Today for my daughters birthday we drove up to Busch Gardens for the day. Being no stranger to the park, yet not a very frequent visitor, I had a bit of an expectation of how the day would go. However, the park left a lot to be desired.
For one, it was unexpectedly crowded today, and I realized Ive been lucky enough to only go to the park when everything is walk-on. Obviously thats out of the park's control and Im glad theyre doing good business. But seeing the park busy definitely shed some light on a lot of issues at BGT.
Some negatives were not necessarily the fault of the park, but things I noticed when having to share with so many other people. For one, the layout of the park is ridiculously nonsensical. Theres no sense of direction, you just kind of meander through random forests and very narrow pathways until you find a ride. It takes a good 10 minutes to walk from the front of the park to Sheikra with no notable attractions on the way there. I understand theres the employee parking lot in the middle of the park, but why? Why couldnt they put the parking lot where Kumba is and Kumba/Congo River Rapids/Jungala in the middle of the park? Also, a ride by where Montu is would be nice...its at a dead end far away, which makes little sense, but another ride there would make it worth it.
Layout aside, there are lots of things Busch Gardens could fix with better management. First off, it would be great to do what SeaWorld is doing and raise ticket prices to weed out the "riff raff" for lack of a better word. Too many unsavory people crowd the place. Also, I'd love to go to a theme park in South America, because there are apparently no such thing as waiting in line there.
Second, the staff is terribly rude. No "how are you"s, no "have a nice days", just very unpleasant people everywhere. I get that working in a theme park isnt the most fun thing to do, but hiding how miserable you are would be nice.
Worst of all, Busch Gardens has to be the most inefficient place on Earth. Ive been to lots of parks, none of them have lines that move as slow as at Busch Gardens. Getting food is a nightmare unless you love standing in line without moving. The rides are also terribly inefficient--in the morning Montu posted an hour long wait and was only running one freakin train...seriously? Other lines that should have been quick took forever because it takes Busch employees forever to load a vehicle and get it going. At one point, we were waiting in line for the wild mouse, which broke down...yet nobody bothered announcing it. We just noticed people stopped being allowed to enter. Ridiculous.
Now, thats not to say we didnt have a good time. They still boast a solid collection of roller coasters. And Sheikra is not a victim of poor capacity/efficiency which is nice. I also like how that ride has an attendant to direct people to assigned seats...really wish all rides had this. But it was a good day, the park looks ok and the food is decent. But like I said, it leave something to be desired.