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Busch Gardens Tampa · Florida · typical hours 10 AM–9 PM
The one-minute version: be at the gate 30–45 minutes before opening and ride Iron Gwazi first. Waits peak from late morning to mid-afternoon — do shows and meals then. The final hour is often as quiet as rope drop. There is no headline evening show, so the final operating hour is usually the quietest time to ride.
Usually not worth it: One coaster carries the whole queue load.
See today's live waits free Ready-made touring plans8 rides open, 21 closed · average posted wait 0 min.
| Attraction | Posted wait |
|---|---|
| Air Grover | 0 min |
| Congo River Rapids | 0 min |
| Falcon's Fury | 0 min |
| Iron Gwazi 5 below typical | 0 min |
| Phoenix Rising | 0 min |
| Serengeti Flyer | 0 min |
| SheiKra | 0 min |
| Tigris | 0 min |
Closed right now: Anaconda: Fear Has No Escape , Big Bird's Whirly Birdie, Cheetah Hunt, Circus of Fear: Killer Encore, Cobra's Curse, Elmo's Safari Go-Round, Grand Caravan Carousel, Gwazi Gliders , M.A.R.S., Montu, Raven's Mill: Lambs To The Slaughter, Serengeti Express (Nairobi Station), Serengeti Express (Stanleyville Station), Shadows of Wonderland: Reign of Madness, Skyride (Egypt Station), Skyride (Jungala Station), Snuffy's Elephant Romp , Stranglewood Estate: RePossessed, The Count's Zambezi Rally, Ubanga-Banga Bumper Cars, Zoe-Patra's Hippos of the Nile.
Posted waits as of 1:56 AM park time, refreshed every few minutes. Posted waits are the park’s own figures via Queue-Times.com. Plan around them in the app →
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| Day | Park hours (local time) |
|---|---|
| Fri 23 Oct | 10 AM – 6 PM |
| Sat 24 Oct | 10 AM – 6 PM |
| Sun 25 Oct | 10 AM – 6 PM |
| Mon 26 Oct | 10 AM – 5 PM |
| Tue 27 Oct | 10 AM – 6 PM |
| Wed 28 Oct | 10 AM – 6 PM |
| Thu 29 Oct | 10 AM – 6 PM |
From the park’s published schedule. Hours change, and evening events can close the park to day guests early — check with the park before you go.
Queues here follow a predictable daily shape. Lines are shortest in the first hour and the last, and peak 1 PM–2 PM — that is the window to spend on shows, meals or indoor attractions rather than headliners.
Typical shape of a Busch Gardens Tampa day, shown as each hour's share of that day's own peak wait. Actual minutes vary by season and day of week — check today's live waits.
| Hour | Typical wait level |
|---|---|
| 10 AM | 35% of the day's peak |
| 11 AM | 63% of the day's peak |
| 12 PM | 88% of the day's peak |
| 1 PM | 99% of the day's peak |
| 2 PM | 94% of the day's peak |
| 3 PM | 80% of the day's peak |
| 4 PM | 62% of the day's peak |
| 5 PM | 46% of the day's peak |
| 6 PM | 34% of the day's peak |
| 7 PM | 26% of the day's peak |
| 8 PM | 22% of the day's peak |
Be at the gate 30–45 minutes before opening and ride in this order. Iron Gwazi is the only ride here that consistently builds a long line; the older B&M coasters have excellent throughput.
The first hour is the cheapest capacity of the day — no pass, no fee, and typically the shortest waits you will see.
Red = busiest, green = quietest, grey = moderate.
Expect the year's longest waits during spring break, summer, and Howl-O-Scream weekends.
The best value for short lines is January and February weekdays, May weekdays, and September weekdays before Howl-O-Scream.
Scores are the crowd forecast, 1 to 10, averaged over the stretch. Visiting in a busy stretch anyway? Be at the gate before opening, and ride the big ones in the first hour and the last. Every day is scored on the crowd calendar.
Separate evening ticket
Selected nights with a separate ticket, not included with daytime admission.
This year: 11 September to 31 October, on selected nights.
