Busch Gardens Williamsburg Coasters

My trips for the summer are almost complete. I've got all my close parks in and have been planning a more distant trip. I am thinking Busch Gardens Williamsburg. If anyone could give me some reviews of Apollo's Chariot, Alpengeist, Loch Ness Monster, Big Bad Wolf, and anything else that might interest me. I know all the stats, but that has no meaning to me, I wanna hear peoples experiences. Thanks!

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~Nick

I live in Michigan and made the long trip to BGW. Boy was it worth it. I loved Apollo's Chariot. It is a pretty smooth hypercoaster with a good theming and good hills, and airtime. The best part of this ride is probably the seating. Theya re like bucket seats, have armrests, and the lapbar is contoured for your comfort. The Loch Ness Monster isn't the biggest or fastest, but the first drop got to me. The interlocking loops are pretty cool. The rest of the ride is kinda cool with a long tunneled helix with theming. It is still a great coaster, just not the best. I was never a fan of suspended coasters until I rode The Big Bad Wolf. This ride is sweet!!! It whips you around like there is no tomorrow and it's two 90 foot dives are nice, especially the one down onto the river. VERY NICE!!! Alpengeist is one of the greatest inverted rides ever created (in my opinon). This ride is absolutely stunning. It pulls massive G's everywhere. Every inversion is great especially the first, the vertical loop is huge(on-ride picture!!) and the cobra roll is the most intense I have ever seen on an inverted. There is more to do there than just RollerCoasters though. The Wilde Maus is sweet. Pirates is cool, and the cotton candy is HUGE. I stayed for two days which was sufficent and I went to the water park near which was decent with some good slides. I made the mistake of not going to PKD. I probably should have went there because I know they have a couple good rides. *** This post was edited by Craig the Coaster Freak on 4/1/2000. ***

I went last year for three days. The park was super clean and with all of the trees and flowers, it was beautiful. This is definitely not the park to go to if you like coasters. Apollo's
Chariot was a great ride, the only one in the park. Similar to Raging Bull at SFGAm. I did get to ride Apollo's Chariot 11 times in a row one morning when the park wasn't busy though. Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf are "older" steel coasters with an old rough feel to me. Craig, I'm glad you had a great time at the park. I just don't plan to go again. I was disappointed that Drachen Fire was shut down forever. I would have liked to ride it.

What about Alpengeist? Did you even ride that? That is like the whole reason to go there if you like coasters.

Let me jump in on the conversation. BGW is probably one of the best parks I've been to. The scenery is just incredible because the park revolves around the "Rhine River." I went last summer and it is the greenest theme park I've been to. The theming and music is great and best of all, it is very clean.

For the coasters, yeah it only has 5, but all of them are great. Alpengeist is the best inverted ride I've been on, even though there is a trim at the very first. The first drop on this coaster is very unique and if you look down you will have quite a view. My favorite inversion was the huge verticle loop, no pause at the top, very intense. If you are not dizzy at the end, you've been riding coasters more than I have.

Apollo's Chariot is my favorite steel coaster. It is superb. The seating design gives you lots, lots, and lots of airtime. I think it's like 26 seconds total. Again the first drop of this coaser gives you a great view, and you will be out of your seat all 21 stories down. The third drop is also cool, because it is banked, and at the base of it, you are skimming over the "Rhine" River. When you ride it, your hands and feet must be up and out. AC is unique like all the coasters at BGW, because it is built into the the land.

I agree w/scooter on the roughness factor. After riding the park's 2 B&M coasters, there is really no comparison to the older ones. Nessie and the Wolf are good, but a bit rough. AC/Alpie were glass smooth. But other than the roughness, the older ones are great and long! I strongly encourage you to go!

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-Josh

I think rough coasters that don't do as much are just as fun as smooth coasters that do more. Man, people expect so much. You have to appriciate the older ones, they spawned the newer ones.

Since you'll be at BGW, don't miss King's Dominion which is 20 minutes north of Richmond. BGW has great coasters, but Kings Dominion has more (10 I believe). Volcano is not to be missed. Since you're less than 90 minutes from KD from BGW, Don't pass by it. You'll be glad you made the stop.

Thanks for your help ya'all. I appreciate the feedback, and since my favorite coaster is Raptor, I am bound to love Alpengeist. I probably will not make it out to PKD this year. I am limited on the trips I can make and I had to cut down my mid-season PKI trip to even fit in BGW. Again, I appreciate the ride reviews. I have been on OL: FOF, Mean Streak, and have rode the Beast on its bad days. Roughness shouldnt be a problem on the Wolf and Nessie. Thanks!

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~Nick

SFFTScream, I thought Alpengeist was good but seemed "jerky", the cars seemed to "rattle". Not as smooth as other B&M inverteds I have ridden. I probably prefer Batman or Raptor over this ride.
This is what makes America great. More parks, more coasters. A little bit of "different" for everyone. We all have different tastes and expectations :)