Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

[pianojohn]

Just got back from a quick 3 day trip to VA.

Was able to do Kings Dominion on Wednesday and Friday with minimal crowds and many rides on Twisted Timbers.

 

Did Busch on Thursday and the park was PACKED which makes no sense. It was freezing cold (38 at the start of the day) and only got into the upper 50s that day. I know it was spring break week but I was still shocked.

 

My thoughts:

 

Rode Loch Ness with the new trains. Same experience and probably rougher. New trains not that much of an improvement. And since they were only running two trains, wait time was 30-60 minutes all day.

 

Did Invadr again. Still pretty underwhelming ride. And with the shorter than normal trains, the wait times are always long.

 

Saw 1/3 of the OktoberZest show. Since I worked in live entertainment at the park from 1994-97, I am VERY familiar with all of the shows. This was a disaster in my opinion. The lack of the iconic round stage (not thanks to ex VP of Ent) has been gone for years and with it the magic. The cast of 10 dancers worked hard, but using only 4 live musicians and a WAY TOO LOUD backing track was distracting.

 

And the "featured" moment with the violinist doing a Cirque type rip-off solo was horrible. I don't even think she was in tune.

 

Battle of Eire was not open. Again, WHY hold a press event a week prior where stories, videos, and pictures are published on the internet but your ride isn't ready to open? By comparison, Kings Dominion held their Twisted Timbers press event and then opened the coaster the next day.

 

Now the biggest WTF for the day was the park's app. I downloaded it and tried to get it to work. However, it only works when on a wifi network.

 

When I tweeted to the park to point this out, they wrote back "

@BuschGardensVA

Apr 5

 

Sorry for the confusion. We do not have park-wide WiFi. We only have WiFi at the front gate."

 

So essentially, the app (which they encourage you to use) is totally worthless.

 

UGH!!

[SLCHeadache]

“Battle for Erie”

I'll never tire of this typo. "Battle for Erie" would make more sense at Cedar Point. Battle for Eire is BGW's new addition.

[Coaster19]

“Battle for Erie”

I'll never tire of this typo. "Battle for Erie" would make more sense at Cedar Point. Battle for Eire is BGW's new addition.

 

Well. My phone sucks. Stupid autocorrect.

 

 

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[RollerManic]

Am I the only one this whole time who didn’t know the difference? I thought Eire was kind of an odd theme for BGW.

[SLCHeadache]

Am I the only one this whole time who didn’t know the difference? I thought Eire was kind of an odd theme for BGW.

Old-timey name for Ireland, I guess it fits with the mythological theming.

 

After the more modern theming they tried with Verbolten, it's nice to see them return to a more old-world charm with InvadR and now this.

[RollerManic]

Am I the only one this whole time who didn’t know the difference? I thought Eire was kind of an odd theme for BGW.

Old-timey name for Ireland, I guess it fits with the mythological theming.

 

After the more modern theming they tried with Verbolten, it's nice to see them return to a more old-world charm with InvadR and now this.

Nope, I meant Erie, like Lake Erie. As in I thought "Battle for Erie" like "Battle for Lake Erie" was an odd name.

 

But would you look at that? I misspelled it complaining about its similar spelling. God this word makes my head hurt.

[cfc]

Yes, Eire is the old Irish name for Ireland. Battle for Eire will be officially opening tomorrow, by the way.

[AndrewA86]

It was a while ago (april 3rd) when I visited the beautiful BGW and finally I have time to write about my experience.

 

First, I'm not someone who cares much for theming, but it's really hard not to notice how amazing the park looks. I caught myself looking at the different buildings and structures a lot more than I normally do (which is never) when at a park. And even though I'm Italian, I have to say that the Ireland section of the park was my favorite. I like how the bridge over the river leads you to this arched- fort structure. Then walk through that and the castle is in the back with all the other little buildings. The other sections are well done too, but I thought this one was the best.

 

Ok, so on to the ride experience. We thought about getting their quick queue. That's something I normally will do when visiting a park for the first time and not knowing if and when I will be back. But after about 5 minutes of thinking about it once we entered the park we decided against it. We got there right when the park opened and it didn't seem to be that busy, plus I had heard that they don't let you pick your own row, so we decided to keep our money.

 

We decided to start in the back of the park and work our way to the front, and I think that was a good strategy. So we headed for InvadR first. We were stopped by an employee t the Irish castle saying the area of the park behind him wasn't open yet and while we waited a ton more people showed up and were waiting too. We had second thoughts about not getting quick queue but still stuck to our guns and decided to see how long the lines were going to be. When we were finally allowed past the castle the vast majority of the crowd went left, and not towards InvadR, so I felt relieved.

