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Monday, December 15, 2014

We LOVED Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, Tampa!

I was provided tickets to visit Busch Gardens free of charge for review from Busch Gardens and Mom Central.

We are a family that is often on the go! We love theme parks and to stay busy! We especially love to explore Florida, and what our beautiful state has to offer in the wintertime, because as any true Floridian will tell you, we hibernate in the summer! This was very true this past weekend when we were able to head down to Tampa and enjoy Busch Gardens. This weekend temperature was a lovely 68 during the day, and it dropped to around 50 by the time the park closed. It was the PERFECT weather to enjoy riding roller coasters and then enjoy the Christmas Town after dark! 

This time we headed to Busch Gardens, we left our toddler with my Mom so we could all fully enjoy the roller coasters. My seven year old son JUST made the height requirements for ALL the rides, so that meant a day full of adventure for us!! We were able to ride a LOT because the lines were pretty minuscule. I think the longest we waited in one line was 30 minutes, and that was at Cheetah Hunt, which is near the front of the park, so it gets a lot of people checking it out. After every single ride, my son said that that was his new favorite. At the end of the park he could not tell us which one he loved most, so suffice it to say, he did loved our visit and the coasters!! 


My husbands and my ride of choice was SheiKra, maybe it is because we are getting older, but this ride is a bit "smoother" feeling than others and did not bump us around as much. While it is pretty scary and offers lots of drops and thrills, it was very comfortable, and I could have rode it over and over again. Cheetah Hunt is the newest coaster, and boy is it fast! It is the longest coaster in the park, but somehow it did not feel that way to me. Perhaps that is because it is as quick as a cheetah! I refused to go on Falcon's Fury because I do not like the sensation of being dropped, but my hubby and son loved it! They said it was a ton of fun, and my son loved being face down hurtling to the earth (eeks!) The Gwazi was a lot of fun, and this wooden style coaster is more mild compared to others in the park. My son loved it, and I loved the wooden planks because it made it feel more like a train ride. However, it does shake a bit more than others and the vibrations made my back itch. I could only go on Montu once and to be perfectly honest, I was inhaling the peppermint oil afterwards!! All of the loops and drops made me feel a little unsteady on my feet afterwards, but my husband and son rode it twice in a row. There was literally NO WAIT on this ride, so they walked right back on as I sat on a bench and watched from the sidelines! While I am not big on being upside down on a coaster, for some reason the Scorpion offered a much more pleasant roller coaster ride for me, despite being upside down! Maybe it is because it was so speedy, or that it was also one of the smoother rides, but I enjoyed the coaster as much as my son and husband did! Kumba is a massive roller coaster! It offers huge drops and lots of loops and twists! It is amazingly thrilling, but did make me a little unsteady on my feet afterwards! That night after a day filled with all of these coasters, I felt like I was still on the ride as I lay in bed! I've not had as much fun as this in years and loved riding on these with my boys! 


Once all of the riding fun was over, we got to enjoy some of the animals. There are fantastic animal areas set up with giraffes, meercats, penguins and kangaroo. Although we didn't spend as much time this visit on the animals, I always enjoy seeing them in the awesome environment that Busch Gardens, Tampa provides! 

Christmas Town is amazing. We took the skyline to see the park lit up and it was honestly breathtaking. There is a Christmas Light Up Show where the massive tree is lit and the lights actually "dance" to the music. We enjoyed some old fashioned Christmas music in Hallelujah Showcase, you can listen to a little bit of this in my video. It was pretty impressive!  I really wanted to watch the ice skaters in Christmas on Ice but we never made it back in time for any of the showtimes! The park is absolutely amazing when lit up! We were told that there was enough lights to string from Tampa, to Orlando and back to Tampa again if they were all lined up one by one! It truly is an amazing display!! 

We enjoyed a nice dinner at  Zangora Cafe! My son and I shared the burger and fries, which was pretty tasty! My hubby had the grilled chicken salad, and he really enjoyed that as well! We also shared a chocolate funnel cake later in the night, and it was so good that it was sinly!

All in all, we left the park very pleased! It was a ton of fun, and we were just so happy to go and enjoy this fantastic park. If you love animals, Christmas lights and roller coasters you should head on over to Busch Gardens, Tampa to enjoy all of the above!! This week Florida is going to be in the 70s all week, so make some last minute travel plans and check it out!




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 Disclosure: Tickets were provided in exchange for an honest review. I have not been compensated for this post. Top Notch Material blog will always provide honest opinions, beliefs or experiences on products reviewed. We will only recommend products or services that we feel are of benefit to our readers. If you have any questions, please contact me at nursemommypaige at yahoo dot com. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. 

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