Busch Gardens Williamsburg June 2 and 3

I have been looking forward to going to BGW for a while now. I’ve heard how beautiful the park is, and I have been eying Alpengeist for years now. I decided on two days for this park because I wanted to make sure I got to see it all.

I stayed at the Days Inn that is across the street from Water Country, but didn’t go since it was raining both days.

I got the two day pass on Thursday June 2 and entered the park. There was a slight drizzle and this would continue all day. The crowds were really low, with a lot of school trips, or course being this time of the season again.

The England area at the entrance looked great. Someone once said that this park had the best themeing outside of Orlando and I think they were right.

I decided to high tail it quick to Curse of Darkcastle thinking it would draw big lines. I never saw a line on the Thursday, but it did draw one the next day. Darkcastle is of course the new high tech dark ride opening this year. The outside area looked great. I guess they are getting longer lines on the weekend as they thought, as they have a makeshift queue area of ropes outside the cool looking courtyard area of the castle. The preshow is decent enough at setting up the required story. It took me a second to find the secret door to the loading area, but if you are going soon and want to get to a vehicle quicker, as soon as the preshow doors open enter the room and turn to your left. There is a carpet like piece of artwork on the wall. That is the wall that opens to the ride loading area. The ride itself is good. It is by no means as good as Spiderman, but that would have been hard to do. It is fun, and a couple of the 3-d effects look great. The story is a bit confusing, but most of the story for rides are. Someone who worked there said the line sometimes gets up to 2 hours. Don’t know if its worth that wait, but it is fun. One time when I rode it on Friday it broke down a bit and things were not synched up correctly, but the people behind didn’t even notice, and still thought it was a great ride.

After getting out I wanted to ride Alpengeist. It took me a few minutes to find my way there, the map is a tad confusing. I have been waiting to ride this for years. The B and M invert is my favorite style, and this is still the biggest one if I’m not mistaken? There was no line, so I got in row for line one. After two trains I was on. Wow! That first drop was great! The Immelman was great. Everything was great! I even got a pop of airtime on the drop after the mid course breaks. I loved how the zero G roll was so close to the ground and next to the flume ride. The ending was also very good. I rode it all over the place, in just about every row. I loved this ride! The themeing was also great, with an extra bonus being smelling the great cooking going on at the smokehouse while climbing the lift hill. For anyone who has ridden this since it opened, how does it run compared to its first years?

After that I had to wait a few minutes for Oktoberfest area to open at 11. After that I made my way to the Big Bad Wolf and got in the front row. Another great coaster! This is only the second Suspended coaster I’ve been on, and it is much better than Iron Dragon. The run through the old German town is great, but that second drop by the water was insane! Was the ride always breaked on the way down? I can only image how out of control the ending would be without it being trimed!

I then made my way over to Italy to take a ride on Apollo’s Chariot. Haven ridden its cousins Nitro and Raging Bull, I was looking forward to this ride. I ran to my favorite row on Bull, the last to give this thing a ride. Although the first drop doesn’t yank me out as much as Bull, it was still good. Another great coaster! It’s a tough call for me to rate the three, but I think Nitro wins for the bigger first drop. For me then it’s a toss up between Bull and Chariot. I loved the last drop on Chariot where the camera shoots. I had to watch out because I was getting so much air on it, that a certain part of my anatomy was almost getting crushed! I had to watch out for the boys!

I then ran over to Scotland to ride the Loch Ness Monster. Its holding up well for an old Arrow looper. The helix in the tunnel was great. It was a bit rough here and there, but over all, a good ride. They never ran three trains, so I never got to see two trains through the interlocking loops.

It was now noon and I had conquered the coasters. I ate at the England restaurant. When did they have fajita wraps in 1200’s England?

I skipped on the Haunted Lighthouse since I had seen it in Tampa. I made my way to Ireland. Did this use to be part of the England area also? Or is it a whole new area? It looked very nice, just like the whole park. Corkscrew Hill was up next. It was decent for the motion type ride. The queue area was good with all the haunting voices going off around you. I walked right up and into the ride. I enjoyed it. I then checked out the Irish Thunder show. The dancing and singing were very good. The Castle O’Sullivan show was next. It was a bit on the cheesy side, but it was allright. I’m sure little kids would have liked it more.

By now, the non stop drizzle had gotten me so wet I decided to try Escape From Pompeii. The effects were good. Are they all the same from when it first opened? Once again the story is a bit hard to follow, but the drop was enjoyable.

I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid the rain by checking out the shops. I ended the day power riding Apollo’s Chariot. I think I got well over 10 rides in the last hour, including staying on since no one was waiting in my row. Great times!

The next day, Friday June 3 brought some more lines, a bit less rain. Most of the day involved reriding the coasters, as well as the transport rides. The sky ride and train are nice. Is that the old Drakenfire station you see abandoned in the back of the park on the train? I was the only person on one of the Rhine River cruises, and noticed the water canon shoot off on the drop at the Chariot. The boat captain mentioned that was as a result of the Fabio incident, to scare away the birds.

I also checked out the flats. Da Vinci’s cradle was much better than I expected. The Jack Hannah area is also nice. The Pet Shenanigans show was cute. The food was also great. The German Festhause food was really good.

The rest of the day involved multiple rides on AC and Alpengeist. Big Bad Wolf was down for half of the day, so I only got a few more rides on that. The middle of the day brought a bit of a crowd, as one wait for Alpengeist got up to 25 minutes.

Of course there were plenty of school kids line cutting. I rode AC a few times before leaving and even bought the picture.

Overall, this is a awesome park with a great atmosphere. They might not have a ton of rides or coasters, but they make up for in atmosphere, food and entertainment. I’m glad I stayed two days, and would recommend this park to both enthusiasts and non enthusiasts. I’m sure when they get around to adding another coaster it will be great! Next stop: PKD *** Edited 6/13/2005 4:39:28 AM UTC by ChiDan1972***