silver2005

So most everything is walk on except Apple Zapple, Backlot and Dominator. The woodies are only running 1 train per track. Most people at the water park. Of the weather I've had in Virginia so far, today had been the most pleasant. Grizzly and Racer 75 are running really good.

Made Dominator #150.

Kings Dominion is a better park than I remember. The abundance of trees is a help, especially on International Street. I actually wound up liking I305, only a slight gray out and it's pretty solid from start to finish. Twisted Timbers is definitely my favorite steel coaster in the park and my 2nd favorite RMC.

I was at BGW yesterday, and Alpengeist in the back was making the Banshee rattle seem smooth by comparison.

The weather situation should be better than yesterday. It was forecasted for a smaller chance of rain than yesterday, but now it's all clear today. Just gotta remember to lower expectations a tad from the awesomeness that is BGW.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Review So today was very dependent on weather. I got discounted tickets for a July 4th sale that I only saw apply to day specific tickets. At the time, the days I had planned for BGW and KD were the same forecast, so it was a coinflip. It happened to land on the day I chose for BGW, today, to be the higher chance of rain. The forecast called for rain around 3-4 pm, park opened at 10. The rain only was a short drizzle as most of it just blew over, but the park did close for about 30 minutes for lightning, though it kept Griffon down from that point on. Parking was weird. Got pretty far towards the gates before they opened at 9:30, and it took me nearly the whole time until the park opened to get parked, the parking tolls were weird. I found out quick that routing Loch Ness Monster to be my 100th coaster was a chore. A lot of the coasters are pretty spread out. There is the train and a pair of sky lifts to get you across the park, but boy howdy on foot, if you want to ride a specific ride you're not near, you got a hike ahead of you. I chose Griffon first as I wanted to save Apollo's Chariot for last. Went for a counter clockwise route overall. Some rides were a bit hard to find (Le Scoots and Invadr in particular). The park essentially is a giant oval. The major coasters seemed to have their own little nook as kinds of ride plazas. The queues were weird on some rides that zigzagged and circled all over the place (looking at you Alpengeist and Invadr). Its very scenic as well. Trees, foliage, and garden work everywhere. It definitely lives up to being one of the most beautiful parks out there. Its difficult seeing coasters not named Griffon from across the park. The theming was top notch with each country. I particularly liked the England entrance and France, Italy being not far behind. I also appreciated some gaps where there was theming, but it left room for the park's natural beauty to shine as well, it was a good blend. Most coasters had pretty decked out stations and queues. Loved the music on the midways. I've come to realize that French and Italian make good vocals for music. France always had music that made it feel so chill. Food and entertainment were pretty good, albeit the food was a little on the pricey side. I did say previously that BGW was one of the parks that would have a shot at topping Dollywood as my favorite. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a fantastic park through and through, and this isn't a knock on the park in any way, but I have Dollywood by a literal hair. Dollywood, to me, has slightly better staff in that I see a more humanistic approach, especially with ride operations, the food pricing is better, and there's a charm that Dolly's presence brings that isn't at BGW. BGW, however, gets props for being a little better looking, especially because I think some theming at Dollywood does seem cluttered at times. There's a more natural flow to BGW aesthetically IMO, especially impressive given the different countries represented. BGW definitely has the better entrance, too. Ride Counts- BGRR, Finnigan's, Le Scoots, Escape From Pompeii, Invadr, Griffon, DarKoaster, Tempesto, Pantheon- 1 Verbolten- 2 Loch Ness Monster- 4 Alpengeist- 5 Apollo's Chariot- 8 Ride Reviews- Busch Gardens Railroad- I think they're using a green engine and cars from BGT, as I saw the 2 more European engines and rolling stock on storage tracks. Has a lot of great views of the park and pretty good placements of stations. Le Scoots- The interaction with Invadr and Alpengeist was pretty cool, and the drops, especially the last one, are pretty steep. Escape from Pompeii- I really liked the theming in the building, getting to feel the heat of the fire and falling statues and the like were great in relation to the event it represents. For a shoot the chutes, it really doesn't get you that wet. The building from the outside looks good and the water is very clear and blue. Coaster Reviews in order ridden Griffon- I like the look of it over Valravn. Blue and silver look great against the surrounding France area and the sky. Its even bigger in person than Valravn with 10 across trains to accommodate. I definitely prefer the older B&M restraints on a dive coaster than the vest as it gives you room to get weightless. The little hop after the 2nd Immelman was a