Busch Gardens Williamsburg Announces Its Holiday Gift to Thrill Seekers: New Attraction to Open May 2005

Oh well, that stinks - I was looking forward to something new (especially since with my one working eye I can't enjoy 3D). In any case, I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun. Sorry for the incorrect assumption.

-Pete

Sounds exciting (Whatever it is). I look foward to it next season. :)

Just got done watching the video, looks like its gonna be a sweet dark ride. The models they were building looked really detailed, so I would expect this will be a well themed ride. Just another reason to plan a east coast trip, so many good new rides, so little time and money!

Wow, Just kidding about the announcement being shallow...I didn't even see the video link till just now, and man, that looks complex! So it will definitely be a spiderman ride, but the layout looks a lot longer....Did anyone else notice that? It has a lot of turns at the beginning half.

Can't wait now, this ride should be incredible, especially with the good reputation Busch has with theming, and I'm sure the money limit on this project is not one bit on the low side, it's been what, 3? 2? Years since the last major event. (Expansion of park to make Ireland).

Great news, Can't Wait.

Josh

^The park wasn't expanded to make Ireland.

Hmmmmm. I'm suffering a bit of anticipointment here. I was all ready for it to be Pandora's Box. As for the drop, it's clear from the 3d model of the ride that it's a 'simulated freefall' like Spider-man's. What makes Spider-Man's fall so incredibly believable is the 3 layers of detail communicating that you're falling: Building models that drop into the floor, 'Conveyor Belt' windows on the wall, and the actual film itself. If they try to pull off the film fall without supporting physical elements I can't see it working nearly as well.

I'm going to hazard a guess that they're using Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co. to do the animation, as BGW loved the work they did on Corkscrew Hill, and KWCC has a patent on the 'squinching' technique they developed for Spider-Man's projection.

BTW, did anyone else think they'd downloaded the wrong video with the cheesy 'Christmas Shopping' lead-in?

Its about time they announce that. I have been waiting for sometime. What sucks is I always make my 1st amusement park trip of the season a weekend at BGW & PKD since they open earlier(end of March) then parks in my area (HP, DP, & SFA.) That ride won't open until may. ;) Waaaah!

Guess I may have to make a 2nd trip back to there this season. I love Spiderman, so I am sure that I will enjoy this. I agree with the person that it seems like a cross between Spiderman, and the Magic Kingdom's Haunted House. Good stuff!

i kind of figured it was going to be something along these lines. with the success of spiderman, it was only a matter of time before another one based on that concept was built, im just surprised that it took this long, but then again, it probably took years of work to get it to the construction stage. im really going to have to try to make it down to BGW this year, but im not sure how thats going to work out. ive been wanting to experience spiderman for years and virginia is a much more viable trip than florida.

Must be costing quite a bit of money as well judging by the fact they've put their admission charge up $3.

I guess they could just be trying to capitalize on the new attraction too...

I can't believe some people are confused. Just watch the video...it's Spiderman with a different theme...which is a great thing. I'm just wondering if the price tag was the same...didn't Spiderman cost close to $100 million.

Very impressive! I wasn't planning on going to the park next year but that has just changed.

-Sean

Busch does it again they still and always will be top notch in this industry. My favorite company keeps being great. I may make a trip down there this summer.

Thank god my physics class is going to BGW this year, I can't wait to ride this ride over and over and over and over and over and over and over and....

I'm really glad that Busch is starting to really get into the well themed dark rides. Escape from Pompie came first with some great efects, followed up by Corkscrew Hill, and now the most impressive dark of them all, "DarKastle." This ride should really turn some heads in an area of the country that up until recently, had little to no reasonably good dark rides.

I was pretty anticipointed by Pompeii. I wouldn't call the effects great---more like a tad on the cheesy side, with one or two exceptions. Mostly, it was way too short.

Corkscrew was okay. The queue and preshows are nice. The ride itself was missing something. I can't put my finger on what was "wrong" with it, but it didn't carry through the illusion as well as, say, Star Tours which, despite being much older, seems like a more effective sim.

*** Edited 12/16/2004 7:23:24 PM UTC by Brian Noble***

http://www.screamscape.com/html/bgw_-_darkastle_0.html

Screamscape has a great picture of one of the cars to be used on DarKastle...just thought you might enjoy seeing...

Very spiderman-esque, which hopefully, this ride lives up to Spiderman.

Uh oh...it looks like a ULCR, or Ultra Low Capacity Ride.

Why do you say that? It could have the same capacity as Spiderman IOA and that's not bad at all.

JC