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Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

P. 467: Media Town Hall Report

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I think the hammer is a big clue. No one touched it, and no one made any indication of it what so ever. If we were to believe it was steel. That hammer would have been a rachet set.

 

I'm fairly sure I got it. Obviously it will be a German Hammer Juggling show. Considering BGW already has a German section, it makes perfect sense to add the show there.

 

 

As in the video, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

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The real noise question depends on where they put it. The old DF site is a perfect coaster spot, but I know KM really hated having DF there. They could move the grazing pasture of the Clysdales and sheep to the old DF site and build a coaster in the pasture on the other side of the train station in Festa. I know Tempesto just went there, but it would give that part of the park even more love after years of neglect.

 

There's always a chance of something being removed too. A huge Longshot but possibility would be removing Europe in Air, using the building as a queue, and putting a coaster in the space between Ireland and england. I'd hate to see trees go in that part of the park, but Ireland could use a new thrill ride and none of the simulators have been enjoyable to me since Questor. That would be my favorite spot for an attraction from an objective view, least favorite from a clearing trees view.

 

I'd love to see a coaster on the old DF that reuses the station and train barn. I don't think that will happen, but I'd love it. I do know the park has specific "protected" sites here and there that they won't remove trees, or at least they used to.

 

Also, a drop doesn't necessarily mean coaster. With the poor performance of rapids lately, a new water ride would also be a good addition.

 

They could also be trolling like all those "call RMC" memos Tony puts out on his twitter feed for CP.

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^I'd also love to see a new ride in Ireland as that section of the park seems to be lacking a major attraction. Drachen Fire's old spot would be great as well since there is plenty of room, although the location seemed to be an issue with the ride since the path is hidden behind Festhaus and the fact it's close to Kingsmill (probably why we have yet to see a coaster back there yet, but that could change). That would also mean the sacrifice of Bitten, Glory In The Gardens and whatever activities that are held back there.

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^I'd also love to see a new ride in Ireland as that section of the park seems to be lacking a major attraction. Drachen Fire's old spot would be great as well since there is plenty of room, although the location seemed to be an issue with the ride since the path is hidden behind Festhaus and the fact it's close to Kingsmill (probably why we have yet to see a coaster back there yet, but that could change). That would also mean the sacrifice of Bitten, Glory In The Gardens and whatever activities that are held back there.

Yeah, that's a tricky one. Not only is the path back there hidden, it's also pretty narrow compared to the other major thoroughfares in the park. You'd have to get rid of or relocate the Autobahn / Junior Autobahn to make that path wide enough, and the coaster would likely need to be an anchor of a new country or German territory so that there's more to do back there for guests.

 

You'd also have to build some sort of wall or grow enough trees to hide Verbolten's show building from guests at ground level. It's not so much an issue at night with the haunts or during concert days, but when you're actually incorporating a themed, story-based area back there, it becomes important that the Black Forest appear to be an actual forest.

 

I'd say that they'd be better off in that open area between Festa Italia and San Marco, but that's another haunt spot, right? As much as I'd love a new coaster or expansion losing those kinds of spots would likely hurt the park's bottom line.

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^ No not at all. The path back there was purpose built for Drachen Fire. I see no reason it couldn't just be re-used as is. People on here sometimes claim the location doomed Drachen Fire and it's just not true. People didn't have trouble finding it (or at least, not any more than finding other points of the park. I used to need to give directions to Alpengeist from the log flume bridge from time to time). It just was a rough/unpopular ride that many people refused to re-ride, and others wouldn't get on after hearing someone else complain of roughness. Especially in the early days of the ride, the DF area was packed. They even had little shops and stands selling food/drink back there even though DF was the only ride.

 

 

 

I wish they left the path open a bit after closing the ride. I loved watching the Wolf go through the village. BTW, the path isn't as wide as other parts of the park, but it's plenty wide.

 

 

 

 

 

As to the Verbolten showhouse, BBW actually used to only have a facade instead of real buildings in the village. They upgraded it to full buildings when DF opened to look better as people walked by. Here's a DF construction photo where you can see the back of the old facade.

