We’ve been to Busch Gardens a few times and this time, we wanted to do something special so we checked out their website http://www.buschgardens.com/buschgar...ded_tours.aspx and decided to go on one of their Ultimate Adventure Tours. This is a private tour which cost $249 per person but means that you, as an individual or a group, have your own tour guide for the entire day, jumping the queues for the rides and having special “back-stage” access. I should add that this fee is in addition to the cost of park entrance for the day but we had the 5-park Orlando flex ticket so this was already paid for.

After an early start from Davenport, Hubbie and I arrived at Busch Gardens at 9am and gave our booking number to the parking attendant to obtain our free general parking. A short trip on the transport train followed and we arrived at the fountain by the front gate to meet our tour guide, Jasmin at 9:30, just in time for the park opening. After introductions and supplying us with our free disposable cameras, Jasmin escorted us through the main gate and took us for our complimentary continental breakfast at the café just inside the entrance. While we munched on hot chocolate and croissant, we talked about exactly what we were looking for from our special day. Your private tour of the Field Station and trip on the Serengeti Safari are the only scheduled appointments that you have, the rest of the day being your own to enjoy at your own pace.

After a hearty breakfast, we started off our day with a ride on Gwazi, the wooden rollercoaster. Your tour guide will take you through the exit up to the rides and you will be at the front of the queue. We picked where we wanted to sit and enjoyed our back-to-back rides on both the Lion and Tiger coasters.

After the rides, we strolled off to the Lory Landing aviary to meet the birds. Jasmin got us our complimentary pots of nectar and we had Lorrikeets perched on our hands while they supped on the sweet liquid. We have been to Lory Landing before but have never purchased the nectar so this was a new experience and getting so close up to the birds meant that we could appreciate the diversity of their vivid colours and markings. Also, their tongues are quite bizarre, long with bristles at the end and can be quite tickly!!

After our nectar was all gone, swiftly followed by the birds, we made our way to our meeting with one of the “keepers” at the Narobi Field Station for our tour. The staff member took Hubbie and I around and introduced us to the various inhabitants. We met a baby Lory, hand fed some cheerios to a marmoset, had a macaw perched on our arm (so light) and handled a millipede (tickley legs and quite fast). We also were introduced a troop of the smallest species of marmoset, arrivals from the closed Cypress Gardens, who were awaiting their own display area. The Field Station’s inhabitants can change so you can never be sure what you will find on your arrival but you get a great deal of insight into their work and close-up experiences with the animals.

Jasmin was waiting for us at the end of our tour with free bottled water, which she kept us supplied with all day, and took us off for our complimentary lunch at the Crown Colony restaurant. We listened to the pianist as we ordered our three-course lunch with drinks and Jasmin joined us to discuss our plans for the afternoon.

Following a scrummy lunch, we met up with other participants of the Animal Adventure Tour. This is the only time that you will have to share your tour with others and even then this is in reduced numbers than the usual Serengeti Safari tour.

Jasmin left us at this point and a group of ten of us followed our Educational Tour Guide to the Clydesdale enclosure to learn about these magnificent horses, stroking a stallion in the paddock and a foal in the stable. The stallion was rather daunting as he was so tall, even larger than the Suffolk Punch horses that I’ve met before. However, the foal (D