Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

[CoasterLover]

^Just a hydrolic locking lap bar.

[Skycoastin Steve]

Not............watching...............the POV.................

[Solid Gold]

The drop-track section looks much improved from previous designs. Faster and Quicker. I love it.

[cfc]

Are there seatbelts or just a lap bar?

 

The trains are very comfortable, too.

[andybarnes84]

Great commentary Chuck, you should be doing more of these for TPR.

[cfc]

^Thank you. I'm not all that comfortable with myself on camera, but I was actually kind of pleased with this one. Of course, it helps when the ride gives you plenty of stuff to react to.

[Synshine]

Your reaction to the drop section was priceless.

[megalyte]

I'm sorry if I'm wrong on this, but, how are they running 5 trains if the yellow train is behind the station? Isn't there only 5 trains?

[cfc]

^I think you're right. For some reason, I thought there were six trains, but all the literature from the park says five. So, they've been running four trains (red, blue, green, and orange).

[SoCalCoasters]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching (most of) the development of this project aside from the initial leaked photos and overblown situation reports.

 

Busch Gardens really has created a ride experience that I don't think we've ever seen anything like before. They've successfully combined a highly themed roller coaster with interchangeable dark ride elements and a vertical drop track that appears to pack quite a whallop.

 

I really hope Zierer continues to produce such refined and detailed attractions for the amusement industry! Verbolten looks fantastic!

[netdvn]

Yellow train is still down for maintenance. I have no idea when the train will be added.

 

Rode Verbolten with the lights off/effects on for the first time yesterday. I had the thunderstorm storyline and it was definitely better than it was with the lights on. Ride was still the same, but the experience was definitely enhanced. My favorite scene was the cool perspective shot into the forest after the first brake run.

 

Some notes

- Line was an hour Friday, a bit longer when I left on Saturday.

- I spotted some awesome theme park shirts yesterday and today including someone in an ACE shirt. I also spotted X-Flight, a Maverick shirt, two Dollywood shirts (including a Mystery Mine shirt), plenty of Disney shirts, a few I305/232 shirts, and I encountered someone with a SWO shirt twice today along with some classic BGW shirts.

- The phone calls in Gunther's office are awesome. Gerta's laugh however is another story.

 

Also BGW is holding a Team Member ride night on Wednesday and I can invite one guest. If you want to attend, please try to PM as soon as you can (preferably before tomorrow). If you plan on visiting the park tomorrow, I'll give you the guest ticket there. Included is ERT on Verbolten, ERT on Mach Tower, free food, fun, and possibly a t-shirt as well.

[robbalvey]

Here is a Verbolten POV video:

 

[sammmmmy]

^ I absolutely love that scary 'pop up' face right before the train drops. What a great detail!

[Schotcher]

I haven't seen a POV of the lightning show, is there one out there? If not, what's it like?

[Pun_Machine]

One thing I notice on all of the POV videos is that they miss the best effects in the show building. There's so much cool stuff in there that you have to look around to see. That forrest reveal after the brake run out of the helix is so impressive but nobody's caught it on a POV.

[Skycoastin Steve]

Still............avoiding.................the POV..................................

[cfc]

One thing I notice on all of the POV videos is that they miss the best effects in the show building. There's so much cool stuff in there that you have to look around to see. That forrest reveal after the brake run out of the helix is so impressive but nobody's caught it on a POV.

 

I noticed that, too. Some of the scenery is easy to miss in a few spots (and easier to see from different parts of the train).

[TXman308]

I haven't seen a POV of the lightning show, is there one out there? If not, what's it like?

 

If you go look at all the media day POV's, a couple of the lightning one. Really just a bunch of thunder and flashes until the train drops (based on what I saw).

BTW, what is the forest reveal?

[Jwalther420]

Went to the park yesterday, Saturday, against the crowd recommendations of folks in here. Well, short answer is they were right. Heavy crowds from 12-7.

 

Got in park at 10:15 and walked right to Verbolten and the line was almost down to the bridge. Turns out this is about 55min wait.

 

Ride itself has been talked up plenty on here but here are my observations:

 

-Ride is definitely not a soft ride. Wouldn't say it has the knocks like Dominator but you definitely feel the wheels. Not sure if this is a result of the seats or what. It's not a rough ride at all...just not a B&M super smooth hyper.

