Last Thanksgiving our family spent the holiday weekend at Williamsburg to celebrate the accomplishments of our forefathers, and for some fine colonial dining. As a secondary stop on the trip, we decided to visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg for the opening night of Christmas Town.
During our planning of the trip, we pre-purchased our tickets to Christmas Town online, for what we thought was the best deal out there. However, about a month later, Busch Gardens offered a fantastic opportunity to purchase Christmas Town tickets for half off the normal price.
I was very fortunate that after calling into Busch Gardens, they allowed me to reissue our tickets and offered a refund for the price difference.
Our family was overly impressed with what Busch Gardens Christmas Town offered their guests. During our visit, the weather was wonderful, and the entire park was completely transformed with lights and Christmas decorations. All the rides that were open were rethemed for Christmas. Visiting Christmas Town really was an impressive and immersive experience that surely won our recognition as being well worth the cost, especially at discount. To see our complete review, click here.
Busch Gardens Christmas Town Discounts
There are two Busch Gardens locations that offer the Christmas Town experience for their guests, Tampa and Williamsburg.
Yesterday, Busch Gardens Tampa announced that the schedule was released for the 2013 Christmas Town event, as well as guests could purchase their discount tickets for what was touted on their Facebook page as “the best prices.” So I was curious, knowing we had saved a significant savings during the November special last year.
What I did not realize was that there appears to be grossly different price points between the Tampa and Williamsburg locations.
The normal 2013 adult ticket price to the Tampa Christmas Town is $60, with advance purchase getting the cost down to $40. While the Williamsburg Christmas Town 2013 prices and schedule have yet to be released (why would they release one and not the other?), our adult pre-purchased ticket prices last year were only $26.99, and after the November sale, the prices dropped to only $17.50/ticket.
From what I have been able to tell, it appears Busch Gardens substantially raised the ticket prices compared to last year, at least for the Tampa location. So I predict the Williamsburg ticket prices could be substantially increased this year as well.
So, what is yet to be determined is whether the pre-purchased ticket price for the Tampa location really are the best discount. Last year, Busch Gardens only offered the November sale at the Williamsburg location. This might have been because 2012 was the first year the event was held at the Tampa location.
Really, I foresee no reason to run out and pre-purchase your Busch Gardens Tampa Christmas Town tickets yet, as the event is still 4 months away. For some reason, I seem to recall the Busch Gardens Williamsburg tickets not even being available until October. Again grossly different between how the two events are distributed.
We will keep an eye on the latest ticket price developments and report when we see a better offer come across our virtual desk.
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Source: Busch Gardens/InACents