Photo TR: Virgin Visit to Virginia

I305's was down last night and has been since midday Sunday. I guess breaking a rib would have been worse than getting here to no Intimidator.

I drive past KD three or four times a year but never stop. I need to get on anaconda before its gone for good. I love the BDSM factor of old arrows.

I used to drive by every day, did that for 4 years before deciding I'm going in. Lame friends or awkwardness won't stop me, I'm there and it's time to ride. I must have stopped outside and stared at Dominator 5 times before that.

Great report so far!! I love that you loved Dominator!! That ride is seriously golden! I was blown away on all my rides on it! I rode it more than anything else in the park!! It's glass smooth, yet the forces, and airtime are amazing!! Glad you enjoyed i305!! I may not personally love it, but so many people rave about it. I can't help but to think I just caught the ride on an off day. Eh, I'll be back in May to try it again!! Maybe this time will be different!! Sorry to hear about your Grizzly bite!! With me already having back and neck problems, this is why I avoid wooden coasters. They are much more harsh on my body, and one bad ride on a wooden coaster can leave me unable to ride anything else for the next few weeks/months!!

Can't wait for the rest of your report!! You're so good at writing reports! Very entertaining!!

Great report so far. It's nice reading first time visits to some of my local parks. Sorry to hear what happened on Grizzly though. I've always found that ride to have good days and bad days, so to speak. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Volcano is like TTD - quite touchy and you never know when it's going to break down. And the ride cycle on The Crypt is insane. Tough luck on Grizzly! I had the same exact thing happen to me on it about 4 years ago and I swore I'd never ride it again. I don't care if it's in the woods and "an oldie but a goodie" because I seriously thought I had a broken rib. It's just not worth it and I'd rather use my time to take another spin on Drop Tower, Lumber Co or Volcano.

I really enjoy your TR's. You have a great way of describing your park experiences. Glad that you love Dominator. I very much miss it here (night rides on the shore of Geauga Lake, especially during Haunt, were near epic) though from my last rides on it at KD it did seem to have a little shake in the second half. Maybe that's been fixed.

Your experience with I305 is close to what I had when I was there in 2012. I was in awe when I first came face to face with it - just love the look of the beefy track and supports. Since I no longer fit on Millennium Force it had been a long time since I've ridden a giga coaster so I was a just a tad nervous as we rocketed up the lift hill. The ride is fantastic and took my breath away.

I also love that you liked Avalanche. That is sort of my "guilty pleasure" ride at the park. As you said it's nothing noteworthy but just a lot of fun especially through that twisty part after the straight section.

When I read that Grizzly took a bite out of you I wasn't expecting you to crack a rib. I had thought that maybe you somehow hit your hand on the tunnel.

^ yea, While I love Dominator, nothing beats it's old location in the swampy lakeside part of GL. Every time I ride it now, I can only see the original location in my mind. It is still just as good of a ride, it's just missing the atmosphere.

enjoyed your Virginia review but still waiting to read the entire blow by blow.

Thanks for the comments everyone!

I305's was down last night and has been since midday Sunday. I guess breaking a rib would have been worse than getting here to no Intimidator.

I'll happily take a rib injury in exchange for all the rides we got on Intimidator. I would have been gutted if it was closed during our visit.

Sorry to hear about your Grizzly bite!! With me already having back and neck problems, this is why I avoid wooden coasters. They are much more harsh on my body, and one bad ride on a wooden coaster can leave me unable to ride anything else for the next few weeks/months!!

I always ride wooden coasters and never had this issue, in fact I rode The Great White in Wildwood 19x just the weekend before, and if you've ridden that you know its got some pretty intense laterals, but lesson learned I guess.

I really enjoy your TR's. You have a great way of describing your park experiences. Glad that you love Dominator. I very much miss it here (night rides on the shore of Geauga Lake, especially during Haunt, were near epic) though from my last rides on it at KD it did seem to have a little shake in the second half. Maybe that's been fixed.

I found Dominator butter smooth. Maybe we got it on a good day, but out of all my rides I never noticed a shake or rattle.

When I read that Grizzly took a bite out of you I wasn't expecting you to crack a rib. I had thought that maybe you somehow hit your hand on the tunnel.

Funny about that - I happened to be on the KD facebook page over the weekend and noticed a guest comment about how a girl cut her hand on the tunnel on Grizzly the same day as me. The coaster has no time for any of your hands-up bullcrap, people. Cracking ribs and biting hands, yo. You've been warned.

Part 3: Chug Some Beer and Powerride On!

Another unfortunate event of this part of the day is that my phone lost its charge. (confidential to Kings Dominion: I would have happily paid you handsomely for use of some sort of charging station. Boooooo!) Due to this, we only have a few of Bill's pictures to accompany the remainder of Saturdays report so apologies in advance - there will be many more on the next chapter. Also because I have little photographic evidence of the rest of the day, a lot of this next section of the day is a bit blurry because I even though I was trying to man up and have fun I couldn't help but focus on the pain I was in.

