So this past weekend, Saturday October 10, 2015, I managed to finally make it to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for their annual
Howl O' Scream fun, scary, Halloween time fun. But my Busch Gardens experience was all over the place this
year.
For one, I hadn’t been all summer, which is strange and
disturbing. Usually my friends and I go
in April to get a
Fun Card early so we can go back for free all
summer. But we’re just so damn
adult-like now, we couldn’t find the time all summer to go. Sad.
Secondly, this was my first time going without a good friend
of mine in probably 10 years. She was my
partner in crime and an excellent one at that, always having a season pass to
get us free parking and discounts on food and drink, as well as just being on
my level when it comes to love of rides and everything that is Busch
Gardens. Unfortunately, she had a trip
to Florida this weekend and it was the only time I could go. L But I knew I had to get there for Howl O’
Scream at least, and there was a worthy replacement ready to go. J
The trip got off to a rocky start with my new partner in
crime and I getting on the road later than expected. But this was a day of “WE DO WHAT WE WANT,
WHEN WE WANT, AND HOW WE WANT TO” (because we also felt obligated to get back
home in time for DJ Grandmaster Flash at the Richmond Folk Festival and/or a
friend’s birthday party, but we had to let the idea of those go in order to get
the most of our trip).
It was also kind of rainy and sitting right at 63 degrees,
but it might as well have been 50 as far as I was concerned. It was chilly (because it was cloudy). We also borrowed a friend’s season pass to
get free parking and there ended up being a complication that held us and the rest
of the line up, but we still got free preferred (i.e. much closer) parking. The main parking lots were already full and
traffic was being directed down the road and across the street where visitors
would have to take a tram back to the entrance of the park. The preferred parking lot still had some
spots, but we were in the last row.
So off the bat, we’re later than we want to be, the weather is
crappy, it’s ridiculously crowded despite it not being an ideal day and
Halloween is still three weeks out, and THEN we realize that we only have cash
and the ticket kiosks, which never have lines, only take credit cards. So we realize we also now have to wait in the
long-ass single file line for the tickets windows. But this is where the day starts to turn, and
I seriously feel like (simply put) some force was looking out for us a little…
No sooner had we gotten in line than a guy walks up to us
basically (but is addressing the whole line) and asks, “Does anyone want
tickets for $40?” At first we were
skeptical, of course. But then the guy
and his friend/coworker/companion explained that they were with a youth group
and they had pre-purchased tickets online, but then three people were no-shows
and they didn’t want to have the tickets/money go to waste. The “catch” was the tickets had names on
them, but they said they would walk down with us to make sure we got in with no
problem. Sounded good to us, and other
people were starting to say they’d take the tickets, so my friend and I spoke
up and got two out of the three. And
yep, they found a third person for the last ticket, we all walked down
together, I was the only one with a bag
and got through bag check in a minute, and then we all got through the entrance
quickly with no problems whatsoever. So
right off the bat, we just saved $80, no big deal. This stuff NEVER happens to me, so maybe this
was my friend’s good karma. But I couldn’t
believe it and it changed the whole mood of where that day had felt like it was
good.
We knew the lines were going to be long, so we just accepted
that early on and were content to just pick and choose which hour+ long line we
felt like standing in. But we started at
Loch Ness Monster, as is tradition, and
it really wasn’t that bad. It looked
ridiculous for what the line usually is, but we were probably only in line for
half an hour. And the guy in front of us
in line was just there with his young son and was very interested in talking to
us. Just randomly opened up a
conversation by telling us Loch Ness was the rollercoaster where a water
moccasin fell out of tree over the track and onto a rider and bit them. It turned into a whole entertaining
conversation, and by the end my friend and I were pretty convinced this guy was
getting water moccasins confused with pythons.
But anyway…
It rained a little while we were waiting in line for Loch
Ness, and while we were on the coaster, but then after that, the sun started to
come out and basically stayed out except for a few more patches of clouds. That actually made for our biggest annoyance
of the day (and I use the word “annoyance” loosely, because we were really
un-annoyable this day). A few years ago,
certain rollercoasters like Griffon required anyone with a bag to lock them up
in a locker; however, now all the rollercoasters at BG require you to lock up your
bags, no matter how small. So we had
left certain things in the locker (like sunglasses) and kept certain things
(like our jackets), and then we immediately wanted to switch. It went from chilly and cloudy/rainy to warm
and sunny! And we had been hoping to
just leave our stuff in one locker for all or most of the day so as to save
money and just be overall most convenient.
So that wasn’t really an annoyance for the day so much as an annoyance
for BG and their ever changing policies.
