The ULTIMATE Guide to Busch Gardens Tampa - 4K

over the last five years i've made more than 30 trips to busch gardens tampa i've seen and learned a lot and today i'm going to share it all but not just from my point of view i also reached out to my followers to learn the biggest secrets whether you're planning your first trip or you visit multiple times a year my goal is to make your trip the best it can be i'll cover the very best tips and tricks my formula for getting all the coaster credits the top places to eat and so much more i've even placed hidden secrets all throughout this guide so whenever you hear this sound you're getting a great tip feel free to skip around but just remember you could be missing one of my hidden secrets it's time to own busch gardens tampa [Music] now before we get into the good stuff let's get all the boring details out the way first after all they are important before getting to the park make sure to download the busch gardens app it's incredibly useful for checking both wait times and down times on different rides when arriving to the park you'll have to make your first tough decision of the day you can choose to pay 30 for standard bargain or 35 for preferred unless you have a membership but not just any membership it's kind of complicated so i'll cover that in a minute not a big deal either way prefer puts you fairly close to the park entrance with just a short walk this is best for guests that don't want to wait for a tram or may need to make several trips back to the car throughout the day and standard requires taking a tram the trams run all day and are especially efficient during early hours and after park close so even if the line seems a tad long it typically moves pretty fast once you're at the front entrance you'll notice buildings to the left and right these are both for ticket and season pass sales however some things can be taken care of at the self-service ticketing area just to the left without much of a weight if any at all and if you already have your tickets are passed you can head straight through towards security in the park entrance speaking of tickets you have three options a single day a fun card and a membership okay so four different memberships but i got you a single day ticket is only good for one day a fun pass is good for the entire year but with a few block out dates both have to be paid for up front and without payments regular price for a single day ticket is the exact same cost as a fun pass unless they happen to be running a special so keep that in mind because even with a special purchasing that single day ticket twice will cost more than the pass okay memberships what are they why would somebody want that instead well the most obvious reason is they allow you to pay monthly instead of all the costs up front but depending on what level you sign up for gives you many different benefits i'll leave the chart here for you to pause and read it if you choose but to simplify things if you're going to be driving a car to the park then just forget the bronze because that one doesn't include parking and you'll be dropping at least 30 bucks a visit and have blockout dates jump to silver and get free standard parking no blockout dates and two free tickets a year to bring a guest jump again to gold and you'll get free preferred parking and four free tickets a year to bring a friend and finally the platinum gives you the most benefits including access to all 11 seaworld properties across the country and 6 free guest tickets a year just tons of benefits with each pass so make sure to look them all over also it's important to note that you don't just get the free tickets all at once it's scheduled so just always go to the website for the most up-to-date information and just as you pass the ticking in offices you'll see a height chart to your right and left now will be a good time to measure the little ones so you won't have any surprises later in the day did you know children up to five years old can get a pass to busch gardens for free this can really save you some money but keep in mind there is a cut-off date to apply each year and you also have to visit by a certain date go to the official busch gardens website to find out more details on this offer also before you scan your ticket make sure you check out the little board that's hanging on the wall that lets you know if there's any ride scheduled to be down the entire day okay now it's time to really dig into this ultimate guide when it comes to getting the rods i don't hold anything back i build these guides for people looking to route all the coasters and some of the other popular rides but as always you can adjust this to help with what you hope to accomplish on your visit i've said it before and i'll say it again get into the park early can literally save you hours of waiting in line from my personal experience many days they'll open the parking lots 30 minutes before the scheduled park opening so for the sake of this video let's just say that the day you visit the park is scheduled to open at 10. more than likely the parking tools start allowing cars through at 9 30. so i'd recommend getting to the park about nine and if all goes well you should find yourself as one of the first cars in the lot now hopefully you're one of the first guests to get through security and into the park and typically i find myself inside before it even opens for the day from here you should be able to go right or left to the left is the entrance of iron gwazi the park's newest record-breaking coaster or you can go to the right towards cheetah hunt here the path will be roped off right at the alligator exhibit until the park officially opens there's no right or wrong way to