Busch Gardens Summer '23

Having just got back from a week of Disney World, the trip was not quite over for us yet! The family all had season passes for Busch Gardens, so this was an easy thing to tack on while visiting. Our initial thought was to not get too many Minty pictures, but we wound up getting a bunch anyway.

Gotta get the intro pic. The cool fountain at the entrance says Welcome to the World's Most Beautiful Theme Park! Which is some kind of award they win in some kind of theme park magazine or something, every year. I feel like they might need to explain that? But I kinda know it's legit, from somewhere.

We bought the meal plan. I won't do math here, but basically you buy this and then get free meals. Between lunch and dinner and snacks and free sodas every 90 minutes, this was going to save us money. Who wants to do math at a theme park?

We wandered through the gift shop so I thought I'd snap some shirt pics. I feel like this Elmo shirt is mimicing some kind of thing, I'm not sure what though. It looks too art-sy to be original to Elmo.

Who would think they'd have a shirt for the log flume ride? Cool! Notice the big saw blade faded into the background. I think it's been removed from the ride? It used to be hanging in front of the logs and pulled up right before you hit it, and the drop. I can't remember if it's not there anymore, or just there, but up-high all the time now. 

This shirt is for the snack stand Les Frite's which is in France and they serve French Fries, or I guess they just call them Here Fries? It's got the Le Mans Raceway car on it, which is something only old park veterans would recognize.

Speaking of old, I couldn't believe they had a Questor shirt! That's another OLD ride that's no longer here, but the spot it used to be in is currently closed, and there are rumors they might actually bring back Questor in some kind of new version. But that's just a rumor. If I could add I'd be excited to see a new Questor, just in case anybody would ask, yes, that would be awesome.

Bacon Cheeseburger! We scouted out this place last time, but they were closed. Not closed today! Time for some lunch.

Check out the cost! ZERO! Thanks to our meal plan, of course. We get the meal and a snack, so the mozzarella sticks are included. This one single meal filled us up so much, we already started to question the value of the meal plan.

We were giving fries to the squirrels coming down from the nearby trees. Yeah, I know, don't feed the wildlife. But surely these squirrels are already spoiled by generous tourists, so are they really "wild" at this point?

BOOM! Escape from Pompeii was running. We did not go on it, but you know you get more wet standing on the bridge than on the ride, so we did do the bridge part.

Art Rose $85 at the fancy gift shop in Italy. Very neat but very expensive. Make sure you know what rose colors mean before you get one of these to give to someone. Yellow is for friendship. Purple is for love at first sight, like a bold surprise reveal.

Masquerade masks. Did I mention before I'm a fan of these? Not sure why, if I had to guess I think they just look cool, but is that really enough of a reason? Could it be that one scene from my favorite movie Labyrinth? Did it leave an impression on me in my youth?

We watched the music show in Italy. Recognized the people from the Christmas show, so it's nice they get to keep working a variety of shows all year.

We were in a "show mood" that day, so after the show in Italy, we had to rush back over to Ireland. In the middle of the park next to the horse stables, there's a new canopy of kites overhead. What an amazing addition. It looks good, and provides shade without covering up the light. Kudos to the engineer who thought of this!

This is not new, but still an impressive massive fountain off of the bridge over to Ireland.

Got a picture before the show started. So I wouldn't be distracted during the show. Along with the cool step-dancing, I remember that one of the singers was obviously super talented, and if I was like, a show producer or something, it would be one of those moments where you'd found the new star for that show I'd been planning. Or something like that. Go watch the show, and you should know who I was talking about.

This tree is outside a gift shop in Ireland, this used to be THE "stuffed animal" shop. For the longest time, this hollow was covered over, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it open again! I mean, I'm all grown up now, it would be silly to crawl in there not being a kid and all.

But, you know I had to sneak in there for a Minty pic! Another surprise, there's a speaker in here and the tree is talking to you! Good memories for the kids, of course.

Hot nurse t-shirt? This is from a Howl-o-Scream thing. It's the middle of summer but they still have some Halloween stuff in the gift shops.

We all like the medieval themed gift shops in Ireland. Full of classic creepy castle stuff.

Even though the Big Bad Wolf coaster has been gone for quite some time, they still have regular non-big-bad wolves in the park. So they can get some merch, too.

D'oh! The wolves have the day off. They get to stay inside and watch TV all day?

Did I mention it was a hundred degrees outside? Yeah, pretty hot. This was early July, so that's expected. The water-spewing fans were a life saver.

Not on the meal plan, but I splurged on the Dippin' Dots. It was so hot outside! Worth it? Um... probably. Maybe I didn't need the large size, but certainly hit the spot. The meal plan got you a free soda every 90 minutes, but that was not soon enough on such a hot day.

