It was Thursday evening and I was talking to Chris. He mentioned he’d be at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW) on Friday, attending a Summer Nights VIP event with Carrie. They’d be there representing the Busch Gardens Williamsburg Insiders (BGWI) group from Facebook. He planned to check out the event and get in a few rides. Naturally, I was sitting there thinking about how I had nothing to do Friday.
I’m sure you can see where this is going. Chris sure did telling me, “See ya there,” in response to my asking him, “You know what I’m thinking?” Was I that obvious, Chris? Or are we just massive coaster nerds and on the same wave length?
Pin Swappin'
In addition to getting in some rides Friday, Chris and I both needed to touch base in order to swap a bunch of pins. It seems like after every visit I make to BGW they release a brand new pin, or series of pins, a day or two later. It’s happened several times now. When that happened again a few months ago, Chris was nice enough to grab some of the new releases for me, just in case they became hard to find. He also secured an extra Pantheon pin from the ride’s VIP event.
I did something similar for Chris after my last visit to BGW too. He wouldn’t been able to attend for a while so I grabbed him the Pantheon hoods. I also had several pins from other parks for him, waiting until we could meet up again. Those included a Leap the Dips pin from Lakemont Park, a Tumbili pin from Kings Dominion, and an Iron Gwazi hood from Busch Gardens Tampa (BGT).
We both picked up several boxes of the second series of Mystery Box License Plate pins yesterday and swapped our duplicates. I was able to collect the entire series after trading with Chris’ duplicates.
For the first time at the park, I dabbed in some pin trading. The Le Scoot pin up above was on one of the park staff’s lanyards. I traded my duplicate InvadR construction helmet for it. A little later, Chris picked up that very same pin in the same exact shop. He traded a duplicate Drachen Fire pin for his.
Lastly, I want to give Carrie a special thanks. She heard me talking about how hard it has been trying to find the Iron Gwazi slider pin from BGT. She had one and told me to take it. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. Carrie, thank you so much! Even though I tease you about wearing Crocs to amusement parks, this is one croc I’m glad you had on ya! Get it? Croc… Iron Gwazi? I’ll stop!
Coaster Hoppin'
Even though I decided to leave after the morning rush hour, Northern Virginia traffic still sucked, as always, and I ended up getting to the park at 1:15 p.m. Chris and Carrie also caught a bunch of traffic, so I had some time to myself to kick off my day. I decided to get things started with Alpengeist – a coaster I can ride over and over again.
Alpengeist
I rode Alpengeist four times yesterday. When getting in line for my first ride, I just so happened to be behind the fellas from Quality Coasters on Instagram (@Quality_Coasters). I introduced myself and we struck up a conversation. We rode Alpengeist together and I shared some tips and information about the park for the rest of their day. It was awesome meeting you guys and I hope the rest of your trip is an enjoyable one.
My second and third rides came while Chris and Carrie were attending their VIP event. I could have squeezed in a few more, but decided to stop in a few of the surrounding stores to check out the pin trading scene instead. That’s how I found the Le Scoot pin I mentioned above.
My fourth ride came with Chris and Carrie after they made their way over the bridge. It was great riding with them and our aim was to do it for our final ride of the night, but we knew we couldn’t make it from Verbolten to Alpengeist in under 4 minutes. Maybe Chris could with all those marathons he does, but alas, we didn’t even try.
Verbolten
Speaking of Verbolten, it’s been a good while since I had the wolf themed effects inside the show building. Well, yesterday made up for that. We experienced the wolf both rides – one during the day and one at night. I love that the park paid homage to Big Bad Wolf in multiple ways in Verbolten’s design. I know a lot of people miss the Wolf, but I’m someone who feels that Verbolten is truly a worth successor. Read more about those thoughts in the Influential Coasters of My Childhood series and it’s Modern Take follow up. Links below:
Apollo's Chariot
After starting the day with Alpengeist I made my way over to Apollo’s Chariot for my second ride of the day. It would be my second to last ride of the day too. What made the second ride more exciting was that it nighttime and happened during the park’s fireworks show. Being so dark along most of Apollo’s course, those fireworks looked so vibrant and splashed some colors onto the landscape during the ride. It certainly made for something just a little bit different this time around.
Final Ride Counts
Alpengeist (4: Patrick, 2: Chris, Carrie)
Apollo’s Chariot (2: Patrick, 1: Chris, Carrie)
Griffon (1)
InvadR (1)
Pantheon (1)
Skyride (1)
Verbolten (2)
A Great Day, Missing Only One Thing
In the middle of the day Chris, Carrie, and I landed our lone ride on Pantheon. The coaster had a 40 minute wait, but it certainly was hauling with the 84 degree temperature. I was even treated to some mild ejector on the outer banked turn. Up until yesterday, the most intense airtime I ever had on that element was floater. It made it so much better.
I was really looking forward to getting in another night ride on Pantheon after closing out my prior visit with two back-to-back night rides with Cody. Those rides happened in the pitch black and we so amazing. With the light package in full force last night, I was hoping to see how different the experience would be. Sadly, the ride was closed when we returned prior to the fireworks. Someone said the ride had a train get stuck, but we couldn’t see anything showing that to be the case. My guess is that the ride was closed due to the fireworks? Hard to say as Loch Ness Monster was also down, but the rest of the coasters appeared to be operating.
I guess this means I’ll just have to go back and ride it again this summer. I hope the lights will be on, but I sure won’t balk at riding this Intamin multi-launch in complete darkness again either. Can’t go wrong either way.
Busch Gardens Photo Gallery - June 24, 2022
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CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Chris D.
Ensign
New Credit(s): n/a
Carrie
Ensign
New Credit(s): n/a
