Trip Report: Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Virginia - 04/11/1999

"Lovely weather if you're a goose..."

The original plan was so elegant. Take Friday and Monday off from work, drive to Richmond on Friday, then spend Saturday at Kings Dominion and Sunday at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, then drive home on Monday. Seemed simple enough. But then the plan started to unravel. First I checked web sites and found out that Kings Dominion was to be CLOSED on Saturday. So once again I get to go into that vicinity and NOT visit Kings Dominion. I wonder if I will ever make it to that park. Anyway, I cut Friday out of the trip, figuring that I'd drive down on Saturday instead. Then, through a series of phone calls and emails, it was decided that Jon Smith would come along for the ride. Except that created its own hassles: departure couldn't be until after 3:00pm Saturday, and we had to come back on Sunday night.

Okay, so we were set. Around 3:30 on Saturday, I picked up Jon, and we started driving. We opted for the route with the fewest miles, and that involves driving over a couple of mountains on US-250. It's a fun roller-coaster drive to go that way, though there is a section that takes longer than it should due to the nature of the road. Just over nine hours later, we arrived in Williamsburg.

On Sunday morning, all was bright and clear, and a little cool, though comfortable. We headed for the park, paid our $6 parking fee, bought $31 discounted tickets ($31 with the discount?! Yikes!) and entered the park just after 9:30am, noting that the board where closed rides are identified claimed that "All rides are operating today." At that point, the gate leading to Escape from Pompeii from the Royal Preserve and Menagerie was still locked, and the path from "Banbury Cross" (England) to "Heatherdowns" (Scotland) was roped off and guarded. Knowing something of the layout of the park, we headed up to the menagerie and waited. As we waited, it began to rain.

Of course, Busch Gardens opened the rope at Scotland first, then failed to open the gate at the Menagerie in a timely fashion. With a large, irritated mob standing at that gate, and no park employee anywhere nearby with the key, do you think these people are going to quietly wait for the gate to open? Of course not! A large mob simply decided they had waited long enough and went over the fence, much to the irritation of the park employee who finally showed up to open the gate. I'm afraid it wasn't a good way for the park to make a good impression at opening time (In case you are wondering, no, we didn't jump the fence. The gate was open in another half-minute.).

This put us on a path which winds past Escape from Pompeii in San Marco (Italy) and leads to the bridge into Festa Italia, which may as well be called "Rome". Naturally we headed for Apollo's Chariot. Noting the brief wait, I ignored the "test seat" stationed adjacent to the entrance. As it turns out, I do, in fact, fit into the seat on Apollo...in fact I fit better on Apollo than I do on Alpengeist. The lap bar is, however, very close to my thighs. The distance from my waist to the bar is no problem, but the distance between my thighs and the bar is kind of scarce. In future versions B&M should consider making the upright portion of the lap bar assembly slightly longer.

Apollo's Chariot
We buzzed through the queue and took seats on the train. As you are all by now aware, the train is IX rows of IV, the seats are angled backward just a bit, and this is the first Bolliger & Mabillard coaster to be equipped with lap bars. The seats are a different mold from the usual B&M seat, more squarish at the top, and a bit wider, I think. It seems that B&M love to have the train make loud clicking noises as it comes into the station...for Apollo's Chariot they finally abandoned the vertical drive wheels that they use on their stand-up coasters in favor of the pinch drive found on the inverted coasters...which eliminates the noise of the chain dogs and safety dogs ramping over the drive wheels, and probably improves wet performance. But Apollo's Chariot has four 'fingers' which stick out from the left-hand side of the car and contact mechanical switches on the loading platform. These 'fingers' are apparently connected to the lap bar mechanisms, and provide a means for the ride computer to monitor the go/no-go status of the position of all of the lap bars on the train. To the best of my knowledge, this is the ONLY coaster to have this feature. It makes sense (previously, only the "locked/unlocked" staus was ever checked, never the bar position...on most coasters it is possible to dispatch the train with the lap bars open, so long as they are locked) but given the method they employ, I wonder if the system is going to prove to be a maintenance headache until they change to some kind of non-contact switch.

It is rather odd to have a high seatback on an out-and-back steel coaster (unfortunately we have been enduring them on wood coasters for far too long...) and the visuals from the back of the train are basically non-existant. You do, however, have a pretty decent view of the wheel assemblies of the car ahead of you. There is also some question of where to put your feet, as you cannot put them on the floor (they won't reach). Some people were saying to stretch them out in front of you, but that can be tiring for the leg muscles. I usually ended up hooking my ankles together beneath the seat in an approximation of the position I use on most coasters.

Busch needs to buy III more of these trains IMMEDIATELY, paint them yellow, send them to Florida, and install them on Kumba. They would turn that coaster into an outstanding ride in one easy step. In fact, the design for the Apollo's Chariot cars is almost exactly what I envisioned while I was being beaten up by Kumba three years ago.

