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Adventure Island
| Summary: | The companion park to Busch Gardens Tampa, Adventure Island is a water park that sets the bar for expectations pretty low, and that's about where it comes in. It might be a pleasant diversion if you've REALLY got a lot of time to kill in Central Florida, or if you otherwise prefer a water park to a day with animals and thrill rides at Busch Gardens, but failing either of those conditions, you may not want to create time for Adventure Island. |
| Location: | Adventure Island is not located in the immediate vicinity of Busch Gardens, though a central parking lot attempts to route cars for both parks to the proper area. Be warned that the parking is very confusing. The tram is only used for Busch Gardens; for Adventure Island, continue in your car to the back of the parking lot. Like Busch Gardens, Adventure Island is located in Tampa (sixty minutes west of Disney World), and stuck between major freeways, in what can be a confusing commute on side roads (watch carefully for signs alongside the road!) Click here for their official website. |
| Review: |
When you examine the offerings closely, in fact, you might conclude that toddlers will find the most at Adventure Island; certainly the tame wave pool, the jungle gym splash zone, and the concrete ankle-deep river running through the beach areas all target the Playskool set. This just might be intentional. Busch Gardens targets thrill-seekers and those wanting a sedate visitation with animals, which really just leaves the smaller children needing something for them. As a result, Adventure Island just can't compete with other theme parks when it comes to thrills or theming: everything from Wet & Wild to the Disney water parks just blows away the more modest offerings from Adventure Island. Helping aid this impression is the fact that Adventure Island is a very small park in terms of acreage. On an uncrowded day you could literally ride every slide once in less than sixty minutes. It's a shame that the moderate offerings are not matched by a moderate admission fee. At present, it's too high. Often, however, you can purchase a day at Adventure Island as an "add-on" to a day at Busch Gardens Tampa, and the price there might well make a lot more sense. |
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Families
with small children may find Adventure Island to be just right for them.
This water park packs a pretty low-caliber punch when it comes to thrill
rides; there's really only the one set of speed slides. Otherwise, there
are four sets of tame waterslides, a lazy river, a half-hearted wave
pool, and a dazzling jungle gym fountain for the tots.