At some point before or after we ate we did hit up Windseeker upon Bill's insistence. I know it was after Grizzly because I was in a good bit of pain trying climb in and out of the seat. In keeping with the story line, I'm gonna say it was after we ate. While we got a really great view of the park 300 feet up, especially to check out work NOT going on at Hurler, I can't help but be completely underwhelmed by these rides. This was only my second WS after Cedar Points installation and both times it made me happy we have a Star Flyer at Great Adventure - its just so much more thrilling, and for the right reasons (not because I might get stuck on a Windseeker for half the day).

I had heard good things about Rebel Yell but was basically terrified to ride any more coasters, especially of the wood variety, but Bill and Brit convinced me by pointing out that it was basically two runs of small airtime hills with the one turnaround in the middle of the ride. "Zero laterals = I should be OK" was my thinking. I honestly wish we had ridden this earlier in the day (but also wishing I didn't get hurt at all) because other than bracing myself for impact and wincing in pain, this ride was actually really great. They were only running one train on one side so we couldn't get the racing effect but even without that I still think this is a really smooth old wooden coaster and gave a ton of airtime. Airtime I would have normally loved but not the best feeling being tossed into the air and back into your seat after you just cracked/bruised a rib. I knew after this I had to take it easy on the crazy coasters for a bit.

Crappy photo from an Instagram video I posted Saturday, I didn't get any other shots of this ride.

(all photos by Bill except for this!)

We stopped passed Delirium which I was totally stoked for since I have fallen in love with these giant frisbee rides since MaxAir @ Cedar Point last year. While the FL+ definitely came in handy helping us skip one of the biggest waits we saw all day, the ride itself was a bit of a let down. Very short cycle with only one completely full swing, and what's up with automatically lowering restraints? Like Drop Tower, these were ridiculously tight on me and combined with the short cycle, I got off disappointed. I will say the lighting package is great and it looked fantastic at night. Also it was absolutely better than riding a stand-up coaster, or a TOGO, or both.

After a bathroom break I decided the only way to morph out of my Captain Crabbypants character was to drink more beer. I asked if we could stop back at Outer Hanks where we were successful earlier in Bill securing me some suds, Kings Dominion dumb alcohol policy be damned! I chugged a Shock Top and instantly felt a bit better. Funny how that works.

Brit's an animal freak but wouldn't climb on top despite Bill and I suggesting she should.

Since we were nearby I asked if we could take another stab at Dominator so we headed that way and once again with FL+ we walked right up into the station and had a one train wait for the back row. Again, this thing rips. Butter smooth. I was so totally impressed with this ride and still am. What a great floorless. My rib did not bother me much at all on this ride - I'm not sure if that was due to the forces, the restraint, or the beer I swallowed in one gulp right before hand but I didn't really care, I was just happy to be having fun again. It was now after 6pm so Planet Snoopy was closed meaning so was Woodstock Express. Bummer since I heard it was a fun little woodie. Lesson learned: you snooze, you lose, credit denied. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Next time.

What could make up for that was another quick lap on Volcano and again this thing rocked my socks. It still had a ridiculous line but we walked right into the station and had a two train wait. They also still had the back two rows closed off in effort to keep the weight in the front of the train. Of course other people waiting were all sorts of pissed off about this (I just waited an hour and they don't even have all the seats open!?!?!", so I had to school a few of them on why they were doing it. The hangtime in the barrel rolls gave me a tiny bit of pain but I didn't even care.

It was getting dark and the scare actors were now populating the park, so we headed through some scare zones and made more stops at I305 and Drop Tower. I'm not sure why I failed to mention earlier but all of my rides on I305 except for my first I was graying out after that first turn heading up into the airtime hill. I rarely ever gray out on coasters, even during moments everyone else seems to - like Nitro's helix, but I was literally seeing stars each and every time we finished the turn and started to head skyward again. Each time only for a brief moment but what a strange sensation. As much as I loved I305 earlier in the day, I was hesitant to ride as I thought the twists would finish me but thank jaysus for soft straps because with a few laps under my belt I was able to lean into the turns and wasn't in any pain at all - getting in and out of the train was more painful than actually riding it. Drop Tower was great for a look around at the lights all over the park. Glad we got a second ride not only for the great view but also this is fantastic drop ride.

This bar is Haunted!

Earlier in the day we had spotted an outdoor "Haunted Bar" being set up near the Carousel (which I noticed is a really nice looking carousel as we passed after dark). We decided to head that way and check it out and were stoked to find they were serving tallboy cans of crap like Corona, Miller, Coors, and those awful Bud Lite Lime things. And here is where we confirmed the parks alcohol policy is complete bullsh*t. Britt ran to the bathroom while Bill and I approached the bar. Since it was dark and I have terrible eyesight without my glasses at night (which were in my backpack in the car) I was straining to see what they had, when a bartender walked over and asked if she could help me. Now I knew once I asked her what she had, that she'd ask what I wanted, and then she would eventually card me. I quickly thought that if she gave me a problem I'd act dumb and tell her I'd been using my totally legal, non-drivers license to buy beer all day. But no - she took my ID, briefly looked it over and handed it back to me with my giant Corona. Sweet!

This photo originated from an idea of posting it to TPR and saying Windseeker was on fire. Cause you know some jackass on here would have believed us.

