The rides I have been on were so amazing except for tigris. phoenix rising cobra curse montu…read morecheetah hunt the swing ride Sheikra all of them were amazing

I was so impressed by this park! I guess I didn't do my research because this is a whole zoo! I was…read morepleasantly surprised by the animals and the absolutely gorgeous scenery of all the enclosures and animal parks. Lions, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, tigers, so many birds, monkey, apes and I even pet a kangaroo! Highly recommend riding the train through the safari instead of booking the private tour. I rode all the rides that were open as we passed. Montu was my favorite coaster of the day! It was a little rainy this day so some rides were closed, but I still managed 4 coasters and the drop ride. No lines and all rides were accommodating for my plus sized body. I loved everything this park had to offer. Every crevice had a new animal adventure to wander through. I could go back again and again.

If you are closer to Orlando, just go to Aquatica! They have similar set ups and options for kids…read moreall the way through adults, but aquatica is larger and has a more cohesive setup with more food options and slides. We enjoyed adventure Island, but wouldn't travel to Tampa specifically for it! If you have an annual pass and do Busch Gardens, obviously adventure Island is a no-brainer because it's in the same area and if you're tired of aquatica, adventure, Island is a more chill change of pace!

This review is long overdue. In 1992, my parents left me here on accident (so they say). To be…read morefair, there were two huge church vans filled with people and they assumed I was on the other bus. The security team took me into the office and asked me to describe my father. Meanwhile, my father and mother and the rest of the church goers were at Pizza Hut. Slowly but surely, they figured out I was "missing." At first, I roamed the park like a wild child experiencing my first taste of freedom at last, but then I started to panic. The security staff did their best to make me feel safe but the incident still appeared in my therapy session 20 years later. The warheads here were so good, as was the waffle cone. I don't know. I was like, 7 or 8. I'm 41 now. Anyway, thanks for adopting me for that hour and keeping me safe, Adventure Island. I still miss you!

The Twelve Days of Yelpmas Day Six…read more The second time I went to Busch Gardens, back in 2017, the standing but not operating racing wooden coaster Gwazi was the most depressing plot of land in the park. And that's saying a lot as I'm no fan of zoos and always find it disheartening to see wild animals in captivity. Fast forward to 2024 and those same wooden Gwazi supports hold up the ferocious wood/metal hybrid Iron Gwazi, easily the best coaster in this park. It's at least three times as good as anything else here and Shriekra, Montu and Kumba are all top notch. I'd like to declare Iron Gwazi the best coaster in all of Florida but I haven't ridden Velocicoaster over at Islands of Adventure which a lot of people absolutely rave about. Me, I'm here today to rave about the best thing ever to coast over a purple track, the Rocky Mountain Construction masterpiece Iron Gwazi. It's got a surprisingly intense little dip drop before the lift hill as an hors d'oeuvres before the meal. It's got a steep lift hill and the train slows down as it nears the top, a great heightening of anticipation. It's got a slightly beyond vertical first drop at a mean 91 degrees and that first drop is like being shot out of a cannon... if that cannon was 206 feet in the air and pointed down. Iron Gwazi hauls ass out of that first drop and does not let up, maintaining an absolutely manic pace for the duration of the ride. Iron Gwazi has aggressive ejector airtime, three inversions, one of which is sustained, and rapid sweeping over banked turns that have riders completely sideways. I rode this beast 4 times in the front, back, 6th and 8th row. They all provided a superlative experience but I think the back row stood out as superlatively superlative. I could have ridden Iron Gwazi at least a dozen more times but I was with my elderly father whose past his coaster riding days, was out of shows to watch and was cold and tired on what was a chilly Florida night. (I bought a Busch Gardens winter cap - what we call a skullie back home in Michigan- just cause I knew my evening and night rides would be frigid. Every time Iron Gwazi pulled into the brake run before the station I had a huge smile on my face and multiple times had tears streaming from my eyes. Not from anything emotional but just as a physical effect of the air rushing past my eyes so quickly and forcefully. The view from the lift hill was beautiful at sunset and still pretty at night. I dug the theming, too, but the theming could have been done with MS Paint and I'd still give Iron Gwazi five stars. If I ever find myself back at Busch Gardens I might just marathon this all day and ignore every other ride.

Best ride at Busch gardens Tampa bay! It's a hybrid roller coaster and the drop at the beginning is…read moreso fun. Once you are done with the drop it picks up speed and the ride itself is actually relatively long. So much fun, several inversions . And so smooth compared to Gwazi when it was just a wooden coaster.

