Busch Gardens Williamsburg - July 14 and 16, 2024

I went to Busch a few times as a kid but really remembered nothing about it. And certainly, as a kid, I rode none of the big coasters. I went in expecting a higher-end amusement park on the level of Hersheypark or Kings Island. What I got was some of the best theming of any park not named Disney or Universal, fantastic attention to detail, and a lineup full of great rides.

I'll talk rides first, and get to the rest afterwards.

Loch Ness Monster - This coaster is closest to the park's gate, and was our first ride of the day. This coaster's first drop consistently made my stomach drop on every ride, which is something I basically never experience anymore. The interlocking loops make for a great visual, and the helix within the dark section of the ride is fairly intense. The new effects added here were cool. The theming throughout the queue, station, and on the ride itself were really nicely done, and the ride itself is fairly smooth, especially for an Arrow looper. We also made this our last ride of day two, figuring it was a good way to bookend our time here.
Verbolten - I will forever be sad that I didn't ride Big Bad Wolf when I had the opportunity, but Verbolten is a pretty great ride! This ride has a great ability to eat through crowds, chugging along with four trains on Sunday, and two separate loading areas. The launches are solid, and the drop down to the river is a fantastic element. The dark section of this ride is good, exciting, and swoopy. When the train came to a stop in the dark, I muttered to my wife, "either this wall opens or the track drops," and a split second later the track dropped and took my breath away. The theming throughout the queue, station, and ride are great, and I love the train design. I thought this would be a better ride in the front, but actually preferred it from the middle rows over any other part of the train.
Pantheon - This ride SLAPS. The launches are good and punchy, the two inversions offer plenty of hangtime, and the swing launch portion of this ride in particular feels out-of-control. The backwards airtime is one of the most shocking sensations I've experienced on any coaster. The launches and top hat are excellent from the front, and in general I would consider this a better front-row ride, but it's worth riding in the back to experience the spike from as high as possible. For such a great ride, I'm surprised it never had a longer line, it was often no more than a 15 minute wait on both days. Essentially tied for #1 as my favorite ride in the park. The theming here is not quite as strong.
Tempesto - In a park full of gorgeous custom coasters, this Premier Sky Rocket II clone falls just a little flat. It also has awful restraints compared to Phobia Phear Coaster at Lake Compounce. Since it only runs one train, it's one of the slowest lines in the park if crowded. At the very least, it's still a good and intense ride, but doesn't meet the expectations set by everything else here. I also think the theme, while present and noticeable, thematically doesn't fit with the rest of BGW.
Apollo's Chariot - B&M's first hyper! It figures that it took some time for B&M to refine the concept. While this ride is good and has some unique profiling compared to the "typical" B&M hyper, it offers less airtime than the hypers that followed, and the first drop doesn't hit as hard, even from the back row. The ride's final few hills are the best part. That being said, the perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good, and Apollo's Chariot is indeed a good coaster. Even if it's my least favorite of the hypers I've ridden, this is such a consistently good coaster model, and I don't think a truly bad one exists.
InvadR - I was expecting a little more oomph from this 2017 GCI, remembering how great Mystic Timbers was, but it doesn't compare. It's a decent ride nonetheless. There is a bit of vibration and rumble throughout the ride, but nothing pain-inducing. I would describe it as edging very close to that threshold though. If BGW were to "let this one go," it could quickly become uncomfortable. The wood-on-steel construction is always interesting to me. If not for Tempesto, this would have been at the bottom of my rankings for this park.
Alpengeist - Afterburn at Carowinds was my #1 B&M invert for no more than 48 hours before I got a round on this. This is without a doubt my favorite invert ever. An absolutely excellent first drop, massive Immelmann and vertical loop, intense cobra roll. So many moments that make your legs tingle. From the front, the ride's scenic quality is emphasized, as you get a great view of the park. From the back, the ride's whippiness kicks in hard. I absolutely loved this ride, and it's my favorite in the park.
Griffon - A good B&M dive that is only just edged out by Valravn, in my estimation. It's hard to tell for sure. The splashdown feature is a nice touch. The ride op in the booth on Sunday was, as the kids say, a whole-ass vibe. Singing, dancing, and calling everybody his "pookies." Apparently it was his last day and he was going out with a bang. I don't think I've ever seen an op have that much fun.
DarKoaster - This ride was closed when we first walked by it, and we were thankful for it to open later in the day, as we desperately needed a reprieve from the 95 degree heat and sun. While this line moves pretty slowly compared to other rides in the park, the queue and station are kept nice and cold. The ride itself is a solid family coaster with interesting snowmobile-style seats/trains. The theming here is outstanding, especially the attention to detail throughout the queue and station, which approach Disney/Universal quality. This ride features more launches and take two laps around the track. Through clever effects and under cover of darkness, the ride hides the repeated lap well. This is the ride Skull Mountain wishes it was.

