downunder

Busch Eurobeer III: Beth and Hummel Boy Make A Porno Time for this thread to go bump in the night. This park was so much fun to explore, and there was always something interesting around every corner. The park is definitely not for the weak legged as there is good hiking, a fun run through this place might even sort out super marathon woman Nay out. If I had brought this model and erected it in Sydney, it would have claimed the number one coaster ranking in my lovely but coaster deprived city. Very badass looking ride sign which just said "you even hum Hungry Like The Wolf (by Duran Duran) and I'll bite your bollocks off!" The Deliverance tour boat had become lost north-west of it's regular route. There were plenty of lonely inbred redneck cannibals in the hills of West Virginia that day. Though there was hope for them with shooting of the new reality show "The Redneck Wants a Wife/Sister" also commencing that day. Loch Ness Monster's layout looks like two anacondas wrestling each other after just escaping a vat of egg yolks. Apollo's Chariot has proven to be real career killer for male models (poor Fabio) with errant goose's roaming the area, and the trim brakes were a real airtime killer. On the right there is a pink monkey mooning around like it wants to get spanked. Escape to Pompeii's themed section was impressive but blink and you'll miss it. Though I would have preferred all the flames and stuff after the splashdown so I could dry off. In the centre front Macauley Culkin gets a drenching. I saw him at the gate earlier claiming unsuccessfully that a Neverland season pass is valid at Busch. He was kind enough to give Hummel Boy directions to Neverland. Man front left, if all girls had a rule of not dating a guy with bigger boobs than them, then sadly this man would be struggling, even in Silicon valley. Escape from Pompeii involved going down and getting wet but the ride came to a very premature conclusion. RCT3 fans went "oh wow, a Niagra Falls recreation". Thankfully, they didn't extend that to a Marineland recreation, I don't think the state of Virginia would be big enough. I'm not sure if the water is supposed to be greener than the trees. Creedence Stillwater Revival would be playing riverside later, wear your biohazard suit if you want to get past the door nazi. Busch was not short on bush, or middle earth ambience in the architecture. On the left: don't jump Dawg, we're in a happy place. I mean damn, you're not in Wisconsin. Corksrew Hill was elaborately themed but sadly crap, probably only of interest to Leprechauns and Bono. Mike agrees with a signature protest of "Rubbish!" While Max checks his breath to try his luck with another statue. Save the switch hitting for the Thunder Bus, Hummel Boy, stop forcing yourself on that poor man. Find Neverland somewhere else! Poor Bethany closes her eyes and thinks of England, Max waits his turn. The Hummel Boy whispers extravagant claims in Bethany's ear about his third leg. Bethany looks like she wishes she had a third leg so she could run away faster. Meanwhile Max seems to be enjoying himself. Far right - tour guide in blue "This is the Abbey Stone Theatre. Legend has it Abbey was a hobbit who went to Vegas and found fame imperonating Tom Cruise in a burlesque show. She died of fright when she found a disgruntled Tom Cruise hiding in her closet". It's good to see Busch hasn't forgotten their core business at their parks, which is getting people drunk. Life without alcohol? Well there'd be a whole lot less loving going on for starters.

C'mon it's the 400 foot dive machine/hyper headed for Australia, case closed. In other news planes were delayed at Sydney airport due to flying pigs. I'm surprised Mcdonalds hasn't ventured into theme parks. Despite all the antipathy about their food being extremely unhealthy and crap. People still keep eating, and eating, and eating to the point where they wouldn't fit on the rides at a McDonald's Park, now I see why they haven't. Thinking out loud stops now.

With some of the better wood coasters in the USA, it is not so much whether you are a fan of wood coasters but rather whether you a fan of airtime. Phoenix has extreme airtime and minimal restraints, one guy on the east coast tour was sitting on the lap of the person next to him by the end of the ride. With flaspasses, you are a given a small electronic device which looks like a pager which you select what ride you want to ride and it tells you what time you can get on, and you go to a special entry which bypasses the line.

Holy s#!^, I'm riding this in June, I just got happy in my pants. I'll be jokingly calling this F### Von Nogood, but it looks like F### Von Bloody Brilliant. Those indoor parts look like they are going to be so cool.

You'll still have Beech Bend at least.

Terminator Salvation is bringing sexy back, well more sexy out and back. I'm sure there is a lot of Terminator salivation among coaster porn lovers.