Then she proceeded to give Bill a hard time over his legit, New York state issued drivers license he had been using without a problem all day. After a bit of joking back and forth she did eventually serve him. I am not boasting in an effort to get others to break the rules, but I am an almost 40 year old man with a legitimate state issued ID and have been legally able to buy alcohol for 17 years. We could only laugh at this ridiculous and inconsistent policy. Anyways, we spotted an empty high-top table they had set up around the bar and we hung out here for a while.

Noticing it was after 9pm, we finished our drinks and decided we needed to hit up the Eiffel Tower, which we had somehow managed to ignore all day. We picked a good time since there was no wait and the elevator showed up just as we walked up. There was a girl in the elevator that was afraid of heights so her entire family was literally dragging her on board, adding some dramatics to the affair. We checked out the park from above, which, with the lights and generous fog, looked amazing.

I love the fountains, especially at night!

By now it was completely dark so it was time for night rides. We basically finished off with a loop back around to Dominator for one more lap (back left again for me) and two more quick laps on Volcano, which still had a decent sized wait but our FL+ wristbands allowed us to avoid and walk right up into the station. By now they had all rows open so we sat in the very rear and I cannot rave enough about this ride. Killer launches and was especially great at night flying out of and around that volcano.

Great hangtime in this massive loop!

With a little over an hour left we had one mission in mind: to powerride I305 until park close. I am not sure how many rides we got on this thing during that session but I know that I topped off at 12 laps for the day. What an amazing, elite coaster you locals have. I am totally jealous and would swap Kingda Ka for it in a heartbeat.

Hey everyone meet my new best friend!

We rode mostly in the back of the train but a few rides we were able to jump in empty seats (after asking the crew of course), and on one lap Bill and I sat in row two since we spotted an empty row up there. After riding it in the back most of the day riding it up front again is a very different but equally insane experience. On my 2nd to last lap my body told me it had had enough and I completely blacked out at the end of the first turn, waking up somewhere in the twists - at that moment I decided I was done for the day and told Bill and Brit to go around for another ride while I hung around the gift shop/photo booth and bought what I thought would be the last ride of the day for me. I knew they'd be shutting down soon and knowing I had more riding to do in the morning I felt like I was just done.

What I thought was going to be my last ride of the night. I look like I'm having fun but after just blacking out I'm totally faking it.

Once they were finished, they met me near the entrance and with a little convincing they nudged me into riding one more time! "come on, we need a photo with the three of us!" My mind wanted to keep riding, my body did not. But I said "screw it who knows when I'll be back here", and I walked up with them. Last train of the night. Somehow, I was OK for that ride, only graying out a bit and loving the rest of the ride.

The actual last train of the night. Yes, I look like a maniac. So does Brit. LOL

After we stopped to pick up the photo (that I look like a psychopath in) and slowly made our way back up front through a totally deserted and creepy park - all guests and scare actors gone, but the Haunt music and sound effects still booming over the speakers. A bit freaky to be honest. We came upon the 3-Point Challenge game (which had the best music ALL DAY - every time we passed it was current and classic hip-hop and r&b, I swear they stole my iPod) and walked up to quite a sight - a group of scare actors dancing and twerking with each other to one of my favorite Drake songs. A hilarious and fitting way to end the night.

Overall I really liked Kings Dominion. I had high hopes and overall it exceeded my expectations. Very little to gripe about, I found myself comparing the park to Great Adventure, not because GreatAdv is my home park but because there are a lot of parallels - its a high thrill ride park, a lot of it is wooded, there is a balance of new and older rides, and it has this sort-of 'grit' to it that I didn't find at the other Cedar Fair parks I've visited but I've experienced at all the Six Flags I've been to (and I kinda like). The top tier rides at this park are really great, and the supporting cast is totally solid too. As always I have a few regrets - for one not getting hurt would have been nice. I would have loved to have enjoyed Rebel Yell and I'm stoked to go back to ride it again at some point. I didn't hate Grizzly, it seemed like an enjoyable ride, one that I'd have a much more favorable opinion of if it didn't try to eat me. I am bummed I missed Woodstock Express, but not upset at all we never made it back to Anaconda. Most of all, bummed I missed Flight of Fear - never opened at all, anytime we went to I305 we checked it and never once did we see it running (though all afternoon they had employees doing nothing but standing around the entrance). I love Jokers Jinx (the only other old school Premier launcher Ive done) so I was looking forward to this. Oh well.

I am happy I got so many laps on two of my favorite new coasters (I305 and Volcano). As I said earlier FL+ was not completely necessary as we only skipped a handful of enormous lines, but it certainly helped us be able to relax and go at our own pace while still get a crapton of riding in. Other than the wait @ Volcano right before it opened, we never waited more than 5 minutes for anything all day. Overall it was a great day and Kings Dominion is a great park.

We headed out into the long line of cars exiting the parking lot, with a quick stop for snacks on the way back to the hotel. My worry now was how I'd feel in the morning. We had more riding to do at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, my first visit to a park I've wanted to visit for as long as I can remember. I didn't want to have to peel myself out of bed, and had no idea what kind of shape I'd be in after getting injured and powerriding my way through it for the rest of the night. I'd just have to wait and see. And so will you...

