Laissez le bon temps rouler at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, as is it once again time for their annual Mardi Gras celebration. We spent this past weekend at Virginia’s biggest Mardi Gras party and are here to give you an overview of the event with some tips to hopefully help with your visit!

Initial thoughts

Mardi Gras at Busch Gardens Williamsburg is running from January 24th all the way through March 9th. It features select rides (weather pending), an impressive show line up, and a park wide New Orleans inspired food festival.

If you are someone who has been to Busch Gardens a bunch of times, or it’s relatively convenient to get there, this is a GREAT time to visit the park. The day that we went was sunny and in the low 50s, absolutely beautiful, and there was rarely a moment throughout the day where we encountered any sort of crowd. At peak times in the afternoon, I still found the pathways to be basically empty. So much so that my wife and I at one point took a moment while standing outside of Festhaus to just appreciate how nice it was. During peak seasons, that same pathway is absolutely jam packed with people, making it difficult to find any sort of personal space at all. Yet there we were, in one of the busiest spaces in the park, feeling like we were on a private tour!

These low crowds do not come without some catches, though.

First, plan your day efficiently, because park hours are very limited due to mornings and evenings still being very cold. On the day that we went, the park was only open for 6 hours from 12-6pm.

Also, be aware that ride offerings are very limited at this event. Currently, Pantheon, Verbolten, and Darkoaster are the only three coasters advertised as operating for the event, and on our visit Verbolten was also closed for maintenance. We go often enough that we aren’t going as much for the rides as we are for the event, but that is not the case for everyone visiting. Within the first half hour of the park opening, we heard conversations from at least 5 groups who had no idea that it was a limited ride selection. Specifically, while waiting for Pantheon to open after rope drop, we spoke with a father and son who had travelled a significant distance assuming it was regular operations. Always do your research, it pays off!

All that to say, if your expectations are set correctly, you will have an easy, carefree visit to what is usually a very busy park.

Shows

What Mardi Gras might lack in ride offerings, it definitely makes up for in entertainment. There are five shows across the park, each running 3-4 times a day, making it seem like there is always something going on.

Carnival Imaginique

Starting in England’s Globe Theatre, this is by far the most ambitious offering at the park. This show features a range of performers displaying acrobatic, magic, and musical skills. Think half cabaret, half stunt show. It’s the only one that I think is worth not spoiling at all, and probably the only “must see” entertainment offering at the park.

Mardi Street Party

In previous years, this was the offering in the France section of the park, but this year it makes the move to Ireland. No frills to this show, you have colorful costumes and fun music with a lot of highly encouraged crowd participation. This one is best seen when there’s a bit of a crowd, as the more people there are the more the “party” from the title applies.

The Craw Daddies

In France, the Craw Daddies are a Mardi Gras rendition of the often used “percussion show” format from other seasonal events at the park. However, even though it’s a reused format, they always change the content of the shows enough to keep them interesting. Especially with this version of the show utilizing a lot of event appropriate metal boiling pots for portions of the show. We actually stopped to watch this one twice throughout the day, as the performers are extremely impressive and put on a great show.

New Orleans Brass Jazz Band

Without a doubt my favorite show at the event. Live instruments used to be the norm for performances in Festhaus. In recent years though, we’ve noticed at Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town that live performers have been replaced with a backing track for the singers to belt along with. It’s a huge loss, as an audio track just can’t capture the energy of having a live band on stage. With that said, these performers absolutely bring it. The show takes a full half hour, longer than the musical revue style shows that occupy Festhaus during its other seasonal offerings, and it never loses steam. While not at the same production scale as Carnival, for me it’s the other must-see while at the event.

Bourbon Street Brigade

At the San Marco theatre in Italy, this show features another full band (Yay more live music!) backing a few very talented singers doing renditions of popular classic rock songs. Nothing Mardi Gras specific about this show, but I will never complain about more live entertainment, and the performers all do a terrific job. It’s a great time to grab a bite to eat and take a load off for 20-30 minutes.

A quiet coaster valley view from the train

Food Offerings

“Savor the flavors of the bayou” reads the text from the official website. Across the park, Busch Gardens is offering Mardi Gras inspired specialty food and drinks to get you in the spirit. Items can be purchased a la carte at each stand (normally for $7-10 a piece), or for a discount using the 5-10 item sampler passes. We decided to split a 10 item sampler for $60, making each individual item come in at $6.

While sampling around the park, we devised a full proof ranking system to provide an extensive evaluation of each item… aka ranking it 1-5 on taste, value, and presentation. Taste meaning how much did we enjoy it, value meaning how worth $6 was it, and presentation meaning how appealing did it look when we first got it.

Clancy’s Cajun Creations (Ireland)

I love when this quick service location is utilized for food festivals, because Ireland has my favorite vibes in the park to sit and enjoy the ambiance with a bite to eat.

Catfish Po’Boy - Value wise, a great option, you get half of a sub with a sizable piece of crispy catfish. This wasn’t the best po’boy that we would have throughout the day, but it’s one of the bigger portions offered for the festival.

