I will skip the 1st day at BGW, and just do my full day there. First, here is my rating system:

2: Minimum: Any coaster that has a layout with a height exceeding 10ft. Coastter is crap. Example: Viper

4: Is not quite crap, but is definately a lower tier ride. Example: Vekoma boomerang

6: Decent ride, but just doesn't offer nearly enough and doesn't utilize layout to advantage. Example: Hydra

8: Very good ride, but is missing 2 or 3 elements that could have made it much better. Example: Kumba

9: If this was baseball, this would be the hall of very good. Only 2-3 elements away from the hall of fame. Example: Nitro

9.5: Hall of fame. These are the coasters that you made 4 hour trips just for this one ride, and it delivers beyond your expectations. Only 1 or so elements from being perfect. Example: MF/KK/Boulder Dash

10: The best ride in the world. Only one coaster I have ever ridden deserves the crown, and you will not be seeing any of these scores in this TR. Example: S:RoS at SFNE
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After getting to the park around 10, and getting preferred parking, we headed into the WONDERFULLY themed and landscaped entrance area. It is a fairly long, pleasent walkway with buildings that look like they come straight outta Europe. Right away I knew I was in the most beautiful park in the world. After getting our bags checked, we walked into the very nice entrance plaza. This is one of my favorite areas of the park, as it is very alive and very nicely landscaped and themed (as is the rest of the park). We make a right, then a left, where all themed lands are. The night before, I wanted to get to Alpengeist (Alpie), and ended up at Apollo's Chariot (AC). I don't know how that happenned. This morning, we just wanted to get to AC before the crowds, so we heade din the same direction as yesterday. the walk to AC is pretty uninteresting, except for an area before the drawbridge to AC. Here, is one of those pirate ship type rides, but it is landscaped amazingly. The whole area looks beautiful, especially for a family ride. After crossing the drawbridge, it starts to look like a circus. Flags everywhere, purple and gold. If you look up, you'll see why...Apollo's Charriot's 200ft lift hill is staring us in the face. Oh, how beautiful it is. We made a left, and there is the station/queue for...

Apollo's Chariot:

The queue for AC starts in a huge canopy, which is right in front of the station. It is actually kind of cool to look at in real life. In this canopy is a mirage of switchbacks, but thankfully now ait. After the canopy, you head towards the lift, and make a U-turn back towards the station. We pass the station, and make a left at the very end of it. That is where we meet up with the line of people hungry for airtime. After a 2 train wait, we hop into the 2nd to last row, pull lap bar down (I do my tricks to get few inches of slack) and get ready to soar on the wings of Apollo. The ride starts off right away with the lift hill. The lift hill is slightly quieter than Nitro's, but is slower. After about 30 seconds of heading up, we make a small dip, and start to gain a little speed on the straightaway. Soon, we start seeing the people in front of us dissapear, and BAM! The amazing airtime hits us like a bullet, and we are soaring the 200ft+ drop. This feels like Nitro's drop, but offers more of an ejector style airtime, and feels more sustained. MMM...MMM....MMM YUMMY! Out of the drop, we go through a straightaway over a pond, and head back up over the 1st camelback. This camelback also delivers a very good amount of airtime. We head back down, through a tunnel, then right back up, this time twisting to the left during the descent. This drop is very reminiscent of Nitro's 2nd drop, but is a lot steeper and delivers one of the greatest sensation on any coasters. It is a sustained ejector airtime, but we are sideways while out of our seats. It is really awesome. We keep turning off the pullout, and go through the pretty nice turnaround. After the turnaround/helix thing, we make a right, and head into the MCBR, which is parrallel to the lift hill and first camelback. This MCBR doesn't hold mucha t all, and we get some great airtime off of it. Next is a bunny hop that delivers one of the hardest ejector moments on the ride. The next element is a 3/4 overbank turn which curves to the right, then we curve up to the left. We level off, make a slight dip, level off again, and go down the biggest single pop of ejector on the ride. We then head up, and head into the brakerun. We make a 180 degree left turn, and head back into the station.

