Busch Gardens - Planning a Trip

We recently got back from our family vacation at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, VA. We had a wonderful time as documented at the MOMMBY Blog - Busch Gardens Family Vacation. We would highly recommend Busch Gardens and Water Country USA for a week long family vacation. Our 4 year old and 21 month old had a wonderful time.

Kid/ Baby Friendly How Much? Coupons & Other Discounts Rides Entertainment Food Water Country USA Things to Bring How Long to Stay? Places to Stay Year Round Activities

Busch Gardens also supported a child swap program where you could take turns riding. One parent can wait with the child who is not riding while the rest of the family boards and rides. After the family finishes the ride and exit the remaining parent is allowed to board the next available seat. Make sure you let the ride operator know you are doing a child swap before you exit the ride. We did not have any trouble using the child swap program. It did not appear that many parents were aware of this option as it is not highly publicized at the rides. We enjoyed riding the adult roller coasters.

If you are not able to bring a stroller, Busch Gardens will rent one to you. We always prefer to save money and bring our own stroller but many families utilized this service.
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How Much? Coupons & Other Discounts
There are several different ticket options you can buy to get entrance at Busch Gardens. We found that the Discovery Ticket for $84.99 was the best ticket for our family. With the discover ticket you get unlimited visits to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA plus FREE parking for seven consecutive days. You could also do both parks on the same day!

For my four year old I signed up on the homepage of Busch Gardens for the Preschool Pass (kids 3 - 5 years old) which enabled him to go to both Busch Gardens and Water Country USA for FREE! This is a special offer for Virginia residents and it does not always include Water Country USA.

All kids under 2 are FREE to both Busch Gardens and Water Country USA.

Another option is to buy the Bounce Ticket for $129.50 or $103.60 (if bought online at the website) which includes admission to Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, Colonial Williamsburg, and FREE parking. What is great about this ticket option is if your order online with this ticket you can order a ticket for a child 5 and under for FREE as the child ticket price of $86.80 apples to children 6-12 years old and an infant ticket of $0.00 applies to children ages 0-5. You have to order an adult ticket in order to get the infant ticket. So even if you do not plan to go to Colonial Williamsburg this may be a great ticket for your family.

If you are only interested in attending Busch Gardens and not Water Country USA then the Busch Gardens Fun Card for $66.99 which includes unlimited visits all summer (for the cost of a one day ticket!) would be a great option for you.

We bought our Discovery Ticket at Costco for $67 (an additional savings of $17.99) and I thought this was a fabulous deal for an adult ticket for Busch Gardens, Water Country, and FREE parking for seven consecutive days. The cost of the ticket was basically the cost of what parking would have been each day!

AAA also offers discounted tickets. Even my gym membership offers discounted tickets and discounted Meal Plans.
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Rides
Shortly after you first enter the park you can get your child's height checked and they will then give the child a wrist band that corresponds to the rides she will be allowed to ride. My husband and I also enjoyed the roller coasters although I definitely learned I can't do the roller coasters over and over like I enjoyed as a kid.

There are many kidsiderate™ attractions for children. Our 4 year old enjoyed Sesame Street Forest of Fun where he could get pictures with his favorite Sesame Street characters. He also loved some of the rides/ play areas such as Elmo's Castle - water playground, Oscar's Yucky Forest - play area, and Bert and Ernie's Loch Adventure - a water ride. He even got up the nerve to ride Oscar's Whirly Worms. I think next year he'll enjoy Prince Elmo's shot-n-drop ride and Grover's Alpine Express - roller coaster.

Meeting Bert	Meeting Big Bird	1 Year Old Not Sure What She Thinks...	4 Year Old Enjoying Ride

One of our favorite play areas was the Land of the Dragons! Our 1 year old who wasn't entirely sure about the rides loved the climbing nets and tree house and the water playground area in this location. Our 4 year old had a blast riding all of the kid's rides.

Flying on a Dragon	I'm Good at Driving a Lady Bug	I Can Also Drive a Boat

In Oktoberfest/ Germany our 4 year old enjoyed the miniature planes and the kiddie bumper cars. I'm not sure how I don't have a picture of him riding the miniature planes as it was probably the ride he rode the most at the park. The kiddie swings were great for really little ones as they went very slow. Both of my kids loved the antique Herschell Carousel.

