Well, hello everyone! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Other than adding to pins to my Pin Collection, I haven’t had much going on in the way of park visits. I’ve been busy working and having off on Mondays, none of the parks in this region were open most weekdays as of now. That will soon change once Memorial Day comes, but at present, Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW) was the only park I could visit on a Monday.
Having some free passes for friends I asked Jen and Ethan, who I visited Hersheypark with for Christmas Candylane at the end of 2023, if they’d like to come along. Both said yes and Ethan brought a friend along as well.
It was a long day with the seven hours of drive time, plus our park visit, but it was well worth it. We managed to get in a fair number of rides as well as hit Not Another Pancake House and a Cook Out while in the area.
Riding Mostly All of My Favorites
Going into this visit I was looking forward to riding the newly reopened, Loch Ness Monster: The Legend Lives On. Nessie has always been a sentimental favorite of mine and I couldn’t wait to see all the improvements that had been made. I’ll get into those in a bit, but this was a major reason for me wanting to visit BGW as soon as possible in 2024.
On a sad note, however, Alpengeist, which ranks right up there with Pantheon as my favorite coasters in the park, was closed. About a week or so ahead of our visit, it was shown that the ride would be undergoing some maintenance for an undisclosed amount of time. I knew the likelihood of Alpengeist being open for us was slim to none, but the nerd in me still missed it dearly.
Loch Ness Monster: The Legend Lives On
We made our way to Loch Ness first thing after getting my GoPro and mount approved to film the on-ride POV above. I wanted to capture all the changes for those of you who haven’t yet experienced the ride as of 2024. Please be sure to give the video a watch and I appreciate any likes, comments, and/or sharing of the video.
Now, onto what I think of the ride. BGW gets an A+ from me for the TLC put into modernizing this classic Arrow Looper. So many other parks might have scrapped the ride, but BGW knows this iconic yellow coaster would be dearly missed. Either that, or fans of the ride would cause a massive uproar if that announcement was ever made. They went through it with Big Bad Wolf years ago, but I feel like it would be even worse had Loch Ness Monster met a similar fate.
Hands down the best improvements to this ride is in the theming. The Nessie under the double loops is a stand-out addition, but it’s not the only thing that caught my eye. The new shack and damaged train at the base of the first lift hill is a great and helps with the audio components now featured on both of the ride’s the lift hills.
I also can’t forget to mention the cave. I’m so grateful the park did something in the cave once again. It’s been dark in there for way too long. What was it you ask? Well, maybe I shouldn’t spoil everything, although those of you who watched the POV might just catch a glimpse.
The theming updates are just limited to on-ride. They’re also found in the ride’s queue and station. Be sure to check out some of the photos in the gallery below to see a handful of them. Hopefully I’ll be able to capture some more of what was in the queue in a future visit because there was just so much glare hindering a lot of what I tried to shoot that early in the day during this visit.
All these mentions and I didn’t even say if the retracked portions of the ride are more comfortable. Well, for those wondering, yes indeed, they are. Premier Rides did a great job replacing portions of this track and visually, you can’t even tell. This gives me hope that other Arrows might be prolonged with similar treatment. Ahem… Looking at you, Anaconda.
Griffon
Getting back out to BGW meant that Jen wanted more rides on Griffon. She fell in love with the coaster back in October of 2023 when we visited the park for Howl-O-Scream. We were able to score a back row and second row ride this time around.
Both rides were great, as always. This is still my favorite Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) Dive Coaster I’ve ridden to date. I will be experiencing Iron Menace at Dorney Park next month, as will Jen. I know that will be a lot shorter, but I’m interested in seeing how a smaller, faster paced Dive Coaster differs from those I’ve ridden, which include Griffon, Sheikra, and Valravn.
Jen was hoping we could get back over for a third ride to finish off our visit, but Verbolten’s downtime late in the evening hindered those plans.
DarKoaster
Okay, confession time. DarKoaster is totally growing on me. While I’m not saying it’s competing for best coaster at the park or anything, the more I ride it, the more I appreciate it. I still wish some things were different on the inside with visible theming elements, but the launches and whip around several turns sure is fun.
While I can’t recommend waiting a long time for the ride, if the wait time is reasonable, I’m going to ride this each and every visit. It’s a great change of pace and not to mention, nice and cold inside on those hot Virginia days.
Final Ride Counts
Apollo’s Chariot (2)
DarKoaster (1)
Griffon (2)
Loch Ness Monster (1)
Pantheon (2)
Verbolten (1)
Destined for a Few More Visits
Although BGW is not the closest park to where I live, it’s one that I always try to visit a couple of times a year. Having the platinum membership comes in handy with the amount of money I save with parking and especially when it comes to merchandise. Have you seen how many BGW pins I have?
The free tickets are also great as I am always taking friends like Jen and Ethan along whenever I can. Still, that platinum pass is a bit costly. In order to warrant the purchase, I will need to make another visit or two here in 2024. I have plenty of time to make that happen, though. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with Chris at some point too.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg Photo Gallery - May 20, 2024
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Jen
Ensign
New Credit(s): n/a
1 thought on “Busch Gardens Williamsburg – First Rides of 2024”
I had a blast as always can’t wait to go to new parks this summer with you!!!
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