! We climbed rope netting, sometimes 100 feet high, throughout an elaborate system of bridges and towers that were mixed in with wildlife like Bengal tigers and fruit bats.

The wildlife really is the best part of the park and is almost a complete zoo experience. We took the Serengeti Railway through pastures of grazing zebra, giraffes, and antelopes and rode the giant Land Rover through a rhino reserve before enjoying the walk-through bird gardens, where you could pet and feed exotic birds of all shapes and sizes.

In all, the day was a terrific success and we both slept soundly that night. While Busch Gardens may lack the polish and pageantry of a Disney or Universal park, we both came away with bigger smiles on our faces because the experience seemed to be so much more about us, father and son, enjoying nature and adventure, rather than a bunch of long lines and cartoon characters.

The other major plus is that even on a very crowded day, more than half of what we did required no waiting in line, whereas Orlando parks tend to have less of these sorts of free-flowing attractions. On a bad day at Disney, you can be limited to a couple of rides, even with fast pass, with little to do but wait in line and sweat.

On the contrary, you could definitely get your money's worth just from the non-line attractions at Busch Gardens. So, the next time you're thinking about visiting Orlando, ask yourself when the last time you've taken a look at Busch Gardens, and consider the shorter drive to enjoy a totally different and equally rewarding experience.