Tigris Reveal Friday; Busch Gardens Named 3rd Cheapest Theme Park

TAMPA, FL -- As adrenaline junkies eagerly await the opening of Tigris, Florida's tallest roller coaster, on Friday at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, HomeToGo, the worldwide vacation rental search engine, released the results of its Florida Theme Park Index ranking Busch Gardens as the third most affordable theme park in the Florida.

The ranking, which includes the 10 largest amusement parks in Florida, exposes the steep gradient that separates the state’s most affordable and most expensive options.

Family-owned Fun Spot America Orlando climbs to the affordable peak of this year’s ranking, whereas the world-famous Disney parks slid to the bottom. With such a steep drop separating the most affordable and most expensive parks, budget-savvy adrenaline junkies will benefit from steering clear of those popular tourist hot spots in favor of lesser-known alternatives.

To rank the theme parks based on price, four factors were researched:

• Parking
• Adult any day one-day ticket
• Meal deal
• Accommodations for one night

Park websites provided parking, ticket and meal deal prices for this year*. HomeToGo used its own metasearch data to forecast the average cost of accommodations (per person per night) between April 6 and June 22. The three most affordable theme parks in Florida for 2019 are:

The three most expensive theme parks in Florida this year are:

For the complete breakdown of this year’s ranking, visit the results page.

“When people think of traveling to an amusement park, the big international parks often come to mind first,” said head of bnbound marketing, Joanna Booth. “We are pleased to be able to offer travelers a comprehensive overview of the best amusement parks in Florida to provide even more options for every budget while still allowing for a fun-filled theme park vacation.”

The ranking was released one day before the highly anticipated opening of the Tigris roller coaster at Busch Gardens.

Just in time for the holiday weekend, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will officially open Tigris, a triple-launch steel roller coaster, on Friday, April 19.

The new attraction is Florida's tallest launch coaster and the ninth coaster in the park's collection, solidifying Busch Gardens Tampa Bay as Florida's thrill ride leader.

Tigris will catapult riders through an exhilarating array of looping twists with forward and backward motion, breath-taking drops, a 150-foot skyward surge and an inverted heartline roll, reaching a top speed of more than 60 miles per hour. Tigris will race riders along more than 1,800 feet of steel track designed to mimic the agility of the world's largest and most powerful cat -- the tiger.

Tigris joins a top-rated list of favorites for coaster enthusiasts, including Cheetah Hunt, the park's longest coaster, SheiKra, a 200-foot tall floor-less dive coaster, Falcon's Fury, a 335-foot freestanding drop tower, Montu, an inverted coaster, Kumba and Cobra's Curse.

The theme park, which is celebrating its 60th year, will top the opening of Tigris next year when the park completes North America's tallest and the world's fastest, steepest hybrid roller coaster.

Construction is underway on the new hybrid coaster manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction.

The 2020 addition to Busch Gardens will be a wood and steel coaster design, featuring a maximum height of more than 200 feet tall. The ride will feature all-new thrill elements, as well as restored elements of Gwazi.

Coaster enthusiasts can follow the progress of Tigris and the new 2020 attraction through the park's social media channels and using #TakeOnTigris and #2020Rising.

*All prices in USD. Research was conducted during March 2019. When any-day one-day tickets were not available, HomeToGo selected June 1, 2019, as its default advance date. For parks with no advance ticket information for 2019, HomeToGo used prices from last year’s ranking. Online menus and customer service teams provided the meal deal prices in instances when they were not available on the park websites. Processing fees and taxes are not included.

See related stories:

Tigris To Officially Open April 19 At Busch Gardens

New Rides, New Menu, New Trading Pins: Busch Garden Celebrates 60