-Launch into building is fun

-More Gs inside building then I expected. I don't recall if I ever saw the actual layout inside but clearly there is a pretty tight helix in there.

-Not sure if some theming was turned off but lots of portions in total darkness inside the building. Frankly, I was expecting more theming. What was there was cool and interesting, especially the reveal at the brake run and right before the drop.

-First time we got spirit of the forest theme. Didn't know any different since it was out first ride.

-Second ride we got lightning theme. For those wondering, its pretty close to the same except less illumination on the forest theming and obviously lightning strikes before the drop. Couldn't really tell soundtrack differences other than thunder.

-Launch after leaving building is strong and enough to knock you back in your seat if you're not prepared. Unfortunately, momentum is lost as you're essentially shooting uphill. By the time you reach the bridge a hundred yards later, brakes are hardly needed.

-Drop from the bridge is fun but not abrupt. Back seat didn't get that whip out air.

 

Overall impressions: great family coaster. Not very intense except for the higher G portions inside the building.

 

 

As for the rest of the park, despite the lines, we got at least 1 ride in on everything and multiple rides on Griffon, Dark Kastle (kids love it), etc. The park really does clear out around 8pm. We checked Alpengeist line around 6:45 and it was well over an hour. We checked back around 8pm and it was 7 mins long.

 

Another note - we were in line for Verbolten for a 3rd ride around 9:20pm. Line moved very slow and eventually stopped. We saw them sending multiple empty trains. Once they started sending people again, noticed that they were having difficulty opening the last car's restraints. Took 2 ride ops to get one train open. The line was really crawling and we had a 3.5 hr drive back so we ditched. The line seemed to be moving at 1/2 or 1/4 speed compared to earlier in the day.

 

Pics have already been done a million times but maybe there is something new in here:

 

 

 

 

 

[Erik Johnson]

Great reports!! Looks like a fun ride. I just hope that they plan on replanting some new trees in the area. It does look very barren around most of the coaster.

[Jwalther420]

There are tons of small trees planted all over. I'm sure by next year it will have filled in quite a bit. I expect it to be as thoroughly landscaped as the rest of the park. Still, given that there were machines all over that ground a month ago, it's in great shape and looks fantastic.

[robbalvey]

Still............avoiding.................the POV..................................

Honestly, I think you should watch it. Much like Cheetah Hunt, I think the people who are disappointed are the ones who go into it expecting something else. From the videos, it looks VERY much like a "family" ride, and one that's less like Cheetah Hunt and more like Thirteen.

 

While I'll make this judement when I actually ride it, but looking at all the videos and hearing rider comments, I think I'm a little surprised the ride has a 48" height requirement, which is the same as Cheetah Hunt. I kind of think Verbolten looks more on par with Big Bad Wolf, which was a 42" height restriction, instead of Cheetah Hunt. Not knocking the ride at all, because it look like it really fills a void the park had, but I kind of think the ride should have been accessible to even younger kids, maybe even split the difference at 44", which is what Expedition Everest is.

 

I mean, if a kid at 42" can go on a pretty intense looping coaster at BGT, or even something as crazy as Mindbender at SFOG, I would have to think that Verbolten would have been just fine?

 

--Robb "I'll let you know for sure what I think in August..." Alvey

Edited May 20, 2012 by robbalvey

[Skycoastin Steve]

^I'm definitely expecting an intensity level and experience similar to Cheetah Hunt, I don't really have any allusions built up of this being a top 10 ride (or being rated 11/10). I just don't want any part of the building experience spoiled for me. I'll get to find out what it's all about in a week, anyway!

[robbalvey]

^ Yeah, that's kinda what I was saying. I think the ride looks a lot more like Expedition Everest than Cheetah Hunt. That's not a bad thing...it's just a very different type of ride.

[jmicha]

^If that's the case then they definitely have a winner on their hands. The one thing I really liked about Expedition Everest was that although it is a big ride, it is accessible to the younger crowd and offers some interesting thrill elements that most family rides don't offer. On Expedition Everest it's the backwards section and on Verbolten its the launches and free fall inside. It seems that this ride should nicely fill the void left by BBW that was apparent the one time I visited the park over the summer.