Busch Gardens Christmas Town in Williamsburg, VA

What a great day we had on this Thursday afternoon in mid July! Lines were nothing and we parked very close. It was hot but doable and we loved the coasters. Nice that my kids are tall enough now to ride with me. Good day and even made it back to car before TStorm descended upon us.

This review is specific to arrival and getting to the tram to enter the Park. We were there on Sunday, July 21st. Our group had five families including 10 adults and 4 young children in three cars. The parking lot was a mishmash of cars circling in both directions with vehicles pulling / backing into spots.There was no rhyme or reason or directions from staff on where vehicles could or should park! Some cars opted for closeness, others seeking shade, others cruising for their desired space. There were acres of available parking spaces. Meanwhile families / couples where trying to exit their vehicles, unload a stroller or cooler, organize their passes, etc prior to heading to the park, keeping children out of way of passing / turning cars while this was happening. Then there was the walk to the Tram... more adventure dodging passing traffic, etc. While the Park is nice, going into it can be stressful! If you are reading this review and planning on visiting the Park, particularly with children but no less for yourself, please be careful in parking, and be aware of your safety as a pedestrian!!!

Amazing park, I always wanted to go even as a kid! My husband and I got to be a kid again. Love roller coasters so we rode all of those, lines weren't that bad. What was so cool is the space the animals have! It is so beautiful. My children - teen children had never heard of it - we have gone to Disney but they have never heard of Busch gardens. As a hint they should begin to market again. It's a really great place! This from an Ohio native who has gone to Cedar point more times than I can count! We definitely will go again! We got the all day done deal, totally worth it. (I used employee discount) so we got a good deal on tix and dining!

Park was very clean, employees were all very pleasant. Really enjoyed utilizing the loadable wrist bands to pay for food/drinks throughout the park, as it allowed the teenagers to head off in their own direction in the park without worrying about them losing cash. If you use cash, you can get any remaining balance back at the end of the day from guest services or just leave it on there and donate it to the care of the animals at the Busch Gardens/Sea World parks. The lockers that you can transfer from area to area are GREAT, so much more convenient than paying each time. But beware, there is an add on for Quick Que one time use for the ride closest to the set of lockers you are using and if you accidentally select it when purchasing your locker it is an extra $10 each. (We thought we were purchasing two lockers but in reality I purchased one locker and two quick que passes for Griffon. They called a guest attendant and he refunded the money but it was a bit annoying. There weren't clear instructions for that part. If you need more than one locker, you have to purchase them separately so they can each be moved around the park.) Definitely a great option though! Food was expensive but that's expected, but the quality of the food was a bit disappointing in Das Festhaus. The souvenir cups were a great idea, day of purchase all refills are free, even if it's a slushie. They simply scan the cup's barcode and you are good to go. It stormed during our visit and the park communication regarding the impending storm and their plan to close the rides was well communicated. Oh and the Pineapple Whip at Roman Frieze was AMAZING! Great visit, can't wait to go back!

I’ve been here numerous times over the years but wow, has this place taken a turn for the worst!! We purchased the “fun card” as we were staying all week and thinking about making another trip towards the end of Summer. Our first ride “Griffon” we were stuck in our seats after the ride. They had already told us to remove our seatbelts but the harness were stuck. There was three young girls working the ride and I am 100% sure between the three of them, not one knew what to do other than read from the manual that there was a delay. At this point I had my children put their seatbelts back on to be on the safe side. A young gentleman finally came and used emergency bars to release the harness. As we were walking out, maintenance finally came. A little scary. Especially since you could tell staff was NOT appropriately trained to handle this situation. If you don’t have a person sitting out of the ride then you must purchase a locker to put your belongings in while you ride. $2.00 per ride or $8.00 per day. THIS is not right. Any other park has coobies to place your items while you ride. Just another way to make money. Hershey, Dorney, Kings Dominion and Knoebels ALL have places to put your things while you ride and do not charge you for doing so. You’re are kind of forced to buy a souvenir cup to drink from all day as it’s too hot to not do so and they know that. $17.00 per cup. You do get free refills that day and I believe .99 there after. Drinks to purchase were close to $5.00 each so this was the cheapest option to keep everyone hydrated. Be prepared for the heat. It’s almost impossible to get cooled off. Germany has a big indoor place to eat which is where we ate. We got sausages and kraut with potatoes. My son also got ribs. Close to $18.00 for that plate. Looking around, it seems the food was very pricey and not feasible to eat in the heat than walk around. Quite a few of the attractions were closed on our visit which is very disappointing. You pay how much money to visit. Everything should be open!!! Come 6:00 lots of places started to close. We couldn’t even get our cup refilled at the one place...now this was like 7:00 and they were closing. I asked for water, well they reluctantly gave us water with no ice. Made my stomach turn. The only options to refill the cup were soda or water. No juice or powerade. In that heat my main worry is dehydration. I would like to see more options other than soda which dehydrates you more. By 8:00-8:30 nearly everything was closed!!!! This is unacceptable!!!!!! Again, they were starting to shut things down at 6pm. The park closed at 9:00. All attractions should remain open until the guests leave the park!!!! I mean, that’s common sense!!! Also I think we met maybe one or two staff that were pleasant. The rest were just outright miserable. Not at all helpful. Also the entire park was absolutely filthy! Our next VA visit we WILL NOT be wasting our time or money here. Kings Dominion is much, much better! The coasters were fun, BUT not worth the rest of the experience and time and money wasted!!