bit jarring into the splash. I will say though, Valravn has the edge with the amount of elements and its slightly more forceful in other areas than Griffon. Griffon blows it away in looks though. Loch Ness Monster- By default, I usually don't have high expectations of Arrow looping coasters, but Loch Ness Monster turned out to be really fun. By far, the smoothest Arrow I've been on that's not a suspended coaster, which, given its a year older than Beast, that's very impressive. I definitely picked a good coaster to be my 100th steel coaster. The air is comparable to Vortex in the back, the helix is surprisingly good, especially in the tunnel. Helices in tunnels just work so well. And of course, you can't talk about it without mentioning the loops. It is weird it has 2 lifts to accommodate the interlocking loops, but it just looks so good. LNM gets a pass there as in the late 70s, they were still working up to the bigger sizes and its one of the rides that kind of lit the torch that gave us the booms of the 80s and 90s. Probably the biggest surprise for me. Alpengeist- This is the most intense B&M inverted coaster I've ridden so far and 2nd in the overall B&M intensity list after Mantis. The drop is actually pretty gradual, has a good steady increase in speed, but as soon as you start climbing the Immelman, the positive G's turn on and the first half is just element after element of intensity. The cobra roll is taken a tad too fast as the half corkscrews really throw your head against the restraint if you're not bracing for it. The last part that straightens before the MCBR is a bit abrupt as well. The brakes on the MCBR are a bit hard, it looses a lot of speed for the 2nd half, though, that has to do with the fact its the tallest B&M invert at nearly hyper coaster status. B&M built it tall, but the elements get pretty small after the cobra roll. You enter the MCBR pretty quick and taking the later 0g roll and corkscrew that fast would be bad. The 2nd half was pretty graceful with a semi-snappy 0g roll and corkscrew. The upward helix isn't quite at Raptor or Talon status. I do like Afterburn, Banshee and Raptor better. Alpengeist has a little too much intensity. Invadr- This is actually the GCI I like the least. Part of it is the fact that it and Pantheon aren't themed along the ride or hidden in trees as well as the earlier made rides. They just sit in big clearings and Invadr just has a lot of gravel and service roads as scenery. The layout isn't that intuitive. It has decent pops of air, but there isn't a good big 2nd hill anywhere and it feels like a few spread out figure 8s. The first drop has a lot of head chopping effects with the tunnel over the upper part and diving under a low service road. DarKoaster- First off, the capacity of this was bad. I forgot to mention waits- everything but this and Tempesto were near walk on all day. Tempesto had about a 15-20 minute wait, but this thing had anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 hours waiting. This was the only ride I actually needed Quick Queue for. I really don't get the point of the train style, like maybe for an outdoor coaster, but not for an indoor coaster. The queue theming was pretty good, but the ride theming amounted to a few lightning bolts and a screen at the end, not that great. The launches and layout were fine for a family ride, but didn't really do much for me. Verbolten- This was pretty intense for what it was. Most of it comes from the building, there's a lot of high g curves in there and the banking is pretty tight. The drop track, while it can be gimmicky granted, I actually liked it. Its a subtle scare that's pretty well executed. A lot of it felt like it was running on highway rumble strips, a lot of vibration. The launch up to the bridge was pretty punchy and the last bit was a nice way to end it. Pantheon- I think its a little overrated, but still really good. The first launch is pretty powerful being its not the main launch. I had expectations of it being a little more forceful and turned out toward the graceful end. On the launched Intamin front, I give the nod to Storm Runner, though, I preferred Pantheon to Maverick. Tempesto- I've seen a lot of these Premier coasters pop up and they definitely give you a lot of bang for a smaller coaster. Its short, but pretty wild with the twists, especially the non-inverted loop at the tail end. Its surprisingly efficient if in the hands of a park with good operations. Apollo's Chariot- this is one of the coasters I had the highest anticipation for and it delivered in spades. Very smooth, air time was between floater and ejector depending on the seat. The first drop has the old school B&M pre-drop which works really well on a hyper to build the anticipation. The back in particular it just yanks you down the drop. The drops after it had a unique shaping which kind of made the airtime more forceful. Drop 3 with the slight curve was really good. I liked that the helix was spread out and didn't have too many positive g's, kind of allowed you to appreciate the speed. The s-curve drop below the first drop was a really cool combination of airtime and lateral movement which it just floats through. I like this better than Diamonback and Orion, but Nitro is a little bit better and Fury is god tier. This is in my top 10 steels for sure.

