Busch Gardens Williamsburg

I fell asleep on a lazy river at Typhoon Lagoon years ago. Worst sunburn I ever had in my life, to that point or since.

I hate it when lazy rivers have to many water shooter things that encourage too many little kids to go on it and splash around in the lazy river. Look in this picture for reference:

Is the point of the river to get wet or not get wet? Or- should your butt, feet, hands and elbows get wet while your knees, chest, shoulders and head stay dry?
Maybe by strict, strict, strict definition a lazy river should be 5 mph and have no water shooter things and an action river should be 7 mph and have lots of water shooter things.

I think you're right. Action river would be a more accurate definition of some lazy rivers.

The "lazy" river at SW-Aquatica, in Orlando, also has the MGM-Grand "skatability." It was totally cool.

Curse of the Dark Kastle is a pretty sweet ride. It was a long wait, an hour + about 4 years ago. It uses the same technology as Spiderman down at Universal Studios. And Spiderman well...is Spiderman. But Dark Kastle is still pretty sweet. It's a shame there's not more of this ride system.

I regret not riding the train or the Sky Ride. The terrain of the park is spectular, thus I imagine the train ride being the same. It could potentially be just as good, if not better than the train at Dollywood and Silver Dollar City.

The log ride was okay, but a little short with just one lift. A pass.

I was not aware Dark Kastle was a ride like Spider-Man. That's really good info to know, so thank you!

I still may visit Water Country...I've heard Busch (or whatever company it is now) does pretty nice water parks. It is not my thing, but maybe I just haven't been to a good one lately.

Spiderman is a quite awesome ride.

And Darkastle, not so much. Oh, it's ok, but don't go on it expecting Spiderman awesomeness.

I found the story incomprehensible compared to Spiderman. The set decoration is far less elaborate as well but with that said it was certainly a fun ride with good 3D graphics and some 4D interactions.

I road it last summer with my wife, brother-in-law and 70 year old mother and the ride had her shrieking in a wonderful mixture of delight and terror.

Escape from Pompeii, a water ride, is at top of it's class. It's one of the rare large boat rides that's well themed. Even the u-turn at the top is enclosed and well- themed. It's one of those water rides with essentially a lift hill and a steep drop finale.

Roman Rapids, a spinning raft ride, was okay. It was lightly themed, but the narrow trough didn't allow for much chaotic randomness in which these rides are known for. Ironically, the ride counterpart at Busch Gardens Tampa is top of it's class. Roman Rapids is perhaps a skip.

Apollo's Chariot was fun. But, a rather boring layout, being a straight out-and-back style coaster. The sweeping turnaround is awesome! It provided the typical thrills of a B&M. Unlike the other rides here, Apollo's Chariot had little to no theming. Which is a shame since Busch Gardens does a great job adding theme to all of their rides.

The Loch Ness Monster was about average. It scores style points for featuring interlocking loops. And for having two lifts. I cannot think of another coaster with interlocking loops. And it features a nice theme, with a helix through a cave/ lair. My gut feeling is that Loch Ness monster may not be around for much longer. I think this is the only Arrow ride left at the Busch Parks. They've removed Big Bad Wolf, Drachen Fire, Python (corkscrew in Tampa) and the Monorail (Tampa) all from Arrow. A classic worth riding at least once.

Alpengisht; tied with Montu in top of it's class. A well themed and extreme ride. The best of both worlds. I believe it's the tallest inverted coaster. Style points for clever, well executed theming. And it's has a unique layout, not cloned elsewhere.

I haven't been on Verbolten, but I hope it's an epic ride. It looks sweet! And the promos look awesome. Verbolten unfortunately replaced Big Bad Wolf, hands down the best suspended coaster. And it had one of the best finales of any coaster.

Thank you for all the info!

I too was a Big Bad Wolf lover. While I look forward to riding Verbolten, I am still a little salty over them tearing BBW down. It was just cool. Wish I would have gotten down there the final season like I intended.

RCMAC said:

And Darkastle, not so much. Oh, it's ok, but don't go on it expecting Spiderman awesomeness.

Nothing beats Spiderman's simulated free fall.

Y'know what's funny? Although I've been on it (twice at most)..I barely remember Darkastle.

Tyler, I screamed my ass off on Spider-Man's free fall section.

Brian Noble said:

The "lazy" river at SW-Aquatica, in Orlando, also has the MGM-Grand "skatability." It was totally cool.

Roa's Rapids. The other un-lazy river that comes to mind as exceptional was "The Torrent" at the 'Bahn. River Troy at Mt. Olympus (advertised as the world's fastest river, LOL) was fun, and fast, but way under-themed and on the very short side. Hubba Hubba Highway, at WCUSA was really good as well, but not what I'd call "extreme."

bunky666 said:

Tyler, I screamed my ass off on Spider-Man's free fall section.

And yet you're still able to ride El Toro despite that loss. Just HOW do you do it, bunky?

Well, you're rarely actually SITTING on your ass on El Toro, so it works, Mike. :)

Point well taken.