Bush Gardens Tampa worth it?

Is Bush Gardens worth the money to get in. all the prices went up but it seems to me that the park is not as big for what it is worth. I did every ride in 3 hours. any suggestions or feedback

Here's a suggestion. Check your spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

Is this a trip report? I gather from what you said that you went there, so you tell us. Was it worth it?

I thought he might be referring to another type of "park" when I read the post. Of course his question on" is it worth the money to get in" takes it to whole different place...

You don't know how close I came...

A man asked a simple question? And the spelling police come out and bust his nuts. What is up with that? Do we want this site to ever grow bigger or not? Members need to be more friendly to others on this site.

To actually answer the question. The simple answer is that it depends. The best deal is to get the SeaWorld/Busch combo deal in which you will hit the best coasters in all of Florida: Kraken, Manta, Kumba, Montu, and ShieKra. Busch Gardens Tampa is a solid park that I have gone to several times and spent a good portion of the day even without there being long lines for many of the rides. It may not be as nice as it's sister park in Virginia but it is still a solid park and sometimes you can find deals to get 50 dollar tickets during the weekdays if you search ahead.

Oh, sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine. And I'd guess from knowing you just a little that it's not one of yours.

See, I've always been under the impression that Trip Reports is a place for just that. It's where one writes about a recent trip and gives us his or her impressions and opinions in order to initiate some kind of discussion. Not a place to ask a simple question. Correct me if I'm wrong, there.
Perhaps I should have been kinder...

And of course we'd all love to see CoasterBuzz grow. But I'll speak for myself and say that if it gets full of guys who can't type a decent sentence and contribute nothing but non-stop noise and nonsense I'll have to stop reading. Plenty of other sites out there are full of that already and I can't stand it.

talon1189 said:

A man asked a simple question? And the spelling police come out and bust his nuts. What is up with that? Do we want this site to ever grow bigger or not? Members need to be more friendly to others on this site.

You've been here long enough to know how we roll. Nobody cares how "big" the site is, just that people communicate effectively. I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation.

Moved to general forum.

I'd say "Big" is a relative term. I cannot think of another park offhand that takes as long to walk through as BGT. So in that regard, it's pretty "big." And while the rides are very far apart, there is plenty to look at as you're walking.

As for the rides, BGT has some great ones. I haven't ridden Cheetah Chase yet, but I really want to, it looks great. And you've got Montu, Kumba, and to a lesser extent, Shakira, as well.

I for one cannot wait to get back to BGT. I am wanting to take my son there. He's known our cat, Kumba, his whole life, it's time he met her namesake.

I'm not a big fan of Shakira, either, especially when she was on The Voice.

I had a horrible trip to Busch Gardens Tampa in 1996 and decided to give them another chance in 2012. I'm glad I did since it is now either my 2nd or 3rd favorite park in Florida. Cheetah Hunt was a lot better than I was expecting, Montu is one of my favorite B&M invert coasters, Sheikra was also better than I expected and Kumba and Scorpion were good too. The only coaster I didn't like was Gwazi. Next time I am in Florida, I'm going to try to get back there.

I have relatives in Tampa, so I get to BGT every couple of years and I love that place. The rides are all very good (Sheikra and Cheetah Hunt are both excellent and I'd never pass up ride on Montu or Kumba) but the family factor is what sets the park apart. I have a begrudging-enthusiast wife, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and we usually have the grandparents in tow and we can find lots of stuff for everyone to do and even a few things we can all do together. I find it a fantastic park in all respects.

I don't get the BGT haters. Most of the coasters are respectable to awesome in range (Montu is my favorite invert), the employees are über friendly, and the park itself is gorgeous. Other than the preferred parking scam (pay more to park closer when BGT has a tram that will drop you right at the gate anyway), BGT was a class act park when I visited last, and I usually regret not having the time to visit there when I get the occasional Florida visit in.

RCMAC, you didn't need to be more gentle with the critique. While it was nice of you to reconsider, I think that when my brain feels like it is bleeding after trying to comprehend what someone has posted, I can't even consider a point or question that person has about ANYTHING.

Oh yeah, about that. I was only kidding. :-)

And I feel the same way about BGT, Bunk. (may I call you Bunk?)
I first went there in the 60's on a family trip to Florida, when there was a brewery with a super long escalator, a bunch of birds, and to my dad's delight, free beer. The big chalet building was brand new and there was the original monorail that took visitors out in the back yard to see animals. My dad was too cheap to let us ride, and the young enthusiast in me was mad and frustrated. That was it.

Over the years I kept track of it turning into a theme park, but as an adult enthusiast only went to BGW and I couldn't imagine a prettier place than that. When I finally got back to BGT I was surprised at how beautiful it was too, in a different way, but so totally tropical. The rides, for the most part, are thrilling, and the theming is what you might expect from Busch. Lovely. But the great thing about that park is the animal exhibits. So well done, entertaining, as well as educational.

