Giraffe love
The days of major theme parks being a Mecca for gluttony and laziness are in the past. Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida offers a huge variety of active opportunities for the family who wants to play hard, laugh hard and get some adrenaline pumping as well. I recently spent the day at BG with my husband, Rob, and two children; Ginger is 8 and Parker is 6. Amazingly, even with our drastic age gaps, we all had a full-blown blast. We shared close interactions with animals, rode the wildest roller coasters in the state of Florida, climbed through enormous rope courses and dined on healthy meals. Nice eh?
Our day began with a special educational tour called the Serengeti Safari, in which we boarded the open end of a truck and drove in to an animal preserve where we literally got to feed and hug giraffes! Can you imagine HUGGING A GIRAFFE? I assure you, that great big neck is very soft and cozy. These ginormous animals were gentle, funny and eager to enjoy the lettuce leaves we were given to feed them. It was a wondrous experience and we all were in awe by this marvelous opportunity.
Climbing in Jungala
We then hit a few roller coasters, old and new, and fortunately our six year old son is 48 inches tall, which allows him on most of the big stuff. The rides he didn’t qualify for were probably a tad too intense anyway, so we weren’t heart-broken. We enjoyed the Scorpion (an oldie but goodie), the Congo River Rapids (soaking) and then ventured over to Busch Garden’s new roller coaster, Cheeta Hunt (insane). This ride was ridiculously smooth, yet whipped us around like we were preparing to launch in to space. Parker giggled his head off the whole time, while the grown man behind me screamed like a baby. Super fun for everyone! With a height restriction the kids didn’t qualify for, my husband took on the SheiKra roller coaster by himself. He came off like a giddy school boy wishing he could do it again. So funny. While we waited for him to complete his wild ride, the kids played in the massive splash created every time the SheiKra zoomed through a pool of water. Excellent relaxation time for yours truly.
After riding a ton of rides, we ventured in to an area called “Jungala” which offers a three-story maze of rope bridges and nets for kids (and their parents) to climb. After a long day of walking, riding and or standing in line … this opportunity to run, climb, wiggle and jump was more than welcome. In fact, we spent far more than an hour of our day there and had to physically drag the kids out. If I lived right next to Busch Gardens, I’d buy an annual pass and take them daily just for some exercise. There’s also a huge section of the park for little kids called the “Sesame Street Safari of Fun”. It’s full of tot-friendly rides, a large climbing course and treehouse, a massive bounce house and a much-needed section for water play. My kids ran around this area forever. Not too big or cool for it. Not at all!
We enjoyed a bunch of other splashy rides and got to feed some friendly flamingos, but what really seemed like a special opportunity was when we went behind the scenes on a tour called the “Tiger and Orangutan Keeper Experience”. It was incredible to see how smart the apes were – they’re brighter than some humans I know. Getting incredibly close to a white bengal tiger who performed tricks, purred and even gave a superb growl before we left was excellent as well. The kids were mesmerized and so were all of the adults. This and the Serengeti Safari tour come at an additional cost, but I assure you … if you can afford it, these extras are well worth the price.
For food, we found plenty of salads, grilled chicken and fruit throughout the park. We even stumbled across a case full of gluten-free snacks, which I found pretty thoughtful. There’s plenty of not-so-healthy options too, but we just ignored those. I would hope you’d do the same. 😆 Overall, we had an incredibly active day at Busch Gardens which was full of fun, excitement, athletic adventures and creative entertainment. When planning the next vacation for your fit family, you can be sure that a trip to Busch Gardens will not disappoint.
