Busch Gardens Tampa Bay: 60th Anniversary

Tampa, Florida: 2019 marks the 60th anniversary of a Tampa landmark. Since 1959, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has been serving up wild rides and wildlife. While the official anniversary date isn’t until March 31, the party has begun and there is no better time to visit.

Over the past sixty years, the park has transformed from an admission free gardens into a mega-theme park featuring over 20 rides and 8 roller coasters. Today you can see a glimpse into Busch Gardens past in the Bird Gardens area of the park, the original section of the park opened in 1959. But much of the park has since changed and continues to change. Even in the past ten years, the park has taken on a new look.

To fully experience everything that Busch Gardens has to offer, we took a tour around the park in a counter clock-wise fashion. Every trip to Busch Gardens begins and ends in Morocco. This is the parks entry point. Here is where you find shops and restaurants as well as the gateway to the Myombe Reserve. This walk through the jungle brings you into the reserve which is home to chimpanzees and gorillas. It is fun to watch these great apes and just see how much they are like us. They get excited about food and special people, just like me. They are playful just like us. These are some of the animals that I can watch over and over and never get tired of.

As you exit out to the reserve, you enter the Nairobi section of the park. Nairobi is home to a few exhibits that focus on the educational and veterinary efforts of Busch Gardens. Many people think of the thrilling rides when they think of Busch Gardens, but it is important to remember them for their conservation efforts, the primary focus of Busch Gardens. At Animal Connections, you can meet many of the animal ambassadors that travel and teach about conservation. This is home to not one, not two but five sloths. These slow-moving tree dwelling critters are a family favorite and today, one of them was pretty active, moving across his habitat and you know these guys are faster then what I had imagined. Nairobi is also home to one of Busch Gardens newer attractions, the Animal Care Center. This state-of-the-art veterinary facility provides care and treatment for not only park animals but animals throughout the Tampa Bay area. A cool feature about the center is the ability for guests to watch the procedures from a viewing area. But if you can’t make it to the park or if their veterinary care program interests you, you can watch these same doctors every week on the Wildlife Docs television show on Saturday morning on the CW.

In Nairobi, its time to hop aboard the Serengeti Express and take a ride around the park on the steam driving train. This train ride is one of three ways to get up close to the animals of the Serengeti Plain. The plain is home to free ranging safari animals like giraffes, zebras, antelope rhinos and more. The train ride is a 20-minute journey in which you can view the animals of the Serengeti as well as see an overview of the entire park. There are stops in Congo and Stanleyville if you’d like to use the train to save some steps in the park, or you can return back to Nairobi and pick up you trip right where you left off. That is what we decided to do.

Next up on the tour, is the Egypt section of the park. This is one of the lands that has the biggest transformation in the past ten years. This somewhat quieter section of the park has come to life with the addition of a few new thrill rides. Once only home to Montu, one of the nation’s top coasters, it is now home to three world class coasters with the addition of Cheetah Hunt and Cobra’s Curse. It is also home to the Cheetah Run, an animal habitat that lets you come face to face with land’s fastest animal. These slender big cats are capable of running at speeds in excess of 60 miles of hour and is the inspiration of the Cheetah Hunt roller coaster.

As you make your way through Egypt, the path opens up into the Edge of Africa. A walking wildlife attraction that brings the wilds of Africa into the big city of Tampa. Edge of Africa is home to meerkats, porcupines, hyenas, hippos, lemurs and of course the king of beasts, the African Lion.

In the center of the park is Pantopia. Once known as Timbuktu, Pantopia was born with the addition of Falcon’s Fury, North America’s largest drop ride featuring a 335 drop. Pantopia is also home to the park’s oldest roller coaster, Scorpion. Because of the layout of Pantopia, it is one of the more confined sections of the park but that helps it resemble a busy African marketplace

As you exit Pantopia, you then enter the Congo. This small section of the park is home to two of the parks more popular attractions, Kumba and the Congo River Rapids. This is also where you will find the Ubaga Banga Bumper Cars as well as the Congo station along the Serengeti Express.

Next on our adventure is Jungala. Jungala is the newest land added to Busch Gardens in 2008 and one of the most interactive exhibits. Jungala is home to a family of Tigers and Orangutans. On the tiger trail, you can observe these sleek cats from various angles, including an underground glass turret that allows you to pop up inside the habitat and view these amazing cats, who knows maybe you will be lucky enough to have one of these big cats catching a nap on top of the turret. If you want to sit and watch these guys for a bit, have a seat in the climate-controlled Tiger Lodge and watch these cats play, while escaping the Florida heat. Across the way is the Orangutan Outpost, an observation platform that lets you watch the orangutans. In addition to the animals of Jungala, there are a few family friendly rides including the Jungle Fliers and the Wild Surge.

We then headed into some of the older sections of the park. Stanleyville was added to the park in in 1973 with the addition of the Stanley Falls log flume ride. It is also home to SheiKra, the country’s first dive coast, dropping riders 200 feet at a 90-degree angle. It will also be home to Busch Gardens latest thrill, Tigris. Tigris is being constructed as the tallest launch coaster in Florida and is scheduled to open this year during the 60th anniversary celebration. Stanleyville is also home to the third train station along the Serengeti Express.

From the second oldest to the oldest, Bird Gardens is the original Busch Gardens. This area has remained a resemblance of the early days. Colorful gardens and birds exhibit are the highlights here. From a free flight aviary to a garden full of flamingos, this tranquil section of the park is a quiet oasis from the thrills of the rest of the park.

The final land of Busch Gardens is Sesame Street Safari of Fun. And fun it is for the little ones in your travel party. Rebranded from Land of Dragons, the Safari of Fun brings the fun of Sesame Street to life. Whether you mingle with Elmo and Friends, play in the splash pad, get lost on the climbing structure or get the biggest smiles on the rides, there is so much to see and do here your little guy will never want to leave.

Over the past sixty years, Busch Gardens has provided the Tampa Bay area with world class thrills and entertainment. Each year the park continues to grow and evolve to keep up with the needs and demands of park guests. It will be exciting to see what’s next for Busch Gardens.

If you want to visit Busch Gardens, a single day admission is $104.99 at the gate of $79.99 if you purchase online three or more days in advance. There are plenty of other ticket options like the fun card where you pay for a day and get the rest of the year free or annual passes that start at $10.99 a month. They are also currently offering a promotion in which you buy a fun card for Busch Gardens and get a fun card for Adventure Island for free.

Click on the photo above to view my Busch Gardens Tampa Bay photo gallery.