Why I can't get the song "The Crying Game" out of my head right now. No wonder I was so scared of you on the Behemoth trip. How about the Tara coaster, with a new type of restraint that can go from from Inverted to Flying to Standup to Sit Down to Floorless.

Wherever there are flash passes or fast queue options available I can't recommend these enough if your budget allows it, especially for places like Great Adventure and Great America. Knoebels and Holiday World are excellent parks, well worth visiting. It is also worth noting that some coasters are particularly good at night like Ravine Flyer II, Boulder Dash & Phoenix.

BEST NEW RIDE: Behemoth, by a nose over Ravine Flyer II. BEST EPIC FAIL: Hard Rock Park; wrong place, wrong time, poor offering, love to see the business plan - if they had one. BEST SPIN: Whirlwind at Sea Breeze BEST NAME: Big Ohhhh! - Omaha, Nebraska BEST CLASS ACT: Busch Gardens Williamsburg

^I'd wouldn't cry if no more Flyers were built, they are a bit tepid like Stand Ups because they are also limited by the body position in the amount of force they can apply. Dorney Ferris Wheel operator said Intamin Prefab Wood for Dorney, I would have thought the repo men showing up would be more likely - actually Dorney was a lot better than I thought it would be.

^Phil, mate you are more than welcome. I'm always up for Great Adventure, Compounce, SFNE and Knoebels among others. That small detail of 12,000 mile commute means I won't be dropping by all the time but if I am around, it's party time. We can call ourselves Theme Punk Review.

I believe it's a whole new section of the park with several rides.

7 days might be a bit much (I went for 5.5 days on my first visit in 2003 and that was more than enough), but there are plenty of other things to do like visiting some of the islands in Lake Erie, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and there are parks like Kennywood which for example is 3 hours drive away.

There's two coasters right next door. I know, but I want more coasters - I'm greedy, and especially the kind of coasters IOA would be capable of coming up with.

Really liked the pics and you made some nice observations. Rockit looks impressive, it could be a sleeper on this years coaster polls. Not a Potter fan, but that's a rather spiffy looking box of a buidling. I wish they had some cutting edge coasters in there rather than Harry Pothead stuff. Hopefully I'll get to IOA one day.

^Thanks Matt, I'll definitely be heading up to your parts again sometime, and Orlando too. Work was looking a little too hot for August, and on top of that I've already been to a lot of the West Coast parks already, even though I would have still had fun. I've always wanted to go to Scandi, so this was a good opportunity - I've just kept putting off Europe because of massive hike to get there.

Hey Adam, unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the splash battle, I took so few photos I should have tried harder on the photo front. Any good photos in this trip report were purely accidental. I was going to do the West Coast Coaster of the Week, I even did up a list of the coasters but someone just jumped in and decided to do it themselves probably an hour before I was going to start.

I love the varied looks on peoples faces when they are on coasters, the whole spectrum from extreme fear to orgasmic pleasure - you captured it well. I would have thought one of the great things about working at CP would have been having all those gorgeous eastern european girls as co-workers. I love Cedar Point, it is such a great place to stay, if I got married I'd want to have my honeymoon there but no girl I'd wind up marrying would ever consent to that, probably.

What, is Sam Cassell getting a B & M coaster in his backyard?

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - loved it, and Kat Dennings was in it, too much Kat is never enough.

^Hey Matt, don't criticise SFA or you will get called a racist. I think it's good some money is going into the park, they seem like modest additions but hopefully there is some other money going into maintenance and staff incentives, which would could make a difference.