For the price its a good deal. Theres almost always a Groupon for the place which matches a couple…read moreof their other day-deals. My kids are aways totally worn out by the time we leave. I will say this visit that the employees were nice and friendly! However, restrooms were not kept satisfactory at any level, 2/3 are not able to be flushed currently 7/8/22 and the evidence is there. Food prices are high, not worth it IMO.

Not a good experience here. We pre-purchased a Groupon. I saw why the entry for two kids was so…read morecheap. This jump place isn't as professionally sound as near by businesses or their genre of business type. They posted a Groupon for purchase by the public and reads walk-in's are welcome. We walked in same day as Groupon purchase and had to wait in line for a bit. There was only two people working and they were both busy attending to a summer camp that came in. When it was finally our turn to use our Groupon to start our kids jump time we were told we can't use our Groupon unless we purchase additional items such as socks for each child. THE ENTIRE SUMMER CAMP DID NOT HAVE TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL ITEMS SUCH AS SOCKS. The children from the camp wore their socks they arrived in. They refused our Groupon purchase without the additional purchase of socks and we were told to take it up with Groupon for a refund. I asked that the owner make a courtesy to allow our children to jump since the other children from the summer camp did not have to make an additional purchase of socks. There was no mention of this on their Groupon at purchase and there were no professional signage with this rule or extra charge. Here is a lesson in business for the owners of "The Airosphere" on Ware Rd; There is a trampoline park located right behind your business. They have a trade in sock policy that's clearly posted in their store and on-line. WE GOT OUR GROUPON CREDIT BACK AND WILL NOT RETURN TO AIROSPHERE. After obtaining our refund in Groupon we drove to the trampoline park right behind your business and paid as a walk in AND THEY EXCHANGED OUR CHILDS SOCKS FOR FREE!!!

I love heading to the local aquarium when I'm in a new place! This one is located down by the port,…read morewhich has perfect for us traveling because they will store your luggage! It's free with an admission ticket. This aquarium was more interactive than most... lots of sensory opportunities. You can touch jellyfish, stingrays, starfish and more! It was even cuter because everything was decorated for Halloween, even the staff! Everyone was super nice and clean! They were constantly walking around and wiping things down. It was $45 for adult admission and cheaper for kids. Worth the stop if you're in the area!

The Florida Aquarium is a clean, well-maintained attraction and a nice place for locals to escape…read morethe Florida heat or a rainy afternoon. Admission was $88 for one adult and one toddler, which felt a bit expensive for what was offered. We really enjoyed the coral reef exhibit and the large aquarium tanks. The octopus and jellyfish were definitely some of the most memorable animals, and my daughter absolutely loved the touch tank where she got to pet jellyfish. That ended up being one of her favorite parts of the visit Growing up in Florida and fishing most of my life, I'm already pretty familiar with much of the local marine life, so some of the exhibits weren't as exciting for me personally. However, my daughter had a wonderful time, which made the visit worthwhile. If you've visited before, be aware that a few things have changed. The outdoor penguin exhibit is gone, and the splash pad and playground have been replaced with a large turf area that has very little for kids to do outside. That was disappointing since those were some of the more unique family features. All of the animal exhibits are upstairs, while the downstairs consists mainly of the touch tank, gift shop, and restaurant. Overall, it's a smaller aquarium than what I remember from 10 years ago and we spent about an hour seeing everything at a comfortable pace. Overall, it's worth visiting once, but at the current admission price, I don't feel it offers enough value to visit regularly.

Fantastic tour! Very professional staff. It was an hour and we got to see the sunset and dolphins…read more Would recommend the evening tour.

This was a really fun experience! The captain of the mega boat was also wonderful. She really had…read morecontrol of the situation. I was surprised to see the other dolphin tour boats coordinate with the mega bite boat in order to get the dolphins to jump in the wake! well worth it

This review is for their camp…read more It's crazy that nine years ago I went on the zip line course and here we are now and I have a seven-year-old who went to camp here. I actually had no idea they had a camp in the summer until one of my son's friends wanted to go here and asked us to join him. I'm so glad he did because it was an absolutely fantastic camp. It is fully outside, but they are mainly in the shade so I didn't worry about sunburn and also the kids never complained about it being hot. I have no idea what wizardry this is, but it was completely fine. Three days they zip line and two days they paddleboard. I was actually quite nervous because my son is small so I wasn't sure if he'd be able to zip line. I did call and ask and they said if it's a windy day that he would be tethered to a Guide. He ended up skipping zip lining for two of the days, but on the final day of zip line, he did it and he loved it. He's actually now asking for us to go back together. They also provide lunch, which is fantastic because I hate figuring out what to send for food. They provide snacks as well so all I had to do was send my son with a water bottle and on certain days with a swimsuit and towel. He had a fantastic time. You can drop off at 8:30 and pick up at 4:30, they really don't start till about 9:30 though and I totally took advantage of a later drop off. You can pay eight dollars a day to pick up at five, which is extremely reasonable. We've already been talking about going back to camp again here next year and maybe for additional weeks. He loved it.

