So, some of you might know that I have a particularly raging hard-on for roller coasters and anything theme park related. Those of you who didn't know, now know. Since I was down in Virginia last week, I decided to take a stop by Busch Gardens in Williamsburg to ride some rides and get my coaster fix settled for a little while. I figure I might as well start using this user page thingy with something. Sure, it might not be something good, but its something. And that's a start.

So, I got into the park around 10:45am and made a direct a path as the park would allow towards their newest roller coaster, Griffon. It was my main reason for really coming to the park since it was built just this year and looked all around badass in every picture/video I had seen of it. I got to the line and it was already an hour long wait. Luckily, there was a single rider line and no one I was with wanted to go on it. So, instead of waiting an hour, I waited maybe 20 minutes to get on the ride. Let that be a lesson to you, always use the single rider line for new attractions. So, as for my take on the ride? I felt it was a bit over-hyped. Sure, the drop was freakin' amazing and produced some nice floater airtime, but it was rather short and sort of a one trick pony, you could say. I still had a blast on it though, and I could probably put it somewhere in my top 10 coasters I've ridden. It gets a solid 8.5/10 in my books.

Next up was their inverted coaster, Alpengeist. I was walking by it and noticed that there was absolutely no line, so I just walked on the ride. I was on and off in about 5 minutes. Woot. Now, I had ridden this back in 1997 when it first opened, and again in 1999 and 2001 on other visits. The ride has gotten a bit rough in places, especially in the cobra roll, which was being taken at ridiculously high speeds. The transition into the mid-course brake run also gave my head a good whacking on the shoulder restraints. But, there was some good news to be had. The trim brake at the top of the lift wasn't on too hard, so it provided some of the intensity that was seen in 1997 when the ride opened. And the zero-G roll is still awesome. Best element in the entire park. Back when I first rode it, it blew my mind away, but it is lacking now. Overall, I would give it about a 7.75/10. Not quite worth that 80%, but a good ride, nonetheless.

After getting off Alpengeist, someone said "I want to ride DarKastle". So we did. Yeah...about that. The ride is supposed to be a kick-ass motion simulator like The Amazing Spider-Man at Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, but it doesn't even come close to being as good as that. The ride was very, very, very underwhelming. The movie was blurry in places and didn't synch with the motion in a lot of areas. It kind of felt slapped together at the last moment. Needless to say, I won't be riding that again. It did have one cool part where it spun out of control for a bit, so it gets some redemption...I guess. Overall, it gets a 5/10.

After lunch at some crazy Oktoberfest-esque place, I hit up what was my first "big" coaster, Big Bad Wolf. Now, I knew this coaster wasn't meant to go fast or do crazy stuff like that, but the ride was really lackluster for some reason. It didn't swing much at all going through the first section of the ride and the swinging was even lackluster after the big drop. That big drop by the way was horribly braked to the point where I thought, "so, what's the point of the drop then". Maybe the coaster is just showing its age, I mean it is as old as I am. It was a resounding "meh" for me. Overall, about a 6.5/10.

So, after that ride, I did some walking around, looking at the awesome scenery of the park and taking some pictures. The park is absolutely breathtaking. Its easily the most beautiful park I've ever seen. Nature interacts extremely well with very detailed theming. If you can go, you should most definitely go, just to see the place. Its that nice.

I wandered for a bit and ran into my next coaster of the day, Apollo's Chariot. Again, I had ridden this in 1999 when it first opened and again in 2001. Both times, it didn't really do much for me in terms of airtime or forces of that nature. This time however, HOLY FUCKING SHIT! From the back row of the ride, I got crazy ejector airtime over every hill that should definitely not be on a B&M designed coaster. For those of you who read this far and are coaster geeks like me, it was acting more like an Intamin coaster than a B&M. Awesome. The thing was freakin' hauling ass through the course and the trim brakes were barely even noticeable if on at all. That was what a hyper coaster should be, full of crazy-ass airtime and lots of fun. It was easily the best ride I had in the park all day as well as the biggest surprise, too. The ride couldn't have been any better...10/10.

Although that was the best ride of the day, I needed to get one more coaster in before I could be satisfied, the classic (read: old) Loch Ness Monster. For being built in the 1970's by a certifiable nutjob, the thing still runs pretty damn good. And the interlocking vertical loops never get old. The hill going into the first loop was pretty heavily braked, but that was my only real problem with the ride. Its not showing its age at all. A nice fun ride from a simpler time in roller coaster design. 7/10

After that, I did some more walking around, hit a few water rides to keep myself cool since it was well over 100 degrees outside and I didn't feel like paying $4.00 for a drink or $6.00 for a beer at one of the drink stand things. I hit up Griffon one more time, bought one of those on-ride photos since mine was hilarious (and no, there's no way I'm posting it here) and then decided to call it a day. All in all, it was a great day at a great park. Again, if you ever have the chance to go to Busch Gardens, either in Tampa or in Williamsburg, definitely take the opportunity. You won't regret it.