Busch Gardens

I was really excited for our Busch Gardens day. We wanted to get there at opening, but were running a few minutes late. We pulled into their parking area at 9:55. At 11:07 we made it to the front of the security line. You read that correct, it took an hour and 12 minutes to get through the line to park our car and get through the bag check. When we went to scan our tickets, my ticket required a military i.d. for admission, which I had left with my wallet in the car (I had a free military ticket). They called over a supervisor who was immovable and not at all nice, she stated if I wanted to use the ticket, I needed the military i.d (even though the ticket said picture i.d. and I had my driver's license. I thought since I had verified military service with Troop ID online, I would be good to go).  Back to the car I went, then I waited for a tram, went back through security and finally joined the rest of my family. I was thankful that at least I had the i.d. in the car, but I certainly wished the supervisor was a bit nicer about it. Frankly, the less I say on the matter, the better--I still feel angry thinking about the whole interaction.

It was the six of us, my niece and nephew, and Marta and Elizabeth. We were a party of 10. I would like to say the day got better. And, I suppose it did. But, the crowds were unbelievable. I know it is Spring Break and I was expecting it to be crowded, but it was honestly ridiculous. The positives for the day were the ride on Skeikra, which is an awesome roller coaster, seeing all the animals, and being with people I love. The negatives were the lines, the lines, and the lines. We only got to ride one roller coaster because by noon, the wait times for the others were all over an hour (the one I really wanted to ride was 2 hours!).  Actually, I only got to ride 1 ride, period. The kids did have a great time climbing around on the two giant climbing structures and they all had fun being together.

Here are the pictures from the day:

The line to have bags checked

The ONE guy at the front of our line. There were a few different lines, but you would have thought there would be multiple people to manage each line.

One of the cool climbing structures

Luke loved seeing the zebras during the train ride

Luke on the swing, one of the 2 rides he went on (3 if you count the train)

The kids in front of a cool topiary.

Really, the less I say about the day, the better. I would never, ever, EVER recommend that anyone visit any type of theme park in Florida during Spring Break.