Stay tuned for our epic weekends finale!

Glad you had a good time despite the injury. Beer makes everything better. And hey, it could be worse: could be Minnesota's alcohol policy. You cannot buy more than one drink at a time, so my wife had to go up to the bar and buy her own. And when presenting the ID, the bartender would then quiz each of us about our ID: "What's your date of birth? What's your address?" Etc. We had to answer the questions to prove it was ours. This happened at both Valleyfair and Mall of America, so it must be a state thing and not just the individual businesses. Weirdest policy I've ever encountered.

Great report, especially the pictures. Those were f**king fantastic.

^ They are not bad and certainly better than nothing. I love the shots from the Eiffel Tower. Now I know not to waste battery life trying to upload a bunch of Instagram videos early in the day. And I got a TON of photos from Sunday.

Another great update! I'm glad you managed to enjoy the rest of your day at KD, despite being hurt. Your trip report is very well written, which not only makes it very entertaining, but also makes up for a lack of pictures in the second part of the day at KD.

Looking forward to the report from BGW!

Now that's an epic ending to your Kings Dominion saga. Glad that the rest of your visit wasn't a total waste after your injury. I give you a lot of credit for riding 305 as much as you did to end the night. It had to be more insane after being fully warmed up all day.

Love the night shots from the Eiffel Tower.

Another great update! I'm glad you managed to enjoy the rest of your day at KD, despite being hurt. Your trip report is very well written, which not only makes it very entertaining, but also makes up for a lack of pictures in the second part of the day at KD.

Tons of pictures from BGW, sorting through them now and the report should be up at some point tomorrow.

I give you a lot of credit for riding 305 as much as you did to end the night. It had to be more insane after being fully warmed up all day.

The thing is just so insane to begin with that I didn't particularly notice it being crazier at night, I just wanted to keep riding it as much as I could.

Love the night shots from the Eiffel Tower.

Me too! Great views up there. So glad we went up at night for the lights and fog.

Finale coming tomorrow!

Part 4: The Big Beautiful Beer Garden Somebody Put A Bunch of Roller Coasters In

If you haven't picked it up by now I go to parks a lot, but mostly to my home parks Great Adventure and Moreys/Wildwood. Other than a trip to Disney/Epcot about 30 years ago that's been just about the extent of my habit. I was content spending my summers in Wildwood getting my riding in at Moreys every year, with the occasional trek up to Great Adventure. Three years ago I found Robb's Youtube channel (among others), Roller Coaster Database, and eventually this forum, and my horizons started to expand exponentially. I found there was a whole world of parks out there I was mostly unaware of, save for a few notable parks that had survived in my brain like mythical wonderlands I might one day get the chance to visit. One of these parks was Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Growing up in Philly, many of my family and friends had visited the park and coasters like Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf became legendary beasts I'd one day hope to hop on for a ride.

As mentioned earlier in this report, our original plan for this trip was to simply head down to Virginia to visit Kings Dominion, we lucked out with Bill noticing at the last minute that he had a BAFF pass he could use to get me into Busch, so we basically tacked a visit onto the back of our journey down to spend a day @ Kings. Like I said, after years and years of building up BGW in my mind, compounded by the consistently glowing reviews it seems to get in this community, I was hesitant to experience it as a quick, hasty stop to just hit all the coasters. But I also couldn't pass up a chance to check the place out, no matter how short the visit might be. While Big Bad Wolf is sadly gone (definitely a little bummed I missed out on that one), the park now showcases 3 huge, solid B&Ms, a shiny new Premier launcher, a well-themed indoor launch coaster in the place of the aforementioned BBW, and of course Loch Ness is still chugging along. With a line-up as solid as this I would have been stupid to say no. I also am not sure Bill would have taken no for an answer.

On the road again...

Amazingly in spite of all the riding, eating, drinking, and of course my injury on Saturday, I arrived back in my hotel room after 1am, and absolutely could not sleep. Apparently I305 pumped enough adrenaline into me to keep me going all weekend. I did finally pass out pretty late, lying flat on my back, fingers crossed I'd be able to get back up Sunday morning. At 7:30am, the alarm went off, I awoke and noticed I was no longer in a heap of pain. I slowly got up and out of bed, stretched a bit longer than usual, checked my phone and slowly made my way to the bathroom to shower and pack up. We had agreed on a 9am departure time, as we had an hour drive southeast to Williamsburg. I texted Bill and Brit to let them know I was up and getting ready, albeit much more slowly than the day before, but that I was surprisingly feeling OK and up for some more riding. We had noticed that in addition to the Waffle House next door we had a Krispy Kreme across the street (score!) so that would be Sundays breakfast before our drive to the next park. Since I was taking a while, Bill and Brit headed over to get us coffee and donuts, and we met downstairs a little after 9.

Hello Apollo, nice to finally meet you!

After our 5 hour drive on Friday night, the drive to Williamburg felt like 20 minutes, though it did take around an hour, and we arrived at the park right at opening, getting a parking spot very close to the front entrance (passholder perks, yo).

Apollo is pretty difficult to photograph as its through the woods...

I sure hope so!

