Has BGW always been a “theme park?”

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Party Rocker

Dec 23, 2011
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What exactly was the park originally? Today it would probably classify as an amusement park, a few years ago a theme park, and before that it was literally grouped under the title adventure park.

By Wikipedia definition, an adventure park is a rope course where guests attempt to go through these courses that are designed to help guests travel from tree to tree.

I have a hard time the park was an actual adventure park, but please weigh in with your thoughts. What was the park? It has always been a park for sure, but what type of park was it?
 
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Party Rocker said:
What exactly was the park originally? Today it would probably classify as an amusement park, a few years ago a theme park, and before that it was literally grouped under the title adventure park.

By Wikipedia definition, an adventure park is a rope course where guests attempt to go through these courses that are designed to help guests travel from tree to tree.

I have a hard time the park was an actual adventure park, but please weigh in with your thoughts. What was the park? It has always been a park for sure, but what type of park was it?
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It always has been and always will be categorized as a theme park.
 
The park started out with a few countries: Banbury Cross, Scotland, Hastings, Aquatine, New France, and Germany. The next year after opening (1976) they opened Oktoberfest. It has always been some what the same. Over the years they added new countries, new rides, and now we have today.
 
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Personally, I've always taken it that Busch Gardens started as an experience of 17th-century Europe complimented by a few themed rides to add to the experience. Slowly, I feel like the park started becoming more of a place with lots of themed rides, complimented by an experience of 17th-century Europe. In other words, at the beginning, the rides weren't totally the main attraction, the experience was. Nowadays, the rides, while still adding to the experience of the park, are the main attraction, with the experience of Europe to boot.

I feel like, yes, they went from more of a park about adventure to more of a ride park...but thankfully, the adventure is still there! :cool:
 
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It actually was coined as a 16 century park when it first opened. It slowly started to turn into 17 century, and now we have cars. :p
 
Hoopla said:
It actually was coined as a 16 century park when it first opened. It slowly started to turn into 17 century, and now we have cars. :p
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I remember a couple months ago seeing a real old promo video for BGW. I think it was produced in the late 70's or early 80's. In the introduction it said each Hamlet was themed of one of 7 centuries. After that it said the select centuries were from the 14th century through the 20th.
 
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Dr. Julius Money Ed.D said:
Aquitaine, I believe was always supposed to be late 19th-early 20th century Paris. I think.
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Heather downs is supposed to be the 20th century. I mean it's obvious because the Loch Ness Monster suspicions didn't really arise until the 20th century.
 
The Adventure Parks tagline is just a marketing term. The Busch parks originated as gardens near the breweries except for Williamsburg, which was built as a theme park with rides from the ground up.

Sea World still carris the Adventure Parks tagline, but the other Busch parks dropped it after the chain went from Adventure Parks to Worlds of Discovery.
 
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JuniorBGWfan28 said:
Dr. Julius Money Ed.D said:
Aquitaine, I believe was always supposed to be late 19th-early 20th century Paris. I think.
Click to expand...

Heather downs is supposed to be the 20th century. I mean it's obvious because the Loch Ness Monster suspicions didn't really arise until the 20th century.
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Loch Ness Monster has been a legend for much longer than that! The first written report of a water monster in Ness was in the 7th century. Though I do agree that the hamlet is 20 century, due the the "equipment" in the extended queue for nessie.

Doc, I believe you are correct, that would explain Le Mans.
 
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It was and always will be a theme park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg has always been "Europe" no matter what century it is supposed to be. All theme parks are amusement parks in a manner of speaking...

However, a real theme park has landscaping, buildings, and attractions that are based on one or more specific themes or stories.

Even the "oddest" hamlets of Busch Gardens Williamsburg are tied to the Europe theme.

Sesame has somewhat of an "attempt" to recreate a castle and the "Elmo's Spire" next to England and Scotland.

New France or "Canada" is next to Aquitaine- and relates to the French settling in Canada.

Festa Italia is based on Marco Polo, an Italian merchant traveler from the Republic of Venice, that introduced Europe to Asia.

So yeah, theme park- and a beautiful one at that.
 
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I found this AWESOME Retro Souvenir Book: Busch Gardens The Old Country 1984

This covers a few things from other threads like TurveyManor, it has a little snip-it, and what France was like before Griffon (for Dr. Money :)) Enjoy :)
http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52081
 
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So I can't speak for BGW specifically, but I have done a grad school project on company parks.

The idea for parks like this was born long long ago. The idea is popular in times of depressions as a way for companies to give employees a place of rest and relaxation. One of the most notable examples was and is Hershey Park. Yes, back when it opened it was two words. It was a beach themed pool with a concert hall. Milton Hershey wanted to give his employees the ability to relax and go to the beach, but couldn't afford to pay them more and not increase the price of his product. So he built the park and the pool as a community space bringing all of that to the employees instead.

That was in the late 1800's-early 1900's.

This again popped up in the 60's-70's with the oil crisis and other economic issues lead to a downturn in the economy, so again companies had the idea of an area close to their plants that would be an entertainment hub for the employees. A-B was one of the few to take it as far as a park with rides, as well as detailed theme elements.

Company parks is an amazing phenomenon that happened, and along with Disney, brought to the light that these parks could be more than either a local thing or employee fun. There's a reason why so few 'small' parks like Lake Compounce, Lakemont Park, Knoebles, Silverwood, ect survived.
 
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Piggy backing on Warfelg's input, there were multiple garden areas AB opened for their employees - some of which remained nameless but a few also carried the BG moniker. Notably there was a Busch Gardens Los Angeles that offered ice cream and pony rides (my mom would take my older brother there when she lived in North Hollywood), and one in Texas as well.
 
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the first Busch Gardens was in Pasadena, CA. It was the first park Adolphus Busch opened, and it was just a park with gardens for the most part.

then you had Busch Gardens in Los Angeles which included boat rides, monrail, and more gardens. it was renamed Busch Bird Sanctuary in 1977 and closed two years later.

Busch Gardens Houston was Asian themed much like the VA and FL parks. it closed like three years after opening.

then there was also Tibi Gardens which is the love child of Anheuser-Busch and Grand Tibiadabo, S.A. AB was planning a park in Barcelona with with GTSA along with some other spanish investors. the investors pulled out and The Tussauds Group stepped in, and the park was eventually opened as Port Aventura. AB had 20% and Tussauds had 40%, now the majority of shares went to Universal. This wasn't really a busch park, but they still had significant investment into it.

most my info came from wikipedia so take it how you want.

link about the CA parks: https://travel.thefuntimesguide.com/california-theme-parks-busch-gardens-pasadena/
 
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Port Aventura has a restaurant that bears a striking resemblance to Das Festhaus and Tampa's Dragon Fire Grill called La Cantina. There are a few other similarities with other AB parks, but that one is the first that comes to mind.
 
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