Busch Gardens Williamsburg- Ultimate Coaster Tour Report

 It's no secret I love doing "behind the scenes"' tours and for several years I'd been eying up the offerings at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, especially their coaster tours. For my birthday this year, I decided it was time to indulge myself and purchased the Ultimate Roller Coaster Insider Tour. 

 With a price tag of $80 per person it's not exactly cheap but for you coaster fans out there, it's something I'd highly recommend. With this tour you get a rather impressive line up of roller coaster goodies most people will never get to see. Busch Gardens Williamsburg certainly delivers your moneys worth!

On the website you can catch a glimpse of the line up but reading about it and actually doing it yourself are radically different things! The version of the tour we purchased also included the Verbolten behind-the-scenes tour.
Ours included all the following goodies:

-Riding the Griffon Trolley to the top of the 205" lift hill. 

-Behind the Scenes tours of the mechanical areas of Griffio, Loch Ness Monster and Alpengeist.

-Rides on Griffon, Loch Ness Monster, Alpengeist and Apollos Chariot. 

-A special quick queue to be used after your tour for a re-ride on each attraction

-Photo CD of your experience

-Free Preferred Parking the day of your tour

-Access to the Verbolten Ride Building

-Access to the Verbolten Control Room

-Photo Opportunities of the ride behind the second lift hill and ride building.

-One time priority access to ride Verbolten

So as you can see, you get a LOT for that plus the tour has different options for non-riders. You can chose to either be a participant or just an observer, which is a nice touch if you have a non-rider with your group.

On to the Tour!

Photo Post- Ultimate Roller Coaster Tour of Busch Gardens Williamsburg

This is the Photo Post which goes along with our report on Busch Gardens Williamsburg "Ultimate Roller Coaster Tour" which was amazingly awesomesauce!

You can read the full report at Busch Gardens Williamsburg- Ultimate Roller Coast Tour Report

(I've put the photos below a page break so your not slammed with loading them all. Naturally, this is very photo heavy. Click on the pictures for larger images!)

Verbolten- On Ride Footage!

Well Theme Park Review has done it again!
The frist folks with full ride-threw footage from Verbolten is now up and online for our collective viewing pleasure! Now see, this is why I'd love this blog to get popular! That way I could bring you all these goodies myself without having to wait for a much bigger site like TPR to post them up.

Either way, Enjoy!
It's rather hard to see inside of the ride building, but it gives you a good idea of what we're all going to expeirence and hopefully love as the Big Bad Wolfs replacement.

Verbolten Update! Opening Week!

Hey Folks,

It's finally opening week for the long awaited replacement of Big Bag Wolf at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Verbolten is now in it's opening week with an amazing show of coaster awesomeness!
Personally, I can't wait till my trip down to BGW this summer to check out this ground-breaking ride.

Over the Theme Park Insider, Russel Mayer posted up a ton of new information about Verbolten. Along with pictures, YouTube video and all kinds of good information for the theme park goers!

The Video is the pre-show which looks amazing. So go check it out!

Theme Park Insider- Verbolten

Verbolten Opening Date Annouced!

Just another quick blub of interest to everyone!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has announced the opening date of Vertbolten!
It's May 18th. I suggest everyone get ready to ride, this is one of the more promising coasters with unique elements to open in years!
The coaster is listed as a "High Thrill" attraction with a height requirement of 48". 
 
Verbolten Opening

News around the Theme Park Circuit- East Coast Edition

Greetings Again!

I hope your all getting ready for a wonderful summer of traveling and theme park attendance, I know that I'm certainly looking forward to the trips I've got planned.  Was it just me or was this winter entirely weird? Time for some warm weather and a look at what's new and exciting around the east coast theme park circuit.

 Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Verbolten Opening
Rumors are flying threw the air about a soft open for Verbolten starting sometime around March 31 with the full opening coming late this spring, projected for sometime late April.

Flying Turns at Knoebels: 2012 Opening?
Well rumors are once again saying that Flying Turns may possibly have a late 2012 season opening. Knoebels has been very closed mouthed in regards to updates on the ride since late 2011.

SkyRush at Hershey Park: 5/2012
Slated to open in May 2012
Construction is nearing completion on the new Intamin psycho-coaster to open up. I'm starting to wonder if Hershey is going to run out of places to stuff these things in!

