Coaster Community

I visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg for the first time on Tuesday August 7. I wanted to visit this park for quite some time, and I was pretty excited to be going.

First of all, a word of advice, never spend a full day on Virginia Beach without sunscreen before visiting a theme park… bad things happen.

We pulled into the lot about 9:30 and there was already quite a crowd gathering, but the park wasn’t really busy all day; the longest wait we found was about 20 minutes or so. The entrance plaza is cool and offers some great views of Apollo’s Chariot. And trams to the front gates are lovely.

I can definitely see why BGW calls itself the “most beautiful park in the world.” The buildings are detailed and gorgeous, every detail is covered (right down to the pathways and signs), and there is no doubt why they are dubbed Busch “Gardens.” It is absolutely beautiful. Food, etc. was pretty good too. We had some BBQ back by Alpengeist that wasn’t quite Arthur Bryant’s, but it was still delicious. The wolf and eagle exhibits are a neat touch too.

We beelined for Griffon (along with everyone else in the park) and found about a 20 minute wait. I rode it twice throughout the day, both times in the back row. It is simply a fun ride. The first drop is as good as it gets, and the rest of the course is fun. Not too intense, but still a good time. I loved the setting of it (which happens to be a theme with most of the rides in the park), and is definitely a winner.

Next was Alpengeist which is probably my favorite ride in the park. It’s a bigger, faster version of Raptor, Dueling Dragons, et. al. which is awesome in my book. It’s so intense and in-your-face, I actually came off shaking my head and feeling dizzy after the ride, which never happens. It loses quite a bit of steam in the second half, but the first few elements are great. I just wish Patriot and the newer Beemers would be more like this…

We meandered around next and hit DarKastle, and I honestly had no idea what to expect. It’s a 3D motion simulator thing ala Spiderman at IOA. It was fun but not quite as good as Spiderman, simply because, well, it’s not Spiderman... the visual effects were cool though.

Next was Big Bad Wolf, and as pretty much everyone else says, it’s the best suspended coaster around. Why can’t they all be like this? The jaunt through the “village” was fun, and the last drop and turns are crazy intense. A very fun ride.

Roman Rapids was next, and was a pretty standard, average rapids ride. Not in the same league as Popeye at IOA, but better than Nile at WoF.

Apollo’s Chariot was right next door and probably my most anticipated ride in the park. It was fun, and an airtime machine (the back is where it’s at), but as is the case with most of the newer Beemers, it has no intensity at all. It just glides through the course with no “wow” moments whatsoever. It’s tons of fun, but it ended up being my third favorite ride in the park.

Back near the entrance we rode Loch Ness Monster, and it was obviously a pretty nostalgic ride. It was fun and not too rough at all. The interlocking loops are cool and the endless spiral in the tunnel was okay too.

The only other ride we went on was Corkscrew Hill, and was another one where I had no idea what to expect. It was another 3D simulator ride, and I enjoyed this one more than DarKastle. The effects, despite being cartoony, were really really good. Pretty much everyone riding it came off with a smile, which is never a bad thing.

By this point we had looped the park and decided to make one last trip around. We rerode everything and just took in the park. All in all, it was a good day, despite the 100 degree temperatures. None of the rides were amazing to me, but I still enjoyed myself. It had quite an IOA-type feel to it, and is one of the better parks around.