start your day as the entrance to iron gwazi and the rope drop are only about 500 feet apart however keep in mind that both iron gwazi and cheetah hunt are going to form a long line really quick on busier days personally for me this is how i like to do it i head towards iron gwazi and i wait at the entrance for it to open while waiting to watch to see if it's testing or at least try to ask the nearby associate if it looks like it's going to open on time if so i'm getting that ride first and then i'm headed straight for cheetah hunt now most of the time i can still make it before most of the crowds get to it because so many people are still trying to get into the park and through security if it's already formed a really long line sometimes i'll just pass it and head straight towards cobra's curse and montu which i almost always have great luck getting on right away with no weight at all however if i did indeed skip cheetah hunt before those two then i typically try to get it later in the day because it's almost guaranteed to have an even bigger weight as i pass back by so let's say you pulled an ace card you were one of the first people in the park all four coasters were up and running on time you got both guazi and cheetah hunt right away well then head straight for cobra's curse and montu and get those next or just rewrite iron gwazi if possible i mean it's an incredible machine and you may not care about the others as much or vice versa nothing wrong with that and there's no right or wrong way now it's time to head to a different section of the park you still have scorpion falcons fury cumba sand serpent tigress and sheikra left the next tip is certainly not hidden and it even has signs posted letting you know about it however you'd be amazed at how many people completely miss it when they're at the park when you're walking through tiger trail there's a small path you can go down that leads to a staircase climb the small staircase and you'll find yourself in the very middle of that tiger enclosure with a glass box around you time it just perfect and you'll be right up close with these amazing animals and i don't put a big focus on a train just yet because you're probably going to invest an hour waiting for it to arrive and making your journey around the park pretty much ruining any chance of wall cones at the other rides for the rest of the day and i always save the rapids and log flume rod for later in the day if i'm going to ride them but remember what i said about the park open in different sections at different times if you get to the park at 10 then there's a good chance that kumba won't open to 11 since it's at the very back of the park so typically i'll walk back towards cheetah hunt and head right back towards pantopia which typically opens 30 minutes after the park so you should be good by now and honestly more than likely if you got the first four rides and then walk to pantopia it's probably already 11 anyways and everything in the park should be open here you can ride falcons fury sand serpent and scorpion and this is a great time to get those rides in and then afterwards head straight for kumba which is just around the corner so i typically try to get a few rides on that before heading towards tigris and chica at this point they may have a little bit of a weight but it shouldn't be too bad and of course you could always head straight towards sheikah and tigress instead of pantopia but i find this way just walking a lot of extra steps and it doesn't typically maximize my day i got some great tips for the train and some other rides that we'll discuss here in a bit but if everything went according to plan now's probably a good time to try to grab something to eat and i've got some great places to share with you since food choices can vary so much i prefer to pull my followers and see what they enjoy the most versus just talking about my personal favorites so to everyone that gave input and helped out with this poll thank you so much the response was really amazing here were the top three starting with third place was the serengeti overlook this spot is located just across from the entrance to cheetah hunt inside you'll find oasis pizza where you can get cheese or pepperoni pizza they also serve salads and waffle fries directly across from oasis pizza is a giraffe bar here you can get craft brews cocktails and wine even better you can enjoy those either in the air conditioning or you can set out on the patio and watch all the animals on the serengeti and coming soon is treetop kitchen which honestly i don't know much about but it looks like it's going to be another amazing addition to the serengeti overlook second place went to the dragonfire grill and pub this is located right across from falcon's fury in the pantophia section of the park it's a great place to eat especially for people with multiple guests in their party who may not all want the same thing lots of options inside and to make things even better you can even catch a show while you eat showtimes are posted outside just before you enter now before we get into what came in the number one spot i'd like to give a shout out to twisted tails pretzels which is also located in the pantopia section of busch gardens lots of people recommend it for you to try out the incredible pretzels here and is voted by the fans as the best place to eat at busch gardens tampa is zambia steakhouse the barbecue restaurant located just behind sheeker's water splash now i'll admit i've yet to try this one but the amount of boats it got for being the best had me so excited to give it a try on my next visit just tons of great food to pick from inside these were just the favorites according to the poll i ran but there's