A Whirlwind Trip to 'The Gardens' Part 2

Here lies park deux of my review of my recent impromptu trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. If you were napping during the first part, here's a link for you to catch up with.

I believe when we left off I was rambling on about how much I loved Griffon's first drop. From Griffon I believe I took the chance to have another walk on ride, this time I hit Alpengeist.

This is what you would call a B&M inverted coaster on steroids. And let me tell you, they don't build them like this anymore! This baby is intense.

The first drop is just ginormous!

The ride is themed to a ski trip gone wrong, or right if you're an enthusiast! The course is filled with fake snow, fake skis, and some cute skiing accident props along the way!

But that's all really rather hard to take notice of when on the ride because as Sabrina pointed out to me, it feels like you go about 1,392 miles an hour on this puppy. I've been on a decent amount of B&M inverted rides, and none of them felt like that.

It's pretty intense with the forces, too. I rode near the back and on the left, and I must say that I got whipped around a good deal on my journey. I'm used to the 'sit back and relax - you're on a B&M' mentality that you'll find on many of their rides today - none of that to be found on Aplie!

Ever seen this view before? I didn't think so.

Maybe it was all the rain and humidity - or maybe it's just always like that, but Alpengeist really surprised me with it's speed and intensity.

The ride also goes out over the lake. That's why they took out Drachen Fire - it didn't interact with the lake.

Alas, I'm also big into dark rides. I read extensively about the Curse of DarKastle when the ride opened, feeling rather in awe of the park's ambitious plans to build a Spiderman type ride of their own.

Speaking of theming only, the park did a class act job. There's only one section of the unthemed ride building you can see, but mostly you get beautiful views like the one above when peeking about.

I love how they look skeletal.. pretty yet creepy

The actual ride experience is equally well done. So often you see a premier ride of any sort copied and it just, well, falls flat - but the effects all came together really well on this one. The simulator cars, 3d projections, physical sets, musical score, and special effects blend wonderfully to take you on a wild ride through King Ludwid II's castle.

And afterall, who doesn't love a ride where someone's mother has to come to rescue you? Sorta gives you that warm feeling all over.

Let's go to Ireland! The park's newest 'land' - formerly Hastings, England is quite a treat. The theming is top notch, and I think the photo above shows you just what I mean by that.

This ride will make you really tiny!

I was anxious to try out Corkscrew Hill - mostly because this is where the awesome simulator Questor once was. Well, the latest simulator to call that building home is pretty okay, but it sure isn't Questor!

I had to take a photo of the tunnel that you first enter because this to me will always be the Questor tunnel. I ended up in the front row on the far right side of Corkscrew Hill's theatre, so I probably had a less than perfect visual experience with the 3d glasses.

I've wanted to ride Escape from Pompeii since the ride opened in 1995. I believe I saw it on a tv show shortly after it opened and it looked like the coolest thing since sliced bread to me.

The ride's 'inland' area is very well done as an archaeological dig site

Something about the idea of taking a boat ride though a massive Volcano eruption just really tickled my fancy I guess. Plus there was fire, and that made it cool by default.

Where do I sign up for this tour?

Well fast forward to a few days ago as I finally set sail on the attraction after all those years of waiting. By this point I pretty much knew all there was to know about it, but still looked forward to the experience.

And well, it didn't really disappoint! Every single effect that I knew of was working, which after 15 years of operating is really pretty fantastic of Busch Gardens. And that bubble fire on the ceiling is just too cool!

Now I know we're all still waiting for the Big Bad Wolf stuff, and I promise that will be in the last section! For now you can ponder the same thing that this eagle is pondering.