Questions for PKD and BGW.

I am visiting Virginia this summer , and am going to viset Paramounts kings dominan and Bush Gardens willaimsburge.I was thiking of spending 1day at PKD and two days at BGW but im not sure which park reqwires more time? dose anyone have any sugestions on which park should have more time spent at it and any tips for a good time at those two parks and when is good to viset during the summer? , thanks.....

BGW is the kind of place where you can spend a great day and not even ride a ride. If it were me, I'd take 2 at BGW and 1 at PKD. I've done all the coasters in one day at PKD on a summer weekday.
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- Peabody

I'd do just the opposite- spend 2 days at KD and 1 at BGW. KD has one of the best ride selections around (great woodies and steelies).

To each his own :) Eather way, I'm sure you won't be dissappointed.
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- Peabody

it depends what you want. there is less to ride @ BGW and from my experience there is also a better capacity on the rides. PKD on the other hand isnt exactly great with capacity and the lines can get pretty long. i had a season pass all year and volcano easily exceeds 1hr wait on a weekday. plus the chances of hypersonic breaking down are pretty good too. but it all depends what time of the year you are going. give it a couple weeks(possibly not even that)and hypersonic should be running all 3 trains. my last visit in sept and i only had a 30min wait on a saturday because of the 3 train operation. i would say take 2 days at the park you are most interested in. or possibly visit one and decide whether or not you need another day there....

coasterdude04 said:
"my last visit in sept and i only had a 30min wait on a saturday because of the 3 train operation."

I think you're yanking our collective chains here. I'm pretty darn sure that H:XLC (much like Batwing) never ran three trains last season. I remember on closing Saturday one of the 'managers' there for the V:TBC/H:XLC walkback said that there were still things they needed to work on in the offseason to *get* to 3-train ops.

Bottom line: Didnt happen.

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Besides, if we were really shutting down people we disagreed with, would Jeremy (2Hostyl) still be around? :) I think not. - Jeff 1/24/02

PKD is a one-day thing, probably a half-day thing unless you're there in the middle of summer. Honestly, my first trip there we spent six hours there and rode everything. Volcano and Flight of Fear are cool, sure, and the woodies are interesting, but the park just doesn't do much more for me. On my second trip there, we were in for two hours, all of it involved for Hypersonic.

BGW on the other hand, I agree that I could spend all day there and never ride anything. I can't say enough how far atmosphere goes there. Not only that, but every coaster there is a winner (not best in class necessarily, but certainly among the best). How many parks can you say that about?

Two days at BGW. You won't regret it.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

WC, first, may I suggest the spell-check option? Second 2Hostyl, Hypersonic did run three trains and I was there the first day they did (it was the same day as the ACE day). Needless to say, it broke down quite a bit, including while we waited in line. Third, Jeff do you really consider the Wild Maus at BGW a winner? (sorry, couldn't resist:).

i would have to disagree with the majority here. I enjoyed PKD much much more. PKD had a lot of great rides. I liked hurler a whole lot but grizzly was just...boring. I dont know why that 2nd turn was added, anyway. Volcano, FoF, and HXLC was well worth the trip. BGW only had AC, which is awesome. EVerything else there was way too crowded (bottleneck warning) and boring. Also the food isnt that great at both parks, especially BGW. back on topic for a second.... only one day at both parks is needed

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HurricaneGeauga- Just in case

2 days at BGW, aparantly some one here didn;t bother to go past the san marco bridge. find the feasthause an dhope oyu have lot so fmoney the food there is deliicous, AC is great, alpe is great, nessie is a classic and BBW, ride that was night in the back.
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All at once the ghosts come back reeling you in now.

Well I'm thinking about getting a BGW season pass primarily because of the Canadian Smokehouse food...(pathetic I know..)

Honestly, you can do the rides @ both parks in one day. But you might want to spend extra time @ BGW just looking at the little things. I plan on doing this at least once...
jeremy
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"Nobody writes about the planes that land." Steve Salerno Washington Times 7-10-01

I consider any Mack mouse a winner.

If you didn't dig the food at BGW, you didn't eat there. My God if every park had food like they do I'd spend a lot more money eating at parks. I know what Hostyl is talking about there, and I'd add that the Italian food next to the amphiteater is top notch as well. Very rich, very fresh pasta, and it ain't no canned sauce (and the beer is cheap too).

