After a… less than ideal start to the trip at Nickelodeon Universe, it was a relief that the next day we visited what would become one of my favourite theme parks: Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It feels silly now, but this wasn’t originally on our itinerary. Infact, aside from it’s ‘most beautiful’ awards, this park wasn’t on my radar at all until Pantheon was announced. A new Intamin multi-launch, that also happened to be the fastest in the World? Yes please! So, with an impressive new coaster on the way, we were able to adjust our itinerary (read: flip the whole thing upside down and do Nick Universe on arrival day, rather than it being our final day – thank GOD we did that) and squeeze in this extra stop. Not that it was the most sensible choice. After a five-hour drive the night before, taking us through: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and finally Virginia, we still had 90 minutes left to go in the morning. Thankfully jet lag had me up – admittedly bleary-eyed and scraggly-tailed – at 5am, ready to hit what – after plenty of vlogs – had quickly become one of my most anticipated parks.
Previously named ‘Busch Gardens Europe’, the park features lands themed to various European countries, admittedly with a few confusing inclusions such as ‘New France’ (Canada), ‘Oktoberfest’ (there is a separate ‘Germany’) and Festa Italia (a mishmash of just about everything, with vague carnival theme). Even with some strange choices, each land (except that last one) is absolutely charming. I mean, these are the toilets in ‘Ireland’! Am I in Ballamory?! Just the most adorable toilets I’ve ever seen.
Of course, the main draw here for us was Pantheon, the aforementioned newly opened Intamin multi-launch. Like any coaster fans, we started the day with an attempted rope drop. However, when we got to the ride there was already a line snaking from the ride sign, all the way back to the land’s entrance. Before committing to the wait, we scooted down to the staff member outside the entrance who broke the news that the ride was down and we’d be best off trying something else. (They weren’t wrong either, the line was still there 2 hours later!) So, try something else we did, walking across the plaza toward Apollo’s Chariot. Before we could join the line, it was time to purchase our locker rental. At $10 for the whole day for a transportable locker, it didn’t seem like an awful deal. Until we were charged $20. Despite all signage, and even the kiosk stating $10, we all compared bank statements and were each down twenty bucks. I’d actually forgotten it until now, but that sure made for a sour start to the day! At least it’s hard to stay mad when you’ve got a ride like Apollo’s Chariot waiting for you. I didn’t know anything about this before I was in line, but it turned out to be my first ever B&M hyper – awesome! God, I loved this ride. Over the day I managed to ride three times and each one was thrilling, packed with both floater and ejector airtime and smooth as butter, but my final sunset front-row ride was something very special. It was the first time on the trip I’d felt that kind of speed, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
From a glorious coaster, to what I consider to be the worst coaster in the park. Next up was Tempesto. I’d not ridden one of these Premier Sky Rockets before, seemingly popping up all over the Seaworld parks, but after this, I’m not so sure that was a bad thing. I really enjoyed the launches, both forward and backward were surprisingly snappy. But, those tight transitions whipped my neck around too much to be comfortable, and don’t even get me started on that damn comfort collar. The operations on this ride were also poor. I know dispatches are never going to be speedy on a shuttle coaster, but even when the train was in the station it took several minutes to dispatch each train, making this the second-longest wait of the day.
With Pantheon still down, we headed over the bridge and into Germany for the first highly-anticipated rollercoaster of the trip: Verbolten. This is also the first attraction of the trip that I’d actively avoided spoilers for. Whenever a coaster is beloved and known to *do something* I always try and avoid finding out what the something is. So as far as I knew, Verbolten had a launch. That’s it. It was an unexpected delight to find that this was a truly themed coaster, unlike the other two we had ridden that day. The queue featured extensive theming, though as the ride was posting just a five-minute wait(!) at the time, we passed through very quickly and I didn’t get chance to fully appreciate this lovely line, or the equally impressive station. Riding the coaster itself, I felt a very familiar emotion as a British enthusiast: a fusion of pride and exasperation. Once again, I was seeing what a ride type first experimented with in the UK could really do. Because the influence of Thirteen is undeniable here, but done better in just about every way. With it’s ̶d̶a̶r̶k̶ Black Forest setting and, of course, a sizable drop track, the parallels are clear. But what made Verbolten for me, as well as it’s impressive final drop and family-but-still-fun launch was the indoor section. Speeding past UV paint forestry, like an old-school dark ride made me very, very happy and make the whole experience far more kitschy than I expected – in a good way!