Presentation: 3 - Value: 4 - Taste: 4 - Total: 11

Cajun Hushpuppies - Oh no. These were bad. Like.. bad bad. They were burnt and dry, and the spicy, tartar style sauce did not go well with the sweet dough. Only upside is you get a lot of them.

Presentation: 2 - Value: 3 - Taste: 1 - Total: 6

Creole Grill (New France)

Our two dishes at Creole Grill were our favorites in the park, which isn’t surprising since they were being cooked at the always excellent Trapper’s Grill. With another day, we would have been back to this location first, since their other offerings looked very appealing as well.

Chicken Andouille Gumbo - This was pound for pound the best value of the day. It’s a full bowl with rice and a very tasty gumbo. Absolutely would recommend.

Presentation: 4 - Value: 5 - Taste: 4 - Total: 13

Fried Green Tomato Po’Boy - We actually enjoyed this Po’Boy more than the catfish offering in Ireland. The fried green tomatoes were crispy and dense, and it had a delicious remoulade on top. Add in that it’s also a half sub, and this is another solid value.

Presentation: 4 - Value: 4 - Taste: 4 - Total: 12

Big Easy Spirits (Festhaus)

King Cake Shots - Seeing as we weren’t much in the mood for a cinnamon roll, we opted to go the drink route at Festhaus while watching the Jazz Band. These were tasty, a mix of rumchata and fireball with an icing rim that features green, purple, and yellow sprinkles. Fun, festive, and definitely packed a punch.

Presentation: 4 - Value: 3 - Taste: 3 - Total: 10

Bourbon Street Treats (Italy)

Having this location in the often closed Marco Polo’s Marketplace was a savvy decision, as the San Marco theatre offers a plentitude of tables in its seating arrangement that almost beg for patrons to have food to go along with a show.

Muffaletta - A top tier item at the event. The bread was nice and toasty, the meat was heated the whole way through (nothing worse than a cold cut sandwich that is half hot half cold), and the olive spread was that perfect salty/savory topping every good muffaletta needs.

Presentation: 3 - Value: 4 - Taste: 5 - Total: 12

Cajun Mac & Cheese - The flavor of this was fine, but it was a little dried out from seemingly sitting under heat lamps for too long. Not the best item that we tried.

Presentation: 2 - Value: 2 - Taste: 2 - Total: 6

Bayou Bar (Oktoberfest)

With time running out on our day (remember, open for 6 hours), we snuck in two quick items to finish off our lanyard.

King’s Cup Margarita - We shared this small but mighty cocktail. Sometimes large batch made drinks lead you to the assumption that they’ll be pretty watered down, and maybe it was because the day was winding down and we were towards the bottom of the batch, but that tequila flavor was front and center in this marg. It could have used some salt or tajin as garnish to make it not look so tiny plastic cup-y.

Presentation: 1 - Value: 3 - Taste: 3 - Total: 7

Cajun Snack Mix - Again, it was towards the end of the day, but this snack mix was the size equivalent of a free snack and mostly crumbs. Good flavor, but not even close to worth the price.

Presentation: 1 - Value: 1 - Taste: 2 - Total: 4

Overall there were some high highs and some low lows. If you are smart with your decisions, it’s absolutely worth it to get the food lanyard. Sixty dollars for ten items will keep two people fed all day, and they are all items that you otherwise can’t get at the park. A smart move would be to watch a few people coming out before making your decisions to ensure you aren’t leaving with a small bowl of burnt mac & cheese.

If a crawfish plays a drum solo but nobody is around to hear it, did the crawfish play a drum solo at all?

Around the Park

Some spare thoughts from throughout our day:

Rope drop Darkoaster if it’s a priority. With every other ride in the park being a walk on, we still clocked at least an hour wait for Darkoaster every time that we passed it. Those load times can be brutal and it shows with the waits.

A good rule for Darkoaster:

If the line is inside of the show building, it’s a half hour or less.

If the line is inside of the covered outdoor queue, it’s an hour or less

If the line is anywhere past the covered section, it’s over an hour

2. Get on Pantheon early in the day, as she’s finicky with bad weather. We were really lucky to ride Pantheon three times in the first hour of our visit with no wait at all. Unfortunately, with winds picking up and a chill creeping in, it only stayed open until two or three, leaving many disappointed.

3. Ride the Busch Gardens Railway to see Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge! We rode the BGR three times during our visit, and the wow factor of seeing that shiny new red track never dissipated. I was so curious to see if the railway would be open, as I figured there would either be active construction or they wouldn’t want to give away spoilers, but the new track winds up, over, and all around the train as you pass through the area. Even cooler, the fully three dimensional village set in the back half of the ride is well under way. The park thankfully seems to be noting the positive reception of recent theming efforts and is putting a lot of resources into making Big Bad Wolf a full ride experience rather than just another coaster.

Check out the full video version of this article below!

Final Thoughts

What a way to bring in the 50th anniversary of this beautiful park. If you plan your trip with the mindset of “I’m going to a Mardi Gras party” rather than “I’m going to a coaster park”, you will have an absolute blast a Busch Gardens Mardi Gras. The music is rockin, the crowds are low, and the vibes are high. We hope to see you Mardi Gras Mambo-ing out there soon.

Mardi Gras 2025 at Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Guide and Review