In Italy our 4 year old tried the kiddie gliders. He wasn't sure what to think when Daddy had to get off the ride and he had to ride it himself. Parents can ride on this ride if you ride on the normal sitting gliders but not on the laying gliders. There were some other great rides in Italy such as the teacups, kiddie balloons, and a gondola swing but I think our 4 year old was upset he had to ride the glider by himself that he didn't want to do any other rides in Italy.

Kiddie Gliders

Another favorite ride was the miniature Clydesdale carousel which our 4 year old rode about 15 times (with Granddad watching him) while we rode the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster.

Clydesdale Carousel

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Entertainment
Busch Gardens does not just have rides, there is also great entertainment for the entire family. Our kids enjoyed the "Sunny Days Celebration!" at Elmo's Castle in Sesame Street Forest of Fun, "More...Pet Shenanigans" at Shenanigans Theatre in Jack Hanna's Wild Reserve, and they enjoyed eating dinner while watching"Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm" at Das Festhaus in Oktoberfest. I think they would have also enjoyed "Celtic Fyre" in Ireland and "Mix It Up!" in Italy. Erik and I enjoyed all of the shows!

Sunny Days Celebration!	Pet Shenanigans	Celtic Fyre (Image provided by Busch Gardens)	Mix It Up! (Image provided by Busch Gardens)	Entwined (Image provided by Busch Gardens)	Voila! (Image provided by Busch Gardens)	Giardino (Image provided by Busch Gardens)

We also enjoyed the nightly IllumiNights shows and the fireworks finale. Our favorite place to watch the fireworks was either on the bridge from Oktoberfest to Italy or down on the dock near where the Rhine River Cruise leaves. Also, if you are anxious to get home, the parking lot offers a great view of the fireworks and then you can beat some of the traffic out of the park.
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Food
We love buying prepaid meal plans for vacation. It is just one less thing you have to worry about spending money on once you are on vacation. The kids loved the "Dine with Elmo & Friends" ($22/ adult or $17/ child) and enjoyed the shows done by their favorite Sesame Street characters. Our 4 year old loved getting his picture with all of the characters and although our 1 year old was afraid of the characters up close, I think she enjoyed the shows and would say - Abbey, Elmo...she just wasn't ready for a hug from them. The buffet food was good with lots of choices for the kids such as roasted chicken, hot dogs, mac n' cheese, salad, baked potatoes, noodles, fruit, and special Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes for dessert. I have heard that the "Dine with Elmo & Friends" can fill up so you may want to make reservations ahead of time.

Dine with Elmo (Image provided by Busch Gardens)	Meeting Abbey	Special After Dinner Treat	A little too close to Cookie Monster for our 1 Year Old

Prior to leaving, on the Busch Gardens website we bought two Meal Deal Package valued at $27.49/ person which included one souvenir cup (refillable for $0.99), one lunch certificate, and one dinner certificate. With each lunch or dinner certificate you received an entree, one side dish, and a medium drink. We also purchased one platinum dining certificate valued at $14.99 which entitled you to an entree, two side dishes, and a medium drink.

I thought the meal deal tickets were worth purchasing but I'm glad we didn't buy too many ahead of time since we were very happy with the portion sizes and even though both Erik and I can have big appetites most of the time we could use one meal ticket and share the entree and side dish. Plus that enabled us to save a little room for a special after dinner treat. For example, one meal at Das Festhaus included three large German sausages, a large portion of German potato salad, pickled cabbage, sauerkraut, and a roll or in Italy you could get the sampler which included chicken parmesan, spaghetti, and cannelloni.

Our favorite treats included the apple pie waffle at at Das Edelweiss (Rhinefeld location) (the only funnel cake place that we found where you got tons of toppings for basically the price of a regular waffle at the other locations) and we enjoyed the brownie ice cream sundae at La Grande Glace (in France) which made the sundaes with hand-scooped ice cream rather than soft serve. We enjoyed all of the baked goods selections as one of our side dishes and one of my four year old's favorite side dishes was the giant container of fresh strawberries with cool whip on top.

