Verbolten's Opening Draws Near

Today was Busch Gardens Williamsburg's big media tour of Verbolten, and as expected plenty of new photos and video have hit the interwebs as a result.  Between official photos, tweets, tumblrs, and other social media there's a wealth of new shots of the ride.

Seen in the first photo and this one is the dramatically changed face of the ride's station, which has been built out to include this new exit retail shop.  Part of what now sounds like the park's most detailed coaster queue as far as theming goes, the entire ride area is going to be impressive.

I love these aerial photos that the park sends out, this angle is great because you can see both the final bridge - which is looking good - as well as the path the ride takes as it returns back up to the station. 

Another view of the bride area of the ride.  There is a nice, sweeping curve that leads up to it, directly after a 53 mile per hour launch.

I have to wonder if the trains will slow down a lot while on this bridge.  You can see the framing for the structure is made of steel, though it will be covered in dilapidated-looking wood for theming purposes.

Speaking of, it appears as though the park is building the cover for the bridge down on the hill next to it.  I'm guessing they will lift the entire piece and place it up once complete.  This gives a nice idea of the ramshackle nature of the bridge theme.

As for the event center, the park let the secret slip and announced that part of the surprises in the building (which contains a heavy black forest theme) is a free-fall section of track.  But before you get in the building you launch into this tunnel, with some creepy theming already quite underway.

Here is a capture of the free-fall section.  If you look really closely you can make out a sort of tunnel with red branches twisting around the track.  The park puts the free fall at 16 feet, which is then followed by another launch out of the building.

Not all of the theming is installed in the building yet, for example here we see the track twisting around without much near it.  Verbolten's trains will feature on-board video so rides may purchase their video afterward.

For even more photos, check out Behind the Thrills, Theme Park Review, as well as Busch Garden's official Twitter account.