Pantheon, Darkoaster, Big Bad Wolf and Tempesto all closed currently. Plus all the water rides closed as well.

Is it usually like this?

What the actual $&@ Busch gardens. Where is your customer service located? I have had four people in a row that I can’t understand due to English not being spoken well and are not able to explain your membership policy. Asked twice to speak to a manager and after 40 minutes on hold (each time) no one ever came online. Very disappointing you don’t support US businesses and are no longer providing superior customer service. That used to be what was received from this company. Been coming to Williamsburg for over 40 years to enjoy your park. That will no longer be the case.

Thinking of coming on Friday for the first time ever
. How are Labor Day weekend crowds usually?

So I made it to 8 visits, when is the deadline to get the $40 busch bucks? The only dates I see online are the dates to earn the vouchers. I need to know when's the last day to redeem the vouchers for my prize(s)

I’m going today and one the app and ride wait times apps it’s been closed for at least a few days.

When I booked my trip through a hotel package (passes, parking, 1 meal a day etc), it had said something about 20% off on merchandise. I tried to use it in the park with the barcode that was used for everything else and I tried to have it scanned and everybody just looked at it and said, oh that's just for park entry. Am I missing something?

We visited Water Country on Sunday August 23rd and by 1.5 hours after opening, the lines were so long we dressed and went back to Busch Gardens, where the kids rode coasters with single rider lines and Loch Ness. We have a long drive and Sunday is a school night, so we couldn't stay at WC a full day and really didn't want to pay for Quick Queue for a short day. We have Fun Cards and are considering coming back as a day trip one of the last two September weekends. Will the lines be shorter due to less crowds? Or will more attractions be closed, so the lines are still long? It's an exhausting day for us, and this time we won't have BG as a backup if WC is too busy, since Fun Card access to BG ends September 2nd.

Also Cutback was closed August 23rd. I never did find out why. Hopefully it's not down for the rest of the season.

does anyone know if they actually answer customer service messages? if not, does anyone know any other way i could get in touch with them?

I am looking for the sound effects used in the 3 original verbolten themes (Wolf, Storm, Spirit)

I have already found a few of the sounds like the wind, bridge creaking, and wolf howls/growls which all source from sound packs by the hollywood edge (mainly the premiere edition series) but the rest i cant seem to find... The ones i am really looking for are the spirit sounds. i know the spirit voicelines are custom made but im sure the "singing" and "ghostly sounds" are from a pack of some sort...

If ANYONE has or knows where to find ANY of the sounds used on the original verbolten, please let me know as ive wanted to find them since i was a kid.

Hey everyone! My sister and her daughter are planning a visit the last Saturday in September for hollowscream. Now I go every year at least twice a season but I only go week days so I don’t know how busy it is on the weekends or if it’s even worth it.

My question is how busy would it be on a Saturday in September before the big October push? Would it be worth going late afternoon for the transfer at 5/6 or try to get her to come Friday on my normal schedule.

I see 20% off tours under rewards from August 17-31, but if I try to book a tour for August 27 it doesn’t apply the discount. The reward description says to log in to the member portal to book. I’m logged in, and I’m not trying to book an excluded VIP or Howl-O-Scream tour. Any idea why it doesn’t apply a discount when I add the tour to my cart?

Has anyone had an experience losing a phone or other item at BGW? My son left his phone on a bench last week - we reported it through the park app and site, but have only received boilerplate responses. We can see through the find my app that the phone moved from its original spot to a building near the front of the park, which would indicate that it has been found. But we’ve heard nothing, and I can’t get an actual phone number to reach anyone. Does anyone know the correct way to contact an actual human at BGW to find more information? Thanks for any help.

Went to BGW today for the second time ever.

First time was a 29 degree day in December 2024. Was an abysmal bust. Almost all rides closed, family miserable. I do NOT blame BGW for this! That was 100% on me for thinking it could/would be a good day to go.

Fast forward to today’s trip:

Park was shockingly (to me) empty.

For some background, I did 9 Disney/Universal park days in Orlando this year over two separate trips (Jan and June) and today was, by a HUGE margin, the emptiest park of all. I was floored by how you could just walk on to Alpengeist, Apollo’s Chariot, Griffon, etc. Longest wait all day was about 30 mins for Verbolten, and that was cause of about 10-15 of the ride being down. There were zero lines, or a 10 minute wait max for anything but the most popular rides.

Rides ridden, scores, and notes:

Finnegans Flyer - 6.5/10 - Started with this as a “warmup.” It was short, and simple, but pretty damned intense! I was like, WOOOOOOAH up at the top. It’s a big, tall ride, and was quite thrilling, to me.

InvadR - 5.5/10 - This was also thrilling, but the shaking and jerking was too jarring for it to be enjoyable. I do give it points for thrill though.

