Virginia Creds - Part 3 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg

[Hutch]

I’d been wanting to clear out this trio of parks for some time now, and I finally got around to it a couple weekends ago. I had already done BGW, way back in 2013 (just a few weeks before I first joined CF!), so I was due for a revisit. Plus I needed Kings Dominion and Six Flags America, and with the anticipated opening of Pantheon, this was a good time to finally make the trip happen.

This weekend was part of the Buzzed Bars Stumble, which included a group of many CFers and other folks outside the forums. About a month out from the trip we realized Pantheon had no chance of opening, but that wasn't the only spite of the trip. We still had a great weekend, and knowing about Pantheon ahead of time prevented any disappointment we would've had the day of.

Day 1 - Six Flags America

Flew into BWI that day for a quick cred run in the afternoon. I honestly wasn’t sure about hitting this park or not because it looks so bad, and flying into Richmond would’ve just been easier, but I’m glad I did it. Even though we ran into some issues.

It had been raining most of the day, which meant that the staff were outnumbering the guests. We arrived to the park at 3 PM, and luckily the rain had stopped by then.

Unfortunately I ended up missing a few creds here. A couple were down, but I also missed Roar and Firebird as the park ended up closing at 5, completely unannounced (was scheduled to close at 7). Even though two hours was more than enough time to get all the creds, we were also being very leisurely and didn’t get the creds in an efficient manner. Had we known about the early closing ahead of time, we could’ve made it happen.

Missed creds:

I’ve heard terrible things about both so I’m not too bothered.

On our way to the park’s “signature” attraction.

Joker was apparently running earlier but broke down. We saw a few test cycles but they never opened it back up.

Wasn’t really looking forward to it anyway. I’d done Flight of Fear at Kings Island, which is god awful, so I couldn’t see an outdoor spaghetti bowl being any better. Plus, we had another one coming up tomorrow.

First cred of the trip was Superman: Ride of Steel. It was amazing! It has one of the best layouts ever in my opinion.

Just kidding. This ride is just a waste of space. I cringed when I first saw a train crawl over the first camelback… you just end up sitting in your seat. And you all know how dumb the helices and straight track are.

Beyond the bad layout, I didn’t realize how awful the seats and restraints are. I guess it used to have the usual T-bars, but they turned them into M-bars and added shin guards, which are much more restrictive than the RMC shin guards. I’m 6’1”, so not nearly as tall for anything to be a problem, but I felt like I was climbing into a wild mouse or kiddie coaster.

The ride was smooth enough, but it had some awkward transitions and the shin guards made it a little painful. The brake run in particular shoves all your weight into the shin guards.

The only good part of the ride is the second airtime hill, which actually lifts you out of your seat. The bunny hops at the end have some airtime, but it’s not great. I did a back row and front row ride, and front row was a bit more comfortable.

Because of the shoddy weather, I thought a ride on their Sky Screamer (I think it's actually called Wonder Woman something something... can't be bothered to check) would actually be pretty fun. Halfway through the ride, just as we were starting to head down, the ride rose again and sped up even faster! Definitely felt a bit scary, especially with the wind.

Next coaster was Wild One. I must say, for a ride that’s over 100 years old, it might be the best coaster in the park?

I mean, it’s not the best and was kinda rough, but there were some fun drops and intense laterals. Any other park it’d be a forgettable ride, but with a coaster lineup as bad as this park, this is as good as you’ll get.

This helix finale was pretty ridiculous.

Rajun Cajun was closed for inclement weather. Sure, it had rained earlier, but the weather was fine now.

Great Chase coaster. +1 and done.

Next up was this beauty.

Mind Eraser is only my third SLC cred, and I’m kinda surprised I’ve managed to avoid them given the amount of creds I have at this point.

It was horrible of course. There isn’t much headbanging, especially if you brace for impact, but instead it just shakes around your entire body. Awful thing.

Batwing was down earlier, but saw that it was running again, so made our way over there. Not sure what the park designers were thinking when planning out the location (unless there used to be a ride in between Bat and Superman).

I was kinda looking forward to riding this and glad we got it, mostly so I could complete the set of three flying dutchmans. Firehawk was alright, and I actually kinda liked Nighthawk (and apparently everyone else hates that one). But I thought this one was the worst of the three. Don’t know if it’s actually the worst one or if my opinion has just changed on them.

The loop was awesome, but the rest of it was okay for the most part. The trains were just uncomfortable and the final twists were pretty bad. Glad I don’t have to worry about them anymore.

