Our second visit within five years; we really enjoyed both!
We stayed at a Villa in Orlando area and the trip was fast to Busch Gardens as well as back later in the day (we left around 3:30 p.m. and arrived just before opening time).
Weekdays are pretty good and we did not need "Quick Queue," which would have been a waste of money. We headed to the Egypt area first to take advantage of shorter coaster rides (Montu, Cobra's Curse). Our favorite, Cheetah, had just gone down for maintenance the exact day, so we learned a lesson to call the park to check whether particular rides will be down for maintenance, in advance.
We next enjoyed the Edge of Africa area, which is a good time to go, still early, animals out and about; afternoon times are not as populated. We got to see Lion feeding, a terrific experience.
On our last trip, we did the train ride, which was very good, but this time, we opted for the Skyride from The Edge of Africa to take us over to the Jungala area. We were focused on getting in the coasters and did wonderful Sheikra coaster, followed by the new and exciting (but very short) Tigris ride. We backtracked to the Congo area to Congo area to ride the Kumba coaster (great too).
We next walked over to the Pantopia area intending to do Falcon's Fury (but it was broken down all day) and had our lunch in that area (pretty good, lots of room/tables). We then did the walk around the Serengeti Plain to see more animals, then headed to Nairobi area to see the gorillas (not to miss).
There is no perfect way to get around the entire park, but a combination of the Skyride (to get across the wide area fast) and the train for multiple stops, are good options. We wouldn't try to walk the entire park, if your goal is maximizing a shorter day visit. Crowd levels tend to pick up around lunch time, from what we've seen, but still pretty manageable.
We had one backpack, but didn't need to rent any lockers. All the coasters had areas near pillars on the cubby hole side of the coaster. You need to plan to walk across the coaster seats, quickly put down your bags or hats, etc., then get back on the coaster. Worked well for us.
We finished up by walking from Nairobi to Morocco, then to Bird Gardens, Sesame Street Safari of Fun area, then Back through Stanleyville for a second ride on the Tigris coaster (it is rather new, so sometimes it has temporary delays); we then grabbed the Skyride from Jungala back to the Edge of Africa area and finished our day, close to the front gates.
Overall, we recommend getting there a little early, but not too early, and getting in the most popular coasters first, as the zoo areas never seem to get too congested.
If you have younger kids, be sure to check the height requirements for all the coasters, so you know in advance which ones the kids can ride ... we saw people taking kids that were too young into some of the coaster lines, and weren't doing the height checks, only to be rejected.
Given the date we went and the rather cool conditions that day, we opted not to do the water rides. On our prior visit, we did them, and we enjoyed Stanley Falls plume and Congo River Rapids. You will get VERY wet on both rides. Highly recommend packing trash bags to put your shoes in and switching to flip-flops to avoid soaked feet. Rain ponchos are a must in cooler weather, as it will take quite a while to dry out from those rides.
We think Busch Gardens is a great place for the mix of zoo and some very good, exciting coasters. Have fun!