Now I try to go about every other year or so and I always have a ball. I usually land there on a day that's super slow, so rides are plentiful and I have lots of time to stroll, drink, (thanks, Dad, for that at least) and gawk at the animals.

So, to recap, I think Bush Gardens is TOTALLY worth it, and there are my suggestions and feedbacks, delivered in a nice tone.

It felt like the park was a big zoo with a few nice roller coasters in it. It has a terrific tiger exhibit as well as a handful of great animal shows. I really enjoyed my visit.

I personally believe that BGT is worth the money. It is a great park to roam around and enjoy the shade, ambiance, rides, food, shows, and animals.

Over the years, my experience has been that the operations are decent and that most attractions have been open (unless down for yearly refurbishment.)

My opinion would be that if you could get everything done that you wanted to do within three hours, then that is a great day. It is worse when you spend the money and you aren't able to "finish" the park due to crowds or rides that are down.

For the record, a colon, a dash, and the closing parentheses, aka ":-)" is about as correct grammar as starting a sentence without a capital. Let's not throw stones.

Perhaps, when people do not have perfect grammar, consider the possibility that English is their second language and honestly, what we are reading, is indeed "effective communication."

Or perhaps consider that the love of coasters and parks can be shared by both English Professors and people that might have dropped out of school at a young age. Heck, maybe the English Professor made a damn mistake even. Maybe consider the fact that the person you are mindlessly insulting is a highly trained veterinarian, yet poor speller, that might be in a position to save your pet one day. Also consider that the job of "Grammar Police", is a job designed for assholes.

Everyone is different. Why is that an issue? Let it go.

Cubkev

Well, that escalated quickly...

I personally stand on the side that says that policing grammar is okay. Are your scenarios possible? Yes. However, and I'm just playing the odds, the more likely situation is that it was another example of what is seen constantly on the internet and, to my dismay, is seeping into the professional world: carelessness for how one expresses a thought. Seriously, are our thoughts so important that we can't take a brief moment to capitalize the first letter of a sentence or use proper punctuation?

Is it annoying to people when grammar police lash out at them? Yes. However, it's annoying to those of us who prefer coherence and legibility in the posts/memos/publications we read. An occasional typo doesn't bother me because we all have them. A complete disregard for anything learned in English class, on the other hand, often leads to a total inability on my part to take a thought seriously.

To the original poster, I don't say the above as a personal attack as much as just general frustration with a trend I'm seeing, and to answer your initial question, Kumba and Montu alone are worth the trip to BGT. I'm not a raving SheiKra fan and I've not yet had the pleasure of riding Cheetah Hunt, but Kumba and Montu are both near or at the top of their respective classes and truly justify visiting the park. There's also much more beyond the coasters, but those two are just that good that I feel they sell the park on their own.

Every browser has a freekin' spell check, so being a poor speller is a poor excuse these days. If you can't take the time to at least try to communicate your ideas and thoughts correctly, then why should you expect anyone to take your thoughts and ideas seriously?

As far as a topic asking if whatever park is "worth it," that is such a goofy question. If the park is still in business after charging whatever they charge, then of course the majority of people who attend the park think that it is "worth it." If they didn't, the park would lower their prices to get people to visit.

I find the pizza stand at my local mall to be quite expensive, but is the pizza at the mall "worth it?" Maybe not to you or me. If you find it to be too expensive, than don't buy it. If the pizza stand finds that they are not getting enough business to sustain profitability, they will lower their prices.

I find this entire discussion very stupid.

A typo here and there is fine. Gods know I've made enough of them.

But there's a difference between an occasional typo and someone posting, well, gibberish.

If the poster doesn't have enough respect for what they're saying to take the very few seconds necessary to check their grammar and spelling -- why should I have any respect for what they're saying?

Thanks, Justin and Travis. I got this.

Hey, Cubkev. Thank you for the lesson in sensitivity, but maybe I'm that person who quit school at an early age. And maybe I, in spite of it, somehow learned to string words together into sentences so that others can read and comprehend what I'm trying to say. Maybe I have little patience with those who don't appear to be trying as hard, and for that I apologize.

Or, maybe I'm that retired English professor who tutors disadvantaged kids for whom English is a second language. Maybe it's in my nature to correct errors I see. And for that I apologize.

Or, maybe I'm a highly trained veterinarian who.... Ok. No I'm not.

What I really am is just a douchebag of a frequent poster who gets sick and tired of guys who show up on discussion boards spouting complaints about parks in the form of unintelligible questions. Maybe words flew out of my mouth, but I couldn't care less. And for that I don't apologize.

By the way, you know that sentence where you called me an asshole? You got your comma wrong. :-)