It was this point when the park suddenly closed without any announcement (we were actually Batwing’s last train of the day). We thought it was going to be a soft close, starting with the rides in the back and moving everyone else towards the front, but no. Everything closed at once.

We tried to sneak a ride on Roar on our way out, and the ops were actually going to let us ride (they had no idea the park was closing), but another staff member ran over to tell them to close, just as they opened the gates. The Roar ride op had the quotes of the day: “Y’all don’t have to go home, but you can’t be here” and “I guess Six Flags got tired of y’all.”

It’s things like this that make Six Flags the worst chain for me. We were actually having a pretty decent visit, and the ride ops were actually doing a good job, but then you have bull**** like this putting a damper on the day.

I’m not bothered by the coasters we missed themselves, but more annoyed that’d I need to return if I ever wanted the creds. It’s easily the worst coaster selection I’ve ever experienced, but I really hope they don’t get anything good so I’m not tempted to return.

Despite the park closing, I’ve had worse theme park visits. I mean the park was empty, so it’s hard to complain about that. That being said, it’s easily the worst theme park I’ve ever been too. The rides are filled with mediocrity, and the park is just ugly. On the other hand, I’m tempted to call it the best Six Flags park lol… solely because all the coasters had free bins in the stations, and the free water cups we got were a large soda cup, instead of those tiny plastic cups.

That night, we drove down to our hotel in Richmond, regrouped for a bit, then went out for some food and drink at the Answer Brewpub!

Up next is Kings Dominion!

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Strong start to a trip! It's depressing to learn that the 'we're not going to make any more money this afternoon, may as well quit while we're ahead' early park closure is a chain-wide policy, having experienced the same at SFNE.
Yes, Wild One is the best thing there.

 

[Hixee]

Six Flags America is one of those parks I know I've been to, I know I've ridden most of the creds, and yet it is just so forgettable I never remember anything about it.

The one thing I do remember, however, is that I got spited by Superman (for no outwardly apparent reason, too). It's a shame, because it's one of those coasters that I now just chalk up as "I'm never going to ride that". I can't really imagine a world where I would go back to this park - there are so many better parks in the area that I'd much rather go back to than waste my time with that ****.

 

[Hutch]

I can't really imagine a world where I would go back to this park - there are so many better parks in the area that I'd much rather go back to than waste my time with that ****.

It's not super out of the way from KD and BGW (which I'll likely revisit in the future anyway) and it's essentially free entry with your Six Flags pass, so it's really the question of whether you want to drive two hours up and deal with Baltimore and DC traffic. Even then, probably not worth it.

 

[Hixee]

It's not super out of the way from KD and BGW (which I'll likely revisit in the future anyway) and it's essentially free entry with your Six Flags pass, so it's really the question of whether you want to drive two hours up and deal with Baltimore and DC traffic. Even then, probably not worth it.

If I'm going to deal with the DC traffic, I'll be off to Udvar-Hazy Center again, thanks.

 

[Hyde]

Kings Island's X-Base lives on in Six Flags America.

 

[Matt N]

Great first trip report!

It’s a shame you missed out on some of Six Flags America’s major credits, but I hope you still had an enjoyable day regardless, and besides, there’s always the opportunity to go back and get the missing creds at some point if you wanted to!

Out of interest, is it only KD and BGW that you’re headed to on this trip, or are you headed anywhere else?

 

[Hutch]

Out of interest, is it only KD and BGW that you’re headed to on this trip, or are you headed anywhere else?

Yeah just these three parks. It's a pretty easy trio of parks that you can knock out in a weekend.

A few others in our group had other parks tagged along before and after, but it was mostly stuff I had already done or plan to do later this year (plus I didn't want to take more days off).

 

[Hutch]

Day 2 – Kings Dominion

Cedar Fair (among other parks) have shortened their operating hours over the past year due to staffing, so the park didn’t open until 11 AM (with 7 PM closing). So not Merlin hours, but still would’ve been nice to have an extra hour or two.

We arrived at opening, and went straight to the back for the first cred of the day.

I love Intamin, but honestly my expectations were low for Intimidator 305. I don’t mind positive g forces, and in some cases they can be quite good (e.g. B&M inverts), but if it’s rattly or I grey out, it's hard to enjoy.

But I must say I was pleasantly surprised with this one! Now I did grey out on the first turn (probably the most intense grey-out on any coaster I’ve done), but the ride was smooth and the rest of the layout was awesome. The airtime over the first camelback was surprisingly strong, and I loved the snappy banking transitions.

