Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Visited: April 8, 2022

Attending: Brian and a subset of Buzzed Bars

Although I missed an unofficial Orlando trip in February, Buzzed Bars’ first official Stumble for the year was Carowinds in April. Which was pretty exciting, because I always enjoy Fury 325, but a small number of members decided to go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on the Friday before the official event started, and I was quite excited about that, as I’d never been there before. BGW is a five-hour drive from my house with no stops, so too far for a day trip, but not far enough to be a destination. I needed an excuse, and this provided it. I left home at around 5:30 a.m., which is pretty much the earliest I can get myself out the door, took minimal stops, and made it there around 11. That’s an hour after rope-drop, so most of the crew was in the park already. Fortunately, I had Discord to help me coordinate.

Alpengeist

Through the wonder of the Internet, I was informed that Pantheon hadn’t opened yet, and although the crew was at Verbolten, that wasn’t open either, so they’d all moved on to Alpengeist. Fortunately, I met up with Larson and some other folks who were willing to ride it with me. It’s a B&M invert, and that was pretty much all I knew about it. I had no idea until later that it’s the tallest of the inverts. In what’s going to become a theme for this trip, the coaster makes amazing use of the terrain, and it’s kinda hard to see much of it because of the foliage, so you can’t tell it’s particularly tall, even when you’re riding it. The theming isn’t super-strong, but it’s pretty good. There are sections where you’re in a channel above “snow covered” ground, which isn’t a trick that inverts often do, but feels like it might have been inherited from Big Bad Wolf. It also has a cobra roll, which is unusual on an invert, and that element ain’t gentle. There’s a distinct snap going in and coming out of it. I was in the back seat, so I had maximum whippiness, but a minimal view. Getting a front-row ride will be a priority next time I go back.

Verbolten

We’d been informed at this point that Pantheon was open, but had little line, so our group headed in that direction, but we noticed that Verbolten was open with no line, so we did that quickly. Again, I knew some things about this ride, but not a ton of details. I had no idea that the indoor area was so extensive. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have worn my sunglasses, but since I had them strapped to my head, I couldn’t see a thing inside the building. I couldn’t really hear either, so in the slow section, I couldn’t tell if I was moving or not. I knew there was a drop track, but for some reason I thought it came at the end of the ride. I braced for it, but it was still pretty startling; I came right up off the seat. Then it was out into the sunshine, over the Big Bad Wolf drop, and that’s pretty much it. It was fun and atmospheric, but not really what I was expecting. I thought there’d be more outside.

Pantheon

Pantheon was the primary goal of most of the Buzzed Bars group, and I was pretty psyched for it. I needed to stash my things in a locker, so I was toward the back of our group, and in fact we got a little spread out, but I still had some enthusiasts to talk to, including Matt, a self-proclaimed Intamin fanboy who would become my companion for the rest of the day. We managed to get the back row, which was totally worth it. Again, I had some idea of what elements were involved, but not a lot of detail. The initial launch and inversion right outside the station is too intense to be a jo-jo roll, but I could still feel the direction of gravity, so that was neat. The launches on the swing section are fairly intense. Not so much as Dragster, but you can definitely feel the punch. Dropping back down the top hat was no big deal, but the speed hill between the launches was surprisingly sharp going backwards. And since we were in the back car, we went way up the spike. Didn’t really feel much beyond vertical, but that was still plenty. The wave turn was nicely effective, and the stall was on-point, lasting just long enough to begin to pull you toward the ground. It had a couple of nice Intamin snaps, but nothing ridiculous. There’s a little bit of meandering, but on the whole, I think it’s very nicely paced. My only real complaint is that unlike every other ride in the park, it doesn’t really use the terrain, and there’s no theming. Maybe it’ll be different once some foliage grows up around it. Definitely a highlight, and one I wouldn’t mind experiencing again.

