Busch Gardens sets opening date for new Verbolten
Verbolten: Forbidden Turn will open this month at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
The Virginia theme park announced an official opening date of May 30 for the revamped Zierer launch coaster, which now offers a new storyline and effects.
The original Verbolten opened in 2012, replacing the original Big Bad Wolf on the banks of the Rhine River. You can read Russell Meyer's opening-day review and watch his on-ride video here: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Caps Oktoberfest Renovation with Debut of Verbolten.
On the new version, with its appended subtitle, Black Forest Motor Tours is under new management.
"When creating this extraordinary experience, we invested in developing an all-new storyline for the attraction. The updates include new theming pieces and animatronics, including Frau Hexel, the enchanting host of Black Forest Motors," Busch Gardens Williamsburg President Kevin Lembke said.
As title suggests, there is a turn that your car should not take on this tour of the German countryside. And, as any theme park fan could guess, of course your car is going to take that "Forbidden Turn."
Verbolten: Forbidden Turn retains its 48-inch height requirement and core stats, with a top speed of 53 mph. Busch Gardens Members will get a one-day sneak peek at the coaster, with a members-only preview on May 29.
For tickets to the park, starting at $68, please visit our partner's Busch Gardens Williamsburg tickets page.
Replies (5)
@Dangergoat - Busch Gardens has featured dark rides, but they are notoriously expensive to maintain, which is why DarKastle was replaced with DarKoaster and why the motion theater has not operated since the Pandemic.
TBF, the park offers a number of excellent vegetarian options during the annual Food and Wine Festival (currently running until mid June), and decent vegetarian items are available at Marco Polo's Marketplace (both Asian and Italian noodle dishes). At the other big eateries in Germany and New France (Festhaus and Smokehouse, respectively), guests are pretty much limited to salad, but Italy provides decent hot options for non-meat eaters.
I'm keeping my expectations low for Verbolten. The improved Loch Ness Monster was really good to start, but the tunnel effects and other new features have quickly deteriorated. BGW is not known for animatronics (I think Questor might have been the last attraction to feature one), so it will be interesting to see how prominent this new figure will be presented on the attraction and how well the park maintains it - It appears to be at the drop track.
@Russell How could a simple dark ride be more expensive to maintain than a massive coaster? I'm talking about a boat ride or simple omnimover. Yes, I can see why DarKastle was expensive, but they don't need a Spider-man clone to keep people indoors and give kids more to do than the meager Sesame Street land (which is likely to be shuttered and rethemed, but that's another issue).
Also, Marco Polo's Marketplace isn't always open, which leads to another complaint about the park: operations. BGW underpays staff, which is fine for college kids at nearby William and Mary, but when school is out, the locals don't want to work there. So from August to fall, rides open late, restaurants never open, and wait times are unbearable due to one-train operations. Don't get me started on Howl-O-Scream.
Visiting BGW is painful, because the park used to be great and it has such potential. But United Parks is a mess, and it needs to get its act together.
"I'm talking about a boat ride or simple omnimover."
But even those "simple" dark rides can be expensive to maintain. Why do you think so few parks outside of Disney and Universal have them, and even when they do, they're woefully maintained? Look at the Six Flags/Cedar Fair parks, and very few of those attractions are in good working order. The Justice League rides are deteriorating rapidly with dim projections and effects that are broken more often than they work. The Boo-blaster rides at Cedar Fair parks are just as bad and are even lower tech (lower maintenance costs) than the Justice League rides. Wonder Mountains Guardian at Canada's Wonderland was terrible when we rode last summer with at least one broken seat on each train. Monster Mansion at SFoG is equally bad and was just put through a massive (and reportedly costly) renovation just a few years ago.
Maintaining dark rides and animatronics is expensive, and is an undertaking that I don't think the average theme park guests considers. Yes, the actual ride systems can be easy and simple to maintain, but the show pieces and animatronics can be extremely difficult. Heck, even Disney and Universal have a hard time maintaining their dark rides despite some of the biggest maintenance teams (and budgets) in the industry. The Shamen on NRJ, Kylo Ren on Rise, brand spanking new figures on TBA, Imhotep on Mummy, the Bank Teller Goblins on Gringott's, and "Disco-Yeti" are just a small sample of the problematic animatronics Disney and Universal have dealt with over the years, so if companies that devote tons of time, money, and energy into dark rides can't maintain them, what makes you think BGW can?
One of the things BGW added to Verbolten is animatronics!
I can also bring up examples of dark rides in regional parks that work and are fun. Calico Mine Ride and Berry Tales at Knott's. Blazing Fury at Dollywood. The Haunted Castle, Ghost Blasters, and the Cave Train at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
Heck, Funland at Rehoboth Beach has a Haunted Mansion that has been operating for 45 years. It's going down for a major refresh after this season. You're telling me little family-owned Funland in Delaware can afford that, but United Parks can't?
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I genuinely love this coaster, and I'm glad it got plussed. But can we get better food options for vegetarians and a dark ride, Busch Gardens??