By this point, things were getting pretty toasty, so we took the opportunity to cool off with the park’s water attraction, the incredible Escape from Pompeii. When approaching the ride, you get the sense that something must happen inside the huge building connecting the lift hill to the drop. But what? I had no idea. Which of course meant absolutely losing my mind as we were surrounded by the most pyro I’ve ever seen on a ride! The whole place is basically a hearth, with plenty of animated show scenes depicting the fall of Pompeii along the way. Of course, not even that ludicrous amount of fire can keep you dry on this soaker. Admittedly, it was a rookie move on our part to take the front row, but even on the tiny drop from the lift hill into the dark ride section, a wave immediately washed over us, overwhelming all our shoes. As for the main drop? Well, we stood no chance. A beautiful attraction, but bring flip flops!
As previously mentioned, it was the announcement of Pantheon that made me sit up and pay attention to BGW. So, it was absolutely agonising to come to terms with not riding it. But I just about managed it. This was because, after watching the skyline as often as we could (read: whenever we were at the top of a tall lift hill, this park is basically a forest) throughout the day, there had still not been a single train sent come 4pm. Usually in my experience, if it gets to that sort of time in the day with not even a test, it’s safe to say the ride ain’t opening. So it was a massive shock when, headed back over to that part of the park to get some dinner, we saw it. A train. There was actually a train running on Pantheon! With that, all other plans were scrapped and we marched our rumbling, but dedicated stomachs over to the ride’s entry plaza. To get to the queue entrance for the ride, you need to cross over a dedicated bridge and given that the park’s app doesn’t provide wait times, it was a little irritating that there wasn’t any wait sign available before this point. Not that it mattered, we were joining the line whatever it said, thankfully it was only 50!
Lord, I’m glad this thing opened. Because wow. Wow wow wow wow. I loved this! I was actually fully prepared to be disappointed by Pantheon. The POV I watched on opening just didn’t look as wild as I expected, but happily, it sure felt wild to me when I was riding! It just has everything I love in a coaster. Speed, airtime, hangtime. It’s got the lot, even a zero-g stall (my favourite moment, of course)! I just wish it were themed. If this ride was themed, it would undoubtedly be one of the best in the world for me. I mean sure, it’s got a theme on paper. But in reality? A few banners and a rock or two do not a themed experience make.
What really got to me was how stark the difference is between Pantheon and the other attractions at the park. Sure, some of the older coasters are lacking in theming but, you can forgive that. In the same way that no one moans too much (that I’ve seen, I bet some do!) about Python at Efteling, but should they just pop down a random coaster now, there would be outrage. And there should be. Yes, yes I know this is all very first-world problems but this is my silly theme park blog after all, and this is an incredible theme park. Its attractions, up to the last coaster – InvadR, a family GCI wooden coaster – are themed. It actually broke my heart to see Pantheon’s station after having ridden InvadR. To see the beauty of their last station, with all its painted wooden glory, against the newest. Let’s hope this is a blip and not the new status quo.
Speaking of InvadR, I loved the decor outside – the trebuchet!!! – and station design, and the coaster was definitely fun, but it just lacked some of the spark that I often get on other GCIs. When we ascended the lift hill here, I just remember being very taken aback by what looked like a far more sparse version of Wicker Man. Bob still reigns supreme!