Apollo’s Chariot

Matt agreed to accompany me on a credit-run for the rest of the park, as he’d been there before. We also agreed to skip Tempesto, because Matt doesn’t like the restraints on Skyrockets, and I really didn’t care much about it. So we bopped over to Apollo’s Chariot, which is next. I knew this was the prototype B&M hyper, so that gave me some expectations. I also knew it had a B&M pre-drop, which is why we opted for the last row again. It’s only 170 feet tall, but drops down into a ravine with a creek at the bottom, for a 210-foot drop. It doesn’t make huge use of the terrain, but more than most hypers I’ve ridden. It’s mostly just straight out-and-back, with beautiful B&M floater airtime, and it certainly delivers. The turnaround is a helix, and it’s a plenty big helix. Not as forceful as Nitro’s, but it goes on for a while. Then there’s bunny-hops, and one last deceptively deep drop just before the brakes that you can’t see coming, so that was a fun surprise. I really liked it, especially for a first experience.

Loch Ness Monster

Nessie was my highest priority of what was left. I haven’t been kind to old Arrow loopers in this space, but Nessie is something different. It’s the icon of the park, a legendary ride, and gorgeous with the interlocking loops. We snagged the back row again, with very little wait. The initial drop down over the river was faster and more intense than I’d expected, which was cool. The first loop pretty much felt like a standard Arrow loop (because it is). I didn’t know about the tunnel, though. It’s a helix, with at least two full circles in it, and it’s tight. There are points on the second round where you can see the track above your head, and it feels like it’s close enough to touch. There’s a second lift, although not very large, and the second loop feels kind of like an afterthought, but hey, it’s cool to do the interlocking loop thing. Having two trains on the loops at once would be even cooler, but I’m sure they don’t do that anymore. It had good speed and pacing, even on a cold day. I’d rank this above the other remaining Arrows, even Viper, for originality and thrills. It’s clear this is a well-maintained coaster, and I hope it stays that way.

Griffon

Next up, we went over to Griffon. My only prior experience with dive coasters is Valravn, which didn’t really wow me, so I didn’t know what to expect here. I knew there were some differences in layout, and that Griffon has the older shoulder bars instead of the vest restraints, but I didn’t know how much difference that would make. Matt suggested the front row, and we ended up right in the center, which was neat. The hang seemed less scary than my Valravn ride, and I’m not sure we got to a full 90 degrees during the hang. The sign painted on the ground made me laugh. The drop was good, but I’m not certain what difference the restraints made without trying again. Matt felt a definite difference, though. I was pleased that Griffon goes under a bridge, rather than just pulling out of the drop, although it could be better. What surprised me was how much speed it maintained through the rest of the ride. I don’t really expect much airtime from a dive coaster, but it was there. I was also surprised that the splashdown didn’t cut the speed much at all. I was expecting a little jerk from the braking action of the water, but there was nothing. I liked this one far better than I had expected to.

InvadR

That left only the oddly-spelled InvadR to wrap up. This is a thrill coaster, not an extreme one, but it’s far from tame. It’s a GCI, and relatively new, so it’s pretty smooth. It uses the terrain well, and it’s got nice laterals in a twister layout, with all the GCI signatures. It even has an unusually sharp pop of air very close to the end. It’s definitely something you could take a kid on, but it would be an intense experience for them. Once again, I liked it more than I thought I would. That seems to be the other theme for the day, and I don’t know if it’s because I had company, where I’m normally alone. Or maybe it was specifically enthusiast company; I’m not sure.

After completing the cred-hunt, we stopped at the Festhaus, where I had a turkey sandwich on a pretzel roll that was actually quite good. It was getting close to 3:00 at that point, and Matt wanted to get started driving so he could make it to Charlotte. I agreed that was a good idea, but I wanted to see if I could get in on the wolf encounter experience. Unfortunately, I got a little lost, so I was slightly too late for the encounter, but I was able to see the wolves in their enclosure for a while. That’ll give me another reason to go back. I eventually got back to my car around 3:45, which was earlier than I’d originally planned, but a much better choice, because I didn’t get to Charlotte until around 10.