The lift hill is very quiet, with no ratcheting noise from the anti-rollbacks. The strange thing is that it really doesn't look "that tall" from the train, and I think that is probably because of the very wide track and the broad stairways on both sides, more than the fact that the lift is only CLXX feet tall. There is a fanfare which sounds like it was written for an MGM film extravaganza playing from speakers on the lift hill, which is a neat way to set the mood for the ride. As Jon noted, it is a lot better than the lift-hill entertainment on The Beast: a voice yelling at you something about keeping your hands inside the train. 8-)

The train kicks over the first drop, which is profiled to match the train speed, so that most of the drop provides weightlessness, though the heavy-force pull-out is far more noticeable. The flat spot (which is presently unbraked, but there is a brake up there) just feels strange; it is more at home on a Runaway Train than on a high-speed out-and-back coaster. It is NOT a double-dip. The other two hills on the "out" side are ballistically profiled, so that they provide extended periods of weigntlessness all the way over the peak. A little like Magnum XL-200's third drop, but Apollo's Chariot starts the ballistics on the way up the hill, which provides more seconds of weightlessness, but eliminates the kick over the top to get you clear of the seat in the first place. Apollo's third drop dives steeply into the helix turnaround, but it should be noted that there is a brake at the top of this hill (on the uphill side) and they are not afraid to use it. I think its purpose is to insure that Apollo's train won't pop over that third hill...more about that in a moment. The helix takes a steep dive to the left in a severe bank. There are no lateral forces on this helix, but there is a psychological element at work here...when you go into the banked turn, your body will generally attempt to hold itself upright, which means that you will subconsciously lean to the right. If you happen to be sitting in the right-hand seat (D), you will find yourself leaning well clear of the train, which is highly unusual! The turnaround proceeds through a singularly unremarkable upward helix which just kind of runs out of steam before you reach the mid-course block brake. The dive from the block brake, then, is a little bit too steep for the train speed, meaning that there is a very very slight pop of airtime into that drop. It's slight, but at least it gets you out of the seat. There is one more drop like that just before the crossover to complete the figure-8 around the station. The final drop on the ride is a double-dip which is stretched out a little too much. But it does finally yank you out of your seat, but not long enough to enjoy it...that drop leads directly into the holding brake at the end of the ride.

As it turns out, Apollo's Chariot is an excellent ride. It almost exactly met my expectations...I expected that it would have weightlessness, and that it would not have much, if any, uppa-anna-outta-da-seat airtime, and that is exactly what it does and does not (as appropriate). Riding Apollo's Chariot presents no coaster-riding challenge; it is not at all an intimidating or frightening ride once you are aboard. Apollo is a great ride, and it is a fabulous match for Busch Gardens. I think it is the most fun of any B&M coaster I have ever ridden...if I bothered to rank my coasters, it would be my favorite B&M coaster. But it doesn't quite live up to the hype it got on r.r-c. It exactly met my expectations, and I still prefer Magnum XL-200. 8-) What is missing from Apollo is that action of the greatest coasters, the Wyle E. Coyote moments where the train vanishes from under you leaving you floating in mid-air, and on the best coasters, grabbing for anything you can find to hang on to. I suspect this may be the reason for the trims on the course...to insure that while the coaster goes weightless, it never NEVER generates any real thighs-to-the-lap-bar air time. If you ride Apollo with your eyes closed, you find that you really feel almost nothing until you dive off of the mid-course brakes. What Apollo DOES have which is unusual is a strange kind of fore-aft wiggle over the tops of the hills. It's kind of like it lunges you forward (not up) into the lap bar, then the car goes over the peak and the seat back flops forward and hits you gently in the back of the head. I still haven't figured out why it does this, but I suspect it has something to do with the cars sitting directly above the trailered wheel assemblies rather than between them.

We took V or VI rides on Apollo's Chariot, then headed on to the remainder of the soggy park. On our way out of San Marco we took a ride on the Flying Machine...as Orbiters go, that one was awful. Really slow. It positively stunk. I was horrified. We headed for the Big Bad Wolf, where we took our seats in the front of the last car.

Big Bad Wolf
Jon didn't believe me when I told him that there is drink service on this classic suspended coaster. At the end of the ride he protested that he wasn't thirsty! Big Bad Wolf seemed to be running a little rough, but it is still an amazing suspended coaster, with a great high-speed run through the "village" and an amazing drop to the river. Yeah, with trim brakes on it. Busch Gardens is more enamored with trim brakes than Paramount's Kings Island, I think. Anyway, it continued to rain, in fact, rained harder, and we took a bunch of rides on the Wolf. It's an excellent ride; I like it a lot. While riding up the first lift I looked over at Drachen Fire and said, "I want to ride that one!"

Not only was it raining harder, it seemed to be getting colder. We wandered over to Alpengeist, past the DDW Wilde Maus. We sat down in the last row of the waiting train, and proceeded to have what probably ranks as the most miserable roller coaster experience I have had in a long time. It was cold, we were soaked, the ride was a little rough, but the real problem was the bitter cold and the whole problem of getting pelted with rain at high speed. One ride was more than enough. The ride was running well enough; in fact the trim brakes were off (except for the mid-course block). But we'd had enough. We decided to have lunch in hopes the weather would improve.