The only other issue I had was the trim on the other big camelback. I knew it existed, but kinda forgot about it that day. When we hit it, I went “What the hell was that?!”. It’s probably the worst trim on any ride, mostly with how much it ruins the flow at that moment.

The first drop was also really fun, but it could be so much better with lap bars. I know you kinda need the OTSRs with the transitions, but then you have Skyrush ragdolling you around its second half, so why not here?

But overall, really liked the ride. It’s not a Top 10 ride like others make it out to be, but considering my low expectations, I’m satisfied. The first turn still brings it down for me, but if I didn’t grey out it could be a Top 25 ride.

Next cred was Flight of Fear. The one in Kings Island is laughably bad, so I knew I was in for a treat.

This one ran much better, but it still had some nasty jolts here and there. I forgot how long these layouts are too. Just as I thought we were approaching the end, it just kept going.

Anaconda has a nice setting over the lake, but as expected it rode like a mess. It kept getting worse and worse as it went through the layout, and the restraints did a number on my shoulders.

It was as bad as the late Vortex, if not worse. Probably shaved a year or two off my life expectancy.

Hopefully the park will follow Kings Island’s footsteps and remove this at some point, especially as it takes up a huge plot of land. But it seems pretty popular and supposedly pulled a 30 min wait later that day, so perhaps they’d rather keep it.

At least the tunnel under the lake was kinda cool… but what the hell were they thinking with these turns after the MCBR?

This version of Backlot Stunt Coaster is definitely worse than the Kings Island counterpart. For one, the launch felt a tad slower, to the point where the train would nearly stall at the top of the helix. Secondly, none of the special effects were working midway through the ride… just an awkward stop before continuing through the tunnels.

Racer 75 only had one side open for our first ride, but luckily both were properly racing when we came back in the afternoon.

This thing runs like a dream! Smooth as can be, and it had some fun hills. Honestly one of the better coasters in the park. Only the entry to the turnaround needed work, but we heard that the park has been taking care of this ride any chance they get. Hopefully they can put the same effort into Grizzly...

On our way over to more exciting stuff…

At this point, Buzzed Bars were invited back for a private walk back tour of Twisted Timbers. We were let into an access road starting in between Timbers and the wild mouse, hugging the perimeter of Timbers and curling around towards Grizzly.

Goons in their natural habitat:

Back in between the cutback inversion and Grizzly:

Apparently this building up there is the old station for the late Hypersonic XLC:

Making our way back.

The tour was awesome, and it was great to get some cool shots of Timbers (and even Grizzly, since that ride is so hidden from inside the park).

We finally got our first ride in on Twisted Timbers, and it’s stupid good. No complaints. It easily jumped into my Top 10 after one ride.

It’s basically Storm Chaser +, as you have some of those similar elements (barrel roll drop, camelback early on, off-axis bunny hops toward the end), but then this just has more.

I love the other small to midsize RMCs that I’ve done, but usually they either lose their pace toward the end (i.e. Wicked Cyclone), or they’re a little short (i.e. Twisted Cyclone, Storm Chaser). Timbers has a great length and layout, but it maintains its pace very well. And the airtime is to die for!

Look at all the "hairtime" here:

But it’s really all about these three camelbacks… it’s seriously one of the best sequences ever. I mean, I love Storm Chaser’s camelback, but now I just feel spoiled for having three of them back-to-back on Timbers.

Continuing on with the cred run, we found Grizzly hidden behind some gift shop. Thanks to its hidden location, it was a walk on.

It was terrible! But I also kinda enjoyed it for the ****s and giggles. I mean, with a group of friends to suffer with, it’s almost so bad it’s good.

It was around early afternoon at this point, and the park had started to get more crowded (it was a Saturday after all). Nothing terrible, but we didn’t feel like waiting a half hour for Dominator nor Woodstock Express. So instead, a few of us went back to 305 for a couple re rides.

The first turn was getting worse for me as the day went on, so I didn’t need more than a couple re rides. I actually needed a water and something to eat in between rides so I didn’t die lol.

Thanks to staffing numbers, food stands and restaurants were all slammed. It mostly came down to the lack of ready-made food, but fortunately we didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes or so (not as bad as 40 min at Great Adventure a couple years ago). And the food, while not great, was a much needed energy-gain and also a nice time to chill and relax.

We made our way back to the front of the park, and Woodstock Express’s line became pretty reasonable. They were even running two trains!

