Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

Can we all agree that Darkastle is an amazing ride?

 

Yes. If it were at Disney or Universal it would be terrible but for a regional, seasonal park that ride is top notch.

[Jcoaster]

Can we all agree that Darkastle is an amazing ride?

 

Yes. If it were at Disney or Universal it would be terrible but for a regional, seasonal park that ride is top notch.

 

[cfc]

Can we all agree that Darkastle is an amazing ride?

 

Yes. If it were at Disney or Universal it would be terrible but for a regional, seasonal park that ride is top notch.

 

 

I like DarKastle. While it's not up to the standard of Spider-man at IOA, it was a pretty gutsy move for a regional park to install a dark ride this elaborate.

[BlahBlahson]

That makes no sense at all. If it's good in one location, it's good in any location. Just because Studio parks have a lot of greatly-themed rides doesn't mean that other parks can't have rides that are on par with those. Even Orlando has really lame ones like Stitch Encounter, Shrek 4D, The Seas with Nemo, and Antarctica:Empire of the Penguin that would be terrible in any park.

 

In fact, when I first visited Magic Kingdom 3 years ago I was shocked at the number of rides that really didn't do anything greater than those in Regional parks. As a whole they are a great collection, but stuff like Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise, Small World, COP, Tiki Room etc. are very average rides, only a few rides are really on a different level like Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. But any of those could be recreated in a regional park.

 

Some of my favorite dark rides are at regional parks: Monster Plantation SFOG, Ocean City Haunted House, Geisterschloss at Europa Park, Darkastle at BGW.

[Propeller Factory]

Can we all agree that Darkastle is an amazing ride?

 

Yes. If it were at Disney or Universal it would be terrible but for a regional, seasonal park that ride is top notch.

 

I agree with it a lot. It could be twice as good, but its so good for this park.

[DrachenfireOP]

^ rumor has it, it was supposed to be twice as long, but got cut back. Many of the alleged planned scenes enhanced the story. I've heard this is why the first season it had that weird "ball room scene" that made no sense. It would have made more sense without the cut scenes, but they later replaced it with the current scene setting up "the drop."

[mpmbee]

Had a great first trip to the park today. like Kings Dominion yesterday, the park was dead so we managed to get loads of rides in. Managed to do Griffon X6 Alpengeist X6 Apollos Chariot X4 Tempesto X2 and the other coasters once each.

 

Verbolten was a real surprise, great ride! Loved the indoor section, the perfect ride for the park as a step below the big B&M coasters. The other coasters were all good fun, Alpengeist was great, that cobra roll has a real snap to it! Griffon was fantastic fun too, I wonder why there aren't more of these dive coasters in the U.S? they seem like real crowd pleasers. Apollos Chariot was decent, didn't seem anywhere near as forceful as Nitro did the other day when we rode it though. Lovely setting for it though through the trees along the river. Finally, Tempesto! This was awesome and was a nice contrast from all the other coasters at the park, pretty forceful ride. The crew on this were working flat out to keep the queue down to a minimum.

 

Another great park visit on this trip, loving all these parks so far. Carowinds is next up on Friday. Anyone living in the Richmond area is spoilt for choice having Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion so close by. There really is a great mix of thrills between both parks.

[DrachenfireOP]

^ glad you liked it! Unfortunately, AC is running sluggish this year for some reason. It seems to be less forceful with less air time, and I'm scratching my head head as to how that's even possible. Alpengeist hauls this season, so glad you got to enjoy it! I'm jealous of your summer by the way!

Edited August 6, 2015 by DrachenfireOP

[JakecoasterFTW]

My coaster ratings

#1- Apollos Chariot- tons of airtime

#2-Griffon- drop is amazing

#3- alpengeist- didn't find it that rough

#4- tempesto- short but really fun

#5- verbolten- really fun ride

#6- Loch Ness- had its moments but rough

 

Those are my coaster reports after my visit sorry no pictures

[coasterbill]

That makes no sense at all. If it's good in one location, it's good in any location.

