I am planning on taking my daughters here for a surprise mini vacation. We were planning on doing the park 1 day, relaxing for another day and hitting Colonial Williamsburg for a third day. I have not been to this park since the 80's. Any advice? experiences? meals?

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a fabulous park, you're going to have a great time. It's a beautiful, well maintained and thoroughly themed park with some awesome rides. Apollo's Chariot is one of my favorite coasters.

As far as meals go, BGW has the best park food I've ever had. My recommendations are Das Festhaus in Germany, and Ristorante della Piazza in Italy. The Italian place had a wonderul outdoor ampitheater where you could dine and watch a stage show.

You really can't go wrong with this park, in my humble opinion.

I'm going to have to beg to differ with Karen. We visited Williamsburg for a week last August and Busch Gardens was a major disappointment for us. We'd bought multi day passes but really only used them for a day and a half.
We have been to the Disney parks and Universal parks many times but had never been to Busch Gardens before and there is simply no comparison. BGW is fine for 1 day - although if there are crowds and lines like we encountered you will not get on all the rides by any means in a day so you will have to be choosy. All I can tell you is that if we visited again, we wouldn't bother buying a ticket.
The Good Things:
1. The rollercoasters are very good
2. The landscaping is attractive.

The Bad Things:
1. The lines get extremely long - we queued for over 2 hours for some of the popular rides and they simply haven't got the line management systems that Disney and the other big parks have. You are simply moving in a big hot line with nothing to amuse you. If it is hot like it was when we were there it was absolutely awful and people were fainting. They really need to look at how they organise crowds.
2. The Food. I thought it was the worst. There is only 1 restaurant in the entire park where you can eat inside and that is the Das Festhaus. All the other food outlets offer outdoor seating only. If the weather isn't spot on perfect this is a problem. Its basically picnicking and when it's very hot, you just long to get into some air conditioning. The same must be true if it's chilly or wet. The Das Festhaus is huge, like a massive airplane hangar. The food was disgusting - the worst I've ever had in a theme park. Like you would get for a bad school dinner. Believe me, I'm not fussy but I left most of mine. My tip: take your own food in. There's a very nice ice cream outlet.
3. Sitting Down. There just aren't enough places to sit down and rest. Problem with younger children.
4. The information. Signage is terrible. The guide brochure is inadequate. The rides do not have descriptions and neither do the signs outside. So, you don't really know what you are queuing for some of the time.
5. There are just about enough rides for a day depending on the lines but there really aren't enough.
6. The transport system is strange - you can only go to certain places. Basically, you will have to walk most of the park.
7. Better park for teens than the under 8s.

Maybe if you go in the spring, out of holidays when the weather is cooler than it was when we were there it would be a much more pleasant experience.

Colonial Williamsburg was fantastic, even given the soaring temperatures. Plenty to do and absolutely beautiful and fascinating. Well worth taking as many of the tours and special shows as possible and getting involved with the "characters". The gardens are absolutely superb. Would love to go back. We were not impressed by the tavern dinners there either, but the food was good, it just wasn't great value for money and too crowded to be much of an experience. The whole place is very professionally run though and the staff really know their stuff - very very impressive.

We also enjoyed a visit to the Jametown Experience which was great. You got an excellent idea of what the conditions for the settlers must have been like, the ships seem so small etc. Recommend that.

Have a great time.

Allie

I would definitley say Busch Gardens is a one day park. We have been there twice for one day each time. Just remember the old saying - go left. Also, it can be a bit confusing. Depending on how much of a history buff you are, Williamsburg can be a half day event or a two day event. We tend to do it a few hours at a time not an all day event. But then that is just us. If you want something relaxing - there is a great nature park in Virginia Beach that you can roam through and it is quite relaxing.

I would definitley say Busch Gardens is a one day park. We have been there twice for one day each time. Just remember the old saying - go left. Also, it can be a bit confusing. Depending on how much of a history buff you are, Williamsburg can be a half day event or a two day event. We tend to do it a few hours at a time not an all day event. But then that is just us. If you want something relaxing - there is a great nature park in Virginia Beach that you can roam through and it is quite relaxing.