After stopping at Guest Services (where they be guest relatin') to sort out a little issue with Bill and Brits passes, we headed into the park with no wait at the main gate. We could see Apollo and Tempesto peaking out of the trees as we drove into the lot but otherwise couldn't see much, but wow, I was struck by how wooded and lush the park was upon entry.

Holy crap this place is nice

Quickly through the gates...

and I'm in England.

Gimmee

While the park didn't feel crowded, we also had no intentions of buying Quick Queue, so we followed the hit-the-new-hotness-first rule and pointed our compasses at Tempesto, checking out the Howl-O-Scream decorations on our way and even running into a giant, talking, animatronic troll as we crossed a bridge into the Italy section of the park! Pretty cool.

photo by Bill

Don't feed the troll

I don't know why but I always find it amusing riding a launch coaster in the beginning of the day. This was my first Premier Sky Rocket 2 coaster, so I was looking forward to riding it. We arrived to find a small station wait and we hopped in the back two rows.

Angry pasta coaster

Hey tree! Move! You're blocking my shot!

First off - what's with the "comfort collars" that just sort fling around but don't actually secure anything? I could see if they were tight like the Intamin straps I had gotten so comfortable with on I305 the day before, but I just don't see the point of these at all. Secondly, these trains are damn near impossible to get in and out of, its really kind of insane. As far as the ride experience, I have to say - while I wasn't let down by this ride, I wasn't exactly raving about it either.

I've watched POVs of these things and it delivered exactly what I expected. It was fun, fast, the barrel roll up top was neat, the entire thing over in a flash. We got off and when they asked me what I thought I couldn't help but just shrug and say "it was cool". Not exactly gushing.

Since we were right next door, we had to hit up Apollos Chariot. I first remember hearing about this ride after the infamous Fabio incident, and it popped back into my consciousness when I discovered all you weirdos a couple years back. I'm a huge fan of Nitro at my home park, getting rides in whenever I am there and marathoning it whenever the park is dead. I call it my zen coaster, as its fast and fun, but not exactly forceful and I can ride it repeatedly without issue.

Up until earlier this year when I got to try Goliath @ SFOG, it was the only B&M hyper I had ridden. I really, really loved Goliath as well, so Apollo was at the top of my list for this trip. I have to say it was great, and exceeded expectations. I don't know if it was because I was unfamiliar with it (even though I did know the layout from POVs) or because it was early in the day but Apollo really rips. We were lucky to hit the thing early, as we jumped in the back for a one train wait.

Quiet morning

I was surprised at how aggressive it seemed, catching me off guard in a few spots. Lots of generous airtime, mostly floater but the last drop before the final brakes is a nice surprise, the first drop has a great yank, keeping you outta your seat the whole way down. It doesn't feel as big as Nitro, but I loved how a huge portion of it followed the terrain. After riding and loving three of these things, I can with authority say I am a B&M hyper enthusiast, now I want to try them all. They are just straight up fun.

With the line still only in the station, we could have ridden again, but the coaster I had my sights set on for today was across the park and we all wanted to head that way. Of course Bill used this as an excuse to ride the Skyride, and since I have no problem with less walking I didn't argue. With no skyride at Kings Dominion yesterday and no water rides running @ this park, I knew our boy was feeling deprived.

And now we spot a Coasterbill in his natural habitat

Yay more drop rides

I'm a huge fan of B&M inverts. I don't know if it's years of deprivation only having an SLC to ride, but I find they perfectly marry smoothness with intensity. Before this trip I had ridden 5 of them (Raptor, Talon, Great Bear, & 2 Batmans), ranking them all highly, and after years of hype, I was especially excited for Alpengeist.

Griffon is massive

Horses!

To the Skyride Bill led us so we could hop from England to France, checking out great views of not only the coasters in the center of the park, but also all the Haunt decorations scattered down below. Much to Brit's delight, we also rode above the horse stables. This park is beautiful!!!

When we touched down, we decided to stop at Griffon since it was right next to the Skyride station, and it only had a station wait. 3 for 3, not too bad! Alpengeist could wait, I wanted to ride this too. My first dive coaster, I knew I had to sit in the front so we waited a few trains but with all trains in service the line never stopped moving and we were on in no time. I got the far right seat, and as we boarded I couldn't help but notice how freaking huge the track is on these things!

Before long we were cresting the lift hill, and I was blown away by the view up there. I never really got why dive coasters have that slow turn at the top but this made me understand. Incredible view. Next thing I know it's the moment of truth and we pause. Briefly hanging there, feet dangling, screams of horror all around us, looking straight down 200 feet at scattered groups of spectators looking back up at us. Awesomely terrifying.

And then... we drop, floating the entire way down, tearing under the bridge and into the first enormous inversion. I was officially in love with this thing. We hit the mid course and got to do it all again. Brilliant. This ride surprised the hell out of me. Incredibly smooth and absolutely massive.

I liked that in contrast to I305, which tosses you over it's behemoth first drop without a second to consider what you're actually about to do, this gives you that extra injection of blood pumping reality by really exploiting the height at the top, both with the view, and the pause before your inevitable tumble back to earth.

Thanks to 10 across seating, this lines flies.

