BGE notes
David Sandborg
It was a chilly, cloudy day. It never got to the 60 degrees that had
been optimistically forecast. In fact, I don't think it ever reached 50
degrees. The sun finally came out in the late afternoon, but it was too
late to be of much help. A few hours earlier and it might have been a
very pleasant day, but as it was we didn't care to ride the coasters too
many times as it was just too cold--though lines were very short and we
certainly could have ridden a lot. Ah well, at least it wasn't raining.
It wasn't even the worst weather I've had at Busch--that would be the
year of Apollo's opening when it was colder *and* raining!
Not much out of the ordinary to report about the coasters themselves.
All were operated with two trains in spite of scanty crowds. Some years
I like Loch Ness Monster better than others. This year I had a pretty
good ride, but I'm not sure if it has more to do with the ride itself or
just how I'm feeling at the time. As usual the restraints feel lower
than other Arrow restraints. I had two rides on Alpengeist, both in the
back. One was very smooth and the other very rattly. The smooth ride
was in the right seat, the rattly one in the left, but this seems
unlikely to account for the difference. I'm inclined to think the two
trains were performing differently.
We got to ride the new Europe in the Air attraction that had taken over
for Corkscrew Hill. It was our first time, as it had not been quite
ready last year. In fact, on our first attempt it wasn't quite ready
either, as they were having some kind of computer problems but we were
able to return later. It's better than Corkscrew Hill, but still not
entirely my cup of tea. The motion is smoother and more organic, making
for a more pleasant ride, but the aerial footage of European landmarks
is disorienting. It's almost like footage I would take--the camera
doesn't settle in on anything long enough and when it pans, does so too
quickly.
The new Mach Tower attraction is far from complete. In fact, the tower
itself isn't started; all that's there is surrounding infrastructure.
It's billed as opening late spring, but that could be pretty late
indeed. Incidentally, the official spelling of the name appears to be
Mäch Tower--complete with "röck döts" umlaut. I can't see any other
reason for the umlaut other than to make the ride seem more German.
The light crowds made it very easy to do just about everything we wanted
to, including several stops in shops (helpful for warming up) and some
time spent in the wildlife area. In fact, the cold weather prevented us
from trying some attractions we otherwise would have, such as the Rhine
River Cruise, Escape from Pompeii, and the log flume (which opened with
the park but was shut down later, presumably due to lack of ridership).
In fact we found ourselves "done" about two hours before the park closed
and just left.
This gave us a chance to have a nice dinner, at Blue Talon in downtown
Williamsburg. Adam and Ellen tipped us off to this place, and it's
certainly a cut above the other places in the area that we've tried. I
wound up having a rabbit stew, which was pretty good (and my first time
eating rabbit). It turned into my third big meal of the day; I'm sure
I've gained some weight!
Busch Gardens Europe makes a good season opener for us; within driving
distance for a long weekend and generally light crowds on a Friday. The
weather was not the best, but it still beat what we'd have been seeing
in Pittsburgh at that time...
--
Dave Sandborg
Remove Spam-away to respond via e-mail.
Funtype
> Just a few quick notes from a trip to Busch Gardens Europe yesterday.
>
> for Corkscrew Hill. It was our first time, as it had not been quite
> ready last year. In fact, on our first attempt it wasn't quite ready
> either, as they were having some kind of computer problems but we were
> able to return later. It's better than Corkscrew Hill, but still not
> entirely my cup of tea. The motion is smoother and more organic, making
> for a more pleasant ride, but the aerial footage of European landmarks
> is disorienting. It's almost like footage I would take--the camera
> doesn't settle in on anything long enough and when it pans, does so too
> quickly.
I believe it is one of the first to use HD footage and projections, saw
it last year. Not really impressed with a cheaper and sappy copy of
Disney's well done Soaring.
Don't get how you go from flying around to rolling on the roof a vehicle
in paris traffic. I even spotted the camera rig in the cast shadow
when the car/plane/(your vehicle) STOPPED
Motions were still jerky but not as bad as Corkscrew, and they removed
the flyaway box, so there is no mystique when you enter the theater,
black walls and a sim-platform, bad show indeed.
