Big Bad Wolf

You wanna call me numb? Fine. Please explain how my 70-yr-old parents, 41 yr-old-sister, and two preteen nephews are numb in that manner. My mom will only ride Space Mountain and SFMM's Ninja, and it was BBW's (apparent) similarity to Ninja that she agreed to ride. It was the only coaster she rode at BGW. My sister is a little more adventurous...she'll take on Batman and Golith, but still won't ride Xcelerator. The two boys will ride anything they're tall enough for but until yesterday had not ridden a coaster outside of Southern California. Only my Dad has travelled with me to ride coasters.

I can't wait to see what excuses you come up with for the rest of my family.

Perhaps it was having a bad day. Or perhaps the ride's condition has suddenly gotten worse or they are letting it go so people won't miss it.

I doubt any of you are wrong. Now if two of you had polar opposite views on rides from the same train, same car, same, seat, same time, same day.... that would be another thing, but any of us who ride a lot know a coaster can be very different from visit to visit. The ride ran like brand new the last two seasons for me, but I have no trouble believing Moosh's experience.

I would be hard pressed to say any ride is the exact same as it was 10 years ago.. 20 years ago.. etc.. Every ride changes based on temperature (expansion and contraction on the rails), the wheel wear on the trains at the time, where the coaster is in its overhaul maintenance schedule, general age, etc..

Then factor in everyone has different tolerance levels and perceptions of rough and not so rough and you have exactly what we are seeing in this forum.. Different ideas. I dont think one person is incorrect or one is correct.

It amazes me the debates that occur on an individuals personal perception of a ride. But I guess that lends to good reading right?

Mamoosh, maybe your family is crazy? (JOKING!!!)

Seriously though, what planet are you on? First of all we are talking an Anheuser-Busch park which takes care of attractions like they are Rolls-Royces, not even a drop of oil in the coaster maintenance areas! Secondly, if it was as "bad" as you think it is I can guarantee you it would be shut-down just like Drachen Fire was mysteriously in the middle of a season. There is nothing mechanically or operationally wrong with this ride other than the possibility parts maybe becoming more scarce; it rides no different than it has over the past 25 years.

Is this conversation really going on? If Moosh said he and his family thought it was harsh, than that's what they say. If the park really is removing the ride, it doesn't matter if you agree with him.

I was considering a trip to Virginia this year but put it off because of the new coaster for PKI in 2010. I hope that BBW is still around. Last time I was down that way was 1999 with my family and thought BBW was fabulous. Still the best of the suspendeds I've experienced.

I'm not a wuss when it comes to rides. I love intense rides. At this year's HoliWood Nights event I rode Voyage non-stop both nights. I can outlast people half my age on the most intense coaster. What we experienced was not some minor shuffling or vibration. It was violent and painful.

Later in the day as we stopped on the bridge overlooking the Rhine near BBW's big lake drop for a family photo we stood and watched a few trains negotiate the drop and s-curve back to the final brake run. We could easily see the cars violently shutter back and forth on the sections between curves.

Look, I knew before I pressed "submit" that I was going to piss some people off. I knew what I was in for. I'm not the least bit surprised to see people come to the ride's defense. I'm not making any of this up.

Mamoosh said:
I'm not the least bit surprised to see people come to the ride's defense.

No worries.. Just got off the ride a bit ago and I asked Big Bad if his feelings were hurt.. He howled NO.. ;)

LOL Ken. I wish we would have ridden it together on Wednesday but noooooo...you had to get me on Griffin and Alpie instead ;)

Those rides were closer to my wife's office.. She didnt want to walk to the other side of the park if she didnt have to, especially when shes hungry :)

Typical male...blame it on the woman ;)

Jeff said:
Is this conversation really going on?

Yup. Most forums of any kind involve people spouting off their opinions, right, wrong or otherwise.

Wow... Moosh is really getting the sand kicked at him.. He's covering his eyes though guys, you won't win (and if my vote counts, it goes to Moosh yet again).

Yeah so for those of you BBW "fan boys" out there, I thought this was the hottest thing going when I first visited in '91. I thought I'd died and went to heaven after riding that! Anyways, I got another visit in the following year. Then I got the chance to go back during DF's first or second season (pre-track reconfig) and then the next year (after DF's track reconfig)... The addition of DF was the single most catastrophic change to BBW I had seen... There used to be a multitude more of the little German (tutor style?) houses/shops surrounding the ride area that really amped up the feeling of speed. Furthering on that, I had made another visit in Alpie's debut year (summer '97?).

All in all the next biggest change I noticed took the all of the visits combined to notiec (comparing that latest experience with what I remembered from the prior). That change was the shaking of the supports (and track) in the final break run and loading area when trains came whipping back up that hill and stopped ever so abruptly. That coupled with some of the heavy and almost violent (read as "FUN") swinging in the far back probably lead to the installation of the trims on the big drop. I also noticed the forward/back motion of the trains Moosh referred to but it wasn't yet noticably forceful (again, '97 was my last trip there).

If you look at the makeup of the main chasis and how the seats are hung from it, you'll notice the shocks that keep the cars from swinging way too violently set on both sides. Those are attached to the main support structure for the seats which are connected to the main chasis. If there's any bit of "play" in those mechanical pivot points (where seat assembly meets chasis), you're sure to feel the forward/back slippage. Who knows, maybe even to Mamoosh's level of intensity. And! although BG does a 1st class job with upkeep, your upkeep is only as good as the parts available... Is S&S's division formerly known as Arrow still making quality replacement parts for the original suspended coasters? Have they started to substitute some parts with softer alloys that meet specs? This would likely be something that several people complained about and that they ultimately might have corrected by swapping trains (or dropping to 1 if running 2). If that didn't happen, i's likely their test runs next morning revealed the severity of it when ride maintenance (operators or attendants even) were subjected to it. If that were the case, the next day's peeps wouldn't have gotten such a beating now would they?

PRWagner said:

Yup. Most forums of any kind involve people spouting off their opinions, right, wrong or otherwise.

Waaahhhh! I'm being opressed!

You're confusing fact and opinion. It happens a lot on the Internet.

Fact- Moosh's family didn't like Big Bad Wolf.

Opinion- I thought Big Bad Wolf was rough.

Don't confuse the two. People who treat facts like opinions never come out the winner in conversation.

I'd say that the Big Bad Wolf is the best suspended coaster I've ever been on, first time I rode it I was very excited. The first part were it has the train run though the German town(at night its even better with lights on in the windows of the houses) then after the second hill is just amazing! Driving down towards the river total side ways.

And I thought that BBW trains are better, they have more padding and room. Compared to Flight Deck.

If BGW Is really getting rid of BBW, then will be losing a great ride.

robotfactory said:

Fact- Moosh's family didn't like Big Bad Wolf.

Opinion- I thought Big Bad Wolf was rough.

Don't confuse the two. People who treat facts like opinions never come out the winner in conversation.

The fact is we didn't like it because it had moments of roughness. That's not an opinion.

Stop responding and finish that darn trip report.. Geesh.. :)

Or what? :)

hmmm good point.. carry on..

Trip report posted...happy now, Ken? ;)