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Roller Coaster Experience Tour

If you love coasters, this experience cannot be missed!

This NEW Coaster Experience Tour takes you behind the scenes and heart-poundingly close to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s awesome collection of world-class thrill rides.

This early-morning tour takes you beyond the regular guest experience and into the roller coaster barns to offer unbelievable insight into our collection of thrill rides, including Montu, Kumba, SheiKra, Gwazi and Cheetah Hunt. Learn what makes these rides so dynamic and then take a seat and experience the design and engineering in full-speed action!

$64.95 per person + tax for ages 10 and up. Participants need to be 54″ to go on the roller coasters.

The Roller Coaster Experience Tour is a 3-3/12 hour walking tour.

The tour begins at 8 a.m. in front of the Crown Colony Gate near the front of the park. Park in the Preferred Parking Lot. Park admission is NOT required and is NOT included. Guests will be escorted to the exit of the park at the completion of the tour.

All participants must be ages 10 and older and 54 inches tall to ride the roller coasters. Pass Member discounts are available. Tours are non refundable.

Due to the walking nature of this tour, wheelchairs cannot be accommodated at this time.

Park admission is NOT required for this Exclusive Park Experience.

ONE-YEAR CHECK-UP FOR KASI THE CHEETAH

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s famous cheetah cub, Kasi, visited the park’s new Animal Care Center today for his one-year check-up.

The 90-minute routine procedure included cleaning Kasi’s teeth, taking X-rays and using an endoscope to check out and take biopsies along his digestive tract. Kasi was under anesthetic during the procedure, and by early afternoon was awake and resuming his normal afternoon activities in his bedroom at the Cheetah Run habitat.

Kasi turned one year old in February, and recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of his relationship with his puppy pal, Mtani the yellow lab. During Kasi’s check-up, Mtani and her handlers watched from the guest side of the Animal Care Center’s Examination Room viewing window.

Baby Cheetah and Puppy Pal Celebrate First Anniversary Together

This week, Busch Gardens Tampa is celebrating a milestone anniversary for a very special relationship. Monday, April 16 marked the one-year anniversary of the first time park guests got to see an 8-week-old male cheetah cub and a 16-week-old female yellow Labrador puppy start to strike up a friendship that the park’s animal experts expect to last a lifetime.

The pair – later named Kasi and Mtani by park fans via a Facebook poll – spent only supervised play times together at first. Now, a year later, they live together full time at the park’s Cheetah Run habitat and even travel together to schools, events and television studios, helping the park’s education team teach the public about the plight of cheetahs in the wild and the importance of Busch Gardens’ conservation efforts.

Park guest can see Kasi and Mtani daily at Cheetah Run, where they spend a portion of each day playing together on the habitat, training with their keepers and exercising with the habitat’s lure system, designed to encourage the animals to do what cheetahs (and Mtani, too!) do best: run and chase.

Although this is Busch Gardens’ first cub-and-puppy combo, it is not uncommon in the zoological community for a single cheetah to be raised with a canine companion. “Male cheetahs are social and often live together in coalitions,” said Tim Smith, a zoo manager who works with the cheetah team daily. “This social bond will be a very similar relationship, and they will be together for life.”… Continue reading →

LATIN ARTISTS AND TRADITIONAL CUISINE DURING VIVA LA MÚSICA

Join the fiesta at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay every Sunday, April 15 through May 6, during Viva la Música. Viva la Música features food, drink, music and fun for the entire family, bringing together live salsa and merengue performances from award-winning Latin artists, authentic arts and crafts, and regional Latin cuisine.

Florida’s oldest restaurant, The Columbia, will be serving two signature items from its award-winning Spanish/Cuban menu: The Original “1905” Salad and Paella de Pollo. Local favorite La Teresita, whose authentic cuisine and great prices attract fans nationwide, will offer a selection of its traditional Latin fare. You’ll also enjoy authentic dishes by Busch Gardens’ culinary team, including ropa vieja, papas and empanadas.

Viva la Música begins at 12 p.m. each Sunday, and the concerts start at 3 p.m. on Gwazi Field:

April 15 Victor Manuelle
April 22 Grupo Mania
April 29 Dyland & Lenny
May 6 Jerry Rivera

Guests can reserve the best seat in house for their favorite acts with the Viva la Música VIP Ticket. The VIP ticket is $25.99 and includes a meal (entrée and any one item from a selection of side salads, side dishes or desserts, plus a regular-sized non-alcoholic beverage) at any Viva La Música food sampling area or Busch Gardens restaurant*, plus reserved seating at center stage. Reserved seating can also be purchased separately for $19.99. VIP tickets and reserved seating are available for sale online at BuschGardens.com and in-park at the Adventure Outpost store, located near the front gate.… Continue reading →

Tropicana Field welcomes a high speed visitor!

On Friday, March 9, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (SEA)will broadcast the most recent installment of its Saving a Species series, which features some of Busch Gardens Tampa’s most popular new residents – the cheetahs – and St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field.

With the stadium closed to outside visitors and the turf marked for the St. Petersburg Bowl football game, the cheetahs were encouraged to run the length of the field, chasing a lure system identical to the one in their Cheetah Run habitat. The cats’ efforts were captured by high-definition and slow-motion cameras.

“ Even though we have this awesome habitat at Busch Gardens, a 100-yard football field will give us the opportunity to showcase what that speed looks like on a field that people can relate to ,” said Tim Smith, a Busch Gardens assistant curator who works with the cheetahs daily.

