This site is about and dedicated to Busch Gardens Tampa. It’s called BGT Safari after the common abbreviation for Busch Gardens Tampa and the park’s African theme. You can expect a mix of news, history, reviews and fun facts related to the park.
BGT Safari is written Doug Mancosky, who by day is a science/technology professional. I’m a theme park fan and fountain of useless knowledge type out of greater Atlanta, GA. My wife Pam and I have an amazing toddler son Thomas who already loves Busch Gardens, especially Stanley Falls, more on that later…
In the summer of 2018 we visited Busch Gardens Tampa for the first time on a whim thanks to a great ticket promotion. We were traveling back from South Florida to our home in Georgia and looking for a place to stop for a day and break-up the trip a bit for our 1 year old son.
I’ve followed several theme park blogs and YouTube channels for several years. It’s easy to find a lot of Disney and Universal stuff, but was surprised to see so little about Busch Gardens. When you search “Disney Blogs” online you easily find things like “The Top 75 Disney Blogs”! Really? There’s so many there’s a top 75? However, if you search “Busch Gardens Blogs” you’ll only find the official blogs, a great Busch Gardens Tampa history blog, a Busch Gardens Williamsburg Fan Blog and bunch of single entries from general travel and theme park sites. I felt the Busch Gardens Tampa deserved more love, so here’s my humble attempt to add a voice to the discussions.
We won’t claim this to be the best blog or have the “latest” news or that it will be updated at constant intervals. However, what we will try to do is write compelling material about an awesome them park in hopes that more people discover this amazing place.
BGT Safari 
Hi Doug. I produce videos on Youtube about my time working in theme parks, including having been a Rhino Rally driver at Busch Gardens. I’ve been working on a video to show what the ride looks like now, after having been closed for a few years, and noticed that you have some pictures from the end of July (actually looks like we missed each other by just a few days there!)
On the day I was there, the sky ride was closed all day due to weather. But I noticed that you have a couple of pictures posted of the old Rhino Rally area from the sky ride. I was wondering if the two were the only ones? And also could I get permission to use them in a video about what it’s like now? I would give you credit in the video and description, along with a link back to your site in the description as well. it would be a huge help to show what condition the area is in now.
thanks so much!
George Burnash aka “Sir Willow”
Confessions of a Theme Park Worker
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You can absolutely use them and would love the link back to the blog. Trying to give some love to what I think is one of the best theme parks in the country. These were the only good shots I got unfortunately. Seems like they shut the Skyride down on a rumor of lightning or wind, so we always try to ride it early. One of our 3 year olds favorites!
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Thanks so much!! Hoping to have it all done by this Thursday. I’ll be sure to send you a note when it’s done.
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Wanted to let you know, video is done and uploaded. It’ll go public tomorrow for everyone, but you can see it first at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRBw9WxVgeU
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Great stuff! Never got to ride Rhino or the old monorail, but find it interesting/cool/sad the parts that are left and how they were recycled or left to decay. Thanks for the link!
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Great blog!! Can I use some of your photos for a YouTube video I’m working on?
I’ll be sure to name you as the source.
Thanks!
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