Busch Gardens Europe

We had the privilege to visit Busch Gardens Europe last weekend (26 July 2008) during a break on a recent business trip. Busch Gardens Europe is located in the historic Williamsburg / Jamestown area of Viriginia about 160 miles from the Washington, DC area. There is also a Busch Gardens water park nearby called "WaterCountry". We did not visit this park.

Upon arriving, we parked at the Pet kennel section of the park, which is in the same section as the preferred sites and the buses. This area is a very short walk to the main gate in the "England" portion of the park. At the kennel, we boarded our dog "Bailey" for a mere $6: he had a nice venilated, clean, and spacious living quarters for the day. However, unfortunately, the outside walking pet area was loaded with "doggie droppings" from inconsiderate previous guests. In any event, the short walk to/from the gate was appreciated since I had to return to give "Bailey" a walk later on in the day. The attendents at the kennel were very friendly.

Some additional highlights include the following:

ROLLERCOASTERS:

• Our first coaster was the Lochness Monster in "Scotland". This is an older steel rollercoaster probably innovative for its time but in todays standard a bit dated but still fun!
• We must of hit the park on a bad day because one of our "must see" rides Griffon promptly closed while we were in line and was never re-opened. From what we gather, a chain had broke (which made an awful noise) while we were in line. They had to evacuate people from the ride. Fortunately it was on the lift portion so noone was caught dangling.
• Then in the afternoon a similar problem happened to Alpengeist in the Germany section of the park. Another evacuation. This one was much more scary since it was near the top of the lift. Fortunately my oldest son and I got to ride that ahead of time (awesome coaster).
• I absolutely loved the highly rated Apollo's Chariot rollercoaster in the Italy setion of the park. The line for this was about 30 minutes but well worth the wait. Huge drops, smooth, and simply awesome. This coaster takes you well outside of the park!

GROUNDS / FACILITIES:

• The park is nicely themed and decorated with all types of plants, trees, flowers, statues, etc. The rides could be more themed though.
• Most bathrooms were really clean
• My worst complaint is that the park claims to be "smoke free" but they have "smoking sections" in just about every corner of the park and some in the middle of a themed area. Yuk! I guess things are different down in the South!
• The park terribly needs more benches as there are very few places to sit

FOOD:

• The food was really good. I had a delicious German Turkey Sandwich with delicous potato salad and some german cheese. Patty opted for the garden salad and the usual pizza, hot dogs, fries for the kids. Patty and I enjoyed our favorite beers along with a scrumpous desert. This was all located in the noon time Oktoberfest show at Das Festhaus. (Temperature controlled -- It was good to get out of the heat). We returned there around the 6-7Pm hour and there was not a table available for the show or dinner.l
• Were were a bit disappointed that Busch Gardens Europe did not offer a Hospitality Center with its fine Anheuser-Busch products (like they have at Sea World and and Busch Gardens Africa) since after a busy day it is nice to sit back and relax and have "happy hour" while the kids are off playing the nearby games.

KIDDIE RIDES:

• Our 4 year loved all the kiddie rides especially in the DinoLand part of the park and in Italy.. In fact I bet he went on more than the other two kids combined.

LINES, SHOPPING, MISC.

• Unfortunately, the lines were rather long so skipped out on a lot of the major attractions. To solve part of this problem, we got there EARLY and headed to the headliners. You can get into the "England" section of the park at 900AM and the "Scotland" section at 930AM.
• For shoppping, they had a lot of speciality stores (e.g., French pottery, German steins, Italian jewelery, etc.) but not many general items souveniers

Overall, I like Busch Gardens Africa (Tampa Bay, FL) much better for the live exotic animals and high quality shows (e.g., KATONGA). For rollercoasters and rides Hersheypark (Hershey, PA) definately has more to offer.

However Busch Gardens Europe was a lot of fun and something our family would return too.