The newest ride, Darkoaster was running! But, we all had very little sleep the night before. An intense ride might have not gone over that well, so we purposefully chose to postpone our try, so we wouldn't be influenced by a bad experience. Did that make sense? If we got all dizzy we'd blame the ride and not our lack of restfulness.

Oh! I sadly notice it. Not what is there,... but what is missing. It would have been visible over the top of the arcade.

In the middle of that eating area over there, that's where the Mach Tower used to be. Let's pause and remember that awesome ride.

Last time we were here, we missed out on the hand-made pretzels. So it was a target we were going to hit for sure this time. Part of the meal plan, got this pepperoni cheese pretzel, which again, was very filling! We were all still full up from the cheeseburgers, but still managed to eat most of these big pretzel snacks. 

D'oh! This graphic for Oktoberfest still has an image of the Mach Tower! Should we tell them? Or should we check back later in the year to see if they've noticed?

Boat time! It doesn't actually go anywhere, just up the river and back again. If this was Disney, it would take us back to the hotel.

Why don't I remember the tables? It was so odd, I actually asked the crew as we exited the boat. They said they are new but from a couple of years ago. I've been on the boats during that time, why didn't I remember the tables?

Taking the skyride and notice the better view of the kite canopy thing. Check out the shadow pattern on the ground. Neat.

We were seperated from our group, and while trying to find them, we wandered into the way-back part of the giant Festhaus eating place. There's a whole big room back here for beer tastings or something. Is this a secret bar? It was more strange that it was empty at the moment.

The unexpected highlight of the day was when we sheepishly went to check on the Roman Rapids, and found out it was RUNNING! That ride had been closed for years, rumored to have been waiting on new boat car things which had been unavailable. Whatever reasons it was, we were shocked.

It was a hot day, but the sun was setting, so drying off was not as sure of a thing as it might have been a short time ago. Regardless, I was jumping up and down with excitement. This had been closed for so long, that there were rumors it was going to be scrapped.

My friend's fun story of this ride: Typically, you don't get "very" wet on it, but the ending can be tricky. On a previous visit, he mocked the ride while waiting in line, claiming nobody gets wet, but then at the end, he got hit by all four waterfalls. When he got off the ride, he was sitting in a puddle of water, so wet he might as well have dove in the river. That didn't happen today, but the tension is real. Real fun, of course.

Another thing to get excited about, the water cannons are back, too! Along this stretch of the Roman Rapids, you can put a quarter in this thing, and launch a nice arc of water into the path. Practice and patience will make sure you nail somebody good. I have a friend who used to bring rolls of quarters here and chill out all day doing this. 

Where is this?! They are doing construction of some kind along the giant bridge between Italy and Germany. This usually has great views of the lake, it's so strange that it's all covered up like this.

Dinner at the Festhaus. I remembered to get the amazing Mac n Cheese. Final report on the Meal Plan? We did get enough food and snacks that it did wind up saving us money. And for what we got and what they charge, quite a bit of money. But I don't think we were "hungry enough" to have enjoyed it for all it could be. Maybe the mistake was having such a massive lunch? And the meal plan didn't include every little place, so it steers you away from things you might have wanted. Still, I'm glad we tried it.

Whoa! Did not expect to see any retro merchandise for Drachen Fire! That ride was famously so-terrible, that they closed it down after only a few years. And utterly erased it from the park. Gone completely like it was never there.

On the other hand, everybody has fond memories of the Big Bad Wolf. It was taken down due to old age, and replaced with Verbolten. So it's kind of still here, in spirit, but people still miss it.

Disco Minty! The park was closing so get the heck outta here!

One last picture as we browse the gift shop on the way out. Is this the new "Drachen Fire" of the park? Tempesto was not a very comfortable ride, to be nice. Be careful if you dare try it, both of my friends left it with massive headaches. The shirt looks cool, at least?

Well, the night was not quite over yet. After we left our family's house, on the way back to other family's house, we got stuck in traffic. Not the regular kind of traffic. 

There's a bridge-tunnel thing which is under construction, and this night it was completely stopped. The construction is much needed, they are expanding this road/bridge/tunnel because the only other option is a very long way to get around this. It was a torture of any-time-now, we'll start moving again... nope.

You'd think that there's no way they could stop traffic, like a parking lot, for a full hour. But here we are! A FULL HOUR. Sitting in the car, waiting. It wasn't too long before we turned off the car. The worst part was the lack of information, even with Internet on the phone, the government web site was not updated with any info, and various local news sites had nothing either. The whole experience was um... a great lesson in dealing with frustration. Others might say... a total nightmare? Ugh, I'm glad it's over now. Let's not forget our fun day at Busch Gardens!