Busch Gardens

For the last few months, Mike had been dying to get Busch Gardens Fun Passes. We had passes years ago when Madelyn was a toddler but we let them expire when I was pregnant with Mikayla. At the time we were pinching pennies and frankly we were somewhat bored with the park... so we figured it was a good time to take a break. Well, that was almost 3 years ago. This weekend Maddy had a 4 day weekend, the weather was beautiful so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to visit the park and buy our passes for 2010!

We always start on the east side of the park. Mike likes to ride the Montu, grab a beer at the Colony House and walk through the Edge of Africa where we see the lions, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, lemurs and meerkats. Our favorite part or this habitat is this aquarium. It's full of pretty fish, turtles, ducks and 2 hippos!

After seeing the animals on the Edge of Africa we walked over to the Myombe Reserve to see the chimps and gorillas.

Next we visited Timbuktu. This is a fun area for kids. There's games to play, 2 small roller coasters, a carousel and a handful of kiddie rides. Madelyn is now 46'' inches tall (in her Sketchers) which means she is now tall enough to ride not one, but two roller coasters at Busch Gardens! The Scorpion (which goes upside down) and the Cheetah Chase. She loved them both! Mike was SO proud of his brave girl!

Here's Mikayla on the Carousel.

After we left Timbuktu we breezed through the Congo area. It wasn't a good day for a ride on the Congo River Rapids but we were excited to see that Jungala was now open! Only we were SO excited about the new Tiger Encounter that we somehow missed the new 3 story rope maze for kids to climb! (A must see for the next visit!) Anyway, the Tiger Encounter is awesome! This pod is accessible underground so that people can get up close AND personal with the tigers!

Here's Maddy & Mikayla saying "hi" to one very lazy big cat!

It took awhile but we finally made it over to the west side of the park. Here's where we noticed some big changes. The Hospitality House, where Busch Gardens served free samples their Anheuser Busch products is no more! Upon this discovery, Mike and I realized that beer was available in more locations throughout the park. So no more free samples but at least a cold beer is easier to find. We also discovered that the kid zone known as Dragon Land has closed. In two months it will be reopening as Sesame Street's Safari of Fun! I must admit, Dragon Land was a bit outdated so this will be an exciting change! The girls can't wait to play there!

We spent 6 fun-filled hours at the park, it was the perfect amount of time for all of us. By dusk Mikayla was getting cranky because she hadn't had a nap and Maddy was pooping out too. But that's the beauty of the Busch Gardens Fun Passes! We can go back as often as we want... and stay as long as we want! It's a zoo, it's a theme park, it only takes 1 hour for us to get there and it's always lots of fun! And thanks to the Fun Passes it's affordable too!