Saving A Species: Cheetah
From its breathtaking speed to its beauty and vulnerability, the cheetah’s story will bring you face to face with their fragile existence. We’ll introduce you to people around the globe who are working on behalf of this imperiled predator and explain how you can help keep cheetahs from disappearing forever.

The 25-minute program is available to teachers and broadcasters free of charge. It will be broadcast without commercials from 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. (first 15-minutes are color bars) on Friday, March 9. Satellite coordinates, copyright information and web-quality preview segments are available at ShamuTV.com. In the coming months, the site will also… Continue reading →

All-New Epic Ice Show Debuts

For more than five decades, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has set the industry’s standard for delivering unforgettable entertainment experiences, with Broadway-style stage spectaculars like KaTonga: Musical Tales From the Jungle and innovative ice shows like World Rhythms on Ice. Iceploration builds on that tradition and introduces audiences to the next generation of ice shows.

Starting February 2, a cast of 20 brings to life an all-new adventure filled with world-class skaters, more than 75 original costumes, amazing aerial performances, master puppetry and live animal stars, with shows daily in the Moroccan Palace.

“The grand scale of this show sets a new standard of entertainment that further solidifies Busch Gardens as one of Florida’s premier theme parks,” said Busch Gardens Park President Jim Dean. “Iceploration reintroduces the ice show to our most loyal fans while bringing together the things Busch Gardens stage productions do best: world-class entertainment with top-notch skaters, amazing costumes, original music, larger-than-life puppets and even animal stars.”

Iceploration inspires audiences to “explore the world” on a 30-minute journey to the four corners of the earth. This multi-sensory story, told through theatrical skating and an all-new original score, is the collaboration of an award-winning creative team with Broadway credentials, including Tony Award-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes (The Drowsy Chaperone, Best Costume Design Tony winner 2007; Legally Blonde the Musical, Best Costume Design Tony nominee 2007).

The 30-minute show opens with Austin, a digitally savvy preteen, who believes that technology has made his generation more connected to… Continue reading →

Family Adventure for Free at Busch Gardens & Seaworld

It’s an awesome time to be a preschooler! Children ages five and younger can now explore the wonders of Africa and the depths of the ocean for FREE with the new Busch Gardens & SeaWorld Preschool Pass. Little ones will experience kid-size thrills at Busch Gardens’ Sesame Street Safari of Fun and SeaWorld’s Shamu’s Happy Harbor play areas, get up close to their favorite furry and feathered friends, and see new shows brought to life.

The pass is valid for all of 2012 at both SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Kids are welcome to experience all there is to do for the preschool set, including seasonal events such as Summer Nights at Busch Gardens, SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular and festive holiday events at both parks. New this year, Busch Gardens will delight guests with its biggest ice show ever, Iceploration, premiering Feb. 2. And SeaWorld is introducing an all-new festival this year, “Just for Kids!” featuring concerts by Lazy Town, Max & Ruby, the Doodlebops and Choo-Choo Soul, along with plenty of family-friendly fun and activities on Saturdays Jan. 14 through Feb. 4.

Parents and older kids can join in on all the excitement with a Fun Card, which invites guests to pay for a day and play all year through Dec. 31, 2012, with no blackout dates.

“Must-see” preschool attractions at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Preschoolers will delight in Sesame Street Safari of Fun, a sunny, funny play land, filled with moments that your family can share… Continue reading →

Busch Gardens – Bands Brew and BBQ

Bands, Brew & BBQ offers four weekends of smokin’ hot fun – now on Saturdays AND Sundays!

New this year, you have two days to sample dozens of craft and international beers and fire up your taste buds with food from your favorite local restaurants as well our own famous, blazing barbecue.

And every Sunday, enjoy sizzling live performances from award-winning country and classic rock artists.

Bands, Brew & BBQ starts February 11 and runs each weekend through March 4, 2012.

Bands

The 2012 lineup includes:


Lynyrd Skynyrd	Bret Michaels
February 12, 2012	February 19, 2012


38 Special	REO Speedwagon
February 26, 2012	March 4, 2012

Busch Gardens opens at 9 a.m. Gwazi field opens at 4 p.m. Concerts begin at 5 p.m. Artist lineup subject to change.

VAMPIRE DIARIES ACTOR MICHAEL ROARK AT HOWL-O-SCREAM

Actor Michael Roark, who was featured in the recurring role of Frank on TV’s The Vampire Diaries, faces a sin-city clan of bloodsuckers in the new Ultimate Gamble: Vampire Casino haunted house at Howl-O-Scream.

The actor, who also a graduated law school at the University of Florida, visited Busch Gardens’ Howl-O-Scream on Thursday night with friends.

He is also known for his recent role as Donovan Peck in Dolphin Tale and his upcoming role as Ryan in Magic Mike that was partially filmed in Tampa.

Infamous Cheetah/Puppy Duo Explore Their First Halloween Pumpkins

Actually, cheetahs are strict carnivores, but the residents of Busch Gardens’ Cheetah Run were curious to explore the new smells and textures that three oversized pumpkins provided.

Busch Gardens’ zookeepers introduced the pumpkins to the cheetah habitat on Tuesday for some special Halloween-themed enrichment for Kasi and Mtani, and Cheetah Run’s adolescent female cheetahs.

Enrichment can take many forms and is usually something different, unusual and challenging that stimulates the animals. Food and toys are used daily by zookeepers at Busch Gardens to keep the animals engaged and stimulated, both mentally and physically.