Griffon

[coastertim98]

I wanted to ask another question about Busch Gardens Williamsburg, because I am going there this summer.
I was wondering how good is Griffon? Ive heard many very positive things about the coaster, and the only negative it being too short, but that doesn't really bother me. It sure looks like an amazing coaster, and I look extremely forward to riding it. Also I wanted to ask which is your favorite part? If you have one, cause Ive seen many people say the drop (obviously), the immelmans, and even the hanging before the drop. So whats your opinion?

Thanks again! I'm very excited to go there :--D

 

[Snoo]

Twas a good coaster. You have to ride it in the outside seat, front row for the best experience. Definitely re-rideable.

 

[madhjsp]

You need look no further than the Mitch Hawker polls (if you put any stock into that sort of thing) for verification that it's a world-class coaster.

It is a bit short, but it's great fun from start to finish. Dangling over the drop is pretty cool, but the drop itself is by far the best part: the feeling of complete freefall for a drop that size is unmatched among any other coaster (outside of other dive machines anyway). And Snoo's right that the best seat is on one of the ends on the front row. Definitely try to make that happen at least once while you're there.

 

[coastertim98]

Thanks guys again for the responses! I'm really looking forward to riding the coasters at Busch Gardens!

^^And Snoo, I know Sky Rocket at Kennywood is a completely different ride experience from Griffon, but how do they match up and compare? Just wondering, haha.

Thanks again!

 

[Mike]

Griffon's a very decent ride, but I prefer the drop on Oblivion and prefer both Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot in the park.

The thing I really dislike about it is it's unimaginative layout. It's like the designer drew the first half of the ride and said "Yeah, that looks good, lets just have it again for the second half" and was done with it. Still though, what is there is better than the majority of coasters out there.

 

[fishman100]

When I went, I was scared out of my mind.

But that was before I went on Alpengeist.

Alpengeist = 67 MPH, Griffon = 70 MPH.

Alpengeist wasn't terribly fast (I actually thought the speed was great), so if you ride Alpengeist you can easily ride Griffon.

IMO, the only scary thing about Griffon is the ~6 seconds where you're held right before the drop. It freaked me out every time >.>

Like Alp, the drop isn't bad. It looks long, but when you're up there it's really short. 2, maybe 3 seconds is the drop. Not long at all, and like Alp again, great speed.

And like Snoo said, sitting in the front row is best. Second row is okay, and the back row it seems like the speed going down was doubled. That was pretty awesome