After spending a not-insignificant amount of time in Pantheon’s sometimes-shaded queue line, it was time to rest and refresh. Thank god for Das Festhaus! Located in Oktoberfest, Das Festhaus is an enormous, air-conditioned hall featuring shops, a food court and a stage large enough for impressive entertainment – this is the sort of thing every theme park should offer! Here you were able to just wander up and grab a cup full of ice water, before sitting and resting until the entertainment began. We were lucky enough to catch the entirety of OktoberZest, their traditional German dance show and I absolutely loved it. It was such a weird, weird show. At times it featured men slamming axes into logs, in time to music. We assumed these were props, but there were wood chips flying everywhere so who knows!? Either way, during a long theme park day, these opportunities to take a moment to breathe are worth their weight in gold. Thanks BGW!
As for the two other B&M beasts, well. Having been a huge fan of every B&M invert I’ve ridden, I could not wait to experience the tallest of them all and thankfully, Alpengeist did not disappoint. It shot immediately into the top of my invert charts, taking it’s lengthy – and unusual – layout with mad speed. It’s got a gargantuan loop, a tunnel, headchopper and a themed floor below. What more could you want? Sitting right next to Alpengeist is it’s B&M cousin, Griffon. After Baron 1898 and, of course, Oblivion, Griffon was only my third dive coaster and for that reason, this absolutely blew my mind. I had no idea they could do so much, let alone have a second dive! What?! Honestly, I can’t wait to add more dives to my count. Especially if they’re anything like this!
The final E-ticket? The train. Whatever you do, if you visit this park, make time for the train. The views you get of both the park’s natural beauty, as well as some of it’s best coasters are breathtaking. It’s a steam train too, so you don’t have to worry about coming off coated in soot! A must-do in my opinion.
We did also pop into the very cute Sesame Street: Forest of Fun kids area to snag the kiddie cred. I didn’t get any photos because, well, kids. But, the design of the rides in here was adorable! I especially loved Whirly Worms, the rocking tug designed to look like two worms twisted together! The kiddie coaster itself was even pretty decent, definitely not a shame cred. Plus, they had what must be the cutest pin I’ve seen for sale (even if it is clearly meant for Sesame Place):
Speaking of merch, this park knows a thing or two about merchandise! They sold so, so many things I wanted to buy. From your standard shirts and pins, to some downright weird items – Pantheon hard hat anyone? (Like, literally. A construction hat.) This was however the place with the some of the most expensive merch of the trip, with my long-sleeved t-shirt costing $39.99. But it’s also probably my favourite shirt from the trip, so didn’t feel like I was being ripped off. So, still a win in my book!
Though it was supposed to have ended, when we visited BGW still had a food festival in full swing with stands themed to various countries spread throughout the park. I was really impressed with how many great meat-free options were available and ended up grabbing the Impossi-Bao from ‘Japan’. As a food festival item, it was small but oh so delicious. The slaw had the most beautifully marinaded mushrooms, which complimented the meat-like patty perfectly! Really, really good park food. I also tried a pretzel from the stand opposite Verbolten and was impressed, it was really large, filling (I ended up wrapping some up for later) and delicious. A very good pretzel. Sadly, I can’t talk about food without mentioning the surcharge. All Seaworld parks (I think) are currently enforcing a 5% surcharge on all food items due to the ‘increased operational expenses’. This is, it goes without saying, completely underhanded and grim. Especially the way they announce it, hidden on the bottom of menus as inconspicuously as possible. On one menu, it was in brown font on a slightly different brown background for crying out loud. Just put the damn prices up, rather than cheat your guests. Rant over.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg has repeatedly been awarded the Golden Ticket award for Most Beautiful Park, and it’s not hard to see why. This was an absolutely stunning theme park and sits proudly up amongst my favourite-ever parks, thanks to an almost perfect first visit. The only thing really missing here is a dark ride. In fact, I don’t think there are any indoor attractions at all! Following the removal of Curse of DarKastle, the gap in the line-up is glaring. Fingers crossed, they’ll get something soon! I just hope that a few… less than encouraging decisions by management are not the way this park will be run into the future, as the neglect of a park so beautiful would be nothing short of heartbreaking.
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 