Got everything I wanted to do, and just got a temporary weather suspension announcement. Gonna wait it out as it appears to be somewhat short.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is definitely in the running for being my favorite park up there with Dollywood and a good bit better than my former 2nd favorite park, Hershey. Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot lived up to expectations and Loch Ness Monster is loads of fun and is my 100th steel coaster. Up to 143 heading into Kings Dominion.

I lucked out, Tempesto is open. Getting to 150 tomorrow at King Dominion.

^Except the 'source' in this case has been historically known on this forum to post false information.

You know Don posts here right? You better know what you're talking about.

^What kind of bugs?

I miss Kings Dominion's Grand Carnivale by a day. I go Monday and the last day for it is tomorrow.

For day 1, I tried a Cook Out for the first time. Its like a UDF and a City BBQ had a baby, its really good for fast food. I also found I have a TON of pancake houses in Williamsburg. After that, I took a walk through Colonial Williamsburg for a few hours in the evening. Walked around the William and Mary college, then swung by the actual colonial buildings, got a lot of pictures. Heading to VA Beach today and seeing the ocean for the first time in forever today.

The Quick Queue Unlimited Plus I got gets me FL like access to all the coasters except Tempesto, Invadr and DarKoaster, those 2 I get 1 time where I can bypass the line. Escape from Pompeii, Finnegan's Flyer, and Roman Rapids are also unlimited access. QQ Unlimited does all that minus the 3 coasters I mentioned. QQ normal just gives a one time skip to the rides under QQU.

^I got QQ Unlimited Plus which ran me $180. However, with the sale BGW did on the 4th, I'm getting in for only $70. I got my HP ticket during a spring sale and am getting in there for only $50. I'm also armed with Fast Track for HP and I have all season FL for KD and DP (which I doubt I'll need at either, especially DP on a Tuesday). Also looking around VA Beach and downtown Philly for good restaurants. I wanted to eat on the beach at VA, but all those restaurants are very much outside my budget. Probably going to spend a few hours on the beach and walking the boardwalk then getting something NICE but within reason for dinner. The weather for Saturday looks great. Tomorrow after I get to Williamsburg, I'm super close to colonial WB (I've done the tours before) so I will likely just take a relaxing walk through the area. I can almost walk there if I weren't staying on a bit of a highway. I can take normal roads to BGW if I want I'm so close. I did print directions, but just from the convenience of the roads I have to take to BGW, VA Beach and KD, I may not need directions. PA on the other hand, especially my drive to Knoebels.... I will say, my in-park food selections are pretty good this trip outside DP. BGW and Knoebels go back and forth on being the best park food, I know HP's is fantastic from experience, and KD's looks really good. I'm gonna wing it more in Philly as that's the last day of my trip (after visiting Longwood).

This just dropped on Facebook from Holiday World. Appears they're cooking something for 2024. https://www.facebook.com/HolidayWorld/posts/pfbid02WjPXRFfeB1qXz7ijnaNT2odwrcEGxAd8dsgExWnJc7nrpc8J1zJsw539gT9Atzv9l

You know, before Intamin and S&S first went to 100 mph, they didn't have anything of note either at their respective times.

So the day I go to BGW looks iffy. I had to choose between Sunday and Monday as they had a 4th of July sale and it only applied to the date specific tickets. At the time, the weather looked similar so I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right. Unfortunately, Monday, the day I chose for KD, looks to have the better weather. The day I do BGW has higher rain chances, but I think I may have a few windows of opportunity to work with. I may have to speed run BGW a bit. I have Quick Queue which should help. Tempesto is still listed as closed. All the PA weather so far looks nice, especially Wednesday for Hershey.

I had a bit of a pattern on my last trip on coasters with lap bars where I would sit in front of girls with long hair and sometimes got hair in my face, particularly on Magnum. Also rode in front of a lot of screaming girls (like high pitched and top of their lungs), my ears might still be ringing from my 2 days at CP.

^I only see a few smaller flats and (unfortunately) the Sky Ride as closed. I see every coaster (including the underrated Flying Turns, which was down for a long time) and the good non-coasters as open.

Knoebels is everything you wish Stricker's or Coney Island could be. They do the ride tickets and all day wrist bands like Stricker's with a fantastic classic ride line up, which, has a Zierer Eurofighter-esque coaster that does kind of stick out like a sore thumb (but still fun). Phoenix and Twister are incredible wooden coasters which they take care of very well. Twister is currently my favorite wooden coaster and Phoenix has THE best air time of any coaster I've ridden (better than El Toro and trimless Voyage IMO). Very good food, too, usually in the running for best theme park food on various polls. The drive to Elysburg is also part of the charm, its a pretty mountainous area of Pennsylvania. I'm saving it for last on my trip as kind of a wind down park and its also among my favorite parks. Its a bit out of the way, but totally worth it.

This is more of a guests do the darnedest things- on the 4th around dusk, I saw a guy on Beast wave his arms around really erratically upon entering the helix tunnels, almost like he was about to try and hit the side.

I just went on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the first day of summer and I thought the amount of food stands being open and the service was fine. A lot of the drink stands were closed, but food variety was really good compared to my last visit in 2018. Had good BBQ wings by Magnum, turkey at the Grand Pavilion (a MUCH needed addition to the CP beach front), and pizza near Raptor (CP's pizza leaves a lot to be desired). Got glimpses of the food I didn't get and thought most of it looked pretty good. Assuming the final colors on TTD 2.0 will be white and grey, I'm only assuming its to help whatever lighting package they have planned. Hangtime at Knott's has similar looking track and the way the light glows through the track looks pretty cool. Doing it on TTD's 420 ft tower will look awesome.

Well, for non-enthusiasts, if it looks and sounds like a duck...