The rest of the day was pretty run-of-the-mill. We got to ride everything, EXCEPT the new
freakin’ coaster
Tempesto. It wasn’t even running that day so we
didn’t even get to see exactly what it does.
It’s a cramped little coaster, crammed in a little side area under
Apollo’s Chariot, that looks to only be composed of one completely vertical
climb and/or drop area and then two loops.
So we couldn’t tell if you’re launched straight up and then just go
through the two loops and you’re done in 10 seconds or what. Obviously a disappointment. There’s been a new rollercoaster at BG
aaaalll summer and I haven’t gotten to ride it, nor have I heard from anyone
else that they’ve ridden, and we finally make it to the park but still don’t
get to ride it?! Waaaaaaaah of course.
Alpengeist, as always, seemed faster and more G-force filled than ever, but had the
longest wait time by far, clocking in at an estimated hour and 45 minutes. For
real. We stood in line that long just
talking and actually enjoyed ourselves!
Apollo’s Chariot remains the smoothest and somehow most zen
coaster I’ve ever ridden.
We waited to ride
Griffon at night so we could see the park lit up with Halloween scenes and it was
amazing as always (that drop never gets old).
(Rebel, holding her phone on the coasters since it wouldn't stay in my pocket)
Vertbolten still gets me even though I know that coaster like the back of my hand (I don’t
know if I ever posted a blog about getting stuck inside it the first year it
opened, but I should if not bc it was actually really cool). But that was probably the second longest line.
(Tried to snap a photo from the top of Vertbolten's outside hill)
So most importantly, the actual Howl O’ Scream this year was….pretty…wtf? So in years past, the haunted houses have
actually gotten steadily worse. Maybe it’s
because the park is trying to cater to children more, and maybe there were
complaints that things were TOO scary (heaven help me if I ever hear a parent
complain that “I took my child to this haunted Halloween event and you all were
just too scary!” – I’d slap them, figuratively….yes, yes, figuratively).
Last year I went in one haunted house with my friends, it
was ok but I hate being startled and that’s basically all it was, so I sat the
next one out, and my friends came out so unamused. Just laughing about how stupid it was. And the years before that, I mainly remember
the longest lines I’ve ever seen, leading up to these buildings or whatever
that you’d walk through for five minutes and maybe be a little scared, but
mostly you’d just be waiting in line to wait in line some more in a darker
louder place (I mean, at least when we were waiting in line for Alpengeist we
got to ride a rollercoaster at the end).
So this year we didn’t even go in the haunted houses (sorry
guys, I know the creators of the Blair Witch Project helped with the concepts
for one this year, but it still didn’t have enough draw for us…looked like a
Maleficent rip off). We decided early on
that the lines weren’t going to be worth it with that crowd, and we most likely
wouldn’t enjoy them anyway.
(What we'd be once we got deep into the haunted house lines)
So we figured we were
content to just walk around the countries because they each have their own
theme and people running around in them trying to scare you:
Ireland...
France...
(DEMON DJ DANCE PARTY!)
Germany….
but we still
don’t know WHAT was going on in Old France/Canada?, with people dressed up like military,
doctors, so we’re thinking zombie outbreak, but then there was some weird
deer-man type creature in a cage? Lol we just don’t know).
(Only pic I could snap of the entrance to Old France)
However, this is where I think maybe parents were
complaining: usually there are a lot of “characters”
in certain places within the countries to jump out and scare people just walking
around, but this year they were almost nowhere to be found! The only area that was free range for them
was a small section in France. Near the park
entrance there was one woman walking around randomly startling people, but I
don’t think she was supposed to be in that area, I think she was just walking
somewhere. There were some in a small part of Germany,
but they were done up so little, you could only tell they were supposed to be
with Howl O’ Scream when they would yell at you, and then you’d see their
clothes were a little outdated and you’d be like, oh, you’re a vampire.
But they did have more outside shows than they did last year, so maybe that's the compromise. In the picture above from Germany, that area they're performing in had never been used for a performance or an eating area. Neat!
So it was the weirdest visit in awhile. My usual companion wasn’t there, lots of
pluses and minuses throughout with the weather and lines and changes in Howl O’
Scream. But no matter what, in the end
we had a great time because we just knew what we were in for and weren’t going
to let it get to us. Plus, Busch Gardens
Williamsburg is still one of the (if not the number one) prettiest theme parks
on the east coast, and the rollercoasters and rides always rock. So there’s that. The Halloween stuff (and extra alcohol set
ups) are just an added bonus J
Find out more info about the park, Howl O’ Scream, the
changing hours and more
here.
