Busch is still great -- Water Country & BGE

We have these wonderful platinum passes from BGA that we have been making some good use of. However, we had never been to Water Country, despite going to BGE multiple times each season for the past few years, and living in MD & VA. When we were in Texas a couple weeks ago, the water park at Fiesta Texas was appealing, especially since it was so hot, but we didn't bring our swim gear with us in the park. We decided to hit Water Country on Sunday for the first time, and what a fun time we had! As for the random notes:

--The park has a great setting, with lots of trees and a hilly terrain. You can't see all the attractions at once, which is cool.

--The park isn't huge, but most water parks aren't. The quality, however, is definitely there, and they have a good amount of attractions.

--It was cool that they still had one of those sled rides, where you drop down the 60-degree slide, then skip across the water at the bottom. It was so 80s, yet fun to ride again, as I hadn't ridden once since 1996.

--They have a nice wave pool, a few cool body slides, and multiple tube slides. A very good collection of slides, etc. They are, however, lacking anything in the form of a Proslide bowl or funnel, which I think they should look into. The park seems to have plenty of expansion room.

--With the season pass, we got $2 off the locker rental, and after I turned the key back in, I was given a card worth $3 toward any food or merchandise in the park. Funnel cakes were only $3.69 before tax, so I picked up one of those before we left.

Overall, a great park that is definitely one of the best waterparks in the region.

After we left we headed over to BGE for about 2.5 hours.

--The line for Griffon was fairly long, but it moved pretty good. The first time we waited around 45-50 minutes, an the second time, we only waited around 30 minutes. Security was definitely out and in force at the queue, which was a good sign to see. We even saw 2 guys get escorted out of the line--good work!

--The ride itself is fairly weak, but most dive machines are. I give the layout and placement the edge over Sheikra. They did a really good job with the install, as the ride and its plaza look amazing. The way the sky ride goes right by and under the track is really cool, as well. And for those of you who are wondering if the bunny hop right after the second Immelman has any air, the answer is not really, at least from the back row. The water effect looks way cool, though. The ride seems like a better install and layout than Sheikra, which is good to see forward movement in design, rather than ther opposite.

--There is a single rider line available, but I don't know what the approximate wait times were for it. You can bypass the main queue to use it, instead of having to wait through most of the main queue. There is no place to stash loose articles, so you may need to get a locker, which are located right before the ride entrance.

--Alpengeist had a short wait at night. The park was running at decent capacity that night. The beast was running great, though there was some rattling that we noticed when riding the back car.

--Pompeii was next, and there was no line. We sat right in the front row in the middle, and we didn't get very wet at all, except for our feet from the water spillage when you first enter the building. Most of the effects were on and working good. Great ride as usual.

--Appolo's Chariot was next. It was running pretty good from the back seat, but not quite as crazy as Nitro the week before. 3 trains on this one tonight, too.

All in all, a great day and a great time at both parks. They actualy stayed open until 11PM, and they had a nice firworks show at 9:15-9:30, which was pretty well done. Keep up the great work, Busch!

*** Edited 7/3/2007 7:32:38 PM UTC by rablat5***

I agree with the dive machine not being that of a spectacular ride, i think they are somewhat limited as to what they can do with them. Those trains are so massive, i think that really does them in for layouts.

I also agree pompei is pretty amazing and probably is my favorite water ride and that says alot since i dont like the water rides too much.