These kiddie PTC woodies are pretty good too, and this one had some fun drops. It’s all thanks to the buzz bars of course.

It was then time for Dominator, and it’s queue had shortened to about 10 minutes.

I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned out to be solid. The zero g rolls tend to be the best element on these rides, so while I missed it here, the turns in between the loop and cobra were pretty fun.

Even though this doesn’t exactly follow the standard floorless layout (what with the lack of dive loop and zero g), it still felt pretty basic? Overall it was decent fun, but for a major ride like this you’d think these would be genuinely exciting. Kinda glad B&M has more or less retired the floorless model and “replaced” it with the wingrider.

Didn’t feel the need the ride it again, but we also still needed to finish the cred run. But first… for some blasphemous reason... a few people in our group wanted to ride Berserker. You know, that inverted swinging ship?

It was dreadful. One of the worst rides I have ever done. The only other similar ride I’ve done was a Larson Loop, which I hated, but this was so much worse. Look at these restraints… tight lap bar with a OTSR that presses against your chest, all on a hard bench:

You know how on Skyrush they loosen the lap bar on the brake run? This is the opposite. For some reason, before the lap bars retract, they all need to tighten even more for a few seconds. I hated it.

We went back to the other end of the park (this is when we grabbed the other side of Racer). I still needed their wild mouse, but the line was pretty full throughout the day, so instead I prioritized Timbers re rides.

Of course, Timbers continued to be amazing. It was 6:55 when I got off my last ride, which was perfect timing to nab Apple Zapple. As I suspected, the line had died down to a walk on.

Or at least it should’ve been a walk one. There were about two trains worth of people in front of me, but it took almost five minutes for me to get on. They only had one operator running and loading the ride, and there was another staff member standing there doing nothing. The real problem though was that they had about eight or nine trains running. That may seem good, but it meant there’d consistently be three or four empty cars stacking in the station, which meant riders would have to sit on the brake run for few minutes before they could even reach the exit platform.

Anyway, this ride was actually my first Mack wild mouse, which I didn’t realize until approaching the ride in person. So it actually has a real first drop, making it a little more interesting than your standard wild mouse.

It still resorts to the typical formula after that drop, so it’s really not much more than a +1. But I’m happy I got it, and given the state of the queue throughout the day, I would’ve been fine skipping it.

But that was it for my first visit to Kings Dominion. Despite the Saturday crowds and seeing some of the staffing issues, I had a fun day. In fact, I think my longest wait of the day was 30 minutes for Timbers (worth it of course), and we did a good job knocking out some of those creds early in the morning.

I liked the park, and I rate it similarly to other Paramount Parks (Kings Island and Carowinds for my experiences). The major drawback for me is its coaster lineup (much like KI and Caro). I mean, you got a dozen or so coasters, but most of them are crap. Twisted Timbers and Intimidator 305 are worth it, and Dominator and Racer 75 are good, but do I really want to ride anything else on the return visit? Nah.

It seems like Volcano: The Blast Coaster was a big loss, and it doesn’t help that their bobsled is SBNO. I suppose the freespin is a decent investment, but for coaster lineup as big as this, they really need another banger like Twisted Timbers.

Anyway, that puts a wrap on Day 2. My carpool ended up grabbing some Chipotle before chilling at another brewery. Day 3 will be at Busch Gardens!

 

[Hixee]

The first drop was also really fun, but it could be so much better with lap bars. I know you kinda need the OTSRs with the transitions, but then you have Skyrush ragdolling you around its second half, so why not here?

I've said it before, and I'll stand by it - I'm convinced the intensity of Skyrush was a mistake by Intamin and we'll never get something like that again. They did something big and fast in the same vein with I305, but put the OTSRs on it, and Flying Aces is definitely scaled back a bit to be able to keep the same train.

Cool report - a great opportunity to get backstage at Twisted Timbers, and by the sounds of things a good day all round really. I can see what you mean about losing Volcano and the bobsled - that starts to make their line-up a bit odd overall.

 

[Snoo]

Hutch also got SAUCY on Saturday night. Lets not forget that.

 

[Hutch]

I've said it before, and I'll stand by it - the intensity of Skyrush was a mistake by Intamin and we'll never get something like that again.

Fair enough. Makes Skyrush all the more special!

Hutch also got SAUCY on Saturday night. Lets not forget that.

Moreso on Sunday for me actually, thanks to that tailgate. Was feeling GOOD then.

At least I didn't pass out on the toilet seat in Domino's!

