Best Memories

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
F

Franco

Aug 17, 2010
871
1,128
210
This is a thread to simply discuss your greatest, fondest memories of the park. It can be from when you were a kid, your first visit, your first roller coaster, or whatever first brings a smile to your face.

Mine is easy. Even after riding BBW and LNM (and loving them), I was still frightened of roller coasters, particularly drops. My dad loved Apollo's Chariot and wanted me to ride it with him every time we went, but I always chickened out (not that I ever intended to ride). One fateful HOS night, however (my first HOS at BG - it was a big day), I rode the Chariot for the first time and subsequently loved roller coasters for all eternity!

So what's your best memory?
 
My best memory is when i did the steam engine insider tour, I highly recommend if your a rail fan and its also really cheap for what you get to do. :)
 
My best memory of Busch Gardens is going on the Roller Coaster Insider Tour. It was amazing the two things I remember most is holding Griffon and Alpengeists wheels, and standing at the top of Griffon. Even after the tour was over it was still my best day at BGW there were no lines and me and dad were able to ride Apollos Chariot 8 times with in 20 minuits riding in the front row twice. Also during the tour I got a coaster credit for Grovers Alpine Express!
 
Yeah, that's a really good one. When I did the Coasters at Night tour, that was one of my best days at the park. Overall, I think the addition of the tours have been really good for the park and people seem to love them, for good reason.
 
when did they first introduce the tours also im doing the roller coaster insider this year hopefully.
 
I believe the tours started in 2009. I recommend doing the Coasters at Night tour if they bring that one back.
 
Franco said:
I believe the tours started in 2009. I recommend doing the Coasters at Night tour if they bring that one back.
Click to expand...

Thanks yeah i was plaaning on doing that one, but i know for a fact im doing the BGW Insider.
 
I did the day time tour and was planning on doing it again during the 2011 season, but now that they are doing the night tour im going to do that one. I can see myself taking a Busch Gardens tour at least once a year, they are AMAZING.
 
michaelcollier1 said:
I did the day time tour and was planning on doing it again during the 2011 season, but now that they are doing the night tour im going to do that one. I can see myself taking a Busch Gardens tour at least once a year, they are AMAZING.
Click to expand...

Me too im planning on doing one or two a season.
 
if anyof us do tours we should book them the same day so it could be a mini meet up
 
Another fond memory of mine from the park was my first ride on Alpengeist. It may seem odd, but I actually hated my first ride on Alpie, yet I love it now and my first ride is one of my best memories from the park.

Now, you must first know that I wear glasses because my vision is so pathetically poor. Think really bad, and then multiply that by at least twenty. I rode it with my parents, and I both wear glasses, as well. (I'm sure you can tell where this is going). My dad wanted to sit in the back row. Personally, my least favorite spot on Alpengeist is a middle seat anywhere, especially the back row. You can guess what I got. If you ride The 'Geist (that's ride, I just made up a new nickname), the only way to go is front row - best on the far aisle. My parents said it would be fine if I left my glasses on; they weren't taking them off, either. So, even though I found this a dubious decision, I left the station with my glasses on my face and came back without them on my face. What happened in between was nothing short of miraculous. Down the first drop we accelerated, and I could not see a thing. My glasses began to weaken to the force of the ride, and by the vertical loop, they were slipping off my face. I steadied them while going through the ski building. I already hated this stupid ride, for I couldn't see anything and was getting shaken around like Quint in the mouth of Jaws. Add on my stress about my glasses and I was positive I would soon suffer a stroke. In the middle of the Cobra Roll, my glasses leapt from my face suddenly and in the forceful twist of the train that followed, I threw my hand out in desperation. I felt something and clenched. My eyes were squeezed shut, and when I opened them, I had the deathgrip of a Randy Couture headlock on the arm of my glasses. Jerry Rice has nothing on that catch. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. Oh, Alpengeist...
 
Franco said:
Another fond memory of mine from the park was my first ride on Alpengeist. It may seem odd, but I actually hated my first ride on Alpie, yet I love it now and my first ride is one of my best memories from the park.

