Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Located in the historic colonial area of Virginia, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is the sister to the park of the same name in Tampa, and is also part of the Sea World group. It is a very picturesque park, with pretty gardens and rides which flow through woodland and over lakes. There is also a small selection of animal exhibits. The park is themed around different countries of Europe.
Busch Gardens boasts a decent selection of coasters and also has a separate water park, which is well worth a visit.
Last visited June 2022
INVESTMENT
7
THRILL FACTOR
8
FUN &
LAUGHTER
6
STAFF &
FACILITIES
4
UNIQUNESS
6
VALUE
4
THEMEING &
IMMERSION
4
THOMPSONS'
RATING
6
BEST BITS
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The best ride by far is Pantheon, which is the World's fastest multi-launch coaster.
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There is a good range of different types of coasters.
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The park is very beautiful. Busch Gardens often claims to be the most attractive park in the World. Whilst we might not completely agree, they certainly have a strong claim.
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The water park is excellent and has a great range of rides, but it is separate from the theme park and requires its own admission.
DOWN-SIDES
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The operation of the rides is very slow because the staff do not organise the queues at all, leaving lots of empty seats. To make matters even worse, staff were often very slow to check harnesses and dispatch rides. Some rides were also operating with only one car despite having queues.
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Some areas of the park do not open until later in the day.
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The park is expensive. Car parking is much more than other parks. Lockers are expensive to rent. Also, food is more expensive than other parks.
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It is harder to find healthy or vegetarian food options than at most other parks.
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There are no queue time boards and no information either in the park or on the app about queue times or ride closures. This makes it hard to plan your day.
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There are no printed park maps, although there are maps on boards within the park. It might be a bit unfair to hold this against Busch Gardens because most parks seem to operate like this post-Covid.
TOP TIPS
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You will need to use lockers for most rides. It is worth buying the multi-use locker which enables you to use lockers throughout the day at each ride.
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There is a steam train which travels around the park. This is a good way of getting between different areas as the park is quite big. There is also a skyride but that was not operating when we visited.
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There is a multi-day parking ticket available, covering the theme park and water park. If you are visiting more than once then it is cheaper than paying on the day.
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We suggest getting to the park early to avoid queues, as people seem to arrive later.
Pantheon
Thompsons' overall rating 9
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
8
8
6
8
9
Verbolten
Thompsons' overall rating 7
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
7
7
7
7
7
Alpinegeist
Thompsons' overall rating 6
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
7
4
5
5
6
Griffon
Thompsons' overall rating 8
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
9
6
4
7
9
Apollo's Chariot
Thompsons' overall rating 7
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
7
8
3
6
7
Tempesto
Thompsons' overall rating 8
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
9
7
5
7
7
InvadR
Thompsons' overall rating 5
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
5
5
5
4
4
Escape from Pompei
Thompsons' overall rating 5
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
5
7
9
5
N/A
Finegan's Flyer
Thompsons' overall rating 4
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
4
6
1
5
N/A
Loch Ness Monster
Thompsons' overall rating 4
Thrill
Fun
Themeing
Immersion
Smoothness
7
3
3
3
4
Alpinegeist
The train
Tempesto
The final drop on Verbolten
Griffon
Loch Ness Monster
Part of Pantheon - the ride launches backwards up this vertical hill before dropping back down.
Our view on the rides
As with so many parks, there is a clear standout attraction at Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Pantheon. WIthout this coaster it would be a fairly average (but beautiful) park. But with it, the park is definitely worth a visit. There are several other Intamin multi-launched coasters in the World but in our view Pantheon is the best. It is wonderfully smooth and thrilling, and features a real variety of elements. Best amongst them are the backwards launch up a vertical hill which delivers several seconds of pure weightlessness before the train drops back down. There is also a wonderful 'top-hat' element and an inversion which hangs riders upside down for about a second, delivering loads of airtime. Unusually for a launched coaster, we found it made no difference being sat at the front or back; the ride was excellent.
There are some other good rides at Busch Gardens. Griffon is a really enjoyable vertical dive coaster (a clone of Sheikra at Busch Gardens Tampa). As always with this type of ride, the best airtime is to be found on the back row and it's best to have your harness as loose as you can. We also really enjoyed Verbolten, which is a mostly indoor launched coaster. It is billed as being a family ride, but it is quite intense; especially as much of it is in the dark and it includes a freefall drop.
Escape from Pompeii is a good boat ride with some excellent indoor themed elements before the final drop. There is a place just after the drop where people can pay to shoot water at the poor unsuspecting riders ($5 for 12 shots - well worth it!) so watch out.
Other than that, the rides are not much you won't find done better elsewhere. But the stunning backdrop to some of these rides (over lakes and gardens) does make them feel special. We should, finally, give a special mention to Apollo's Chariot. Although not a great ride itself, it is important because it is the first of the modern style B&M hypercoasters. Without this ride, there would be no Shambhala or Fury 325. So whilst Apollo's Chariot feels a bit like a junior version of those rides, it is worth paying your respects to this vital predecessor to the best coasters in the world.