King

I stopped by Busch Gardens Tampa Sunday and snapped a couple of construction pictures...literally a couple. I had to stand on a bench and extend my arm to get a snap shot over the wall. I'll periodically go by for pics updates. Enjoy these two.

Not sure if this has been posted or not, but this states it happened in the first turn. Carmen Brown is full of it. Like Rob stated the restraints don't click. It's also difficult to see the first drop from the station. On top of that she would've been getting into the next train by the time that train cleared the lift, and I doubt Six Flags was running one train. My heart goes out to the family. I can't imagine how her son feels after witnessing that.

^I got lucky during Christmas Town.

Mach Tower is not reliable. A few weeks ago a cable snapped and had to be replaced and it broke down again last Thursday and has yet to reopen. Also, according to the park's website, Europe In The Air is closed for the remainder of the season. No explanation has been given regarding its closure. http://seaworldparks.com/en/buschgardens-williamsburg/Attractions/Rides/Europe-in-the-Air Mach Tower was down Sunday when I was there.

Yes, I noticed her tattoo and and had the same thought. WTF! Maybe Universal will be nice enough fund a new Dragon Challenge tattoo to cover the old one.

Damn we're mean! Thanks for the report Noxegon. Formula Rossa sounds awesome. It hasn't been open long, but I sure it'll survive all the loses once the tourist catch on. How popular is this park outside of enthusiast groups?

Me too. It's extremely frustrating! They'd call me a geek...who cares

And you can honestly say your crew never ran a little behind or got delayed by guests and stacked a train or two? It's inevitable, regardless of how much you "hustle." It depends on who's working there. I was a ride op in college and some knuckleheads just don't care, so they won't hustle at all. If people like us (enthusiast) always ran rides and worked in the parks they'd be great.

I was looking at the plain trains too, but I'm sure they'll add the designs before it reopens. I can't imagine Busch leaving them like that.

I have an attachment to BBW as a child and adult. I rode it for the first time in 1988 when visiting family that lived in the area. While in college I worked at BGW for the ’00 and ’01 seasons as a ride op at BBW. Most of the maintenance issues were caused from age and the multiple moving parts on the trains. The trims on the second drop also had to be released to run empty trains or they would not make it back to the station. This made it a pain during low capacity days, but allowed us to get in a lot of rides. BGW wouldn’t get a return by spending the money to modify the trains and/or the layout. Overall it was a great ride with unique elements, especially for the time, and still fun by today’s standards. BBW was slow in some places but that helped with the eerie feeling that a wolf was really back there lol. I’ve missed swinging through the village at night and diving over the Rhine since it’s been gone, but BGW is a great park and makes really good decisions about which rides stay and go. Hopefully, they’ll keep the wolf theme, terrain layout, and dive towards the Rhine in the replacement. I’m assuming it’ll be an Intamin steel, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a prefab woodie or an S&S like Powder Keg. I doubt they’ll let us down.

Thanks! I appreciate the updates too. I won't get back to the US until the middle of the summer, but I'll be at SFOT within a week to ride it. Maybe SF will give the Rattler the same treatment in the near future.

There's nothing to be afraid of on KK's launch. The line was so long I was only able to ride it once during my last visit but I thought it was great. If you can handle Volcano and Flight of Fear, KK shouldn't be a problem. You won't notice the difference.

I've had the pleasure of riding the Georgia Cyclone, Texas Giant, and Timberwolf over the years. TW is the worst. It feels exactly the way bumprnugit described Predator, "like a freight train on a dirt road".