Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

[Woodie Warrior]

Is Busch Gardens Williamsburg getting a Vekoma coaster?

No. It's a Premier.

[DarienLaker]

I wonder if BGW's new "mystery" coaster is going to be a clone a SFDK's Superman: Ultimate Flight?

[cfc]

^You and thousands of other coaster enthusiasts.

[cfc]

 

And the track is heading up.

[zachclarke2]

Some pictures from today:

Somehow on my stroll to Festa Italia I ended up behind Carl Lum and someone else (I do not know his name but I imagine he is management of some kind).

Another piece of track has been added to what was there the past 2 weeks, plus part of the drop is now in place.

Ride placement in reference to Apollo's entrance. It is not far away.

This is where the track ends.

This is also where the track ends.

[DJeXeL]

Wonder when they're going to make their announcement.....

[zachclarke2]

^As far as we know, it might not even be a coaster.

[markysharky17]

This looks exciting, does that station look like it will have enough room for three cars?

[DarienLaker]

As far as we know, it might not even be a coaster.

 

Are you sure? From the looks of Busch Gradens' mystery ride construction photos, it looks like it's going to a clone of a certain roller coaster at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

[cfc]

As far as we know, it might not even be a coaster.

 

Are you sure? From the looks of Busch Gradens' mystery ride construction photos, it looks like it's going to a clone of a certain roller coaster at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

 

I think he was being facetious.

Edited December 6, 2014 by cfc

[eddie200330]

It's almost like there was no thought process put into this. They just kinda found a small plot of land and decided to plop it down there. Very sore thumbish looking if you ask me.......

[cfc]

^My policy is to reserve judgment until a project is finished. We'll see--there may be other changes in store for Festa Italia we don't know about yet. Besides, it could be kind of cool to watch this ride cycling while you climb Apollo's lift hill,

[DrachenfireOP]

^ I agree on all accounts. I think this is a bit of a non-traditional looking ride from BGW, but we don't know all the details. People are upset because BGW tends to NEVER do anything traditional, and this looks like "just a clone." We don't know what crazy surprise they have in store for this yet, although of course, maybe there isn't one.

 

Even if there is no crazy surprise, and this is just a clone outright, I still won't think it a poor decision until after I've ridden it to judge for myself.

 

I mean, for example, while I love Verbolten, I don't see any reason why it couldn't have gone elsewhere and they could have kept wolf, and between the two, I enjoy wolf more if for no other reason than the night rides. The BS story they fed the public about Wolf always being planned to retire at 25 years was a fabrication. But that said, there are plenty of people who don't mind the swap out, and I'm sure that even if I don't like the pasta coaster, there will be plenty of people who do.

 

^^^^^ Oh, also, it's almost impossible to tell from a wide angle shot from behind, but I think the guy with Carl is Derek Bowie. He was a manager back when I worked there, but I think I've heard that he was promoted to director of park operations about 8 or 10 years ago. He's a very nice man, and cares a lot about the park, so if you ever see him again, you should say hi!

[cfc]

The BS story they fed the public about Wolf always being planned to retire at 25 years was a fabrication.

 

Eh, I wouldn't go that far. The Big Bad Wolf did beat itself to death every season; for example, one of my coworkers had a son who worked as a technician at the park, and he was part of the crew that had to "weld" the ride together every night (or so she said). However, I think they did want it to last at least one more season, but decided that it wasn't worth the expense to keep it safe and running.

Edited December 7, 2014 by cfc

[DoinItForTheFame]

It's almost like there was no thought process put into this. They just kinda found a small plot of land and decided to plop it down there. Very sore thumbish looking if you ask me.......

I must agree with you on this. Usually Busch rides are so well thought out, and usually well themed IE: Cheetah Hunt, and Verbolten. This just seems so... "We need a new coaster, where can we put it? Here is a small area of land, lets put it here..." Obviously the park knows what they are doing, and I am sure it will look great when it is all said and done, but as of now I am with you... It stands out like a sore thumb.

[mark549]

The prototype at SFDK is a great ride, with more ejector airtime than all of BGW's rides added together. The vertical drop is more intense than Griffon's drop. It's a far better launch than Verbolten. The only critique is the capacity, it wouldn't be fun to wait an hour or more for such a short ride. If Busch customers don't like it there are many other parks that would be happy to have it instead. And it's not like a Boomerang or SLC hang and bang where there are copies in many places.

[DrachenfireOP]

Eh, I wouldn't go that far. The Big Bad Wolf did beat itself to death every season; for example, one of my coworkers had a son who worked as a technician at the park, and he was part of the crew that had to "weld" the ride together every night (or so she said). However, I think they did want it to last at least one more season, but decided that it wasn't worth the expense to keep it safe and running.