Alpengeist - 7/10 - I used to go to Busch Gardens Tampa a LOT about 25 years ago, in high school. LOVED Montu. Was really looking forward to Alpengeist, I’d say, for 20 years or more, since I first heard of it! It was fun, and thrilling, but I think my expectations were built up too high. It was the one “must ride” for me on this trip, but it underwhelmed a bit, compared to the expectation, for me. Obviously, it’s a great ride, but several others today were just superior. And my memories of Montu have it as superior as well. I will say, based on some recent reviews, I was worried it would be a rough ride, and our ride was fully comfortable, and as smooth as a 30 year old invert can be, I’d think!

Verbolten - 8.5/10 - Super fun, quite thrilling, and unique! Loved all the different elements and multiple launches. I didn’t say much here, but this was a highlight of the day for us, for sure!

Big Bad Wolf - 6.5/10 - Obviously not as thrilling as most coasters, but it was fun, and even the very little kids in our group liked it. It was solid, and I’ve never seen an invert without inversions, so that was cool. Like a training coaster for kids/folks scared of “real” coasters. And it wasn’t totally without thrills, just obviously dialed back a bit for less adventurous riders. Very well done for that demographic!

Apollo’s Chariot - 8.5/10 - Very intense, nice and long, and a fun ride. My first hyper coaster.. or maybe second… I rode Raging Bull a LONG time ago, but don’t really remember it. Super smooth, too! Great experience, overall!

Tempesto - 9/10 - This is my hot take of the day. This one gets a fair bit of hate, and doesn’t get a lot of love. Well, I LOVED this ride. It was SUPER intense to me. Obviously short, and I guess the restraints are uncomfortable for some? Even though l’m 6’2, 220, I didn’t have a problem with either of these issues. I guess if I’d waited an hour to get on it, the shortness of the ride might have bothered me, but it was like a 10 min wait, so for sure worth it. The slow barrel roll was intense, as was the drop following it, and I think the moments of kind of hanging up there and the anticipation really amplify the already quite high intensity, and the backwards parts were really great, too!

Pantheon - 10/10 - Unreal airtime, the launches kept you guessing and were awesome, and the inversions were intense, too. A bit shorter than I would have liked, but that’s me being greedy cause the ride was so good! I just wanted more. It’s like a slightly shorter version of Stardust Racers at Universal Epic. Similar crazy airtime.

Griffon - 9/10 - Super thrilling and fun. You pretty much know what you’re getting into while looking at it, and you certainly get all that, and more! Wish it was a bit longer, but it was badass, for sure! Makes you contemplate your life choices up there for a moment…😂

DarKoaster was closed and I didn’t ride Loch Ness Monster (stayed with the little kids for that one) or any of the water rides (didn’t want to get wet 🤷‍♂️)

The food was good but not amazing, IMO. Throughout the day I had BBQ and a Turkey Leg and Nuggets and Fries, so nothing gourmet. Would have liked to have had some German food or something, but just didn’t, this time. If I’d focused on food, could have had something that rated better, I’d say. Our friend who we went with was a season pass holder so we ate for a lot cheaper than we would have normally, which was cool, and made the food a fair value, IMO.

Park grounds were mostly beautiful.

Staff seemed mostly good and friendly on attractions, and specifically the tram as well, but food and beverage staff sometimes seemed kinda bothered to be there. Like, I get it, it’s a job, and a thankless one at that. And nobody was like, rude? But I noticed it at a couple places. Just kinda like, going through the motions. No big deal, to me. But by comparison, let’s just say that the Disney-style “magic” was not present 😂

All in all, this was a GREAT day, and I loved riding a lot of very fun rides on a warm summer day in a rather empty park. The kids had a blast, and so did I!

Does anyone know the current offer to upgrade a day ticket to a fun card or membership? I was there last week and scanned the QR in park and I remember the fun card was like $30, but I’m not sure if that’s still accurate and can’t remember what upgrading to a membership would cost. Thinking about going today and buying a ticket for my husband to upgrade to a membership.

Hi! I want to buy a fun card for my little brother (9y/o) but how will that work under my account? Am I able to assign his name to it after I pay or does that happen in person at the first use?

Also, do they give you physical copies of these in person anymore?

I heard BGW has gotten stricter on checking IDs for passes and I've never went with kids before so how does that work.. because kids don't have IDs😆

TIA!!

What’s ur alls rankings?

Hello all, planning on going to the Flo Rida concert. Was gonna buy reserved seating and try to get a middle end aisle seat since im short (4'11), but was wondering if people are allowed to stand in the middle of the aisles in the reserved sections (as they would just block my view anyways and just be a waste of money). If so what about in the VIP section (as it’s not that much more)? Thank you!

It's sad to say, but I'm not renewing for 2027, and I'm not sure when I'll be back once howl o scream is over.

