Friday 8 June 2012

Day 9 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg

The final day and park of the group's tour was upon us. Busch gardens in Williamsburg, Virginnia is reckoned to be amongst the best looking parks in the world - and it's a lot more picturesque than it's sister park in tampa.
http://rcdb.com/4548.htm


Just 6 coasters to enjoy here - first up was Grovers Alpine express - or the kiddie credit. Then onto Apollo's charriot - a B and M mega, like nitro at Six Flags Great adventure - it wasn't as good as nitro - the layout just seemed to rob you of any airtime in a lot of places.

Then on to Verbolten - their new coaster - this was a part indoor, part outdoor family coaster with a few surprises - and was a very good ride - everything 13 at Alton Towers should have been, and a bit more! Was themed around a journey in the German Black forest - cue lots of "Fahrt" related merchandise - naturally I'm far too mature to succumb to a "did you fahrt yet?" t-shirt ;-).

Before lunch we did Mach tower - a drop tower, which was good, but could have been better if there was a bit more drop before the brakes hit!

The parks food was excellent - the sampler plate in the Italian place had chicken, Canneloni and eggplant, each "sample" would have been a good lunch, and the cheesecake was one of the best I'd had!

After lunch was Curse of Darkastle - a dark ride similar to Spiderman at Universals Islands of adventure in Florida - very good too! and then the remaining 3 coasters.

Griffon - a dive machine, an extension of Sheikra in tampa, which in turn was an extension of Oblivion - I still think oblivion does the drop better than the others, but the rest of the ride on Griffon was great!  Alpengeist - another B and M invert (which a lot of people rate higher than Nemesis) - was good, but not as good as nemmy (a theme here!!). Finally - loch ness monster - another arrow looper, but smoother than most, and the first coaster to feature interlocking loops.

We had rerides on Griffon (good everywhere), Alpengeist (I thought better in the back - had real snap through some of the inversions) and Charriot, along with the 3 water rides - rapids, a log flume and escape from pompeii - which wasn't as wet as tidal wave at thorpe, or the chute ride in tampa. Verbolten was broken so we couldn't get a reride on that.

So - after goodbyes to those who weren't staying at the last hotel,  it was off to the final hotel of the official tour, and the drivers dropped off the cars, as we had to be at the airport at 4:30 the next morning!.

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