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Busch Gardens Williamsburg: General Discussion
- Thread starter BigAl
- Start date
Rob
TS Team
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- Steel Vengeance
The 2015 new attraction is actually a coaster! That's where the good news ends though, as it is a Sky Scream / Superman: Ultimate Flight clone by Premier. Nothing wrong with the ride but for a major park like BGW!? I'm hugely disappointed by this. Even if it's well themed the throughput will be nowhere near adequate.
John
TS Member
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What a bizarre choice, I've not ridden any of the others so I can't comment on the ride quality, but surely the throughput will be far too low for a park of that size - all of their other coasters were designed to run at least 3 trains and now they're adding one that seats a grand total of 12 people?
BGW should be aiming much higher than this.
BGW should be aiming much higher than this.
Seems an odd choice, as next year was rumoured to be a medium investment year and was rumoured would be adding some kind of flat ride (similar budget to when added Mack Tower)
While this is a great ride for a smaller park it's just doesn't have capacity for a major park, and would have been better with a high capacity flat ride such as a giant frisbee.
While this is a great ride for a smaller park it's just doesn't have capacity for a major park, and would have been better with a high capacity flat ride such as a giant frisbee.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
A possible explanation for this poor addition:
Verbolten cost in the region of $50 million. It is widely regarded as a fantastic addition to the park and a good coaster. However it only resulted in a small ride in attendance figures, I'd imagine they were hoping it would bring in a fair few more people than it did. That obviously leaves the park in a tricky financial situation (sounding quite similar to Thorpe and The Swarm so far actually). 2011 was also a fairly significant invesment with the addition of Mach Tower and that has been a horrific failure for the park.
So along comes 2015 and the park need a new medium investment ride. They also need to get guest numbers up. The best way of doing this? A small and relatively low cost thrill coaster. It will probably be easier to market and possible be more likely to get guests in than Verbolten.
Of course that may not be the reasoning but it does make sense. It's just such a pity that a park with such wonderful original rides like Apollo's Charriot, Alpengeist, Griffon and Verbolten can plonk in a small clone with a terrible throughput.
On a side note, Kings Dominion and Cedar Fair must be rubbing their hands with this news. I'd imagine that Kings Dominion are due a new big coaster, probably a B&M, in either 2015 ir 2016 at the latest. Certainly beats a cloned Premier.
Verbolten cost in the region of $50 million. It is widely regarded as a fantastic addition to the park and a good coaster. However it only resulted in a small ride in attendance figures, I'd imagine they were hoping it would bring in a fair few more people than it did. That obviously leaves the park in a tricky financial situation (sounding quite similar to Thorpe and The Swarm so far actually). 2011 was also a fairly significant invesment with the addition of Mach Tower and that has been a horrific failure for the park.
So along comes 2015 and the park need a new medium investment ride. They also need to get guest numbers up. The best way of doing this? A small and relatively low cost thrill coaster. It will probably be easier to market and possible be more likely to get guests in than Verbolten.
Of course that may not be the reasoning but it does make sense. It's just such a pity that a park with such wonderful original rides like Apollo's Charriot, Alpengeist, Griffon and Verbolten can plonk in a small clone with a terrible throughput.
On a side note, Kings Dominion and Cedar Fair must be rubbing their hands with this news. I'd imagine that Kings Dominion are due a new big coaster, probably a B&M, in either 2015 ir 2016 at the latest. Certainly beats a cloned Premier.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Sorry to double post, but Bosque Magico in Mexico have also announced that they will be getting a Premier Sky Scream clone that will run muiltiple trains. So the ride system can operate with a dual station. Although it's doesn't like it on the plans let's just hope that BGW's does also. If a small park I've never heard of before in Mexico is getting one with a dual station then surely BGW have to!
Plastic Person
TS Member
Rob said:Sorry to double post, but Bosque Magico in Mexico have also announced that they will be getting a Premier Sky Scream clone that will run muiltiple trains. So the ride system can operate with a dual station. Although it's doesn't like it on the plans let's just hope that BGW's does also. If a small park I've never heard of before in Mexico is getting one with a dual station then surely BGW have to!
Perhaps it's a change/incredible amplification of the magnetic braking system? Still think this is a weird idea, mind...
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
So the new show, London Rocks, premiers on May 23rd. Here is a short video about it:
http://youtu.be/MSzT96lPh9U
The Globe Theatre now looks like this:
Yeah, that's bad! It appears that the new horribly bright coloured painting is permanent but the 'cut out props' stuck on to the building are just temporary whilst they promote the show for the first couple of weeks. They were put up as the big new sign for the show isn't yet ready.
Here you can see some wires for where many Union Flags will be hung:
In better news, the new Banbury Cross Coke Market looks fine and fits in with the existing buildings:
At the end of the day it is nowhere near as bad as it almost was. Initially the whole of this lovely area was going to be completely ruined by 1960s London.
http://youtu.be/MSzT96lPh9U
The Globe Theatre now looks like this:
Yeah, that's bad! It appears that the new horribly bright coloured painting is permanent but the 'cut out props' stuck on to the building are just temporary whilst they promote the show for the first couple of weeks. They were put up as the big new sign for the show isn't yet ready.
Here you can see some wires for where many Union Flags will be hung:
In better news, the new Banbury Cross Coke Market looks fine and fits in with the existing buildings:
At the end of the day it is nowhere near as bad as it almost was. Initially the whole of this lovely area was going to be completely ruined by 1960s London.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Sorry to double post, but here is a full recording of the new show London Rocks:
http://youtu.be/RP8IKPpFvdc
I honestly don't know what I think of it. Visually it is very impressive. However it makes no sense and is incredibly random at times. I actually think the whole making fun of the Queen stuff is quite amusing but many of the Americans think that us Brits are going to be insulted and offended by that. For anyone that manages to watch it, thoughts?
http://youtu.be/RP8IKPpFvdc
I honestly don't know what I think of it. Visually it is very impressive. However it makes no sense and is incredibly random at times. I actually think the whole making fun of the Queen stuff is quite amusing but many of the Americans think that us Brits are going to be insulted and offended by that. For anyone that manages to watch it, thoughts?
James
TS Founding Member
The music is great, the animations are great, the visuals overall are great... but it doesn't feel that good tbh. It does seem pretty random and there's not a lot of continuity. I didn't particularly find the Queen sections funny although I can see the humour inserted into those sections. Certainly not offensive though! Americans are generally more sensitive than us so I can see how they might think we would be offended.
Not a car crash of a show though. Just lacks a bit of substance!
Not a car crash of a show though. Just lacks a bit of substance!
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
So erm, well, BGWFans are reporting that the 2015 Premier Sky Scream clone coaster is going to be themed around an extreme sport. Oh dear! My concerns grow.
EDIT:
A ride poster, note that Diavolo is the projects code name and is there as a placeholder:
And this shows how close the ride will be to Apollo's Chariot, the purple line shows where Apollo's lift is:
Credit to BGWFans.com for the pictures.
EDIT:
A ride poster, note that Diavolo is the projects code name and is there as a placeholder:
And this shows how close the ride will be to Apollo's Chariot, the purple line shows where Apollo's lift is:
Credit to BGWFans.com for the pictures.
Last edited:
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
A few more things from BGWFans.com including the park's project introduction to the ride:
To say this has gone down very badly with the parks fans is a huge understatement! It does appear that there is very little logic behind this addition, it just is not very Busch Gardens Williamsburg at all. It does upset me as I love the park.
To say this has gone down very badly with the parks fans is a huge understatement! It does appear that there is very little logic behind this addition, it just is not very Busch Gardens Williamsburg at all. It does upset me as I love the park.