 

InvadR was a walk on as we were on the very first train, and we got right back on and sat front row, again it was a walk on. My feelings about this coaster differ depending on what kind of coaster it was meant to be. I've heard people say it is a family coaster, and if so it's maybe the best family coaster I've ever been on. RCDB says it's a thrill coaster and if that's the case then it's a very below average thrill coaster. In any case it was a smooth fun ride, just not very thrilling. There were indeed 2 rows roped off for quick queue people. I believe they were the 2 middle rows.

 

Next we made our way to Alpengeist and it was another walk on. I was really looking forward to this ride because it seems like it is so polarizing. Some love it, and some hate it. We walked on twice in a row, first in the front, then in the back. In the front I thought it was an above average ride. I thought it was very forceful and fun. I really liked how it gets low to the ground at times. In the back it was a little rougher but not bad at all. I don't think it is better than Raptor, my #1 invert, but it's giving Banshee a run for it's money at #2. I think I'm going to have to ride Banshee again to make my mind up between those 2. So I loved Alpengeist and I really don't get why some people don't like it.

 

So moving on, we then made out way over to Griffon, and it was about a 10 minute wait for the front row. I was also pretty excited to ride this because I had only ridden Valravn and I wanted to see how much better (if at all) a dive coaster can be without vest restraints. And I would say it's a little more enjoyable but not much more enjoyable. It's still a one trick pony, but the drop is better when you don't have to deal with the suffocating vest restraints. Overall I actually think Valravn's layout is better, but because of the restraints Griffon is a better coaster.

 

Next was Verbolten and it was only a 10 minute wait. This ride is a perfect example of why I do my best to not learn as much as I can about a coaster before I ride it. I had no idea that the entire track was going to drop from under me while in the dark. Until that moment I couldn't remember the last time I screamed on a ride, but when that train fell I screamed like a little girl... I have no problem admitting that they got me on that. And if I had seen a POV or read about the coaster before riding it the experience wouldn't have been as fun. As for the rest of the coaster, it's not bad, but not good. But that one part made it worth it.

 

Now at this point in the day it's probably around noon and the park is filling up fast. We waited 25 minutes for Tempesto, and it was a pretty force-less ride. This one looked a lot more fun than it was. Nowhere near as good as the impulse coasters (i've only been on wicked twister) that I have seen this ride compared to. Tempesto wasn't a bad ride, it just wasn't as forceful as I was expecting, especially the launch.

 

Next we hit Apollo's Chariot and even though the line appeared long it was only 10 minutes or so. The operations on this ride and throughout the park were pretty damn good. I think this is the best ride in the park.I thought it did a good job maintaining it's speed, very smooth, and somewhat intense. The drop is also pretty fun even though it's not the steepest drop in the world. Now with all that said, it failed to deliver the kind of air time I was expecting. And I wasn't stapled in either. We rode this 5 times in all different rows, including the very back, and the air just wasn't there, so that was kind of disappointing. But overall I enjoyed the coaster a lot.

 

So by now the park is jam packed and the proof was the wait time for the only coaster we hadn't been on yet, Loch Ness Monster. We waited an hour and fifteen minutes for it. I haven't waited that long for an Arrow since Magnum was the best ride at Cedar Point. Unfortunately it was not worth the wait. For an Arrow it wasn't bad at all in terms of roughness, but I thought it was running very sluggish, and because of that I didn't find it to be all that fun. The first loop is OK, and the helix in the tunnel would be a lot better if the coaster had more momentum. I actually think the best part of the ride is the small drop and 2nd loop after the 2nd lift hill. You start to gain some momentum but then after the loop the ride is over. I don't want to be too critical because it's an old arrow, but I thought this could challenge Tennessee Tornado for best Arrow looper ever, and it fell well short. I don't even think it's better than Vortex at Kings Island. But for an arrow looper it's above average.

 

We also rode the drop tower which was OK, and the pretty boring train ride. I don't think the train ride did a good job showing off the park at all. A few times we also wanted to ride the skyride because we thought it would be faster than walking, but the lines for that thing were ridiculous. I could have walked around the whole park before getting on this ride. It just doesn't have enough cabins.

 

Now I usually don't talk about the food, because just about all amusement park food sucks, but I was told to expect good food at BGW. And I had both a good and bad experience. First the bad, the Italian food was garbage. The Chicken parm was terrible. The meat was dry and tasteless and the sauce was straight out of a container at the grocery store. Pretty pathetic. I threw most of it out. My cousin had their pizza and ate half a slice. I tried it and it was definitely the worst I had ever had. So still hungry we went to the smokehouse in the France section and that was good. We had some ribs that were pretty damn good. I feel like I should have known better than to try the Italian food, but being Italian I just couldn't help myself.

