GRIFFON thrills lucky visitors earlier than scheduled...

Was anybody at Busch Gardens Europe yesterday for Mothers Day? I guess not as I would think we would've already seen a thread! But anyway, Griffon had a soft opening and was operating all day with approximately 20 minute waits with a three train operation -- two weeks ahead of its scheduled official opening. The ride looks spectacular! I'm envious of every person that will have the opportunity to ride it this season!

Here are some photographs courtesy of Anthony Ferguson and BGEscape.

Griffon, wetting itself from all the excitement.

Guests piling into the queue entrance.

Wide load...

Wow.

Wow... I still cant believe how big those trains are! How does the floor work? Does the middle section of the floor stay attached to the train?

Those pictures are awesome! I cannot wait to ride it!!

^Agreed! They are awesome and I'm jealous of those people! I can't wait to ride it later this year.

Wow... I still cant believe how big those trains are! How does the floor work? Does the middle section of the floor stay attached to the train?

Yeah, I had asked that in the Griffon thread, I would like to know as well.

Thanks for the great pics! Great logo, great theming, what more could you ask for? And not only are those trains huge, they look as comfortable as my living room recliner!

It looks great! I guess the trains are what makes it look so larger than Sheikra, but I'm not sure.

Anybody been on both yet?

Griffon isn't the only one wetting itself! This thing looks AMAZING!

I heard the max the line got was about 20minutes long!

^20 min is such a promising wait!!

Thanks for the great pics! Great logo, great theming, what more could you ask for? And not only are those trains huge, they look as comfortable as my living room recliner!

If they are anything like the B&M hypercoaster trains, they will be the comfiest seats you will ever have the pleasure of sitting in. Unfortunatly I'm betting they are more like the slightly less comfy floorless coaster seats.

I can't wait, I will be riding it this Wed at Media day!!!

Peace, Big Mike

Hmm--too bad I didn't wander over to the park on Mother's Day. Oh, well--there's always media day (and all the days after that).

My friends and I are going on Saturday, since they had it soft-open two days ago, I hope they have it soft-open saturday, but I won't hold it against the park if it isn't. Definstly looks like it will be a blast!

Damn I wish I was one of those lucky people. I cant wait to ride it, hopefully sometime this year though ill get up to going to Virginia!

I can't get over the sheer size of it. It's massive

I can't wait to come out to VA in August (drop off my brother at W&M for college) and ride this thing. Being out there when it was testing was so frustrating and awesome at the same time!

I just got an email that starting on the 18th it will be soft opening through the 24th.

Holy hell... 10 people across????? That's an awesome throughput!!! I really need to get out there now...

Wow, this coaster looks amazing! To bad I probably won't be able to ride it for a while.

---Brent

Wow... I still cant believe how big those trains are! How does the floor work? Does the middle section of the floor stay attached to the train?

The two large platforms pull away into both sides of the loading platform and the middle platform lowers into the track. Nifty!

Wow... I still cant believe how big those trains are! How does the floor work? Does the middle section of the floor stay attached to the train?

To give you some idea you can see how it works here... ->

~Matthew

Amazing. Looking. Size. Wise.

I envy all of you, who will be soon able to ride this MASSIVE thing!

Thanks for the sharing of pix...

The last picture amazes me!

Wow... I still cant believe how big those trains are! How does the floor work? Does the middle section of the floor stay attached to the train?

 

To give you some idea you can see how it works here... ->

~Matthew

The floor on Griffon isn't exactly the same as on other Floorless coasters. Griffon has no "drop, split and fold" sequence like other Floorless coasters.