Blackfish: the downfall of Busch Gardens
As much as It pains me to say this; if there was one park I would happily skip on a future trip to Florida it would be Busch Gardens in Tampa.
From the perspective of a British enthusiast I've been aware of the Busch Gardens parks for as long as I can remember. They are in many ways America's answer to Alton Towers; Big name thrill rides (directly inspired by are own) set in beautiful surroundings.
Unfortunately Busch Gardens Tampa has suffered the same fate as our parks. The place reeked of budget cuts left, right and very noticeably the massive hole in the centre, formally home to Gwazi.
Staffing and ride operation was at a bare-minimum (Montu for example only ran a single train), not helped by Kumba being closed for late summer refurbishment?! Other areas hadn't fared much better with noticeable absences such as Rhino Rally and Tanganyika Tidal Wave. Overall the park felt empty and unloved, not at all what I hoped when I pictured visiting this formally magnificent park.
Blackfish and the resulting decisions by management are to blame. I'll get around to discussing Blackfish at a later date. What is important for this discussion is that Sea World has seen a massive hit to their attendance but it is Busch Gardens who is being "punished" for it.
The reason for this comes down to location. Tampa is isolated from the other attractions in central Orlando. Most visitors with a limited vacation time will not travel the extra distance. SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment are all to aware of this and have no doubt made the decision that despite the current situation at Sea World that park is still the more valuable of the two.
As a result despite both parks being fairly quiet Sea World felt like business as normal. All the rides were running at maximum capacity, the shows were running as normal and overall the park felt more alive. But for every attraction Sea World kept running Busch Gardens has had to make up for the cost.
I can understand the logic by SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, (I'd probably make the same decision myself) but it highlights the massive downside of having a multi-chain company that values one park over another.
The silver-lining is that some of Busch Gardens latest additions I found to be great rides. I've already mentioned Falcon's Fury and the new Mack spinner (Cobra's Curse) was an absolute delight. However until the current situation is resolved Busch Gardens feels like the lesser of the major Florida parks and as such my time would be better spent not travelling out to Tampa.
