I am enjoying visiting the amazing theme parks and attractions we have here in Florida so that I can help you plan your summer vacation!
Last week my husband and I attended a VIP party at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay to experience Summer Nights. The event was attended by television, radio, newspaper people and some bloggers. Before the event we had to choose which track we wanted to attend, our choices were Adventure, Thrills or Chills; we chose Adventure.
We arrived at Busch Gardens and had trouble finding the preferred parking (where we had been instructed to park). I knew it was near the park entrance-not across the street with the regular parking, but there were no signs for preferred parking. We drove up to the visitor drop-off area and I jumped out of the car while hubby went off looking for the preferred parking area. As he looped back around the parking lot he noticed a lone parking attendant by the entrance where we had come in. My husband asked him where preferred parking was and the young man said, “Right here” and stepped aside and let him in!
While Ron was parking I went to the event check-in table where I received our credentials, two tickets to visit Adventure Island and then was told to proceed to Gwazi Pavillion. Ron met me at the check-in table and we entered the park and strolled to Gwazi Pavillion.
In the pavillion courtyard we were greeted by some interesting creatures, a bar and some lovely Hawaiian music.
Blue Tongued Skink
We entered Gwazi Pavillion, which was beautifully decorated in reds, yellows, and oranges. There was a DJ playing dance music and 2 dancers entertaining the growing crowd. There were several tables around the room and a series of buffet tables and a bar lined three of the walls. There were lots of fun food choices including sliders, chicken fingers, loaded tater tots, corn salad, watermelon, pulled pork, churros and strawberry shortcake!
After dinner the DJ started announcing which groups were leaving on their tours. Our tour wasn’t scheduled to leave for about 40 minutes so Ron asked if we could go explore the park a bit and he was told that we could just be back 10 minutes before our scheduled tour time. As we were leaving the building…they announced our tour was leaving…35 minutes early! Good thing we didn’t leave or we would have missed the tour (later we ran into people who had missed their tour due to the confusion).
We headed out with our tour guide Steve, who first lead us to Walkabout Way…which was scheduled to open to the public in 3 days. I got to feed a kangaroo and pet a wallaby!
Next, we headed across the park to the Serengeti. Years ago we did the Serengeti Safari Tour for Aaron’s birthday. It is an amazing, educational adventure for anyone ages 5 and up. The tour costs $33.95 per person in addition to your theme park ticket.
We boarded our truck with tour guide Cindy and we were off to feed giraffes! Cindy was a fun and informative guide and she has an amazing rapport with the giraffes, especially Bernie.
After our time with the giraffes we walked back to Gwazi Pavilion for some more strawberry shortcake 🙂
At 8:25pm we moved the party to Gwazi Field to find our seats for Kinetix. We were escorted to a VIP seating area which had cute little candlelit tables and chairs, a bar, and a snack table with popcorn, nachos and rice krispie treats…just in case you were hungry. At 8:30pm the DJ took the stage and the party starters game out in their day-glo outfits to get the crowd dancing. They invited all of the kids…and kids at heart out into the aisles while they danced to the Cha-Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Hoe-Down Throwdown and Cotten-Eyed Joe. Once the crowd was energized and the sun had set it was time to start the show.
Kinetix is the perfect name for this non-stop show that includes singing, dancing, acrobatics, balancing acts, hula hoops, juggling and jump ropes! Words don’t do this show justice to here is some video we shot.
Kinetix is a great way to end your visit to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this summer. You can see the show every night through August 15th as long as the weather cooperates.
Have you been to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay? What is your favorite attraction? Are you going to see Kinetix this summer? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Leave a Reply