 

 

They could do something similar for Verbolten where they put up fake trees or such. Or, they could just leave it alone. You can already see the show building from the bumper cars so who cares if you can also see it from another angle. I think it would be a fine place for a new ride/area if they're over the noise issue by now. I would think the Ireland area would be better rounded, but lots of stuff would need to be cleared and the DF site is already there. Plus, they have the buildings still around to recycle like they did with wolf.

 

Also, I loved going under DF on the train ride. I'd love to have a coaster back in the park where you can do that again!

 

Anyhow, since I went digging through DF photos to make this post, here's a few bonus images I bet most of you haven't seen before.

 

 

 

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Great photos, thanks for sharing them. I'm still bummed that I never got to ride Drachen Fire. For those that did get to ride it, was it really that rough? It looks like it had some really cool elements and it must've had some great airtime on that camel back hill.

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Great photos, thanks for sharing them. I'm still bummed that I never got to ride Drachen Fire. For those that did get to ride it, was it really that rough? It looks like it had some really cool elements and it must've had some great airtime on that camel back hill.

 

It was from my memory of it. It was summer 1997 and I was on a family vaca and we happened to make a pit stop at Busch Gardens. I was only 8 years old at the time, but I remember riding it after my sister and dad had ridden Alpengeist. I just remember as soon as we hit the Wraparound corkscrew it was headbanger city. Being so young I didn't know how to ride rough coasters and I was just the perfect height for my head to slam around the restraint. We all hated it, but later on in the day my dad and I decided to ride it again to see if we could have a better ride and all I remember was getting off the ride for that second time, walking down the exit ramp and bursting into tears LOL. I'm sure if I was older, taller, and more knowledgable of how to ride a rough coaster, I could've enjoyed it. It's weird though, I actually find it pretty cool that I had a chance to ride such an "infamous" ride despite it sucking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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^ No not at all. The path back there was purpose built for Drachen Fire. I see no reason it couldn't just be re-used as is. People on here sometimes claim the location doomed Drachen Fire and it's just not true.

Rephrasing - it's not so much the path itself but the bottleneck between that corner of Festhaus and the green barrier next to Autobahn. During Howl-O-Scream last year that little corner was packed with people going in both directions, very claustrophobic. Though, I'm pretty sure it would be against Busch Gardens' many best landscaping awards to get rid of those trees and such...

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Drachen Fire was rough but no worse than most Arrow. The restraints were unique and should have been changed before the ride opened, and that they never were even after lawsuits was unbelievable. Basically solid steel with about a half mm of hard rubber coating, placed at perfect level to break necks. If your body tapped them, you felt pain. If your head hit them as hard as on the on the average B&M, you had to check for permanent damage. I rode it a LOT because it was good and unpopular, but it wasn't a ride to relax and not worry on, penalties were severe for any mistake.

 

The location may have had a snowball effect, if lots of traffic people knew it was there, once low traffic most didn't.

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New for 2017: Drachen Fire 2.0, built by B&M as originally intended.

 

I bet RMC could do a better job with a DF inspired rehash! I wonder if RMC is ever considering an all steel model. They teased the monorail prototype after all. While I love their wood makeover, I'd be interested to see their take on more traditional steel supports on an all steel coaster with their crazy inversions and elements.

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It should be interesting following this one.

 

I am with others that thinks the land between Ireland and England could use something new. It always seems like such a long, drawn out walk back to England from Griffon at the end of a hot day at the park.

 

Of course, if we had our wits about us, perhaps we would start there in the morning and end up coming back to England from Italy?

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New for 2017: Drachen Fire 2.0, built by B&M as originally intended.

 

I bet RMC could do a better job with a DF inspired rehash! I wonder if RMC is ever considering an all steel model. They teased the monorail prototype after all. While I love their wood makeover, I'd be interested to see their take on more traditional steel supports on an all steel coaster with their crazy inversions and elements.

 

Now that would be interesting.

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Please no more RMC, until they can come up with something new. Every coaster is basically the same
come up with something new

I hope this is a joke.

 

Not at all, and its just IMO, while the ride layouts are different, its all the same elements. Never said they where bad rides, in fact out law run is a stunning coaster

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