The Rise and Fall of Busch Gardens Tampa (Part 2) | A Complete History

Busch Gardens Tampa is one of the most unique theme parks in the world with its African setting, excellent animal exhibits and a world class coaster line-up. However, the park is not at all what it used to be and so I was interested in doing a deep dive into its history, covering its rise and eventual fall into the state it is today. This is part 2 of the series

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[trientertainment]

Hour long Poseidon videos never disappoint!

[sidneywren]

Aw, man this was such a nostalgic watch. I've lived in Tampa for most of my life with regular trips to Busch Gardens well into adulthood, even working there and at their sister water park Adventure Island during summers when I was in college. I had forgotten about so many of these rides you covered until now. Such a thoughtful and well researched deep dive into a place that will always have a special place in my heart.

[garrettreganhobbs]

One thing that everybody tends to forget about Akbar's Adventure Tours is that, when you leave the building, they had a TV set up showing bloopers. It showed Martin Short and Eugene Levy actually cracking each other up and proved that they filmed they're parts together.

[DreadedWhiteKong]

This was a sad watch because I went there a few weeks ago and I felt the exact same way about it. The park just seems to be deteriorating. I’m happy that I grew up with this park in the 90s and early 2000s which I would argue was their most successful times of expansion. The park just isn’t the same anymore. I hope they can turn it around. Great video, as always.

[MrMac]

Scorpion is an underappreciated gem. Compact and fun. Would love to see something similar from a modern manufacturer elsewhere.

[Rolo]

The problem is that Busch Gardens has nothing to do if it rains. No dark rides and also the food there is horrible (I do like the pretzels they serve however).

I think they could also use a on site hotel resort which will add value to the park.

[Skylerstories]

As someone who worked for the company many years and was in management! Thank you, I watched my home fall apart over the years without me being able to do anything because nobody said anything, thank you for speaking the truth and if you have any questions I have answers! 👍🏻

[whydidntigetanysoup]

As a person who grew up going to Busch Gardens and even had an annual pass for a while, this video (even more so than part 1) made me so sad. In fact, I was feeling the nostalgia and wound up going in February of last year, and everything you’ve said rings so true. If someone who knew anything about theme parks and the theme park going community were at the helm of the parks division, I think they could really do something. But what I’m seeing is that the only real audience it’s attracting is young (see: high schoolers) folks with not much money to spend because of the emphasis on coasters (which I do love, but even those are…in need of some TLC). Anyway, thank you for archiving this historic park. Oh didn’t know so much of that because it was before my time so not only was it fascinating, it also just hurt my heart to know what it could be now.

[Captain_E]

This is a great video. As someone who has grown up going to Busch Gardens, it hits all the nostalgic spots in all the right ways. It's refreshing to see such in depth content for this park as Disney and Universal always get the spotlight. The ending was quite sad though because I've also seen a rapid decline as well and have worked for this park during this and am now at SeaWorld and watching the same happen there. I know these Parks could really be amazing and I hope to see them make some radical changes to reverse their current course. I'd love to see something like this for SeaWorld Orlando because I do think there is a lot to talk about there and a lot of history that can be covered.

[bab]

Nov. 2022 it was almost empty and many rides were closed due to "tech difficulties" but seemed more like they lacked staff. 2 out of every 3 restaurants were closed. It seemed tired. In May 2023 it was much better however and had a lot of it's old zing back from past years. Still, have the feeling they are in survival mode.

[carlyh]

I’m a camp counselor at Busch gardens rn. Super cool learning about this stuff because kids always ask a lot of questions about the park so now I’ll have answers !

[emersonansley]

Here to provide some insight into the ice show situation. Figure skaters in the area have been hard to find and the cast is CONSTANTLY revolving. It also doesn’t help that the pay isn’t great so all of the skaters have to have 2nd jobs coaching (which they barley have time to do) They scrapped iceplorations for turn it up because it was easier to redo the show to keep it relevant (adding newer music) as well as swap skaters in and out. For years they struggled to fill the roll of the cheetah in iceplorations because that skater had to be a really great male single skater that also had to be able to do a back flip on the ice (even harder to find) I had a friend who eventually filled the roll at 17 years old and did it FOR YEARS but he had to train for months to get that backflip. They also struggled to find a child replacement everytime the kids got too old and they had to even switch the gender at one point. (Fun fact the kid was also usually an ice skater bc thats how they found them) Once their better skaters left for better things they struggled and the show was just to complicated to find replacements for. Currently the cast is the smallest it’s ever been and they are trying to recruit new girls out of the local ice rink everyday. Turn it up was supposed to be temporary originally, but they have found that the format of it works best for their situation right now.

[Hollybrews]

They had significant layoffs as it changed hands in the 2010s. People who worked there as magicians, musicians and entertainers for 25+ years were let go. The animal exhibits closing was a bummer--- the nocturnal caves closing, Jungala hasn't been open in years. The outdoor stage for American Jukebox is closed off now and is used to collect kids for summer camp. Food stands just aren't open when the park opens so there are dead spots if you want a water or a snack. If you make it to Pantopia for a pretzel, they don't open until 11. My son he fallen downstairs as he exited a ride and the First Aid office near the sky ride was closed. Just a bunch of little things that add up over time made us not renew our passes.

[jarra]

I want to say thank you for making this, I have been an employee since 2012. There was a book sold in the park in 2017 that was 50 years of BG and I always recommend that book when I talk with the long time guests, for that nostalgia. I would have loved to work at the park during the golden years. I hope this gets traction.

[monicahuck]

So much research and work go into your videos. I feel like I am watching a professional documentary when watching your videos. Thanks so much for your hard work and I can’t wait to watch your channel grow.

[genxskeptic]

Thanks for the history. We visited Busch Gardens/Tampa back in 2015 and had a great time. The animals and attractions were wonderful. The one thing that was EXTREMELY irritating happened at closing. We were told the park was open till 6 pm. At 5 pm, we had one last coaster we wanted to ride. It was closed down. We asked an employee why and he said they shut down all attractions at 5 and wanted everyone out of the park by 6.
It was the only park we had ever visited from Texas, Ohio, California, Tennessee, Missouri or Orlando that ever pulled that kind of nonsense.

[SRQmoviemaker]

I just wanna say as a lifelong (95ish to now) attendee of BG Tampa, these videos were great to see. Very cool seeing how it all started and looked before all the changes. Hell its wayyyy more different than I first remember. Somewhere theres hi8 tapes of my first visit, as well as many other visits. Not to mention the hundreds of photos over the years.
I used to go 8 times a year [maybe more as a kid living 30min away] then slowly less to where I'm lucky if I go more than 1x a year for howl-o-scream

[charlieintampa]

Thanks for the video. We used to go a lot when my daughter was little, but have not been for some time until this summer with a visitor. I was shocked how run down and pedestrian it looked like compared to 6-8 years ago. Just as you say, the draw was the variety and very high quality entertainment. Much of that is gone, replaced by dust and and mediocracy. Hope once the current owners run it into the ground someone who cares about the city and about quality buys it up and restores it to its former glory.

[DOUGandNIKI]

Great Job! As part of those New Yorkers who just moved to the area we love the convenience of having the roller coasters right down the road but we'd love to see it ascend instead of decline.

[flyingstump]

Thank you fir bringing me in a time machine to the good Busch Gardens of my childhood