Rating: 9.3/10

Good points: Amazing airtime on quite a few spots, very comfortable, very clean (freshly painted, no graffiti on restraints), and fun turnaround.

Things that need improvement: It is a little short for a hyper, and turnaround could've been a bit more intense.

Notes: AWESOME RIDE!!! My new favorite B&M. It would've been even higher if it would've just been a bit longer, and had one more intense moment. But, this ride is just beautiful, on and off the ride.

Times ridden on trip: 5x
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After 2 rides on AC we headed into Divinchi's garden to relax a bit. This area is next to AC,a nd is BEAUTIFUL! It is just a great place to relax. It is a bunch of pillars, with about 5 water fountains and many small flower patches. We then walked past the garden, and headed into the true Festa Italia part. This is a bunch of stores that look just like the ones in Italy, and it comes with dressed up employees, music, and very nice stores. Germany/Oktoberfest was still closed, so we headed back towards the main gate to ge tto Lochness Monster in Scotland. After 10min of walking (upp and down huge hills) we got to Scotland. This is one of my favorite areas of the park. It has great scottish music, beer, and the smell of the scottish food. Lochness Monster was right ahead, so we got in line...


Lochness Monster:

The queue for LNM isn't that spectacular. It is just a wooden canopy with switchbacks, and a path to the station. We met the line of people in the station, and got in line for the 2nd row. After 2 trains of waiting (which took a minute with the ultra fast crew and 3 train operation). My shoulders were up on the restraints for LNM, which has never happenned to me before except on Togo's. Whatever. Train starts rolling and we make a left, and head up the lift. All the way up, we make a right, and go down the 100ft hill. We then head right back up, and make a 180 degree left turn, and head back down the hill into the first vertical loop. Pretty decent. We then head up another hill, and enter the double helix, which is completely enclosed by a DARK, stone tunnel. This is the best part of the ride, as it is completely dark. After this, we head up a 10ft lift hill, make another right, then head back down the hill into the 2nd vertical loop, which interlocks with the 1st loop. Very nice. We then end witha turn or 2, and enter the brakerun.

Rating: 5/10

Good points: Interlocking vertical loops, double helix.

Things that need improvement: Too short, not enough inversions.

Notes: Good ride, but not that great. Still, for the worst coaster in the park, it is damn good.

Times ridden during trip: 1x
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After a ride on LNM, we walked down to the interlocking loops, and relaxed. This also give you an AMAZING view of Alpie's cobra roll, which is probably even bigger than the Hulk's. After 20 minutes of just chilling, we walked over to BBW, which to get there we had to walk up a HUGE flight of stairs. BBW had a monster line, so we passed it. The next section of the park is Oktoberfest, which is pretty cool. They have a great restaurant called Festhaus, which has live shows playing there, along with food. We made a right, towards DarKastle. I rode it the night before, and will write a review of it later. We then made our way to Germany, which isn't that great....except for Alpengeist. This ride just dominates the skyline. It appears taller than coasters taller than it, like Nitro, Steel Force, and Magnum. The ride's lift kind of looks like MF's with the box supports. It is just awesome looking. After making a left into what appears to be a dead end of shops, we make another left into the area where Alpie's station and gift shops are. It is also where you get great views of the ride's layout. This is just a monster. It is amazing looking. It is also sand filled, so it goes through everything quietly. We make a left, and the famous entrance is right ahead....