Of course upon hitting the brakes I asked if we could walk around and try the back. If there's one thing I know about these rides is that the front row is for the views, the back for the airtime. The wait was still nonexistent so we hopped on for round two. I enjoyed it just as much in the back as I did in the front. Like Dominator yesterday, I had lower expectations for this ride and it blew me away - honestly was surprised how much I loved it.

Overexposed Griffon

Well we got done all that and it was just barely noon, so we popped into the nearby gift shop to take a peek around (where I spotted some cool magnets I hoped to come back for), and all agreed we were parched. We spotted a nearby eatery and poked our heads in to see if they had beer. Of course they do! As I would come to find out... everywhere in this park has beer!!! Stepping inside we noticed all they had were bottles of crap like Budweiser but we just needed something so we ordered a few and as expected, we were carded. Of course I got a bit nervous when this came up, afraid they would mention some horsesh*t Virginia law that may or may not exist, but when I handed it over the girl behind the counter gave me a huge smile and excitedly asked where in Pennsylvania I was from, as she was from Harrisburg. Yay! ID returned and beer secured we thanked the countergirls and moved along, asking if we had to stay in "beer jail" near the establishment to which they confusingly responded "What? You can take it wherever you want!" I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

The next course on our buffet of fun was what I had been waiting for - Alpengeist! We walked around to its entrance stopping along the way to watch it from the bridge into that area, and Bill shed a tear that the flume was closed. We also peeked into the construction area for InvadR, not able to see much, but still cool to see something going on.

InvadR

BGW is closing flumes and driving Bill to drink

I for one am pretty excited for this ride, I think its going to be an airtime machine and possibly the sleeper hit of the 2017 season. If the park itself hadn't gotten me excited to visit again this addition certainly is doing the trick.

Alpengeist!

Heading into the queue for Alpengeist WITH OUR BEERS we were greeted with yet another station wait. We were really lucking out with almost no waits for anything we had done yet, so we decided we'd wait a few extra trains for the front row, giving us time to finish our brews.

I knew I'd like this ride and it did not disappoint. Totally smooth, appropriately snappy (especially into that mid-course! Whoa now!) and keeps its pacing the entire ride. As I said I love all the B&M inverts I've been on but how this one is woven into the forest and surrounding rides gives it the edge. Also, its themed to a runaway ski lift! Best invert theme EVER!

Pretty dead.

When we returned to the station it was still empty so I asked if we could run around and ride the back. Totally different ride but still completely awesome. This parks line-up is straight up rock solid. Have I mentioned I love this place!?!

More to come...

Awesome report so far. That entire day was amazing.

Busch Gardens looks amazing. I've heard very good things from just about everyone. Interesting that they're still sticking with Budweiser only, even though it's no longer an AB property. If the atmosphere is similar to Grant's Farm in St. Louis (which is still owned by InBev), but with roller coasters, it will absolutely be worth a visit.

Glad you all had a good time!

Interesting that they're still sticking with Budweiser only, even though it's no longer an AB property

Make no mistake... they have a sh*t ton (and I mean a sh*t ton) of beer from all over the world. That was the only beer I had all day that I could actually pronounce the name of. Generally almost every food stand in the park has beer and wine, if they have a tap system they usually have a great selection but the smaller ones usually just have a few Budweiser products and one red and white wine bottle.

^^ They have all kinds of stuff, it was just that place that only had Bud. They also had wine, as you can see Brit is drinking it in most pictures. We found better beer selections elsewhere.

Part 5: The Finale aka Is This Real Life?!

What could possibly make this fantastic day even more fun? More beer!!!

We headed from France through Germany checking out the Howl-O-Scream decorations and all these ultra-themed buildings and beautiful landscaping.

I cannot get over how beautiful this place is.

Into Oktoberfest we searched for more suds, when we passed Curse of DarKastle and Bill pointed out it didn't have any wait. This ride wasn't even on my radar at this park but going with the flow I said "Let's do it" and into the queue we headed.

Now, I'm not really a dark ride guy, so bare with me. I've been to Disney as a kid in the 80s and never Universal, so the dark rides I know are the crappy old school type like Dante's @ Morey's or Garfield Nightmare @ Kennywood, with barely working animatronics, glow-in-the-dark paint, etc.

But not this. This was so very different than what I expected, and I was more or less floored by this new school dark ride. The moving, roving ride vehicles were awesome, truly making the ride completely immersive and the 3D actually truly wow'd me - I definitely flinched at moments like the knives flying right at us, and when the hell hounds jumped on the car and were about to bite my face off.

Beautiful queue

The story line was a little hard to follow with all the characters thick accents but the ride experience still thrilled me and everytime I've talked to friends about my trip to Virginia I mention how awesome this ride was. A huge surprise, just loved it!

Das Festhaus!

Just around the corner was the legendary Festhaus, and we were on Mission: Beer. On our way in we noticed a bar being set up right outside with like 12 taps, but upon approaching it were informed it wouldnt open until 2pm, so into the Festhaus we went.

Again no problems with my ID, and when we asked if we had to drink our beers inside, the employees laughed and told us we could take it anywhere we wanted! LOVE THIS PARK!

