Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom recently celebrated it’s 20 year anniversary, and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay just turned 60, making it the oldest theme park in Florida. Both of the parks combine theme park attractions with animal exhibits, and both of them are part of the hyper-competitive central Florida theme park scene.
So which park do we think is better? We’re going to rate each park according to these categories:
- Rides & Attractions
- Theming & Atmosphere
- Animal Exhibits
- Value for your money
- Overall Winner
And if you want to hear more in-depth discussion, come check out our podcast episode:
Sunshine State of Mind: Animal Kingdom vs. Busch Gardens
Ok, so let’s do this. It’s a Florida Faceoff: Animal Kingdom vs. Busch Gardens!
Rides & Attractions
So we think this one really comes down to personal taste and what you’re looking for. It’s no question that Busch Gardens has a lot more to offer in this category with a huge variety of rides. They have lots of big roller coasters, a couple of water rides, kids rides, the Serengeti Railway, and the terrifying Falcon’s Fury.
While Animal Kingdom is huge and sprawling, it really only has a handful of attractions sprinkled around the park. But the ones they do have are truly one-of-a-kind, world class attractions. Expedition Everest is the most expensive roller coaster ever built, the Kilimanjaro Safari’s takes you on a 22 minute journey through a simulated African savannah that’s larger than the Magic Kingdom, and of course the new World of Avatar, with some of the most technically impressive rides you’ll ever see.
And when it comes to entertainment Busch Gardens has a nice ice skating show, but Animal Kingdom has Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo the Musical, which is a nearly Broadway quality show that’s on permanent residence right here.
This one is actually really close. If you’re looking for thrill rides like Falcons Fury or world class roller coasters like Kumba and Cheetah Hunt, then Busch Gardens is the place you want to be.
But for really unique, and just overall impressive rides and attractions unlike anywhere else, we give the nod to Animal Kingdoms.
So we’re going to make this one a tie. Busch Gardens has a lot more to do, but the stuff at Animal Kingdom is just top notch, and it really just depends on what kind of experience you’re after and what kind of rides you like.
Tie: Busch Gardens for quantity, Animal Kingdom for quality
Theming & Atmosphere
Now this is the category where Animal Kingdom really shines. First off, the Tree of Life that dominates the center of the park is just a truly amazing site to see. There’s over 300 animal sculptures in that thing, and the longer you look, the more you’ll discover. The theming around the African, Asia, and Pandora areas are all just perfect, and really transport you to those places while you’re in the park. The imagineers went through painstaking effort, paying attention to every little detail to make this park look as genuine as they could. We’ll knock a few points off for the cheesy Dinoland USA, but the rest of the park makes up for this one misstep.
Animal Kingdom also creates a fun partylike atmosphere all the time with live music and performers around every corner of the park.
While the park might be lighter on attractions, the theming and atmosphere here IS one of the attractions. I think it’s easily the nicest and most elaborately designed of all the parks at Walt Disney World.
Now Busch Gardens is still a nice, attractive, and clean park. But the design here never really transports you away to the Congo or to Egypt when you’re in those parks of park. It always still feels like a theme park. On this one, the choice is easy.
Winner: Animal Kingdom
Animal Exhibits
Probably the main thing that both of these parks have in common is that they’re both bonafide zoological parks that both do a lot of work in animal conservation. They both have rides and themed attractions, but they also both have animals at the heart of what they do.
Now after a recent visit to both parks, this one actually surprised me. Animal Kingdom has great animal habitats throughout the Asia and Africa parts of the park. On the Marahajah Jungle Trek you’ll encounter tigers and monkeys, while on the Gorilla Falls trail, you’ll of course see a wonderful gorilla habitat as well as hippos and exotic birds. Then of course there’s the Killamanajaro safari, which is probably the premier attraction at the park where you’ll see giraffes, elephants, rhinos, and more. There’s a few other habitats around as well, but for the most part, that’s about it. There aren’t really any animals in Dinoland USA or Pandora, unless we’re counting animatronic versions of extinct or extra terrestrial animals, and those both make up a significant part of the park.
