Hilltopper39

Has anyone been on both Swarm and X-Raptor yet? I'm curious which one people prefer or are the ride experiences pretty much the same (dull ride with incredible themeing)?

This looks awesome, and on a side note I'm still baffled as to why American parks have yet to build a Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster like the one that this log flume goes under.

Your review was exactly what I was expecting, a relatively tame ride experience with incredible themeing that the coaster community will think is just "good" but the GP will think is "great". Should be a huge hit for the park! I still can't wait to ride Wild Eagle next week but honestly my expectations for a top 10 coaster aren't all that high. Nice report though.

Great Update Steve, I'm dying to get out to Legoland at some point this summer that place looks great! It's amazing how much detail they put into each one of the mini land scenes, you could probably make multiple trips to the place and still find little hidden Easter eggs in the displays. It would be really cool if they would update that Daytona Speedway scene every year to have a Lego model of the reigning champions car at the front of the pack.

Your right, my RCCL trip must have just been a really "off" visit because I've read nothing but glowing reviews about RCCL from you and Elissa and other people over whose judgement and opinions I generally respect and admire. I guess a better comparison might have been something like Six Flags America compared to Six Flags over Georgia. A trip to SFA might ruin your opinion of the Six Flags chain even though while the level of quality of the attractions, food, atmosphere etc is fairly consistent chain wide there are clearly other parks in the chain that are far and away better than SFA. At the same time as good as the best Six Flags parks might be they still aren't quite on the same level of quality as Disney and Busch parks. The best Carnival Cruise is probably still not as good as the worst Disney or RCCL cruise.

I was pretty unimpressed with the food I got on the RCCL Monarch of the Seas last July, and the service from our dinner waiter was absolutely pathetic. It was so bad from him alone that it basically ruined our dinner every night which is usually the highlight of the trip. The shrimp cocktail appetizer one night was seriously 5 shrimp that were smaller than my little finger and tasted like they had been bought frozen at a Walmart and defrosted on board. The state room we had on Royal Caribbean compared to the one we had previously that year with Carnival was much much smaller and less accommodating. I've been on both Carnival and RCCL and found some good and bad with both ships, each line certainly had noticeable flaws. I don't have a terrible time on Carnival, but I would probably choose a different cruise line for any future trips. My cruise on RCCL didn't totally suck but I don't really have any desire to sail on the Monarch again. I still wonder if the overall quality differs on a newer ship on a longer voyage. The RCCL cruise that I was fairly unimpressed with a 3 day Bahamas cruise on one of their older ships, and I'm sure that experience isn't the same experience you would get on a 7 day on the Oasis of the seas. In theory the quality and service should be consistent across the fleet, but I have to think that RCCL and Carnival would both assign some of the more "talented" waiters, cruise directors, entertainers, and staff members to the nicer newer ships and longer sailing. When I worked at Disney they would assign some of the better CM's to the newest attractions to be a part of those opening teams, isn't that kind of the same thing? There service at California Grill is probably a lot better than Rose and Crown.

In true TPR fashion that might have been the longest and most detailed kiddie coaster trip report ever, nice job Adam. The section really looks great though, I never was a huge fan of Toon Town Fair, but this looks to be great replacement.

Hmm, that makes sense. I don't really feel that it goes slow during many parts of the ride other than the end, but it does make more sense than what I said I guess. And no, I don't have a source for that information I posted, haha. I was just told that the zero car helped to control the train more when it is traveling at high speeds, which is why they are also on the B&M hypers. From a post on a Busch Gardens Williamsburg Blog site, Busch Gardens Blog Post

A drop tower would be a great addition to Timbuktu, I've always liked that section of the park but also find it's collection of attractions to be a bit dated and uninteresting. A drop tower would be a perfect addition.

I'll take Kentucky, no other pick needed!

^The hypers are a completely different design, every hyper has a zero car because the axle for each individual car is in the rear so it has to have a zero car. I read an article somewhere that had an interview with a B&M Engineer (can't find it now), and it basically said that during testing they decided to add the zero as a precaution for some f the issues mentioned but with the new wheels they use now it really isn't necessary and the park could add an additional row of seats if they want.

Looks great Chuck! I love all of the TPR cooking threads

You get what you pay for I guess, I've been a RCCL cruise and wasn't overly impressed, not a terrible experience but nothing all that special. I also went on a Carnival with a bunch of old college friends, we were all drunk half the cruise and had a pretty good time. I wonder if the level of quality and service on any of Carnival's newer ships and longer voyages is any better? The RCCL cruise that I wasn't overly impressed with was a 3 day cruise on one of their oldest ships and I'm sure the experience I had wasn't quite what you get on a 7 day sailing on the Oasis of the Seas.

Awesome, I could have sworn I looked for that a couple of months ago but there wasn't any information on the KD website, and it's much more comfortable under this rock than you would think.

That's terrible news, I loved the Beach growing up as a kid and really thought it was one of the best water parks around. I never got to visit it as often as I would have liked but it will be missed. Their rapids water slide thing was one of my favorite slides anywhere, very unique. Definitely going to miss this place.

Will there be Fast Lane at KD this year? I was considering a quick KD/BGW Verbolten weekend trip and a Fast Lane would help a lot!

^it would be cool, a quick and crude Google search said that the tallest/longest zip in the world is currently 6,500 feet long with a 918 foot drop, the ascent to the top of Ghost Town is 1,250 feet tall and the chair lift is apporximately 3,500 feet long. They may not be able to fit the tallest/fastest/steepest in the world but they might be able to set some type of North American record. Would be cool to have an up charge attraction with a series of zip lines and ropes courses through the woods on top of the mountain leading up to a gigantic zip line all the way to the bottom.

I disagree, for the right price anything can happen.

Even though I'm not familiar with the parks layout, I would think with the existing chair lift and funicular that a series of Zip Lines from the top of the mountain to the bottom might could possibly be one of the better zip lines in the region. Imagin doing a sip line basically right between the chair lift and railway that ends in the parking lot.

Wow, that looks great, can't wait to try it! Thanks for the pictures John!

That place looks awesome, I love going to these small micro brew pub places but honestly have no idea what the process entails, so that self guided tour would be pretty cool. The location near the park is great, now if somewhere would just build something like this in a park....

$50 million was thrown around a few months ago, which is a pretty significant amount for a park like BGW. You could buy two giga coasters with that much money. Or pay for Everest's animatronic Yeti $50 million seems somewhat accurate based solely off of observations. Since the track length is under 3000 feet and the height is under 100 feet i would think that a 50 million dollar price tag probably goes a LONG way in the themeing department. I'm expecting this to be an incredible overall experience.

So it was more than an SLC but less than a Space Shuttle, fair enough.

other than being the largest investment in Busch Gardens history was an actual number ever attached to this project? I was curious how it compared to something like Everest or even Wild Eagle or another major coasters at a seasonal park.