carolinacaniac Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 This past weekend, I went to my friend Mike's place in Hampton, VA with My friends Matt, Chris, and Mike's Brother-in-law Charles. One of the parts of this weekend getaway I looked most forward to was our day at Busch Gardens. When I found out that Griffon would be open, I was even more excited about the trip. Mike and his wife Sandy were very gracious in allowing the four of us and a couple others to stay at their place for the weekend. For our day at Busch, it was a good day, but I think I would have liked for it to go a little differently. For one thing, we had a group of Nine, most of them being smokers, and we ended up stopping about once every half-hour or so for them to take a smoke break. I think Charles, Sandy and I were the only Non-smokers, and the other six were. I don't have a problem with them smoking since it is their choice, but it seemed like we lost a LOT of time to it, and if lines were shorter, maybe I would have taken a spin on a nearby ride, but since it was Saturday, I really couldn't do that. Another thing was that since this was all planned by Mike, we did the park in his way, which was to go on each coaster once, and that was about it. The only re-ride was on Apollo's Chariot at night. I personally like to get as many rides and re-rides as I can, but what can you do? The last thing I wish we did differently was to kind of have a better plan for visiting. Instead of going to one area of the park and riding what we wanted there, we kind of went from one side of the park for a certain ride, then to the other for another ride then back. At one point, we went from Escape from Pompeii to Scotland, and Hopped on the Skyride to France so we could walk over to Alpengeist, but we all decided that we wanted to eat dinner first. I would have been fine finding something near by since we would be going on Alpengeist and Griffon after eating, so where did we go to eat? Italy Now that I got the downside overwith, I will share the good things about the day. First the weather was wonderful. Sunny and around the low 70's. I still love the park, for the coasters are all high quality and the themeing is wonderful. Griffon was wicked awesome!!!! We got to ride in the front row, and all I can say is that the pause before the first drop was a blast! This easily became my new favorite coaster at Busch Gardens. We also had an awesome second ride on Apollo, because they don't light much of the ride up at night, it was really dark, and made a good ride even better! The ride count for the day went as such: Loch Ness Monster: 1 Curse of DarKastle: 1 (First Time Riding) Big Bad Wolf: 1 Apollo's Chariot: 2 Escape from Pompeii: 1 Sky Ride: 1 (Scotland to France) Train: 1 (France to Italy) Alpengiest: 1 Griffon: 1 (Coaster # 129 for me!) So the slow and easy day with longer lines and frequent smoke breaks did not provide for much riding, but it was a good day out with friends, and definatly makes me look forward to coming back soon! Now for your viewing pleasure, my pictures! Took this on the way to a second ride on Apollo. Thanks for checking it out, hope you all enjoyed! Coaster #129 for me, and a great one it was, I just wanted to let it know how much I loved it! From directly underneath the first drop Down the first drop it goes! It's time to take a ride! I didn't realize how fast this puppy goes! The first Immelmann of Griffon People waiting to go "WEEEEEE!" Griffon's lift hill, which I would learn later is really steep! Three in One coaster picture from Sky Ride Little Horse following Mommy Horse Griffon, making riders comptenplate what it is that they chose to do "Skloosh!!!" goes the boat Escape from Pompeii Just about nailed me there! Matt trying to attack me! He got close quite a few times Taking aim at Matt at Splashis Maximus Mike and I stomping grapes! Walking through Italy Signature Bridge Picture I didn't think we would see any celebrities, but we spotted Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus on Vacation. I wish I could work one day a year!! The wolves of DarKastle First time on Curse of DarKastle. A fun ride, but it is no Spiderman! Smoke Break for Mike and Chris Big Bad Wolf going down the first drop Alpengeist in the distance Big Bad Wolf is a true swinger! Lunchtime at the Festhaus. Never been in here before Busch Gardens' dynamic duo Loch Ness Monster at the Bottom of the second loop Alpenguiest, a great Invert First Ride of the day, Loch Ness Monster And there it is through Nessie's Lift Hill As you can tell, they want everyone to know about their new ride For a moment I thought I couldn't get enough pictures of Apollo Here we have Chris and Charles in the back, and Mike covering Sandy's face in the front But Apollo is another good reason to be here! Off in the distance is one BIG reason for coming today....... GRIFFON! Welcom to Busch Gardens Apollo greets us as we enter the parking lot While in Traffic, I saw this billboard, thinking "I would rather be in line for that!"