Now over at Busch Gardens, they too have a large Serengeti Plain were the animals can roam free, and although it’s about half the size of the sprawling Killamanjaro safari’s land at Animal Kingdom, it’s still very big and can be viewed from lots of spots in the park, not just from one of the jeep rides. There isn’t a safari ride that takes you out onto the plain, unless you pay extra for a safari tour, but there is the guided Serengeti Railway which takes you around the entire thing and gets you up close to plenty of animals, like giraffes, zebras, and rhinos. Yes, the Animal Kingdom version is better, but Busch Gardens does do a good job here too.
At Animal Kingdom though, the only way to see lots of the big animals like rhinos, elephants, and giraffes, is to wait in line for that Safari tour. And once it’s over, that’s it. You need to get back in that long line to do it again, and some of the animals might be quite far away or hiding. While at Busch Gardens, you can easily view the elephants in their own habitat in the park, and see all the animals roaming the plain from the trainride, the skyride or from the Serengeti Overlook.
Busch Gardens also just has more animal exhibits, and spreads them all over the park. Their other premier habitats, like Jungala, where you can get up close to tigers, and the Myombe Reserve where you can visit gorillas and chimpanzees are all right on par with anything you’d find at Animal Kingdom as well. You can also pet kangaroos, feed flamingos, and see huge alligators up close.
We recently visited both parks to compare the two, and this one actually came as a welcome surprise, but when it comes to the Animals you’ll experience, we’re actually giving the nod here to Busch Gardens. It just feels like you’re never far from another animal encounter in this park, and they have more ways to interact with the animals here as well.
Winner: Busch Gardens
Value
Ok, so none of this stuff is free and Florida theme parks are getting more expensive every year. So which of these two parks do we think has better value for the money?
Let’s just say you have one day to visit either of these parks. As of right now, a one day ticket to Busch Gardens is $89.99 for anybody ages 3 and up. A one-day, one-park ticket to Animal Kingdom is $114.00, but that might vary a little depending on when you go, and there are some Florida resident deals that come up sometimes as well. So for a family of 4, it’s about an extra $100 just for admission to Animal Kingdom. And that’s before you’ve eaten or anything. Busch Gardens does have an all you can eat option you can tack on for another $35 for adults, and $20 for kids, which might help you save on food if you’re going to be there all day, and that would make your ticket just a little more expensive than what you’d be paying for Animal Kingdom
Now again, this is a tough one, because a lot of what both parks offer is up to personal taste. You might be happy to pay the Disney Premium for the Disney Experience, and that’s fine. But it’s also worth noting that Busch Gardens tends to be less crowded, and has more rides to accommodate the crowds, so that usually means less time waiting in line and more time having fun. But Animal Kingdom stays open later most of year, so you get more time in the park for your money.
But simply because there’s a little more to see and do, for less money, we’re going to give the slight edge here to Busch Gardens.
Winner: Busch Gardens (especially for Florida resident season passes)
Overall Winner
Ok so which park is our overall winner? Well we still have to take a few intangibles into account.
The level of service you’ll get from the employees at a Walt Disney World park will, for the most part, be better than what you’ll find at Busch Gardens. There’s also just those warm fuzzies you get from a Disney World Park that you won’t find anywhere else. Both are great parks, and each one has a few things they do better than the other, but if you said to me that I could choose just one of these parks to spend the day in, I think I would have to go with Animal Kingdom. It’s just that the overall feeling, the atmosphere, the entertainment, and quality of the attractions there are just hard to say no to.
Winner: Animal Kingdom
Maybe if you’re visiting Walt Disney World on vacation, and want to take a day to see another park, the drive over to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens takes about an hour, and could be a nice alternative to Animal Kingdom if you’re looking for a place that leans a lot more heavily into the thrill ride department. They have a lot of great animal attractions too that I think actually beats Animal Kingdom’s, and is a really great park too.