Gulp

In fact, right after we walked out we spotted a guy walking around with a huge bottle of wine, which we later confirmed can be bought inside the park, and I guess they don't care if you drink right out of it. I LOVE THIS PLACE!

Cheers! (photo by Bill)

We wandered a bit, people watching, checking out the Waveswinger when we noticed some folks on Mach Tower, the first time we'd seen it run all day. We approached and were informed the ride was already down again. In fact by the time we got over to the ride, maintenance dudes were around it, with a ladder extended up the tower.

Relaxing in paradise

Wasn't looking good, but decided we needed a pretzel and some more beer and we'd sit next to the ride to see if it would open. The pretzel was straight up bangin'. We hung out maybe 20 minutes, eventually going up to the attendant at the entrance to see if we could get an estimated time of reopening, but he gave us the expected canned answer more or less saying he couldn't say but we could hang out there and wait, so we did for a few minutes. In just those few minutes this poor kid had maybe 10 different groups of people approach and ask the same thing, his response the same every time, but some of these people were complete assh*les about it, almost to the point where they were harassing him. I hate people.

Apparently we are not worthy for Mach Tower

We gave up after another few minutes and decided to head across the area towards Verbolten. Great themeing in the queue, and what awesome trains! I had high hopes for this ride but with my injury (which really wasn't bothering too much) and the dark sections where I wouldn't be able to tell what was coming, I was hesitant.

Love Vertoltens station/queue

We had another station wait and went for the back two rows. I got off with a "that was fun" sorta shrug but the more I've thought about it the more I realized how great of a ride it is. Definitely a family coaster but with some serious kick. Very, very smooth, nice launches, some small bits of airtime and heavy laterals in the show building, and while I knew it was coming, the drop track was awesome.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Barely survived the Black Forest

My favorite part was easily the drop over the river at the end of the ride. Very well done ride, and one that I am excited to ride again next time I visit.

Having a blast! (photo by Bill)

From here we headed back into Germany to take the bridge over to Lock Ness Monster and got some great views of it, as well as Alpengeist and Griffon, and we passed underneath them. Very, very cool.

It's just a beautiful mess of track and supports and by the way have I mentioned I LOVE THIS PARK? Lock Ness is a coaster I've been waiting to ride for an eternity but after everything being mostly great all day I was a little worried an old Arrow might bring that streak to a halt.

Photo by Bill

We climbed up to the station and it was basically empty. I just want to digress for a minute to mention that while ride lines were all non-existent, the park seemed fairly busy as we walked around. Quite a mix of people too, though not the types I'm used to sharing Great Adventure (or even Kings Dominion) with. Lots of families, and even quite a bit of older folks hobbling around. I don't know if we saw any groups of obnoxious teens the entire time we were there.

Photo by Bill

I can't exactly say LochNess disappointed, but it was definitely the biggest dud of the day. We sat in the back seats with no wait at all. The lift hill might be the longest lift ever, the drops were decent, the loops were nice and forceful, and the helix/tunnel was considerably longer than I expected. It wasn't a bad ride, and it was cool to finally give it a spin after all these years, but the B&Ms just blow it away in every possible way.

At this point we had hit everything we came for (except Mach Tower, but we still hadn't seen it run except the one time) but we still had a bit of time to kill before Bill wanted to be on the road home. So I asked if we could hit up Griffon and/or Alpengeist again and we headed into Ireland but not before stopping at the horse stables for Brit to say hello to her friends.

Horses! (photo by Bill)

Wolves!

On our way we also checked out the wolves which were so awesome! We hung out there a bit and listened to the trainer talk about them and throw them a sack of balls (?) they played with.

photo by Bill

Creep fest

We came around to Griffon and yet again it only had a station wait with double the amount of people waiting for the front as the other two rows, so we jumped on the next train, in the back again.

I could literally just ride this thing all day. Completely huge and thrilling but oh so smooth. I am officially a dive coaster fan!

Dare to Dive!

I can't wait to get down to BGT next year to ride Sheikra, as Bill and Brit say its their fave out of the three they've ridden.

I stopped back into the gift shop where I finally picked up those magnets I was eyeing earlier in the day, when we decided we all needed actual food. So far we'd only had donuts in the car and shared a pretzel while trying to get on Mach Tower earlier. During our earlier visit to Griffon none of could help notice the mouthwatering smell of BBQ. And here we were again with our eyes set on Trappers Smokehouse.

Mmmmmmm

In we went and had no wait at all - the line was completely empty. I went for a beer and the smokehouse sampler which wound up being a heaping serving of food - BBQ chicken, a biscuit, waffle fries, brisket, and ribs (time for me to bite some ribs!) and we quickly found a table w/ an umbrella out of the sun, and dug in.

Mountain of Meat. Pic does not do it justice.

Holy crap am I in a theme park right now!? Best park food I've ever had. I am one of those don't-like-meat-on-the-bone kinda people (except ribs, I can always eat ribs) and I ate almost every single thing on my plate, including all of the chicken. Absolutely delicious.