Visiting by day on an event night? Plan to finish by late afternoon, and check which nights are event nights.
Usually not worth it
One coaster carries the whole queue load. Ride Iron Gwazi first and Quick Queue stops making sense — the rest of the park moves quickly even on moderately busy days.
Price: roughly $20–$90 cheapest skip in the industry. Prices change often and by date — treat this as a range, not a quote.
Maben Parks shows every wait live with a "vs typical" marker, and your magical fairy will run the numbers for your party and date — including telling you to keep your money when the answer is no.
Check today's waits before you buyPlanning ahead? The free Busch Gardens Tampa crowd calendar scores every day for the next twelve months, 1 to 10 — no sign-up.
Median posted wait across the rides we track, on moderate days — the crowd level most visitors get. The shaded band is the middle half of readings at that hour.
Nothing is down long-term right now. Every attraction we track at Busch Gardens Tampa has reported open at some point in the last few days. Observed through October 23, 2026.
| Attraction | Was closed from | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Cheetah Hunt | September 21, 2026 | 13 operating days |
Generated from wait-feed observations, not an operator announcement: a long closure usually means refurbishment, but we report what the feed shows rather than guessing why. Always check the operator's own page before travelling for one specific ride.
Every wait we have recorded here, grouped by how busy the day turned out to be. The bold figure is the middle half of what we saw — a quarter of the time it was shorter, a quarter of the time longer. Read it against today’s crowd level to know whether the number on the sign is good or bad.
| Ride | Lightlevel 1 | Mildlevel 2 | Moderatelevel 3 | Busylevel 4 | Packedlevel 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheetah Hunt | 5–55 typical | — | 5–105 typical | 5–105 typical | 15–4530 typical |
| Cobra's Curse | 5–55 typical | 10–3010 typical | 5–105 typical | 5–105 typical | 15–4525 typical |
| M.A.R.S. | — | — | — | — | 5–405 typical |
| Anaconda: Fear Has No Escape | — | — | — | — | 5–3025 typical |
| Circus of Fear: Killer Encore | — | — | — | — | 5–305 typical |
| Raven's Mill: Lambs To The Slaughter | — | — | — | — | 5–3010 typical |
| Shadows of Wonderland: Reign of Madness | — | — | — | — | 5–255 typical |
| Stranglewood Estate: RePossessed | — | — | — | — | 5–205 typical |
| Iron Gwazi | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–55 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–105 typical |
| SheiKra | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 5–55 typical | 0–100 typical |
| Montu | 5–55 typical | 5–105 typical | 5–55 typical | 5–55 typical | 5–105 typical |
| Serengeti Flyer | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–55 typical | 0–55 typical |
| Air Grover | 0–50 typical | 0–00 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical |
| Congo River Rapids | 0–00 typical | 0–00 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical |
| Falcon's Fury | 0–00 typical | 0–00 typical | 0–00 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–00 typical |
| Phoenix Rising | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–55 typical | 0–55 typical |
| Tigris | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–50 typical | 0–55 typical |
| Gwazi Gliders | 5–55 typical | — | — | — | 5–55 typical |
Minutes of posted standby wait, from our own recorded snapshots — up to 26 days per figure. Cells stay blank until a ride has enough observations at that crowd level to be worth printing. Posted waits are what the park displays, which is not always what you queue.
Aim to be at the gate 30–45 minutes before the posted opening time of 10 AM. The first hour consistently has the day's shortest waits, and arriving even 45 minutes late typically costs you two headliners.
7 PM–9 PM — the opening hour and the final hour of the operating day. Waits peak 1 PM–2 PM, so plan meals, shows and indoor attractions for that window.
Iron Gwazi, then Montu and SheiKra. Iron Gwazi is the only ride here that consistently builds a long line; the older B&M coasters have excellent throughput.
January, February, May and September — January and February weekdays, May weekdays, and September weekdays before Howl-O-Scream. Avoid March, June, July, September and October, when spring break, summer, and Howl-O-Scream weekends.
One coaster carries the whole queue load. Ride Iron Gwazi first and Quick Queue stops making sense — the rest of the park moves quickly even on moderately busy days.