Expoman

I was able to ride Verbolten twice on Saturday. It was an amazing ride and I rate it 11 out of 10. I found no flaws with this ride knowing there were going to be some kinks missing in the soft opening. People need to stop whining about the roughness. Why do people always have to find something negative. It's not too fast, the freefall drop wasn't big enough, etc. I did not find the ride shaky at all, and the free fall drop actually delivered a nice kick. I was going into the ride knowing it was not going to be Kingka Ka but a nice spooky family themed coaster.This ride would fit perfectly in a Disney or Universal park. Blackstone has really proved their investment with the Busch parks, and I can't wait to see whats next up their sleeve with the possible Resort Expansion and Water Country Expansion. I feel like Busch Gardens is going through what we saw in the mid to late 90's. I expect a boom in the next five or so years. The Oktoberfest expansion is a great model on what kind of direction is going for the future of Busch Parks. I don't know if they were planning this, but with the success of Christmas Town Busch Gardens was maybe looking for new ways to enhance the experience.With most of Verbolten being indoors maybe it has a higher chance of staying open during colder days. Just a thought. Here is a little review of Verbolten. I rode twice. Once in the front and once in the back. Since I used to be a ride attendant back in Disney I know that is no problem requesting for a certain row. I liked the back a little more because of the slight increased G's. I was so disoriented inside that I did not quite catch the show scenes. I was having too much fun inside there. I have a passion for indoor coasters. There is something great about zooming around in a dark building and it never matters how fast you are going. This all goes back to the success of Space Mountain in the 1970's. I found this ride to be a mixture of three coasters down in Florida. Cheetah Hunt in Busch Gardens Tampa, Expedition Everest in Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Mummy at Universal Studios. I have ridden all three of those coasters in the past year and I found Verbolten shares a lot of elements taken from all three coasters. Kudos to Zierer, I feel like this is a big project for the up and coming company. Kind of like what Montu & Alpengiest did for B&M in 1996/1997. I have always respected Busch Parks concept to shy away from the cookie cutter coaster designs Six Flags and Cedar Fair Parks usually go with. I guess Sheikra and Griffon are an exception. You can't really customize a vertical drop coaster too much, and Busch Parks even did a good job customizing those rides. Great job Zierer, Blackstone (Merlin), and Busch on a great ride, and everyone needs to come check this thing out as soon as possible.

Thanks for the info Adam you are always full of information, love reading your updates. I will be at Wet N' Wild on the 8th of August, and will probably do some night time rides over at Islands of Adventure. If anyone is in the Orlando area and wants to meet me up at Wet N' Wild let me know. Also does anyone know how reliable the Busch Gardens shuttle is. I really want to make sure I have a reliable way to visit my sister park in Tampa. I have been going to Busch Gardens Williamsburg my whole life and it is always nice to compare the two parks.

Hello, I am taking a trip down to Orlando in a couple of weeks, and I am planning on getting a 6 Park Flex pass plus one day hopper at Disney. Sorry if there is a thread dedicated to Wet N' Wild but I could not find one. I used to work at Disney World back in 2007 through the college program, and I pretty much visited every park except Wet N' Wild. I am planning to visit Wet N' Wild on my trip, but I might be by myself. I know a lot of their slides require more than one rider. Does Wet N' Wild have any type of single rider system. I really want to visit this water park, but it will not be worth it if I can't go on the multiple rider slides like Brain Wash, Disco H2O, Black Hole, etc. If anyone is even possibly willing to meet me at the park that would be cool too. I would like to meet some fellow TPR people. My trip will probably run from August 8th through 14th. Another question also. Has anyone ever taken the Busch Gardens Express Bus.Just want to make sure it is a reliable way to get to Tampa. I will be staying at the Double Tree by Hilton near the Universal Resort. I appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Little Mermaid is just what DCA needed. I am impressed. I can understand why some people might be disappointed, but as other people have stated this ride was not supposed to be an ultra E Ticket. As long as Little Mermaid is better than The Living Seas With Nemo and Friends at EPCOT I will be happy. By the looks of the video and pictures I think the Imagineers have a huge hit on their hand. DCA was in desperate need of a well themed omnimover attraction, and am I the only one a little impressed with Goofy's Sky School. I still think Disney should of fully enclosed the attraction, but the ride looks a million times better than the dreaded Mulhollond Madness. DCA is finally going to be the respectable second gate in Disneyland when the expansion is fully complete. Can't wait for the new entrance and Carsland next year. Haven't been out there since the 50th Anniversary back in 2005, but 2012 is looking like an exciting year to visit the Disneyland Resort.

Thanks for that video. I have been waiting to see Mach Tower testing ever since I heard the announcement last year. The ride looks amazing. I am very impressed with Moser with the design of the tower. People are being way too cynical about the new ownership of Busch Gardens. I understand that we are not in the glory days of the Anheuser Busch ownership, but people need to realize that The Blackstone Group is investing big bucks into the parks. Cheetah Hunt down in Tampa looks amazing, and I can only hope for the 2012 coaster here in Williamsburg can match Cheetah Hunt. I am still a little worried about Zierer designing the coaster, but I will not judge till I ride the coaster. I still don't even now if the whole Zierer thing is written in stone yet. I have been reading into www.BGWfans.com a little too much lately, and I appreciate their enthusiasm for the future of Busch Gardens. I guess I am a little paranoid about Zierer because of the problems back in the early 1990's when Busch went with Arrow instead of B & M to design Drachen Fire, and Busch Gardens Tampa went with B & M for Kumba. Since Cheetah Hunt was designed by Intamin I thought for sure that the 2012 coaster would also be designed by the same company. I love Intamin, and I have been craving more Intamin goodness ever since I rode Intimidator 305 last year at KD. As for Mach Tower I remember being turned off by Moser because I really didn't know their resume, but I feel like Moser has done a fabulous job with Mach Tower. Hopefully if Zierer is designing the coaster they will come through with a classic attraction. Zierer is a German manufacturer, and usually most German made products are very well designed. When a park dismantles the ride that turned me on to roller coasters I want a replacement that is going to rival the Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf was my first roller coaster at the age of 6, and I will never forget that moment in my life. Kudos to Busch for Mach Tower, I think it is going to be an excellent addition to a park that really needs some thrill rides other than the coasters. All I can say is Oktoberfest is gonna be something else in 2012, and will be one of the most electrifying areas of the park. I will be at the park on Monday, and can't wait to get my first real glimpse at Mach Tower.

Great pics. Can't wait for Mach Tower. I have been waiting forever for a drop tower to come to Busch Gardens. This is going to be a great addition to the park. I love that the tower is right on top of the ravine, it is going to make the tower feel a little bigger when the riders are staring down into the Rhine River. I was upset when people were whining about the height. I understand that Drop Zone is larger, but Mach Tower is going to make up for that in its theme and extra elements. I believe that Busch Gardens knows what they are doing.

Great Report. I have the best memories going to Water Country as a kid. I would love to tackle the new Vanish Point, but I had a scary experience on the old Peppermint Twist slides which I guess now is Jammin' Jukebox. The speed slides still kinda freak me out, but it will be a great addition to Water Country U.S.A. It seems like they haven't received anything significant since Hubba Hubba Highway back in 2003. In 2008 the Rock N' Roll Island was kind of just a re theme of the old Adventure Island. I still love Malibu Pipeline and Aquazoid. I would really like to see Water Country a water coaster in the future. Something like Wildebeest at Holiday World's Splashin Safari or Master Blaster at Schlitterbahn. Thanks again for the report, I may have to get up to Water Country sometime this summer. It's been a while.