 

So after we ate we walked around to the coasters and everything was a 45+ min wait. So we went on Alpengeist and Griffon a couple more times and left around 3 PM. I would have liked to spend more time there, but I wasn't going to wait that long for what they have. And an employee even told me this wasn't THAT busy of a day. So if that's true how the hell is Sea World losing money. On one of my Apollo's Chariot rides I could see that every single parking lot was full. And when we were leaving the traffic was bumper to bumper to get in. And that place is expensive, even for amusement park standards. So unless BGW is the only busy park the Sea World owns, it baffles me how they aren't wiping themselves with $100 bills...

 

Overall it was a pretty fun day. I'm glad we didn't get the quick queue because while they don't have a bad ride they don't have a great ride either and they were assigning seats for QQ people on every coaster. So I think that's a waste of money. We got on everything we wanted multiple times by 3 PM, so I can live with that. And we had a long drive to get to Carowinds the next day. So overall it worked out.

[SLCHeadache]

InvadR was a walk on as we were on the very first train, and we got right back on and sat front row, again it was a walk on. My feelings about this coaster differ depending on what kind of coaster it was meant to be. I've heard people say it is a family coaster, and if so it's maybe the best family coaster I've ever been on. RCDB says it's a thrill coaster and if that's the case then it's a very below average thrill coaster. In any case it was a smooth fun ride, just not very thrilling. There were indeed 2 rows roped off for quick queue people. I believe they were the 2 middle rows.

RCDB's intensity scale is off. Most classic woodies qualify as "extreme" on their scale. The sub-48" minimum on a modern coaster cements this as a family coaster, and an excellent one at that.

 

Next we hit Apollo's Chariot and even though the line appeared long it was only 10 minutes or so. The operations on this ride and throughout the park were pretty damn good. I think this is the best ride in the park.I thought it did a good job maintaining it's speed, very smooth, and somewhat intense. The drop is also pretty fun even though it's not the steepest drop in the world. Now with all that said, it failed to deliver the kind of air time I was expecting. And I wasn't stapled in either. We rode this 5 times in all different rows, including the very back, and the air just wasn't there, so that was kind of disappointing. But overall I enjoyed the coaster a lot.

Apollo's runs better in warmer weather. I went last April and last August. The rides it gave in April were as you described. The rides it gave in August gave me solid ejector at moments.

[CoasterAuditor]

When I was there on Easter I definitely got solid air on AC. I think it was in the 60s that day.

[boldikus]

On opening week we were getting plenty of great air on Apollo, and it was in the high 40s. That ride is fantastic.

[Canobie Coaster]

^ I've never had an issue with air on Apollo's Chariot. It may be lacking positive Gs, but it's not lacking in the negative G department.

 

How quickly does Tempesto tend to build up a line at Busch Gardens? My thought for next Friday is that I should hit InvadR first and then work counterclockwise, but was trying to determine if I should bypass Alpengeist, Griffon, and Verbolten in the morning and hit them later.

[Coaster19]

So after we ate we walked around to the coasters and everything was a 45+ min wait. So we went on Alpengeist and Griffon a couple more times and left around 3 PM. I would have liked to spend more time there, but I wasn't going to wait that long for what they have. And an employee even told me this wasn't THAT busy of a day. So if that's true how the hell is Sea World losing money. On one of my Apollo's Chariot rides I could see that every single parking lot was full. And when we were leaving the traffic was bumper to bumper to get in. And that place is expensive, even for amusement park standards. So unless BGW is the only busy park the Sea World owns, it baffles me how they aren't wiping themselves with $100 bills... .

 

From everything I have heard and the research I have done. The BG parks are the only ones making money for SeaWorld Ent. Which makes sense when Merlin Ent. Stated they wanted to purchased BG parks and SeaWorld declined. I can’t 100% confirm but that is my thoughts on the issues of SeaWorld’s financial issues.

 

 

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[CoasterAuditor]

How quickly does Tempesto tend to build up a line at Busch Gardens? My thought for next Friday is that I should hit InvadR first and then work counterclockwise, but was trying to determine if I should bypass Alpengeist, Griffon, and Verbolten in the morning and hit them later.

 

I would think on a Friday in April nowadays Tempesto won't get much more than a station wait. When I went to the park on Easter both Tempesto and Apollo's Chariot had station waits. Tempesto spilled a tiny bit into its queue sometimes.

[FutureMan2]

From everything I have heard and the research I have done. The BG parks are the only ones making money for SeaWorld Ent.

