Busch Gardens Tampa in 2022 | The Adventuring Abbeys Vlog

We knew that after spending 3 (magical, wonderful) days at Walt Disney World, our next amusement park destination would disappoint.
And as fun and beautiful as Busch Gardens Tampa is, it (kind of) did.
Disney just sets the bar SO INCREDIBLY HIGH when it comes to quality, atmosphere, and guest satisfaction that no other theme park can possibly come close. (Universal does do a stellar job, but I’m biased towards Disney, so we’ll leave it there.)

Knowing all of this, we had set our expectations on the “average-to-lower” end of the scale for our day at Busch Gardens Tampa. And, that’s unfortunately about where the day landed: the food lines were slow & long, operations were painful, and there were about 5,000 school-aged kids running through the park, acting like .. well: school-aged kids without their parents oversight.

Regardless: we still had a great day.

We visited Busch Gardens Tampa last year, but we had to return in 2022 because Iron Gwazi has FINALLY opened. Braelynn was actually tall enough to ride Iron Gwazi (her first RMC) and Cheetah Hunt this year – so that was fun!

Unfortunately, our day did get cut short due to storms that rolled in and shut the park down. But overall, it was a good stepping-stone-park to break us out of our Disney fantasy bubble & get back to the “real world” of amusement parks!

Of course, what is a post without photos? Here are a few of the highlights of our day both from my iPhone 12 Pro and “big” camera (I have a Canon R6).

This concludes our tour of “Florida” amusement parks.
We did stop at one last park on our way back home – so stay tuned!