BGE 7/25-7/27

I've been trying to figure out how to do this report and not come off as a fanboy. Well as of now I don't care. It has been 3 days since the trip ended and I can't think of any other thing to say but "THANKS BUSCH GARDENS EUROPE, Your park delivered in spades." It was even better than my trip 5 years ago.

I was traveling with my parents and my mother is a diabetic who's insulin has to be refridgerated. So last week I called the park and asked if they had any way to keep the medication cold for her. They said "To come to the Guest Assistance Center and then take the medications to First Aid." The workers at both places were great and really made my mother feel comfortable with how the medications would be stored and how she could do her shots.

Friday Night I got to ride my 200th coaster, Griffon, It's a great ride and made me happy that I chose it to be number 200, number 100 was Italian Job at PKI. I was glad we went to the park Friday after checking into the hotel since Griffon broke down on Saturday and is supposedly going to be closed until AUgust 4th. I am glad they have a single rider line for Griffon as my parents are not ones to ride coasters like it. They looked at it and both said "NO WAY you go and well shop around here."

That statement usually hit when a coaster broke 100 feet for either of them. Before we left home though my mom was talking about possible trying some of the coasters in the park. I told her if I was to recommend rides for her it was going to be either Big Bad Wolf or Loch Ness Monster I'd suggest she try.

After my lap on Griffon (back row left side) I was asked by my parents what I thought, my quote was something like good ride not top 10 steel but i'd say 15-20. I doubt it would crack top 10." We started to loop around the park and I shocked my parents by passing on Alpengeist which they know is my favorite in the park from our last visit. I said I wanted them to ride something and I know they won't ride it so I can come back over the weekend for my rides on it. We kept making our circle and came to Curse of Darkastle. This was a ride we all could ride so we hopped in line. Awesome queue, preshow was ok and the ride delivered a great time for all.

Ok now for my only complaint of the trip.... their bumper cars are LAME.

While waiting for these my mom watched Big Bad Wolf and said she'd give it a try. Dad wasn't going to try though. So mom and I head on to ride her first suspended steel coaster. I explained the swing and talked her through the ride. She had a slight headbanging issue but liked it so much she said she'd ride it again over the weekend.

We continued around pretty much watching shows for the rest of Friday night. Every show we saw was excellent. A few had a singer or two who seemed to forget they had a microphone but all were very good.
If you haven't seen Kinetix opened I highly recommend this show.

We spent Saturday and Sunday riding and seeing the shows we missed on Friday. Mom did ride Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf a few times over the weekend and enjoyed both more after a second ride. She said she learned how to ride with each rather than fight them like she did the first rides. Late Friday I did get a front row ride on Griffon and found out I was sooooooooooooo wrong about it not being able to crack the top 10 of steel coasters.

I rode all the coasters and most of the flats. I now have 2 BGE Coasters in my top 10 steel. Alpengeist still out ranks Griffon but not by much.

The food at the park ranges from good to great and prices were reasonable for a park.

No Apollo?

I rode all the coasters and only highlighted the new rides for me from 5 years ago. I got 3 quick Apollo rides on Sunday morning. It's a fun ride but I prefer Nitro's layout over Apollo's.

I want to ride Apollo and Griffon and Alpengeist and....*sigh* The last time I was at Busch Gardens, DrachenFire was the new thing. I DID love DF though. :)

I have been told that Apollo's Chariot offers much more air than Nitro. Thoughts?

It's really a issue as to if you can get a run on Nitro where the brake is off. If you get that kind of run as I have then Nitro can give the air Apollo's tends to give. It's all Floaty B&M goodness. I've had great rides on both that I love.

Nitro is probably my 7th favorite steel and Apollo falls in the 11-14 range. I would have put Griffon behind it until the night front row ride.

I really wish Griffon didn't break down Saturday morning so I could have really got a good 10 rides on it. Instead I got 2 that I have to base my rating on.

The brake run before the bunny hills on Nitro? Are there brakes anywhere else? I don't remember them....I had a ride or six on Nitro with exceptional air, but then my next visit not so much.

It's interesting to me that I remember Apollo's Chariot being ranked higher than Nitro when AC came out, but it seems to have really dropped in the rankings. Are they overbraking this bad boy? What's up?

I still really hope to get to ride Griffon before the summer's over.

Oh, hey, I forgot: That's great your mom got on Big Bad Wolf. My mom used to really be into rides but she never did coasters. I think BBW would have been a ride she would really have liked, but she doesn't do rides at all anymore. *sigh*

There is a trim (small brake to control speed) elsewhere on Nitro before the one you mention but the one you mention is the major air killer on any B&M hyper. That run home on these should be air filled but it is killed by these brakes.

I think another thing that drops Apollo's ranking is how it has the little flat area right after the lift instead of dropping right off the lift.

Mom used to not ride anything other than a few flats at parks but in the past 4 or so years she has started to ride the coasters. She used to ride when she was younger then stopped. But she has started again and is still afraid of some. I think I can credit Phoenix at Knoebels with really bringing her back to riding.

As for Griffon, since I live in Jersey it's about 5-6 hours to drive to BGE which means I pretty much have to make it a weekend trip. So I doubt I will be getting more rides on it as I have the ability to only do one weekend trip a month and I have planned the rest of the season already. August will be Kings Dominion (could try to head over to BGE though), September is Cedar Point and October is Knoebels for Phunfest. I do have a 2 year pass for all the Busch parks so it's not a big issue.

I love the pre-drop on Apollo's. In the back, it makes the first drop that much more powerful.

Nitro has a trim after the second hill (twisting one) before the third (straight one into the hammerhead). I've ridden over 200 times and never felt it (though I've heard it).