Fun-Filled Days at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg Pt. 2

Land of the Dragons

After a delicious lunch and a lively German-inspired show at the festival hall “Das Festhaus” within the Oktoberfest region of the park, we set off to explore more of what Busch Gardens has to offer. Our next stop was Land of the Dragons®, the second Kidsiderate® area of the park designed just for little ones. My son was immediately drawn to the huge tree house climbing structure surrounded by cargo nets and slides. He grabbed my husband’s hand and they began their climb up to explore the tree house, while my daughter and I made our way over to check out the numerous tot-sized rides close by.  

Her first choice was to ride a circle of floating kiddie boats called Chug-A-Tug, and then she headed over to Flutter-Sputter, where she loved riding high in the sky on her very own dragon. Her very favorite ride in the Land of the Dragons® was definitely Bug-A-Dug, where she was thrilled to be able to zoom around on the back of a ladybug at a speed that made her squeal with excitement. When my husband and son finally joined us after mastering the tree house obstacle course, my daughter had a great time taking her brother to each of the rides and going on them all over again with him beside her.

Elmo Rocks!

After leaving the Land of the Dragons®, our next stop was one that both of my children had been eagerly anticipating since we arrived at the park - we were finally going to see Elmo! We made our way over to the Globe Theatre for the 2:30pm performance of “Elmo Rocks!” an adorably hilarious musical starring all of my children’s favorite furry sesame street characters. I am confident in saying that my daughter is one of Elmo’s biggest fans, so much so that she brought her own beloved Elmo doll from home and had been carrying him faithfully around the park all day. When she finally saw the larger-than-life sized Elmo singing and dancing before her on stage, her initial reaction of surprise and a bit of apprehension was quickly replaced by excitement when she recognized her favorite character and sang along to his songs.  Both kids absolutely loved the show.  

Afterwards, our tour guide informed us that we would be able to go behind the scenes to meet one of the cast members, a very exciting surprise!   At this point in the afternoon, my two year old was simply too exhausted from all the fun to keep her eyes open another minute, so she napped in her stroller while we waited for one of the characters to come out.

Cookie Monster

While we waited we asked my son who he had enjoyed the most in the show, and his answer was Cookie Monster because of the funny song he sang while trying his hardest to grab an enormous cookie.  As luck would have it, who should then appear to meet my son but Cookie Monster himself! My son ran right up and gave Cookie Monster a big hug, and the moment was perfect for a sweet photo opportunity.  

At that point our tour had come to an end, and we were free to explore the park on our own for the rest of the day.  Before parting ways, our tour guide, who had also been snapping pictures of our family throughout the day’s experiences, informed me that all of the images would be waiting for us, free of charge, on a disk set aside at guest relations, and that we could simply pick them up on our way out of the park that evening. This was something that I think really made our Family Fun Tour so special. All day long we had our own personal photographer documenting our adventures for us so that was could all enjoy them together as a family and together later from home.

My son became our tour guide for the remainder of the afternoon, deciding where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do as he led us back to all of his favorite spots. Of course we returned to both Sesame Street® Forest of Fun™ and Land of the Dragons®. On our way there we also decided to check out a few of the other Kidsiderate® attractions, including the Little Balloons and the Little Gliders, two whimsical flying rides geared just for little ones.  

As our afternoon came to an end, my son had two specific requests - to go back underneath the big roller coasters and watch them come zooming down, and to go check out the log flume we had passed several times called Le Scoot and see if he was big enough to ride. He was very excited when he discovered that as long an adult accompanied him, he could experience such a large coaster with a huge drop and even huger splash waiting at the end. My husband went with him while my daughter and I looked on, and I could tell immediately when they returned with dripping clothes and enormous smiles that my son’s love of roller coasters had officially begun. He wanted to ride the flume again and again, so my husband and I took turns riding with him until it was finally time to call it a night.  

During the whole car trip home and in the days and weeks that have since followed, Busch Gardens continues to be the topic of many of our conversations. We had such a great time, in fact, that we are already planning another trip in a few weeks, and this time we are bringing along a few other family members to share in on the fun with us!