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Alpengeist:

After going through the shed, we make a right into the woods, with the zero-g roll right there. After a weaving walkway, we make a 180 degree left turn into a wooden canopy, with about 4 switchbacks. We met the line here. After 10min, we were inside the very nicely themed station. The best part is in the front, there is a chalkboard that says: General Mananger: OB Kareful. It is pretty funny. Anyway, on this ride we opted for the 2nd to last row, as we had not been back there yet. After a another 10min of waiting, we get on board, and as usual, I sit on the far right end. OTSR's checked, all clear. Floor drops, and we start to head up the 195ft lift hill. Higher and higher, the better the views we get. Soon enough, the cars in front of us start to dip, and we dip. Then we level off, and just as quickly, start to twist to the right, and drop. Faster and faster, we plow through the 270 degree right turn drop. At the bottom, we head back into the first inversion, the immelman. At the bottom of this, I started to grey out, something that didn't happen the day before. After the enormous immelman, we head into the pretty intense vertical loop, which pulls 3.7G's. Through that, we go into a fake shed, our picture is taken, and right up, we head into the best part of the ride: the cobra roll. Up we go, and SNAP! It just snaps into the turn in like .1 of a second. It is SOOO much more intense and snappy then any other cobra roll. Anyway, after another snao, we are heading down back the way we came from. We made a gentle slop, and curve to the left, very violently, into the MCBR. Unlike its counterpart, Montu, at BGT, the fun doesn't end here. It doesn't grab that train that hard at all, so we get some good speed in the 2nd half. We then twist to the right, and head down the drop, into another fake shed. Through that, we head up into the airtime filled zero-g roll. After that, we make a left turn, then head into the corkscrew, which twists to the left. After the corkscrew, we make a few turns, which are RIGHT over fake snow covered rocks, and we make a turn into the brakerun.

Rating: 9/10

Good points: Great first drop, intensity in immelman, amazing cobra roll, zero-g roll.

Things that need improvement: It is missing one element from being in the hall of fame. It is just missing something, just that little something...

Notes: AMAZING ride. My 1st 2 rides the first night were great, but this time the ride seemed a lot more intense. Definately my favorite invert, this specific ride just made it take a piss on Talon, and flush it down the toilet.

Times ridden on trip: 5x
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After a great ride on Alpie, we headed over to New France. New France is just ghetto...period. Lots of shops and crap, but I could easily have stolen anything I want, as all the stuff is outside, and old ladies are inside not paying attention. Also, Jack Hanna's animal exhibit is here, so we checked out a few cardinals and wolves. The next section we went to was Corkscrew Hill. Here, we would ge tto ride...

Corkscrew Hill:

The queue line is one LONG tunnel, completely in the dark, that takes place inside the castle. After the 15min wait, we entered the preshow. The basic story is that some Irish guy shrun us, and that we are in a box, and some boy wants to seel us for cash. The ride is a simulator, and is more wild at some points than even Back to the Future. Very nice...

Rating: 7/10

Good points: Very wild ride, decent story, sometimes funny.

Things that need improvement: Blurry 3d, annoying Irish voices.

Notes: One of the best simulators ever. Worth the wait, definately.

Times ridden: 1x
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We then headed towards the Rhine River cruise, which is a boat tour that takes you around the man made river at the park. After 25min of waiting for the other boat to come back, we entered the boat. The ride itself is very calm, and the skippers are very funny. It also gives you some very unique shots of BBW and AC. After the ride, we went up those stairs again to BBW, and that still had a long line. So, we went to DarKastle, but still had a good line. Then, the rain started falling. It didn't just fall, it POURED! It was like a hurricane. So, I suggested let's go wait for BBW now, so we will be on it and get it over with. So, we headed to that...


Big Bad Wolf:

... and waited 30min. I couldn't believe they ran it in such hard rain, rain in which I couldn't see 30ft in front of me. My mom and I argued in the line, and I'm sure if any of you were in line you would've heard it. Anyway, I opted for back row, puled down restraint, and was ready. The op for this was funny, and came up with some decent lines. Anyway, out the station, up the first lift. It stopped raining, which was cool. Anyway, we head down a small drop, and enter the first half of the ride, which is a bunch of turns that go through a fake village. It is very cool. It then started POURING again, just as we were heading up the 2nd lift, which leads us to the infamous drop over the Rhine river. We make that left and head down the white fog with rain stinging us everywhere. One of the coolest experiences ever. The turn at the bottom gives a great swing, but not as much as the turn directly after that one, which really gets us high. After another turn or 2, we head into the brakerun...

