BGW Howl-O-Scream Oct. 20 & 21

I wasn't going to write a trip report because, as usual, BGW was great. But I wanted to let anyone planning on going next weekend know what to expect. To sum it up.....massively huge quantities of people! In all of my years of going, I have never seen anything like it. Even at 4:00, looking down from the top of AC, there were cars backed up toward I64 as far as you could see. The line for Alpengeist filled the regular queue, then went all the way back toward the bridge and through it. Luckily, AC ran 3 trains and you never had to wait more than 45 min. for the front row. That line was always moving. It was not unusual to wait 45+ min. at any food or snack location. It was difficult just to walk around. But through it all, everyone was kind and didn't seem to mind. The employees, as usual, were very pleasant. The new metal detectors you must now pass through are not that much of an inconvenience. (Unless you set them off like I did and nobody can figure out why.)

If you are planning on going next weekend, I can only suggest that you arrive at the park entrance no later than 9:30 a.m., and be prepared to wait in extremely long lines for most everything in the park with the exception of AC.
In two days, I was only able to ride BBW, Nessie, and Alpengeist only once each and AC eight times. The only other things I did other than coasters were to take the train ride Saturday night, and see "Fiends In The Fest Haus". If you want to ride Alpengeist, all I can say is do it first thing in the morning. We figured that out Saturday afternoon, so as soon as we got into the park Sunday morning, we headed to Alpengeist and still had to wait almost an hour for the front seat.

One last note: They were not letting people into Heather Downs until 10:00, and were not opening the rest of the park until 11:00.

Have a screaming good time,
-Lorrie

*** This post was edited by Lorrie on 10/22/2001. ***

Wow, metal detectors at BGW. Well, that's what life has come to I suppose. Better safe than sorry.

Let;s not forget that BGW is open friday also. I found it was not that crowded early in the day, but picked up as the day went on. I would suggest if you can than try to go friday.

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www.coastertown.com

The unusually large # of people at BGW the past few weekends is due to how many military bases/posts are in the area, taking advantage of getting in free. Basewide emails were sent out informing people of the promotion, so... My husband & I are still debating whether to try going one last time for the season with the kids on Sun.

Did you see any action around Drachen Fire.

The only action near DF was some freak circus and some skeleton horse pulling a wagon. DF was just like it was in july. Nothing going on.
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www.coastertown.com

I too wast BGW friday and got in 15 laps on AC and once on the rest of the coasters in the park. I didnlt shoot for front row since I am a airti\me junkie. As everyone knows the back row in AC is amazing of course. I would have gotten 16 but some guy lost his drivers liscence and lost it near the end so they found it but shut the ride down for nearl 20 minutes. I was to meet coaster dave but with the majority of the park opening at 11 we missed our meeting time and well the rest is history. and yeah df was silent. Well next year I look forward to going early in the season and hoping df is gone, or open. they should really "fix" that ride and better develop that corne rof the park. and make it easier to access.
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All at once the ghosts come back reeling you in now.

As mentioned above, there was nothing going on with DF. When I rode past it on the train Saturday night, they did have the station lights on and a path leading to the station lit up.