ABR
Posts: 277
Registered: 3/22/2003
Rank: Silver Critic
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 3/22/2005 11:00:19 PM
EDITED-- it was actually on 3/22/05, I had the wrong date on my watch.
So, this week for spring break, my dad is off work, and my sister is off of school. I had a regularily scheduled day off today. We (my sister and I) wanted to go to an amusement park, but out of the 4 closest ones, the only one open for "our" spring break was BGW, so we headed down there.
Believe it or not, this is the first time in over 10 years that I have driven to Busch Gardens and parked there. 2 or 3 years ago for Spring Break I went there, but my mom dropped me off and went to visit the historic stuff . And the visit before that we took public transportation ($1 bus fare>$8 parking). This was also the very first time I went down for the day and returned home that night.
Well, we (me, my dad, my sister, and one of her friends) hit the road around 7 and arrived at the toll booth a little before 9:30, and they weren't letting people in yet. But they did at 9:30.
Well, by 9:40 we were in our [non-preffered] parking spot that we were directed to by the parking attendants, which seemed unnecessary (see below).
In my numerous visits to the park I NEVER KNEW IT HAD PARKING TRAMS. I think we could have walked, but I wanted to save my feet for the actual park, so we took a tram. My dad got in line to buy tickets, and I took my sister and her friend (they are 11, but my parents don't feel safe about them wondering around alone) behind the ticket booths to wait. They went into the restroom there and I waited outside. While I was waiting outside, I started talking to this security guard that seemed to be observing the guests buying tickets. He told me that I picked a great day to come. Because yesterday the park only admitted 4,000 guests, and today would probably be about the same.
I asked him what a "normal to busy" day would be, and he said 12,000-15,000... 
Anyway, we got in right around 10am (the time the first part of the park opens). I looked at a map (which they seem to print a special one for everyday) and it said Big Bad Wolf was closed. I was a little upset, but I thought, "as long as Apollo's Chariot is open."
So, here we go, first, we hit up Corkscrew Hill, it was a Walk-on. Then we did Lochness monster, a five minute wait (it's the first thing many people come to, and since a lot of the sections weren't open yet, this is popular). Once we got off, it was time... for my favorite coaster, Apollo's Chariot. We went there, and other than the front, no line. So we took the back. We then split up (and this is the last time I saw them until we left). I continued on Apollo's Chariot 2 more times, then hit up the arcade for a few minutes.
Next I wanted to do Alpengeist. As I was crossing the bridge that connects Italy to Germany, I SAW A TRAIN GO BY ON BIG BAD WOLF! I went to the entrance, and it was open . I paired with another single rider and walked on. Then I went to Alpengeist where I waited 5 minutes (uggg, the trains take forever to leave). Afterwards, I went and did corkscrew hill again. Then I went back to Apollo's Chariot where it was closed for some unknown reason. So I went to the arcade in Fiesta Italia for about 45 minutes.
NOTE: I LOVE ARCADES, and we only have 1 good one near here (which gets boring several times a week), so this is always a major part of visiting a park.
As I was walking out (I still had tokens I was saving for later) I saw it. One of those stupid Dance Dance Revolution Extreme machines that they have at the local "good" arcade at the mall. I didn't really care for that game, but it was doing a demenstration of a really catchy tune. So I thought, maybe I'll try it out and see if I can get my groove on. I sure did, I was fantastic. Back to that later.
I returned to Apollo's Chariot, it was open, no wait except for the front. So I took the second row. I then got back in line to ride it again in the second row, but as I boarded, there were only 2 people sitting in the front row (this<
Message updated 3/23/2005 8:00:23 PM by ABR
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BobFunland
Posts: 7962
Registered: 8/9/2001
Rank: Site Moderator
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3/23/2005 10:14:46 PM
Quote:
ABR said:
...He told me that I picked a great day to come. Because yesterday the park only admitted 4,000 guests, and today would probably be about the same. |
Could have fooled me, the park was deserted!
Quote:
Next I wanted to do Alpengeist. As I was crossing the bridge that connects Italy to Germany, I SAW A TRAIN GO BY ON BIG BAD WOLF! I went to the entrance, and it was open. I paired with another single rider and walked on. |
Dammit! I really wanted to ride it, BBW looked like a fun suspended 
Quote:
BTW, I looked at the parking lot, and about 1/4 of the preffered section was full, and a little over 1/2 of the Italy lot (the only regular parking lot open) so that security guard sure was right, quiet day. |
Hmm, actually, it sounds like less that what I had, which was about 3/4 of Italy occupied. Still, it was empty 
Quote:
But... as my train pulled into the station, they announced that the ride would be closed for a few minutes so the ride operators could go find a lost article... how nice, looks like the world revolves around someone for the day. |
That's a bummer, they basically brushed the people off when I was there, telling them to go to Guest Relations and fill out a report, that way, it saves time. This is unless it was something really important.. or a camera, like what I encountered.
Great Trip Review though, visiting parks early in the season is always good for accumulating laps
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Message updated 3/23/2005 10:15:47 PM by BobFunland
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