Rating: 6.5/10

Good points: Great theming, great swinging, awesome drop over river.

Things that need imrpovement: Not much, it is just held down by being a suspended coaster.

Notes: Very good ride, but it is only a suspended coaster, and won't get much higher than Hydra level. BBW in pouring rain is awesome.

Times ridden during trip: 1x

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

I won't review the rest of the day, but we rode Alpie 2 more times, AC 2 more times (last ride of the day), the skyride once, and Escape from Pompeii. I am so tired, so I am just gonna do quick reviews for Pompeii and DarKastle.

Escape from pompeii: Good ride, but doesn't get you wet at all. The fire section is awesome. Only problem, is that JTA at SWO pwns it.

DarKastle: Nowhere near as good as Spidey, but still good. It is just poorly made to Spidey, and the 3d is blurry.


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There ya go, my TR. Overall, BGW is an amazing park that must be visited if you are in the Northeast or mideast. Just a beautiful park with 2 top 10 coasters. Pics are coming next month...



PS- i was in a car accident today, some 4ft old lady crashed into us from behind on I-95 going to DC. Our whole back bumper was rammed in, and trunk can't close without rope. I may have had a concussion, but it was only minor if anything. My mom freaked out, so we couldn't go to DC/SFA and had to go home :'( She said she'll make it up to me, with either a trip to SFA or SFNE this coming week.

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Awsome TR, Hope i have as much fun next week while i'm there minus the car accident.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

I've been to Busch Gardens many many times, getting over 130 rides on both Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot, and I can say that everything you said about each ride was completely accurate. Only thing is I didn't think the bunny hop after the MCBR gave that much ejector in the back, plus the airtime goes away before you hit the pullout. Everything else you said was right on in my opinion though. Especially what you said about Alpengeist's cobra roll. That part is amazing. It's tied with Robin the Chiller for my favorite cobra. I like each for different reasons though... Robin is much faster through the cobra, plus there are more g's, and all of the supports from both Batman and Robin are rushing around you. However, it doesn't have as much snap to it as Alpengeist, and you're not falling toward a river during the second half of the element. Like I said, they're both awesome, easily being my favorite inversion. Raptor's was almost as good as Alpengeist, but it lacked size and if I remember correctly paced slightly slower than Alpengeist... it did have the snap though.

You should have ridden Loch Ness in the back. That first drop is amazing back there. I don't know why, but it always used to make my stomach tighten even more than Apollo's drop, though ofcourse Apollo's drop is better because the airtime is sustained, the drops about twice as long, smoother, and there aren't any shoulder restraints.

I also agree that Alpengeist needs one other cool element, and same for Apollo. Biggest problem with AC was the helix like you said. It could have been more intense, similar to Nitro's helix. The g's are really strong in the pullout though, which is cool. That drop before it with the twist is one of my favorite parts of any ride, far eclipsing Nitro's second hill. The drop, like you said, is also much better than Nitro's. Oh, the lift hill takes 55 seconds to get to the top, not 30 like you said.

Thanks for the awesome TR.

I also think your rating system is great, and Superman SFNE definately is the best coaster ever, other than possibly Expedition GeForce. Superman has more airtime filled hills, a more scenic location (though EGF's trip through trees looks to be awesome,) two great tunnels, and awesome interaction with pathways. EGF has the twisting drop that looks like one of the best drops in the world, more turns in it's layout, insane headchoppers on two of it's bunny hills, and what looks to be a better second hill. However, I think too much of the layout is high above the ground. I've only ridden SROS SFNE so I don't know which is better, but I think they may be about tied IMO. Any opinions on this subject?

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Check out my NL recreation, Superman SFNE! http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/...ad.php?t=33703