Summer Nights Event Returns to Busch Gardens Tampa With Changes

Summer Nights at Busch Gardens Tampa is back, but this year it’s a little different. And while there have been some operational changes, there’s still a lot of good times to be had. The modified version of Summer Nights takes place every weekend, Friday through Sunday, now through August 16. Plus, the park has extended hours on these nights to 10:00pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 9:00pm on Sundays. Let’s take a look at this year’s incarnation of the popular summer event!

Summer Nights Food

In addition to being able to ride some of the best coasters in the world in the dark, guests can indulge in a variety of food and drink and enjoy the laser and fireworks finale in a socially distant setting at the Festival Field.

There’s a great selection of different food items. I tried out Summer Lovin Bar-B-Que.

The Brisket Chop was delicious – tangy, crunchy, slightly sweet, and just the right amount of spice.  

The new Coke Canopy has finally opened and is a great place to get out of the sun and enjoy an ice-cold beverage. It’s also a great shelter for when those sporadic summer downpours happen. They also had a fun steel drum/percussion group that performed several times during the evening. It felt so good to hear some live music again!

Remember that rain I just spoke about? Well . . . out of the blue . . . it hit! So I went inside for more food and let the weather clear up.  

For dessert, I tried the Cinnamon Roll S’mores from the All S’mored Up kiosk, which was tasty and surprisingly filling.

Here’s a nice little touch the park is doing: if you have a 2020 Food & Wine Festival sampler card that still has punches left on it, you can use it to purchase select food & beverage items during Summer Nights. Here are the participating locations: Summer Lovin BBQ, Coke Canopy, Garden Gate Cafe, Peacock Bar & All S’mored Up. Food items require 2 punches and beverages are 1 punch. I had a few punches left on my sampler lanyard from before the shutdown happened, so that took care of my dinner and dessert!

The Xcursions gift shop has reopened (it was closed my last 2 visits) and they now have a little cupcake corner, offering several varieties of gourmet cupcakes to grab & go in packs of two and three.

Lasers and Fireworks!

The Festival Field opens around 8:30pm for the laser and fireworks finale at 9:00pm. To make sure guests practiced proper physical distancing, they had the benches in the Festival Field all marked out for safe seating. On top of that, they made regular announcements to remind guests to safely physically distance their party from others and that face coverings are required in the area. They also had employees wandering through the Festival Field to make sure the rules were being followed. Major kudos to Busch Gardens for taking these steps to ensure everyone was being safe and responsible.

Besides the Festival Field, there were alternate fireworks viewing areas by the bird gardens and Jambo Junction (with posted signs reminding guests to practice safe physical distancing). The laser and fireworks finale was fun and a nice way to wrap up a day at the park.

Around Busch Gardens

Advance reservations are still required to visit Busch Gardens as the park is operating at a very reduced capacity. Masks/face coverings are also required at all times (except when actively eating and drinking or utilizing the mask relaxation zones).

Temperature screenings are still taking place when you arrive, but the park has switched from employees individually scanning each guest with a hand-held thermometer to a thermal body scanner. This helps keep guests continually moving so lines don’t get backed up. This is the same system that SeaWorld and Knott’s Berry Farm are using. Very efficient!

All 2020 dated merchandise is currently 70% off! Who wants to remember 2020? . . . apparently no one! 

Serengeti Safari tours are being offered again. They’re limiting parties to one per truck to comply with current health and safety procedures, so capacity is very limited at this time.

Still no word as to when Iron Gwazi is going to open. It’s a difficult time to debut a new ride as theme parks attempt to keep guests evenly distributed and physically distant. They might need to do pre-ticketed timed entries to make this work . . . or simply wait until the pandemic is over. 

Also, no official word yet on if Howl-O-Scream will still be taking place this fall. But in light of Universal Orlando canceling Halloween Horror Nights and Disney canceling Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, it will be no surprise if Busch Gardens follows suit.