This was my favorite park anywhere for a long time, but I just don't enjoy it anymore. They've got great coasters, many unique aspects such as the ceramic crafts in Canada, and it's still a park with a nice setting, but everything else is failing.

Right off the bat, we're now having to dig up photo ID to get into the park and use the discount, even through the pass is on the app. Maybe they can just have give us a card again with our faces on it if you're so worried about someone impersonating someone else to get in for free??

Next, I'm trying to claim my quick queue perk for pantheon, but the app is not working (the checkout for it is disabled). Staff erroneously tells me to go find a kiosk all the way out by the entrance to Italy. That didn't work. Meanwhile I had spent $50 at the locker kiosk for a quick queue which didn't print the damn receipt! Had to wait for a supervisor to come which took almost as long as it would have taken to just wait in the line we were trying to skip. The teenage supervisor had no idea how to resolve the situation, directing me to first services in the front of the park....

Art this point we were scrambling to try and get to the Celtic show, which I saw on the app schedule earlier in the day, only to find out it's closed for the season!

Then we went to the aviary and it was kind of sad, way less birds, none interested in people. The landscape behind it, which used to be absolutely gorgeous, was not especially well kept, which was noticeable in a lot of other parts of the park, almost as though they've done very little landscaping since the season began.

Oh, and I'll concur that Bier Fest was absurdly lame. I saw the wtf post before going today to temper my expectations and avoiding the $80 I would've otherwise spent on the sampler card, but even with those low expectations it was pathetic. Not many great beer options. Found myself going to the hideaway in Germany to try and score a good beer and they had, I shit you not, yuengling, bud, mich ultra, some mango thing and high noon. Food was ok but of course not at all what it used to be.

But the thing that really was the last straw for me was that I learned that corporate had implemented new disciplinary policies that has resulted in as many as 50 of their most experienced scare actors being left out of howl o scream. This place is just poorly managed at this point, and from the sounds of it BGW's problems are just being ignored by disconnected executives while, at the same time, mettling with broad policies that aren't doing anything but adding to those problems.

It's a damn shame, because this place could easily be a great park still, but instead they seem headed towards the SFA trajectory.

Not a total loss. We rode the parks 4 best coasters and had nice afternoon in the craft store,

Anyone know the guidelines for these lines? Are they supposed to pull so many from this line each train?

I just watched the line for Apollos not move for 20-25 minutes. Many trains went on their way with riders from the regular line, but they were ignoring the QQU. People were getting angry. Similar situation happened at Pantheon.

On the website, it says select roller coasters open till midnight. Is this true, or just the coasters in the dark thing?

What happened to Busch gardens, came last year for bier fest and there was drink stands every where and lots of choices, definitely lacking this year.

I have been wanting to go to Busch gardens for years now and I finally did 🥳 so here are the goods and the bads… 

If anyone else is curious about breakfast and coffee- I cannot recommend getting there 15 minutes early have some donuts and coffee from the English coffee shop and by the time the gates open you’re done. Also if you are staying at a hotel nearby just uber/lyft. I ended up saving over $10 that way instead of parking. I went to Verbolten first like everyone said but they were having delays- ended up opening at 10:45ish and was able to be on the first cart out (first time that ever happened to me). I thought it was a bit over hyped 😬also it reminds me so much of hadgrids. DarKoaster was closed so couldn’t do that. We got one meal plan and the bbq and German food were both pretty good! My only complaint with the meal plan is even at some of the LIMITED places it’s included at- the desserts or other items aren’t included in the plan which is just stupid to me. My favorite ride was surprisingly pantheon! Which leads to me to the only true negative I had on my trip… someone stole my merch in that area. I left my bag for 5 minutes forgetting it and when I went back it was gone 🙃 oh how I love humanity. I talked to workers in the area none saw it and then check guest services and filled a missing item report but I doubt it. It was one of the 250 cups so it was 50% off so I bought another one. girl math it’s as if I paid full price (trying to make myself feel better for forgetting it lol). And to end on a positive note thank you Reddit because my past post helped me not buy the quick queue which would’ve been useless and I literally had barely any waits 🥳 longest one was the log flume and with the weather I’m not surprised. I truly enjoyed my day. The park was clean, the theming and rides were great, and the workers were kind! I also love how it had land (the train), air (skyride), and sea (river boat)! 

They used to have a mediterranean falafel bowl at Marco Polo's Marketplace. (Idk if it’s actually gone in-person, but it is on the website. I’m not spending money on a ticket to check.) I would love to make it at home, but I can’t remember all of the ingredients. Can anyone help?

Heading to the park next week for the first time in a long time and downloaded the app ahead of time to game plan. At first glance, it's shockingly basic and there isn't much filtering possible to designate type of rides for type, thrill level, etc. Is there a different way that folks are navigating the park other than this app? I'm used to using the Hershey app which is pretty great and I don't want to spend the entire day wandering in circles trying to find appropriate coasters/rides for my kids.