Hershey, what is the name of that Nature Park?? That sounds like a great thing to do on our 'relaxation' day.

Hershey, what is the name of that Nature Park?? That sounds like a great thing to do on our 'relaxation' day.

Here is a link to it. http://www.vmsm.com/index.shtml There is charge for it but not much. It has an aviary and other animals in the first building, a nice nature trail to walk slowly and enjoy the surroundings to another building with additional nature/animal stuff. My husband and I enjoyed it which is shocking because I normally don't do much stuff like that. I had a great time taking pictures of flowers that I had never seen before.

Never been to *any* Busch Gardens location, so I can't say much of anything about it.

But on the other hand, I did spend the entire 2004 Thanksgiving weekend in Colonial Williamsburg, from Wednesday evening through Monday morning, and it wasn't nearly enough to see everything; I would have needed at least another full day, maybe two, and maybe another day or two if I managed to arrange transportation to Jamestown.

I suggest you rethink this, and plan on spending both the second and third days in CW. You might also think about staying at one of the CWF hotels; the Governor's Inn, although a bit Spartan, is extremely reasonable, and includes an excellent continental breakfast. My stay in Williamsburg, I spent all but the last night at the Governor's, and then (for the full immersive experience) transferred to one of the Colonial House accommodations run by the Williamsburg Inn.

Or if you do CW first, you might find it so fascinating that you don't even bother with Busch Gardens.

There is only 1 restaurant in the entire park where you can eat inside and that is the Das Festhaus. All the other food outlets offer outdoor seating only. If the weather isn't spot on perfect this is a problem. Its basically picnicking and when it's very hot, you just long to get into some air conditioning. The same must be true if it's chilly or wet. The Das Festhaus is huge, like a massive airplane hangar. The food was disgusting - the worst I've ever had in a theme park.

That's funny! It's been at least 15 years since I've been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and that's the only restaurant I remember. I don't remember it being that awful, but then I don't remember it being that great either. At least atmosphere was sort of fun with the oompapa music. :)

I suggest you rethink this, and plan on spending both the second and third days in CW. You might also think about staying at one of the CWF hotels; the Governor's Inn, although a bit Spartan, is extremely reasonable, and includes an excellent continental breakfast. My stay in Williamsburg, I spent all but the last night at the Governor's, and then (for the full immersive experience) transferred to one of the Colonial House accommodations run by the Williamsburg Inn.


On the other hand, we stayed at the Governor's Inn and absolutely hated it. Loved the location, the food was okay, but I felt like I was staying at a no-tel hotel. I did not feel say walking from our room, at the back, to the front with a 10 week old baby. It really gave me be heeby-geebies (I know that is totally spelled wrong).

I wouldn't call the Governor's Inn bad, just a bit Spartan. And by spending Wednesday through Saturday nights there, instead of, say, the Woodland, I could easily afford to spend Sunday night in the Colonial House accommodation I mentioned.

Then, too, there was only one of me.

Interesting thread...we are going to CW in a couple of weeks. I found a 3-bedroom condo on eBay for $550/week. It sleeps 10-12, so it will be fine for my family of 5 and my parents, who are coming with us. Otherwise, we were looking at having to get two hotel rooms and eating all our meals out; I think this will be a cheaper (and more spacious, comfortable) option. Plus, there's a W/D, so we don't have to pack as much!

We'd been thinking about Busch Gardens as a possibility for a day, but plan on spending most of the time in CW, Yorktown, and Jamestown (and we're not spending the entire week there anyhow). I haven't been to BG for possibly 30 years.

PS to my previous comment, I'm also glad they waived the published minimum stay requirement on the colonial house accommodation: I couldn't have so easily afforded it for two nights. I'm sure the fact that it was a fairly slack season, and that I was spending the rest of my stay at another CWF property, had something to do with it.

I swear, though: the whole time I was there, I kept seeing, hearing, and doing things that were straight out of The Bobbsey Twins' Red, White and Blue Mystery. So much so that I included the cover art from the book in my album, and quoted it several times in my captions.