Busch Gardens was a blast, as it always is. Wendy and I, along with all three kids and my mom and step-dad, left for Williamsburg at 5:30 Saturday morning, and got to the park just as it was opening. The day started out with a good omen, as we found out that the upgrade we’d purchased over the internet for our tickets entitled us not just for a second day at the park, but actually free admittance every day for the rest of the summer. Wendy and I hope to make a trip by ourselves later this summer, if we happen to get a day or two without the kids.

Once inside the park, everyone had to go to the bathroom… and my wife, who has never received any awards for noteworthy tact or elegance, came out of the ladies room to join us, shouting ”There’s free tampons in there! You don’t have to bring tampons to this park! They give ‘em away for free! That’s right, FREE TAMPONS IN THE LADIES ROOM!”

Once she stopped shouting and the rest of us came out of hiding to join her, we headed off in search of rides.

Wendy and I are roller coaster fiends, and there are four good ones at Busch Gardens. The Big Bad Wolf, The Loch Ness Monster, Alpengeist, and Apollo’s Chariot. All four of them are well worth standing in line for, even the smallest and tamest of the four, The Big Bad Wolf. Here are a few pictures and details, if you care:

The Loch Ness Monster was the world’s first roller coaster with interlocking loops. It has a 113 foot drop and reaches a top speed of 60 MPH. Wendy and I were able to talk Hailey into riding it with us, and although he was nervous while in line, by the time we were half way through it, he was shouting about how “awesome” it was and begging to go again. It really is a great ride.


Loch Ness's awesome interlocking loops


Another look at the loops with a train


Here's Hailey, Wendy and I riding the Loch Ness Monster

The “baby” of the four, the Big Bad Wolf only drops 99 feet and doesn’t quite reach a top speed of 50 miles an hour. Still, a suspended coaster with as many twists and turns as this one has... including a trip through a Bavarian Village... and that last big drop directly over the river… make it worth riding.


Here's Wendy and all 3 kids riding the Big Bad Wolf

Alpengeist is my favorite roller coaster. Granted I’ve only ridden 9 or 10 of them in my life, but none of them compare to Alpengeist when it comes to fun. This ride is 100% fun. Starting off with a not-too-shabby 170 foot drop, Alpengeist reaches 67 miles an hour over a course including six inversions (two corkscrews, two loops and a cobra roll) and 3.7 attention-grabbing G’s. Alpengeist is not just the most fun that Busch Gardens has to offer, but it’s kinda the center-piece of the park, as various parts of it jut up here and there all over the place. Once you see it you can’t help but want to ride it, and once you ride it, you can’t wait to ride it again. Wendy and I talked my 61 year old mother into getting on it with us (it literally took two days of begging), and once she got off, she insisted that we ride it again. It is the most addictive roller coaster I’ve ever been on.


This is Alpengeist's cobra roll.


A good look at some of Alpengeist's twists and turns.

Apollo’s Chariot, Busch Gardens’ big daddy, is one hell of a roller coaster. With 9 drops, starting with a 210 foot, 75 MPH plunge toward the river, Apollo’s Chariot is the only roller coaster left that still scares me. The drop time over that first fall is amazing. It’s 4 and a half seconds, but it seems to take forever. You literally have time to think “Are we ever going to get to the bottom?” before it finally hits the bottom and starts up the next hill. Over the course of the 9 drops, Apollo’s Chariot drops riders a total of 825 feet, and you feel every foot of it, because the train’s unique restraint system only uses a single lap bar to hold each rider in. It’s as close to flying/free falling as a human being is ever likely to feel. Wendy and I weren’t able to talk anyone into riding this one with us. We’d have to sneak off and ride it by ourselves while the kids were with the grandparents riding trains or exploring kiddie parts of the park. It’s the main draw for us to hopefully go back by ourselves again. Apollo’s Chariot never fails to provide a thrill. I’m amazed at how that first drop never gets old.

A couple of quick notes about Apollo's Chariot: One, we made a mistake of making this the second thing we rode on our first day in the park. After that, nothing seemed quite as thrilling. Ride all the roller coasters at Busch Gardens, but save AC for last. And, two, yes this is the roller coaster that made news a few years ago when it slammed Fabio face-first into a bird. No, I don't think that's funny... and no, I don't think you should click this link and laugh at the picture.


Here's how the first drop looks from outside the ride.


Wendy and I, in the lower right, in the throes of Apollo's Chariot

It was a great trip, but looking at the photos gives me a moment to reflect on how fat and bald I've gotten. The hair on top of my head has gotten so thin that I got the worst sunburn of my life right on top of my head. It feels like someone placed a hot cast-iron skillet on top of my head. And the bright red glow really sets off my expanding girth nicely. (If you click that link, by the way, just know that Liam was having a good time in spite of his facial expression of hateful rage.)

Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA is a great park. I can think of a lot of great reasons to plan a trip there… and for roller coaster enthusiasts, I can think of 4 undeniable reasons.