Busch Gardens PTR

[CMonster]

Sorry for the bad quality pics, I was using my phone and was rushed by impatient kiddies.

Well, yesterday me and my family and my brother's friend went to BGA. We got there at about 10:30 and the park was completely empty. Yay for homeschooled pass holders!! :wink:

We found out they were re-paving the tram road so our tram went on this long route that eventually got us to the park entrance. There we saw this guy:

And, of course my brothers just had to stop and high five him. :roll:

Then we saw these:

Christmas in... November.

So, the boys split up from my mom and sisters, and went to Montu. On the way, the young 'uns decided to stop to see the alligators, nothing new there.

Look at those dumb kids! :lol:

So, we walked past

A horse and

The Crown Colony Restraunt,

and finally made it to Montu!

Where I finally realized that the station was themed to some sort of archaeological dig site.

Of course, I got back row and my brothers got front, so I got right on and they had to wait.

It was fab as usual, lots of fun. They were only running one train, and there were only two people in the back row line (showing how empty it was), so I kinda just switched seats and rode again. :lol:

I came to the conclusion that the far left seat of the back row is alot better than the far right seat of the back row and the best seat in the house.

Some Montu theming.

So, we decided to go to Sheikra by means of the skyride. First, however, we wandered into the Tut's tomb giftshop, where I found this price tag:

I know it's hard to see, but it says $425.

Skyride times were to be had, and I got this awesome picture of Philip, my brothers' friend, as my gondola was pulling out of the station:

Lot's of pictures from the skyride:

The train!!

Gwazi.

Sheikra.

Kumba.

Then, we got to the turnaround and were almost speared by these bull things with crazy long horns.

Kumba again, closer up.

So, we got to Sheikra...

...and got on it first in the back row, then in the front. The front row was the longest of the day, a whole whopping three minutes. :--D

I managed to snag a (very bad) picture of my ORP from the front row:

(I'm in green and my brother's in the blue and orange.)

Then, we headed towards Kumba, stopping at the bumper cars first.

I am the ultimate expert in bumper cars manuevering. :wink:

Kumba was CLOSED!! :x so we went to Timbuktu, as it was close by. Got on Cheetah Chase

with which I have a love-hate relationship, and then went to Pirates 4-D, which still doesn't impress me.

We then went to meet up with my mom, who happened to be on the carousel a few yards away. Scorpion was next:

I got to ride in the front row with my almost- five yr. old sister, Sophia:

She is destined to become a coaster enthusiast someday. :lol:

As always, she loved it, and wanted to ride again.

So, my mom said we could do one more ride, and we picked Montu. Took the skyride back, where I observed the longest line of the day (it was for the tiger viewing thing in Jungala :lol: ) and quickly walked towards the ride.

More awesome theming.

Me and my brother, Zack (the one in the blue and orange) got the second to last row, while Philip and my other brother Nick got back. While they were waiting to get on, me and Zack quickly hopped back on, for my fourth ride of the day. I made another observation that Montu is better anywere in the train, as long as you're on the left side.

To finish this off, here are two parting pictures:

The tram stop sign (random, I know).

A cool picture of Montu's drop.

An overview of rides:

Montu x 4
Sheikra x 2
Cheetah Chase x 1
Scorpion x 1
Pirates 4D x 1
Skyride x 2

P.S. Remember that these pictures were taken with a phone, so the quality isn't the best.

 

[CreditCrazy]

Nice TR. Do you know if BGT has a schedule for when they close certain rides in the off season?

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

I enjoyed reading that.. For some reason I don't often see many Busch Gardens PTR, at least for the Florida version . It's awesome that you got no lines, and it sounds like it was a pretty chill day. I regret missing out on going there when I was in Florida, but I was eight and I wouldn't have went on much anyway, though I do plan on going back! The pictures were pretty enjoyable despite the quality, haha.

Your sister is such a doll, too. You're lucky she goes on rides and stuff. I tried to get my little sister into that when I could (she's almost 6), but right now she's too scared to go on much of anything. She has there credits though, but probably wouldn't dream of reriding any of them!

 

[RCF]

It's a great report. You suck for being a homeschooled season pass holder (I'm a public school Hispanic too poor to afford a season pass :wink: ) Sucks that Kumba was closed though but you're pictures are CRAP

Lucky.

 

[nadroJ]

To be fair, even on a busy day at BGA, I've never queued horrendous amounts. Looks like you had fun though. And booooo to Kumba being closed, I would have cried =[

 

[CMonster]

I enjoyed reading that.. For some reason I don't often see many Busch Gardens PTR, at least for the Florida version . It's awesome that you got no lines, and it sounds like it was a pretty chill day. I regret missing out on going there when I was in Florida, but I was eight and I wouldn't have went on much anyway, though I do plan on going back! The pictures were pretty enjoyable despite the quality, haha.

Your sister is such a doll, too. You're lucky she goes on rides and stuff. I tried to get my little sister into that when I could (she's almost 6), but right now she's too scared to go on much of anything. She has there credits though, but probably wouldn't dream of reriding any of them!