 

True, but budget is the big issue. The reason I grade on a curve with BGW is because I'm sure a regional park that's closed for part of the year and doesn't do nearly the numbers the large Orlando parks do didn't have anywhere near the budget of Disney, Universal or even Sea World (I know it's the same parent company but I'm sure they want an ROI on their new attractions so they do need to allot funds accordingly).

[wigglytuff]

Can we all agree that Darkastle is an amazing ride?

 

Yes. If it were at Disney or Universal it would be terrible but for a regional, seasonal park that ride is top notch.

 

so what exactly counts as a "regional" park?

[robbalvey]

so what exactly counts as a "regional" park?

A park where it pulls most of it's demographic from an immediate area surrounding the park.

[AstroDan]

^ glad you liked it! Unfortunately, AC is running sluggish this year for some reason. It seems to be less forceful with less air time, and I'm scratching my head head as to how that's even possible. Alpengeist hauls this season, so glad you got to enjoy it! I'm jealous of your summer by the way!

 

I didn't rate AC whatsoever when I visited BGW two years ago. It's probably the poorest of the B&M Mega/Hyper coasters I have done, out of 7.

 

Do love this park though... truly beautiful! One of my favourites for sure.

[wigglytuff]

but busch gardens pulls in international audiences too does it not? isnt that what the guys who own seaworld strive to do?

[cfc]

^Yes, you'll find visitors from other countries at Busch Gardens. But don't forget that the park is located in a busy tourist area that includes Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, and other attractions. Many visitors to this part of Virginia hail from nearby states and DC. There's an active local base of passholders, too.

 

That being said, Busch Gardens is a major tourism asset for southeastern Virginia.

[wigglytuff]

yeah thats why i dont really see busch gardens as a regional park

[cfc]

yeah thats why i dont really see busch gardens as a regional park

 

I'd say that the majority of visitors do come from the Mid-Atlantic region: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and West Virginia. But it's a fairly large region.

Edited August 6, 2015 by cfc

[robbalvey]

yeah thats why i dont really see busch gardens as a regional park

It depends on your basis of comparison. If you are comparing Busch Gardens Williamsburg to much larger tourist destinations like Orlando, Las Vegas, or New York City, then Busch Gardens is more of a regional park.

 

Chuck can probably answer this better, but I'm sure the Williamsburg area falls somewhere in between. I'm guessing that the majority of tourists to the Williamsburg area are ones that are driving in from a state or few away, and less people that are flying in across the country or the world as a "destination" like the would be the markets I mentioned above.

 

But I could be wrong. I don't know the tourism demographic in the area that well.

 

EDIT: And I see that he already got to the answer!

Edited August 6, 2015 by robbalvey

[cfc]

^I think "in-between" is a pretty good way to describe Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I've lived in this area since the mid-1980s, and it has evolved since then from a "summer only" attraction. No, it's not a major "destination" park like WDW or Universal, but thanks to events like Howl-o-Scream and Christmas Town, it has "grown up" a bit from its regional/seasonal roots.

[Intimidator305]

As Chuck said, BGW is primarily a regional crowd. The park is located in a much more highly populated area than Kings Dominion yet only gets a crowd of 2.7 million while KD pulls in about 2.2-2.3 a year... BGW also opens up two weeks prior to KD, is open 2 weeks for Spring Break, and is open a whole extra month and a half for ChristmasTown compared to Kings Dominion.

 

While there are those who travel long ways to the area for Colonial Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown and such who do go to the park, they only make up a very small percentage of the park goers.

 

I'd consider parks like Cedar Point and HersheyPark more 'national destination' parks than BGW.

[pianojohn]

Not sure if I posted these yet, but these are construction shots taken of Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens in the fall of 1991.

 

enjoy!!

[DILinator]

^Thanks! Those are great!

 

Oh, Drachen Fire...

[mike541x]

^^Awesome photos. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I don't care what people said about Drachen Fire, I still wish I could've ridden it.

[cfc]

I was never of fan of Drachen Fire, but those photos are pretty cool.

[redfoot12]

^^I think I only ever rode Drachen Fire once. I definitely remember feeling a bit headachey after but I never developed a full-on hatred for it. I don't remember my one ride very well so I kind of wish I could ride it again with my "enthusiast" glasses on.