Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

[cfc]

Ahoy, all Pirates 4D fans (I guess there's a few of you). According to the park Facebook page, June 16 will be the last day for this old attraction. No word of the replacement to the best of my knowledge.

[CardCraze]

Ahoy, all Pirates 4D fans (I guess there's a few of you). According to the park Facebook page, June 16 will be the last day for this old attraction. No word of the replacement to the best of my knowledge.

 

Good riddance! Hopefully the park can replace it with something better, but then again, it's not too hard to be better than Pirates 4D

[cfc]

^I still prefer Pirates to Haunts of the Old Country.

[netdvn]

So apparently Loch Ness Monster had its soft opening 35 years ago today. The park posted a little video tribute to the ride.

 

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

 

Here's to 35 more years of awesome.

Taken Christmas Town 2012

[jray21]

Ahoy, all Pirates 4D fans (I guess there's a few of you). According to the park Facebook page, June 16 will be the last day for this old attraction. No word of the replacement to the best of my knowledge.

 

Is that the exact same show in BG Tampa that drenches you in pure mildew? If so, good!

[cfc]

^Yep--the one with Leslie Nielsen and Eric Idle.

[azza29]

So I take it this Pirates attraction is Busch Gardens' answer to Captain EO? I'll be sure to check it out when I visit next week...

[cfc]

^Enjoy the pirate spit and the bird poop.

[TunaSled]

I can't even contain myself. Just two short months until our first visit.

[esvadj]

Looking forward to the Food & Wine fest reports, I know it started today. Busch Gardens is REALLY pushing this event, I can't turn on the radio without hearing an add for it. Hope it lives up to the hype!

[A.J.]

They made that really nice tribute video for Loch Ness Monster...but didn't include any shots of interlocking trains! Disappointment!

[cfc]

Looking forward to the Food & Wine fest reports, I know it started today. Busch Gardens is REALLY pushing this event, I can't turn on the radio without hearing an add for it. Hope it lives up to the hype!

 

Just came from the park, and the Food and Wine Fest offerings are quite good. I'll probably post a report later this week.

[jray21]

^Can't wait! Wish I could have joined you.

[VACoasterdude]

Was at BGW this past Saturday June 1 for an ACE event. It was extremely hot at the park 90+, so of course the water rides had long lines most of the day. All the coasters were running extremely well, with Griffon & AC running three trains and Verbolten running 5 trains all day. The longest wait was for Verbolten, with a 30 minute wait even at 9:00pm. I think part of the problem was the ops dispatching the trains, as a couple of times two trains were loaded and waiting and three trains were backed up waiting to get into the station.

 

BGW's Food & Wine Festival

I am sure Chuck will post a detailed review of the Food & Wine Festival with lots of pictures, but here is my take: The Food & Wine Festival I thought overall was very good. Prices for food items ranged from $2 for dessert type items to $7 for a bacon wrapped scallop in Spain. Most of the entrees were $4 or $5, were sample sized portions, and as expected at BGW, the food was very good. Beer ranged from $6.49 - $7.49 for draft beers and $10 for a draft beer flight (4 draft beers of 4oz each) in Germany and Belgium. At the Spain station a 3oz glass of Sangria was $5. Other wines ranged from $7 - $10. BGW also offered a Rhine Wine Cruise, cooking demonstrations, and a VIP Food & Wine Tour ($100) as part of the festival. Season pass holders receive a 10% discount at all stations. I signed up for the cashless wristband which was convenient. You provide cash or a credit card before you start hitting the stations and they scan the wristband. At the end of the night at guest services, you can get a print out of where you used the wristband and the charges. I did not notice any long lines at any of the stations, and even during prime lunch and dinner times the stations were not busy. Don't know if it was because it was the first weekend of the event, the pricing, or the heat (the stations and the tables were all outside), but I and other ACE attendees enjoyed it and hope BGW continues it next year.

[printersdevil78]

So apparently Loch Ness Monster had its soft opening 35 years ago today. The park posted a little video tribute to the ride.

 

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

 

Here's to 35 more years of awesome.

 

At first, I thought that was a really fun retrospective video, and I was happy to see Busch Gardens putting so much effort into celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Loch Ness Monster. Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was just a three-minute-long commercial for the park's 2013 refillable cup.

[azza29]

Great visit today, despite some sketchy weather. Started early with the rollercoaster insider tour - got a look behind the scenes on Verbolten, Loch Ness Monster, Alpengeist and Griffon, and ERT on all of them, as well as Apollo's Chariot. Normally it includes a walk around the top of Griffon as well - yesterday's storms meant it wasn't safe to do that but the park made up for it by adding Verbolten to the regular tour. And since we'd already booked the separate Verbolten tour they comped us lunch too! The tour guide was interesting and knowledgable also, highly recommend this for anyone who's interested.