so many other great places to get food once inside the park so make sure to check them all out on your next visit but food wasn't the only poll i ran for this ultimate god i also wanted to find out what other people enjoy doing the most on a visit to the park outside of riding coasters and eating great food while there's a ton of stuff to do here were the top three starting with third place was the serengeti express and people love this train ride it's a wonderful way to see parts of busch gardens that just wouldn't be visible from the walking trails and some of the views you get of the animals are just amazing there are three places to catch the train you have the stanleyville train station just across from chica the nairobi station which is kind of behind cheetah hunt and the congo train station right beside kumba when it comes to riding the train i personally don't stop and wait depending on when it lasts left and how long the line is sometimes you can invest a ton of time in doing this instead i'm always listening for the sound of that horn whenever i'm near one of the three stations if i hear it i'm gonna rush over and see if i can make that departure also whenever you're near a station it's always a good idea to look out for these signs that have posted arrival times that can keep you from missing it by a matter of minutes when you're in the area the best part about the train is no matter where you board you can just stay on until you complete the entire journey around the park number two was walking around and watching all the animals and this makes perfect sense with more than 200 different species to watch and learn about you can spend days at this park doing just that at certain times of the day you can attend many different meet the keepers events which are completely free and they give you an opportunity to learn more about that particular animal and you'll find exhibits all around the park that allow you to see many different types of animals up close and of course you have the add-on tours for all the super fans the most well-known being the serengeti safari tour which ranges anywhere from 39 to 69 dollars per person depending on the day but on this tour you'll track the serengeti in an open top truck and have an opportunity to even feed giraffes i do recommend booking this one ahead of time though as it frequently sells out and coming in as the number one thing to do at busch gardens outside of the coasters is falcons fury this drop tower stands 335 foot in the air and it was built by intamin the same manufacturer behind cheetah once at the top you'll have a few seconds to take in the incredible views of the park before your thrill and ride back down weather in florida can be very hot and humid depending on the time of year you visit and walking tens of thousands of steps around the theme park and waiting in lines can really wear you down so i thought it was important to share a few of my tips for cooling off during your visit now we all know to wear comfortable shoes the right clothing and stay hydrated these are some extra tips that can really help you out first up is cobra's curse the lines for this coaster can get fairly long during the day so if you skip it early or if you decide to reroute it later in the day it's good to know that much of the queue is indoors and it's also air conditioned it's a really good way to cool off fast then you have congo river rapids this one's a little bit of a catch-22 though if you're looking to explore more tampa during your visit make sure to check out tampa bay city pass for this one low price you can visit five of the biggest attractions in tampa at a huge discount and best of all a visit to busch gardens is included in the price check out the official website for current pricing and details because on the really hot days it's naturally going to have longer lines however the payoff is getting soaked during your ride it's a ton of fun and it's really beautiful stanley falls flume is another great way to get soaked but you're also going to have to wait in line for this one too and don't sleep on the train for the most part the stations are covered protecting you from the sun and that ride across the park feels amazing with a breeze in your face same goes for the sky rod if you're lucky enough to catch that on a day it's open and don't forget you have tons of places to eat watch shows and doors and get water for free all throughout the park my goal was to make this ultimate guide as fast and efficient as i could without going into all the smaller details it's designed to give you a solid understanding on how to win at this park when you visit but the truth is busch gardens tampa is huge and we still have so much to talk about with this park so i'll be uploading an incredible detailed park review in the coming weeks that'll cover everything this park has to offer in much more detail if you made it this far into the video i can't thank you enough hopefully if you're new to my channel you'll consider subscribing and all my wonderful subscribers thank you so much for your continued support you always give me i hope you all have a wonderful day and stay safe [Music] you

Channel: okaycoasters

Views: 106,573

Keywords: Busch gardens, seaworld, seaworld entertainment, bush gardens, Busch Gardens tampa, tampa, tampa florida, iron gwazi, pov, cheetah hunt, montu, kumba, roller coaster, coasters, ultimate guide, orlando, orlando florida, theme park, amusement park, guide, tips, tips and trick, wait in lines, save time waiting in lines, best places to eat, zoo, cobras curse, off ride, planning your trip, okaycoasters, okcoasters, okay coasters

Id: moHjIEY8r0w

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 21 2022