TAMPA, Fla. — Local amusement parks are seeing an uptick in admissions with the spring break crowd.
“It actually helped become social at home with your children, a better bond with your kids and things like that,” said Chanelle Johnson. “It actually for me was a positive thing.”
Even so, Johnson and her family are happy to be back at places like Zoo Tampa.
“We love to have our kids doing something over spring break versus sitting at home on electronics all day,” she said. “We want to get them out and become interactive with each other and socialize.”
And it seems to be how a lot of families feel — excited to get outside and have fun. Cara Treadway, the Senior Director go Guest Engagement, says that excitement can even be seen among the animals.
“Especially with the primates you know they are very intelligent animals, so seeing people coming back into the park was very entertaining for them,” she said.
She says they’ve seen a huge uptick in admission this week because of spring break.
“We feel like we’re in a comfortable spot with how many people are here enjoying the park and as you can see, we have a lot of people here,” she said.
It’s a similar scene over at Busch Gardens.
“They are so happy to be outside doing something fun, forgetting their problems, forgetting their issues, and knowing that we’re going to take care of health and safety measures here at the park,” said Becca Romzek, the communications manager for Busch Gardens and Adventure Island.
Romzek says new attractions at both parks, like the reimagined coaster Iron Gwazi and the water slide Solar Vortex are sure to excite.
“It’s a really cool family raft slide and experience,” she said of Solar Vortex. “As you’re going through it, has this great design element called AquaLucent. So, it looks like the light is coming through the tunnel and it feels kind of like a party slide.”
Iron Gwazi is expected to open in 2021.
