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Busch Gardens Williamsburg: General Discussion

Update! BGW have posted a second video which seemingly comfirms the location of Project 2017:



Along with this, Busch have posted some of the plans online which you can see here.

So why are they doing this, posting plans online? There is a long standing battle as you like between the park and the BGWFans group. BGWFans recieve a hell of a lot of inside information are always post about the parks major projects long before the park want information to be out there. BGWFans have leaked both Verbolten and Tempesto plans in recent years; and the park refused to even ackoweldge that Tempesto even existed until just before it opened. So this is a bit like Busch trying to get one park at BGWFans, releasing info unexpectedly early to catch them out. Although BGWFans are sure to counter swifltly and we can explect them to reveal quite a bit more shortly.

Anyway, where is this new ride go to be located? If you know the park, it will be behind the French area, in and around where Le Scoot is:

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The posted plans also give these details regarding heights, stating that the attraction would not exceed 60ft:

GRPgJFS.png


Of course there is nothing to say that these plans are genuine, they could be a red herring to throw us off the path. Saying that, the location is correct, you can read this BGWFans post regarding where the ride would be located, this was written before the park posted their second video and came to the conclusion of the same piece of land that the park confirmed soon after.

What ride might we be looking at? People who have examined the plans Busch have posted have come to the conclusion that it is likely to be a compact coaster due to the small nature of the site's footprint. This of course leads on to suggestions that it could be a Cobra's Curse style Mack Spinning Coaster, seeing as BGT are getting one this year. Williamsburg and Tampa have often shared coasters/concepts over the years, even if they have been from different manufacturers.

Any form of woodie is extremely unlikely due to the location. It is the side of the park that is closest to nearby residential areas so they would not get away with a loud wooden coaster.

I'm sure we will know a lot more quite soon!

:)
 
This project really has me interested, I managed to visit over the winter and was blown away by quite how beautiful the park is. I feel like an RMC would be a great fit.

I had a look at the plans and I think this one was the most clear of the extent of the site. Apologies for the dodgy overlay, but it seems likely that the area in the Le Scoot turn around will be a queueline area with the station building for the new ride just outside. The coaster layout can then go further out towards and beyond the train lines. I'm not sure if there's anything to be read into the curvy lines over the rest of the site.
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To me from this, I feel like RMC is still on the cards. I've had a quick muck around too see what sort of layout could fit. Apologies for the even dodgier graphics!
ndkcy9.jpg
 
The shortest RMC at the moment is Medusa at 98 feet, nearly an extra 40 feet over the maximum height on the plans :(
 
BGWFans have now published a brilliant analysis of the plans, I recommend anyone who is interested in this project takes a read!

I feel like the park are making this out to be something bigger than a Mack spinning coaster. But a Mack spinner would make sense; if you look at the current coaster line up you have lots of thrill/family-thrill coasters and one kids coaster. The park is lacking a true family coaster.

:)
 
The BGW VP of Marketing has posted a refreshingly transparent blog post on their new and risky take to marketing for Project 2017:
BGW Blog said:
Sometimes, you just have to take a chance and try something new.

As we expected, our recent release of clues related to a 2017 expansion at Busch Gardens has drawn a lot of attention – both inside and outside of our organization.

We had a lot of discussion among our team about this before sticking our necks out to release this information. Some of my colleagues were pretty squeamish about this. After all, this is more than a year before anything could even be opened, and we never start sharing details this soon. Plans sometimes change, and we don’t want to look stupid down the road. I get it.

But those of us pushing to share what we have learned have been guided by one overriding concern: informing our loyal guests and fans. We talked a lot in our marketing planning about being genuine and transparent … less polished and more informative … and having a dialogue with our fans, not just pushing one-way communication. Now confronted with this opportunity, would we really act on these principles, or just stay silent and do business as usual?

I guess you know which side won the debate.

So we on the Marketing team have made it our mission to find out what’s going on and share it however we can, as soon as it’s feasible. We are not sure how far we can go before someone makes us pull the plug, but as long we have control of our social media and websites we are going to spread the news.

We are especially pleased that we were able to get the complete site plans and post them on our website the same day our engineers filed them with James City County. We have never been able to do that before. (And, yes, we have confirmed that these are in fact the actual plans filed with the county. No tricks.)

My counterpart, Vice President of Engineering Larry Giles, is not used to having to show his cards this early. As the cautious engineer that he is, he would prefer to wait until everything is built, tested and ready to go before we promise anything to our guests. Let’s just say he’s made it pretty clear he is not ready to announce anything for 2017 yet.

As Larry explained to me, approval of the site plan just gives us the permission to prepare a site as outlined. It doesn’t mean that we necessarily are going to build something in a certain timeframe. By labeling the plans “Project 2017” they kind of tipped their hand, though.

Even so, we have been known to change plans for various reasons, so I understand their reluctance to start talking too early. However, I’m arguing that our fans would rather know things early, and are willing to cut us a little slack if we have to make changes along the way.

