Busch Gardens raises daily admission price

Busch Gardens raisesdaily admission price
TAMPA, Fla. -- Busch Gardens has raised daily admission by $2 but dropped the price of its tickets for Florida residents after a down year in attendance.
The Tampa theme park has raised pretax daily admission prices to $55.95 for adults, $45.95 for children 3 to 9.
The park also raised the price of its Fun Card -- good for unlimited visits for one year -- by $2 to $61.95 for adults, $51.95 for children.
Despite the increase, Busch Gardens still sits below the Orlando-area theme parks in terms of daily ticket prices.
Walt Disney World, SeaWorld and Universal Orlando all announced increases to $59.75 before taxes for a single-day adult ticket.
Meanwhile, the new Busch Gardens discount for Florida residents is $49.50 for adults, the park's lowest in three years. The new ticket can only be bought online. Buyers must include a Florida mailing address to purchase one and display a Florida photo ID with a Florida address at the park gate.
Busch gets more than half its traffic from local residents, while that figure is less than a quarter for the Orlando parks.
For more information, visit www.buschgardens.com.
Former Sixers presidentopens pirate museum
KEY WEST, Fla. -- Pat Croce, former president and part-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team, wielded a replica pirate's sword for "ribbon slashing" festivities to open his pirate museum in the Florida Keys.
Now a "life coach" as host of the daily television reality show, "Pat Croce: Moving In," part-time Key West resident Croce is a passionate collector of pirate memorabilia who says he use a pirate's philosophy to steer his business ventures.
"It's that whole adventure attitude: go at life with an attack mode in mind, no holds barred, take no prisoners and 'carpe diem' -- seize the day," Croce said at the Jan. 5 opening.
"I did it with the Sixers' business; we went from worst to first, just with that attack mode in mind."
The Pirate Soul museum features nearly 500 authentic artifacts, many from Croce's private collection, depicting piracy's golden age from 1690 to 1730. The 5,000-square-foot, $10 million museum uses audio-animatronic elements to explore the lives of notorious buccaneers like shipmates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and Florida Keys pirate Black Caesar.
For more information, visit www.piratesoul.com.