BGW offers a good variety of flats as well. There are really nicely-decorated music express, teacups, and wave swinger rides, a Screamin' Swing which juts out over the river, as well as an outstanding Arrow log flume named Le Scoot. Additionally there's an interesting bumper cars installation, with both regular and kiddie bumper cars united under the same roof. My wife and I got, uh, a "zen ride" on the bumper cars, as we were the only two people on it at one point. One of the strangest ride experiences I've ever had for sure. We also enjoyed the Rhine River Cruise as our second ride on day one.

I think it's very funny that this park offers four separate coasters that all feature launches. I love launches too, but man, it must be a local favorite or something. Pantheon, Tempesto, Verbolten, and DarKoaster all have launches!

It's great that the park offers both a large train and the skyride as actual transportation options rather than just round-trip sightseeing experiences, but getting to Rhineland and Oktoberfest are a little bit difficult regardless. The park has such a winding, meandering way to its paths that you'll put in a lot of steps traversing the park.

The park itself is very clean and well-maintained, and as mentioned before, the theming is just excellent. There is an eye for detail in almost every section of the park. The individual country-themed sections are all fantastic and easily distinguished from one another. Even the England section at the very front of the park, with its recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, is just awesome. Much like in my beloved Hersheypark, the coasters often overlap and intertwine. I love seeing a bunch of rides occupying the same space rather than being spread out. It makes for a really great, active view.

As animal lovers, it was great to be able to take a break from the rides to see some of the animal exhibits. A bird perched on my shoulder in Lorikeet Glen, and the clydesdales are just majestic. Unfortunately we were not able to see any of the wolves during our visit, as they appeared to be hiding/indoors on day one, and day two was their "day off."

The food here all looked decent, but I'd rather not attempt to eat a plate of spaghetti or a massive gyro in the type of heat we were experiencing. We did share a really good, really big pretzel, and the popcorn stand by Alpengeist had some of the best buttered popcorn ever. I know, I know, sounds dumb, but it was REALLY good popcorn. Plenty of places to refill your water here too.

Unlike so many other parks, BGW has ample shade and plenty of indoor areas to cool off when needed. Lots of gift shops and restaurants. Additionally, the park offers some great live entertainment. We caught a step dancing/tap dancing show in Killarney, and a short set of live music in San Marco.

The crowds here were surprisingly manageable. I thought Sunday would be difficult, but we managed to get on every coaster in the park at least once. We didn't go in with a specific strategy or order-of-attack. We just rode things as they appeared to us. On Monday, with even lower crowds, we basically were able to ride whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. The crowds themselves were friendly, and mostly made up of families rather than rowdy kids, which is always a good thing.

Some non-park travel details for those possibly interested - I got a really good deal on a hotel room at the Williamsburg Woodlands hotel through Sam's Club. While the hotel itself is like going through a time warp to the late 90s (reminds me a LOT of what Hershey Lodge felt like back then), it's immaculately clean and well-maintained. For those wanting to spend a day or two in Colonial Williamsburg as we did, that particular hotel shares its parking lot with the Williamsburg Visitors Center, where you can catch a free shuttle to several different stops around town. It was a good way to break up the park days, though we probably should have just stayed off our feet. That particular hotel also had a big pool, a mini-golf course, and other fun activities that, due to the heat, we didn't take part in.

There's plenty of food and lodging in the BGW area. We decided to brave the local Golden Corral after family and friends said it was gross, and... well... we really liked it. We ate at a colonial tavern, the Kings Arms, on day two, which was good but pretty pricey. And finally stopped at sweet sweet Bojangles on the way out, not just for a good-ass chicken sandwich but also to get a souvenir Hart Foundation cup.

TL;DR:

What BGW does not have in lineup depth (only nine big coasters), it makes up for in charm, theming, and atmosphere
The rides BGW does offer range from good to elite, with none of these rides even coming close to bad or even middling
Perhaps the best amusement park I've ever visited outside of the Disney and Universal bubbles

My personal ranking of the coasters at BGW:

Alpengeist
Pantheon
Loch Ness Monster
Verbolten
Griffon
DarKoaster
Apollo's Chariot
InvadR
Tempesto