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Park Queue TimesPQT

Busch Gardens Tampa cheat sheet

worked out from 60 days of our own wait data11 rides

Arrive for 10:00 and ride Congo River Rapids, Cobra's Curse and Cheetah Hunt first. Leave Tigris until after 3pm, when its queue drops to about 6 minutes. The park's queues peak around 14:00 at 18 minutes and are lowest around 10:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Thursday
Busiest weekday
Sunday
Quietest month
October
Busiest month
December

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 10:006mquietest
  2. 11:0012m
  3. 12:0014m
  4. 13:0017m
  5. 14:0018mpeak
  6. 15:0017m
  7. 16:0016m
  8. 17:0017m
  9. 18:0018m
  10. 19:0017m
  11. 20:0014m

Arrive for 10:00. Queues climb to their peak around 14:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1Congo River Rapids ~18 min typical · up to 27 at peak · worst around 6pm18m
  2. 2Cobra's Curse ~17 min typical · up to 28 at peak · worst around 6pm17m
  3. 3Cheetah Hunt ~14 min typical · up to 23 at peak · worst around 5pm14m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1Tigris~13 min typical · about 6 min after 3pm6m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Fill the gaps with

Walk-ons at any hour, and the single-rider lines

Usually under 10 minutesAir Grover5mFalcon's Fury5mMontu7mSerengeti Flyer8m

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Cobra's Curserunning 60% of the park's open hours60%
  2. 2Cheetah Huntrunning 61% of the park's open hours61%
  3. 3Phoenix Risingrunning 66% of the park's open hours66%
  4. 4Iron Gwazirunning 71% of the park's open hours71%
  5. 5SheiKrarunning 76% of the park's open hours76%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

Plus members get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

PlusThe day-of sheet is part of Plus

Here, that is a ride order for your date, the forecast and the hours, printable.

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

£3.99/monthor £29.99 a year, about £2.50 a month

See everything in Plus

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Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.