Dorney Park: Stinger
Another relocation from Six Flags Cedar Point is coming to Dorney Park this year. Yet another obnoxious Vekoma Boomerang, moved from California's Great America.

Dollywood: Wild Eagle 3/2012
Set to start testing in late March (if not already) this will be the first Wing Coaster from our friends at B&M built on the east coast.  Looks to be a truly awesome ride once it gets open.  Plus I doubt Dollywood will try to pull the same kind of stunt that the nutters over at Thorpe Park did!

Kennywood: Black Widow 2012
Well it seems Kennywood really is doing the "boxed attractions" route now with new owners. Seems those of us out here in Pittsburgh are the proud new owners of a (augh) swinging, spinning pendulum ride.
Wonder how much they'll raise ticket prices for this lawn ornament?

 Six Flags: Fiesta Texas, Great Adventure
Sky Screamer 2012.

Not to be outdone by their not-so-creative-now competition Six Flags has gone and made an answer to Cedar Fairs "Wind Seeker". Get this, same concept only we're gonna do it with CHAINS like a classic wave swinger! Sounds ever so safe with your feet dangling 100+ feet in the air. These have already had problems but forget that! We'll keep installing them, Great Idea!

Cedar Point: 2012
Yup, you guessed it. Cause it was so massively popular? Anyway, rather then doing some cool (stick to coasters) our friends over at Cedar Point have gone and installed yet another clone of the Dinosaurs Alive attraction. This time Cedar Point its-self has gotten this one. Are we spotting the Six Flags trend here yet?

Six Flags New England: 2012
Six Flags is moving Deja Vu from Magic Mountain (it never worked right) to Six Flags New England for the 2012 season. Wonder if they needed a new lawn ornament?

Six Flag Great America: 2012
Looks like they are getting a B&M X-Flight flying style coaster for the 2012 season. A fresh built B&M at that,  I've forgotten Six Flag could do fresh builds!

Six Flags America: 2012 Apocalypse
Six Flags is moving the former "Iron Wolf" coaster from Great America and is coming to Maryland under the name of Apocalypse. A large, old stand-up coaster. Might be a nice change?

 Seaworld Adventure Park Orlando: 2012
TurtleTrek (Augh) is replacing Manatee Encounter. Supposedly to have a 360 degree, 3D movie theather added into the attraction of a Sea Turtles journey. Followed by an exhibit of (get this) Turtles!

Freestyle Music Park: Sold?!
Rumors are that a Russian company is currently in talks to purchase the (badly placed) Freestyle Music Park in Myrtle Beach, NC.  There is no current news as to if this has fallen threw or may really happen, sad to see anything rusting away like this place currently is.

Bluegrass Boardwalk: 2013
Formerly Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom
It's official! The amazing people of the Koch Family who own and operate Holiday World in Santa Clause, IN have signed a deal with the state of Kentucky to re-open the former Six Flags park.  You can follow all the updates of the Koch family putting this park back together at http://bluegrassboardwalk.com/




Well, I hope this keeps you all up-to-date in the current news and openings.  I've probably missed some or several that are going on around the east coast, so please feel free to comment on them!

Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Wow, I've been very productive today.
I've been missing a lot of updates lately, so I've got plenty of things I've been needing to get posted up here. In line with that thought, I've got another little piece of goodies for you today.

No Fear, This is GOOD news for once!

Verbolten, the new coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg is making plenty of progress to open for the 2012 theme park season. Verbolten is the new coaster which will replaced the much beloved Big Bad Wolf, while not anything near our beloved Wolfie,  has lots of interesting potential!

Lately a new "Sneak Peek" trailer is out for the ride. Personally I did a completel "Fan Girl SQUEAL" when I saw it and have many high hope for the ride.  So without me babbling more, I've added the video for everyone to enjoy!

Not much is known really about Verbolten and what elements the ride is going to include other then a rather large "ride building" and some very interesting plans. If you hope over to Theme Park Review one fan has many pictures of the elements which will be enclosed within the show building. There is also the "Drop Element" which has been a huge and interesting piece many of us can't wait for.

Pop over to those awesome folks at BGW Fans  to take a look at all the various goodies going into the attraction!

So I leave you now, hopefully on a bright and excited note for an amazing attraction.