 

[Hixee]

Fair enough. Makes Skyrush all the more special!

For the avoidance of doubt, I've edited my previous post to make it clear that it's my opinion!

 

[Hutch]

For the avoidance of doubt, I've edited my previous post to make it clear that it's my opinion!

No I agree with you. I've no doubt Skyrush was not intended to run the way it does!

 

[Hutch]

Day 3 – Busch Gardens Williamsburg

My first visit to Busch Gardens was actually about a month before I joined the forums, way back in 2013. Loved the park and coasters at the time, but I only had 40 creds. Plus I had visited in March, so stuff like Apollo’s Chariot probably weren’t running its best, but what did I know then?

We had an earlier start today, with the park being an hour away while opening an hour earlier. My carpool drove into the park entrance at around 9:40, but there was already a huge line of cars trying to get into the gates. Of course it was understaffing, with about four employees manning two gates each.

It took our car about 20 minutes to get through the line, but supposedly the line had gotten much longer. Had we showed up about 10 or 15 minutes later, it would’ve taken about 45 minutes to get through. Fortunately, our car had preferred parking, which meant we were got inside the actual park shortly after 10:00 AM opening.

With most of the crowds still waiting in the car line or in general parking, the first couple hours inside the park were actually pretty quiet. Most of us needed some of the newer creds, so we made our way to the back of the park for the lone woodie. This was when I remembered how huge this park is.

Really prefer the windy, foresty paths as opposed to open midways.

Invadr was a nice ride. It’s nothing special, but for a family ride, it’s really solid. There’s some decent airtime moments, and the first drop is actually quite good. I did a front row and back row ride, and back row is definitely much better.

Pantheon wasn’t the only coaster that was being spiteful. We found out that Alpengeist was closed all day for no reason. I’m not convinced it was due to staffing, since we knew it was running earlier during the week. You’d think the park would rather have it closed during the week and ensure it’d be running on the weekend, but who knows.

It’s a shame. I think of all coasters here, I was most looking forward to riding this again, even if it wasn’t my favorite at the time. I think I rate it in the upper half of my ridden inverts, but I would’ve loved to give it another chance for a better review.

So we moved onto Verbolten instead. I LOVED the ride during my first visit, in fact it was favorite ride in the park at the time. Mostly because I knew nothing about the vertical drop, and I never knew an element like that could even exist.

Eight years later and it still delivers. It has a great mix of elements… some fun launches, forceful helix, couple of airtime moments, and great theming. The drop is still the best part and had me laughing every time. We got a few quick rides in as it was still more or less a walk on.

It has some pacing issues though. Lots of repeated stop-and-go, but the theme and story keep it interesting.

And don’t you love these trains? Probably my favorite aesthetic on any coaster train, especially with the tires. On top of that, they’re comfortable and easy to load. Good work Zierer!

First glimpse of what should’ve been the best cred of the trip:

But for real, this was such a tease. Like I mentioned previously, it was definitely better that we knew in advance about the ride not opening, but now this is getting ridiculous (along with all the other new SeaWorld rides). Man, it looks so good.

Another new cred for me was Tempesto. Ironically, since the new swing launcher directly across from it remains SBNO, this thing isn’t totally useless.

The only other model I’ve done is Phobia at Lake Compounce, which I thought was okay. This was my first experience with the “comfort” collars. As expected, climbing into the seat is pretty annoying with these, especially since the collars can’t retract like a typical OTSR. Once strapped in, they seemed pretty pointless… they weren’t touching my shoulders or chest at all. So maybe they wouldn't affect the ride experience?

Oh was I wrong. The heartline roll, which otherwise would’ve been a fun and ridiculous hangtime moment with just lap bars, was very uncomfortable and almost painful. As we rotated, my neck pressed against the side of the collar, trying to support some of my upper body weight. Completely ruined the ride for me.

Additionally, I’m not of a fan of the non-inverting loop. It’s mostly down to the forces at the bottom; I just have a hard time enjoying them. The launches and initial climb are fine, but not enough to redeem the ride.

Thankfully, we had a much better coaster in Apollo’s Chariot. It was about time I gave this another chance as it was my first B&M hyper coaster, and I’d been struggling how to rate it these past few years.

It’s held up fairly well! It’s definitely among the weaker B&M hypers, and it’s all down to the airtime. There is good airtime, but it’s not as strong as the others. The middle portion where it’s just turns and helices don’t help much either. Overall it rides pretty well, in fact it’s smoother than Nitro, Goliath, and Diamondback, but there’re some vibrations here and there. We did a couple quick rides, front and back. Not sure which I prefer, but the back is pretty awesome for the first drop.

