First time to Busch Gardens, VA - any suggestions, discounts, etc.?

I wouldnt worry about the crowds Coaster Demon. It will be busy because its a weekend but I think you will have a great time. As I said the park spreads people out fairly well even when its crowded.

Your waits shouldn't be to bad.

Dave: You talking about BGW with respect to age?? If anything there are lots of kids there as well as adults. With the local colleges starting to get the kids in, and the summer pass (which has really has been targeted to teens and 20s') there will be share of them as well.

Evenings brings out the older crowds (due to the concert series), but daytime not so much.

Carrie:

I think the best concerts I saw at BGW, was Peter Frampton last year. The field as well as the park was totally packed with people. Barely standing room during the concert. But he totally rocked.

Rick Springfield, last year, managed to prevent himself from ever coming back by dropping numerous F'bombs and insulting the crowd. Ah good times too.

Ensign Smith said: What was Priest doing with Eddie??? That's Iron Maiden's mascot!

Oh, that's right. Iron Maiden was also part of the festival.

That's more like it.... :) Although it wouldn't have completely surprised me if Priest had borrowed Eddie, considering that JP and IM have toured many times together -- in fact, my first true 'rock' concert was a tandem show (back in 1983, I believe). Not that I am anything remotely like a metalhead in recent decades. We all have to grow up....

DaveStroem said:

We were at SFGAm a couple of Sundays ago and am so thankful that we opted for a GFP. I doubt that we would have gotten all the credits with out it. At BGW, if you get there early, you will have all the credits before lunch.

One other tip. On Alpengeist & Apollo's Chariot, get in line for the 3rd row. They have a front of line option for these that nobody uses. They block off the 2nd row for them. When there is no one there for the FOL, they fill the 2nd row from the 3rd row que.

What's FOL? I'm thinking their version of Flash pass? (lets not get started on that topic, ugh!!!)

FOL = Front Of Line

I went there last year with some friends and had a blast. We traveled down from ohio on a wednesday night and went to the park all day thursday. Griffen was awsome, we ended up riding it twice!

We drank a lot of water that day, it was really hot out there. We ate at italy and the food was great and priced pretty well too. I was impressed with how clean the park was. You didn't see trash laying anywhere or dirty chairs or anything of sort.

Unfortunatly we paid full price for our tickets but id' have to it was worth it.

*edit: oh yea, and if you need a break, check out the pet show. It was pretty funny! :)

Have fun. It's the best theme park around outside of Disney, IMO. I've been there on a sunny Saturday in peak season and the lines were still shorter than a Friday in June at Cedar Point. The water rides' lines may be a bit on the long side, but everything else should be reasonable.

Agreed Clazzy.. Pet Shenanigans is the animal show you are referring to. It replaced the Bird Show that used to be there.

The cool thing about the Pet Shenanigans show is most of the animals used in the show are rescue animals from shelters.

My biggest suggestion after last Friday....use the trains and skyrides. Your legs will thank you. ;)

Like rollergator said... you can get a workout at BG if you do the loop and then some. Also, you shouldn't have a problem with the crowds. As stated before, the park holds people well.

Eat at the smokehouse in the Canadian Frontier section of the park.

Oh and have fun, and enjoy the scenery. Busch Gardens is one of, if not the best park to just walk and enjoy.

I dont think anyone mentioned that the park itself is very hilly. Big Bad Wolf is great, I just only wish that they were not taking it down so my daughter could have gotten a ride on it. Another thing is that they open the park up in the morning in phases. So not all of the park is opened up at the same time. The coasters are great so try to get on all of them and try not to pull a Fabio on Apollos Chariot. If it was still owned by A-B then I would have told you to hit beer school, but that is gone. My first time there I did it and that was my favorite thing of the day. Free beer. Well good luck to you and have fun.

It is still owned by A-B, technically, it's just that it's now AB InBev.

That whole thing still confuses me. If it is still owned by A-B then why did they get rid of the beer school?? I am puzzled.

Because with the merger with InBev, and a desire to position Busch Entertainment Co. as an entity that's as profitable as possible, they're cutting things that they think they don't need, making it more attractive to potential buyers. They cut some really stupid things the public doesn't see too, like cell phones for certain employees. Yeah, in a theme park, where workers are not spending all day behind their desk. Real smart, eh?

When they had the beer school they brought out new concept drinks for us to try that were not on store shelves. I see that as a great advertising advantage. Try it out then buy it when it hits store shelves.

The free candy and the "educational" ride at Hershey Chocolate World made me a Hershey chocolate fan. You'd think that InBev would see the advantage of the beer school and the free beer.

:: hates when I have to stay quiet ::

:)

So that's how we get you to be quiet! Good to know....

;)

LOL.. God I hate you ;)

Amy Baby said:
When they had the beer school they brought out new concept drinks for us to try that were not on store shelves. I see that as a great advertising advantage. Try it out then buy it when it hits store shelves.

It worked really well on me, and from others I spoke to, the Hospitality House really did amazingly well in terms of new-product testing and customer indoctrination. I would never have purchased Stone Mill or Beach Bum off the shelves if I hadn't sampled them first. Liked 'em, bought 'em. The one time I attended Beer School was also quite educational, and the pairings of beer with certain food products was a real eye-opener for someone without a ton of experience with different beers. A-B sold me alot more beer than they ever would have had their been no HHs to begin with - and I have to believe based on conversations with others that I was NOT alone in that.

Of course, being one of those who got to try Spikes before it got pulled from the line-up was a bonus. If not for the teenagers, that would have been a pretty cool "beer additive"... :)