For those who pay attention to such things, it’s a totally different approach than we took with the announcement (or non-announcement) of Tempesto last year. For better or worse, that was my idea. We had become so frustrated with all of the restrictions and internal timelines that we decided to stay silent and let our fans have fun figuring it out for themselves. After all, construction was happening in plain sight, and anyone riding Apollo’s Chariot could get a full view of the progress.

The strategy worked as planned. We were counting on the superfans to find all of the public filings, permits and trademarks, which they eventually did. Casual park guests saw the blatant construction wall and ride structure rising behind it, and knew something big was coming. And in the end, our research showed that public awareness of the ride at its opening was just as high for Tempesto as it was for Verbolten three years earlier.

But, at some point, it started feeling pretty silly to act like nothing was happening. We vowed that in the future we would be as transparent as we could, as early as we could, even if it made some folks uneasy.

Which brings us to the release of the latest site plans. They certainly give us some clues – notably the location in New France – but even in 30-some pages of drawings there are surprisingly few details. There are some interesting theories out there, and we will continue to sniff around to find out more. (Frankly, I’m getting a little obsessed with this and probably spending a little too much time on #BGProject2017.)

We have been checking the park and don’t see any visible signs of work going on yet, unless it is somehow being obscured with all of the refurbishment of the log flume. The site plans make it clear there is some linear path that needs to be cleared, but that could be for any number of attractions, from a roller coaster to a Howl-O-Scream maze.

As soon as we learn more – and assuming I don’t lose my job in the meantime – you’ll be the first to know.

-Dan, Marketing Vice President
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Assuming this blog post is all the truth and marketing do not actually know any more than they say, it shows just how differently the park is run compared to say Towers where marketing rule over all.

:)
 
The next teaser video from BGW for Project 2017:



What was "found" in this video will be revealed at the park's Pass Member Preview Day on March 19th.

:)
 
That blog reads as marketing to me.

Not saying they know, but I seriously doubt they'd be going against the wishes of the company to release the information as it were, wouldn't happen.

But it is a good way to get dialogue going, and certainly involving fans etc IMO is a far better way to go, it's FREE PUBLICITY for goodness sake lol!
 
That is great news. I already love BGW but this will add an extra dimension. Could also signal BGT getting something similar.
 
A Woodie is just what BGW need (which is quite ironic when Kings Dominion has four of them :p). They already have three world class coasters and if done right, it'll fit perfectly into their line up.
 
So, BGWFans have now confirmed that it will be a GCI woodie. Here is the layout:

FinishedLayout-1.jpg


Not the longest but they are limited by space. Can't wait to see what the park reveal tomorrow!

:)
 
Quetzal said:
ndkcy9.jpg
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Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but close!

Seriously I'm very excited about this project, shame it's not an RMC but in a way it's nice to see that more 'traditional' wooden coasters aren't a thing of the past and major theme park chains are still likely to invest in them.

It's rumoured they'll be salvaging parts of Gwazi for this too so that makes a lot of business sense.
 
BGW have confirmed on Twitter that the official name for the new 2017 coaster will be 'InvadR'. The other contenders were' Viking Raider' and 'Battle Klash'. I think the name 'InvadR' could work well, but we'll of course have to wait and see what the ride is actually like.
 
That's a terrible name. "Invader" would have been okay, but the way it's spelt is worse than Th13teen.
 
BGW addressed concerns over the names in a recent blog post, here is what they said about the 'incorrectly' spelt names:
BGW said:
Why must you misspell names, such as the “K” Klash and removing the “e” from InvadR?

I’ve got to admit, this is a personal peeve of mine, too. But sometimes we modify words intentionally to coin a proprietary name that speaks to the particular attraction. Verbolten is a prime example: we added the “l” to the German word verboten to highlight the lightning bolt effect in the ride.

Some of the choices this time were meant to reflect common Viking spelling preferences, but incorporated with English words most consumers would recognize. That’s why Battle Klash has a “k” instead of a “c”. And InvadR follows the pattern of numerous Old Norse names that end in “r”, often capitalized, such as AlflakR, GeflaugR, JórulfR, VrangR, KetilalfR and BramR. We aren’t trying to suggest InvadR is a Viking word, but rather using the style of other Viking names with a common English word that fits the ride. (And it probably didn’t help that we have posted it online in all capital letters, so one doesn’t see the effect of the capital R.)
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So at least there is some thought to InvadR, although I'm still not a fan of the name.

:)
 
The trouble with th13teen is that it works well on the sign with the "13" making the "R", it doesn't translate well into text online.

InvadR is a bit naff, they can say it's based on old Norse writings but that's just a convenient cover for them following last year's "drop the last vowel" trend!

I'm still sticking by my prediction that they're going to reveal that it's a dueling coaster with the second track hidden in the plans by following the same route! :p
 
Dar said:
The trouble with th13teen is that it works well on the sign with the "13" making the "R", it doesn't translate well into text online.
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It's usually because 3s represent "e" when replacing letters with numbers. I agree though, it looks much better in its logos it can stylised as an R much better.

As for InvadR, at least it doesn't sound anywhere near as ridiculous as Tempesto when you say it :p
 
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