By this time everyone else in our group finally managed to enter the park, so we all met up for a group takeover on Der Wirbelwind, which was good fun.

Afterwards, most of us decided to all ride Griffon. It was around midday at this point, which meant all people that were trying to enter the parking lot had finally entered the park. Needless to say, things were busy now. Griffon was billed as a 30 minute wait, but it ended up taking an hour as the ride ops were not doing a good job. They were only running two trains, but even then you’d have a train waiting on the brake run because the ops wouldn’t open the air gates or fill each seat in an efficient manner.

I was able to get a front row ride, and while dive machines don’t excite me as much as they used to (or as much as they should, considering their size), Griffon is still probably the best model I’ve done.

The drops are all kind of the same, but what sets Griffon ahead of the rest are the little airtime hills at the end. There’s even a subtle one leading into the brake run.

And while I said most dive machine drops are the same, there’re still a lot of fun, and this one was no different.

And I guess they're making an effort to repaint it? Same thing's going on with Apollo: some sections with fresh paint, some faded.

RIP:

A few of us were starving, so it was about time we filled ourselves with some food. We made our way back to Okterberfest and ate and chilled in Das Festhaus. Afterward, instead of doing more coasters and waiting in lines, we decided to take a ride on the Busch Gardens Railway. We got on in the Italian station and did a loop all the back to Scotland. It’s definitely one of the better train rides I’ve done in a theme park.

It's also a great opportunity to be closer to Spite:

I mean, look at that outerbank. Bruh.

The train also cuts through Invadr (or, more accurately, Invadr was built over the train, RCT style), giving the only good views of the woodie.

After getting off in Scotland, we rendezvoused at Grogan’s Irish Pub for more chilling (and now drinking). I believe this was called Adam’s Black Cherry Cider, which was quite delicious! Love how it looks like a plastic cup of jungle juice lol.

We still weren’t ready for more coasters, so after a short stay at the pub we went back to the parking lot to tailgate for a couple hours! And honestly this was much needed lol. It was a busy day with a lot of trudging around, so a few beers definitely helped us relax a bit.

We got back into the park at around 7:00 and did some Loch Ness Monster. I didn’t need the cred, but it’s an Arrow looper that’s actually good, so of course I wanted a ride (and front row!).

And who could forget the last +1 of the trip?

So I didn’t get Grover’s Alpine Express on my previous visit. Since it was right before I joined CF, I didn’t know what “creds” were and felt “too old” for a kiddie coaster… look what you guys have turned me into…

We then made a spontaneous decision to ride Escape from Pompeii. And honestly, I’m glad we did because the indoor bit was legit! And had some pretty good effects, including a flamethrower?! And thankfully the drop wasn’t too wet (though we rode towards the back for that reason).

We focused the remainder of our evening cycling through Apollo’s Chariot. The coaster had definitely warmed up a little more so the airtime was a bit better. Really enjoyed it… perhaps better than 305 from the day before?

A few of us wanted one more ride on Verbolten, so we got just in time for 9 PM park closing. Good way to end the night!

Despite the crowds and not riding much in the middle of the day, I still love Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It’s such a nice park with a good selection of coasters. In fact, with the exception of Tempesto, I don’t think there’s a bad ride there. The ops weren’t doing a great job with Griffon or Tempesto, but they appeared to be fine elsewhere, as far as I could tell.

Again, a common theme for the weekend was the understaffing among all the parks. While it does show among operations, especially up against post-Covid crowds, it’s hard to judge the parks based on that as you know it’ll be better in the future.

Obviously it sucks that SeaWorld doesn’t want to open their new coasters, but I guess all the more reason to return to BGW when Pantheon opens? But realistically, if that spiked launched coaster is still happening, I’d rather wait for that one at this point before making a return visit.

We struggled to find food on our drive back to the hotel (most drive thru places were slammed) so we settled on ordering Domino’s. We were all exhausted for the weekend, and desperately needed some sleep. It was definitely a fun weekend, made all the better with group we were with. Can’t wait for the next one!

 

[Nitefly]

This was all great to read - thanks for posting. I’m so jealous!!

 

[Hixee]

I remember having an awesome day at BGW - their selection of coasters and the location/scenery for sure makes it one of the best parks I've done. It's nice to see those sorts of images again, brings back good memories.