Now, you must first know that I wear glasses because my vision is so pathetically poor. Think really bad, and then multiply that by at least twenty. I rode it with my parents, and I both wear glasses, as well. (I'm sure you can tell where this is going). My dad wanted to sit in the back row. Personally, my least favorite spot on Alpengeist is a middle seat anywhere, especially the back row. You can guess what I got. If you ride The 'Geist (that's ride, I just made up a new nickname), the only way to go is front row - best on the far aisle. My parents said it would be fine if I left my glasses on; they weren't taking them off, either. So, even though I found this a dubious decision, I left the station with my glasses on my face and came back without them on my face. What happened in between was nothing short of miraculous. Down the first drop we accelerated, and I could not see a thing. My glasses began to weaken to the force of the ride, and by the vertical loop, they were slipping off my face. I steadied them while going through the ski building. I already hated this stupid ride, for I couldn't see anything and was getting shaken around like Quint in the mouth of Jaws. Add on my stress about my glasses and I was positive I would soon suffer a stroke. In the middle of the Cobra Roll, my glasses leapt from my face suddenly and in the forceful twist of the train that followed, I threw my hand out in desperation. I felt something and clenched. My eyes were squeezed shut, and when I opened them, I had the deathgrip of a Randy Couture headlock on the arm of my glasses. Jerry Rice has nothing on that catch. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. Oh, Alpengeist...
Click to expand...

If only I did that with mo Samsung Alias 2. It was only like three months old. It was in my pocket and when it came out (on Apollo) it floated just out of my reach for a few seconds, as if to taunt me, then dropped to the ground at the bottom of the hill. I might also mention that that was the fourth ride in a row, so It's not like it was guaranteed to happen. Now I use the phone I had before (I would recommend doing this instead of an insurance plan). What is that phone? That knock off of the Razr that all verizon customers seemed to have like three years ago. Ugh, fortunatly, It's about time to upgrade again, and you could probably guess what phone I'm buying (Hint: it's the only reason I don't have an iPod touch)
 
I've known many people that have lost phones and cameras on Apollo. One time when I rode it, as I went over that second hill, a BlackBerry was floating through the air in front of the train. It looked like it was in zero-gravity; it was pretty sweet, just not for the person who lost it.
 
My favorite memory would be when I first rode the Loch Ness Monster. Besides Disney World, it was the first real, real coaster I'd been on. My dad was all like, Yeah! Let's ride this! I just smiled, but in my head, I was freaking out! Then, I thought the first drop would be awful, but it wasn't that bad. And the rest of the ride it was so easy. Now, I'm not that much of a chicken to ride the roller coasters there.
 
Hi, new member (and old thread). But I'll post anyways.

I'm 45 and been living in Newport News pretty much my whole life. My sisters worked at Busch when it first opened. My mom worked there in the late '70s and early '80s. And I worked there - in '82, '83, and '85. I worked in Food and Beverage and operated "carts" in the France/New France areas. Made cotton candy, made popcorn, sold the cookies-n-cream sandwiches (the real ones made in the Festhaus, not the new Blue Bunny ones) and sold those funny little juice drinks in the fruit shaped containers. In '85 I worked in the Smoke House. Not the new one. The one I worked in was across the path in the log cabin. Me and a fellow named Todd Dawkins worked "the Pit" as it was known. It was the big grill with the top that raised by turning the big wheels at either end. He and I would load the Pit with mesquite logs, load the smokers, etc.

I loved working there. Wish I had done it longer. Hoping to work there when I retire from my current job. Maybe drive the trams or something. And hoping my kids will, too.

I made a helluva lot of friends. Going home smelling so strongly of smoke I had to undress in the garage. I remember the "after closing" employee get-together and events. The canoe races on the Rhine River. Met a lot of pretty girls there. Getting to work before the park opened to the public and taking test rides. My best freind worked in Italy and ran the rides. We'd car-pool to work and if he had to be there first, I walk with him to the balloons or gliders or Da Vinci's cradle and test-ride those. Heck, I'd even go to the park on my days off just to play in the park and see all my friends that were working (employees got in free).

What a time. I still love it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: James, Gavin, Peter R. and 5 others
If I have to pick one, I'll say the Griffon breakfast in early June the year Griffon opened (2007). A birthday present for my spouse. It was wonderful -- we rode 3 or 4 times, front row, end seats -- it was early ride time just for those of us doing the event. After that our brains needed the chance to quit bouncing around so we went to breakfast (at Bistro 205) and while we ate the park opened and the masses crowding the bridge to the ride flowed in, though we still got in a few more rides after our meal with minimal wait.

We all got photo packages included and the breakfast was great, comparable to what was served when Jack Hanna used to come for opening day and they had the Jack Hanna breakfasts, which were also extremely nice. Getting to the park with the earliest employees and seeing the rides being brought up and tested for the day is so spectacular.

A close second would be some of the insider tours, of course the coaster tour but also the animal tours. We took the coaster tour the first year they were offered and got the tour of all 5 (BBW was in its final season), before they divided the tour into daytime and night time. Awesome! and so informative but the Griffon breakfast just had a bit more of a pampered VIP treatment feel to it rather than an intensive coaster education.
 
70s - Driving the LeMann's cars, shooting the guy in the butt so he played the piano, the smell of the bumper cars, and getting ice cream on our way out.

80s when I was taller - Riding Lochness, my first big coaster.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad