Busch Gardens Europe VTR/PTR

[violakat03]

Last Saturday started out very, very, very early for me. I woke up somewhere around 5:30 a.m. at my brother's apartment in Alexandria, VA. Anyone who knows me or has spent the night with me would know I am NOT a morning person. I still believe it to be some sort of miracle that I actually woke up and left when my alarm went off that day, especially considering I didn't fall asleep until after midnight.

After loading myself and a cooler full of snacks into my car, I headed out for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Williamsburg. Since it was Saturday, traffic was light through D.C. and Richmond, so I made good time and arrived in Williamsburg around 8. I dropped by a gas station to pick up a couple 5 hour energy shots since I knew I'd be running down before the end of the day and still had the long drive home to look forward to, and pulled into the park at a quarter after.

I eventually got directed around the traffic jam by some helpful park employees and pulled up to the toll booth to pay for parking. In the confirmation email for the event we were told to let the attendant know we were here for the ACE event and that we needed a pass for England parking. Much to my surprise, she handed me a receipt and a parking pass and told me to have a nice day! Sticking my cash back in my pocket and taking a glance at my receipt (which read something like complimentary event parking) I headed through the maze of a parking lot, almost getting myself lost twice. Finally, I pulled into what I knew had to be the ACE parking. Sticking my Saturn in between two cars with coaster-related license plates, I took a look at the small crowd forming near the employee entrance and wandered over that way. After a fast and efficient check-in, I had my lanyard, park ticket, and picnic voucher and was ready for Griffon!

My thoughts on Griffon were that it's definitely a cool ride and I like it better than the other two floorless B&Ms I've ridden. The elements are cool, though you can't feel or notice the splashdown when you're actually on it. I liked the opening Immelman where you first go under and then over (while upside down) the walking path. The second Immelman was cool too. You get some awesome views from the lift hill and from pretty much the entire ride. The turnaround on the lift hill gives you stunning views of the area.

As promised, after 4 rides on Griffon in 30 minutes (including front row middle, front row end, middle row end and back row end) I headed over to Alpengeist. Like Griffon, there was no wait for most of the seats. I decided to wait a train and get a front seat ride with 3 nice folks from Louisville. We discussed Diamondback (they love it too) and Raptor before the ride began. I was blown away by Alpengeist. Raptor is a great ride, but Alpie is better! The foot chopper effects, the opening Immelman, just .. everything. It was great. I got another front seat ride with the group from Louisville again before heading back to Griffon. Griffon gives a nice view of Loch Ness Monster and you can see Big Bad Wolf from the front seat as well. I decided BBW would be my next ride because that was the coaster I was most looking forward to at the park.

I ended up meeting up with two locals as I headed for BBW. Though the park opened at 10, most of the rides did not open until 10:30. We'd gotten there at about 10:20, so we opted to wait for it and were the first people into the station at 10:30. I sat in the front seat for my first ride on BBW and ... wow! I never thought an Arrow suspended would jump into my top ten, but Big Bad Wolf did. I couldn't wait to give back seat a try, but a decent line had already formed and my new friends and I wanted to go to Curse of Darkastle, a dark ride. Once again, I could not see the 3D effects. It kind of annoys me that I can't see any 3D effects. Either way, we met up with some more ACE folks after Darkastle and they wanted to ride Big Bad Wolf since the line had dropped. Of course, I wasn't going to argue with this! It gave me the opportunity to get my back seat ride, which was awesome, as expected. The second chain lift is the best part, even heavily trimmed like it is, because it swings you way out over the river and you are really moving at the bottom of it. It ends with a wide swing over a waterfall near the walking path.

The guy in the orange shirt shooting the video of me (Luko) and the guy next to him with glasses (David) are the two guys I ended up hanging out with pretty much the rest of the day.

After Festhaus, we wandered around trying to find something with little line. David has ridden over 600 coasters and spied an opportunity for a new credit in the new Seasame Street Forest of Fun. There's a nice little Zierer family coaster called Grover's Alpine Express. Two trains later, David, Luko, myself and a handful of other ACErs piled into the kiddie coaster, along with all the odd looks from the parents! As we were leaving, we passed some of the characters and I just had to get my picture with Cookie Monster!

We were getting hot and tired and it was closing in on lunch time, so we stopped by another dark ride, Corkscrew Hill in Ireland. Another 3D ride, this one's similar to Action Theater with the motion seats, but with a much better story line! By now, it was lunch time and we headed back to the Festhaus to get some lunch. The park provided fried chicken, fresh watermelon and soft drinks while we got to have a Q & A session (pre-empted by a "no questions about the future of the park" requirement) with the park's General Manager. There were also some prizes given out, mostly old souveniers from area parks. I got a commemorative coin from Hypersonic XLC at Kings Dominion. And yes, a coaster wheel was given out! What's up with coaster wheel prizes at ACE events?

After a filling lunch, David, Luko and I headed for Loch Ness Monster. On the way to Ireland, we passed by the Clydesdales stable, where they were out greeting guests for photo ops.

I have complete faith in seat 5-1 on Arrow loopers so I dragged David back there with me while Luko headed toward the front of the train. This ended up being the last we saw him for most of the day because we ended up on different trains and got split up. Loch Ness is hands down the best Arrow looper I've ridden. It is not violent whatsoever. The loops are a lot of fun, and there's even an enclosed helix! The downside is, the helix is trimmed harder than The Beast is. There was no force to it at all. David was very disappointed because he said it used to not be like that and you used to fly through it. The interlocking loops was definitely cool but sadly we didn't get to cross through them with another train (a rare occurance but it does happen!).

From there, we wandered through the park a bit, and decided it was hot enough that we could brave a water ride, so we headed for the highly-themed Escape from Pompeii. Because my phone has no back on it, we stuffed it inside David's fanny pack and left it in the loose articles bin, and it's a good thing too! This is a standard shoot-the-chutes, but as you creep through the upper turn-around, you go through what looks to be an abandoned anthropological dig site. A fire then starts spreading, shooting up behind and around the fallen statues and columns, then spreads across the ceiling. The ceiling fire was absolutely wicked to watch, it's worth riding just for that! Finally, it was splash down time! I'd strategically chosen my seat in the middle of the back row, and David had wiggled in close to me in the hopes we wouldn't get too wet. As we got the big "skloosh!" noise, my right side got fairly wet and my hair was definitely soaked. However, David was completely drenched!

Time for the 'spin cycle' as David referred to it - Turkish Delight, a.k.a. the tea cups! We watched carefully and noticed that some cars spun better than others and since we were the second set let into our cycle, we ran right for one of the best ones, which we had whipping around quite nicely. Since David was still practically dripping, we decided to hit the closest roller coaster and Apollo's Chariot is right next to Turkish Delight!

After Apollo's, we determined we were dry and headed for some flat rides in the area. First was the Flying Machine, which is a Tivoli Orbiter (similar to a spider), then Davinci's Cradle, which is a Flying Carpet ride. By this time, we needed to head out to our cars for various reasons. Me for some caffeine, and David to drop of some purchases he'd made throughout the day. After I'd refreshed (and it'd gotten dark out) we headed back into the park, grabbed dinner at one of the small restaurants in Ireland, and took 2 legs of the triangle-routed Sky Ride. We decided that now that it was night time and we still had some time to kill before the night time ERT, we wanted Big Bad Wolf night rides. We did one ride in the front seat and then ran around again for a ride in the back seat. These night rides confirmed what an amazing coaster it was, and I decided that it was like The Beast and night rides must have their own count for me because it's another one where the ride transforms at night. You fly through a darkened forest, and the houses in the German village have lights on in some of the windows. Then it's out over the dark river, the speed feeling even faster due to the pitch darkness. Absolutely amazing. On our last night ride, we ran into Luko again and the three of us headed over to Fiesta Italia for Apollo's Chariot. I wanted back seat and David and Luko wanted to wait for the front seat, so we split again and didn't meet up again until after ERT. I ended up spending several rides with the family from Louisville that I'd met on Alpengeist that morning, ironically. We all decided that Apollo's is great, but Diamondback is better.

After they got it back up and running, I did get two more rides in, bringing me to a total of 8 for the day. Luko, David and I walked out to the front of the park together, discussing places we've been and places we'd like to go. I learned Luko was going to be at CoasterMania the following weekend and we exchanged numbers so that we could meet up. Then it was time for one of those 5-hour energy shots so I could make the dark 2 1/2 hour drive home!

