Busch Gardens

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Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, and a planned amusement park in Dubai, owned and operated by Busch Entertainment Corporation, a division of Anheuser-Busch. One of the parks is in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the other is in Tampa, Florida. Both parks were renamed at the start of the 2006 season to reflect the themes used throughout the parks. There was also previously a Busch Gardens park in Pasadena, California (1905-1937), Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California from (1964-1979)^[1] and Houston, Texas (1971-1973) ^[2]. The Busch Gardens old logo (from March 1, 1977-July 12, 2003) is not shown on images.

Contents 1 Locations 1.1 Busch Gardens Tampa Bay 1.2 Busch Gardens Williamsburg 1.3 Busch Gardens Dubai 2 Former Properties 2.1 Busch Gardens in California 2.2 Houston 3 Free beer 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Locations

[edit] Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay opened on March 31, 1959, and has an African theme. The park was originally tagged "The Dark Continent".^[3] The theme park is one of America's largest zoological institutions, with more than 2,700 animals. Attractions include: Rhino Rally, Montu, Kumba, Scorpion, Gwazi, Edge of Africa, and SheiKra, a vertical dive coaster which opened in 2005. The theme park is some distance away from downtown, in central Tampa, near the limits of the City of Temple Terrace at the east of Tampa.

[edit] Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened on May 5, 1975, and has a European theme. The park was originally tagged "The Old Country". Attractions at this park include Curse of DarKastle, Alpengeist, Escape from Pompeii, Apollo's Chariot, Loch Ness Monster, Big Bad Wolf, and, new for 2007, Griffon. The new coaster has bragging rights in that it is the tallest dive coaster in the world. The park is divided into seven sections, each themed to a different European country.

[edit] Busch Gardens Dubai

Busch Entertainment Corporation was to open a new park in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2012.^[4] It was to be placed on a man-made island shaped like Shamu in Dubai with SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, and Aquatica also being built on that island. The Dubai park would have added on a 3rd park to the Busch Gardens brand. The plans are now shelved because of financial issues, but the project will be visited again in the summer.^[5]

[edit] Former Properties

[edit] Busch Gardens in California

Long before the Busch Gardens in Van Nuys, Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser beer had his winter home in Pasadena, California (1904). It was here that this wealthy easterner took full advantage of the area’s mild climate and established the first of a series of Busch Gardens (1906). When Busch died (1913) at his Pasadena estate his wife generously offered the property to the City of Pasadena as a park, an offer the city inexplicably refused.

In the 1930s, the 36-acre (150,000 m²) land was subdivided. A number of films were made at the park, including "Frankenstein," "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Gone With the Wind."

In 1954, a new brewery was opened in Van Nuys. The company brought back a more modern version of Busch Gardens at its Van Nuys brewery in 1966, which included boat rides for visitors, a monorail and free beer. The 17-acre (69,000 m²) amusement park was renamed Busch Bird Sanctuary in 1977, but two years later, it was closed.

[edit] Houston

Houston’s Busch Gardens opened in May 1971 and was closed within two years. It was located adjacent to the Anheuser-Busch brewery, which opened in 1966. The 40-acre park had an Asian theme except for an ice cave with a temperature controlled environment for several varieties of penguins, polar bears and sea lions. ^[6]

[edit] Free beer

SeaWorld and Busch Gardens owner Anheuser-Busch InBev annouced that the long tradition of offering free beer samples in their Hospitality Centers and Brewmaster Clubs would come to an end in the parks.^[7] Beer will continue to be sold in the parks. Reports speculate that the change was made to make the parks more attractive to buyers. ^[8]

[edit] See also

• Incidents at Busch parks

Anheuser-Busch owns several other parks:

• The SeaWorld parks in San Diego, California, San Antonio, Texas and Orlando, Florida
  • SeaWorld Orlando
  • SeaWorld San Diego
  • SeaWorld San Antonio
  • A fourth SeaWorld formerly operated in Ohio
• Discovery Cove, an exclusive, reservation-only park in Orlando
• Sesame Place, a children's play park themed after the long-running public broadcasting show Sesame Street, near Philadelphia.
  • A second Sesame Place formerly operated in Texas.
• Water Parks: Adventure Island (waterpark) in Tampa, Florida; Water Country USA in York County, Virginia; and Aquatica in Orlando, Florida.
• Grant's Farm, an animal reserve park in St. Louis, Missouri, on land formerly owned by Ulysses S. Grant. Home to some of the Budweiser Clydesdales.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official website of the Busch Entertainment Corporation
• History timeline from the Anheuser-Busch website
• Fan websites:
  • Roller coaster database entries for Tampa and Williamsburg
  • Busch Gardens Escape (unofficial fansite)
  • Busch Gardens Tampa Guide (unofficial fansite)
  • Busch Gardens Van Nuys Site photos
• An Enchanted Park: Celebrating the Centennial of Busch Gardens, a Pasadena Museum of History exhibit on the original Busch Gardens in Pasadena, California

v • d • e Anheuser-Busch Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev Corporate Directors: Dave Peacock, CEO & President Past CEOs and Presidents: Eberhard Anheuser • Adolphus Busch • August Anheuser Busch, Sr. • Adolphus Busch III • August A. "Gussie" Busch, Jr. • August Busch III • Patrick Stokes Busch Entertainment Corporation Busch Gardens: Africa (Tampa, Florida) • Europe (Williamsburg, Virginia) SeaWorld: San Antonio • San Diego • Orlando Miscellaneous: Aquatica by SeaWorld (Orlando, Florida) • Adventure Island (Tampa, Florida) • Discovery Cove (Orlando, Florida) • Sesame Place (Langhorne, Pennsylvania) • Water Country USA (Williamsburg, Virginia) Anheuser-Busch Products Budweiser • Michelob • Busch Beer • Rolling Rock • Others Subsidiaries Anheuser-Busch, Inc • Anheuser-Busch International, Inc. • Anheuser-Busch Agricultural Operations • St. Louis Refrigerated Car Co. • Manufacturers Railway Co. • Metal Container Corp. • Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corp. • Precision Printing and Packaging, Inc. • Eagle Packaging, Inc. • Longhorn Glass Corp. • Busch Entertainment Corporation • Busch Properties, Inc. Equity Investments Grupo Modelo • Tsingtao Brewery Related Operations Grant's Farm Acquired by InBev November 18, 2008  · Website: www.anheuser-busch.com