My daughter was adamant about zip lining for her birthday while we were on vacation. I found…read moreEmpower adventures and set it up easily online. Once we arrived the crew explained everything to us gave us the safety demo and we were off! Our guides, Andrew and Ryan were amazing! They were young and vibrant and kept our daughters entertained (6-7 IYKYK). We went through each zip line and obstacle with ease and had a great time while doing it. We learned a few fun facts about the birds and wildlife we came across and were given a few places to head to once we left. Overall this was a fun event to add to our great vacation. We would definitely come back and do it all over again. Thanks so much guys!

Dj was a great guide for our group. Went into detail about all the different species, had…read moreextensive information on a few of them and he seemed to enjoy his job. This was a great experience with some opportunities to hold some of the stars at Croc Encounters. I definitely would recommend.

The staff were super nice and informative! They had tons of wildlife. If you'd like to get the…read moreFlorida experience I would come here for sure. Pricing is pretty good!

Splash harbor is pretty cool. It was better before the water park but ai get it more geared towards…read morethe kids. Still had a great time. On the water with drinks on deck

Has a pool (no swimming though), lazy river, 2 toddler slides and 2 big slides. Fun non-beach place…read moreto spend half a day with little kids. All that said, the staff are not well trained. Had a slightly traumatic experience today. My 7 year old got stuck (for 5 to 10 minutes) in the big slide which is pitch dark all the way through (fun but not when you get stuck) and he wasn't helped promptly. Full story - I was up there at the slide entrance and i could hear him screaming that he needs help. There was a staff up there (looked like a teenage kid) who had a walkie talkie. I assumed he would have informed the people in charge as soon as he got stuck. I kept talking to my son to lie down and try to push himself down and he kept responding saying he's trying everything but is still stuck and it is getting very uncomfortable. After a while I checked with the staff whether someone is coming to help. And then I see him telling on the walkie talkie "the boy is stuck on the slide can someone help?". I was shocked. It must have been a good 5 minutes (no watch, just guessing) and he just thought of informing?! By the time someone could come, my son finally managed to push himself down. I told the guy "you should have informed quicker" and his response was "talk to my manager". I thought "ok no use talking to the teenage kid he probably wasn't trained how to react in these situations". I went to the manager and told her "please train your staff to inform quicker" her response "he probably was sitting down, we cannot do anything about this" i go "No he was lying down this time.. first time he was sitting, but this time he was lying" she repeats "he probably was sitting; we don't promise how long it takes to slide; you eventually get down and that's what matters". Is this an empathetic response? I mean i get you have to stick to boiler plate legal language at times, but im not trying to sue anyone here. Im just looking for "i understand that must have felt scary, ill talk to my staff on acting quicker". I felt like I was talking to a robot both with the teenage staff and with the manager. Anyway, my husband intervened and helped the communication and both the manager and the teenage staff eventually apologized and i really appreciated it. Takeaway - If you're not staying in Holiday Inn, NorthShore Aquatic Center might be as fun for a fraction of the cost If you're staying in Holiday Inn, avoid the blue slide or go shirtless (another staff pointed out that might have helped) I see other reviews as well about untrained and disengaged teenage staff. Should have read before I visited!

We went to visit the first day back open at the manatee viewing center. The weather was very dark…read moreand light showers so it wasn't very busy. We walked out and didn't get to see any manatees but we did get the chance to touch the cownose stingrays underneath the building. It's only opened for a bit so it gives the stingrays a break between people. Also the cafe wasn't open on our visit. They mentioned they had some issue in the kitchen but hopefully will be back open soon in the future.

I absolutely love this place, especially during the winter when it's manatee season. I like take…read moreall my guests here. It's FREE, well organized, helpful staff. There are 2 parking lots, the main one and an overflow. There's a little cafe upstairs if you want to grab a snack, a small education center for the kids, a hands-on sting ray touch tank. The boardwalk is pretty extensive and there's room for everyone to be able to view the marine life. We've seen so much: manatees, sharks, tarpon, sting rays, and many, many other fish. There's also a very nice trail behind the center that leads to an overlook tower you can climb to the top of. The center is seasonal though. They're open from November to April. I recommend going in the colder months if you want to see pods of manatees, like Dec-Feb.