Since I didn't do a finale video, I'll discuss my overall thoughts of the park here. The theming and overall atmosphere was nothing less than I expected. It's a beautiful park and each section really feels like the country it's supposed to. I only snapped one picture of the theming and that's because this section of Italy (just before the Roman Colosseum) looked just like pictures I've seen of city streets in Italy.

England had very Tudor-esque buildings, a well-designed Globe Theater, and of course the ubiquitous red telephone booths. Ireland had stone buildings and a real pub. It was just very, very well done. Each 'country' had it's unique food (we ate in Ireland because David wanted some stew in a bread bowl), and every time I walked past Italy's restaurant the smell made my mouth water. As for the employees, I can't really say good or bad about them. Except during Griffon and Apollo's ERT, they weren't too excited to be there. They weren't rude but they weren't going out of their way to excite people either. There wasn't a lot of trash, but I didn't really see a lot of sweeps. I don't really recall seeing any security. However, I'm betting they were there doing their job, as I never saw any line jumping, the crowds were well-behaved, and the park was clean.

The rides collection was great, and I wish I'd had more time to spend on the flat rides available as well as the coasters. I will definitely be going back to the park, probably for next year's ACE event as the ERTs and the people there made it worth it.

[DaveStroem]

Another great TR. BGW is on our list for this year. It will depend on if I can get someone to cover the store on a Satruday for me. Otherwise it will just be KD & SFA.

What other trips do you have planned for this year?

[cassie_KY]

Great report! I am looking forward to going to this park soon!

My parents say we went there when I was really little. They put me on a ride (don't know the name- they said you hung down from it) and that I cried the entire time. Let's hope I don't do that the next time I go!

[PhantomTheater]

After Festhaus, we wandered around trying to find something with little line. David has ridden over 600 coasters and spied an opportunity for a new credit in the new Seasame Street Forest of Fun. There's a nice little Zierer family coaster called Grover's Alpine Express. Two trains later, David, Luko, myself and a handful of other ACErs piled into the kiddie coaster, along with all the odd looks from the parents! As we were leaving, we passed some of the characters and I just had to get my picture with Cookie Monster!

I have ridden many family coasters in which I have been stared at, not only by parents, but by the befuddled ride ops working the ride.

I have complete faith in seat 5-1 on Arrow loopers so I dragged David back there with me while Luko headed toward the front of the train. This ended up being the last we saw him for most of the day because we ended up on different trains and got split up. Loch Ness is hands down the best Arrow looper I've ridden. It is not violent whatsoever. The loops are a lot of fun, and there's even an enclosed helix! The downside is, the helix is trimmed harder than The Beast is. There was no force to it at all. David was very disappointed because he said it used to not be like that and you used to fly through it. The interlocking loops was definitely cool but sadly we didn't get to cross through them with another train (a rare occurance but it does happen!).

Loch Ness is amazing trimless, you fly through the tunnel. As for the interlocking loops, I have waited up to half an hour in hopes of getting a picture of both trains looping, with no luck. The 5-1 theory has worked on ever seven car train Arrow looper I have been on. Finally, on this subject were the effect in the tunnel working with the monster on the wall.

England had very Tudor-esque buildings, a well-designed Globe Theater, and of course the ubiquitous red telephone booths. Ireland had stone buildings and a real pub. It was just very, very well done. Each 'country' had it's unique food (we ate in Ireland because David wanted some stew in a bread bowl), and every time I walked past Italy's restaurant the smell made my mouth water. As for the employees, I can't really say good or bad about them. Except during Griffon and Apollo's ERT, they weren't too excited to be there. They weren't rude but they weren't going out of their way to excite people either. There wasn't a lot of trash, but I didn't really see a lot of sweeps. I don't really recall seeing any security. However, I'm betting they were there doing their job, as I never saw any line jumping, the crowds were well-behaved, and the park was clean.

BGW is so well themed and lanscaped, I have spent an hour or two not riding a thing but just looking at all the scenery. As for the food, I must eat at the Festhaus when I'm there for it is what a Festhaus should be and not KI's sad excuse for one. And yes the Italian village always has a mouth watering smell.

[Avatar]

Kat Thanks for the report sounds like you made some new friends there. Hopefully we end up with Busch Parks season pass and if we do Busch Europe will be high on our list to go to. Thanks for the picture and videos, it makes me want to got today.

[The Interpreter]

What a truly wonderful trip report (as if you ever did any other kind). I really need to get back to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Somehow, when I think Busch, I always end up in Tampa!