Busch Gardens vs. Colonial Williamsburg
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Anonymous
I love Colonial Williamsburg. DH and I used would go every year. But, if I would have gone as a kid...I could imagine HATING it. As an adult I make it clear to my DH we'll be going to both cause if I have to choose between the two, I'm choosing Busch Gardens. |
Anonymous
Yes, it is open daily in late March. It is definitely possible to do both Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg in one trip (not the same day, probably, unless you do CW in the morning and then head over to BG). |
Anonymous
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OP, don't inflict Colonial Williamsburg on your children. And if you do, make it a 1 day thing and reward them with Busch Gardens fun.
It's an incredible snooze fest, but if you schedule it so that you see some interesting performances/shows, it can be bearable. I would also recommend staying at Wyndham Kingsgate. It's a great property and they have a lot of amenities on site (pool, hot tub, miniature golf, movie room/night, game room, video game room, etc). Plus, you can book a 1 or 2 bedroom suite with enough room to stretch out and a full kitchen. |
Anonymous
| Definitely do Williamsburg, but don't overdo it. When my parents took me, we had to do EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING. Three full days of it, every single demonstration, show, flower garden, you name it. My brother and I nearly went crazy. But definitely go for a day so they can see the history of it, and then if they like it, maybe have some flexibility to your trip to spend another half day there before doing Busch gardens. |
Anonymous
| I had a blast at Colonial Williamsburg as an adult. I went for a romantic weekend and stayed on the main historic street. I am lame. |
Anonymous
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Wow, kind of amazed at the anti Williamsburg bent. Maybe it depends on your traveling style. We always try to have a historical or cultural bent to travel. Sometimes it's short (eg, the Prado in Madrid was not a kid favorite), usually accompanied by something else fun ( eg, trip to the beach after Plimoth Plantation). My kids like Williamsburg but maybe we've just made them into history nerds. One of them has already taken 4 AP history classes in HS.
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Anonymous
| Wondering if the people who go to Williamsburg and don't go to the old city are the same ones who go to paris and skip the Louvre. |
Anonymous
| We've taken our kids to Williamsburg three times when they were between the ages of roughly 4 and 8, and they loved it. I can see older kids being jaded, but for younger ones it can be a lot of fun. |
Anonymous
| I love Williamsburg. My husband and I have done lots of tours, spent alot of time there. That said, I would not take my 5 year old without a Busch Gardens trip wrapped around it. |
Anonymous
| We did a long Williamsburg weekend last spring with our kids (6 and 10): 1.5 days in Colonial Wmsburg, 1.5 days at Great Wolf Lodge. They loved both but we were glad we did the history part first. |
Anonymous
Same reaction here. We went to that area two years ago for spring break with two boys, 13 and 10yo. We visited Colonial Williamsburg one day, but didn't buy tickets or anything - we just walked around and took in the sights, had some ice cream, etc. The next day we visited Jamestown, which was terrific/very interesting (and the kids liked it too). We also visited Yorktown, which was ~meh~ IMO, and I can't recall if we did that the same day or a different day. In any case, we concluded the trip with a day at Busch Gardens (as "dessert", LOL), and had a great time there. I snuck in some outlet-shopping that evening. So in sum, I think that area makes for a very fun, good spring break trip for a family with boys. |
Anonymous
| Busch Gardens is great for 7 year olds but choose your day carefully. i have heard the fri-sat-sundays around spring break are very crowded. |
Anonymous
| If your kids are young and they don't even know Busch Gardens exists, clearly it's the parents who love to go there. |
Anonymous
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Hello. I'm a Williamsburg survivor. Our parents dragged us there for four days when I was seven years old. I still have mental scars from the experience.
It was torture. A slow death by boredom and heat exhaustion. Me and my brother hated every minute of it. Costumes? It's too damned hot in the summer to wear a period costume! Even the stupid colonial hats are too hot. I'm sorry, but "colonial history" is not enough to keep a child's interest alive for more than one afternoon. Since I had parents who demanded strict discipline from their children, I had to keep my complaints and boredom to myself the entire trip. And to this day, I resent our family vacation to Williamsburg, because it's clearly a slow-paced, low-impact trip for adults that children will never or can never appreciate. Ever see "Pee Wee's Big Adventure"? The "Ahh-Dough-Bay" scene at "The Alamo"? That's Colonial Williamsburg to a child. The last day of our vacation to Williamsburg was spent at Busch Gardens, back when the park was still owned by the beer brewery. Upon arriving at the park, our parents immediately got too drunk on free beer samples, and combined with the sweltering heat, they were unable to accompany us on any rides (both parents vomited when they tried). And we were too young to ride alone on most of the attractions. So the one "kids' day" of the trip was spent seeing stupid song and dance performances, and the visit to the amusement park turned out to be even more boring than the days wasted with 'ye olde costumed colonial dweebs. |
Anonymous
| ah, my kids liked Colonial Williamsburg. Sounds like the complainers have a bunch of ADHD lame & spoiled kids. Walk around, see some cool old stuff, get lunch, walk around some more, then go to Busch Gardens or the beach the next day. Not that big of a deal. |