roadtripman

Most of you probably know this already, but I sure didn't, and it's a good thing to know if you're a frugal backpacker needing to get around on the cheap.

The Busch Gardens shuttle (run by Mears Transportation) offers round-trip transportation from many locations on Orlando's International Drive to Busch Gardens in North Tampa, for $10 round trip.

Here's the catch - that $10 is paid upon arrival at Busch Gardens if you want a ride back to Orlando. If not, you are free to leave the bus, free of charge. This isn't cheating, evidently, as the driver told me "Busch Gardens covers your ticket to come here, but you have to pay to leave". I was not asked to pay anything for the ride to the park, even though they knew full well I was not coming back to Orlando at any point in the near future.

No matter which way you slice it, this is cheating the system if you aren't legitimately visiting Busch Gardens. In my case, I was legitimately visiting Busch Gardens - rode SheiKra 12 times today! - and then continuing on into downtown Tampa to fly back to Canada.

Just a thought for those needing to save the $10 or so Greyhound/Amtrak ticket. I'll leave it to your own ethics to decide whether or not this is something you'd ever do...

KNRG

*sigh*

If only we could get the legislation to allow for some form of rail or high speed system.. Then getting to Disney World from Tampa would be so much easier.

Spence1097

+1 for adding some form of rail other than Amtrak. You say for Disney which is cool and I'll add for the rest of Orlando as well, lots to do now and then on a sunday afternoon when there isn't football, plus I fly out of MCO now and then as well. High speed or even just regular every hour service would be cool at this point between Tampa and Orlando.

Disney Rental

...between Tampa and Orlando. Here in UK that would be like not having the line from Brighton to London.

KNRG

Imagine how bad it was just a few years ago before I-4 got a third lane in each direction. Used to be backed up for the entire length almost daily.

JudyS

I don't see anything unethical about using this as a free way to get to Busch Gardens. Apparently, Busch Gardens is willing to provide transportation to their visitors; the cost is presumably factored into your ticket.

What I want to know is what did you do with your luggage while you were at Busch Gardens?

roadtripman

There is a huge locker room *before* the gates at Busch Gardens, with lockers big enough for two normal sized suitcases. They cost $1.00 for the day. Easy as pie.

harpodamann

You can thank Jeb for screwing up rail transportation in Florida!

jackal

Well, there is a line, and it has one train per day in each direction... (Hardly worth mentioning, I know, but it's not completely true that there is no train...)

People need to start pushing at the state or county levels to open up commuter services. Oh, and then Floridians need to get out of their cars (as do most Americans) and actually use it...