I do not believe you save any money with the kid's meal certificate for $5.99 and we did not buy any kid's meals while we were there. Instead of buying a kid's meal, we would get a kid friendly entree such as the combination platter in Italy which we would all share or just buy a slice of pizza for the kids to share.
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Water Country USA
Originally I was not sure if we would do Water Country USA as my 4 year old use to not love water slides and I was not sure if there would be enough to do for my 1 year old. I am so glad we got the Discovery Ticket which allowed us to go to Water Country USA. My kids loved Water Country USA!! There were several different kid's play areas from the Cow-A-Bunga area to H20 UFO, to Kritter Korral. Our favorite place was Kritter Korral. Next year we will also want to do Rock n' Roll Island. The kids also loved the Hubba Hubba Highway (similar to a lazy river) but it goes faster than most lazy rivers and you wear life jackets to float along.

It was also nice that there were a lot of bigger kid friendly water slides that allows the kids to ride with you. Some of our favorite little kid's slides are shown below:

1 Year Old Ready for Water Slide	What a Splash!	I'm Ready...	Thank you for your help Daddy!	Not so sure about this anymore...

Here I Come...	Look at Me!	This May Be More Fun than the Slide	Can I Do this Again?	Another Great Slide!	A Whale of a Good Time	What a Great Day!

Getting a Shower	Just Lounging Around	I Like this Water Snake	This Alligator Is Pretty Cool

Things to Bring
Besides the standard diaper bag you may want to bring...

• Bathing suits with swimming diapers if needed - there are a lot of splash parks in Busch Gardens and it is a great opportunity for the kids to cool off
  • Water Shoes (optional)
• Towel (one for Busch Gardens) and one per family member for Water Country USA
• Change of clothes for the kids
• Water bottles
• Souvenir Drink Cups - to have refilled with water for the kids or our favorite a mix of sweet tea and unsweetened tea for the adults
• Favorite Life Jacket for Water Country USA (they are provided but if you know your kid likes his special one you may want to bring your own.)
• Picnic/ Snack Foods - If you prefer you can leave the park and eat your own picnic lunch in the parking lot. You are not allowed to bring food into the park.

How Long to Stay
We booked our trip to stay for a week. Most people were surprised when we said we were going to Busch Gardens for a week as most people think of it as a weekend type trip. I actually think a week would be the perfect amount of time for a family. You can do Busch Gardens for a few days and Water Country USA for a few days. That would allow you sufficient time to see all of the entertainment shows, do the kid's rides, maybe do a child swap and ride a few of the adult roller coasters, and alternate between Busch Gardens and Water Country USA and/or maybe take a day off and relax at the place you are staying.

We actually only had our kids for half of the trip this year as the Grandparents graciously took our kids home with them so Erik and I could enjoy some time to ourselves; although, in hindsight, I would have actually kept the kids. I enjoyed watching them play on the various attractions more than riding the rides myself (geez I am getting old). Although it was a great opportunity for Erik and me to eat kid-free meals, be able to eat our food before it got cold, have some adult conversation, and just relax.
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Places to Stay
You won't have trouble finding a place to stay in Williamsburg, VA. You will just need to decide whether you are staying a a regular hotel, a fancy kid indoor water resort like Great Wolf Lodge, or do what we did and stay at a local campground.

We stayed at Chickahominy Riverfront Park. Our site was right along the river and we enjoyed watching the boats ride by our campsite. They had a very nice swimming pool (which we didn't use), boat access, and even a driving range. We selected this location because if we had kept the kids all week we wanted to have a nice place to let the kids relax and hang out one day to recover from going to the parks. The campground was along the bike trail and Erik and I did bike the trail 6 miles to Jamestown one morning. If you are looking for a fairly inexpensive place to stay with outdoor amenities, I would recommend Chickahominy Riverfront Park.

You can also contact a Busch Gardens representative and pay for a package deal and get your stay and park passes together.
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Year Round Activities
Busch Gardens is not just a place to visit in the summer months. They also have special events around Halloween time from 9/14/12 - 10/28/12 Busch Gardens celebrates Howl-O-Scream and also around Christmas from 11/23/12 - 12/31/12 they celebrate Christmas Town. We hope to attend Christmas Town this year.

Howl-O-Scream (Image provided by Busch Gardens)	Christmas Town (Image provided by Busch Gardens)