carolinacaniac Posted May 21, 2007 Author Posted May 21, 2007 The pause at the top of the first drop definatly added to the anticipation. The speed was constant through the block brake where the ride was slown down a lot, but the speed picked back up after the second drop. The floorless train definatly add to the effect of the pause on the top. There were moments of floater air on the bunny hills toward the end. Overall, I really liked the ride! Definatly a winner for BGE
kennywood!007 Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Awesome pictures! How were the waits of the other coasters since Griffon took most of the guests into it's queue I'm sure.
redfoot12 Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Nice report. I'm heading to BG tomorrow. Hopefully on a Tuesday, the lines won't be so bad.
carolinacaniac Posted May 22, 2007 Author Posted May 22, 2007 Most of the rides we went on besides the train and skyride had full queues, but only Alpengeist and DarKastle were close to an hour wait. Griffon was about 45-50 minutes, even with the overflow since they were bookin' on getting those trains out.
kennywood!007 Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 ^How are they with loading trains and ok'ing them to depart the station? Pretty quick?
carolinacaniac Posted May 22, 2007 Author Posted May 22, 2007 Other than your usual stack because of a guest taking longer, only Alpengeist had issues with stacking. Griffon had six ride attendents and were getting trains out quick. Loch Ness also was doing well at getting trains out. No seatbelts equals quicker times that trains get sent out. (Hey Cedar Fair!) I am not sure why Alpengeist had issues with stacking, but it wasn't a terrible wait.
thrillrideseeker Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 Great TR! I loved all the Griffon photos! They were great! I have a question though. Ok so you took a picture of the billboard, and I was just wondering why in the world there was a camera on it. I thought maybe someone on here would know. ~Matthew See. There is a camera.
cfc Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 Other than your usual stack because of a guest taking longer, only Alpengeist had issues with stacking. Griffon had six ride attendents and were getting trains out quick. Loch Ness also was doing well at getting trains out. No seatbelts equals quicker times that trains get sent out. (Hey Cedar Fair!) I am not sure why Alpengeist had issues with stacking, but it wasn't a terrible wait. Alpengeist has chronic stacking problems--I'm not sure why. Apollo was bad last year, but has been better this year.
robbalvey Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 Great stuff! You really do very good photo TR's. Keep them coming! --Robb
carolinacaniac Posted May 22, 2007 Author Posted May 22, 2007 The billboard is a digital billboard, it flashes multiple adds, and the camera may be either for whoever owns the billboard to monitor it, or maybe a projector? I think the first is more likely. Thanks to everyone for the compliments, I never used to be big into taking pictures until I saw some of the PTR's here and I thought I would give it a try with my trip to the State Fair last fall. As I do these more and more, I have realized two things. 1) It is a great way to bring back some memories, and 2) I really like taking pictures. I don't know if I would ever pursure photography like some people do, but I find that I do really enjoy taking time to get a better picture rather than just taking a picture quick and moving on.
kissorkill2night Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 i really hope i dont end up over that yellow "floor"part of the train in the middle then 1st time i ride.
carolinacaniac Posted May 22, 2007 Author Posted May 22, 2007 I would just let a few people on before you to get an end after you have been assigned your row. But I think if you are in one of the other two rows besides the front, it may not really matter
ECZenith Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 Great photos! God I'm gonna miss the east coast when I move and here's yet another reason... I can never get enough of Griffon's Immelman and Alpie's cobra roll running paralel, what a beautiful sight.
CP_RULES Posted May 22, 2007 Posted May 22, 2007 BGE seems to really know how too keep their rides looking nice! Did Apollo get a new paint job? Nessie and BBW looked great too! I wish I could visit BGE, it's a beautiful park.
Recommended Posts