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It's opening day!

2006-03-25

By Robert Niles: It's opening day today for Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Paramount's Carowinds. Let's hear from our east coast visitors who made the trip out to the parks today, below in comments.

Here are the 2006 opening dates for other major seasonal theme and amusement parks in the United States:

Six Flags Great Adventure - March 31
Dollywood - April 1
Paramount Kings Dominion - April 1
Paramount Kings Island - April 14
Six Flags Great America - April 29
Hersheypark - May 5
Cedar Point - May 6

Readers' Opinions

From Justin Bates on March 25, 2006 at 6:35 PM
I made it out to BGW today. It was really cold but a whole lot of fun. All the coasters were running great. DarKastle is a lot better than last year. The new improvements really add to the ride experience. The staff was friendly as usual, maybe not as fast, but they should pick up speed as the season goes on. I did not get a chance to see Emerald Beat but I hope I will when I go over spring break. All in all, it was a great visit and a great start to 2006!
From ryan saunders on March 26, 2006 at 12:17 AM
BGW STILL SUX, NO NEW RIDES, DARKASTLE IS STILL 4 KIDS AGES 4-8 YEARS OLD. CMON BUSCH, WAKE UP
From Ben Mills on March 26, 2006 at 12:14 PM
Just so you know, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers have been open over here for a couple weeks now, and Chessington tomorrow. I guess cos it's generally fairly cold all year round, there's not much point in waiting until the warm, as it tends only to last a month anyway.
From Jason Jackson on March 26, 2006 at 7:32 PM
Visited BGW on Sunday and I have to say, the improvements to DarKastle were spectacular!!!!A great ride made much better!!!The new Emerald Beat was absolutely amazing. It blows the old "Irish Thunder" out of the water! The park was beautiful and clean (like it always is). The employees were great!
From Rachel Dixon on March 27, 2006 at 6:40 AM
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is an outstanding theme park. It is clean, the rides are fun and the food is good. I have been going to BGW for years. I currently live in Florida and I have been to every Theme park in this state, but I still miss BGW. The Busch Gardens Tampa is a great park as well, but my heart will always be with BGW. I will be going there this May and I can't wait!!!!
From Chuck Campbell on March 27, 2006 at 7:51 PM
Hi, folks--haven't been on TPI for a while, but I thought I'd chime in about BG Euroburg's opening day, too. (I see one particular poster is still blowing the site away with his eloquence.) I just tooled around on my own and had a good time, as usual. The DarKastle enhancements are excellent--a great ride has been made better. Alpengeist had a few operating glitches involving restraints, but other than that, the coasters ran well (if you didn't mind playing freeze out).
From Robert Niles on March 27, 2006 at 10:08 PM
Actually, I am amused by a certain individual's ability to go ALL CAPS for his post, but all lower case for his name. Nice. To paraphrase a famous quote, "It is better to type mixed case and be thought a fool, than to go ALL CAPS and remove all doubt."

Anyway, it's been 20 years since I've been to BGW and I'm feeling the need to revisit. Should I go this summer, or wait until next?

From Jason Goldsmith on March 28, 2006 at 10:36 AM
I would recommend going this year. DarKastle has tremendously improved and Emerald Beat is way better than Irish Thunder. By these results, I hope Kinetix is going to be great. And as always, the park is always clean.
From Chuck Campbell on March 28, 2006 at 7:28 PM
Twenty years? Why, Robert, it's about time you got back to Busch! Sounds like your last visit predates Apollo's Chariot and Alpengeist, much less DarKastle. Colonial Williamsburg is running a new program, too, called "Revolutionary City"--some "street theatre" about Williamsburg's role in the Revolutionary War. You can boo Benedict Arnold as he places the city under the control of the British army and urges locals to sign a loyalty oath to the Crown. And you can cheer George Washington and Lafayette as they stop in the 'Burg enroute to kicking Cornwallis's butt in Yorktown.

Yep--you need to come.

From Robert Niles on March 28, 2006 at 10:49 PM
Actually, I guess its been more like 25 years. Yeah, Loch Ness Monster was the big new thing when I made my one and, to date, only visit to BGW. I was on a four-day Boy Scount trip with my troop (from Indianapolis) and we hit "Busch Gardens - The Old Country" for a day, in between hikes around Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. Actually, it was a very cool trip, because we wrapped it up with a Colts game in Baltimore, two years before the team moved to Indy. Plus, the trip completed the Busch Gardens Trifecta for me, as it was the third Busch Gardens park I'd visited.

Can anyone match that?

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