 

I'd take that with a grain of salt. Arrow coasters are fairly self destructive, and wolf was no exception, but the above statement is a bit exaggerated. I talked to green taggers quite a bit when I was working on Wolf and never heard anything that extreme. Don't get me wrong, it's not completel wrong, all Arrow's are fairly self destructive. Due to the self destructive nature of Arrow coasters, they do get a train inspection every 4 hours to make sure everything is fine, but having worked on BGW Arrows for several years, I never once saw a train fail the inspection. Even if one did fail, it wouldn't even be a huge deal, it would just mean something was a knocked a bit out of alignment, or a non-essential screw was a bit untightened, and they'd pull the train from service and repair it quickly. The really important features all have redundancies. As anyone who has taken the coaster tour surely can attest, BGW maintenance is world class.

 

My issue is that for years maintenance guys were talking about overhauls being discussed to LNM and Wolf to modernize them and reduce repair costs, with some of the rumors involving replacing the trim brakes with magnetic upgrades, and a possible redesign to the bogies to get rid of "the Arrow gap." But when the company sold, suddenly those talks magically vanish and so does the wolf, which again wouldn't bother me if they were upfront about the reasons, but they weren't. If the excuse they gave was to be taken at face value, LNM should have been long gone. Hell, not only does LNM have all the same issues Wolf did, it has more due to various oddities of it's design (not enough brake runs to stack trains, block brakes are completely level and too short). Yet Busch keeps it running, and maintains it to the point that it's arguably the smoothest, best Arrow still out there today. I think InBev just didn't want to come out and say "look, we don't want to keep paying the upkeep on both Arrows, nor do we really care to upgrade them to reduce upkeep, so we're just going to get rid of Wolf," so instead they just made up a "this was always the plan, don't blame us!" story and moved on.

[MrSum1_55]

I am still shocked that Busch is the second park in the US to get one of these. It is without a doubt a fun coaster, but it just does not seem to the type of ride a Busch park would get. This does seem like a design that would fit better at a mid-sized park. (All three other parks that have announced one of these are small to mid-sized).

 

I do wonder (and hope) that this one will have the transfer track like the one in Mexico. It would seem very un-Busch like not to have that feature.

 

On a more positive observation, this installation could lead to more clones, as this is probably the first big name park to be buying one of these. I doubt that many GP outside of Central Europe are aware of Holiday Park, or that many people outside of the Bay Area and surrounding states are aware of SFDK But, a fair amount of people across the US do know about Busch Gardens. The purchase from a park this well-known and popular could lead to more purchases, possible leading to this design to be this generation's boomerang.

[coasterchitchat]

This ride is very cheap... it's only $6 million. BGW probably is gonna save up for a BIG coaster addition in the next couple of years.

[DrachenfireOP]

^^ Sadly, it does not look like the structure for a transfer track is in place, and the station footprint is no where close to large enough

 

[BlahBlahson]

This ride will be fun...but offers no potential of being World Class and has a great risk of being totally average. I mean, what role does it fill in the park? Apollo's Chariot will remain a better coaster just steps away, Verbolten will remain a better coaster that has multiple launches and isn't intimidating from the outside. Plenty of loops in the park with Alpengeist, Loch Ness, and Griffon, and Loch Ness will remain in as the "first coaster" role...

 

And in the dead horse category, we know from SFDK's experience that this ride offers a perfect mix of "That thing looks awesome!" and below average capacity.

 

I'm with the crowd. If there were a boomerang called "Diavolo" that had been in this exact plot of land since it's opening in 1987, it would only be degrees less interesting than this brand new 2015 lineup addition. Will be a fun ride but just is an odd choice for "classy-class" BGW.

Edited December 8, 2014 by BlahBlahson

[CPmillenia94]

^^I would expect that this ride will compete with alpengeist/AC for best in the park. Not sure where you got the information that these are average rides..

[cfc]

While I doubt that this will be a "top-ten" ride, I think it'll be fun; I'm a fan of Premier's launched shuttles. As usual, my attitude on these projects is "wait and see." As I recall, the enthusiast was complaining about Verbolten while it was being built, but the ride became a hit with guests and turned out to be a good addition to the park.

[coasterbill]

This ride really seems like a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding and steadily declining attendance with a cheap, quick fix but that doesn't mean it won't be a great ride. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

[Sfne1313]

Isn't there a rumor that this ride will run with a 3 car train like full thottle for increased capacity.