Florida amusement parks at xmas time question

My family and I will be down at Walt Disney World during the craziest time of the year.(Just past Christmas) We have a couple day before we goto WDW and I was wondering if Busch Gardens is just as swamped at this time of the year? Just looking for something to do prior to our visit to WDW?

Thanks for the help!

timmyk

Well, right now BGA is pretty empty on the last couple of visits I took. However, I am not sure about right after Christmas.

I can't see it getting swamped like the Orlando parks though.

I have been to BGA on MLK weekend in January and it is not crowded at all. Kumba was a walk on and Montu had a two train wait at that point. I would think that the major Orlando parks like Disney, Universal and Sea World will be very busy as they are all very close. BGA is a bit of a drive and should not have as large crowds as the other major Orlando parks.

We're going to Disney between Christmas and New Years too. It's always packed beyond belief. But, we always manage to have a blast.

You could always go to the beach (Cocoa) before Disney. Busch is going to be really busy as well, just not as crowded as Disney. It's not as much of a destination park. But, they get overflow from Orlando too.

We thought about going to Tampa for a couple days, but I hate that drive around the holidays.

The week between Christmas and New Years is actually one of the busiest weeks of the year for all Florida Parks, Busch included. I like to go Christmas Day as its one of the days thats not so busy. Right now is the time to go if you were here in Florida. Week days are great the parks are dead.

I was at BGA New Year's Eve day last year. In the morning the park was pretty empty, I got to ride all the coasters twice. We left in the late afternoon to go watch the Outback Bowl Parade. When we returned to the park it was swamped, completely opposite of the morning. All the high school bands from the parade were at the park, it was ridiculous.

Magic Kingdom on Dec 28th last year was pretty busy too, but if you manage your time well you can still do most of the rides. We did all of the mountains twice.

One of the slowest times at Disney is the week before Christmas. We used to always go then, but now we can't because my brother's kids are in school.

Also, right after New Years is pretty slow. Since I'll be back in Florida, I'll go more often in Jan up to the spring break craze.

BGA was fairly busy yesterday, but the only line for riding seemed to be at SheiKra. For some odd reason, they seem to only be using one off the two load stations these days, and it's really cutting down on throughput. Gwazi was doing pretty good, for once I think I actually preferred the tamer Lion side.

After leaving, I went to Cypress to *finally* get some laps on Starliner..."some" is putting it mildly, LOL. Since our Elysburg friends were busy with KFT, I'm not sure who ended up doing the re-design/construction....but they did better than I had anticipated. The outbound leg in the back seat is...."hyperaggressive". My back hurts...in the good way :)

Everything in Orlando will likely be packed from Dec 26-Jan 1. That's one of the few times you might actually see a park closed due to capacity.

May I also suggest a side trip to Cypress Gardens. I was there on December 5th and the park was virtually empty with all of the rides being a walk-on. The Starliner is good with some air-time in the front (although I think the lift hill is shorter than it was at Panama City). I was told that they will NOT reconstruct the tunnel on the bunny hop.

The park has two wood coasters, a roller-skater, a spinning mouse, a junior sized inverted, and a kiddie metal coaster hybrid that is fun to ride as even an adult. There are several other rides as well as a cool Observation Tower that is like a floating platform. The water-ski show was back to where it once was and the gardens are beautiful.

I think you're good for BGA, especially on a weekday. Saturdays are still busy. You will absolutely love BGA.

I don't know what to say about Orlando besides the fact that the city will probably be swamped.

And Cypress Gardens is definitely worth a trip if you are looking to get away and still visit a theme park. They have a few medium sized coasters as well as Starliner.

And Rollergator, I know what you mean man. I went three times last week and every time the front loading station was closed and there were three trains running. Maybe they just want to keep it in good shape? They may switch out midway through the off season.

Once the Schools begin their "Winter Recess" you can expect the Florida Parks to get Crowded. If you want to visit the parks when they are not crowded do so when school is in session!;)

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