I am happy to say I already have my first night of Busch Garden’s Summer Nights under my belt for the summer! I went on the evening of June 1, a Sunday, with my family and with the hopes that the park wouldn’t be terribly busy. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad.
We rolled through the front gate at 7:00pm with the park closing at 10:00pm. Giving us a solid three hours. We had no trouble finding a good parking spot either and the person working parking booth gave my pass a cursory glance for parking, making me wonder if they were charging for parking for anybody without a member pass, as they sometimes do.
Anyway. We went to see the cheetahs first ’cause my daughter loves them so much. There were dancers in the Cheetah Hunt area too which my daughter also loves. Our plan was to take the skyride to the back of park to hit up the water rides my son loves so much; however, my cheetah loving daughter, for some reason, decided that she was going to be terrified of the skyride; so we split up: me and my son on the skyride and my wife and three daughters would look at the Edge of Africa and the Serengeti Plain and meet up with use later.
Once at the back of the park we did my son’s current favorite ride: Congo River Rapids. The line was short so we did it three times. By the last ride it was starting to get dark out. My wife called and let me know they were at the carousal. My son and I met them there and did two rides on the carousal with my daughter (that is her current favorite ride). She also rode the little train that is set off to the side a couple times.
Then we took turns riding the SandSerpent, which is fantastic fun. The fireworks fired off at 9:30pm and illuminated the whole section that we were in and I watched them while my wife and son rode the SandSerpent; they were able to see some of the fireworks launching from on high on the ride. Very cool.
After that, we changed baby diapers, got the kids loaded with snacks, and made our way out of the park! A successful night and a great kick off to our family’s not bummer summer.
My Stats:
Time: 3 hours in the park
Rides: skyride 1x, Congo River Rapids 3x, carousal 2x, SandSerpent 1x.
Takeaway: If you are sitting around at 6:00pm on Sunday night in Tampa, lamenting that you have to go to work the next day…you can simply head on over to BG and get three solid hours of summer nights, complete with DJ / dance areas around the park, performers, thrill rides, animals and fireworks. The weekend is not over on Sunday night for a FL Explorer.