Well, it was a bit early for lunch, but we headed for Das Festhaus figuring that was where we could get the wurst food in the park (I don't think Jon ever "got" that joke. I hope it plays better in print.). We had to wait a few minutes for the place to open, but once inside I was amazed at what I saw. In the service area I was able to get a piled-high plate of food with two sausages, potato salat, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and rye bread for $5.99. Okay, that is reasonable enough, but what amazed me was the small drink for $0.99!! That's right, $0.99 for a small (I'm guessing 16-oz) Pepsi! This is the same drink that costs you $2.00 at Cedar Point! Way to go, Busch Gardens!! Oh, but I couldn't resist the ($2) dessert. Mine was two big slices of pound cake covered with whipped cream and strawberry pie filling. Yum! We stuck around for the floor show, and I was dismayed to see that the band organ was missing from the hall. I also managed to find the control booth for the show, but rather than divulge its location I will leave that as a challenge for other visitors.

After the show, it was still cold, wet, and windy. We finally gave up on Busch Gardens and opted to drive into town to get some proper (albeit cheap) raingear. Oh, fear not...we returned to the park, now more suitably waterproofed, for rides first on Loch Ness Monster.

Loch Ness Monster
The nice thing about bad weather is that you don't have to wait in long lines, and when the train returns to the station you can often simply stay on board. We got a few rides on Nessie. I was dismayed to learn that there is a trim brake on the drop leading into the first vertical loop. But it still has that amazing bit of airtime on the first drop. There is now a strobe light flashing in the tunnel, and you can still hear and smell the monster in that lair. The Loch Ness Monster is one of the nicest Arrow loopers I have ridden, a classic in its own right.

Alpengeist
Okay, we had now ridden all of the coasters, it was time to go back for more. We started with Alpengeist. Ah, now this is better. Not as cold, and us better prepared for the rain. We got a bunch of rides on this inverted coaster...I haven't decided whether I prefer Alpengeist or Raptor or Great Bear, but those three...in no particular order...are my favorites of the four I've ridden (the other is Montu). Really, now that I think of it, it's really between Alpengeist and Great Bear. It is so much more pleasant when you're not being pelted by huge raindrops. But it was still raining. We were merely better protected. It was when we went back later, after the rain stopped, that we really got to enjoy ourselves on this coaster. It's strange, Alpengeist sits in a kind of no-man's land outside the gates of Germany, and down the hill from Canada, literally on the German/Canadian border. I asked aloud, "Is this coaster in Germany, or Canada?" Hearing my question, one of the attendants replied, "France." Okay, so it is located on the German/Canadian border, it has a German name, and it is in France. This has to be the most confused bit of theming I've ever seen! 8-) It's self-contained little ski-resort world is amazing, with (as usual for BGW) all of the little details filled in. It just doesn't quite work into the big picture...

Drachen Fire
This one was disappointing. Rust is beginning to appear on the support columns and on the lift chain. As the railroad circles the park, a recorded spiel describes the attractions in the park, and as the train travels from Italy to Canada, the recorded spiel describes the roller coasters in the park. This is a good place for that spiel, as the train passes directly beneath the track of Drachen Fire, between the silver support columns. But the ride is not even mentioned. The sign has been painted over at the ride entrance, and a fence has been erected across the opening. The demo lead car is missing. Drachen Fire is not pictured on the park map in any fashion, and the board at the park entrance notes that "All rides are operating today." even though Drachen Fire has not carried a paying customer since the middle of the 1998 season. This is such a shame, considering that Drachen Fire is such a good coaster. I wore my Drachen Fire shirt that day in support of the ailing coaster, but unfortunately the inclement weather forced me to cover it with a sweater and jacket. 8-(

It finally quit raining at about 4:00pm. By that time, the Wilde Maus crew had been sent home, so that ride never opened. But we were able to compensate by riding all of the other coasters except Drachen Fire repeatedly. In addition to the Flying Machine (which was awful) we also rode the Tradewind (Mack Himalaya) and I was relieved to note that it runs properly at about 12 RPM. Oh, and we rode Da Vinci's Cradle (Zierer Flying Carpet) and it did go all the way around. Unfortunately BGW has welded an extension to the lap bar which extends the bar back into the rider's gut before it comes down into our laps. In spite of that, it runs at a proper rate of speed and provides that violent action I've come to expect from Kennywood's ride. I do like this ride... 8-)

So how much more is there to tell? We cycled between the coasters and took lots of rides, ending with a ride in Row IX of Apollo's Chariot when the park closed at VIIpm. Our last rides on Apollo were particularly memorable because of the fog which shrouded the tops of the hills. As we climbed the lift, Drachen Fire disappeared into the fog, Alpengeist retreated, and the Loch Ness Monster vanished into the highland mist. Because the weather had been so rotten all day we opted not to leave early even though we knew it was going to take us nine and a half hours to get home. I got home just as the morning rush hour was starting. I guess it is a good thing I took the day off today! <yawn>

Now I want to get back to BGW again. Preferrably on a day when it isn't raining!

(I didn't have my computer with me during the day due to the rotten weather, so the usual ride list and coaster statistics are omitted. Unfortunately, I also didn't manage to take any photographs of any kind. 8-( )

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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