Busch Gardens Tampa

I did a quick recap of our trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa over the weekend and our experience at their Food & Wine Festival which was excellent! Today I wanted to share some more details about the park itself and some of the rides and attractions that stood out to me.

I didn't explore every single inch of the park but, being there for a full eight hours, I think we saw most of the main attractions and covered good ground.

The Rides:
The Cheetah Hunt and Skyride Cable Cars.
We really wanted to go on the Skyride to get a bird's eye view of the park but it was closed due to weather conditions (too windy). 

Falcon's Fury

The Phoenix

Congo River Rapids

Sheikra

The Animals:
We saw an elephant, large alligator, a gorilla, tortoises, flamingos and penguins.

Garden Sightings:
Beautiful garden displays all throughout the park. 

Live fountain statue singing in the garden at the Food & Wine Festival. 

Games:
There were several options for games and arcade games where you can win prizes such as the Flamingo Farm below.

Shows:
There were several shows to pick from and we decided on Iceploration which is a 30-minute ice skating show with professional skaters and acrobats. Flash photography was not allowed so I didn't capture the best photos with my iPhone. 

Food & Drinks:
We had lunch at Zambia Smokehouse which serves fast-food barbecue and it was fairly good.

Later in the evening and after several drinks at the Food & Wine Festival, we tried several small plates at the festival which were all excellent. 

Menu:
Pan-Seared Shrimp with Roasted Red Pepper Grits & Grilled Corn
Bacon-Wrapped Prawns
Deconstructed Duck Confit
Bacon Mac & Cheese

We had a great time exploring Busch Gardens and i was really impressed with all that they had to offer even though I'm not big into the scary rides but there's so much more to entertain people with all types of interests as I pointed out above. 

Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival

Hey lovelies! 

We meet again on this Monday morning and I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.

On Saturday, we headed to Tampa for Busch Garden's Food & Wine Festival. It was a hot day in Florida but we lasted a solid eight hours. I have to say Busch Gardens definitely outdoes Disney when it comes to crazy/scary rides and I didn't go on one of them. Not one of the scary ones. (I plan to do a full recap of the park later this week). 

In a nutshell, I saw some beautiful animals such as this cute gorilla.

Went on the Congo River Rapids and got soaked!

Saw the Iceploration ice skating show.

Then ventured on to the Food & Wine Festival

Tried several small plates of amazing food...

And a beer flight with the husband...

While watching Daughtry in concert.

After the show K went on a couple scary rides while I relaxed my aching feet (old age is a bitch) and took photos. 

We checked into our hotel on Saturday night which turned out to be in the ghetto (I'm not even going to get started on that). Tampa is an interesting place....

On Sunday morning, we went to Ella's American Folk Art Cafe for some brunch/lunch which I was told was a must-do while in Tampa. The food and drinks were amazing and then we hit the road to head back home and call it a weekend. 

Another fun weekend for the books!

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.