Then there's dessert, which invites a topic all its own...

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

...Busch parks DO have the food, but who'd have imagined our webmaster would agree with jeremy on FOOD, of all things. Mice aren't really my "thing", but I could spend all day on Alpie, with a couple spins for the..."megacoaster"...and I love the theming and the SWING on BBW. I honestly couldn't see spending only half a day there, but then again it takes me that long just to get TO the coasters....

bill, feeling twice his age of 34 when he gets to the rugged terrain

P.S. There's too many coasters (with too low a capacity) to try and spend half a day at PKD either. 2Hostyl's right about most stuff, but this place has lots of low capacity rides IMO.

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Florida needs an Intamin and/or CCI soon...PLEASE!
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

PKD is also great if you have younger kids. I've never been to BGW so I can't speak about that.

I love both parks, because they offer different experiences. PKD has more coasters (and decent woodies, a definite plus in my book). BGW is prettier, has better food, and although it has fewer coasters, they're damn good ones.

I've been to PKD more, and that trend will probably continue, but I'd be happy with either.

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--Greg
"Beat the rush, sign up for your post-Mean Streak MRI now..."
My page My other page And my coaster page

2Hostyl- when I was at the ACE day @ PKD on Sept 9th, they were doing 3 train operation on H:XLC. It did seem like an experiment- but it was running.
And to the topic at hand- have you considered one day each and using your third day at either SFA or Carowinds? Carowinds is about a 6 hour drive from BGW and SFA is about 2hrs from PKD- if you've never been to either of them, it would give you more variety

*** This post was edited by GForceBlackout on 2/20/2002. ***

I just realized my post was a little confusing. I *meant* to say that one day at PKD would be enough and one day @ BGW would be fine. I was in NO WAY implying that both should be done in one day.

However, I disagee with RGW and think that they *could* both be done in a day. If you went to PKD right @ opening, ran to H:XLC, hit Ricochet and Shockwave, run back to V:TBC, then hit Avalanche, FoF, Anaconda, Rebel Yell, Hurler and Grizzly (skipping Scooby), I think you could fit all those in well before 3pm. Then drive another hour (well at least when *I* drive) or two and be in BGW by 5pm. With a 10 pm closing time during the summer (even on weekdays), I would think 5 hours would be sufficient to hit Alpy, BBW, Apollo, and Nessie (skip the mouse b/c me no like mice anyway...). I think one would be shortchanging themselves by doing this. But I do not doubt that it could be done.....hmmm, sounds like an experiment *waiting* to be tried...ANY TAKERS?

And to GForce, I-Fan, and most importantly dude04: MEA CULPA. I blew that one. I'll refrain from speaking on things which I know not.
lata,
jeremy
--sitting in "Time-out"

Lots of advice out there??? Two days at BGW ...One at PKD. BGW is a beautiful place to just walk around..!!!!

I'll agree with the two days at BGW and one at PKD. Last summer I went to both with Johnathan, and we did the reverse (because we were meeting people the second day at PKD). I found myself rather bored at PKD the second day... I enjoyed V:tBC, Anaconda and the Hurler (in the front car, the rest was rougher than I like), but the park began to get old on the second day.

We only were able to spend one day at BGW, and that seemed like much too little. I loved the coasters (Wild Maus was my first mouse, so I have nothing to compare it to yet) and the scenery, the food and the shows were all fabulous. The Irish Stew in Ireland (of course ;) ) was the first amusement park food item that I have felt compelled to try. And the ampitheater seating for that Italian place was fantastic. And AC ... ten rides wasn't enough. I've dreamed about that coaster since.

So, if you can't tell ... I'm a BGW believer. :)

Jeremy

I think that more time at BGW definitely would be more enjoyable, but dedicating just one day to PKD may leave you missing out on some of the rides you want to ride. On my last visit to PKD we were able to get on H:XLC, second train of the day. Unfortunately for everybody else it was the second train to go, and the second to last train to go, as they only ran three loaded trains before shutting it down for the day. When we decided it wouldn't be reopening we headed over to Volcano, and guess what. Shut down for 4 hours. Shockwave down for 2 hours, wish it would have stayed down all day and spared me the pain from riding it. However, Anaconda was interesting and a walk-on and FoF was enjoyable. BGW is just great. Spend the time how you want, but keep in mind PKD problems keeping the coasters running.