Ultimate Busch Gardens Itinerary: Unleash Thrills & Adventure in Tampa Bay!

We’ve got a news flash for you: there is a theme park outside of Orlando whose attractions rival even the best of Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld. We’re talking about Busch Gardens Tampa Bay!

Busch Gardens is home to a variety of experiences, ranging from amazing animal encounters to high-flying thrill rides. If you’re looking for a great theme park experience that’s close to some of Florida’s best beaches, a visit to Busch Gardens might be just what the travel agent ordered! (And by a travel agent, we mean your friendly MouseEars TV crew!)

The Perfect Day at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

We’ll go over the attractions Busch Gardens has to offer, the best way to maximize a one-day trip, and all of our favorite tricks for saving time and money at this West Central Florida theme park. Let’s get going!

Thrill Rides and Roller Coasters

Roller coasters are at the top of the attractions list for Busch Gardens Tampa. With ten different coasters, you can keep the adrenaline pumping all day long!

Topping the list of thrills is the Iron Gwazi, a wood and steel hybrid coaster. The new enhancements make it a top-tier thrill ride with an initial drop of 91 degrees (yes, that’s slightly more than straight down!) and speeds of 76 miles per hour. The tight turns, inversions, and near-miss encounters as the track winds around itself is an exhilarating experience meant to evoke a crocodile death roll!

Cheetah Hunt is another spectacular attraction – a speedy coaster that zooms straight past the cheetah enclosures! It has multiple launches similar to Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal and is the park’s longest roller coaster with an impressive 4,400-foot track.

Busch Gardens is also home to Montu, Kumba, and Tigris, which each feature a truly novel element for riders. Montu suspends riders under the track and has lots of inversions. Kumba takes riders on one of the world’s largest vertical loops, which creates a full 3 seconds of weightlessness! Tigris, though short, features multiple launches and goes both forward and backward!

For dizzying delights, catch a ride on Scorpion, which has a 360-degree vertical loop, or try to stay calm on Cobra’s Curse, where each coaster train spins randomly for a different experience on every single ride! For extreme screams, you can also brave the SheiKra and its terrifying 200-foot, 90-degree drop. (Ahhh!)

To round out the roller coaster spectrum, the SandSerpent is a less-extreme family coaster with plenty of pep but no inversions or large drops, perfect for younger kiddos who still want a piece of the “big coaster” action!

Non-roller coaster thrill rides include the recently opened Serengeti Flyer, a massive swing-type ride that offers amazing views of the park’s Serengeti Plain. (Sadly, it doesn’t go quite high enough to see all the way to the real Serengeti.) It creates zero gravity as it swings upward and is a fun alternative to the usual drop-tower type of ride. Busch Gardens is also home to some water rides: the Stanley Falls Flume and the Congo River Rapids, both of which are wonderfully refreshing on hot Florida days!

Amazing Animals

Part of the Busch Gardens appeal is the animal exhibits located throughout the park. Much like Disney’s Animal Kingdom, guests can see more than 200 species roaming across the luxuriously large habitats that make up a good portion of the park.

The easiest way to spot your favorite critters is to catch a ride on the Serengeti Express. This train ride chugs through the savannah habitats, but you can also go by air and soar from Egypt to the Congo in a Skyride cable car! You’ll also find plenty of animal viewing areas as you walk around the park; these are great spots to take quick breaks as you traverse the rather expansive Busch Gardens Tampa!

If you’re interested in getting more up close and personal with certain animals, Busch Gardens offers specific tours for certain creatures, which come at an additional cost of $20-$30 per person.

Kid-Friendly Rides

Busch Gardens has a large Sesame Street-themed area where younger visitors can play and explore. This includes rides like a small roller coaster, swings, and a small water ride. The area also features lots of climbing areas to explore, in addition to a splash pad. Additionally, they can also meet some of their favorite Sesame Street characters! Though most kid-friendly rides are limited to this area in the park, Sesame Street Safari of Fun is a solid inclusion in the park that can keep children entertained for a few hours.

Time-Saving Tips

If you’re planning to ride all of the Busch Garden coasters, the best way to do it is to avoid the middle of the day and/or early afternoon. Many people visit later in the day and spread out across the park, creating higher wait times for all of the coasters. If you arrive at the park in the morning, however, you can enjoy practically no wait on all of the coasters!

When starting your day, it’s best to cover the biggest rides first. We recommend getting Iron Gwazi out of the way before heading over to Cheetah Hunt, then working your way around the park counterclockwise. Busch Gardens’ layout can be a bit confusing; it leads most people to go left at the entrance, but by going counterclockwise around the park, you can usually keep away from the crowds!

If you aren’t heading to the big roller coasters first, you can have a great time seeing all of the animal exhibits with hardly anyone in the way. Since most visitors will cover rides first to ensure they hit their “must do’s” before seeing the animals, you can save a lot of time by skipping to the animals to start your day. Be sure to catch the animal keeper talks to learn more about the animals’ habitats, diet, and lots of fun facts!

Money Saving Tips

Busch Gardens offers an “all-you-can-eat” dining plan which could be a good deal for you, depending on how long you plan to stay at the park. Since Busch Gardens does not allow outside food to be brought in, you’ll be forced to pay for some meals. The dining plan allows you to visit most of their dining locations once every 90 minutes for an entrée, side or dessert, and a drink. If you plan on having multiple meals inside the park, this can be a good option. Otherwise, we recommend grabbing breakfast before entering the park and having a late dinner after you leave.

Keep in mind that Busch Gardens has its own festivals throughout the year, including a food and wine festival in the spring. Depending on the time of year you visit and the type of food you enjoy, it may be more worthwhile to indulge in festival offerings instead of purchasing the dining plan, which only works for the park’s counter-service restaurants. Festivals also feature popular bands and musicians, so be sure to do a quick search to see who might be in town!

Daily Plan & Itinerary

Every family’s day will look a bit different! If you have kids or animal lovers, you will probably spend the bulk of your time exploring the animal exhibits and shows offered throughout the park. If that means you’re skipping out on the big roller coasters, that also means you can save a lot of time waiting in line for them! This also means your daily itinerary isn’t jam-packed, and you can have more flexibility to see and do what you want throughout the day.

It’s best to start out in Egypt and the Edge of Africa and work your way toward Pantopia from there. Be sure to spend a lot of time on the Serengeti Plain to check out all of the African animals! This means you’ll get to the Sesame Street area later in the day, when the kids may have less patience and need more child-friendly experiences. Be sure to catch the ice show in the Moroccan Palace Theater later in the day, too!

As previously mentioned, roller coaster gurus will want to start their day with Iron Gwazi (towards the front of the park) and then dash over to Cheetah Hunt at the edge of Africa. After that, you can take some time to explore the Serengeti Plain and see some awesome animals, work your way around the park in a counterclockwise fashion, and stop to see or do whatever catches your fancy.

The most important thing to remember is to be flexible when necessary and have tons of fun!

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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is an unbeatable Florida theme park that’s beautifully themed and truly transports visitors to the wild side of life with its roaring roller coasters, entertaining shows, and outstanding animals!

Hope to see you there!

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Featured photo: Unsplash

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