Other than the nice footage, even Sea World's Wild Arctic works better
for me.
>
> The light crowds made it very easy to do just about everything we wanted
> to, including several stops in shops (helpful for warming up) and some
> time spent in the wildlife area. In fact, the cold weather prevented us
> from trying some attractions we otherwise would have, such as the Rhine
> River Cruise, Escape from Pompeii, and the log flume (which opened with
> the park but was shut down later, presumably due to lack of ridership).
> In fact we found ourselves "done" about two hours before the park closed
> and just left.
>
I finally got to do the River Cruise on this last visit too and the old
veteran guide took us all the way out to Apollo's turnaround for some
footage and waited there for a second train to come by.
>
> Busch Gardens Europe makes a good season opener for us; within driving
> distance for a long weekend and generally light crowds on a Friday. The
> weather was not the best, but it still beat what we'd have been seeing
> in Pittsburgh at that time...
Just saw Bert the Conqueror hitting up Griffon tonight. Great addition
to the park and a very fun ride, I wish we could get one out this way.
--CM
BaSSiStiSt
> Just saw Bert the Conqueror hitting up Griffon tonight. Great addition
> to the park and a very fun ride, I wish we could get one out this way.
This seems like a natural addition to both SFMM and CP. Surprised
there aren't more of these in the states yet.
Did you spot me in my orange shirt in the PKD footage? :-) GF and I
were one row behind Bert on Intrimidator. DVR'ed it last night but
haven't watched yet.
David Sandborg
Funtype <funt...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> David Sandborg wrote:
> > Just a few quick notes from a trip to Busch Gardens Europe yesterday.
> >
> > We got to ride the new Europe in the Air attraction that had taken over
> > for Corkscrew Hill. It was our first time, as it had not been quite
> > ready last year. In fact, on our first attempt it wasn't quite ready
> > either, as they were having some kind of computer problems but we were
> > able to return later. It's better than Corkscrew Hill, but still not
> > entirely my cup of tea. The motion is smoother and more organic, making
> > for a more pleasant ride, but the aerial footage of European landmarks
> > is disorienting. It's almost like footage I would take--the camera
> > doesn't settle in on anything long enough and when it pans, does so too
> > quickly.
>
> I believe it is one of the first to use HD footage and projections, saw
> it last year. Not really impressed with a cheaper and sappy copy of
> Disney's well done Soaring.
I can see why they did what they did. And I'm sure plenty of people
won't really try to compare it to Disney, though that's clearly the
inspiration. I'll just give it credit for being an improvement over
Corkscrew Hill!
> Don't get how you go from flying around to rolling on the roof a vehicle
> in paris traffic. I even spotted the camera rig in the cast shadow
> when the car/plane/(your vehicle) STOPPED
Since the whole idea of jumping from scene to scene is implausible
already, I didn't care too much about this. I do think I noticed some
cases where they sped up or slowed down the footage to make it work - as
judged by movements of vehicles on the streets - but I wasn't trying to
find things wrong so I didn't pay too much attention.
> Motions were still jerky but not as bad as Corkscrew, and they removed
> the flyaway box, so there is no mystique when you enter the theater,
> black walls and a sim-platform, bad show indeed.
I didn't find the motion to be jerky, perhaps they worked on it somewhat.
> > The light crowds made it very easy to do just about everything we wanted
> > to, including several stops in shops (helpful for warming up) and some
> > time spent in the wildlife area. In fact, the cold weather prevented us
> > from trying some attractions we otherwise would have, such as the Rhine
> > River Cruise, Escape from Pompeii, and the log flume (which opened with
> > the park but was shut down later, presumably due to lack of ridership).
> > In fact we found ourselves "done" about two hours before the park closed
> > and just left.
> >
>
> I finally got to do the River Cruise on this last visit too and the old
> veteran guide took us all the way out to Apollo's turnaround for some
> footage and waited there for a second train to come by.
The cruise is a fun diversion for the middle of the day. It's a shame
that you can no longer get BBW shots from it.
> > Busch Gardens Europe makes a good season opener for us; within driving
> > distance for a long weekend and generally light crowds on a Friday. The
> > weather was not the best, but it still beat what we'd have been seeing
> > in Pittsburgh at that time...