 

Do you have anything that can show that? I’ve always been curious as to how the Seaworld / Busch parks rank amongst themselves with attendance and profitability.

[cfc]

Now I usually don't talk about the food, because just about all amusement park food sucks, but I was told to expect good food at BGW. And I had both a good and bad experience. First the bad, the Italian food was garbage. The Chicken parm was terrible. The meat was dry and tasteless and the sauce was straight out of a container at the grocery store. Pretty pathetic. I threw most of it out. My cousin had their pizza and ate half a slice. I tried it and it was definitely the worst I had ever had. So still hungry we went to the smokehouse in the France section and that was good. We had some ribs that were pretty damn good. I feel like I should have known better than to try the Italian food, but being Italian I just couldn't help myself.

 

The Italian food at BGW is tricky. If you get it right after they bring a new tray out, it's OK. But not so hot if they serve you the last of what's on the tray.

 

The Smokehouse and Fethaus are usually a better bet, but I do like the Mogolian Beef and Mediterranean Beef at Marco Polo's Marketplace.

[bert425]

Now I usually don't talk about the food, because just about all amusement park food sucks, but I was told to expect good food at BGW. And I had both a good and bad experience. First the bad, the Italian food was garbage. The Chicken parm was terrible. The meat was dry and tasteless and the sauce was straight out of a container at the grocery store. Pretty pathetic. I threw most of it out. My cousin had their pizza and ate half a slice. I tried it and it was definitely the worst I had ever had. So still hungry we went to the smokehouse in the France section and that was good. We had some ribs that were pretty damn good. I feel like I should have known better than to try the Italian food, but being Italian I just couldn't help myself.

 

The Italian food at BGW is tricky. If you get it right after they bring a new tray out, it's OK. But not so hot if they serve you the last of what's on the tray.

 

The Smokehouse and Fethaus are usually a better bet, but I do like the Mogolian Beef and Mediterranean Beef at Marco Polo's Marketplace.

 

I recall the pub food in Ireland was quite good.

 

we had some sort of Irish Nachos and pulled pork sandwich. . both of which we ate more than once since it was so good.

[Canobie Coaster]

How quickly does Tempesto tend to build up a line at Busch Gardens? My thought for next Friday is that I should hit InvadR first and then work counterclockwise, but was trying to determine if I should bypass Alpengeist, Griffon, and Verbolten in the morning and hit them later.

 

I would think on a Friday in April nowadays Tempesto won't get much more than a station wait. When I went to the park on Easter both Tempesto and Apollo's Chariot had station waits. Tempesto spilled a tiny bit into its queue sometimes.

 

Thanks! That sounds like how Phobia is at Lake Compounce. That thing doesn't usually have a bad wait because of the short ride and quick loading.

[Coaster19]

From everything I have heard and the research I have done. The BG parks are the only ones making money for SeaWorld Ent.

 

Do you have anything that can show that? I’ve always been curious as to how the Seaworld / Busch parks rank amongst themselves with attendance and profitability.

 

Look at their quarter results. Also, working at the Busch parks and asking these questions, they have been upfront about Busch parks make them (SeasWorld) the money. But speaking about anything to “show” this, simply the quarter results and annual reports. I would link to them, but I can get it to work via phone.

 

Edit: I also wanted to add a personal thought: if they (SeaWorld) continues the “restructuring” and it is successful, then I believe they will ultimately succeed. But if not then we know what that entails.

 

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[FutureMan2]

Look at their quarter results. Also, working at the Busch parks and asking these questions, they have been upfront about Busch parks make them (SeasWorld) the money. But speaking about anything to “show” this, simply the quarter results and annual reports. I would link to them, but I can get it to work via phone.

 

Hmm... I’ve gone through their quarterly reports before but maybe I’m missing the part where it says each parks attendance and profitability

[Coaster19]

Look at their quarter results. Also, working at the Busch parks and asking these questions, they have been upfront about Busch parks make them (SeasWorld) the money. But speaking about anything to “show” this, simply the quarter results and annual reports. I would link to them, but I can get it to work via phone.

 

Hmm... I’ve gone through their quarterly reports before but maybe I’m missing the part where it says each parks attendance and profitability

 

No you are correct. They will give you only a general overview. Where I am getting the info about BG parks is from working at them and asking the correct people these questions. BG makes a crap ton of money, and (without paper proof) the general consensus is that BG makes the money for SeaWorld. The quarter/annual reports show that SeaWorld is not doing great. Thus backing the internal statements. This is also backed by the fact that when Merlin Ent stated publicly they were interested in purchasing BG parks. The crazy thing is, that was not just a statement. Talks were had, but ultimately SeaWorld will not sale BG parks at this time.