Bill was now clockwatching as we had quite the trek back home to attend to, but we all agreed we wanted to do one last ride, and since we were so close, back to Alpengeist we went, taking the remainder of our beers with us into the queue (love this place!!!) and heading for the back row as it had no one in it. I had to race to chug my beer before the airgates opened. Holy crap this thing just rips. Love it. Easily my new favorite invert, lived up to all the hype in my head.

Mess of track

With time of the essence we made our way to the Germany Skyride and jumped on to head back to the front of the park. Such great views and a quick and easy way to get across this massive, gorgeous park.

They should put some wolves or something in here

I absolutely did not want to leave and could have happily stayed gorging myself on beer, BBQ and Griffon for days. I joked I wanted to buy a tree inside the park and move there. Easily the nicest park I've been to, no contest. I didn't see a single piece of trash on the ground, yet didn't see a single person cleaning. Don't know how they do it!

I knew this park was nice and had a solid lineup but the entire visit just exceeded all my expectations, and is now firmly my favorite park I have ever been to (sorry Hershey, I still love you!). It's literally a giant, beautiful beer garden with coasters in it. Like... is this real life?!

I wanna go back in!

We headed out and back on the road and all that riding drinking and lack of sleep caught up to me as I passed out in the backseat the second we got on the highway for our very long drive home...

I'm a little bummed we didn't get to ride Mach Tower, and wish we would have made our way back to Apollo, not to mention I'd LOVE to see this park at night during Howl-O-Scream. We agreed we are making the trip again next fall, but with the days swapped so we can do a full day @ BGW. I absolutely have to get back to this park and spend more time there. I am so very jealous of you locals, you are so very very lucky.

Overall an incredible weekend. I305 was obviously the star of the entire show but lots of other rides surprised me and overall I have little to complain about. While I wish I wouldn't have gotten hurt I refused to let it kill the fun and I'm happy I soldiered on as I had a fantastic time. Thanks especially to Bill and Brit for just being flat out awesome people and for letting me tag along, and of course putting up with my weirdness. Considering Bill's detest for other enthusiasts I must be doing something right.

I'll leave you with my impressive ride count for the weekend, made possible thanks to FL+ at Kings, and non-coaster riding guests at BGW. #nerdalert

I305 12x

Volcano 4x

Griffon 3x

Alpengeist 3x

Dominator 3x

Apollo's Chariot 1x

Drop Tower 2x

Curse of DarKastle 1x

Rebel Yell 1x

Verbolten 1x

Flying Eagles 1x

Avalanche 1x

Back Lot Stunt Coaster 1x

Tempesto 1x

Shenandoah Lumber Company 1x

BGW Skyride 2x

LochNess Monster 1x

Delirium 1x

Windseeker 1x

Eiffel Tower 1x

Grizzly 1x

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading this report half as much as I did living it. Til next time...

It always brings me down to earth to see someone visiting BGW for the first time. That was the park I grew up going to in the 90's. I never realized how fortunate I was to have such an awesome place so close. I'm really glad that it did not disappoint. I am really looking forward to making it back out there next year. I'm glad you enjoyed both of the parks in my home state. I hate that Nessie didn't really live up to your expectations and Grizzly treated you so bad. Just a few questions for you:

Now that you've had time to let it soak in, do you like Nitro or AC better?

Any beers at BG really stand out to you that I should try next time I go?

Did any southerners threaten to beat you up when you called a roll a biscuit? (We're very serious about these things 'round here)

What an AWESOME report! I'm glad you all had such a great time (bear bites and all.)

If you need a chauffeur when you come down to Orlando / Tampa - let me know. I'd be happy to drive and it would be a blast to hang out with you at a park.

David

Just a few questions for you:

 

Now that you've had time to let it soak in, do you like Nitro or AC better?

 

Any beers at BG really stand out to you that I should try next time I go?

 

Did any southerners threaten to beat you up when you called a roll a biscuit? (We're very serious about these things 'round here)

I like both Nitro and Apollo both for different reasons. Apollo seemed a bit more aggressive but that might be because I am so familiar with Nitro. Hard to really judge when I have 70 some laps on Nitro and just 1 on Apollo. They're both really great, wish we did Apollo a few more times. I stuck with beers I knew at Busch, but they had quite a selection. I know I had a couple Shock Tops (love them), pretty sure I had an Angry Orchard somewhere. I honestly forget what else. And LOL I'm pretty sure Trappers called it a biscuit too!

If you need a chauffeur when you come down to Orlando / Tampa - let me know. I'd be happy to drive and it would be a blast to hang out with you at a park.

Haha! Don't tempt me I might take you up on that!

Interesting that they're still sticking with Budweiser only, even though it's no longer an AB property

 

Make no mistake... they have a sh*t ton (and I mean a sh*t ton) of beer from all over the world. That was the only beer I had all day that I could actually pronounce the name of. Generally almost every food stand in the park has beer and wine, if they have a tap system they usually have a great selection but the smaller ones usually just have a few Budweiser products and one red and white wine bottle.

That is very good news indeed.

^Yep--a lot of it is in the Brauhaus Craft Bier Room inside the Festhaus.

^ This is exactly why I didn't want to spend a half day @ BGW. I could have spent half the day just in there drinking.

Next time you're giving us the tour, Chuck!