>
> Just saw Bert the Conqueror hitting up Griffon tonight. Great addition
> to the park and a very fun ride, I wish we could get one out this way.
I may just like Griffon a smidge better than Apollo now, which is quite
a surprise since I like Apollo a lot. B&M definitely stepped up their
game with this style of ride over Oblivion. I wouldn't mind seeing more
of them but maybe it is just a bit too much of a gimmick, or their slow
start in getting installations kept them from getting momentum.
ri...@aol.com
> > to the park and a very fun ride, I wish we could get one out this way.
>
> This seems like a natural addition to both SFMM and CP. Surprised
> there aren't more of these in the states yet.
There's an advantage to being later in a coaster style's production
run. Tatsu, Viper and Riddler's Revenge are still the biggest in
their categories, no?
Rik
Mark Rosenzweig
wrote:
>
> I may just like Griffon a smidge better than Apollo now, which is quite
> a surprise since I like Apollo a lot. B&M definitely stepped up their
> game with this style of ride over Oblivion. I wouldn't mind seeing more
> of them but maybe it is just a bit too much of a gimmick, or their slow
> start in getting installations kept them from getting momentum.
>
There are a few things working against the world being saturated with
B&M Dive Coasters (well, two key factors in my mind):
1) Cost/economy/parks not spending like they did in 2000 blah blah
blah.
2) Alternative lower cost cousins of the concept from others (whether
launched or not) from Premier Rides and the Germans. SFoG is touting
their Gerstlauer EuroFighter as a Dive coaster. Bottom line is that
they all get the job done. If your gimmick is (beyond) vertical
drops, there is no height criteria to work with whereas there had
always been that ~200 ft height "requirement" for a coaster to be
considered a mega coaster. Depending on who you talk to, the height
is either the structure height, or maximum terrain inspired drop (i.e.
Phantom peaks at 160 but has a 225 ft drop; Apollo peaks at 170 but
has a 210 ft drop).
Funtype
>
>
> There are a few things working against the world being saturated with
> B&M Dive Coasters (well, two key factors in my mind):
>
> 1) Cost/economy/parks not spending like they did in 2000 blah blah
> blah.
>
> 2) Alternative lower cost cousins of the concept from others (whether
> launched or not) from Premier Rides and the Germans. SFoG is touting
> their Gerstlauer EuroFighter as a Dive coaster. Bottom line is that
> they all get the job done. If your gimmick is (beyond) vertical
> drops, there is no height criteria to work with whereas there had
> always been that ~200 ft height "requirement" for a coaster to be
> considered a mega coaster. Depending on who you talk to, the height
> is either the structure height, or maximum terrain inspired drop (i.e.
> Phantom peaks at 160 but has a 225 ft drop; Apollo peaks at 170 but
> has a 210 ft drop).
>
>
>
I hear what you are saying and it amazed me to see Griffon in person.
That was a big wallet attraction.
I have not ridden SheiKra. So I can't speak to its presence in the park,
but for Griffon, I had little expectations that it would be more or less
a trick pony show and I'm glad to say it did-what-it-did so well there
was no need to say; if it only did this or that.
The package works really well and I don't know if size really had
anything to do with it ride-wise, setting, location, etc.
I was also very impressed with DarKastle, having finally gotten to ride
it. Also a big dollar investment, but not as big as Universals, yet it
works very well too and holds up well.
--CM
David Sandborg
Funtype <funt...@hotmail.com> wrote:
I was reflecting on Busch Gardens a bit after the trip, and I think that
one of the things that attracts me about it is that it may be the
closest thing to the Marriot's Great America of my youth. There are
many, many differences, but there are some reminiscent features. The
theming is quite consistent to the areas of the park (unlike the later
evolution of Great America). This extends beyond the rides, even to the
shops. And some of the shops are unique merchandise, not just generic
stuff. I don't know how many sales they make from the artisanal shops,
but they certainly contribute to the atmosphere. Even I, a non-shopper,
can spend some time in them, and it seems like I keep finding new ones
to explore with each visit. Busch still seems to have an attention to
detail that many other parks have given up on. And yet they're a bit
more thrill oriented than Disney, which also appeals to me.