Thanks, and you just pretty much described my eight year old sister, except she doesn't ride anything in the first place.

Nice TR. Do you know if BGT has a schedule for when they close certain rides in the off season?

I don't think that they close any rides at all unless there are weather conditions or technical difficulties. The only rides scheduled for annual maintenance are Congo River Rapids (now- Nov. 20) and the Skyride (Nov. 30- Dec. 18)

It's a great report. You suck for being a homeschooled season pass holder (I'm a public school Hispanic too poor to afford a season pass ) Sucks that Kumba was closed though but you're pictures are CRAP

It's not my fault, my phone isn't exactly made for taking pictures, and I just decided to do it like as we were walking off of the tram. So, there. :wink:

To be fair, even on a busy day at BGA, I've never queued horrendous amounts. Looks like you had fun though. And booooo to Kumba being closed, I would have cried =[

I know, I don't get why BGA never has very many long queues. :? And I was pretty sad, although I was laughing at the time, as they had closed down that whole island since none of the rides were working and they had this big dude posted at the bridge herding everybody away. :lol:

 

[yinyang]

Some great photos there, and a good PTR. What was the 425 price tag for?

 

[bezzzzzer]

How the hell did you get your sister to ride Scorpion! I easy would've thought she was too small, what's the restriction?

Why the noticable absence of Gwazi? Or are you one of those peeps who think that question kind of answers itself?

 

[CMonster]

Some great photos there, and a good PTR. What was the 425 price tag for?

A gold statue thing. :lol: I would have definetely paid a good amount of money just to see the faces of people in the park seeing me walking around with it. :lol:

How the hell did you get your sister to ride Scorpion! I easy would've thought she was too small, what's the restriction?

Why the noticable absence of Gwazi? Or are you one of those peeps who think that question kind of answers itself?

I think it's like 42", not sure though. She barely is tall enough.

Gwazi's not that bad, it's good for a ride or two, after that though it hurts. I'm not sure why we didn't ride it, though. :?

 

[theRock-steel]

I was there at BGA on Monday and I had an only slightly different experience. Again there was hardly anyone in the park. Closer to holidays, during spring break, and in the middle of the summer would have been a different story. I have seen 40 minute waits for most coasters, the water rides, and Rhino Rally. On my day, I could see a lot more going on for Christmas. The tree at the front was completely done (not just green). The Crown Colony had a "tree" of flowers in front of it and there were red bows everywhere around.
It was pretty warm so I started with two water rides. I was the only one in my log on the flume ride and I was the only one in the boat on the raft ride. (The water fall still managed to find me even though it had the rest of the empty thing to get; ha, ha.)
For me, Kumba was next. The Skyride was the ride that was closed for me (as you pointed out that it would be). I love those things but I don't get to see them in very many parks anymore (so said). Anyway, this old sit down was loud as normal but still very good. As with the entire "first round" of coaster rides, I went for the front row. The wait was only about 12 minutes for any of them. After getting on SheiKra next, I have decided to increase its rating. It's a bit short and its brother in Virginia is better, but this one is now a 7. Gwazi may be rough and not a very good GCI, but the worst coaster by that builder is still better than many other woodens. After finding a way to better fit on Scorpion, I have also drawn the conclusion that it doesn't stink as much as I thought. I now rate it a 5 which is up from a 3.
My son's daughters go to the Disney parks with me all the time. (Yes, I'm that old; call me "papa".) The one is like your baby sister, but she won't do loops. She is funny; she loves Everest and Big Thunder Mountain but won't go near RRC, Splash Mountain, or Space Mountain ever again.
Cheetah Chase had a line of kids waiting for it during the early afternoon. I went back to it later. It's still a wild mouse; is there much more to say? I didn't see Pirates 4D this time; it's pretty stupid. Going on Rhino Rally was the only thing I did to give much time for a major animal encounter. There was good news and bad news. I walked right on to the last seat, but the water ride within the attraction was broken. Oh well, the driver was still very funny and we saw many big critters.
Montu is my favorite there. Even though I have ridden many B&M inverts, this one is still number 3 of that whole list. That was the good news. I tried to ride it in the morning just after the water rides, Kumba, and Sheikra. It was down; they were testing but no one was on it. I went to the small stuff in the middle of the park that I have already talked about. After going back "to give it a try", I waited just a short time (20 minutes) for two quick runs in the front and back. I prefer to ride inverts in the front for the sites, but the back of this one is very wild. After going around again to get on the back row of everything else, I "tried" Montu again 40 minutes before park closing. People were stuck on the mid course break run. For me this was unusual; I haven't been around a B&M when they are having problems for a long time at different points during the day. Like I said, I had done everything else and this is the best. I waited it out. Just in the last few minutes, I got two quick rides in the second from the last row and the second row. (Thank you God ! )

That day's ride count:
Stanley Falls .. 1
Congo River Rapids .. 1
Kumba .. 2
SheiKra .. 2
Gwazi, Lion (no one working Tiger) .. 2
Scorpion .. 2
Cheetah Chase .. 1
Rhino Rally .. 1
Montu .. 4

 

[HarryBoyy]

Koool trip