 

Had a very wet ride on Apollo's Chariot around midday, basically spent the whole ride trying to shield my eyes from the stinging rain! Was an interesting way to experience that coaster for the first time anyway. Fortunately the storms didn't stick around so got some dry rides in too - loved it! In fact, I really liked the whole collection of coasters. Loch Ness Monster surprised me - probably the smoothest Arrow I've been on.

 

Made some time to get in some shows as well - Celtic Fyre is easily the best theme park show I've seen outside of a Disney park, the animal shows were quite good and while Oktoberfest wouldn't normally appeal to me it was entertaining enough. Pirates was as cheesy and awful as I'd hoped it would be, but perhaps not quite as bad as Captain EO. Caught a few minutes of Entwined as I was waiting in the lunch queue, too much ABBA for me! Speaking of food, the German sampler plate was delicious (even if the side salad was predominantly lettuce and grated carrot with one solitary cherry tomato). Kind of sad to see people heading for fries and pizza when there are so many better options but whatever.

 

The only ride that stuck out as being average was Europe In The Air. Great concept but the execution isn't great, I wasn't expecting Soarin' Over California but the pacing was a bit rushed and the simulator was kind of jerky. Everything else was great though - I even risked saturation to ride Pompeii - personally I would have put the drop at the start of the ride, and then send everyone through the collapsing oven (who knew stone was so flammable?), but that's just me.

 

How long has quick queue been around? Seems like there are still a few inconsistencies - for Verbolten in particular the ride op wasn't managing the flow of guests into the station, so even though the pass got you ahead of the main queue there was still a 6-7 train wait. That ride could also really use a single rider line - I noticed a lot of trains dispatching with 2 or more empty seats. We also had a pass for Loch Ness Monster from the tour which none of the ops had ever seen before (even though they run these fairly regularly), so that was a bit weird. But apart from that other rides were OK, although perhaps the quick queue entrances could be signed a little better on some.

 

Overall I had a great time, as much as I enjoy coasters I get tired of coaster-only parks so it's always great to mix them in with shows, dark rides and great food. Definitely hope to visit again someday!

[cfc]

Griddled Cheese and a shot of Ouzo at BGW's Food and Wine Festival . . .

 

 

You will not be disappointed.

[Guy T. Koepp]

Yummy!

[esvadj]

Griddled Cheese and a shot of Ouzo at BGW's Food and Wine Festival . . .

 

 

 

You will not be disappointed.

 

This Sunday, I'm going early and staying late! Can't wait to try all this wonderful food and BEER.

[cfc]

^There are plenty of tasty offerings at the festival--I hope you like them! The "Cashless Wristband" is almost too convenient.

[Guy T. Koepp]

^There are plenty of tasty offerings at the festival--I hope you like them! The "Cashless Wristband" is almost too convenient.

 

Said the man before the credit card bill comes in the mail.

[SuperShawn]

The "Cashless Wristband" is almost too convenient.

 

Between that and finding Frozen Dirty Shirley drinks , I could end up with one scary bill.

 

 

 

After sampling an item from each stand last Saturday, I have to say Busch did a great job at creating their Food and Wine festival. I would put it right on par with Epcot just not as many stands. Busch portions are more generous for the $3-$5 range and even the not so stand out items I tried were still delicious. I also like that for $10 you can buy a souvenir wine glass that stands will fill up for the same price as the small pours. So if you are going multiple times or just like a whole lot of wine it's a bargain! The other bonus is the Season pass discounts apply to all beverages and food!

 

The stand out items to our group was the Grilled cheese with honey from Greece, Meat Balls in Scandinavia, and then the Pumpkin Mouse in canada. So if you are going I highly recommend getting those three. Or at least the honey cheese, since we all went for a 2nd round of it. Ultimately it looks like the festival will be a success and I look forward to Busch building on the offerings next year.

[grinch1313]

The "Cashless Wristband" is almost too convenient.

The stand out items to our group was the Grilled cheese with honey from Greece, Meat Balls in Scandinavia, and then the Pumpkin Mouse in canada. So if you are going I highly recommend getting those three. Or at least the honey cheese, since we all went for a 2nd round of it. Ultimately it looks like the festival will be a success and I look forward to Busch building on the offerings next year.

 

I had to echo this. The food was simply amazing. I was very impressed with the event, especially with it being the first year. If this becomes a regular event, I could see myself heading up there specifically for it. Scandinavia was the highlight with the Frozen Dirty Shirley and the meatballs. The pumpkin mousse could likely be my favorite thing of them all though.

[DBru]

Heading to the park for the first time today and it looks like there's a large chance of rain pretty much all day. What kind of rain policy does BGW have?

[Homeboy23]

They will run the coasters in the rain.