Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Tampa

We went to Busch Gardens for a day when it got a bit chilly for beach fun. It was Monday, December, 3rd, the last day of Christmas break and it wasn’t very crowded. Quick queue passes and all day dining made our day really easy and stress free. These triple the cost of your ticket but are well worth it, if don’t want to spend all the time in lines and have several teenagers in the family who eat a lot like we do. All day dining includes an entrée, a side or desert and a fountain drink in any of 5 main restaurants every hour. It doesn’t include any snacks or other food vendors. Mind: you still have to wait in lines to get food in restaurants, so we didn’t even go to a BBQ place that smelled so good, the line was probably more than an hour long there and we didn’t want to waste time. We also went on Serengeti safari tour and loved it: got to feed the giraffes and see all the animals up close. The rides are awesome, me and our youngest kid 9y.o. did some family friendly rides, which were too much for me anyways (I just can’t do any roller coasters). My husband with older kids had a blast on all the crazy rides. Everyone loved our day in Busch Gardens, we’ll definitely be back.

Went on a Tuesday mid July. Park was fairly busy but literally everything was shut down. It rained for a bit but other than that it was just cloudy but they kept the rides and games closed anyways. I was there for 4 hours and got to ride 1 ride and play 1 game, the rest of the time was us walking around the park trying to find something to do. The animal exhibits were cool though, animals were very active. Don’t get the all day dining. It only works for certain restaurants and their food is sub par at best since it seems it’s not very organized in terms of making it and getting it out. I got chicken tenders and fries and it made me almost puke (I hate saying this because I know it’s an amusement park, but this was just bad). The one ride I rode was fun though, it was the new iron coaster and was a lot of fun. Line went by at a decent pace and the ride itself was fun. Staff were friendly and helpful whenever we needed it. Honestly, just save your money and go to universal or somewhere else. $300 to waste that I can’t get a refund on!