Graham Brooks' Blog

I recently made a trip to Williamsburg, VA to visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg (or maybe Europe to some folks). Over a few series of articles, I am going to review what my impressions of the park were, often making comparisons to Busch Gardens Tampa.

Part 1: Busch Gardens Williamsburg - The Beginning


The first thing that you notice when you drive to Busch Gardens Williamsburg is that it is pretty much by itself, especially compared to Tampa, which is surrounded on all sides. This certainly gives the park a bit of a different feel, a feeling that I rather liked.

The parking procedure is very similar to Tampa and the same $12.00 price tag. One problem I saw is that there is no employee to direct you into a parking space. What happens is that people leave spaces, making it difficult to find a spot when a lot is filling up fast. Also, it seems that the park discourages walking from the parking lots as no clear path is provided to the entrance. Even when attempting to walk one day, we were told we had to take a tram as we were not allowed to cross the street that leads patrons to the parking.

The entrance to the park is quite spread out. The first things you encounter are the ticket booths and the automatic ticket kiosks. The ticket booth is nicely decorated with flags from each European country that lies within the park. To actually gain entrance to the park, you must walk along a decently long pathway that goes down a hill and then back up. Along the way is some pretty scenery, including a nice waterfall surrounded by flowers. There are also restrooms, a guest services spot, and a small gift shop before you get to the bag check area in front of the park.

Williamsburg uses the same finger identification system as Tampa to gain entry into the park. You must scan your ticket and then place a finger on the reader to be admitted. I personally do not like this system, but I will leave that for another article.

Once through the turnstiles, you enter Busch Gardens Williamsburg. As in Tampa, some photographers are already to take your photo. As always when they ask me to stop and have one taken, I say "no thanks." The main entrance to the park is themed to England. There are several red phone booths in the area; a few are actual phone booths while a couple other are height measuring areas.

This is something that I would like to see in Tampa. Children can go and be measured in the booth and receive a wristband that labels which height category they fit in. This means that they do not have to be measured at each individual ride.

Other than the Globe Theatre, the first portion of England is just shops and a couple places to eat and get ice cream. The candy store is similar to Sultan's Sweets. The one big dining location is a bit small, especially compared to the Zagora Cafe in Tampa. Day locker rentals are also available behind the candy store for $6. They are key less lockers controlled by a small computer kiosk. We had troubles with one of the lockers one day as the electronic system did not actually lock our locker when we turned the nob to close it. Luckily, our stuff did not get stolen.

This concludes part one. I will be back later with more on Williamsburg, including reviews of all of the roller coasters and some of the other rides.

Photos will be added soon.