Once inside, we saw my predictions, and much to my surprise and contrary to Central Florida tourism belief, the Argentinian tour groups dominate over the Brazilian ones. I went to the bathroom near the Ubanga-Banga Bumper Cars, and saw a few members of Transatlantica (the same tour group I encountered at Disney’s Hollywood Studios during that year’s ESPN: The Weekend) inside! I had to muscle my way through throngs of members of two Argentinian tour groups and a Brazilian one to see what I and my 6-year-old cousin wanted to eat at the Desert Grill in Timbuktu. We rode a wide variety of rides: revisiting Scorpion after a 14-year hiatus, riding Cheetah Chase, and going on the Tanganyika Tidal Wave twice, just to name a few (Gwazi waited until the next day). Of course, I heard a few chanting here and there, particularly on queue of the Stanley Falls Flume moments before closing to inclement weather (by a few girls of “La Adventura Magica”) and girls from another Argentinian tour group in soccer jerseys as they depart the loading station on their vehicle on Tanganyika Tidal Wave.

On an overcast, near-stormy Sunday (the day before my relatives flew back to Seattle), we spent a day at the park again, and I found a man on stilts in Morocco holding a flag belonging to one of the guides of an Argentinian tour Group, Magic Days. As my 6-six-year-old cousin rode Gwazi Gliders, we looked at a gift shop near Gwazi, where another batch of young Argentinians from their group, Inside Magic, boarded the ride and a few members and a handful of tour guides from the blue group from Universal Turismo (a *shudder* Brazilian tour group) shopped with us. Thinking how long the line to the roller coaster was, we headed off to the 12:30 premiere of the African folklore show, Katonga, at the Moroccan Palace Theater. After the ethnic show, we finally rode Gwazi, boarded the Lion train, and raced against the Tiger train, containing white-and-green-shirted members of a Brazilian tour group (we won that race). We had a lot of fun, despite all the tour groups, more Argentinians than Brazilians swarming this piece of Tampa suburbia. All in all, the lines weren’t that horrendous, but we should had obtained a ride reservation system stub. (Busch uses that system, called Quick Queue, but at $24.95 and contrary to Universal Express or Disney’s Fastpass, it’s inconveniently expensive to start with.)

So, with all said and done for the trip report, I created a musical photo/video montage of the various tour groups I’ve encountered at Busch Gardens that weekend and I bet my bottom dollar that you can stomach the sights of them, especially if you are a regular theme park-veteran!