A Whirlwind Trip to 'The Gardens' Part 3

This is part 3 (the last part, I swear!) of my look back at my recent trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. In case you missed them, here is Part 1 and Part 2.

Ohhkay. Let's wrap up this trip report, eh? The weather still wasn't beautiful, and it was still plenty muggy as well. But we soldiered on to Italy where a certain purple and yellow coaster awaited us.

Apollo's Chariot was actually my longest wait of the day, and that was 20 minutes or so. That gives some perspective on how great the lines were - and all the three train coasters only had 2 trains running all day as well.

Apollo's Chariot is a pain to photograph! Most of the ride takes place at the edge of the park along the entrance road and parking lots.

So that's how you end up with shots like these, where you sorta just take what you can get. As for the ride itself, well, not bad I must say!

B&M mega coasters are all pretty similar in my book, but having ridden Diamondback this year provided me with some nice perspective. I really enjoyed it's helix turnaround as well, not as intense as the one on Nitro (the pre-mid course one that is) but fun nonetheless.

2009's new addition to the park is the Sesame Street Forest of Fun land. Sabrina and I got to check out Sesame Place earlier this year, and this new addition is like a condensed soup version of that, well, minus water slides.

It was packed with children, though, and they have a sizeable fountain spray area that the kiddies seemed to adore. Actually, I really wanted to run into it too since it was so hot. But I really came into this new land to be a credit you-know-what.

Yes, I rode Grover's Alpine Express all by myself just to get the credit! There I said it, I admit it!

It's actually a cute ride, and although still a small ride, slightly larger than I thought. (I expected like a dragon coaster size thing) Still... it won't suffice for the family crowd with BBW gone, but that's getting ahead of myself.

Speaking of the Wolf, I've saved the best part of this trip for last. Here we see the lovely entrance sign for the ride, one that I sat and stared at for quite some time on my trip.

These signs are almost sad, all things considered

Why? Well you see the Wolf usually openes later than the rest of the park, and on the day of my visit it opened even later than that.

But having driven quite a ways just to experience the ride, I was determined to camp it out for as long as need be in order to secure my status as a Big Bad Wolf rider.

The trains leave the station here...

Some time later, and with one nervous stomach as well, the ride opened and we all rushed in line! I found that the vast majority of folks at the park had no clue the ride would so soon be leaving. The mad rush and crowds waiting at the entrance were just because the ride is so popular!

... turn the corner and into the woods you go. Ya know, to see grandmother!

Here's the brake run that heads into the station

At last we were allowed into the formal queue for the ride, and we were pretty close to the front of the line, but they stopped us before the actual station for a bit longer. That let me check out my surroundings and take it all in. Gotta do that while you can!

Let us in! Let us in!

They cycled a few trains which allowed me to get some nice shots of the cars after they hit the brakes. And then before I knew it they opened the station and we all flooded in!

Worth it's weight in gold, I say

So what about the actual ride? Well it was a surprise! I hadn't watched video of the ride in some time so I only sorta knew the layout - obviously I knew of the last drop over the river. It's a pretty good time on there!

Looking down at the station from the overhead exit walkway

The first part of the ride, which I anticipated to be somewhat slow was nothing of the sort, quite zippy actually. I made sure to take my rides in the front of a car so that I had better views of the surroundings, and flying past those Bavarian buildings was pretty cool.

Probably my favorite shot of the trip, the Wolf's brake run over a winding waterfall

After that first part is over you sorta slam on some brakes and that's when you realize you've reached lift hill #2. Up and away you go onto the ride's famous finale.

The dive down to the river is really something else, much steeper than I expected! As for what happens next, well, that's where it gets pretty intense. The swinging is full on and the ride makes it perfectly clear that you're just along for the ride.

Yes, Sabrina, I took this shot, too!

While I do think it's sad that the ride has come to the end of it's operating life, I highly doubt the park was being callous when they made the decision to pull the plug. I don't claim to have any insider info on why the ride's being retired, but if maintenance costs are really an issue I can't say I'm surprised - what ride wouldn't tend to pull itself apart over time with an ending like that!

It's clearly a favorite of park guests, and it's absence will leave a rather large hole in the park's coaster lineup. In fact, more than the ride being removed I think that's a greater concern. I rode next to a nice lady and her two kids. One of them was so small I figured she was going to swap with another adult when it was time to ride. Not so! This teeny tiny little child got right on and had the time of their life.

It wasn't until after that ride that I checked out the park map and saw that the Wolf had only a 42 inch height restriction. The park will sorely be lacking a ride for kids looking for more than Grover's and less than Loch Ness. But perhaps those plans are already in place.

I had a great time at a wonderful park, and am pleased I got to saw farewell to the Wolf. I'll leave you with this stunning photo of my riding partner on this trip! Looks like she's having fun, no?