Busch Gardens, Williamsburg: 8/15/2009

My aunt invited me out with some of my cousins and their familes to hit up Busch Gardens and the nearby Watercountry USA this weekend. Not wanting to miss too much time from work, I told her I'd head down with a friend on Saturday only and go to Busch Gardens. I really wanted to get in another ride on the Big Bad Wolf before the end of its lifespan.

The Drive

The day didn't get started right at all. Living in Baltimore it is a 3-3.5 hour ride to BG, depending on how fast you drive (who goes the speed limit?). Well, we were making good time until we got to the Virginia section of I-95. It was stop and go traffic all the way down. It ended up taking 5 hours to get to the park.

Parking

We got stuck parking in the Scotland overflow parking lot on the other side of the road in front of the park and down past the brewery. The park was obviously packed. I haven't went to an amusement park on a weekend in years and probably will try to go back to doing so.

Inside the Park

As always the park is just beautiful. The lines moved quickly, even though most were longer than I have been used to lately. With the exception of a Cedar Point trip in July 2008, this is the first time in probably 3 years where I had to wait over 30 minutes for any ride. Call it luck or call it planning - probably a little bit of both.

Getting to the park really late, we met up with my family members and grabbed a quick ride on Loch Ness and then over to DarKastle. DarKastle's line was a little long, but it moved really well and with all the mist blowing fans and then the indoor air conditioned lines, it wasn't bad at all.

We were going to try to go to the Big Bad Wolf next, but the line was coming out of the line wrap section. Crowded day, yes, but I must have heard at least a dozen conversations in line when we went back later to ride about people wishing they wouldn't remove the ride. I think we were far from the only people there getting in that last ride.

Anyhow, skipping the Wolf for the time being, we headed over to Alpengeist. This coaster has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It's hard to place an exact reason as to why, I just love it. From there we walked over to the Griffon, saw a line that was all the way down to the splash area and thought against that line for the time being.

Corkscrew Hill and Apollo's Chariot were next. Both lines had about a 30 minute wait. The Chariot was a blast, which was good because last year when I rode it, for some reason it felt less exciting than it usually does for me.

After eating we made our way back to the Wolf and got on it. This is where we heard all those conversations I mentioned above. The line filled half of the wrapping area under the pavillion, but moved quickly. Like most of the rides, they were running 3 coaster trains and the crews were rocking and rolling with loading/unloading. And the Wolf itself felt great and was a blast. It does suck that such a classic ride has to go.

We ended our day with a ride on the Griffon. All I can say about this ride is awesome. I just like it and made sure my friend got to ride it before the day was over. I got on it about a dozen times last year during the Halloween Fest the park puts on.

My friend had never been to this park. She had been to the Busch Gardens in Tampa (I have not). She loved the rides and said she liked this park a lot more than its Tampa counterpart. I'd still like to get down to Tampa one day though.