BGE TR - 9/23/05

[bdstrom]

Busch Gardens Europe TR – 9/23/06

 

Sorry, I didn’t take pictures at all.

 

4 months after moving to VA, I finally cleared my schedule so I could visit BGE for the first time and ended up loving this park to death!

 

Loch Ness Monster – 4/5

25 years of watching this coaster on TV and Video and I said to myself… one day, just one day I’ll get my chance to ride this monster! Remember 25 years ago we didn’t have B&M and modern Intamin coasters. Arrow was a big thing back then. Finally rode this sucker and it was actually pretty good! It was a walk-on pretty much all day.

 

Apollo’s Chariot – 5/5

Apollo’s Chariot shocked me. It was actually GREAT! The only B&M hyper I rode was Raging Bull and it failed to impress me. Before I rode Apollo, I assume it would be similar to Raging Bull but I was completely wrong. The airtime was perfect and the pace on this coaster is great! The line was about 10-20 minutes wait.

 

Big Bad Wolf – 4/5

Similar to Loch Ness Monster, I watched this over again and again on video and said to myself… one day, just one day I’ll ride this sucker. I finally rode this sucker and it was good. Not WOW but really good. The line was approx 20 to 30 minutes long.

 

Alpengeist – 3/5

………………… Is this some kind of cruel joke? I don’t want to offend anyone but Alpengeist is the easily the worst B&M inverted I ever ridden. When I got into the line, I went straight to the back row because I am a sucker for B&M’s whip when leaving the lifthill on inverted coasters.

 

I waited 45 minutes because it broke down and they were doing some nonsense things such as dispatching empty trains 50 times while mechanics were looking at something behind the control board. Got on the 1st train after they reopened it and ended up getting stuck on the lifthill for 10 minutes.

 

To my deep disappointment, there was no whipping action on top of the lifthill… absolutely none at all. I felt brake holding, the train crawled over the lifthill. Very disappointing!

 

The cobra roll had a hardcore whipping action and that was the best part!

 

After the MCBR… the train crawled through inversions and a helix. Is that all? What happened to a good strong finale?

 

Later during the day, I had to ride Alpengeist again to see if I am missing anything but my opinion still did not change.

 

Easily two thumbs down.

 

Park in General – 4.5/5

This park kicks Cedar Fair, Paramount (currently CF), and Six Flags butt. They really took some time focusing on scenery and buildings in Italy, France, Ireland, and England is simply stunning. Also Curse of the DarKastle was great! Only disappointment I had (other than Alpengeist), I couldn’t find that complimentary house like BGA has. Do they have one at all?

[mforce79]

It's weird I guess, but I actually see where you're coming from about Alpengeist. It does a few things different from other B&M Inverts. I think you have to ride it several times to truly appreciate it. Maybe, instead of comparing it to other rides, take the ride in as a whole. The first half is awesome, the cobra roll is second to none, and the interaction with the scenery for the 2nd half is some of the best out there. In my opinion, it's one of the best *complete rides out there, and for that reason I rank it highly.

 

Glad you enjoyed the park, take some pictures next time!

[redfoot12]

Glad you liked BG.

 

I've only been on two B&M inverteds, Alpengeist and Batman:TR (SFoG) so maybe I'm not the best person to chime in. I know people talk about the whip effect from the back but I didn't notice it too much on Alpengeist. I personally like the front on Alpie because you can see more. I think it's a great ride overall but this may change as I ride more inverteds (Dueling Dragons and Montu next month). However, front row at night was spectacular!

 

I love Apollo's and it's currently my #1 overall.

 

Welcome to Virginia!

[pkdcoaster]

you know what bdstorm? You just described everything BGW did to kill Alpengeist in 1998 after it ran practically brakeless in 1997. I miss the old Alp so much

 

JEFF

[redfoot12]

I didn't ride Alpengeist until '99 so I never rode it during the mythical year of 1997. I've heard people talk about how great the ride once was before it was trimmed all to hell.