Busch II - The Taming Of The Delinquent Okay next part (of an epic 4 parts, and this park deserves it), time to review the coasters: Appollo's Chariot - fun but lacked punch, a few too many trim brakes for my liking, I think the chariot of one of those low riders would get more air time. This coaster could be a lot better. Most of the coasters layout is not visible from the park so it gives it some mystery. 7.5/10. Loch Ness Monster - fun looper with the cool interlocking loops and makes excellent use of the terrain, a bit dated now but well worth riding. 6/10. Griffon - My first dive machine, great drops but not as good in between. I'd love to see this type of coaster go a lot more extreme but wimpy B & M would never do that, Intamin? 8.5/10. Big Bad Wolf - Arrow Suspended coasters were a revelation on this trip, not as good as Vortex (Canada's Wonderland) at night but a very nice. It's really two rides, the first being a swoop over a village which is fun but not super intense. Then there is the section with the drop over the river which is excellent and intense but a little short. 7.5/10. Alpengeist - Not as tight and intense as it's smaller homies but a great adventure of a ride. 8/10. Next instalment - Busch III: The Hummel Boy Finds Neverland. "Don't look at me that way Aussie, we don't eat our national emblems in this country, you f***ing savage muthaf***er. You want a piece of me, I'll claw your balls off, a$$hole!" It was at this time the trainers decided it was time for F***er to take his medication. Next instalment: Busch III - The Hummel Boy Finds Neverland. Member of crowd: "Hey f***er, did you know that Six Flags in Chicago named a coaster after you - American Eagle?" F***er: "Why aren't I f***ing working there then. What was that? They pay minimum wage, f*** those cheap muthaf***ers, I got a great package here including dental. Wait a minute, I don't have teeth, and dental is coming out of my salary package, f***. Get me non-human resources pronto, muthaf***er". Hey, it's family favorite: F**ker The Passive Aggressive Bald Eagle - "who the f*** called us turkeys. Own up muthaf***er, I won't bite. I'll claw your eyes out, a$$hole". A couple of thanksgiving turkeys trying to make their escape before whenever Thanksgiving is - c'mon we don't have it downunder, we're thankful everyday, but I won't say why. After this bunch of nervous looking riders, the clean up crew was working overtime in full biohazard gear once the train returned. Fabio took a raincheck on attending the premier of Griffon, he couldn't get a start as the Elephant Man after a goose in the face on Apollo's Chariot. I saw a special on the making of Griffon which was done in the dead of winter, it made cleaning public restrooms after dark look pleasant by comparison. The signs at the loading bay advise you to sit on any loose articles, girl second left looks like she is sitting on her mobile phone while it was set to vibrate. Griffon goes down like a beer glass full of raw eggs, very smooth but you get a funny feeling in the belly. The B & M dive machine and invert, Busch Gardens doubles as a showroom for the B & M product line. I made an offer on behalf of the Australian people but our total GDP wouldn't get half a dive machine. The circular saw added a bit of flavour to the invert - keep your legs up during the ride. Now that's better, Dave embraces the fudge name. It's not like you guys have to work in the basement of the factory, packing fudge. Dave and Mike Fudge, the heirs to the fudge empire, were having difficulty accepting their position in life. C'mon boys it's not like Darth Vader is your father, or worse still, Roseanne Barr is your mother. It was a super hot day at Busch, if it was Six Flags they would have made you sell your soul for a snow cone, and I know many a coaster enthusiast would have donated their body to medical science at the end of the day for one of those little motorised chairs but unfortunately medical science said no. Festhaus was luxuriously appointed, but an Oktoberfest style drinking binge would certainly leave you in the poorhouse. More arrow goodness, Big Bad Wolf - it wasn't big (more medium), it definitely wasn't bad (pretty good), and it didn't remind me of a wolf. "Medium Pretty Good Coaster", I should join Cedar Fair Marketing, dream on, they would have called it "Backlot Prowling Wolfhawk". The sign to the right - "Club of Underwater Phenomena Undiscovered" I hope that doesn't include a bunch of ACE style coaster enthusiasts in a hot tub? My neck went crack in the first loop of Loch Ness Monster, and it wasn't whiplash as if Carmen Electra was sitting behind me. At least the legacy of the now defunct Arrow is not a shameful, violent one like Togo. One area that can be neglected in a park is attention to detail when it comes to dealing with unruly guests. This is another area Busch excelled in, though this young delinquent rather enjoyed the paddle that was administered later.

Hey Matt, was that the job interview you were going for - congrats mate.

^Having been to both Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point - I would say go to Cedar Point, it's a great place to visit and has an overall better coaster line up IMO. Hope your visits go well, you'll get plenty of good advice at TPR.

No it will burn your head off, with one those new flame throwers they installed. I'd love to ride X2, I loved X in the first place so a new and improved version is even better. I'm waiting to see if Terminator will be the salvation of wood coasters in California. Qbots should help improve the park experience, I'd use it all day on X. Do they still have the single rider line at Deja Vu, that was excellent because the regular line could be huge. Maybe that will be the qbot line when it comes in.