We live in the midwest and can tell you that Paramounts Kings Island puts Busch Gardens to shame. At $57.95 per person, we expected to have a ball. However, we left after 3 or 4 hours. We went on an off day so lines weren't bad, but the rides were just okay. Go to one of the Disney parks instead. We went there last year and LOVED IT!

My husband and I took our kids (9 & 13 year old boys) to Busch Gardens for two days as part of our family vacation to Florida December 26 - January 10, 2005. This review is a little late, but I wanted to share our experience, since many people seem to be focusing negatively on this very nice park.

OVERVIEW: My husband and I visited Busch Gardens many years ago, and on this trip we were totally surprised to see how much the park had been CLEANED up and IMPROVED. The landscaping and theming was really top notch. On this trip, I found myself just enjoying the atmosphere as I walked around. The admission price ($50+) is pretty steep. It is on par with, if not more expensive than a Disney park. The park does have a lot to offer, however, so if you spend a full day, you will get your money's worth...and more. When we were there, there was a special promotion for a 2 day ticket. This was a good deal, and to see everything at an enjoyable pace, you really will need 2 days.

RIDES AT BUSCH GARDENS: The park has several big coasters for thrill seekers. As a family we rode the HUGE wooden coaster as one of our first rides. It is fun because there are two different tracks. As a middle-aged mom, however, I found that the coaster was a little rough for me, and I sat out the other thrill rides the rest of the day. Not much could stop my thrill-seeking husband and boys. They braved all the coasters, and rated their newest one, "ONE OF THE BEST" they have ever been on. HINT: GET IN LINE FOR THE COASTERS EARLY IN THE DAY. By mid day in December, the lines were a minimum of 60 minutes for any of the coasters and major rides.

In addition to the thrill rides, there were several fun rides and attractions we could enjoy as a family. They have a wonderul log ride that does not get you too wet...and a very nice train ride that goes through a lot of the savannah so you can see the animals. My family also enjoyed the 3-D lighthouse movie. It was cute and fun.

SHOWS AT BUSCH GARDENS: There is TONS of great shows in this park...and something for everyone. I liked the fact that the entertainment was different from the usual "amusement park" shows. The featured show at the park is KATONGA, which is like a shortened full scale broadway musical. It was very nicely done. HINT: GET IN LINE EARLY FOR GOOD SEATS. Try to sit 8-10 rows back. If you are too close, you will miss things, and if you are too far back, you will miss out on some special surprises and interaction during the show!!

When we were there, they has special added entertainers that were brought in for the holiday season. The ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT of all the shows for our entire family was one of the special engagement acts, Chris Linn- a comedian who also did some magic, who performed in one of the large dining hall / theatres. His show was very creative and had our entire family laughing together for 30 minutes, which to me was worth the price of admission. My teenage son STILL talks about the show - it was that funny!

ANIMALS AT BUSCH GARDENS: Busch Gardens has many animal displays throughout the park. There are some truly unique displays and animal themed attractions. There is a neat jeep tour that goes by lots of animals and then ends with a white water style trip down a river. The line for this attraction was Very long, but it was worth the wait. It kind of reminded us of the Safari ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom, but with more excitement with the "water ride" element.

Keep an eye out for animal caretakers giving talks and offering up-close views of various animals. We noticed several of these talks going on in various grassy areas of the park. They were not listed in the schedule, but nice little surprises when we happened upon them.

Off in the back corner of the park is a bird feeding exhibit, where you can buy small cups of nectar and small parrots will land all over you to be fed. This was great fun, and my boys immediately bought another cup of nectar (with their own money, so you know they liked it!) to feed more birds. I remember the employee saying that if you arrive early in the day, the birds are REALLY active and it can be overwhelming for young kids....not a problem for us, but a heads up for any families with young ones.

You can take guided tours in the Savannah on flat bed trucks. This is an extra charge tour, but you get to interact with giraffes and other animals up close. My family really wanted to do this, but the tours were all booked up. I don't know if you can call ahead to book, but if you are at all interested, I would look into it PRIOR to arriving at the park.

FOOD AT BUSCH GARDENS: We thought the food was a little on the expensive side. There is a smokehouse with smoked beef and turkey that had very tasty meals. We ate there for lunch and dinner, but each meal with drinks came to over $13.00 a person. There are several chain restaurants in the area if you wanted to eat before coming into the park.

OVERALL: Recommended. My family had a wonderful time at this park and would look forward to going back.

We visited Busch Gardens in April. We had been to Disney a couple of years ago and had been back to Magic Kingdom for a day earlier in the holiday so were expecting something similar. We were very disappointed.

We had to wait in line for ages to get into the car park and then ages to get the shuttle into the park. There seemed to be no co-ordination and no staff supervising this.

I know April is very busy but Disney have managed to get round this by using the fast pass system. Why don't Busch do the same. We queued over an hour for the Rapids, an hour for the log flume. We didn't even attempt the big coasters because of the queue times and the queue for rhino rally was 75 mins. Our kids got really fed up with all the queuing.The staff seemed very surly in stark contrast to Disney staff and the park seemed to have run out of icecream and cold water at one stage. It was only 92%! not good at all.

My advice is if you are unsure whether to add this into your itinerary and have other places to go don't do it especially if it is peak time. It is not worth the $200. Iwould rather have spent the money on beach activities.

Seaworld which is also a busch theme park is great so they can get it right sometimes!

We bought our tickets from CAA (candian version of the automobile club) and got our tickets at par. I took my girl for her birthday, we are in our mid 20's so going to the magic kingdom is a little over the top in the cheese factor. As her birthday present I bought the extra tickets to go on the safari dining experience to feed the giraffes etc. and it came with food vouchers for a sit down (air conditioned) meal at the crown colony restaurant. The safari was great and well worth it, I have about 50 pictures of giraffe tounge right in our faces. On to the lunch, I paid and extra $20 for the vocuhers . . . but we ended up getting anything on the menu . . . so fillet migon and apps and desert it was (if we were paying it would have been a $60 meal but we scored it for only $40. (by the way the food and service were excellent and gentlemen was playing the piano the whole time we were there.

Since most of the day was spent on the safari and lunch we really only got to check out a small portion of the park, they had a promo running where you could get a week long pass if you traded in your one day ticket. So we came back the next day and checked out all the shows and roller coasters and water rides. Katonga was a great show, if you have ever seen the lion king in theatre it is comparible (for a theme park).

We practically walked on to every ride except for rhino rally and the water rapids ride, I would highly recommend this experience to anyone at this time of year (Mid-Late February)