 

 

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[FutureMan2]

No you are correct. They will give you only a general overview. Where I am getting the info about BG parks is from working at them and asking the correct people these questions. BG makes a crap ton of money, and (without paper proof) the general consensus is that BG makes the money for SeaWorld. The quarter/annual reports show that SeaWorld is not doing great. Thus backing the internal statements. This is also backed by the fact that when Merlin Ent stated publicly they were interested in purchasing BG parks. The crazy thing is, that was not just a statement. Talks were had, but ultimately SeaWorld will not sale BG parks at this time.

 

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Ok, darn. For the record I’m not doubting what you’re saying. In fact, I agree with you having also worked for the company and doing the same thing you’ve done, talking to the right people. I’ve just always had an assumption as to the ranking of the parks: which ones are making money, breaking even, and losing money.

 

Getting back to the subject of Busch Gardens Williamsburg I hope if they move forward with Sesame Place 2 that they don’t stop adding capital investments to the main park. Typically my wife and I won’t revisit a park until they have added a few larger rides but Busch Gardens Williamsburg is one of the parks that we will visit after each one. Additionally from what a few of you have said we missed couple good spots but it may have been because we were very “focused” on the food and wine event haha

[Coaster19]

No you are correct. They will give you only a general overview. Where I am getting the info about BG parks is from working at them and asking the correct people these questions. BG makes a crap ton of money, and (without paper proof) the general consensus is that BG makes the money for SeaWorld. The quarter/annual reports show that SeaWorld is not doing great. Thus backing the internal statements. This is also backed by the fact that when Merlin Ent stated publicly they were interested in purchasing BG parks. The crazy thing is, that was not just a statement. Talks were had, but ultimately SeaWorld will not sale BG parks at this time.

 

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Ok, darn. For the record I’m not doubting what you’re saying. In fact, I agree with you having also worked for the company and doing the same thing you’ve done, talking to the right people. I’ve just always had an assumption as to the ranking of the parks: which ones are making money, breaking even, and losing money.

 

Getting back to the subject of Busch Gardens Williamsburg I hope if they move forward with Sesame Place 2 that they don’t stop adding capital investments to the main park. Typically my wife and I won’t revisit a park until they have added a few larger rides but Busch Gardens Williamsburg is one of the parks that we will visit after each one. Additionally from what a few of you have said we missed couple good spots but it may have been because we were very “focused” on the food and wine event haha

 

Oh I know. I was just being clearer.

 

 

Well I am excited for the future of BGW. Rumor has it that Spain will be the next area and the 315ft “attraction” that has been approved (according to someone that “claims” to seen the plan) seems to be a Coaster. I have my doubts but we shall see.

 

 

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[padsquad2010]

Double post

Edited April 17, 2018 by padsquad2010

[padsquad2010]

First time posting here, long time lurker. I just visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg and got to be in either the first or second cycle for Battle for Eire. I figured I should give my thoughts.

 

The queue is very well done. It starts off as just rockwork, with screens explaining your magical caps, as they say. By the time you pick up the VR mount, it's become a detailed castle. It's very cohesive and flows naturally between sections.

 

The preshow feels very cut-and-pasted from Curse of Darkastle. It has pretty much the same effects, and the same feel. Just a different story.

 

There's a loading Bay, with light up dots on the floor to stand on. They take a while to explain the dots, but everyone kinda figures it out. In this room, there is a safety video, but those who will ride on the farthest part of the simulator will not be able to see.

 

The actual simulator room was quite large. I never knew Europe in the Air existed until I was leaving the park on my last visit. It felt very imposing and it gave a lot of hope that this would be awesome. Be sure not to put the VR on the headgear until they tell you to. They don't like when people do that too soon.

 

The ride itself was okay. The VR was just a little pixelated, but not distractingly so. At times, it was very blurry. The biggest issue seemed to be the simulator itself. The simulator was not convincingly making the movements. It was synced up very well, but they couldn't accurately portray any motion left to right. When the video turned 90 degrees to the right, the sensation was that of simply sliding to the right without turning. When the video would both blur, and the simulator just felt like it lurched instead of moved, the ride really started to feel weird very fast.

 

If it was a traditional simulator, I think they could have pulled it off much better. They seem to have overestimated the simulator's motion range. It came off as watching the VR while experiencing a separate simulator ride, rather than one cohesive thing. It just didn't mesh quite right. I do not recommend waiting in a line that extends out the building. If you can't see the line though, it's a nice, air conditioned, and visually impressive experience. The queue was stunning, by non-Disney standards. This is an example of storytelling done well, but not an attraction done super well.